Tzetvan Todorov

Tzetvan Todorov is a Bulgarian academic and Philosopher but also a theorist in many aspects, but in particular, films and music videos. He annotates music videos. He proposed all mainstream narratives to a similar structure.

Todorov suggests most narratives start with a state of equilibrium in which life is seen as 'normal'.

Theory of Narrative:

1. Equilibrium - where everything is it should be.
2. A disruption of the equlibrium by some action
3. A recognition that there has been a disruption to the equilibruim
4. Resolution - An attempt to repair the distribution
5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium

Examples:

If I were a Boy - Beyonce:
Equilibruim-Lack of trust in their relationship
Disruption-Her being put into his shoes-reverse roles
Recognition-When  Beyonce is flirting with another guy
Resolution-She realises shes just a girl
Equlibrium-Things go back to normal 'Your just a boy & im just a girl'




When the sun goes Down - Arctic Monkeys
Equilibruim-Shes a prostetute on the street with her pimp
Disruption-She falls in love with the magician
Recognition-pimp finds out
Resolution-pimp turns girl against  magician
Equlibrium-Shes back on the street as a prostetute

Analysing CD covers

We can detect a numerous amount of things about a band/artist from album covers, without even knowing anything about them.

For example I've taken 'The White Stripes - ELEPHANT', which I know nothing about.

Genre - Rock/Punk-The colours are red, black and white which symbolise quite dark, sinister colours. Its showing a girl tied up crying, whilst the man sitting next to her is looking smug with a bat in his hand.

She is representing an elephant; she is tied up, and there are peanuts on the floor below her feet and on the reverse side of the album cover she is standing on a stall, scared of a mouse which is below her.

They are sitting on a trunk, which could be a play on words, symbolising an elephants trunk.

Lettering/Font - The font it quite simple, the 'E's throughout the album cover are red, which creates an uneasy feeling. Red symbolises danger, which fits in with the 'punk' side of things.

The 'ElE' in elephant, appears like its meant to look like the front of an elephant, the 'L' being the trunk, and the 'E's being the ears. The album name it larger than the artists, showing thats what they've chosen to focus on.

Target Audience - Judging from the album cover, I would suggest its alternative. I could picture the audience being teenagers/goths/emos.

How do the band/artists choose to represent themselves through the CD cover? - 

I think they are trying to portray themselves as different, possible mysterious and hard to read. They seem dark and sinister and slightly creepy as it mentions they are siblings.

They have chosen to have themselves on the front cover - wanting to focus on themselves, maybe not well known enough to have something different.

Music Video - Textual Analysis

In deciding how to shoot our preliminary task we selected a few artists that were similar, one of which was a band called 'Funeral Party'. We chose their song 'Finale' as it was simple, yet effective. 

This is one of the music videos we will get inspiration from when filming our prelim music video. 


Camera Work:
 - Close ups of singer
 - Medium close ups of the band
 - Close ups of their instruments
 - Hand help camera; Guerrilla style


Editing:
 - There is no narrative in this music video
 - They cut between the band, the instruments and close ups



Mise-en-Scene:
  - The mise-en-scene is very simple. The band is located in an empty room
  - The room is dark and gloomy with one window with light beaming in 
  - There is a slightly greenish light 
  - They have chosen this location as I think it reflects their image
  - The walls have graffiti and the paint is peeling
  - There are cables on the floor, highlighting they are focused on their music as they are an              organic band

Advanced Production Portfolio - Initial Ideas

Once we had got into our group we started with brainstorming and sharing our ideas with each other.
We wanted an artist which we could focus on, not only their music but also include a substory to interact the viewer and make our music video more relatable and interesting. In order to draw attention to their music, we decided a band would be the easiest option as they would have instuments we could focus on as well as the singer. With a band it also makes it easier to create a story behind the song as their lyrics are mostly organic as it could prove more difficult to work with an artist with manufactured music.

This is a rough list of selected bands and artists we thought we could use to base our music video around:

- The Used

- Hot Hot Heat


- LostProphets
- You me at 6

- Thirty Seconds to Mars:



- Blink 182
- Biffy Clyro
- Wombats
- Bloc Party
- Crystal Castles

- Friendly Fires:


- Ou est le Swimming Pool
- Maroon 5

- Razor Light


- Oasis
- Justice
- +44
- French Soler

- Vampire Weekend:

Preliminary Task

This is our final, edited preliminary task. 







