Task 2: Directors

David LaChapelle

LaChapelle started his career at only 17 years old when he met Andy Warhol who hired him as a photographer for Interview Magazine. Although LaChapelle is commonly known for his photography, however aside from that he has directed music videos from the likes of Elton John to Whitney Houston. His most well- known videos include Every time (Britney spears),Tears Dry On Their Own (Amy Winehouse) and Spectrum (Florence and the Machine). He tends to work within the pop genre as that is where his stylistic strengths lie. 

Every Time 
The music video showcases Britney Spears life and how the fame isn't what society deems it to be. The emotional pop ballad accompanied by an emotive video evokes a sense of compassion for Spears.The video portrays dramatic themes such as suicide which captivates the audience's attention and holds their focus throughout the video. The lighting of the video was selected to be  "saturated, but low and naturalistic" to give the video a cinematic feel as though the audience are watching a film. The music video sparked up controversy as people believed that children would get ideas from Spear's suicide attempt and the suicide rate would increase and she would therefore be responsible. 


Tears Dry On Their Own
The music video alternates between Winehouse walking through Echo Park and her in a softly lit  hotel room. As Winehouse makes her way down the street there are many people whom of which bump into her suggesting she is not paying attention to her surroundings and therefore the audience is only drawn to her who remains only focused on following the camera and singing as she walks down the street. Her outfit in this video became a influential and memorable outfit of hers due to her unique image. Although not much happens during the video the focus remains upon the song, sometimes narratives can distract from the song and ultimately the purpose of the music video is to promote the song.    

Spectrum 
Florence Welch's music video for spectrum is performance based and does not follow a narrative. The overall effect is arty and original due to her outfits, make up and dancers. The video explores many different colours linking back to the song title 'spectrum' and the line of the chorus "every colour illuminates." This makes the video eye-catching and intriguing because of its individuality. 




Dave Meyers 
Meyers has won various awards over his career including a VMA for best music video of the year in 2003. He has worked with the likes of P!NK, Britney Spears and Shakira. Some of his most well known works include Somebody To Love (Justin Bieber), Glamorous (Fergie) and Stupid Girls (P!nk). Generally he works with artists from the pop genre.

Somebody To Love  
This music video is performance based and does not follow a narrative, Meyers wanted to exploit his talent rather than a narrative that would distract from both his dancing and singing capabilities . Meyers stated "We're bringing Justin into the world of dance on this one, giving Justin the chance to integrate to different styles of dance. So we kind of kept it simple with the art direction, just real graphic and really highlighting the dance. No big story lines, no crowds of people, just real clean." 


Other directors include; Hype williams who has worked with TLC direceting the video for "No scrubs" which went onto win a VMA for best group video and williams has also worked with Kanye West directing arguably his most famous hit "Goldigger". 
Spike Jonze is an experimental and arty director who directed video's for many urban artists such as Fatboy Slim, Kanye West and The Notorious B.I.G. 

High Hopes Music Video Analysis

You Belong With Me Music Video Analysis

If I Were A Boy Music Video Analysis

"Riptide" Music Video Analysis

"Riptide" 
the song 'riptide' was released by Vance Joy in 2013 for his debut EP  "God Loves You When You're Dancing." The music video does not follow a cohesive narrative but instead each frame features a symbol that reflects the lyrics making the video have very literal translations and connections because the lyrics are parallel with the frames which breaks general conventions of a typical music video because although the lyrics and video generally coincide they tend to follow a clear story line, however the genre of the song is Indie Folk so the music video expresses the idea of the indie genre being very unique and original. Each frame is polysemic and have further more complex ideas behind them, for example the last few lines at the end of each chorus features a woman singing and with each chorus it becomes more intense as her make up smudges and she becomes progressively more distressed until at the end a hand grabs her around the neck. when she sings, the lyrics at the bottom of the screen read "you gone and sank the words wolf" however the correct lyrics are "you gone and sang the words wrong" this irony again is very literal however leaves the audience in a state of confusion as the woman in distress contrasts hugely with the mood of the song. The haunting stance of the music video makes the video more engaging and interesting due to the way in which the song is being portrayed. The message behind the video is suggesting a death of a relationship, as seen by the lyric "i want to be your left-handed man" and the images that accompany it is a hand holding a gun and a hand holding scissors cutting a plant both of which signify with the ending of life. The frame whereby a woman is dragged to "the dark side" suggests the relationship is pulling her back although she is trying to escape. The video allows the audience to make their own interpretations of what the clips signifies which evokes interest amongst viewers as their is no clear narrative. The colours during the video vary from bright to dark and therefore add to the idea of an unclear plot.  
 

Roland Bartes

Codes Theory

"A galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifields it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilises extend as far as the eye can reach, they are indeterminable . . . ; the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language." - Barthes 

Barthes suggested that you can look at a narrative from several different perspectives to create entirely different meanings. Barthes believes that texts are either 'open' which means that the narrative can be interpreted in many different ways or 'closed' meaning that there is only one clear interpretation.  

these are the five following codes that feature in narratives: 

1. The hermeneutic code - the story swerves from the truth in order to create mystery, although clues are given no clear answer is given.  
2. The enigma code - build up of tension leaving audience intrigued wanting to know more, whereas unanswered enigmas leave the audience confused and frustrated.  
3. The symbolic code - organises semantic code into wider layers of meaning, it is symbolism's within the narrative that create tension, additional layers of meaning and define characters. 
4. The cultural code - looks at the audiences culture, e.g historical culture. 
5. The semantic code - suggests additional meaning through connotation which is different to the literal meaning. 

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp suggests that narrative structures all follow a similar kind of pattern. Propp states there are eight different characters for each narrative structure these include; 

1. The Villain- opposition of the hero. 

2. The Dispatcher - character who sends hero to tackle evil. 

3. The Helper - helps hero 

4. The princess of prize - hero is unable to be with 'princess' usually because of evil that stands in the way. 

5. Her father - gives task to hero

6. The donor - prepares hero 

7. The hero - falls in love with the princess resulting in happily ever after. generally the hero returns to a state of equilibrium after defeating the villain.  

8. False hero - takes credit for the actions of the hero. 

An example of where Propps theory is used in modern narratives is the popular children's film Shrek. In this film Shrek is the hero who defeats the villain (Lord farquaad) and returns to a state of equilibrium after he falls in love with the princess (Fiona). The helper is donkey who's aim is to help Shrek return to a state of equilibrium throughout the narrative.