Madonna analysis

Hung up:

Music videos are increasingly becoming more explicit and revealing, and hung up proves exactly that for its time, where immediately she strips off into a fairly revealing outfit. Videos like this are becoming more desired as they are pushing the boundaries and I think Madonna always wanted to follow and push this in her videos as we could clearly see from her ‘lesbian’ kiss with Britney, which really causing shock to the public.

She stretches in her dancewear in a very revealing way towards the camera clearly trying to fill her video with ‘sexuality’ and appealing to more of an audience, e.g. Men who wouldn’t originally be into her music.

Flashing images of street dancers, who are much younger than Madonna herself really adds variety to her video and again will create a wider audience to be intrigued into her movie, furthermore it allows her to look considerably younger which is also reinforced by her clothes. Again following her usual stereotype of being a woman who looks good for her age.

The video is very danced based at the start of the video, not really involving much of a story but through unique choreography and costumes the audience remains focussed. She has many close ups where the eye is forced to view her face and dance movements through clever positioning of the camera. This allows us to instantly recognise her as the star from the very start. It then begins to develop more of a story where various people who where previously shown dancing etc, are now all gathering at a club. She remains very separated from these other characters for the majority of the video also reinforcing her as the main star. It then introduces her in a way where she flaunts through the streets now bringing her much closer to the scenes we were shown previously which allows us to bring together all various sub stories into one. It then focuses on the club scene where Madonna is now surrounded by all, and all the previous dancing is brought into one room. The focus is then on Madonna with a guy; probably half her age, who then engage in very sexual dancing. In addition to the now grouped together characters the video still repeatidly shows completely separate shots of her dancing with props e.g. the beat box, which again pulls our eyes into viewing her and only her.

The beat of the music near the end increases dramatically which is shown through the video, flashing images to the beat and sudden cuts where the music cuts are portrayed through the scenes, and this is managed even through slowing down the actual footage. This allows our minds to have contrasting elements which works well together and actually causes far more interest to the scenes.
The release date for this single was October 2005, and the video conveys the season that it was released which allows it to be fair more realistic and interacts further with the audience due to this.





Madonna

4 minutes:
This was created in 2008, which we can clearly see its more modern than the previous ‘hung up’ mainly through special effects, but also through an introduction of another artist prior to us seeing Madonna, which creates suspense and makes the first sighting of her more noticeable. Furthermore her hair is suited more to the year and time this video was produced and again her outfits are tight and sexual, allowing herself to become a role model and fashion idol to the audiences viewing.

It is also a much more abstract unique video where for example where she suddenly goes from being on a car bonnet to walking on a dinner table where two random characters are sat. The splitting of scenes still carries out into what seems like one room, and again moves in time with the beat, something that is known and is iconic to Madonna videos.

Once again as previously shown, it shows a lot of dance choreography and focuses on both Madonna and Justin’s dance moves, however the sharpness and simple moves of Madonna’s choreography is shown for longer and in more detail again showing her as the more infamous star. Her jerky unique dance moves become iconic throughout her videos and is instantly recognised as a Madonna video which is one thing that is kept the same throughout, along with constant beauty close ups of her and her expressions.

Furthermore they even create a relationship between themselves, having rather quirky sexual scenes. This allows the video to represent the song; it’s not only a duet through sound but visuals also. Their outfits are a lot more modern, which again shows following the fashion at the time of release in order to be seen as icons and idols not only through music but in how they look as well.

Routine together, but are still very much separated in what they do, could represent clashing personalities or ideas which are shown through the music as well. Or could show how they are individuals and stars in their own right with one not being any less important in this video to the other.

 

initial stages of filming

We decided to begin by shooting the stop motion barbie characters in their sequence of drinking getting into the car and crashing, it was hard it first to get into it, and know esactly how to make the characters look as though they were moving realistically and effectivly, but one we shot the first few short scenes, it became alot more aparent. We thought that it would take too many tiny movement and then shooting to make it look as effective as we wanted, but when veiwing our footage back, the amount we did get worked very well in creating a life like barbie and ken scene, the slight jumps which you get from stop motion worked effectivly in the way that it creates humour, something we wanted to make happen in order for the real life footage to have massive impact. We decided on an angled angle when capturing the barbies instead of a typical straight on angle, it added far more interest to how it looked. we had tried the initial straight on angle and found it blocked out one of the characters and therefore just looked jumbled, confusing and uninteresting. We wanted to make the crash scene with the dolls very dramatic in order to prepare the scene for the real life actors that will position themselves simularly to the dolls, therefore by making the dolls in elaborate injury poisitons, it allows us to create a more dramatic crash for when the actors end up in the same position for the following scene. We had barbie falling out of the door, with 'ketchup' as blood around here, and ken on the windscreen from being flun also with ketchup around him and up the wall. The ketchup is fairly obvious that it is that, which is what we wanted to create to add to the humour, and to allow us to poor more realistic 'fake' blood onto the real scene so that it adds far more impact on the audiences. Overall we were very happy with the filming of these scenes creating 1 overall scene,

pre production poster.

