Music Video: Introduction

Our next topic is Music Video - with two brilliant Close-Study Products.

Music video is a targeted CSP which means we need to focus on media language and representation. The CSPs are Old Town Road by Lil Nas X, featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, and Ghost Town by The Specials. We'll be looking at a range of representations across the videos including race, ethnicity, social class and also incorporating post-colonial theory.

An introduction to Music Video: notes

Music videos typically feature movement – often fast paced either in terms of actors, camerawork or editing. Many contain a performance element or narrative. Music videos can also feature visual effects and intertextuality.

Music videos were originally designed as a promotional device to sell the band or artist’s music but have developed over time to become a recognised artform or product in their own right. Modern music videos no longer have the huge budgets of the 1980s and 1990s but digital media means they are now more accessible than ever. Videos such as Psy’s Gangnam Style have received over 3 billion views on YouTube.

Andrew Goodwin's conventions of music video

Andrew Goodwin's theory of music video is a useful one to learn when analysing music videos. His theory states that music videos contain some or all of the following elements:

• A link between the visuals & lyrics (complement, contradict or amplify)
• Genre characteristics (heavy metal in industrialised settings; rap music in urban street contexts etc.)
• Contain intertextual references (references to popular culture)
• Contain notions of looking (e.g. screens within screens)
• Include objectification of females (e.g. male gaze)
• Include demands of the record label (close ups of lead singer, symbols or motifs associated with the band / performer etc.)
• Video will be performance, narrative or concept based.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is when one media text references another media text – through genre, conventions, mise-en-scene or specific cultural references.

Music videos often use intertextual references – often to classic films but also to television, popular culture, news, videogames or even other music videos.

Notable examples of intertextual music videos:

Music Video introduction blog task

This week's work requires Media Factsheet #69: Music Video. You'll need to log in to Google using your Greenford Google account to access this. Read the factsheet and answer the following 10 questions:

1) What is the purpose of a music video?

2) How has the digital age changed the production and distribution of music videos?

3) Which three major record labels are behind VEVO? What is VEVO and why was it created?

4) What are the key conventions of a music video?

5) How can narrative be used in music video? Give an example of a music video that uses a narrative.

6) What examples are provided in the factsheet for intertextuality in music videos?

7) Why do audiences enjoy intertextual references in media products?

8) Read the music video example analysis on page 3 of the factsheet. Select a music video of your own choice for each of the following headings and explain how each one links to the heading:

• Conventions (movement/narrative/artist)
• Intertextuality
• Representation
• Audience

9) Watch the video for Ice Cube's It Was A Good Day (1993). How did this video set the conventions for later hip-hop music videos?



10) How important do you think music videos are in the marketing and promotion of music artists today? Are music videos still essential to a band or artist's success? You need to form your own opinion here.

Due date on Google Classroom

Magazines: Front cover practical project

The best way to learn the conventions of a media product is to create one. Your first task for the Magazines unit is to create an original front cover for an existing magazine.

This will also help to prepare you for the cross-media coursework starting with your coursework teacher in July.

Task: Choose an existing magazine and create a front cover for a new, original edition of your chosen publication.

Previous year examples: 

Magazine practical production: tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Magazine practical task research and planning' and complete the following tasks:

Research

1) Use Google to research potential magazines that you could use as your brand/design for this project. Create a shortlist of three potential magazines and embed an example front cover from each one. We recommend looking at lifestyle magazines or a similar genre as these are more achievable to re-create.

2) Choose one of the three magazine brands to use for your project e.g GQ, Vogue or The Gentlewoman. Then find three different front covers for your chosen magazine and embed them in your blogpost. Analyse the fonts, colours and typical design. What is the language or writing style? How are the cover lines written? What camera shot is generally used for the cover image? You need to become an expert in the design and construction of this magazine and its branding.

Planning

1) In your blogpost, write your main cover line (also called the 'main flash') - this is the main cover story that links to your central image. It must be 100% original - all your own words.

2) Briefly plan the image you will need for the cover - model, costume, make-up, lighting etc. At this point, simply describe the image you need to capture.

3) Write the cover lines and any additional text you need for your magazine cover.

4) Sketch out your cover on plain A4 paper using your written planning. Take a photo of your sketch and upload it to your blogpost.

Photoshoot

We will do a photoshoot in class next week with lighting and backdrop. However, if you prefer you can arrange your own photoshoot for the cover image in your own time - you can use your phone or your own camera to take an image. If you don't have a phone or camera that is suitable, you can sign out a camera from Mr Harrison.