We got into groups and were each given a section of the song. We were given the last section which we used to our advantage as we had the ending. We tried to focus on all the aspects of the band as they are an organic band, who create their own music. They focus mainly on their music so we wanted to show this in their video by focusing not only on the band members but also focusing a lot of the audience's attention onto the instuments.

Account Of Preliminary Music Video

We started our A2 year by researching within the music industies, leading up to out final music video.

In order to be prepared for our final music video we were given a preliminary task. This included reseaching similar artists, such as rock/punk bands to gain ideas of the appropriate shots we should use. The band we were given are called 'Aches of Life'. They are a small unsigned band, including 4 male teenagers.

In terms of shots, we reserched similar bands and compared the similar aspects, such as positioning of band members and who to focus on.

Acres of life:

We compared them with different artists such as Green Day, Guns 'N' Roses, You Me At 6 and Funeral Party's music video 'Finale', which we analysed in terms of Mise-En-Scene, camerawork and editing.

We thought this was simple to do yet effective. The background/location went well with the style of the song and the artists.

The four band members were the drummer, the lead singer, the base guitarist and the main guitarist who were both BV's as well.

You me at six:

Advanced Portfolio Brief-Music Video Analysis (star Image)

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

-a website homepage for the band;

-a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);

-a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

From the three individual options I have chosen to design and create a cover for their release of an album or single. I am going to be researching into their star image focusing on their genre and target audience. I will analyse the different elements of their music video and marketing materials.

In this essay I will be discussing how Rihanna sells herself as an artist in her music video ‘Only Girl in the World’.

The first thing I noticed about Rihanna’s video was the colour scheme. Throughout both the background and the props are either red or pink. This attracts her targeted audience of females ages from between 10-25 years. Red and pink also symbolise feminism, love and lust, therefore Rihanna is sexualised.

  Another thing I noticed was that, throughout the whole music video Rihanna is wearing and/or surrounded by flowers such as roses which are also pink and red which symbolises love, sex, virginity and desire, which links back to her target audience as this appeals to them and interests them.

Her image is shown as girly, however very sexy. She wears many different outfits which is what her target audience want to see and are fascinated by what she wears and fans feel inspired by her appearance and her music.

Her locations are very nature based , such as felids, flowers, desserts and a lake, which may symbolise purity and vulnerability.

At one stage she is shown on a ladder in a peaceful lake, with balloons around her, once again reinforcing virginity as a sexual innuendo.

She is shown on a giant swing in the middle of a field, with nobody in sight, implying she is independent or vulnerable.

Towards the end of the video she is shown with fireworks in the background in slow motion followed by Rihanna in front of a tree with candles on suggesting her loss of virginity, which swallows any innocence or purity.

The video starts with a medium wide shot to show Rihanna and her location, which starts off as a field. There is then a close up of her face to draw attention to her as an artist and her passion and beauty. There is then a medium close up which focuses on her feminism and the sexual side in her, which develops stronger in each of her videos.

Editing plays a large role on the music video. Its starts with several long shots of Rihanna in a field, although there are fast cuts within the long shots. There are several unusual edits, such as, reverse shots, repeated shots and a lot of slow motion to draw the audience’s attention but also to create something different and unusual to it to encourage the viewers to watch it again. The unusual aspect, such as Lady Gaga’s videos encouraging word-and-mouth, influencing more and more people to watch it, which is ultimately what artists want. The editing is well composed and it goes well  with the theme and the beat of the music. Throughout the video there are many flash cuts to previous scenes and different locations to give her video variety and to interest and fascinate her target audience, which I think she succeeds. The video is shown from her perspective, as supprisingly she is the only person throughout the entire video which allows any focus only on her, which is what she wants. Her backgrounds are very simple, therefore does not take any possible attention away from herself. To not have any other people in a music video is very rare although it seems to work in this case. It also makes it seem like she is lonely but may be strong enough to live on her own.

Rihanna is a huge idol and role model to thousands of people. Her music and her videos have high influences on people. I find it very fascinating how the song is call ‘Only Girl’ in the world and she has chosen to be the only person in her video. This also shows her dominance in the video and how she is in control. Unlike a lot of music videos nowadays, she had relevance from her lyrics to the music video. I think Rihanna managed to sell her video to her audience in a different but clever way, using modern interests to attract her audience.