Lyrics and Analysis

If you look at the three images above you can see the lyrics from our song choice - Dillon 'Thirteen Thirty Five'. We have both sat down and analysed the lyrics together. This gave us some good ideas of what we could do and help us to decide whether we though performance/narrative or concept would work best. The feedback and advice we received from our initial pitch helped us to create some good ideas and follow a realistic route. This was the real starting point for us as it gave us confidence that this song was the right choice and a lot of good ideas can come from it. By coming up with all these ideas it made us feel excited and motivated therefore we began to think about mise en scene - different outfits, make-up,  hair... As well  as locations etc... This is just the beginning...

Pitch Ideas and Feedback

Andrew Goodwin's Theory applied to Music Video

Conventions of a Music Video

Production Diary

Before breaking up for the school summer holidays, in the short time space we had following our AS exams, we were able to begin ‘the Britney task’. This was to pick apart Britney Spears’ music video ‘Hit me Baby One More Time’, to create a step by step of each of the shots and to remake it as a class. This was such a fun task to do, besides the planning and preparation which was quite time consuming, actually filming it was hilarious and very enjoyable. It also gave us all a snippet into what actually needs to happen when making the real thing. We also had a lesson to set up our A2 blogs which was a completely different experience to last year. It was quick and easy this year and we were able to be much more creative. Last year was a whole different story; it took us almost 3 lessons just to learn how to use blogger!

Wednesday 4^th Sep Period 4 & 5 – This was our first lessons back after the summer holidays. As an introduction to the beginning of A2, a simple task was allocated. We had to make a presentation of ‘What Music Means to Me’. Included in the presentation had to be our favourite childhood song, early teens and current favourite song. It was enjoyable reminiscing with the class our favourite old songs as most of us had heard them and they were awful. If they weren’t finished in class, they were to be finished for homework.

Thursday 5^th Sep Period 4 – This hour we spent displaying our short presentations to our class mates. It was interesting to find out different song choices and their significance for each individual. It was also good to get some feedback. A lot of people were asking questions and the answers were useful to add to the presentation.  This task also helped boost confidence. Even though our class is small, presenting in front of people can still be quite hard and is good practice as we will have to perform in front of a camera when doing the preliminary task sometime in the future.

Friday 6^th Sep Period 3 – This lesson we came back to our Preliminary task – the Britney video. All we needed to do was editing the footage and create a small evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses. Sydney Amass done the majority of editing and I had to finish it, this was good as we could gain experience at editing after having such a long time not doing it since our project before the su
mmer. At the end of this lesson our teacher mentioned to us about watching previous years and different schools A2 music videos. That evening I watched over 20 videos! It was good as it gave me an insight of what is ahead! It helped me to establish what looks really effective and what doesn’t. It also gave me inspiration and ideas which could be helpful when coming to the making of my own video.

Monday 9^th Sep Period 3 – This lesson we were allocated the task of ‘History of Music’. For this we were asked to research and create a timeline, looking at the history of music, focusing from the 1960s, up to present day. We had to find out, who the iconic stars/singers were at this time, what the most iconic music videos were, what genres were popular at these times, who their main audience was and also to consider, what styles were most popular (song and videos)? And finally to compare the similarities and differences of music over time. This task was interesting looking at different artists and the similarities through their music in the same time eras. Because there was a lot of research to do as well as creating a presentation, this work was quite time consuming, therefore if we wasn’t able to finish it in lesson, we had to finish it for homework and upload it to our blogs.

Tuesday 10^th Sep Period 1 – This lesson was the first bit of actual theory where instead of sitting in front of computers we all sat round a table as a class and was taught something instead of researching it ourselves. To help us with developing and evaluating music videos, we needed to learn about some theories. This lesson we learnt about Andrew Goodwin’s theory. This is when we discovered the 8 principles of his theory; lyrics between lyrics and visuals, links between music and visuals, genre characteristics, intersexual references, notions of looking, voyeurism, demands of the record label and whether the video was performance based narrative or concept based. This lesson was helpful to gain knowledge for music videos and Goodwin’s theory. We needed to learn about this as next lesson we were set to analyse and compare 2 videos using Goodwin’s Theory.

Wednesday 11^th Sep Period 2 & 3 – This lesson we were asked to compare a video given to us, mine was ‘The Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star’ with a music video released in the past year or so. We had to use Goodwin’s theory when comparing the videos. This meant looking into all of the features from both videos using Goodwin’s eight principles to analyse and compare them. I didn’t like this task much because it was hard to even analyse them both in detail using Goodwin’s theory, let alone comparing them. This task was challenging therefore I wasn’t able to finish it in the lesson, so needed to be finished for homework.

