Documentries

A documentary is based on real life and is expected to be real, true and accurate. Classic documentaries have a slow pace are narrator led, have an expert presenter, use reconstructions at times, use a range of high quality shots, set ups and are in high definition. They also may be in series and have long filming schedules. There are different types of documentaries such as celebrity led, drama, factual entertainment and observational documentaries plus many more. The things that affect the type of documentary that is made are things such as technology, access to things such as people, locations, information. Changes in society may also affect is such as the rise in homosexuality may cause a rise in documentaries about living as a gay, world events happening such as natural disasters, news events, anniversaries etc and the budget you have affects the type of documentary made.

 Modes of documentary

 Expository Mode

The expository documentry uses a narratorto address the audience directly and to present an exposition, or explanation, interpreting what they are seeing on screen. Because of the disembodied nature of the narration, this form of documentary is sometimes known as the Voice of god mode.
This is one of the oldest forms of documentary and one of the most established conventions. Programmessuch as Big Brother and its follow-ups (Channel 4, 2000-2002) still use the voice-of-God narration, in the
form of voice-overs by one of the producers, in order to interpret the material we are watching.
Whether or not the narrator is represented visually, we are expected to trust the narration as a definitive interpretation of, or anchor for the visual material and to accept it as authoritative on the subject matter.

In order to make this kind of indentification easier, the narrator will often represent the target audience for the programme (which frequently means a male, white, middle-class narration) and will address them as a group who share the implied values of the text.

On occasions the narration of a documentry is shared between a number of people as experts, witnesses or participants. This kind of narration is known as talking heads mode, describing the characteristic medium close-up shot which is used to frame the individual.
This approach is used in programmes such as crime watch.

Observational Mode

The Observational Mode (as technology advanced by the 1960s and cameras became smaller and lighter, able to document life in a less intrusive manner, there is less control required over lighting etc, leaving the social actors free to act and the documentarists free to record without interacting with each other)

 

Participatory Mode

The Participatory Mode (the encounter between film-maker and subject is recorded, as the film-maker actively engages with the situation they are documenting, asking questions of their subjects, sharing experiences with them. Heavily reliant on the honesty of witnesses)

 

Reflexive Mode

The Reflexive Mode (demonstrates consciousness of the process of reading documentary, and engages actively with the issues of realism and representation, acknowledging the presence of the viewer and the modality judgements they arrive at. Corresponds to critical theory of the 1980s)

Beyonce - Naughty Girl Music Video

Naughty Girl by Beyonce is my first music video I've chosen to research. It is part of her debut studio album 'dangerously in love' which was released in 2003. It was released by Columbia records as the fourth and final single on the album.

 

The music videos I will research

My first music video is Naughty Girl by Beyonce. I chose to do this because it is R&B and had particular features about it.

My second music video is I Dont Love You by Chemical Romance. I chose to do this because it is rock and is a complete contrast from Beyonces music video.

My third music video is Hot N Cold by Katy Perry. I chose to do this because it is pop and again has completly different features from my other two.

 

My fourth music video is Roxanne by The Police. I chose to do this one because it is a lot older from my other videos.

Male Gaze

Features of the male gaze are voyeuristic which means pleasure in watching. The camera lingers on the curves of the female bodt, relegates women to the status of the objects, male active and female passive when the female viewer experiences the narrative secondarily by the identification with the male.

There can be many different types of gaze in a media text such as films and soaps. The people that control the gaze are the director, camera, lead actor who are historically male. Male Gaze from a feminists perspective can be reduced to how men look at women, how women look at themselves and how women look at other women these are who is looking at who.

In some of the music videos I have looked at, especially R&B music videos the male gaze has been expressed by women acting in a sexual nature and how men look at them and dance with them in what comes across as a disrespectful way. Women in the videos are not dressed in very much and what they are dressed in shows off their curves, boobs and bum making men look at them in a certain way and it also effects how women look at them because some women may feel like they have no self respect whilst others might think what they are doing is good and want to dress or act like they are.

Music video research and history

Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (1975) is generally regarded as the first "music video".
Although there are older groups of people performing they were not made for the same purpose.

The first music video MTV released was "video killed the radio star" by The Buggles. The next 4 music videos they aired were "You better run" by Pat Benatar, "She wont dance with me" by Rod Stewart, "You better you bet" by the who and "Little suzis on the up" by Ph.D. These were the first five music videos MTV showed.

There are many different genres of music videos such as R&B, pop, rock, punk etc that all have different types of music videos. For example R&B are more likely to be sexual videos, rock is more likely to be in a dark background with guitars etc and pop is more likely to be people dancing around. Music videos are used usually used as a form of marketing intending to promote the sale of the music recording.

The earliest music videos were filmed in the mid 1950's. However before then films by animators were accompanied by music scored labeled "Visual music". They key innovation in the development of the modern music video was video recording and editing along with the development of a number of related effects such as chroma - key. The advent of high quality colour videotape recorders and portatble video cameras.


Sources:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110826210317AA8uYYk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_music_videos_aired_on_MTV
http://www.slideshare.net/crosswaysfederation/music-video-a-brief-history