THE ONE WITH MY OWN PHOTO- DOES NOT CREATE AS MUCH OF AN EFFECT AND SUDDEN IMPACT THROUGH THE EMOTION OF THE FACE TO THAT OF THE ONE FROM THE INTERNET, ALTHOUGH DOES STILL CREATE THE COMPOSITION I WANTED. AND THE LIGHT AND DARK CREATED IN THE FACE OF THE INTERNET MAN FITS FAR BETTER WITH THE COLOURS AND COMPOSITION OF THE REST OF THE POSTER. 

When considering how to do my drink driving poster, I knew straight away after searching some previously published posters on drink drinking that I wanted to use large font as the main focus point of my poster, filling up the majority of the page. This will be on a black background with white and red font. I believe this works best as it really stands out against the background and really grab peoples attention especially with the word 'DONT' in big bold red letters. The whole point of our campaign is to reduce drink driving, therefore I need the poster to put this message across quickly and simply. Therefore my main font and main headline of my poster will be the words ''DONT DRINK AND DRIVE''. followed by smaller letters explaining further into the campaign of 'living with it' with the the words '' COULD YOU LIVE WITH THE CONSEQUENCES?'' This needs to really have impact on the audience as I want them too understand what could happen if their actions in this situation are wrong, therefore I used a picture of man screaming as if devastated with his actions. No one would want to feel this emotion and by seeing it instantly it will immediately portray the point of the campaign. I kept it black and white so as not to break up the colour scheme and to keep it dull and dark to show the mood I want to create; a sad emotional shocking emotion. Next I wanted to play around with the words to add interest and an obvious idea came to mind to change the 'I's' to beer glasses. This will allow the audience to associate the images with the text immediately and understand in further detail the message it is conveying. I think having less text and few pictures stops confusion and allows the viewer to understand it immediately and not need to stare at it to work it out, something which you don't want when needing quick impact on the viewer. And finally I added the image of a steering wheel in order to show the relationship between the alchahol and the driving. It allows the audience to realise further that its not about just drinking over the limit, its about making the right decision to not drive under the influence of alcohol.

i asked my family and a couple of friends what they thought about my poster, firstly I wanted to know if the impact was big enough, if it immediately caught there attention and is there anything I can add? there were replies such as:

'' It did catch my attention very quick, the contrast in colours works great in being able to read the font and get the message quickly and effectively.''

''I like the way the beer bottles have replaced the I's the little 'pun' allows relief from the seriousness of the poster while still allowing the message to be fully shown.''

Although the picture works far better as its detail in the expression is hard to capture through an image of my own, I had to try it with a photo i had taken. It didn't create quiet the same depth and effect, but still created the image I wanted it too. 

coursework ideas

We came to the idea pretty quickly that we wanted to focus on drink driving. The reason for this is that we can relate to it straight away as we are just starting driving ourselves, therefore will be able to produce an advert in a way we know would have a massive impact on us. We are also part of the target audience age range, so believe we have a good chance at creating unique, high impact adverts.

After the group decided on this topic (drink driving) I began thinking of my individual idea, what could really grab the attention of the audience and have great impact on them leaving it in their minds even after the advert has finished. Therefore I came to the conclusion that there are not many adverts out there broadcasted often about living with the consequences of drink driving and so I wanted to target this area of fatal drink driving accidents. How could I do this.. I researched many drink driving adverts such as, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtJqw--DGl8, DOE drink driving advert. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsY_Co-p8Bw THINK! Drink driving advert, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQtTREndJKk UK drink driving advert. Out of all the ones I viewed, personally I found that the ones involving children or the effects left on children have a much greater impact. I asked many students what they thought and the large majority agreed due to them being far more venerable, innocent and still have their whole lives ahead of them. This is how I came to the idea that the main focus of my advert will be that of a young girl, during school life and the effects her death has had on everyone around her and the man who killed her. (man because it is proven by statistics that male’s cause the majority of fatal car accidents, and also because a grown man is the complete opposite to a venerable small child.