Friday 13^th Sep Period 5 – The lesson was needed! As a class we came to an agreed decision to use this lesson as a catch up. This meant we could use the hour to finish off work and upload things to our blogs. I still needed to finish my History of Music, therefore this time was well spent and I was able to finish this task and upload it to my blog.

Wednesday 18^th Sep Period 4 & 5 – This lesson we was asked to create a star profile. This meant looking at an artist and identify how they have changed. My class mates were using people such as Rihanna and Justin Timberlake as they have been stars for a long time and you could see how they’ve changed. The artist I chose to do was Madonna because she has been on the music scene for so many years and because of her popularity I could easily research things about her. Included in this, I picked two of her music videos, one recent and one from over 20 years ago and picked out features of how she has changed and things that have kept the same. This was a useful task as it was helpful watching old and new music videos to see how they have changed. Because it was a double lesson I was able to complete all of my research and presentation and get it uploaded on my blog by the end of the 2 hour period.

Thursday 19^th Sep Period 4 – This lesson we were taught about another theory. Again, it can be used to analyse a music video. It was the theory made by Laura Mulvey, which involved; how men look at woman, how woman look at themselves and how woman look at other woman. Learning new theories is useful because when analysing a music video it is hard to find aspects and discuss them. So know I have gained the knowledge of two theories which will help me to find aspects of the videos. At the end of this lesson we had time to start our homework. We had to watch three videos; Jenifer Lopez ‘Get on the floor ft. Pitbull’, Scouting for Girls ‘She’s so lovely’ and Kylie Minogue ‘Spinning Around’. After watching them we had to make notes on them using Laura Mulvey’s theory, then write up a comparison and upload it to our blogs. We didn’t have time to do all of this in lesson so it was to be finished for homework or in any catch up lessons.

Friday 20^th Sep Period 5 – This lesson we was asked to start researching for a song to use. Before the summer holidays we were asked to start thinking about a song choice and was reminded to keep looking, however a task was set to pick the final song with your partner and create a small pitch that could display the song and explain why we chose it and what ideas we had to go with it. This pitch was asked to be ready for Tuesday’s lesson to be presented to the class and teacher.  

Monday 23^rd Sep Period 3 – This lesson we were set to do some research into a famous star currently on the market. We had to analyse and compare how they have been branded through: CD covers, newspaper articles/headlines about them, music videos. We needed to put this all into a presentation and discuss the ways the star has been branded, by considering: costume, lighting, camera shots, mise-en-scene etc. Questions we needed to take into consideration when analysing the CD covers, videos and headlines were; how they are being presented to the world? Does the branding remain consistent through all of the aspects promoting them, or is it the same? How can you tell this? What evidence is there to suggest this? This task was used to give us an insight into a ‘star’. Because we will need to make the artist for our song, we needed to have an understanding and insight into how a star/artist is branded. It made me think of what I need to do to create a strong and consistent brand for the artist I create.

Tuesday 24^th Sep Period 1 – This lesson was used to present our pitches for the songs we will be using for our music videos to our teacher and class mates. This was a really useful lesson as everybody handed back some feedback and ideas. It was good because we could see our ideas from a different perspective and also feed of others inputs. Also, looking others ideas was useful as we could see how they are creating they image and fitting conventions for the genre of their song, we could see what they wanted to do and give them feedback. It was also useful to trigger ideas for our own music videos.

Wednesday 25^th Sep Period 2 & 3 – These two hours was used to spend times in our groups. I was able to sit down with my partner Claudia and go through the feedback we received.  We took on all of the comments from everybody and put them to use. Together, we done some research of some of the ideas recommended. It was good because we used them! Some of the ideas were simple and practical and benefited us. Because we had started the lesson by researching and planning, we carried on for the whole two hours. We were able to create a PowerPoint of all images that we feel influenced us and what we could re-create.

Friday 27^th Sep Period 5 – No lesson due to half day at school.

Wednesday 2^nd Oct Period 4 & 5 – Not in due to visiting University Open Day.

Thursday 3^rd Oct Period 4 – In today’s lesson we sat in our groups and got on with things that needed to be done. Because my group member, Claudia, and I were not in yesterday’s lesson we had to catch up on the work which was set. We were able to sit down with our teacher and go through what we missed. We were given a sheet called ‘Treatment’. It had a long list of some detailed planning and research which needed to be done. It included costume, target audience, concept, etc… It was good to receive this sheet as we had not been set official work for our music video projects; therefore this was a sort of guidance. This also meant we could plan things that we needed to do, such as days we would visit locations, days we would practice make-up and outfits.