1) On your planning document, write the date, time and location of your photoshoot and the name of the model or photographer you will use (you can choose anyone to be your cover model or you can be the cover model yourself).

Photoshop design

You will have one Media lesson to create your magazine cover on Photoshop but you will probably need more time than this. In order to complete this work, you will need to work in DF06 when you don't have other lessons or use Photoshop at home. You already have access to Photoshop at home via our fantastic Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (worth around £25/month!) 

Photoshop tutorials

The best way to learn Photoshop is simply to start creating your magazine cover and learn as you go. There are thousands of tutorials on YouTube to help you - here are just a couple of examples: 

Publication to blog and evaluation

1) Once you have completed your design in Photoshop, go to 'File > Save a copy' and save your finished Photoshop magazine cover as a JPEG image. Then, upload it to your blogpost. 

2) Upload two genuine covers of the magazine you have chosen and put them next to your front cover. This is a brilliant way to check how professional your work looks alongside the real thing.

3) Write a short evaluation of your work: have you succeeded in your brief to create a new, original edition of an existing magazine? Does your cover stand up alongside the genuine covers of your chosen magazine? How professional is your work alongside those genuine examples?

4) Finally, what would you do differently if you completed this assignment again?

Deadline: see Google Classroom

TV: Final index

We have completed excellent in-depth studies of Capital and Deutschland 83 alongside important work on political and postmodern theories as well as industry contexts.

We now need to create an index to ensure we haven't missed any vital notes or tasks. As you know, keeping an index of all your work is extremely good practice from a revision perspective. This keeps the vital CSP information fresh in your mind and also highlights if you've missed anything for any reason. 

TV index: Capital & Deutschland 83

Your TV index should include the following:

1) Introduction to TV Drama
2) Capital: CSP case study and analysis
3) Capital: Marxism and Hegemony
4) Deutschland 83: CSP case study and analysis
5) Postmodernism and Deutschland 83
6) TV: Industry contexts

For your index, it needs to link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work and revision notes quickly and easily. This also means you if you have missed anything you can now catch up with the work/notes and won't underperform in the upcoming assessment and end of Year 12 exam due to gaps in your knowledge.

Due date: on Google Classroom

Advertising & Marketing: End of unit index

We have completed some excellent work on our Advertising and Marketing CSPs. We now need to create an index to ensure we haven't missed any vital notes or tasks.

As you know, keeping an index of all your work is extremely good practice from a revision perspective. This keeps the vital CSP information fresh in your mind and also highlights if you've missed anything for any reason.

Advertising and Marketing index

Your Advertising and Marketing index should include the following:

1) Advertising: Introduction to advertising
2) Advertising: the representation of women in advertising
3) Advertising: Gauntlett and masculinity
4) Advertising: Score hair cream CSP

5) Advertising: Introduction to Postcolonialism
6) Advertising: Sephora Black Beauty is Beauty CSP

For your index, it needs to link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work and revision notes quickly and easily. This also means if you have missed anything you can now catch up with the work/notes and won't underperform in future assessments/exams due to gaps in your knowledge.

Advertising and Marketing assessment

You will have an assessment on the Advertising and Marketing topic in the next two weeks - date confirmed by your exam class teacher. This will feature questions on an unseen text and your Advertising and Marketing CSPs. Use your index to help revise the key theories and CSPs for this topic. 

Index due date: on Google Classroom

Advertising: Sephora Black Beauty Is Beauty CSP

Our second Advertising and Marketing CSP is the 2021 Sephora advert Black Beauty Is Beauty.

This gives us an opportunity to explore social and cultural contexts regarding race and ethnicity - while also looking at postcolonial theory and the changing representations of gender in advertising. 

Notes from the lesson are here:

Sephora: introduction

Sephora is a French-owned global retailer of beauty products including cosmetics, hair carem skin care and more.

Launched in 1970 it now operates 2,300 stores across the world and income is $4bn a year (2022).

In June 2020, Sephora announced that it would take the 15% pledge - committing to fill 15% of their store shelf space with products from Black-owned businesses.

Sephora racial profiling scandal

Sephora was accused of racial profiling by rapper SZA in 2019 who claimed security staff had been called because a white rapper suspected her of shoplifting.

Celebrities such as Rihanna who had promoted Fenty Beauty products for the store responded to the tweet which ensured it became a major threat to Sephora's global brand.

Sephora responded by closing stores around the world for one day for 'inclusivity training' - though they claimed this was not a response to the criticism and had been planned for some time.

Sephora's 2021 Black Beauty Is Beauty campaign could be seen as an attempt to repair the brand's reputation and relationship with Black culture.

