ANDREW GOODWIN'S MUSIC VIDEO THEORY

 

Introduction

Andrew Goodwin was a theorist who came up with codes and conventions of music videos after analysing and comparing a variety of examples. He is most well known for the concept of the visuals within music visuals linking up with the music and the beat, and that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. His work is something to bear in mind while creating my own music video.

Music Video Theory

Andrew Goodwin's theory consists of five key points that combine to create an successful music video. The points listed below form a base on which to start filming, making his work relevant to our coursework.

Example

Lady Gaga - Telephone ft. Beyonce

Lyrics and Visuals
Throughout the music video it is clear that the visuals do match the lyrics and the beat of the music. One example is the gif on the left, showing Lady Gaga singing about a phone call while acting with a phone prop. The lyrics in the scene say "Wha-wha-what did you say? Oh, you're breaking up on me", which clearly relates to the visuals.
Music and Visuals
The music in the song does correlate to the visuals. One example of this is during Beyonce's segment of the song. You can see from the gif on the right, that the video makes use of fast paced editing to match the tempo of the music.
Genre Characteristics
Fitting into the pop genre, the music video features locations such as a prison and a café. The costumes are dramatic, contrasting bright and dark colours. The characters are sexualised (through their outfits and actions), which is also typical for pop songs.
Star Image
The music video features a lot of close up shots of both Lady Gaga and Beyonce, while they are singing, driving, dancing etc. It is made clear who the main artists are.
Voyeurism
One aspect of voyeurism in this video is the setting. Prisons are often private and shut off places, with lots of security cameras. This reflects the notion of looking.
Intertextual references
In the scene when Beyonce picks up Lady Gaga from prison and drives her to the diner, there is an intertextual reference to the "Pussy Wagon" from Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill (2003).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LOCATION SCOUTING

Image
  Introduction Clementine and I were looking for two key locations for the music video to take place in. We drew inspiration from scenes in Fleabag (2016) and Taylor Swift's music video All Too Well: The Short Film (2021). We decided on filming the two parts to our film in a kitchen and dining room, and in order to film a shot we had in mind they would have to be connected. At first we considered using the school cafeteria as a location for the dining room, as it could be made to look like a restaurant setting, however we realised that in order to have the characters arguing in the kitchen it would have to be filmed in a home environment. Our main requirements was somewhere dark with warm lighting, so we could create an intimate dinner party scene. The clear next step was to evaluate the rooms in our houses. Inspiration Kitchen ...
Read more

GENRE RESEARCH

Image
  Introduction In order to understand our target audience and the conventions of our genre, we did some research to better prepare us for the task of creating our music video. With the help of interviews conducted to discover our target audience, along with sources online, Clementine and I determined that the song we selected fits into the 'alternative genre'. This a broad definition with various sub-genres, despite online sources varying, 'Under the Table' more specifically fits in to 'alternative pop/rock'. Origins Above are some artists that are considered alternative. The alternative pop/rock genre was originally influenced by late 1970's punk-rock, and is a term used to refer to music that is distinctive from mainstream or commercial pop or rock music. Merriam-Webster defines alternative music as "music that is produced by performers who are outside the m...
Read more

DIGIPAK - FINAL PRODUCT

Image
  Final Product To create the final product we combined all the edited pages and placed it onto a digipak template, as if it were for an actual product and we were going to print it out. On the left is the template I used, and on the right is the final product. In order  to show off the final product, I also edited the images to show what the final digipak would look like if it was printed off. This was done using an app called sketchbook, which is intended for digital drawing but I discovered it is also very useful for manipulating images.
Read more