Language – Tom Bradshaw

 

For my A2 Media Studies coursework I made a music video in the genre of Indie rock, similar to artists such as Arcade Fire. The music video consists of a main character that is trying to fight against the government and their corrupt, capitalistic ways. He does this by attending protests and gratifying signs around London. This character is also (in our music video) represented as a leader of people who share his views. We did this by conveying messages via media language – the way in which a producer conveys messages to the audience through the use of camerawork, editing, sound and Mise-en-scene.

 

Due to the fact our music video was in the genre of indie rock. This meant we used specific media messages to convey this genre in our music video and ancillary tasks. I looked at interesting music videos such as ‘Rogue Waves – Lake Michigan’. I saw that they used a convention of the indie rock genre of giving their music video a sepia tone. Although, not the hole of our music video has a sepia tone, when editing I made a the scene when the main character is speaking out in a dark room have the yellow sepia tone, using the colour corrector, because I felt it contorted quite a rustic look which is a common style in indie culture.

 

This idea of using tones to convey a genre could be related to Andrew Goodwin’s book ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ where he states that there is a succinct relationship between the music and the visuals, “the visuals are either illustrated, amplified or contradicted.” I feel that by using the indie rock code of using a sepia tone ‘amplified’ the shots dramatic aesthetic. During this scene we then used a close up of the microphone in which our protagonist was speaking into. This was another code from the video by ‘Rogue Waves’ where they used close ups to ‘amplify’ certain subjects. We also very obviously used Goodwin’s idea of linking the visuals to the music when the lyrics say ‘Run boy run’ and the visuals are of our lead singer running around London. This can also be connected to our use of the sound; when curtain lyrics were said we used shots of our lead singer/protagonist following these lyric in what he does. This links to Goodwin’s idea that there is a succinct link between the music and the visuals.

 

We used a variety of shots to create deep meanings and messages in our text. Roland Barthes stated that there are five codes in a media text, the hermeneutic, enigma, semantic, symbolic and cultural code. The cultural code could be applied to our music video because it looks at the audience’s wider cultural knowledge, morals and ideologies. Our music video is strongly based on how it affects people views and ideologies toward today’s society. For example, we used a wide shot of a protest to represent people view toward our government the fact that we were able to capture a flare being set off in the shot made a more powerful atheistic. We also used fast cutting to intercut two separate scenes to convey a message. This can be seen when the beat drops and shots of burning corporate company logos and shots of the protest are cut together to send a message to the audience that these subjects are bad. These examples of media language can be applied to Barthes theory because the cultural code can be applied to our audience.

 

Levi Strauss’ theory of binary opposites can also be applied to our music video. This theory is all about the use of two opposite, like dark versus light, good verses bad, to create a message. When using the camera in our music video we used lots of close ups of curtain subjects that have relevant to our story. In most music videos close ups are used as a peace of media language to represent dominant subjects. One of our subjects was a mask surrounded by smoke surrounded by darkness. The mask was back lit to represent the beacon of light in a dark place. This is a binary opposite of dark verses light, representing the mask being on the good side with the smoke stretching our across the darkness, which emphasizing the plot on how our masked man is fighting back against capitalism and corporate company’s. The mask was an important part of the media language do to it being part of the mise-en-scene. This mask (being worn by the main character) was captured in a focus pull from the fire to the mask, showing the fire (that was used to burn company logos etc) is against the these company’s and the government due to the mask signifying the good and the fire signifying the bad, again creating another binary opposite.

 

We also used the pace of the editing in a way that could be related to Strauss’ use of binary opposites. This can be seen at the begging of our music video when there are long takes of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (a well-known government building), which gives of the idea that the government are slow and behind in the times. This is then contradicted by cutting to fast paced editing of a protest filled with people who are against the government, giving of the idea that these people want change and are moving fast to get what they want. This use of media language through the editing could represent a binary opposite of fast verses slow.

 

Again whilst editing, we constantly intercut different shots of subjects to link then together without actually seeing them in the same shot together. This could be linked to Kuleshov’s theory that, depending on how shots are assembled the audience will attach a specific meaning or emotion to it. We edited close up shots of fire burning corporate company logos with a long take of our main character silhouetted whilst taking off his mask. This gave off the idea that all the secrets of these company’s and the identity of the main character is being let out in one big climax, using Kuleshov’s theory that two subjects do not need to be seen in the same shot for them to have a connection.