Editing Our Footage

Last Monday myself and Yas filmed the newest shot sequences for our music video. The quality of the footage is substantially higher in terms of lighting, costume, angles, timing and general camera work, however due to the lack of tripods some shots are a bit shaky. Myself and harry have manged to order the footage to make a base for our video. I believe that we will definitely have a rough cut of our music video completed by half term.

Album Art Analysis

Cheryl Cole "Messy Little Raindrops"

The overall aesthetic of the album cover connotes materialistic and commercial ideologies along with glamorous imagery to create specific emphasis on the iconography of the artist, their personal ideals, beliefs/interests and ultimately indicates at the institutional context of the music label. 

The font style used illuminates on the commercially orientated imagery on the cover through its fluidity and delicate/elaborate style (it could be suggested that the font type used is purposely intends to mimic handwriting). The styling of the artist also communicates ideologies of wealth, possession and self adoration; the leopard print Christian Loboutin high-heeled shoes (notorious for their craftsmanship and high-price) represent glamour, but could also indicate at an animistic obsession or desire for an idealised life brimming with wealth, fame and prosperity. 

The pose of the artist reinforces the idea of self-adoration and could signify an appeal to an audience demographic of admiration seekers or materialists. The artist adopts a pose that showcases her body and also the structure of the clothing - iconography that shows that the artist is very commercially orientated. It is clear that the artist has knowledgeable insight into the world of fashion due to the exclusivity of her clothing, the way the dress is sculptured, to the way she purposely manipulates her pose in order to expose the dress' best elements. The pose is however considerably masculine, which portrays the artist's desire to be taken seriously - this goes against mainstream album cover conventions, and the 21st century portrayal of women as symbols of vanity and sexual desire. Despite this, the bright fuschia and orange colours of the dress show a hesitance to let go of her femininity and fun-loving nature. 

The glamorised image of the artist is blurred which could indicate at deeper and more complex issues surrounding the general perception of the artist and the stereotypical ideals she represents. We can learn from the title of the album cover that the artist aspires convey more depth to her persona; she wants people to see the real her - not only the professional and driven side, but the more sensitive side. "Messy little raindrops" alludes to a sense of ambiguity. The curtain could represent the recent turbulence in her life, and ultimately, a longing to see beyond the messy raindrops. It could be argued that the messy raindrops are a metaphor for the washing away of her past and the emotional baggage that comes with it, and ultimately the artist embarking towards a new beginning/a new chapter in her life. 

The Wanted

The aesthetic of this album cover follows a colour scheme of increasingly dark tonal variations. Black usually connotes mystery, sophistication and darkness, whereas grey being a mid tone suggests ambiguity and obscurity. 

The font type used is prominent and bold to ensure the name of the band stands out. The fact that the members of the band are each dressed in black ensures that the album cover is not visually distracting for consumer audiences; thus ensuring that all attention is focused on the faces of the band members, and on the title of the album. The fact that the band are dressed in the same colours could indicate at a sense of unity - a bond between them. This in turn creates specific emphasis on the ideals and beliefs of the band-members, their iconography but also reveals a substantial degree about the institutional context of the music label. 

The music label are obviously keen to present their artist(s) as a new breed of boy band. The minimalistic setting reflects the 21st century trend of minimalism in both fashion and arcitecture, and overall theme of the album cover suggests a serious, business-minded and professional nature. 

Each band member stares directly into the camera which asserts their sense of authority and serious nature; this could even suggest that a visually intruiging album cover is not of real signifigance to the band: that they want to focus soley on promoting their music. One band member however, situated at the back of the image, evidently looks in a different direction to the other band members. This could reflect a differing ideolology or moral from the band member, or could even indicate a difference in the individuals personality or talent. 

