Our Presentation on The Watched 2

Our Presentation on The Watched

Idea Sheet

KTA2: Content analysis

For an example of video text, I have chosen a short film called the “the black hole”, the clip is especially short, even for a short film, only being roughly 2 minutes long. I have chosen this because it follows media conventions which may be applicable to the short film I hope to make for my project.
Due to the film being a short film, it does not have a clear genre distinction, which could make it difficult to compare with other similar conventions, but it does use many techniques which are found in other more mainstream conventional genre’s.
The mise en scene throughout the clip works well to create verisimilitude in the digesis, and we can expect this for any short film, what is interesting about the clip is that the lighting used in the clip helps create a dark and lonely feel, which works well in conjunction with the narrative (the character being on his own and attempting to steal money), this type of lighting is also found a lot in horror films (which our group hope to produce), and helps make a character appear evil or cold hearted.
In relation to the generic conventions of horror films, the sound used in the clip also works in horror films too; when the man puts his hand inside the black hole a strange sound is used, and could be used anywhere in sci-fi or horror, this sound again works towards an uneasy feeling on the audience, and creates a surreal affect on whatever the character is doing at that particular moment.
The special effects used in the clip work well towards making the clip creepy and appear real, they are not especially difficult to create, they are low budget, but would probably require quite a lot of skill to produce.
Like most sci-fi/horror films, the acting is not particularly amazing, but simply does the job, as the clip would not be impaired if the acting was bad, as the special affects and narrative are what create the films impact.
The narrative follows a conventional plot style for a short 5 minutes and under online film, as it only involves one character, one prop and one twist to the story line, leaving the audience with lots of questions; what is the black hole? how does it work? Does he get caught? Does he get out? Etc, this could all be used in our groups project of a short film.

Documentary analysis

Documentary Textual Analysis

The clip I have chosen to textually analyse is a clip from the documentary “Hidden Lives - The man who’s arms exploded”, the story of Greg Valentino and fellow bodybuilders who pushed steroid abuse to disgusting levels.
The clip begins with both zooms in and out of Valentino showing his arms, before a narrator comes in, this clip is used first most likely to shock the audience to make them want to watch more, and show how extreme the content of the documentary, also by showing Valentino from a video camera’s video this helps create a secured feeling to the audience that what they are witnessing is reality, as it would be less likely to be hoaxed if it was filmed on what we presume is a hand held camera (this is indicated by the date in the bottom right hand corner of the screen).
A narrator is then introduced with non digetic music, the narration helps explain what the content of the documentary will be and the music is tense which creates a dark feel, possibly due to the documentary being about freak body morphing and the scary side effects that can take place.
As the characters are introduced fade’s are used whilst the music plays, so the music not only works towards creating a dark feeling, but as a sound bridge, so the audience knows that as these different characters associated with the world of steroids are only being introduced and not begging their own section of the documentary.
Along with music, and commentary from not only the narrator, but those who use, have used and plan on using steroids, sound effects are also used in conjunction with the juxtaposed males on the screen, these sound effects can be the bubbling of blood in a needle to the shaking of tablets that are in a bottle, thus all creating verisimilitude and an understanding of what drugs these men are associated with.
The clip represents gender too, as these characters are introduced, not only are they all male, but also juxtaposed with one another on their masculinity, Valentino being introduced first announcing himself as having the biggest arms in the world, thus in an extremely hegemonic masculine fashion of boasting, this concept of masculinity being linked into muscle size links in with the theme of male body modification and the changing in male body image over time, which the documentary is about.
The choice of props and set (Mise en scene) work well with what he is proposing when boasting, having him being filmed in a gym, surrounded by weights and wearing a gym t-shirt all help work towards his image of being a muscle freak.
Close ups are used quite frequently in the clip of the documentary I have chosen, the close ups generally of the interviewees face, to show emotion and possibly even to make the character look bigger, when looking at the topic of the documentary.
A feature of editing used throughout the clip is using a transition which uses a sound bridge also and quickly showing images of drugs, this helps cut from one clip to another and create the uneasy feel that surrounds the topic of interest.
The later interview with Valentino at what we presume is in his house has possibly had the setting purposely set out the way it has been (Mediated), in the background clothes are left messily with weights on the floor, almost in the style of what a teenage boys (I.e. the one featured earlier in the clip who aspires to be like Greg) would be; this could be to help represent Greg as a typical hegemonic male, who’s interests would be mainly focused on male things (muscles in this case) and not on whether or not his house is tidy.
Before the 5 minute section of the clip I have chosen ends a second bodybuilder is introduced who talks about his training regime, the use of the narrator and anchorage helps us understand that he is a bodybuilder and how intense his lifestyle is, as the audience may not know without this due to him wearing a tracksuit which covers most of his body, a location is used, due to it being a documentary a set obviously cant be used.
Overall, I think the clip represents 2 things quite critically and extreme; the first being the sport of bodybuilding which is presented to the audience as a very intense lifestyle, rather than a sport, and also that competitors are seemingly unable to compete without the help of performance enhancing drugs, and the second thing being masculinity and the body image that comes with it; that muscles are crucial to being male and gaining the respect of other males.

