Ideology

What is an Ideology?

An Ideology is a set of ideas that coheres around a set of basic social and political values.

Change those values and you will usually change the Ideology.

An Ideology sets out a way of organising society and politics, and indeed culture based on the core values
AND

Criticises other ideologies because they lack the goals and core values of the preferred ideology.
A system of meaning that helps us define the world.
This system of meaning makes value judgements about the world. We share common values, judgments and beliefs depending on what culture we are part of.

Truths?
-What truths or things that feel are natural about society?

• A woman is in the home
• Boys will be boys
• Education is important
• Ignorance is bliss
• The news is a window on the world

Norms

-Ideology makes us normalise media texts.

What does this mean?

If we normalise something, we accept it as behaviour (or values, beliefs, ideas and attitudes) and don't question this norm.

How could this be problematic?

The media represent images of social interaction and social institutions on a daily basis; because these ideologies are repeated, they shape broad social definitions.

My music video;

1. How are males and females represented?

The female in our music video is represented as a vulnerable artist, she tends to show no emotion, which emphasises the sad narrative.  With the use of the piano, it suggests that the artist is passion about music, and that suggests she is a songwriter herself. This is the character I wanted to create, following 'Ellie Golding' closely, she tends to use instruments in her music videos, which insinuates her 'indie' look.

2. Do they display a narrow range of lifestyles and behaviours, and marginalise others?
The artist in the video displays a 'normal' life style, with the use of the piano, it represents her as a young girl passionate about music. There is nothing in the video that is shocking for the audience, therefore it displays her behaviour as normal and a 'down to earth' artist. Unlike many videos that represents artist breaking taboos, this video aims to inspire young artists and brand the new coming artist in a positive way.

3. Do they make value judgements about what is normal and what is deviant?
The video does make a judgement on what is normal, the fact that the video is 'close to home' suggests that the girl that is passionate about music. The video touches a heart aching subject that is different from many music videos.

Digital Technology

What Technology will I be using to create my music video..

iMacs - Every lesson I use an iMac to research different music videos, to keep up to date with my blog, and I will be using it to create my music video. An iMac is extremely important for this task, I will be able to keep all my project filed on the iMac and it will be where the finished piece will be presented.

Youtube - Youtube is another source for me to complete this project, it enables me to research other music videos which will inspire me for my own video. I can note the use of camera work, the different narratives and the conventions used to make the video successful. 

Blogger - I will be using Blogger every lesson to update all my research and the latest work for my project. It is important for me to keep up to date with the blog and make sure I am researching to the best of my ability to help me achieve a successful end project. 

Panasonic HVC 500 Camera - This is the camera I will using for filming, it will be important for me to make sure I am responsible for the camera. I have to make sure all filming are transported from the camera to the iMacs every lesson to make sure no film is deleted.

Final Cut Pro - I will be using Final Cut Pro to edit all the filming that we do. It is an important source for the project, I will be able to use techniques like 'slowing things down', 'adding music' to edit the the video to make it look professional.

Audience, Genre, Narrative

Decision...

Audience - The type of audience I am aiming my music video at is teenagers aged from 15 -19 years old. My reason for this is that the video and the song is a close to heart subject, I believe it would be quite hard for teenagers under the age of 15 to understand the difficult narrative.

Genre - The genre that we have chosen is indie/pop. I believe this genre is extremely popular in the music industry at the moment, however I still believe there is room for another girl artist with a unique voice. 

Narrative - The narrative I have chosen for our music video is quite strong. I have chose to focus on the subject of cancer, as I believe it is a popular subject and a big issue in todays society. The story involves two sisters that have a strong bond between them, the video begins with one of the sisters walking into a big room with an eerie atmosphere, she begins to play the intro of the song on the piano. With the use of camera work, there will be a focus on a locket positioned on the piano, the locket will have a picture of the two sisters inside, this will show to the audience the two characters together. I want to use flashbacks throughout the video to show the two characters childhood, when they were happy, to contrast with the devastating news of one of the sisters getting cancer. The video will end with the sister in her final moments, this will hopefully touch the audiences heart.

