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Ancillary text first draft

This is a first draft of my ancillary text. I’ve used various ideas on it and I plan to change it to maybe one idea throughout the full thing. The skating figures on it are blurred and looked decayed. I decided to use them because I chose the name rot away for the band and it looks like they’re doing that. The ideas shown on the text is a combination of a few albums I like but have changed slightly. I want it to look different and stand out at the same time.

health and safety grid

These are some health and safety precautions i'm going to consider whilst filming my music video. The main issue will be the cast hurting themselves coming off their boards.

history of medium

Music videos are made as a marketing tool for an artist and their music, specifically the single that the music video is for. They can be shown as a narrative or performance or occasionally abstract structure for the more artistically experienced. A narrative for a music video is usually derived from the songs lyrics and provides a visual interpretation of the artist's words. Music video's have become an integral part of the music industry.

Richard Dyer

Theory post

Richard Dyer

Richard Dyer is a representation theorist he studied the representation in media generally and looked at how media texts represent themselves to society and an audience. He closely studied the ideological and historical significance of film stars, but also looked at media in general. I am going to apply this to my work and answer the questions below.

Richard Dyer went on to create a set of questions that are to be considered when studying representations in general:

-What sense of the world is it making?

My music video making little sense of a typical world. It shows a world that is focused around two things skating and drugs. This isn’t representative of me but of the genre I chose and the stereotypes around it (see perkins).

-What does it imply? Is it typical of the world or deviant (unusual/different)?

It implies a deviant side to teenagers. It isn’t typical for teenagers to act like this all the time but I think it could show a minority but it isn’t applicable to many.

-Who is it speaking to? For whom? To whom?

It’s speaking to fans of the genre. It is aimed directly at younger people and I think it may create a connection between audience and artist. I think this because if the audience see similar characteristics within themselves they may be able to relate more to the artist.

-What does it represent to us and why? How do we respond to the representation?

It represents teenagers and youth, also the transition from the innocence of childhood/teens into the end of teens. I tried to represent a path of life people sometimes take to seek acceptance and often end up somewhere they don’t want to be. People may respond to my representation in a negative way but then people who it is aimed at may feel a connection and hopefully it will show them where and why they are going wrong. 

TESSA PERKINS

Theory post.

The theorist I chose to represent my work is Tessa Perkins. Her theory is about stereotypes and what labels we attach to people or groups. She says ‘stereotyping is not a simple process and contains a number of assumptions that can be challenged’. This relates to the processing of stereotyping people for example the cast of my music video are male teenagers with tattoos and are seen to be smoking marijuana in my video. Perkins would go on to say because of how the cast choose to represent themselves people would negatively stereotype them. This is because people read about teenagers and drugs and how it is labelled as deviant and illegal. Then the cases that get reported are always negative so through association teenagers would get stereotyped. Because someone holds a stereotype towards a group of people, their behaviour reflects the stereotype they give them and can be predicted.

However stereotypes can be erroneous in content. This means they are not always correct and in most cases not true. The cast of my music video will have been stereotyped somewhere down the line because they have little social contact and because of that are not seen as part of a social group other than their own. Because of going to local gigs and skating we could be labelled ‘moshers’ because of a small group of people everyone is then collectively stereotyped.

Stereotypes don’t always have to be negative. Young people could see them and think they’re cool because they’re doing drugs. They are not rigid or unchanging. This means they are usually straight forward and once someone is stereotyped it sticks with them. Sometimes people conform to the stereotype they have been given even if it was initially false.

People who get stereotyped and are socially aware still use them because they are such an integral way of making meaning in society. Stereotypes are an invaluable aid to understanding the world and all stereotypes must have a bit of truth or they would not have such an influence in our lives. It must be remembered that stereotypes were not created by the media; they are concept which are part of everyday life.

This relates to my work because in my music video the cast is teenagers and is being represented negatively through drugs. Stereotypes associated with young teenagers are now usually negative and old people tie all young people with the same brush.

I’ve chosen to be acceptive of the stereotypes and represent my teenage cast in a way I suppose what people want to see. People will expect to see deviant behaviour and I’ve chosen to do it because it is associated with the genre too. The genre I have chosen is stereotyped with drugs and violence so my video is conforming to people’s expectations and it is somewhat self-fulfilling.

locations, costumes, props and cast