Our Class Prelim Task

Our version of Britney Spears' - Hit Me Baby One More Time

For our class our prelim task was to re-create Britney Spears' hit me baby one more time our idea was to have different types of Britney's as it changed the video and made it slightly our own. We had 3 different Britney's in the video which i think worked really well and meant if one person wasn't in then we could simply just find a new Britney to work with the tight schedule of making the video. working with our class helped with things like; working as a large group filming as if in our own music video if we was to use a lot of people then would have practice of organizing so many people. Also things like picking who would be in our music video as some people are more confident than others which makes the video more effective and would help us in our own video when choosing the right person as we learnt that we would need someone who would give it their all and not be nervous around the camera.

I think our costumes worked well with the different Britney's as they looked as though they should be in the scene. But if we were to re-do the video i think it would be better if we planned better and maybe wore our old uniform so we fitted into the scene better, because although it looks good to have students in the background and we look the age group we look slightly out of place as we are in normal clothes whilst only the Britney's are in uniform or make it so the Britney's are in the same outfit but not school uniform so they blend in with us.

The setting we used i think worked really well as all our shots were clear and well lit so i wouldn't change anything about settings or lighting, i think if we was to re-shoot then we should use the same places and time to get the lighting as long as its a nice day, not raining.

The only thing i think we would need to change would be our organization and more planning because things were quite last minute decisions and can be seen in some of the shots things like things in different place were they have been moved from filming on different days. Also the dancing the background in hallway scene doesn't look as professional as it could have looked but next time we would make sure that we had some time to learn a dance or what we needed to do instead of the ones that knew what they was doing at the front then others in the back watching them and just spinning at different intervals.

Although some things i would change about the video i do feel i learnt a lot from the prelim task such as; how to set up the camera, organisation of big groups in filming, if having a dance routine learn it, if you have an idea for the video just film the idea as it may look better than the original but if it doesn't then you don't always have to use it and finally lip syncing.

Britney Shoot Planning

time/date - Monday the 8th at 11:15 we chose this day as it was our next lesson and time of the day we                               would be using would help with lighting as it would be natural no need for classroom lights or                           spotlights which gives it a more realistic school feel.

costumes;Toby= Backing dancers wearing school uniform
                    Ellie = Backing dancers wearing school uniform
                    Karina = Backing dancers wearing school uniform
                   Claudia = Britney wearing a grey cardigan shirt and knee highs and red lipstick
                   Faye =Backing dancers wearing school uniform
                   Sydney = Teacher. she is also the camera woman.
                   Paige = Backing dancers wearing school uniform

props -     pen, clock, bell, locker, bags, uniform, notebook using these created the feel of the whole video                       being set in the school by using typical student items 

setting-   classrooms; 107 most convenient because was our media room meaning we could organize the                                               class when we needed and move things we needed to for the filming

                  dance scene; we used the link for our dance scene which is a hallway with lockers but is                                                             windowed all along so lets in a lot of natural light which improved the quality of the                                               scene as it then didn't have to be in a dingy hallway with one side more shadowed                                               than the other 

Analyzing music videos with Laura Mulveys theory

Analyzing music videos with Laura Mulveys theory

in lesson we used Laura Muleys theory to analyse music videos to see whether or not we agreed or disagreed to an extent with the theory; we were given 2 videos chosen by our teacher that complies with the theory and then chose a last one that deviates with the theory ourselves.

first video:
Kylie Minogue - spinning around

The Kylie Minogue video complies with Mulveys theory because of the use of the different types of shots and mise en scene used through out the whole video.
The first shot is her walking past a man but is only a mid shot of their feet to show her walking past so shes walking past men and then zooms to her bum so creates a male audience instantly. the way Kylie is dressed is proactive as all of her legs are out shes wearing short gold hot pants with a crop top which shows her cleavage which agrees with the theory for woman to be there for the men to 'gaze' as the men would enjoy her dressing like this where as it doesn't make a difference if a woman was watching it if you could see that amount of flesh. Her body language, the way she has puckered lips as she sings upwards into a high angle camera shot creates sex appeal again there for the men. Even the lyrics 'baby baby baby you know i like it like this' is being sung to a male audience as she would be saying this to a man, meaning even the lyrics link to Mulveys theory. The only part of the video which contradicts Mulveys theory is at one point of the video she leads the man onto the dance floor so this part disagrees with the part of theory that Mulvey says about male dominance as she is dominating the men; but overall i would say that this music video complies with Mulveys theory.

