Theorist: David Gauntlett

David Gauntlett is a British sociologist and media theorist. He specializes in studying contemporary media audiences, the every making and sharing of digital media, and the role of such media in self-identity and self-expression.

Gauntlett published ‘Media Studies 2.0’ online in 2007, which argues that classic media studies fails to define when the categories of ‘audiences’ and ‘producers’ unite, and that new, altered teaching methods are needed.

He states that because of web 2.0, we as audiences can become our own producers thanks to websites such as YouTube. Through this we can create our own identity and even influence other peoples.


Through this, gender identity for example, has become less constricted to previous representations. Web 2.0 allows us to create our own unique identity that doesn’t necessarily follow traditional understandings of gender. The ability and freedom that web 2.0’s allowed means it is now far more acceptable to be different and accepted for our individuality.

The copycat theory

Copy Cat or Modelling Theory: The copycat theory relates to something which is publicized in the media that creates a lot of attention, resulting in other people to imitate, or ‘copy’ this in order to gain the same level of attention. The well known example of this is copycat murders, suicides and other violent acts that come with no other motive other than attention, caused by seeing the same acts in the media, be it film, television or books.

• Audience react differently to various situations as they have different interpretations. An individual perceives a form a behavior described or portrayed by a character in media content
• The individual judges this behavior to be attractive and potentially useful for coping with some personal situation
• The reproduced behavior proves useful or effective in coping with the situation thus, rewarding the individual
• With model use, the behavior becomes habitual for that situation
• Copycat effect - you do what you see
• Centers for disease control and prevention recommendations- 1994
• They began telling news media how to portray news media about suicide to prevent copy cat

Introduction to audiences

Here is a PowerPoint I found on the internet and has helped me have a clearer understanding to audiences. It help break down the different audience categories and is definitely good to read if your starting audience theory.

Screen testing with the projector

Today we went into the black box to test out some projections.

Unfortunately Jem was not available for the screen test, it would have been better to use him as we could have got a better idea of how it will look.

Instead we used Wini as a test subject, and she did some lip syncing in front of some of our footage from Brighton.

 We especially liked how the blue toned footage looked on the projector, which we will keep in mind while editing our projection video. 

We wanted a dream like feel to the projection scenes, so the bright, more abstract worked well with this concept. 

The overall feel of the screen test was a positive one, we are all feeling optimistic about the music video.

The Effects Model

The Effects Model

• The consumption of media texts has an effect or influence upon the audience
• It is normally considered that this effect is negative
• Audiences are passive and powerless to prevent the influence
• The power lies within the message of the text

This model is also called: The Hypodermic Model

• Here, the messages in media texts are injected into the audience by the powerful, syringe-like, media
• The audience is powerless to resist
• Therefore, the media works like a drug and the audience is drugged, addicted, doped or duped.

Psychographic/ Demographic audience

Demographics

Definition: Demographic information is used in media marketing to classify an audience into age, gender, race and other categories. Demographics are broken into bands depending on peoples jobs or status.



Physcographics
 

 Psychographic segmentation divides the market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics. It is based on the assumption that the types of products and brands an individual purchases will reflect that persons characteristics and patterns of living.

Theorists: Stuart Hall

Audience Types
Hall included three different types of audiences decoding of text:
- Dominant or preferred
- Negotiated
- Oppositional 

DOMINANT
- How the producer wants the audience to view the media text they agree with the message is it conveying.
NEGOTIATED
- A compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings, the audience understand and agree with the text but disagree with other areas they have their own views on.
OPPOSITIONAL
- The audience rejects the encoded meaning and creates their own meaning for the text, they fully disagree with the message being submitted.

Theorists: Jeremy Tunstall

His theory posits the idea that all texts have preferred audiences as well as additional audiences which can be engaged:

• PRIMARY- Watching films in a cinema involves a primary mode of audience engagement as the spectator is immersed with the narrative. So for your primary, target audience they will have bought the song/ downloaded it and will consume your text in this way.
• SECONDARY- While watching a programme at home on television may involve eating a meal at the same time, texting, using social media or other additional activities. Your secondary audience may be interested, but they haven't bought the single
• TERITARY- Tertiary audience engagement is using the text as background media like music radio. Your tertiary audience may hear your song on the radio while driving to work.

Codes and Conventions of Music Videos: Glossary

This is about the relation of visuals in the music video to the lyrics of the song, and how well they link, and how effective it is to the audience.

Disjuncture: The meaning of the song is completely ignored. The images in the video do not relate

Amplify: The meaning of the song is exaggerated through the use of visuals

Illustrate: this is the most commonly used convention when filming a music video, when the meaning of the video is very clearly related to the lyrics of the song. Personally I think this convention works really well because it is a great way to appeal to an audience, and to gain understanding of the point you are trying to reveal to your fans etc.