Friday 4^th Oct Period 3 – Not in lesson due to absence.

Monday 7^th Oct Period 3 – This hour was the last lesson spent on independent coursework. I was able to finish a few things off and upload them to my blog. I felt like this was good because my group partner and I decided we weren't going to spend any more time in lessons or at school doing previous work set by our teacher. We were going to really concentrate on our project, doing things from the treatment list.

Tuesday 8^th Oct Period 1 – Today, we really focused on our Treatment sheet, we planned when, where and how we were going to complete the tasks set. Because we had set criteria we were able to be specific with what and when we were going to do things. The rest of this lesson we planned some questions we were going to ask our target audience. This was good preparation as we would be filming the feedback in a few lessons so we needed to know what we wanted to ask and receive from the audience.

Wednesday 9^th Oct Period 2 & 3 – This lesson we were able to carry on with our ‘Treatment’ sheets. Claudia and I carried on with our research into influences sections. Even though this was a small aspect of the research, it was useful because we was finding more ideas which we could use in our music video, whether it was a setting, make-up or lighting effect.  At the end of the two hour lesson, we had to go through storyboards with our teacher. We were introduced to the storyboard sheet. We were explained what needed to be written and drawn onto the sheet and also when the deadline was for them. After we had completed our treatment sheets, we were to move immediately onto our storyboards. Out teacher recommended we shouldn't leave them last minute as a lot of previous students under estimate them and forget how time consuming they are. Both our treatment sheets and storyboards need to finished by October half term (25^th) so we are able to begin filming during half term or straight away when we came back to school after half term which would be the 4^th of November.

Friday 11^th Oct Period 5 – Because it was Friday, things didn't move on as they should have. I know that just because its the last lesson of the day at the end of the weekend we shouldn't still work extremely hard! However we were feeling very deflated and unmotivated. Even though this was the case, we weren't completely off topic.  Claudia and I spent the lesson discussing our ideas in more depth and also a lot with our teacher. Even though nothing was written on paper or on a computer, we still gained verbal advise and ideas. It was a motive to get things done at the weekend and for next lesson.

Wednesday 16^th Oct Period 4 & 5 – this lesson we had two hours so was a great opportunity to carry on and target to finish our treatment. It is a very long process however is essential and when in the mood, a lot can be accomplished! Claudia and I worked hard theses hours to make a head start and not let things get behind. 

Thursday 17^th Oct Period 4 – Claudia and I spent this hour sitting on computers researching different background scenes for the performance aspect in our video. As discussed the different elements for our video previously, we gathered we would use a lot of performance in our video. However we wanted to include a wide variety of where Claudia would perform. We had to think of close locations that are practical – places we could actually use and go back if need be. To help us get inspiration we looked online at different locations and also at other peoples music videos from previous years 

Friday 18^th Oct Period 3 – Today’s lesson Claudia and I decided to sit down and go through our shot list. This would help us create our storyboard by giving us guidance and knowledge of what was actually to happen. We played the song and second by second we decided what was going to take place, including the shot, angle, movement, transition, outfit, make up, etc... It was a long process but it is necessary to produce a planned and high quality end project. Because there is two of us and we both have strong ideas, there was some dispute over what to do for some parts of the video, however when discussing which one would fit in better and show more continuity we were able to come to a joint decision. There can be up to 100/150 shots sometimes which all need to be presented and explained, therefore we weren't able to finish the shot list, however it was a strong and positive start.

Monday 21^st Oct Period 3 – In today’s lesson I spent the hour doing my Peer-assessment. Sydney Amass is my partner and she does a lot of work! Which is all produced at such high quality, it just takes a bit longer to read and comment on. However, by marking Sydney’s work I am able to learn from it, which is extremely useful.  All of her tasks are produced in such detail; even if I wasn't her peer partner I would read her work to help me. It also helps me with my self assessment because I can see what I haven’t done but what Sydney has done which improves her work.

Tuesday 22^nd Oct Period 1 – This lesson I spent doing a previous task from before we started our projects. It was Andrew Goodwin's Theory put into practice. I created a PowerPoint however after self assessing it I was really disappointing and thought it could be re-done to a much higher standard  It was really the bare minimum and included no detail, therefore I really wanted to do it again. Even though I should have really completed it in my spare time, I really wanted to start the day positively and also just get it out the way.

