Music Video: index
Your final Music Video index should include the following:
The Specials - Ghost Town: Blog tasks
1) State the song you have chosen for your preliminary exercise.
Shot List - Preliminary Exercise
Shot No. | Shot | Filmed? |
1 | Wide shot/establishing shot of street & lamp, then zooms into characters | |
2 | Over the shoulder (OTS) of mo hearing shouting from behind him. | |
3 | shot of mo turning around to see the commotion | |
4 | Close up of mo’s face in shock | |
5 | Close up of obaida’s face looking angry | |
6 | Medium shot of Obadiah running at mo | |
7 | Wide shot of whole street withcharacters in background. | |
8 | handheld or drone shot of mo running into a bush | |
9 | Obadia loses track of mo, close up on his face in distress | |
10 | mo accidentally makes too much noises and baits his location out medium shot of Obadia’s realisation with bush in background | |
11 | POV shot of Obadia dragging out mo from the bush and beating him |
Ignite Learner Response
In the narrative of this music video, we can see the protagonist, Taylor Swift in a classic unrequited love story however this time it's a college. The video begins with a man arguing on the phone with someone which we can see through a window. This is when Taylor glances up at the window with concern whilst seeing this and holds a sheet of paper saying "You ok" He responds with his sheet of paper, smirking with it saying " Tired of Drama", he then shuts his blinds and goes to bed which makes the audience smile because although he is in a rough patch Taylor cares enough to ask him if he's ok. unfortunately, when he got up to shut the blinds Taylor was writing the middle of writing something but she was unable to finish before he closed the blinds.
In a surprising shock of events to the audience, her sheet of paper said "I love you" and she narrowly missed him to show him. This makes the audience feel heartbroken and sympathetic towards Taylor as she is just about to declare her love for the man. In the next scene, we can see her dancing and singing properly trying to distract herself from feeling upset that he didn't get to see her sheet of paper suddenly we can see the man sneak a peek through his blinds and smirking & laughing when he sees Taylor dancing and singing around. Eventually, Taylor crashes after being tired and goes to sleep. This scene leaves the audience with dramatic irony as they know what is going to be shown on that paper however the male character doesn't.
The next day, Taylor finds herself on a bench with the guy from last night but suddenly his girlfriend drives up to them and he reluctantly gets in her car. This makes the audience feel upset for the guy as it's clear that he would rather spend time with her than his girlfriend. The audience starts to feel resentment for the man's girlfriend. Taylor would be seen as the hero in the story whereas the man's girlfriend would be seen as the villain if we were to use props character theory.
In the next scene the man is playing in an American football game both Taylor and his girlfriend are there. Taylor is on the bleachers and the man's girlfriend is one of the cheerleaders. This makes Taylor feel unpopular and irreverent as she thinks she can never compete with the man's girlfriend. This is emphasised as in the lyrics Taylor is constantly comparing herself to the other girl which makes the audience feel sympathetic towards her and want her to get what she wants which is that man whose girlfriend is 'evil'. In a horrible turn of events after the game the guy's so called girlfriend is seen with another guy and dismisses her boyfriend and everyone in the stadium sees this. This makes the reader feel annoyed and angry at the fact that the girl just pushed away her boyfriend for another man and they feel like the guy deserves better.
After the game, the focus then shifts back to where the music video started which is back at the apartment windows with the man getting ready in a suit ready to go to a party. The guy proceeds to ask Taylor if she is coming to the party or not through the piece of paper, and she responds with 'No, studying'. which is when he puts up a piece of paper back and says that he wishes that she was which after that he leaves. This makes Taylor have second thoughts about staying home and studying- she takes one look at her original piece of paper that said' I love You' and takes a leap of fate feeling like it is a now or never situation she even takes off her glasses and goes to the party. At this point in the narrative the audience is cheering her on and at the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens next.
As the next scene fades in from back we can see Taylor all glammed up and in a white dress with everyone in awe and shock, moving out her way. This is when the man that she is looking for spots her and is smiling as his dream came true. They then start walking towards each other however the man is grabbed by his now ex girlfriend and she leans onto him in a flirty way but the man is done with her and quickly pushes her away so that he can carry on walking towards Taylor, once they are finally face to face Taylor finally shows him her ' I love you' paper and in a plot twist the man has his own ' I love you' paper, which after they show each other they share a kiss giving the music video a bittersweet ending. This whole scene would make the audience feel relieved and happy because they finally got what they were rooting for.
The two prominent Narrative theories that I can see in the music video are Todorov's equilibrium and Propp's character types. For Todorov's theory the story starts with a balance where everything is fine then when the guy is arguing on the phone and his girlfriend controlling him then at the end finally having a new balance where he gets rid of his ex girlfriend and moves on and kisses Taylor. For props theory I would say that Taylor is the hero the guys girlfriend is the villain and you could argue that the guy is sort of the damsel in distress considering his girlfriend was controlling a lot of aspects of his life.
TV assessment learner response
a) analysis of the products that focuses on contexts and ideological positioning
- The Daily Mail heavily criticised Capital for featuring ‘more left wing causes than a Jeremy Corbyn’s diary’ it could be argued that the focus on house prices and hard work actually reinforces dominant hegemonic ideologies most closely associated with right-wing capitalist values.
b) use of media theory
- Applying Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, this is unconsciously communicating to audiences the value in working hard, earning money and contributing to consumerism and capitalism - maintaining the status quo and reinforcing more right-wing ideology.
c) a judgement or conclusion on the question
- In conclusion, it is impossible to ignore the ideological positions constructed by television dramas and Capital and D83 are no exception to this. However, it could be argued that different audiences can read these fictional genres in different ways depending on their own perspectives and therefore social, cultural and political contexts are not the only aspect to this process.
d) examples from the TV CSPs
- In Deutschland 83 (D83), the historical drama / spy thriller genre.
e) use of media terminology
- reinforced through the construction of the narrative and key elements of mise-en-scene.
Music Video: index Your final Music Video index should include the following: 1) Music Video: Introduction - factsheet questions 2) Musi...