second video:
Scouting for girls - she's so lovely

The video starts with them being in a bowling alley and the man has a concentrated face as he holds his ball up to his face as he is about to bowl showing how hes focusing on the game and then the girl walks which is a close up of red sling back heels again showing sex appeal through the use of red he then is put off his game and gets a gutter ball showing she put him off his game because he was thinking about or looking at her too much. The next shots are close ups of mouths open, her smiling, flicking her hair, her bum and men's expressions as they stare at the girl this part shows how the video highly complies with Mulveys theory. Although the video runs with Mulveys theory the lyrics do half and half as he is singing about how lovely she is but then begins singing about how women get 'dirty' at a certain age which then demoralises the woman. The video is similar to Kylie's with the way with the walking and the woman being the centre of attention in a group of men; shes also dressed similar to Kylie in the fact that she dressed in a way to draw attention to her chest, bum and stomach also having red heels on creating sex appeal, because of the same theme and costumes in the music videos i think it complies with Mulveys theory in similar ways.

third video:
p!nk - stupid girls

My third video is p!nk - stupid girls because it agrees with Mulveys theory and pinks come across that she has the same point of view as Mulveys, both exerting a feminist view point. Pink uses a little girl to show what choice she thinks more younger girls should be making instead of following stereotypical 'stupid girls' which are used more in influential media than high achieving women. through the video pink uses contrast of her being a female president, playing American football with a group of boys and the attention given when a girl has her large boobs on show, contrasted with a stereotypical stupid girl doing what you expect, picking out her small dog, running people over because of being on the phone, having a very orange shade tan; having the contrast of the types of women it really shows the difference in stereotypes and how many young girls can be sucked into it as its being viewed as the fact that they need to act stupid, dress a certain way and have a large chest. one of the lines pink uses is; ''what happened to the dream of a girl being president, she's dancing in a video next to 50cent'' i think this quote is really effective because its like girls have lost all dreams for big ambitious things and agree with mulveys theory is there for men to look at and for men to look higher because of having a young attractive girl beside them. Within the video pink also covers extensive issues things like; boob jobs, bulimia and creating sex tapes having the issues covered within the video shows the seriousness of the issues and how pink views females now and the situations they are put in which i think all link to mulveys theory because they mostly link back to men and what please them and what they enjoy looking at.

artists image changing over time - Justin Timberlake

Laura Mulveys' theory

Laura Mulvey and the male gaze summary

Laura mulvey and her theory of the male gaze influenced by the works of Freud,is key to the feminist film theory movement and has been of great influence since the mid 1970's. mulvey argues that in classic hollywood films in particular women are merely represented to provide visual pleasure to mem, and the audiance is constructed in a manner where they are all expected to be men. this male gaze is both voyeuristic and fetishist. her concept of "to-be-looked-at-ness", exemplifies that women are merely shown on screen in classic hollywood in order to provide men with visual pleasure and have an erotic impact. Mulvey argued that the typical key protagonist, by identification, admiration or aspiration. therefore the audiance member gains narcissistic pleasure (gratfication) from identifying with the films protagonist, placing themselves "in the shoes" of the films hero. Further the influence of freud an influential phychoanalytical theorist to Laura Mulveys theory is the idea of castration anxiety which is what a person unconsciously thinks. For example if a woman was not objectified in the way she was in classic Hollywood or placed in a postion of lower authority, a male would not feel as powerful. this unconscious idea is that a males power and dominance over a female is his penis, nd his dominance is threatned by a woman if she does not arouse this.

music through the ages

My Music

Artist collage from crburks