Wednesday 23^rd Oct Period 2 & 3 – At the start of this 2 hour lesson, I used my time in the first hour adding to my treatment work. I had a draft of everything i needed to do, so it was just a case of getting on and finishing the work. In the second hour of this lesson I was able to sit down at a computer, put my earphones and get up to date on my Production diary. I wasn't really behind, but had quite a few dates missing. Where I have really been focusing on group work recently, in lessons and in my spare time, I became slightly behind and with this hour I managed to get things up to date. 

Friday 25^th Oct Period 5 – This lesson was the last hour spent in class before we broke up for October half term. It’s a chance for me to relax from a heavy load of work. Even though I went away for the week, I was able to do further research for the project. In the lesson, I collected work together that I would need t help me get some things done. I was able to really get organised and make lists of everything i had completed and of the things that needed to be done or finished off. I will also use the half term to upload things and unfinished bits to my blog.

Tuesday 5th Nov Period 5 - This is my first lesson back from half term, and I'm able to spend it getting all the work I produced in half term uploaded. I also managed to create a timetable of dates, including deadlines, filming outings, editing periods, etc.. to really get myself organised and ensure I keep on top of my work. I also managed to print out a risk assessment page and begin filling them out. Because we are planning to use different locations we need to fill our risk assessment sheets for all of them, especially as we are having someone from out of school with us.

Wednesday 6th Nov Period 4 & 5 - We used this lesson to make a short clip of different shots - to refresh our memories with shots and angles etc... Just moving around the school and shooting a wide range to see what looks good. We found that close up shots work a lot better than long shots and focused on them. We tried using mid/close ups with different angles and profiles which enables us to identify what look best - this is something that will help us when producing our practice filming. Because it was a two hour lesson and it only took us 25 minutes to capture the shots, we were able to upload and edit it all as well. Because we have previous experience last year using the software, it was a nice small task to refresh our memories and get on with editing some footage.

Thursday 7th Nov Period 4 - I didn't quite finish the editing but managed to get it all done after school, which meant I could get on with the analysis/evaluation in my next lesson. It wasn't a massive task therefore only a short evaluation was needed. Claudia and I had time to plan out everything we needed to do for our practice filming which would take up the next few lessons.

Friday 8th Nov Period 3 - This lesson Claudia and I had to write up a list of the shots we were going to film for filming planned for the 13th of November. No we had a range of shots in mind which we could use, it was time to put them to the test. We planned a range of 30 different shots varying from close ups to long shot to establishing shots, all in preparation for our actual filming to see what looked good and what didn't work as well.

Monday 11th Nov Period 3 - Now we have a basic idea of the things we were going to film, we needed to plan out everything else. Mise en scene seemed like a good outline of things we needed to plan for. Including settings and props, outfits and make-up, acting (facial expressions and body language), lighting and colour and finally positioning within the shots (long shot, high angle, tripod, hand held, things like this...). This also enabled us to be fully prepared with everything we needed so we could get the most from the day filming!

Tuesday 12th Nov Period 1 -  The final preparation for practice filming was a simple risk assessment. We had to be aware of anything that could happen. We also needed permission from our parents and teachers to be out of school during lesson time. We have free lessons before and after lesson 2 and 3 which is highly beneficial as filming may take longer than expected.

Wednesday 13th Nov Period 2 & 3 - It was time to actually get some footage done! Claudia and I had felt a lot of pressure because we felt like we were being over ambitious with our ideas and nothing was going right! However, actually doing some filming gave us the motivation to get back on track! Filming was a great day and turned out to be a success!

Tuesday 19th Nov Period 5 - We managed to get a lot of footage and now had to spend time going through it all and editing it. Which took a long time, we managed to start it this lesson but needed to be finished in our own time because we are falling behind and need to keep up in lessons! We didn't really come across any major difficulties when editing and we wasn't too bothered about making it perfect as we weren't going to use any of this edited footage in our real piece. We would possibly add in some of the clips but nothing we had already edited.

Wednesday 20th Nov Period 4 & 5 - This two hour lesson was used to make finishing touches like adding in video transitions and uploading it on to YouTube. Then, Claudia and myself watched it through and discussed what we liked about the filming and what didn't really work. We then came up with some questions we wanted to ask random people about what they thought of the footage and editing we have produced.

Thursday 21st Nov Period 4 - This hour we managed to get straight out into the public of the school and ask them what they thought using the questionnaire we produced the previous lesson! We got a lot of feedback which is extremely useful to see what people (especially our target audience) thought. It was great to hear what looked good and what didn't. This will help us when we next film as to what looks effective so we can do more with that, for example the close us of Claudia singing, and what not so much.

