Carol Vernallis studied editing and camerawork closely in music videos. Carol Vernallis main points on camera work and editing were;-
Continuity editing was broken down in order just to draw attention to what was important on screen.
The camera may move in time with the music.
Jump cuts were often used
"The master shot" also known as the base track is used to give the music video a structure.
Edits such as wipes and special effects were added to be really obvious.
A few examples of music videos that illustrate Carol Vernallis ideas include;-
I chose Ed Sheerhan's- You need me I dont need you. As a good example of Carol Vernallis ideas, as to me this music video portrays Carol Vernallis ideas of that a base track is used to give the music video its structure. I think the base track gives the video its structure as when the video first starts you have a track in the background before the song starts. Also the camera moves in time with the music. The editing is also very tight and obvious and makes the music video flows better. As when you have the dancers dancing, the dancers are in time with the pace of the music.
After reading Laura Mulvey's theory on the representation of women. I came to the conclusion that Laura Mulvey is just saying what some people might be thinking, but are too afraid to say it. Some people might agree with her theory but some people might disagree.
Laura Mulvey's quote- "In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been spilt between active/males and passive/females. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly." -Laura Mulvey 1992
What I understand from Laura Mulvey's theory on representation is that women are solely used in music videos to make men seem in control, like they hold the power over women. But also they are used as something to admire in a music video, for instance the main body parts of a woman that are shown in a music video are their legs, bum and breasts. Although you would also see there whole body, the camera would mostly focus on these three body parts. You could also say that women are shown as sex symbols in certain music videos, as they are told how to act, what to wear and they dont mind being told what to do or what to wear.
A few examples of how woman are portrayed in music video include;-
Dizzie Rascal's Holiday video portrays the representation of women in quite a negative way, as from what you can see most of the men are fully clothed whereas the women are dancing and walking around the pool in bikinis this is the perfect excuse for men to admire the women's bodies. Just by watching the video you can see that this is true as when a girl walks past the men just stare at their body in amazement.
Another example is Akon ft. Eminem Smack that. This music video again portrays women as sex symbols. Although at the beginning of the video you wouldnt expect it you soon realises what the video entails when the location changes to a night club. Where you can see women, with very little clothing dancing and the men are just sitting there watching and admiring the way they look. You can also tell that women are portrayed as sex symbols from the lyrics in the song. The camera also focuses on certain parts of womens body parts such as their legs, breast and bum.
When performing,filming and editing our lip syncing video we learnt that we lip syncing was very heard, and that putting together a music video didnt have to be so smooth running! We used lots of jump cuts to make the video more exciting to watch. Prince learnt a lot about how difficult it is to remember words. Also when filming we realised that it was difficult to film backwards. Editing the music video was hard because we we're used to editing for films, so it was difficult for us to adapt. The sound for our video was sipmle as we just layed the original track over and cancled the original sound out.
From doing media GCSE I already had some basic skills in media, when i had finised my AS level i had developed these skills and plenty others for example;
-clean cuts
-holding a camera
-working a camera
-filming straight without a tripod
-understanding how to analyse media
-writing in deatials about clips i had seen
-working on sound and editing it together to make it one entire track
-using a computer more effciently
-abel to download picture videos on to blogger
-working in my group efficiently
-learning computer short cuts.
Laura Mulvey believes in the most straight forwad way possible that women are objeccts to be looked at in music videos. She believes that women are shown as sex symbols in these videos, women are told how to act and how to dress, and do not mind that they are being looked at like this. She also believes that women are 'dismembered' in all forms of media, we not only look at their bodies in general but look at in parts such as bum,legs,boobs.
This video shows lots of women surrounding the main artist, the camera focus's first on their faces, but points out other parts of their bodies as well. It also makes them a sex symbol.
Its very clear to see in this video, that women are sexual objects, most men are full clothed and women semi naked. Men are constantly looking at the women, whilst the camera follows their baacks,bums,legs etc.
Carol Vernalis's theory of camerwork and editing was based on-
. editing was broken in order to draw attention to what is on the screen.
. wipes and other special effects are used a lot to draw attention to the videos.
. jump cuts are often used, and the camera is often moving in time with the music.
. a base track is frequently used to give the video a structure.
