Thursday, 30 September 2010

Textual Analysis

Artist : Wretch 32 ft. Badness & Ghetto

Song : Ina Di Ghetto

Record Label : Independent

Wretch 32's " Ina di ghetto" has a very distinctive narrative which we can gather from the lyrics as well from the video itself. The narrative we get from the lyrics is about Wretch 32 living in the ghetto and the vast contrast in life in Africa which is what he calls the real " ghetto" and the life for people in England who think they live in the ghetto. We also get the narrative from the video itself as it shows you reality in Africa in the video and shows you a story about the real struggle in the world. The genre for this song is Grime/Rap. The music video was directed by Emil Nava and Produced by Ben Pugh. The music video is a narrative as well as having a bit of performance in it from all of the artist. At the beginning of the music video we see many establishing shots very quickly which really gets the audience's eye, these shots tell us that the video is based in the slums or ghetto of Africa. We get to see lots if building estates and we see the poor quality of life. During the video we get introduced to the artist Wretch 32 and he is surrounded by all of his friends in he background as he raps in the video. While the three artist perform we see lots of quick images of the ghetto with the artist's voice over the image. We see mid shots of two kids which might represent the artist and suggest that the kids are them when they were younger in Africa. I think that some techniques adhere to the conventions of a typical grime video such a a large number of people in the video, also in grime videos you usually see establishing shots o estates to show the audience the history of that specific rapper.

Wretch 32 is represented as a " gangster" in this music video along with his friends. This is done through the clothing he wears, we usually associate hoodies and dark clothing with what " gangsters" wear. Another way he is represented as a gangster in the video is through his lyrics, he says in the first line " Where straps are seen more than dads..", "straps" is slang for guns which is what most gangsters talk about in their music video. The use if a low angle shot makes the artist look powerful over the audience and this adds to the representation of a "gangster" who is seen as being a leader and being powerful over everyone else.

Wretch 32 is an independent artist. This would suggest that the he would have had a very small budget for the music video as would have had no financial backing, this also means that the artist isn't well known which means that the video could only be distributed on a national level. The music channel which played the video was channel aka which is where most unsigned artist can send their music video, the music video was also played on MTV hit's, this is because MTV UK tend to support a lot of local musicians in London. The audiences could consume the video as well as the song through the TV channels as well as YouTube and Wretch's MySpace site used by a lot of musicians to distribute their music.

The target auidence for this music video would be males mostly aged 16 - 24 who live in London as the artist would me more well known in London as this is where he is from and it will also Target people who listen to UK grime which in recent years has become very popular around the world. Audiences would watch the music video as the song or the video might represent them and their struggle.

Textual Analysis

Artist : Justin Timberlake

Song : Cry Me A River

Record Label : Jived Records

Justin Timberlake's " Cry me a river" has a very distinctive narrative which can be drawn upon from the video itself and the image which it is showing the audience. The narrative in the song is about Justin talking about his public relationship with female pop star Britney Spears. He finally talks about the break up which was scrutinised in the media in 2001. He talks about how she was unfaithful to him and how she broke his heart and he feels that he should get revenge on her which we see in the video. The genre for this song is Pop and RnB.The music video, directed by Francis Lawrence and was released in 2002 as the second single from Justin's solo debut album.

At the beginning of the music video we get a shot of Britney's house and it's pouring down with rain which relates with the song title "Cry me a river". As the song plays we hear and opera voice in the beginning suggesting that this song is telling a story. As the video continues we get a close up of a mirror from a car waiting outside the house of Britney, suggesting that Justin is preparing to break into her house, the use of a close up of his face suggest the anger he has towards her. Throughout the video we see Justin bending down low and doing flips which are impossible but the director's use of the matrix effect shows us that he is sort of immune to the world; it suggest that he can break the rules and get away with it which is reinforced by the fact that he is breaking into some one's house and isn't worried about getting caught. As the video continues we see why he came to her house, he wants to get revenge on her cheating on him so he gets the camera out and records himself kissing another girl on Britney's bed. We get a point of view shot of the camera screen he is using to record the kiss which allows us to imagine were actually there. Later on in the video we see him walking down the corridor saying " Damage is done so i guess I'll be leaving". The use of a mid - close up shot allows us to see the emotions on his face and he is very happy to get revenge. As this is happening we get a quick shot of Britney entering her house while he is still in it, which creates suspense for the audience as they don't know what he will do next; as she walks into the house pass him, we see a grin on his face as if to say he is up to something this is done by a close up shot. Finally the video ends with Britney walking out of the shower and seeing Justin kissing the girl on her TV. The techniques used in the video adhere to other music videos from the same genre, as other RnB videos talk about heart break and getting revenge and a lot of these videos have camera shots of the artist's face to show his or hers emotion in the song. In addition to this other songs usually have the artist getting revenge at the end of the video an example of this is another Justin Timberlake video " What goes around".

Justin is represented as someone with a lot of emotion. This is portrayed through the lyrics and through the chorus mainly " Cry me a river", suggest his heartbreak about his ex girlfriend cheating on him. The camera shots and editing portray Justin as a revengeful person as in the video he is constantly smiling while he is planning his revenge.

Justin Timberlake is signed to Jive Records along with other famous artist such as Usher and Chris Brown. This suggest how big the record label is and suggest that the budget for the music video would have been a lot. The video was distributed and consumed through music channels in the US and Europe such as MTV and Kiss. In addition to this the music video was distributed through the Internet on sites such as YouTube and was also distributed and consumed through I tunes.

The target audience for the video is males as well as females who are aged 16 - 24 as they can mostly relate to the artist as well as the issue. Audiences would watch the music video because they feel that the music video relates to a personal experience they might have had. Another reason why people might watch this music video is because the song had a lot of controversy around it as it was exposing famous Pop star Britney Spears. In addition to this the male gaze is one reason why women may watch the video.

Where I’m From Video Plan

Where I’m From Video Plan

Performers:
The story line of the video is based on a guy rapping about where he is from and his council estate where he lives and what he has seen and what he still sees when growing up and he just wants to give people an insight into his life.
Storyline:
Walking through his estate and rapping about what happens within his estate. Walking through the estate he sees drug dealers and people doing scams in order to make money to survive within the estate itself. Flashback of his girlfriend setting him up and him getting robbed and he goes back for revenge. Trying to get away from the lifestyle estates bring and turns to music.
Scenes
- Walking through council estate
- Viewing people who are doing things to survive by any means necessary
- Sells drugs & gets arrested
- Flashback of being set up by his girlfriend
- Going back for revenge
- Studio shots (performance Shots )
Male:
Walking through the estate looking street like sort of a rough and ready approach to the role (to portray that he is this way due to the estate making him like this way)
Female:
Small role (just sets up the male actor in order to get him robbed pretends to be in love with the male).
Costumes:
Males:
Dark clothing (to add a more serious note to the video to portray the stereotypical view of someone from a council estate so e.g. Black hoodies)
Female:
Bright clothing (nothing to specific) however it is in order to make you stand out during the flashback as it will be in black and white

This is a print screen of our video plan

This is potential shots and ideas which we might include in our video.

Analysis of target audience with results

Stoyboard shots