Friday 22nd Nov Period 3 - After all of the work had been finished for the practice filming, we had an hour to write up our evaluation. This included what went well, what didn't and what could be done next time to improve. Personally, I feel that practice filming went really well. I thought the editing was a massive contribution to the final video. The footage wasn't overly amazing and we have both defiantly learnt things from it - in terms of acting and filming therefore

Monday 25th Nov Period 3 -  After receiving a lot of feedback from students, teachers and mainly ourselves. Claudia and myself decided we wanted to go off at a slightly different angle for our music video. We wanted to go down a much more concept based route. It took a lot of convincing to our teachers that we could make it work, especially having such a meaningful and deep song, but with our spontaneous ideas and quick things (at the time) we had high hopes. I done a lot of research into concept videos and thought of some realistic plans.

Tuesday 26th Nov Period 1 - This lesson Claudia and myself spent the hour re-annotating the lyrics of our song. It started really positive, the paper was full of ideas, however towards the end of the 3 minute song, we feel our ideas started to fizzle out and lack freshness, however at this point we were still very apprehensive and sure to go on with the decision. Looking back I can see why I though it would work and also why it so wouldn't work!

Wednesday 27th Nov Period 2 & 3 -  So it was in these lessons when I had a really hard think with myself about everything up to now. I realised that Claudia and I need to start preparing for filming and to actually start filming. We know that the video is such a huge part of the result therefore we want it to have the best possible outcome that we can produce. And we have come the conclusion that concept is not the way. We are going to try and be as realistic as possible - with previous ideas, I feel like we were being over imaginative - even though that can be a good thing, we really needed to focus on what we are capable of that will look effective and professional. This therefore led onto more research and we came up with some themes rather than ideas. Most were to do with mysteria and gothic - things like shadows etc...

Tuesday 3rd Dec Period 5 - Now it is time (finally) to prepare for filming. We fell on a double lesson tomorrow afternoon and used this opportunity to get filming! Therefore this hour and after school, Claudia and myself had to prepare everything. We knew what we were filming on the Wednesday and wasn't too intense therefore things like risk assessment and location wasn't a big thing as it was only in my house. However, things like costume and shots was something that took up a lot of time but was all necessary to making the most out of the time we had to film.

Wednesday 4th Dec Period 4 & 5 - Finally! Our first day of actual filming.. and was a surprisingly successful outcome! Because we had put a lot of effort into planning we knew what we had to film etc etc.. And we are now both feeling very positive about is to come next. Thankfully there were no major hiccups or issues we came across.. With lots of tea and motivation we got the things we set out to do, done.

Thursday 5th Dec Period 4 -  This was when it really started getting fun - editing! Although some people hate it (and I certainly did last year!) I really enjoy sitting in front of the computer for hours going through footage, cutting and editing it all. I found that I experiment a lot! And with Claudia's help I was able to work the footage in a way that we wanted it to look.

Friday 6th Dec Period 3 - This hour we spent finalising editing of the footage, we wanted to get a good part of it finished and to be clear of what we needed to film next. So after this was finished the last 10 minutes of the lesson we spent discussing what we were going to film next, so in over the weekend and in our next lesson we could plan for the filming.

Monday 9th Dec Period 3 - I carried out some of the planing over the weekend so in this lesson I could go over what I done with Claudia and add/change things to the planning for our filming. It's so good that Claudia and myself get long how we do. We are good friends therefore being honest is not a problem and if one of us doesn't like something we aren't afraid to say it! This is extremely handy, especially for planning because even though we agree on most things, it's good to hear both of our perspectives. For example, if I thought a close up would be necessary for a particular shot whereas Claudia thought a mid shot would look better - we could discuss and justify our views - this is also really helpful when writing an evaluation.

Tuesday 10th Dec Period 1 - Claudia and myself had free lessons for two hours following this lesson, so with parental and teacher confirmation we was able to use this time to do our filming. Obviously being on a rooftop on a wet and windy day had it's implications. Apart from Claudia being freezing in a little dress (bless her) we had to be safe. Especially with the equipment, we was just extra cautious and thankfully nothing was damaged (inclusing us!).

Wednesday 11th Dec Period 2 & 3 -  This time editing was slightly harder. Because we only filmed a very specific section of the song and there was A LOT of footage, take after take, trying to pull out the best bits of the footage was extremely time consuming but after it was finished, it was very satisfying because it looked wicked!

Tuesday 17th Dec Period 5 -  My peer assessment partner is Sydeny, and she does a lot of work! Therefore this lesson, I felt I was up to date enough to spend the hour going through her blog and inputting my comments. It's really good for me personally, because I learn a lot from her blog - new ideas and ways to present my own work. It also inspires me to do a lot more work so my blog can be at a high level like hers.