This video shows quick editing and screen blocks inbetween shots, it also shows the camera moving in time with the music, the editing is also broken into fast short peices to draw attention to whats on screen
This video also shows examples of fast editing and jump cuts, but in this video the cuts are even quicker to stay in time with the music.
Laura Mulvey question the way music videos present genders, she stresses this further and concludes with a statement:
"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly"
This can be simplified down to a sentence: "In a world where power is imbalance, men play a more active role than woman do"
MALE ARTISTS
There are quite a few music videos that contain sexual references and symbols, many women in these videos are presented accordingly to a create a fantasy for the male presence. One perfect example of this is Kanye West's 'money making' Gold Digger video.
This video shows the lack of respect given to women through most men's perspectives, they are just sex objects obsessed with money. These women are dressed (or undressed shall i say) to an extent where they may as well be naked! (Even Tarzan wears more clothes!) You could state that the less clothes woman wear the more appealing they are to the male gaze. These women in the video are not portrayed to have any intelligent or self respect, the flirting and sexual movements towards the men show how much power men have over them.
^ The women above give a sexual pose whilst dressed in a way that covers a majority of men's fantasies, there is a fantasy for each guy, the cutie, sweet stuff, hot fun ect. They pose in front of a magazine formatted backdrop which looks like these women are being advertised to the audience, making the men lust for them more! These images do not show any factors of female dominance.
EXPLICIT!!!!!!
Camera focusing on female parts.
Sex SELLS! Creating a video with sexual reference attracts hell of a lot of viewers, increasing the chances of them to buy the album/single. Not only does this pleasure the audience but the money out of the video pleasures the artist and their music production team.
HOWEVER!...
It is more likely for a male artist to attract the attentions of female viewers, men who show that they understand the emotions of women and respect the way they are are more likely to receive points from them. Take Ne-Yo, Miss independent. A great example of a man being honest about them, these woman are portrayed more dominantly than the last video.
First of all the video is set in an office, much better than women prancing around half naked in front of a fake backdrop or green screen for that matter. As it is set in the office we are immediately drawn to the presentation of women, them dressed in work office wear shows that they are mature, sophisticated and they especially looking pretty powerful! (Y)
These screenshots are taking from the video, compared to Kanye West's video these women are well respected towards themselves, i've noticed that hanging on the wall of the first screen shot is a sign saying 'Powerful' then next to it a woman writing something down fully covered with what is know as clothes. Her eyes are not to the camera but to the notepad which shows she has no interest in seducing the audience but instead showing them how serious she plays her role as a female. The second screen shot is interesting, shows dominance through animal reference, as it is said "a dog is a man's best friend" this screen shot can show that dogs can be a woman's best friend too, also the term 'bitch' is used to claim over power - also bitch meaning female dog. As this woman is walking down the streets she is showing that she is in control and not the bitch. The final screenshot is pretty simple, instead of the camera panning into her breast, it pans into her workbook, the camera (our gaze) respects her body parts as well as the woman herself.
FEMALE ARTISTS
Like i said before, sex sells. An artist would do anything to sell their album/single even if that means adding inappropriate things into their music video.
Rihanna's Rude boy is one example that promotes the artist with sexual references. Not only are the lyrics explicit, but her dance moves! The roles have switch, Rihanna dominates over the men in this video as she takes over the male role, she does all sorts of masculine things like play the drums and rides a motorbike even her lyrics are dominant as she intimidates the men "come on rude boy can you get it up?"- these factors can challenge Mulvey's statement.
In the imaged below she is the one at the front passenger seat whereas he is behind her, she controls the bike and where they head of too (if the bike does move) which shows her dominance over the guy.
Other artists such as Laura Marling scrap the heavy make up, lack of clothing and attitude in her video, she maintains the idealistic role models of women. Marling sticks to the purpose of creating music, to share to the world, she approaches the audience with simplicity with only her voice and guitar skills in her video New Romantic. With these types of music videos, the audience would not be watching for the materialistic goods of the artist or physical appearance but further into the core purpose of watching a music video, to listen and watch the talent be performed. Popularity in this music video wil arise straight from her talent for creating music. Other artists such as Adele and Alicia Keys are also good examples.
These representations vary on the different types of music genre, it is mainly R&B/Hip-Hop and Pop music that contain these sexual references.
