What is Intertextuality...

Why is there intertextuality in music videos?

Many artists include intertextuality in their music videos to make precise and specific references to significant events, people or places. Some artists may do this to give their text a certain meaning or others might do it for popularity and through this give there own brand more recognition and credibility. Intertextuality in music videos is more obvious because the media they are merging with is more often than not well known to the audience and therefore easily recognizable. This means with the right circumstances and relevance it can be easy to incorporate intertextuality in a music video.

How the film 'Psycho' fits conventions of a thriller...

How does the trailer of ‘Psycho’ fulfill the codes and conventions of the genre of Thriller?

The filmstroke of the psycho trailer is black and white, which keeps the tone of the narrative old and traditional, giving a sense of realism, as if looking into past events.The antagonist becomes obvious as silhouettes and shadows are used to enhance the characters mystery over his hidden identity,this leads us to believe he is the bad guy. The non-diegetic sound introducing the hotel as 'quiet little motel' is creepy, it fits to the typically secluded, isolated location of a thriller film and gives the viewer chills as it suggests whats really going on, contrasts to the sense of tranquility set by the word 'quiet'. It almost acts as dramatic irony to suggest the mishappenings which are happening in this motel are far from quiet and little, overall this helps build suspense, which is a typical convention of a thriller. Furthermore, the establishing shot of the motel and the rain pouring at the same time, creates an atmosphere of dread and doom, causing the weather to foreshadow something bad is going to take place. 

Lots of close ups are used to guide us to pay more attention to certain objects or things e.g the extreme close up of the eye looking through the peep hole creeps out but also engages the audience as it allows them to question who the character is, and as to why and what they're doing. It may also draw the viewers to other things such as the knife, to create tension and suspense. These are both common conventions of thriller films. Throughout the trailer they also show mid/close up shots of facial expressions, showing some characters looking rather distressed or anxious which again causes the viewer to take a further interest in the narrative of the film.

Non-diegetic music is used and the screeching high-pitch of it makes the viewer feel uncomfortable and on the edge of there seat, preparing them for something to happen and holding there attention so they catch the finest details. As pace quickens and slows in pace it either lets the viewer relax (if slows) or build up more apprehension and insecurity (if it fastens). Jump cuts are used to show fast forwarding in time, this is common among thrillers and helps add the realistic effect of passing time. 

Codes and Conventions of the Thriller Genre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)

Examples of thriller films:

Brief history of the thriller genre:

"Thriller is a genre of literature, film, video game stories and television programming that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as its main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror. Films of this genre tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced.^"

As the genre thriller has progressed, sub-genres have been created, including psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, erotic thrillers and mystery thrillers. 

Alfred Hitchcock was an influential English film director, nicknamed 'The Master of Suspense' who produced one of the first thriller films (1920's-1930's). Hitchcock's first thriller film was made in 1926, it was a silent film, called 'The Lodger', it loosely followed a Jack the Ripper narrative and was filled with suspense. 3 years later, in 1929, Hitchcock produced the film 'Blackmail', it got extra credibility for being Britain's first film with sound. 

The 1950's were the highest point of Alfred Hitchcock's career, as his thriller films lead him to his success. These films included:

  

Codes and Conventions of the thriller genre:

Typically...

- Low key lighting

- Quick cuts

- Shadows

- Tension music 

- Changes in the angle of shots

- Diegetic sound of breathing

- Black and white shots

- Montage of shots

- Protagonist is in mercy of the Antagonist 

Characters:

The protagonist is often the good guy, looking to seek an equilibrium. Often brave and determined.

The antagonist will usually have a hidden identity, which is revealed as the film progresses. His act of evil is often based on revenge.

Cinematography of a thriller:

-Lots of close ups& extreme close ups in order to show the viewer the emotion of the character or

 guide them to looking at clues within scenes, this will help aid the narrative. 

- Their is likely to be quick cuts to build tension or hide identities of characters, this helps keep mystery and suspense. 

Editing:

Jump cuts will be very popular, in order to ensure the audience are keeping up with everything which is essential to make sense of the film. Cross cutting should be used as its vital to build the atmosphere of suspense. Continuous editing will also be used, to help show order and narrative to the film. 

