Understanding Theoretical Approaches - J

Marxism

Focuses on the the understanding that societies consist of class struggle where there is a conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat- an ownership class that controls production and a dispossessed labouring class that provides labour for production.
This can be understood as the nature of Capitalism where it produces internal tensions which would lead to its self destruction and is replaced by a new system, Socialism or Communism. Some Marxists stress the need of a revolution in order to break the oppression the proletarians' face.

Marxism has influenced other theorists who have expanded their critical thinking of sociological, economical and political issues.

Theorists such as:

Theodore Adorno and The Culture Industry: He stated that industrially produced culture "robs" people of their imagination and manipulates mass society into passivity. The culture industry delivers the "goods" so that the people then only have left over the task of consuming them.

Through mass production, everything becomes homogenised and what ever diversity remains is constituted of small trivialities. Everything becomes compressed through a process which mirrors physical reality as close as possible. Psychologically, people are then forced to believe that what they see is so real that the thought of manipulation would not be encountered.

If it has not been made apparent to how theory links into Marxism- it can be considered that the Culture Industry works as an ideological state apparatus that is controlled by the bourgeoisie and maintains the capitalist system through consumerism and and alienating the proletarians into not realising their oppression- thus they remain passive.

Antonio Gramsci and Hegemony: He used the term hegemony to denote the predominance of one social class over others (e.g. bourgeois hegemony). This represents not only political and economic control, but also the ability of the dominant class to project its own way of seeing the world so that those who are subordinated by it accept it as 'common sense' and 'natural'.

Hegemonies would use media as an ideological apparatus in order to enforce the hegemony by creating fear of deference from the established norm of imperial dominance.

The idea of of Ideological State apparatuses is also linked to the theorist Louis Althusser. He believed that it was necessary to conceive of how society makes the individual in its on image.

Noam Chomsky and Manufacturing Consent: He did an analysis of the news media, argued that the mass media "are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions and self-censorship"

Feminism

Aims to define, achieve and defend equal political, economical, social and cultural rights for women. It also focuses on understanding the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experience; it has developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues such as the social construction of sex and gender.

A feminist theoretical approach is what we hope to involve in our music video in some form. In order to do so, we carried out further research into feminist film/media text theory and came across the concepts of the British feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey.

The Male Gaze, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema: She coined the term "male gaze" in 1975 and believes that in film and other visual media texts, inevitably put the spectator in a masculine (heterosexual) subject position with the female figure on screen as an object of desire. Features of the male gaze could be instances where the camera lingers on the curves and close up of the female body, and events that would occur to women are presented largely in the context of the mans reaction to these events. The nature of the male gaze enforces patriarchal values, as the theorist Jonathan Schroeder states "to gaze implies more than to look at- it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze"

Example of the male gaze in a music video

Lady Gaga - "Bad Romance"

Psychoanalytic theory

Founded by Sigmund Freud who believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight. The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences and is commonly used to treat depression and anxiety disorders.

The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include the following:

• besides the inherited constitution of personality, a person's development is determined by events in early childhood;

• human attitude, mannerism, experience, and thought is largely influenced by irrational drives; irrational drives are unconscious;

• attempts to bring these drives into awareness meet psychological resistance in the form of defense mechanisms;

• conflicts between conscious and unconscious, or repressed, material can materialise in the form of mental or emotional disturbances, for example: neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety, depression etc.;

• the liberation from the effects of the unconscious material is achieved through bringing this material into the conscious mind 

This is also a theory we are going to involve in our music videos, because understanding of such can help us build a better narrative in relation the star performance, and the rest of the content. Connections like this are significant to our music video because we interpret the song to be very emotional and personal to the listener so being aware of psychoanalysis helps us to understand how we can create and present the emotion in our music video.

Third inspiration video -D

Rejjie Snow - "Lost in Empathy"

Similar to the second video of inspiration, this also holds the the feeling and portrays bleak cold loneliness that is established well in relation to the rapper. 

The video shows a good connection between the performer, Rejjie Snow, and his surroundings which is an aspect we would like to achieve in our music video. This is simply because the locations (forrest-like areas , open field and parks) help to achieve the soulful feel the song of our choice provides.

Music Video Director Portfolio - Emily Kai Block

Emily Kai Bock is a young director, artist, and photographer. She's worked with artists such as Grimes, Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear (of Animal Collective), Majical Cloudz, and others who mainly fall under the general umbrella of experimental indie. The majority of her work draws inspiration from portrait photography as opposed to conventional film. So her videos often have the appearance of a beautifully shot documentary. She'd be a good source of inspiration to our video because a lot of her shots tend to be of wide, open spaces, which would really help cement the feelings which we're trying to portray. She also has some amazing work playing around with human silhouettes, which is another feature we'll try to incorporate in the Take A Fall For Me video.

She makes a strong case as to why you should shoot on film, something which we're not doing. That being said, I hope we can emulate some of the shots she uses, for example the silhouette work done in the Majical Cloudz video to the left.

Here is her website; http://www.emilykaibock.com/

Second Inspiration Video

Our main inspiration for the look, feel, and general mise-en-scene of the project that we're doing is one of James Blake's other videos; Retrograde. The video has a similar palette to what we're hoping to achieve (in the first few minutes). Director Martin de Thurah does an amazing job at establishing the feeling of bleak cold and loneliness in the initial minute of the video.

The long shot of the subject, and full view of the road behind him present to us the feeling of cold, almost palpable winter. The monotone sky also adds to this, bringing our attention to the lower part of the frame, and putting all attention onto the subject.

Contrast this shot to the exterior one above, and the differences between the framing of the subjects is huge. We would try to incorporate this, having closer, fuller shots which allow the viewer to focus on the details, as well as offering a binary opposite to the long shots used to create isolation.

Videos used as inspiration

"Drowning Butterflies" by Bipolar Sunshine

This music video very evidently consists of a montage which develops with the pace of the song which is an aspect that we would like to recreate in our music video.

The separate sections of film in the music video that form a continuous whole, partially depicts the lyrics in a playful, artistic and almost literal sense. For instance, one part of the lyrics of the song says "I feel lifted of he floor" so a short clip of a man floating in the clouds is displayed. Also, there is a lot of pattern samples used in the music video (e.g. second picture below) which is part of the montage; assuming that the pattern is a reference made to the "Butterfly" wings and linking to the title of the song.

Close analysis between the use of montage in relation to the lyrics and pace of the song in this music video signifies its effectiveness and suits what we would like to achieve in our own music video. This is simply because it allows an ambiguous story to progress in a short period, which is especially useful because the lyrics of the song we have chosen provide a lot of imagery. Unlike this video, our music video will also involve star performance and not singularly consist of different vaguely unrelated shots to form the montage.