Wednesday 18th Dec Period 4 & 5 - Because we miss Friday's lesson as it's our whole school Christmas Assembly and in tomorrow's lesson I plan to fill in all the nasty gaps in my production diary before I go on my Christmas break and forget everything I have done.. Claudia and I decided we needed to make a huge To Do List of things we need to get on with either over the holidays or as soon as we get back.

Thursday 19th Dec Period 4 - This was the last lesson we had before the 2 weeks we get off for Christmas. I feel like I made a sensible and practical decision to update my production diary for this hour. I will try my best to fit in some time over the holidays to do some work but realistically I know it will be very hard! Where we have been so busy with filming and editing rather than theory based work, my production diary was slacking! With lots of missing dates, it was defiantly due and update.

Friday 20th Dec Period  - No lesson due to whole school Christmas assembly.

Tuesday 7th Jan Period 1 - First lesson back after half term! And it wasn't only the weather that was frosty.. being very busy and occupied (not only with eating and drinking!) there was not a lot of time for school work. However when I had an hour spare here and there I managed to cram in some work - nothing too intense though, mainly planning and evaluating. This lesson Claudia and I spent the lesson going over where we was up to with our teacher - it was good because it was like a refresher for us too! We managed to create a long list of work that is still due and previous work that needed to be improved. Even though lessons like this might seem like a waste of time, I feel like they are a great help. They motivate me and it is clear what work needs to be done, therefore when I'm at home or have free time during school, I can crack on with coursework instead of only using lesson time to get things done and up to date.

Wednesday 8th Jan Period 2 & 3 - Now I am all up to date with what need's to be done, I feel like I'm on the right track. This lesson we was introduced to 'Digipack'. This is like the CD/Album cover of the artists album, including the song we're making the music video for. Our teacher had to explain what it is, examples of previous years, how to make it good (high quality and marks). We were also introduced to websites - another thing we were going to have to create. Therefore for the second part of the lesson we looked at different artists websites and analysed them. This was an extremely useful task, because neither Claudia or myself have ever done anything like this. It was handy for the reason that we now know what is vital for an effective website, what doesn't work so well (personally anyway) and help us to create an effective website.

Thursday 16th Jan Period 4 - This lesson we needed to make a start on our Digipack. This is basically the album cover and images for it. Thankfully, each time we have been filming we have taken images

Friday 17th Jan Period 3 - Part of the website aspect of the project was to design merchandise for your fans to purchase - something which is very common with actual music artists. This was something Claudia and myself could do together, and was actually a really fun and productive lesson. We had to chose what items we were going to design, colours, images, prices, etc... We managed to decide on the products, including; tops, bags and eyelashes being our main selling points along with a few others, as well as the main image to go onto the products. It was interesting to see what the others in our class had created because we could springboard of their ideas and viser versa.

Wednesday 29th Jan Period 4 & 5 - Our deadline was closely creeping therefore we needed to really do the last bits of filming for the video. Not only this two hour lesson but the whole day Claudia and myself were able to film and come into school to do editing and other work. Having days which are dedicated to a particular subject can really boost efficiency and motivation. Over the course of the project, I found myself editing the footage on Adobe far more than Claudia. This year I really felt I had grasped the concept and skill of using the editing software and was much more comfortable using it.Claudia was focusing more on the website and DigiPak, with my the input of my opinion and help at times, however we felt it was more convenient if we both focused on specific areas to save time and for ease.

Friday 31st Jan Period 3 - This lesson we spent time on the evaluation questions. We left these later than what we hoped, however we really wanted the majority of the project finished before starting the evaluation questions. This meant we had to complete them in our own time which isn't a problem. We handed two questions out and decided together how to format them and what to out in them.

Monday 3rd Jan Period 3 - This lesson we started exam work. That means no more lesson time would be used to finish coursework. Everything that is not done or uncompleted needed to be finished in our time.

Laura Mulvey Analysis

Now I have learnt the concept of Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory I am going to apply my knowledge to analyse 3 separate music videos. The first one ‘Spinning Round’ by Kylie Minogue, then ‘She’s so lovely’ by Scouting for girls and finally ‘Get on the Floor’ by Jenifer Lopez. All 3 of these videos present different forms regarding to Male Gaze theory and some of them prove it to be wrong. This is what I will be analysing; how and why it does that.