There is an advert that is currently being broadcast that involves a man seeing the child he killed everywhere he turns, in his sleep, in the bathroom mirror, in the corner of his rooms etc. I think this advert has a massive impact on audiences as the repetition of seeing the child really makes you realise the hugeness of what this man now has to live with due to careless driving. Furthermore I want to add this type of repetition into my advert and have the camera constantly showing her in different situations such as school, class’s and with her friends. In addition she will fade from the end of each scene to give the audience the idea that she has passed away, and what is left behind now she has gone is devastating. Unlike this advert though I don’t want the man who killed her to appear until the very end, where you will then see his facial expression and it will suddenly hit you what has happened. The slow pace of the advert that I want to create will hopefully draw the audiences in so much that when that scene of the man suddenly appears it will create a massive impact.

Although it is proven that fast upbeat music will stimulate your brain and grab your attention quicker it will not fit with the mood of my advert. Therefore the non diagetic music I want to use will be a slow paced, non lyrical instrumental, something that adverts don’t often use and therefore will draw attention from that aspect. It will also cause the audience to feel the emotion that needs to be felt when viewing these types of scenes and will therefore interact better with the audience that an upbeat song would. A sudden break in music will add to this which is why I want to have a sudden cut in the instrumental where a crash scene will evolve and a loud crash and cry sound will be produced, which will hopefully have the power to shock the viewer.

It shows on various websites such as http://www.drinkdriving.org/drink_driving_information.php and http://www.drinkdrivingfacts.com/drinkdriving/drink_driving_facts.aspx, that statistically men ages 17-29 are the main causers of drink driving road incidents. Therefore we want to take this age range into consideration and aim our adverts at this age group but for both genders as fatal incidents are far too important to ignore. More than these two websites suggest this fact therefore it is reliable and the use of statistics makes it more believable and realistic and most importantly taken seriously.

 I then presented my idea to my group which went down very well and is one of the chosen two we are going to produce into a 30 second public service broadcast advert. Since the selection of my idea I have thought deeper into things such as camera angles and what will have the most effect, working well with the music and emotion I want to create. Therefore for each repetition scene I would like to begin with the camera in a close up on the main girl, slowly panning out in order to reveal her friends and their emotion. As it continues to pan out she will then begin to fade from the scene as the rest of the scenery is revealed. When I picture this with the slow saddened instrumental I believe it will really cause the audience to interact and feel so sorry for the girl and her friends and family who are now suffering the consequences. Then finally for the last scene where the drink driver is revealed, there is no longer any sound, just an image on a grieving guilty man. 

When considering where and when my advert would be broadcast, I questioned many people about which channels they watch the most. (asked 16-20 years of age people) and E4 and E4+1 followed closely by VIVA where the most frequently watched programmes. Therefore this channel slot would be most effective for my PBS as it is aimed at this demographic, furthermore it would be shown after 9 (watershed) as the scenes may be too stressfull and upsetting for younger viewers.  

THINK BIKE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXI8-_9FrB4

This public service announcement advert engages you right from the very start, entising you when you realise you are feeling as though you are in the seat of the car, driving this vehicle towards a junction. As the car comes up to the junction it slowly reveals the driver, which we now relate to as we feel what it is like to be in his seat. PSA's need to grab attentions right from the very start in order to create maximal impact on the viewer. Causing it to remain in our heads and at the forefront of our mind for a while after the advert has finished. This advert I believe does this very well, for example its very quiet and eary almost as if your expecting something, yet everything is clear he is checking both ways and all looks safe. Suddenly as he moves forward an instant horrific crash happens where a motorbike has catapulted into the side of the car. The instantaneousness of this crash really shocks the viewer creating full focus on what has just happened; almost as sense on understanding of how that would feel if that had been us.

When the man moves out of the car and round to the injured biker, his face represents how anyone in that situation would feel, shocked, upset, grieving and in disbelief. Feelings that no one would want to live with. The camera angles throughout are extreme close ups giving greater impact as the whole situation feels closer and more real. The one time the camera uses a long shot is very cleverly done, the reason for this is that it is at the point where the voice-over says 'or here' showing us the safe distance to see the bike. This long shot emphasises the distance, emphasising the meaning to the viewer.

''look, look, then look again'' are some of the last words said by the voice-over, this repetition really makes it stick in our minds, along with still feeling the shock factor from watching and almost experiencing this crash this really will make the viewer think. The voice-over is a man's voice kept at a very dull neutral voice, this creates it to almost imprint in your mind, over and over. The use of lighting in this PSA is very clever also, as its very realistic lighting while also being grey and dull, therefore representing the mood of the advert; makes it very serious and shocking. Overall I think this advert is incredibly straight to the point, dominating the audience with barely any room for interpretation, therefore achieving what a PSA should. The impact of the advert when I viewed it, even though iv viewed this many times still sticks with me after, leaving me feeling in a slight state of shock and sadness.