Friday 5 September 2014

Pete Fraser Codes and Conventions of Music Videos Summary

Camerawork:
Camerawork is the most important as it focuses on the performer of the video, the camerawork will show a performers talents for example dancing/singing/playing instruments, when camerawork is used to showcase talents it is supposed to show how highly talented and charasmatic the band/artist is during the video for example doing close ups of them playing a guitar or singing will express their talents towards the intended audience, close ups will also make the viewer feel more intiment towards the video and feel a connection to the artist more if the camera is close up to them. The camerawork should also clealy show who the main star of the video is for example the singer or lead singer in a band.

Editing
Using only the best shots to have as the final product to showcase the most important and best shots that were filmed. The editing process can also include different post production effects such as overlaid text or other digital effects that can enhance the final visual product.

Star Image
A star is an image constructed from a range of materials(Richard Dyer 1979).
Mainly for the pop genre of music the star image is important for example before releasing a new music video their record label may make them do appearances or get in the papers for something whether it be positive or negative to draw as much attention to themselves before releasing something. Artists like Beyonce will rarely need to use promotion to help things sell as she is already a big name but other people who are upcoming artists/bands will also use close ups to establish who the main star of the video is. 

Voyerism
Usually this is showing off the female body mainly in the videos brought out my male performers when they use establishing shots on the female body to bring attention to that and to boost the male stars ego. In the instance of a female performer they will usually have their own body sexualised for example in Miley Cyrus' video for 'Wrecking Ball' her body is incredibly sexualised bringing all of the attention to her and only showing her off for her body rather than her talent.

Intertextuality
Intertextuality is showing references to cinema or other popular culture references, this is mainly done to make the audience feel more included in the video as if the artist was putting the audience into consideration. A band or artist could have done a song that was featured in a movie that is coming out at the time, for example the Australian band Tonight Alive brought out a music video for the Sony Pictures movie The Amazing Spiderman 2, the video featured shots from the movie in it. As well as movies the artist could reference video games for example Red Hot Chilli Peppers' video 'Californication' where the video was supposed to replicate a video game.

Narrative and Performance
Music videos are usually done with a clear narrative possibly relating to the song and a performance by the artist or band. 
Other commentators have divided music videos in terms of style, though often there will be crossover between these; apart from Performance and Narrative, it is possible to identify at least six: Gothic, Animated, Dreamscapes, Portraiture, Futuristic and Home Movie.


Reference: Pete Fraser Teaching Music Video (BFI 2004)

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