GENRE THEORY:

Chandler's Genre Theory:

• Narrative – similar plots and structures, predictable situations, sequences, episodes, obstacles, conflicts and resolutions.
• Characters – similar types of characters (sometimes stereotypes), roles, personal qualities, motivations, goals and behaviour.
• Themes – topics, subject matter (social, cultural, psychological, professional, political, sexual, moral), ideologies and values.
• Setting – geographical and historical.
• Iconography – echoes the narrative, characters, themes and setting, a familiar stock of images or motifs, the connotations of which have become fixed. Includes décor, costume and objects, certain ‘typecast’ performers, familiar patterns of dialogue, characteristic music and sounds.
• Filming Techniques – stylistic or formal conventions of camerawork, lighting, sound – recording, use of colour and editing etc.

DAVID BOWIE:

David Bowie - Iconography from El_Lester

STORYBOARD:

RISK ASSESSMENT FORM:

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS:

In 1974 two theorists, Blumler and Katz developed the 'Uses and Gratifications' Theory. The basic theme of 'Uses and Gratifications' is the idea that people use the media in order to fulfill specific gratifications. This theory is an opposition to the 'Hypodermic Needle Theory', which claims that the audience has no control over how the media influences them. However, 'Uses and Gratifications' argues that people are not just helpless victims, but they use the media to fulfill their own needs. These needs serve as motivations for using media in the first place.

The theory suggests that audiences USE media texts for various reasons...

DIVERSION  - To escape from everyday life.
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS - Use the media text for emotional and other interaction, e.g. substituting soap operas for family life.
PERSONAL IDENTITY - Create their own identity from characters/celebrities in media text, and learning behaviour and values.
SURVEILLANCE - To gain information and knowledge.
ENTERTAINMENT - As a means of relaxation, enjoyment and emotional release. Purely for the 'fun' of the experience.

HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY:

The Hypodermic Needle Theory implies that mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect upon its audiences. The message for the media is directly received and fully accepted by the user. Within this theory, the audience is considered to be passive entities that are left at the mercy of the mass media. It essentially suggests that the mass media 'injects' its messages directly into the passive audience who are immediately affected by these messages, which were designed with the aim to trigger a desired response. It also suggests that the mass media is a dangerous means of communicating because the audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message. However, this theory has little place in contemporary analysis of audience reception, although it is possible for audience to be influenced by what they see, these instances are rare and don't carry a great deal of momentum. Also, the theory is argued to be too simplistic as changes to attitudes and beliefs are not always observable or easily measured. Different audience interpret media differently.

GOODWIN'S CONVENTIONS:

Goodwin's 'Conventions Theory' is about various genre conventions and stereotypical characteristics. He looks at 7 different principles... 

- Links between the music and the visuals (i.e. contradictory, illustrative etc.)
- Genre characteristics
- Intertextual references 
- The notion of looking (i.e. female objectification)
- Voyeurism (i.e. the enjoyment of looking at the artist)
- Performance, narrative or concept based music videos
- The demands of the record label (i.e. how the artist is represented)

When looking at the 'Indie-Rock' genre of music, which is also the genre of our chosen music video 'Bros' by Wolf Alice, we noticed that there was some general conventions for an Indie-Rock music video. Typically, in terms of mise-en-scene there tends to be props to help tell the story, make-up to match the theme, lighting to enhance the mood of the song and colours to represent the theme of the song. The song 'Bros' is a light-hearted song about friendship, so we're going to aim to keep the colours in our music video warm and happy (i.e. pale blue, yellow, orange, light brown etc.) In terms of editing there tends to be a lot of speed changes and extensive use of filters/cinematic effects. In our music video we will aim to use various changes in speed, as well as using a 'vintage' style filter in order to create the look we're aiming for. Close-ups of the artist/actor within Indie-Rock music videos is also a common feature, so we will aim to use them within our own music video, particularly for the lip synching. Establishing shots are also used often in Indie-Rock music videos to set the scene. When looking at the Wolf Alice music video for 'Bros', the lyrics don't match up with the visuals but the theme of the song, which is friendship, does match up. There also appears to be an absence of the 'notion of looking' as well as voyeurism, as the artists do not feature in the music video.