In Kylie Minogues music video ‘Spinning Around’ the audience is immediately presented with a mid shot of Kylie’s feet walking along what seems to be a dance floor. She is wearing gold heels and no clothing covering the bottom of her legs. This shows sexuality and shows she is confident by her large strides and confident stroll. You see her feet spin which shows connection to the first lyric ‘I’m spinnin’ around’. In the shot other feet are being shown. They are all covered up in jeans and trainers and are mostly male, this exposes she is already surrounded by men. We next see a slow motion shot of Kyle swinging her head. Her hair is down and shows movement which presents her ‘free’ and ‘not bothered’ attitude when she is out. Already w can see features of Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory. She is surrounded by men and has been from the start of the video. Here, you can see a man staring directly at her whilst she is performing a prerogative dance move – the hair flick.

We then are able to examine what she is wearing. Her top is red which has the connotations of passion and love. It is extremely revealing and covers only a small part of her neck along with her breasts. Her collar bones and cleavage are able to be seen which adds to her appearance of ‘look at me’. Behind her in this shot are a group of females which contradicts the theory of Mulvey. When Kylie is dancing and her front (breasts) are on show, there is no male gazing at one of most venerable aspects. 

Before the actual singing of the song begins we already have an idea of what Kylie is like. We have been introduced to her character by how she moves and what she wears.  The final part of her outfit is revealed, and are some extremely tight, short, gold shorts. Both her bum cheeks are out and it is clear she is proud and will not mind the attention. Otherwise why would she be dressed in such an erotic and revealing outfit?

As the song progresses we see Kylie performing her song. We see a mixture of close-up and mid shots. We are also shown an establishing shot of everybody dancing in a night club which sets the scene. Kylie is placed lying and dancing on top of the bar which is much like the job of a stripper/dancer/performer, however Kylie is just carrying out the performance of her song. This is a very erotic action and in theses screen shots show just how revealing her outfit and dance moves are. We can see the bar tenders watching her which fits into the 

conventions of Mulvey’s theory however, if Mulvey’s theory was completely true, surely all the men in the club, including both bar tenders, would be surrounding the bar with their jaws wide open. 

In the next few shots however Mulvey’s theory completely fits the conventions of Male gaze theory. Here, this long shot shows Kylie is surrounded by men all dancing around her, even though she doesn’t seem bothered and is enjoying dancing, the men are facing towards her and some are staring at her. We can see the men are in the light which allows the audience to focus on them and 

them and what they’re doing/looking at whilst the females at the front are in the dark. In the following shot Kylie is dancing one-to-one with a man. He is behind her and staring at her body rather than at her face or into her eyes. This objectifies the female by seeing her body as something to look at, most likely sexually rather than into her eyes with emotion or passion.

 

Throughout the song when Kylie is singing her song, she is walking through the club rather than dancing. As she is doing so, most men are staring at her as she passes them. This applies to male gaze theory, other than Kylie is acknowledging the men staring at her and rather than being disgusted or offended that men are starting her body she is smiling and enjoying the attention she is getting. In this screen shot we see she has all eyes on her. Whilst resting on the sofa, sitting extremely closely to one of the men, and still singing, men from even nearby have moved out their way to come and look at her. They are intentionally staring at her and most defiantly not making it subtle. 

However in this shot and a few after, we see Kylie leading a man to go with her and dance with her. This doesn't fit in with the conventions of male gaze because it is flipped around. Kylie is not necessarily staring at the man, but she is giving him the attention and making him go with her when it should be him staring at her and thinking ‘I’m going to go and dance with her’ when he was simply relaxing on the sofa with his friends and she has gone out of her way to chose him and drag him to the dance floor.  The lyrics also fight the convention of male gaze. In the shot below we see Kylie dancing with ‘her chose one’. She is grabbing his hand and 

directing him to putting it around her body whilst the lyrics sing ‘Do you like what you see?’ she is asking for a positive response and almost begging for the attention.

Overall I think that Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory does relate strongly to Kylie Minogues music video ‘spinning Around’. Throughout the video men are constantly staring at her. However, it slightly goes against the theory in the way that Kylie encourages the attention and enjoys it. 

The next music video is ‘She’s so lovely’ by Scouting for Girls. Immediately the name of the song and the group singing it indicates they are into females, the word ‘girls’ suggests immaturity and a playful vibe, which is reflected in a lot of their songs! The video stars with a female walking into a bowling alley. A close up shot is presented of her feet/legs. She is wearing red high heels and when we see her face later she is wearing red lipstick. The red connotes love and danger, even though having her legs and cleavage slightly out show objectification she holds some sort of power superiority. As she is walking through the room, a tracking shot is used to show the men who work at the alley and men who attend the event all stop what they’re doing to stare at her. Some are seen with their jaws dropped which completely justifies the theory…’male gaze theory’ – all of the men are focusing and ‘gazing’ at this one female. The lyrics suggest she is an object ‘a fittie’; ‘she’s dirty’ by not even referring to her by her name makes it seem worse. Calling someone dirty, which has a double meaning, both being rude and offensive shows he doesn't have much respect for this woman, especially if has a liking towards her. However, even though the lyrics aren't completely complimentary she is smiling and enjoying the attention she is receiving. We also shots of her encouraging the men to carry on watching. Such as; a close up of her biting her lip and of her bum – where she is slightly bending over as she throws the ball down the lane. Throughout the song the lyrics are referring to the way this woman looks and is dressed, he also mentions "she's got a boyfriend though and that’s a pitty" followed by her kissing in him in front of everyone, fully aware they are all staring at her.