Theorist: Andrew Goodwin (Goodwins Theory)

Today, we discussed Andrew Goodwin and his theory. Here are some of the key features we learnt for theory:

1) Music videos demonstrate certain genre characteristics
2)There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
3)There is a relationship between music and visuals
4) The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artists.
5) Artists may develop motifs or iconography that reoccur across their work
6)Frequent references to the notion of 'looking'  (screens within screens, filming, cameras and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
7) Often intertextual references- mostly TV, Film and popular culture.

Our Primary Audience

Our primary audience is age ranged from 16-24.  The music genre indie-pop and that usually is played by a younger generation then older. Also the audience varies with boys and girls but as our artist has  young boy band features we hope this will attract a wider audience with the girls.

Editing: Making the video final for projections

Today, we are carrying on making the video for the projection video we are making. We were playing around with multiple techniques and trying to make the video look as interesting as possible, the only thing is we tested the shots we got from Brighton before and we have to be careful because the images are not as saturated once they have been projected.

We were playing around with the colour and made certain scenes have a specific tone. For example the shot we have of the Brighton sign we gave a touch a blue so it would look slightly interesting and broke the shots up; not tonally looking all the same.

Then we also played around with speed and slowing certain scenes down and making them feel much longer, this worked really well as it actually showed more of what was actually happening in the shot and wouldn't make the projection look to chaotic.

Making the video for projections onto Jem

We as a group have agreed to making a video of projections for our music video of Jem. We want to use some of the footage we have from Brighton to put on the projector and this will played onto our actor. We have tested it out and it looks really interesting, we have to be careful because we don't want the work to look cheesy/ cliché so we will have to frame the subject in good composition.
Jem will also be singing over the top of the projections and we haven't tried this out yet so we have to check it works well.
I got inspiration from this concept when I was watching a Drake music video and it made the video feel more alive and captivating. Similarly, there are also multiple photographers which have used this technique and it looks really good.

New footage- Projections?

Today we decided on adding projections to our music video. This will create a different dimension to the video although we have to be careful and make sure the colours will not look odd and take away the urban atmosphere we have. We are now brainstorming and looking through our footage to decide which shots we want to use.

Editing: Needing new footage

We came to realization when looking at all of our footage that we need more shots as when we were in Brighton the rain was really heavy and we had to stop filming outside. As a group we have all agreed we need something slightly different so it breaks away the typical urban atmosphere but at the same time we do not want it to take away the color levels and vibe we have from the footage we just shot otherwise it will look to contrasting and different, taking away the individuality of the prior shots.

Probelm with the tripod

When we first needed to use the tripod we realized there was something wrong with the leg of it. This was when we were trying to get the shot ready for Jem who was shooting his busking scene. We managed to play around with it and got it working but there was an error with one of the screws not allowing the leg of the tripod to lengthen out.

Calling the teacher

We had to call Nuray (the teacher) when we were in Brighton because of the bad weather conditions and we needed her opinion on what to do. Unfortunately, Nuray was on holiday and couldn't answer the phone call so we decided to sit down and work it out for ourselves. Although the weather agreed to be slightly cloudy it didn't mention any rain which got really bad.
We sat down and the closest seating area which is possible and agreed to change some of the shots we had already agreed on, which wasn't that much of a big deal but was difficult because the accessible areas to shoot were really busy because of the rain everyone was paraded inside.

Filming: Cast Issues with Raphi

Unfortunately, on of the members of the group who was friends with Raphi forgot to tell her until last minute that we needed her for the following day due to a muck up with the weather forecast. Raphi was unable to make the shoot and we had to shoot Jem all day instead. We got some good footage, we are slightly concerned as we aren't sure if the footage of Jem and Raphi in Brighton is enough to produce enough the music video.

We would of shot more on the next following days but we didn't have access to the gallery rooftop and we had to give the equipment to the next group because they were filming the next day.

Filming Day 1: Brighton (Bad Weather Conditions)

When we booked the trip to Brighton we checked the weather conditions prior to going. According to the BBC the weather was going to be bright and sunny. When we got to Brighton the weather was freezing and the sky was really grey, we carried on filming as if it wasn't an issue but some of the shots were ruined as we hoped there was lots of natural sunlight.

However, when we went to film on the pier we had about ten minutes till it started pouring down raining. This was really annoying as we couldn't film the rest we wanted to, we waited around for a few hours hoping the rain would eventually calm down or stop but it didn't and we had pre booked a train home around 4:00.

We have taken more shots to make up for the shots we didn't gain but we didn't get the sunlight shots which we would have preferred.

Filming Day 1: Brighton Photographs

Learning how to use the equipment

As we are filming next week, we all needed a reminder on how to use the equipment.

We can all remember from last year but it was good to refresh our memories to ensure that we are fully prepared for filming on Monday and Tuesday.

We all now feel confident with the equipment and are looking forward to shooting our video!

The night before the Brighton Shoot

The night before the shoot in Brighton we had to check to make sure we had everything and make sure it worked. We charged all the cameras again to make sure they were 100% charged so the battery would last the longest. I made sure my tickets were in my bag and everything was ready for the morning,