Representations - The themes I want to create throughout the video is 'friendship'. I believe it is important to create a video where people of today can relate to the video. Many videos of todays society are high - tech and create 'unusual' narratives, my intention is to produce a video that is simple but effective. Another theme represented is the importance of Family, how loved ones are effected by the loss of a family member, how important family life is. 

Roman White - Director

Working with such artists as Reba McEntire, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus and Alan Jackson, Roman has been nominated for eleven Emmy awards and has taken home three in addition to winning CMT’s Director of the Year for 2007 as well as the 2007 ACM Award for Best Music Video along with numerous other industry honors for his directing and special effects work in television and film. He most recently directed all nine music videos for American Idol winner Carrie Underwood, including the number one video of the year for “Before He Cheats".
I chose to research into Roman White as he directed Taylor Swifts video, I believe Taylor Swift is an indie/country pop artist, which can relate to my artist. Through researching Taylor Swifts music video noticeably there are many narratives told throughout every video, this has influenced me to create a good narrative, as Taylor Swift's videos are talked about often, this is the effect I want to create.

Conventions

The convention I want to use for my music video...

Lip Syncing - I definitely want to use lip syncing throughout my video, my reason for this is that it is extremely conventional for music videos, I believe it makes the video's seem 'real' and also I think you can tell a story is being told from that artist, it captures the audience.

Simple Location - The song that we have chose is quite heart touching, through looking at Ed Sheeran and Ellie Gouldings video's they have both used simple locations. I believe this is conventional for a gentle song, it presents normality and I believe the audience can really relate to the story line.

Narrative - Unlike Ellie Goulding's music video - The Writer, I want to create a narrative throughout my music video, I believe it is important for a video to tell a story, it can interest the audience, and represent the song well. 

Research Methods

Research refers to looking at real media audiences to inform your thinking about a media production and also how you record that research.

Planning is used gaining research and planning ahead of the task to make it successful. Planning refers to all the creative and logistical thinking, and all the organisation that goes on in putting the production together, so everything works. And again, gives you the chance to write about and you get records for it.

Primary research is the collection of data that doesn't already exist
Secondary research is the summary and collection of existing research
Qualitative  research involves words or a persons personal response
Quantitative  research is research that can be measured and evaluated to show trends or patterns

To collect a good amount of data that will be useful to me, I will have to use all of these methods. Each research method has both advantages and disadvantages that I will have to consider.

First of all I will use Primary research to find out other peoples opinions and what they would like to see in a music video. I will do this by making a questionnaire and sending it out to some of our target audience to see what locations, mise-en-scene, colours etc. they would want to see in my music video. A questionnaire will allow me to collect all the specific data I need and it is a good way of gathering unique answers that no other research method would be able to find. 
Next I will use Secondary research, this is by far the easiest information to gather as it is basically just looking at research that other people have already found, so they've already done the work for you in retrospect. I will find this research on the internet. Secondary research is useful as it allows you to gather information that you would find difficult to collect if it hadn't already been found for you.
Qualitative research is what I will use to find out people's personal opinions, e.g celebrities, and I can also use it to find out background information. 
Finally, I will use Quantitative research to find out trends and figures of music videos. For 
example, how many viewers a certain music video has got.

Ellie Goulding - The Writer

I chose to analyse Ellie Goulding's music video - The Writer, as we believe the unknown artist that we have chose is very similar to Ellie Goulding.
At the start of the video, there is a extreme close up used on Ellie Goulding's eye, this is quite captivating for the audience. As the verse begins the close up still focuses on her eye, this shows no lip syncing.  As the verse progresses a zoom out is used to represent Ellie Goulding's face, noticeably throughout the video, the camera work only focuses on her face, there are very few shots where her whole body is shown on camera, this brands that Ellie Gouldin as an artist where it is all about her voice, the video doesn't concentrate on her 'looks'. Lip Syncing is used which is conventional of a music video. There are few cuts used throughout the video, the cuts represent different locations, all the different locations are normal, the audience can relate to them. For example, there are cuts used to a field, this represents Ellie as a down to earth girl. There is generally no story being told throughout the video, there is a continuous focus on Ellie Goulding's face throughout. The music video ends with the sun going down, this is a 'nice' ending to the video, it represents her normality as an artist.