Analysis of "S&M" Rihanna

Cultural Context 

• Rihanna's latest music video has been dubbed one of the most controversial music videos of 2011. The video is an example of post-modernism, representing social constructs and objective truths, but also exemplifies the sadomasochist movement/ideologies.
• Rihanna highlights the pleasure she takes in the infliction of pain or humiliation upon another person (whereas where masochism is pleasure taken in receiving the pain) through a comical parody of the codes and conventions of music videos of the 21st century . Throughout the video, Rihanna delivers pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting or submitting to physical or emotional abuse. 

Issues and Debates

• The main issue surrounding the music video is that persons who watch/use the video to communicate with one another would need a substantially informed or sophisticated understanding of the context and issues raised within the video such as sadomasochism and objectification through vanity and sexuality. 
• Age restrictions have been imposed upon the music video, and it has also been banned in 11 countries across the globe in order to prevent consumer audiences being susceptible to such controversial and thought-provoking imagery. The complexities surrounding the age restrictions is that the restrictions themselves are very easy to work around/defy. Authorities therefore perpetuate the video by undermining it.
•  The restrictions increase the percent of viral marketing - in a sense the more people are told not to watch the video, the more people will want to watch it. 
• Through viral marketing techniques through websites such Youtube, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter Rihanna will broaden her fanbase, reaching out to aspirational and admiration seekers, but also to anti-authority rebels. 
• Another issue is that Rihanna's fanbase consists of many young girls, especially teen and pre-teen: they look up to her as she is a dominant force/presence within the music industry. Will this result in them trying to adopt the new found, sexually promiscuous and ecsentric ways?

Costume and Mis-en-scene

• Rihanna's aesthetic is promiscous where most of her outfits are revealing, or made out of perspex/pvc material which have predomiantly sexual connotations. 
• Much of the mis-en-scene and costume is hypo-exaggerated/hyperbolic. For example the fuschia and white patterning on the walls of the room in the opening sequence, also the popping turquoise colours of the walls when the artist is being dragged to the "press conference" and ultraviolet makeup.
• Rihanna's hair is of a vibrant red colouring and a juxtaposing of characters is created through the styling of her hair an costume; where we see a more refined and presentable rihanna in a floor length gown with groomed hair, contrasted with a wild rihanna with "afro" style hair, dressed in a crop top with "censored" written across it, dark blue trousers and fur scarves draped around her neck. Rihanna also has a crown on her head. 
• The fact that Rihanna is behind a perspex/transparent plastic wall during a press conference could indicate at her being trapped or her internal ideologies and morals being prevented from being revealed to the outside world. The ideologies and imagery conveyed by Rihanna is evidently viewed as corrupt through the words inscribed in "newspaper article style/font type" on her dress.
• The reporters and journalists also wear conventional clothing associated with the sadomasochist movement.
• Props feature whips, tape and modern/surrealist furniture to create the illusion of a fictional/fantasy world
• The idea that the video is a parody of the conventions of modern day movement, and in parallel sadomasochism, is highlighted through the artist's use of celebrities from the present day media spectrum. For example, when Rihanna appears with a man dressed in pink and white clothing (along with traditional elements of sadomasochist aesthetic) on a lead, audiences will recognise that the man on the lead is in fact Perez Hilton, an American celebrity gossip columnist. 

Editing

• The editing techniques used are useful in conveying Rihanna's transition from an illusive and delusional state to reality. The editing style frequently features focusing and de-focusing to create a movement between two worlds. 

My feelings so far about shooting

I have been thinking about the productivity of our shooting and have arranged a meeting with the members of my group, Yasmine and Harry, to discuss their theories and feelings about how successful the shooting process was, the productivity of our group so far, and also the quality of the footage we have produced. From the meeting, we have conclusively decided that it would be more efficient if I were to lip sync in the music video footage as the shooting will take place at my house, and I also know the lyrics to the song (this would ensure accuracy in the lip syncing process as we will not have to teach another person the lyrics). This would also increase our groups productivity and organisation skills. Therefore we have agreed to arrange to shoot new footage within the next few days.