Sound in a Thriller:

Non-diegetic music will massively influence moods and set scenes which can help hint something foreboding will happen. It helps build up drama before the big event is going to happen and prepares and excites the audience. Diegetic music such as heavy breathing or heart beats helps add realism to the narrative and can often make the audience feel on edge.

Mise-en-scene:

-Location is important to help the audience establish the theme

-Low key lighting is more common to add to the thriller atmosphere that stuff could be lurking in the dark/shadows.

-Costumes, antagonist typically wears dark clothes and uses props such as masks to hide identity, protagonist is more likely to wear every-day clothes which are considered familiar and typical to the audience. 

-Composition

-Make up and hairstyles

-Filmstroke; B&W, grainy, fine grain or colour

Whats the difference between the thriller and Horror genre?

A thriller film is often more psychological than a horror, which means it requires more of a narrative than a horror so it has more thought and explanation. A horror on the other hand tends to set out to scare the viewer in the moment, so includes gore, blood and violence. 

An example of a thriller movie, 'sixth sense' demonstrates a series of plot twists that engages the audience to question why certain things happen within the film.
A horror film, such as, 'Nightmare on Elm street', is purely about violence, which leads to the blood and gore we expect to see. This scares us and creeps out the viewer.
Despite the popularity of this movie, it has little logic or psychological connection. 

Both movies ultimately intend to scare you, but through different ways. A thriller will make you mentally question certain things were as a horror will make you jump and often scare you and give you nightmares. 

Goodwins theory applied to Beyonce; Run the world

Key conventions of a music video

To create a successful music video I will need to stick to these key conventions developed from Goodwin theory:

• Have a link between the lyrics and the visuals (the lyrics should either amplify, compliment or contradict the visuals)
• Have a link between the music and visuals
• Contain genre characteristics and iconography
• Contain notions of looking
• Have inter textual references to other media (links to another piece of media within a piece of media)
• Show voyeurism (when a person receives pleasure from seeing someone without them knowing (usually sexual))
• Include demand of the record label
• The video must be performance, narrative or concept based

Key Definitions;

Intertextuality: The shaping of the texts meaning through another text or referencing 

Notions of looking: the notion of the camera which engages the audience or guides them to look at something. Voyeurism is present, as direct gazes and certain camera angles cause the audience to feel like there getting an insight to the artists life. 

To further my understanding on Goodwins theory, I found a very useful slideshare which I've posted below: share

Goodwin’s Theory from oldertibz

1st Video Editing experience

My intentions with my first video edit was to make it slightly funny if possible; I felt this way I could be more experimental with effects and transitions, also on which parts of the clip I kept or cut out. After a while of use, it was easier to find my way around the relevant tools and discovered more as I spent more time playing around with various hacks. Overall,it has given me a good taster of how to use the programme and what to expect from it, which will help me in my process of planning and producing my final piece at the end of the media course.

What I learnt using adobe premiere

To cut the clip to make the conversation flow, you need to right click and cut the video in desirable places

By right clicking, this list of available options appear. I wanted to delete this part of the clip therefore clicked on 'cut'.

To add a transition from clip to clip, you could chose a transition from here and drag it with your mouse to the clip.

It asked you what part of the clip you would like your transition to start and how long you wanted it to last- which it seemed to be better if it was shorted because the video appeared more consistent and flowing.

By clicking 'More' there was some advanced options that came up which where interesting to adjust and experiment with.

To add music, you simply dragged and dropped the soundtrack is the desired space.

My peer assessment of another students blog:

We were set a task to do a peer assessment, so I contacted someone via email, (screenshots are shown below) in order to find someone to swap blog addresses with and pursue the peer assessment. 

 I found this a useful exercise to receive help from my classmates as they pointed out improvements I otherwise might not have noticed.

My Peer assessment for: georgiagibbsa2media.blogspot, Im currently waiting for her to email a response and get some feedback of what she thought about my comments. 

Georgia's peer assessment for me and my response (in red):