REPRESENTATION THEORIES

MALE GAZE THEORYI ensured that my video wasn't sexual in any way and made sure that my video didn't reflect the theory of Laura Mulvey. This is because I didn't want to give the wrong message to the audience that would see the video; I am aiming this at quite a young audience and didn't want them to think that being sexual is the way to do things. This is also because people can interpret things differently and may think that being sexual will get them popular. I think that this happens a lot more in videos done by female rap artists as they a lot more sexual in the language of their songs; e.g. Nicki Minaj, Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks, so wouldn't be conventional if I did it because it doesn't happen in indie pop music videos - the lyrics are the more important part. To do this, I used clothes that fully covered the artist’s body, and also used a lot of long shots and medium close ups so that there was no way that the shots could be misconstrued as portraying the artist in a sexual manner.

STAR THEORYI do think, however, it follows Richard Dyer's Star Theory because I have created a persona for the artist. Although the artist isn't acting like someone she isn't to be liked in real life, she is playing the part of the character that is isolated and lonely. This means that she is trying to fit into a mould that has been created (the character) but is doing it for narrative purposes so that she can create an interesting and entertaining video. I think this theory is reflected in my video as well because the video has a positive message and is saying that people should love themselves for who they are; this will make the audience feel good about themselves and therefore could be seen as the artist conforming to social norms because she is trying to get people to like her by saying positive things.

STEREOTYPES THEORYIn my video, I have used different outfits to portray specific stereotypes that I wanted; this helped to develop the narrative and make the story more relatable for the audience. I used Mean Girls as an inspiration for my video and one outfit that is used to illustrate the ‘popular’ social group of girls is anything that is pink. This is the reason that I directed the actresses to wear this colour as this film is very popular with teenagers – this is the main audience that I am trying to aim my products at, so they will be able to associate with the actresses who are playing a specific role in my video and be able to relate it to the film. This shot from my video is also a perfect example of how I have used stereotypes in my video as the two actresses have their backs to the camera, illustrating how they are ignoring everyone – even the audience that are watching the product.

NARRATIVE THEORIES

TIM O’SULLIVANBecause my product contains a narrative within the video, I believe it reflects the theory stated by Tim O'Sullivan: that all media texts tell us some kind of story. I have tried to demonstrate the idea that the artist is trying to fit into a particular group by changing herself and being fake. I have done this mainly in the mise en scene as the artist wears clothing similar to the actresses and then nearer to the end, where she disregards these thoughts of being popular, I have used an editing technique to illustrate the artist's ideology changing in a creative way.

HOLLYWOOD NARRATIVEPam Cook states that there are three things that the standard Hollywood narrative has:•Linearity of cause and effect with an overall trajectory of enigma resolution•A high degree of narrative structure•A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence.I think my video follows this theory because of how it has a structure; there is the artist at the beginning trying to conform to the conventions of a particular social group, there is the realisation that to be liked she just needs to be herself, and then the ending in which she changes how she looks to be more comfortable within herself and reject the idea of how everyone changes themselves to fit into a mould. I also believe that my video contains verisimilitude because of how it contains things that the audience can relate to – therefore making the product effective.

EQUILIBRIUM OF DIEGESISDue to this theory set forth by Todorov; it states that the narrative of a video has a beginning, middle and end. I think that my video follows this theory because of how it has a beginning, a middle where there is a problem of some sort which the protagonist has to overcome and then an ending where the artist has chosen whether to do something or not.

CATEGORIES OF GENREKate Domaille states that every story ever told can be categorised into one of eight narrative types:•Archilles•Candide•Cinderella•Circe•Faust•Orpheus•Romeo and Juliet•Tristan and IseultI think that my music video would be categorised into the Cinderella narrative type because of how it contains a narrative where the dream ends up becoming true at the end. I wanted to create this type of video because I wanted to create something really positive that people would be able to relate to.

COMMERCIAL EXHIBITIONISTThis is the theory by Sven Carlsson, who stated that videos are either performance or conceptual. In my video, I think that this theory applies because of how it is mainly a performance piece as it contains singing, although dancing is not an element I have included. This is because I haven’t tried to be artistic in the choices for my video but have instead tried to portray the artist as an entertainer; this makes her look appealing as she isn’t only singing the song, she is part of the narrative and is performing and lip syncing. I have included some shots that could be considered artistic because they don’t particularly relate to the narrative of my video and are there simply to make it look interesting by creating something that is aesthetically pleasing.

NARRATIVE/PERFORMANCE/ABSTRACTIn my video I wanted to follow conventions of the indie pop videos I had already watched and enjoyed, so that my video looked professional. After watching existing products, I decided to not create an abstract video because this isn’t something that indie pop artists create very often. This is the reason that I decided to create a narrative video, because I already had an idea of the type of video I wanted to create due to the song I had chosen to create my video to. After looking at my finished product, I have realised that the video I created is more of a performance video, with aspects of narrative. I think this makes my product effective because it makes the video look really interesting and keeps the audience entertained, and also includes a story which makes the video more memorable. Combining these two types of video makes the product look really professional as this is quite conventional in the industry and artists quite often mix types to create an interesting video.

AUDIENCE THEORIES

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORYBy watching my music video on any social media platform, the audience are being active and are choosing to do watch it; they aren't being made to and it is their choice. They may be watching it because they have heard positive reviews on it and want to see what the fuss is about; supporting the Uses and Gratifications Theory set by Blumler and Katz. The audience could also be watching it to give themselves confidence, as they may already know the song and its meaning so watch it because they are feeling down.

RECEPTION THEORYStuart Hall states in his theory that media texts are encoded by the producer of the product with their values and messages. This means that the product has a desired effect by whom it has been produced by, which may not be understood by spectators who see it.•The dominant message of my music video is to be confident within yourself and not to change anything about yourself so that others will like you.•The negotiated message of the video could be that the message of the video is being stereotypical and giving a specific group of people a bad image, but they like the message of loving yourself and being true to who you are.•The oppositional message of the video could be that the video is stereotypical and that everyone should be seen as equal, so reject the message completely.

HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORYDue to the Hypodermic Needle Theory, I think that the message of my video that would be understood would be the dominant one. This is because this theory states that the media injects messages into an audiences head and they believe anything they see and are influenced by it. Because of how much the radio is listened to, TV programmes are watched and YouTube is searched on and videos are watched, I think that my video and song would be consumed thousands - and possibly millions - of times and therefore a message would be injected into the audience; whether this be the dominant, negotiated or oppositional message.

GENRE THEORIES

SYSTEMISATIONThis theory by Steve Neale states that “genres are not ‘systems’ they are processes of systemisation” and the processes of systemisation are: locations, costumes, props, transport and narrative spheres of action. In my video, I have used a variety of costumes (different styles and patterns of kimonos, shirts, shoes, pink cardigans), locations (town, tunnel and plain white wall to name but a few) and props (the stick that the artist hits against the fence in one of the shots). I think that it is important to have variety in a music video to keep the audience entertained because otherwise they would simply switch the channel over or stop watching it on YouTube and watch something else instead.

CULTURAL CATEGORIESMy video supports this theory because of how it uses codes and conventions that are similar to that of other indie pop music videos that already exist in the music industry. I have done this to produce a product that is similar to other indie pop products and to ensure that it looks of professional quality. I have used genre to sell my product to a specific audience because they will be able to associate my product with others in the same genre because of familiar codes and conventions. Because of how my product looks, people will be able to be active and decide whether or not they want to consume my product in order to fulfil a particular pleasure – which also relates to the Uses and Gratifications Theory.