Music Video Analysis

Textual Analysis of a Music Video.

The Music video I have chosen to semiotically analyse is “White and Nerdy” Weird Al Yankovic because it features multiple stereotypes for both ethnic identity and genres of music as it is a parody of chamillionaire’s “Ridin’”.
This text appeals to a wide audience due to the fact it is humorous, it will appeal to people who listened to the original song and therefore will find it funny to juxtapose this video to the original and also people who can relate to the main character in the video a while middle aged male.
The Media Text’s audience will already have assumptions of the video due to the title of the video. The audience will most likely view the text on the internet as I did, this is probably because the artist is not featured on television a lot and also due to it being comical people are more likely to paste links of the video to people they know, this also affects the age of the audience to some degree, as generally the older a person is the less likely they are to go searching around on you tube for videos and showing them to their friends.
I will now look at how components create this representation, i.e. a text that has a meaning encoded by the creator of the text (In this case Weird Al) for the viewer to decode (Stuart Hall 1980).
Mise En Scene plays a large role in creating representation for both the “Gangster” and “Nerd” stereotypes featured, clothing such as tucked in polo shirts, loud colours and glasses connote both intelligence and in some cases social deprivation which can be juxtaposed very quickly with Dark Colours, “Bling” and baseball hats.
A good example to use within the video of how much mise en scene can show these stereotypes is how the white male clearly presented as the nerd but weird al is presented as the gangster figure because of his clothing despite he is still a white middle aged male.
The props used throughout the clip help connote a stereotype also such as cars and alcohol being associated with the gangsters.
Throughout the video non verbal connotations also appear to help explain what is happening, such as facial expression and positional communication.
Sound in the clip is the most prominent feature, due to it being a music video, this is relevant to the narrative, because the music itself is rap - music popular with the gangster image portrayed in parts of the clip, but the lyrics are all about nerdy interests, such as dungeons and dragons, maths, star wars and a lack of sporting ability.

The editing throughout the clip is used predominately to aid the understanding of the lyrics due to the speed they are sung, so most of the time images are shown in the background behind the singer so that the audience can work out what the song is about, also the transitions are quick, this helps aid the music that is relatively fast, and give a quick general representation of “nerd” culture in a 3 minute video.
A fade is used at the end of the video to clearly show the end, where Yankovic uses a “Vulcan Salute” a hand gesture commonly associated with star trek.

The camera angles featured did not play a particularly connoting role in the music video apart from scenes where the nerd character was positioned higher than the gangsters, to make him appear bigger than him; this is used due to link in with the narrative of the gangsters being scared away because of his geeky mannerisms.

in music video’s non verbal connotations run throughout the video, in the form of gesture and facial expression, this can help reveal the narrative as there is no speaking in the video and therefore would be difficult to work out what is happening between the characters if not, in the case of a music video these are usually exaggerated considerably to make sure this is possible, such as when the gangsters flip him off there expressions are probably quite different to if they had done the same action in a television show or film.

Overall I find the clips representation of ethnicity is quite inaccurate, due to the music video being a parody the representations have to work on stereotypes and for us to recognise these stereotypes mediation must take place.