Sephora Black Beauty Is Beauty

The Sephora Black Beauty Is Beauty advert is aimed at YouTube and social media rather than TV placement. 

The advert reflects a move from many brands from television to online broadcast adverts. This allows adverts that can run to longer lengths than the traditional 30 seconds and which therefore places limitations in construction and design.

The advert is here:

Stereotypes

Adverts often use stereotypes to communicate information quickly to their audience. For this Sephora advert, it was critical to its complex and challenging message that black stereotypes were not lazily reinforced.

Instead, the advert celebrates the way that elements of Black culture and cosmetics associated with Black culture have led to changes in the wider idea of mainstream beauty in the cosmetics industry.

It also helps to position Sephora as a 'woke' brand aware of the contributions of different races and ethnicities.

Representations in advertising

Erving Goffman defines adverts as "highly manipulated representations of recognisable scenes from 'real life'".

This means scenes that create a sense of personal identity in audiences while still offering an ideal or desirable take on 'real life'. In effect, 'this is what life could be'. 

The Sephora advert's mise-en-scene (particularly the settings and locations) taps into this idea strongly.

Racial bias in search engines and algorithms  

Linked to this advert, Sephora has also looked to highlight racial bias in online algorithms and machine learning. This YouTube video that accompanied the main advert, called 'What you need to know about Black beauty', explains the need for the campaign:

Blog tasks: Sephora Black Beauty Is Beauty CSP

Work through the following tasks to make sure you're an expert on the Sephora CSP and particularly the wider social and cultural contexts.

Wider reading on Sephora Black Beauty Is Beauty

Read these articles on the Sephora campaign: 

The Drum: Black Beauty is Beauty by RGA
Glossy: Sephora celebrates Black beauty in new digital and TV campaign

Refinery29: Sephora’s ‘Black Beauty Is Beauty’ Short Film Celebrates Black Innovation

Complete the following questions/tasks:

1) What was Sephora trying to achieve with the campaign?

2) What scenes from the advert are highlighted as particularly significant in the articles?

3) As well as YouTube, what TV channels and networks did the advert appear on?

4) Why does the Refinery29 article suggest the advert 'doesn't feel performative'? 

5) What is the 15 per cent pledge and why is it significant?

Advertising agency feature

The Black Beauty Is Beauty advertising spot was created by global creative agency R/GA. Look at their website feature on the project and answer the following questions:

1) Why did Sephora approach R/GA to develop the advert?

2) What was the truth that R/GA helped Sephora to share?

3) How did the advert 'rewrite the narrative'?

Sephora website: Black Beauty Is Beauty

Visit the Sephora website page on Black Beauty Is Beauty. Answer the following questions:

1) How does Sephora introduce the campaign?

2) What statistics are highlighted on the website? 

3) What do we learn about Garrett Bradley - the director of the advert? 

Media language: textual analysis

Watch the advert again and answer the following questions that focus on technical and verbal codes. Use your notes from the lesson to help you here.  

1) How does the advert use camerawork to communicate key messages about the brand?

2) How is mise-en-scene used to create meanings about black beauty and culture?

3) How is editing used to create juxtapositions and meanings in the advert?

4) How are verbal codes used to create meanings in the advert - the voiceover and text on screen? 

5) What is the overall message of the advert? 

Media factsheet

Finally, go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #259: Sephora Online Advert - Black Beauty Is Beauty. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. If you need to access this from home you can find our factsheet archive here (you'll need to use your Greenford login).

1) Look at the exam hint on the first page. How does Sephora as a brand and the CSP specifically reflect contemporary social and cultural contexts? 

2) Media theory: how are Butler, Gauntlett, bell hooks and Gilroy applied to the CSP?

3) What aspects of media language are highlighted on page 3 of the factsheet? 

4) How does the factsheet summarise the advert on the final page?

5) What are the four ideologies in advertising highlighted in task 8 on the final page of the factsheet? In your opinion, do you feel the Sephora CSP advert challenges or reinforces each of these?  

A/A* extension tasks

Read this Marketing Dive feature on how Sephora is trying to alter Google search trends and highlight racial bias in algorithms and machine learning. You may then want to think about the following questions: 

How is the Sephora advert an example of recent changes in media representations of ethnicity?

What does the advert tell us about the way new technology is changing the way adverts are constructed?

Why have brands moved towards online and social media platforms in their advertising?

How does the idea of ingrained racial bias in algorithms link to some of the postcolonial ideas we have studied recently? 

Due date on Google Classroom.