Blog Reflection - Week 2

In terms of independent work I had finished off my lyric analysation as well as depicting my understanding of the music, audience and my own video in terms of my chosen song. This took quite a while but showcases exactly what I believe all of the previously mentioned conventions mean, as well as how I will include it into my own video. With this in mind, anybody that needs to see the work that I initially begun with in terms of creating my own independent choice of a video can see how much work I put in.

Also, I finally got round to asking my unsigned artist for the permission to use her song. Fortunately she agreed to let me use it without any stipulations involved, which is great as it means that I can use the song in the same way that I planned to do so in the first place.

During my taught lessons I learnt about quite a few aspects of the media world, in particular, theories. One of these theories was the "genre theory" as depicted by David Bordwell and Neale, as demonstrated here. These two men thought of the following theories:

• Genre as a system
• Repetition & Difference
• Any theme may appear in any genre

This has taught me both the marketing side of the industry as well as the production sector. In terms of the marketing aspect, I have understood how music videos are advertised, as taught from the "system" theory.

The second one has educated me to understand how some videos tend to include aspects of plenty of other productions but add their own unique spin on it to create both attention and "rewatchability".

The third theory has demonstrated to me that I can be as unique as I possibly want to be. I can follow this as long as I can use it correctly so that it does not look too out of place.

According to what I learnt this week I can now go onto working on my music video with a greater knowledge of targeting an audience as well as how to create a video that works for both the audience and I in terms of entertainment.

Another set of theories that I learnt were about the way that the audience interprets media texts. These were:

• Preferred reading - Stuart Hall
• The Male Gaze - Laura Mulvey
• Voyeurism - Andrew Goodwin

These have all taught me a variety of things. Hall's theory has enabled me to understand that although you may set your production to seem one way, people may view it another and this is something you must accept. Although you can convince plenty of people to believe one thing, others will most likely go for another option, based on their own personal beliefs and surroundings.

Mulvey's theory was a great look at reality as it emphasised a 21st century feminist's view on the media industry. She has acknowledged, like myself, that plenty of directors choose to film in a certain way to make sure that females are sexualised. This has made it much clearer to me that if I go for something which is supposed to be conforming to the stereotypes of a video, that I can use this to emphasise my conventional use.

Goodwin was a slight emphasis on Mulvey's as he described how one may gain gratification from the sexualisation of females. In the post linked above I have demonstrated how common it is for the media industry to display this use of sexualisation in terms of the female gender.

These theorists have allowed me to understand how different people view things differently and whether or not I should conform to these views. As well as conforming to theories such as "The Male Gaze" I could also attempt to persuade people to have a certain reading in terms of what Hall said.

Overall I am certain that I have gained some great analytical skills in terms of understanding media texts. I can now add these theories into my own practises as I am more aware of how other people interpret pieces of work.