Thursday, 15 July 2010

The Goodwin Theory

Goodwin identified a number of key features which distinguish the music video as a form. I have numbered these, and in colour, have written underneath how i plan to use or not use these principles and why.



1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics - e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band.

We will include genre characteristics of a female electropop artist by using voyeurism.

Below is the video for 'Biology' by 'Girls Aloud', which is a good example of genre characteristics for a girl band, using voyeurism and dance routines:




2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals- either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting.
We will illustrate the lyrics at some points such as the first few lines 'I'm just a girl' 'Your just a boy', where we plan to film a girl and a boy. 'this is my heart' is another line we have planned to illustrate; we want to use a giant heart and have the artist curled/posing around it to make the listener aware of the lyric more. For the line, 'right down to my shoes', we will film lots of pairs of heels walking towards the camera and then speed them up so it looks like the shoes are changing as she walks.

Below is the video 'Last Christmas' by 'Wham', which is an example of an 'illustrative' music video. For example, on the lyrics, 'I wrapped it up and sent it', someone walks by with a parcel. On the lyrics 'Crowded room, friends with tired eyes', there is a room full of people looking tired, and on the lyrics, 'if you kiss me now', a man kisses a woman on the cheek.





3. There is a relationship between music and visuals- either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting.
Some of the beats in the music we plan to use to cut between camera angles/ shots, such as after the line 'its not a toy', there are 3 beats, where we plan to cut between camera angles 3 times on those beats.

Below is the music video for 'Te Amo' by 'Rihanna' which is a really good example of how music videos amplify the music and visuals; almost every beat in the song cuts to another scene. There is also lots of voyeurism used in this video with regards to the female body.






4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist might develop motifs which recur across their work- a visual style.
Yes we plan to use lots of close ups of the artist; her face, eyes, lips, and fragmented body parts such as legs, shoes, etc.

There are lots of close ups for many artists in their music videos, here is an example with 'Can't be tamed' by Miley Cyrus:




5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking- screens within screens, mirrors, telescopes etc- and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

We will be using voyeurism a lot in our video, as our artist often wears revealing clothes and heavy makeup to fit her genre. Our artist will make a lot of eye contact with the camera. We also plan to use a lot of mirrors and filming the artist looking in the camera through the mirror.

This video below of Britney Spears' video 'Sometimes', which demonstrates well the notion of looking; there is use of telescopes and looking into the camera. There is not a particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body in this body, but it could have been when it was released; showing stomach, legs etc.





6. There is often intertextual reference- to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc.
We plan to intertextually reference to the book 'Alice in Wonderland' for the 'mad tea party' scene and the 'looking glass' scene. We also plan to use quotes from Bo Peep from the film 'Toy Story', and we have also gained ideas from the film 'Chicago'. I will post later all the ideas we have got from other music videos.

There are lots of intertextual references to the film 'The Little Mermaid' in Ashley Tisdale's video for 'Kiss the Girl'.


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