The final video I analysed was 'Get on the floor' by Jenifer Lopez. This video is really not like the previous two. Immediately we are presented with JLo (short for Jenifer Lopez) arriving outside of a club/event in a nice car. However the door is not opened for her nor is she lent a hand to help her get out of the car thus represented her independence and self respect.  

She is fully covered up in black clothing; wearing long trousers, a leather jacket and a hoody underneath which has a hood that she is wearing over her head. There is no flesh on show and nothing to outline her womanly figure (as we know she is famous for her voluptuous curves and to-die-for body in most of her previous videos) therefore there is nothing for any men to 'stare at'. Her body is fully covered as well as he face from the hood. 

She then opens up a Swarovski box containing diamond earrings which has no track of them being giving to her as a gift from anyone; she could have bought them herself which again shows independence in herself. 

A long shot is then used to show JLo in the club, the camera crosses massive diamond chandeliers which represents money and glamour which mirrors JLo as we then see her spread out on a chic long sofa and her diamond earrings we previously saw her out in. She is also above everybody else which shows superiority and power, something not normally displayed in music videos such as Kylies video where she is squashed on a sofa surrounded by men all looking at her up and down. Therefore, JLo's video has not included any of the conventions of Laura Mulvey's theory as of yet.

As JLo starts to perform her song, she is dressed in a tight diamond body suit, which exaggerates her curves as it is skin tight. She is singing and making some dance moves and even though she is performing, there is no obvious audience, which again doesn't prove Laura Mulvey's theory to be correct because there is nobody watching her in the shot.  

However, as we are shown more establishing shots of the night club and a mixture of people all up and on the dance floor (hence the title of the song), there are young woman with elegant figures wearing just bikinis dancing on podiums. They are completely in the open and not high up therefore anybody could easily touch/grab them and they are for anybody to see, this then fits the conventions of Laura Mulvey's theory, even though there is no men openly staring at them, there most defiantly would be because of what they're dressed in and it also suggests that woman are objectified and just there to watch/look at.

Throughout the whole video JLo is seen on her own and very much in control, which again unfortunately mirrors Mulvey's theory - in Scouting for girls video the female is very much objectified, being gazed at by every man in the room and also being publically kissed with force by grabbing her neck - the complete opposite to JLo.

Then we see JLo entering the dance floor. She is dressed in trousers and a bikini/bralet top which explicitly shows her stomach and breast cleavage, unlike in her previous 3/4 outfits the most she has out is only her arms.  Everybody around her seems to be waving their arms and trying to grab her. She seems to be extremely focused and doesn't pay attention to any of them. By everyone reaching for her it shows she is respected and wanted by everyone. 

Then she begins to dance and everybody is following her moves. It is like she is a leader that people, both males and female, inspire to be and look up to rather than simply to look at.

There are men around the club, sitting on sofas supposedly in the VIP area. They are surrounded by woman which shows they must be wealthy and attractive for that reason - this shows low morals of the females and supports Mulvey's theory that they are less important and looked down on by the males.

Then, whilst JLo is sitting on the sofa on her balcony, she is even a drink. the drink is rum or brandy which is not stereotypically what a female would drink on a night out; it is more of a manly drink as it is strong and robust - the opposite to how JLo looks wearing a dress with a lot of make up on and her hair done. It is also a female waitress, which represents a 'girl power 'notion.

As JLo is dancing upon the dance floor (above everybody's else, showing her superiority and high standard) she begins to dance a little more sexually, by shaking her bum and rubbing her hands over her breasts. by making these actions she most definitely giving men, especially, something to look at, or 'stare' at in terms of Mulvey's theory.  

And finally the lyrics to the song aren't suggestive at all. The chorus which is repeated many of time is 'grab somebody'. This implies that it is either a male or female to grab someone possibly of opposite or the same gender which is extremely un-expressive, especially when compared to Scouting for girls which include lyrics such as 'she's flirty, a fittie, she's dirty' which are extremely evocative.