Media Language

Media language is basically the way a producer conveys messages to the audience through the use of camera work, editing, sound and mise-en-scene

Editing..

• When the line ‘licking shots’ which refers to smoking cannabis was on we cut to a close up shot of a person smoking ‘cannabis’. When this shot appeared we purposefully added a filter which made the shot seem a lot darker and grimy. We did this to show smoking drugs as negative through the use of colour. If we wanted to show it in a positive way we would have chosen a brighter filter.

• We also used editing to change the pace of the shot, we slowed down the shot. The reason behind this was to show the effects of drugs. Smoking drugs can slow down your reactions (if smoked over a long period of time)

• Another reason we used an almost distorted looking filter is to represent how cannabis can cause a distortion of reality, so when our audience are watching they can almost get a small sense of the effects of cannabis

• Cannabis is known to make some people more animated, this is represented through the shot. We changed the contrast on the shot to make the shot seem animated/cartoonised

Camera work/Location…

• During this shot the lyric was ‘I wanna make the big tunes to spread over the world’. We wanted to emphasize the word ‘world’ in the video as he is dreaming on a large scale

• To do this we had him spread his arms wide whilst standing on a tall bridge over looking Canary Wharf

• We purposefully used Canary Wharf as it’s the hub of the global economy and one of the tallest buildings in London. Canary wharf is also a money making mechanism, Demolisher repeatedly refers to the importance of money throughout the song so that’s how we made a link

• We used a long/medium shot here to establish the location he is in and to show the scale of the location so it represents the scale of what he wants to achieve

• Using a long shot we could have the artist and location clearly shown in the shot

Mise en scene• Costume is part of mise-en-scene. Costume was very

purposefully done.• For the female, we deliberately did not sexualise her

by not dressing her in revealing clothes, in doing this we challenged Mulvey’s theory of ‘male gaze’

• The use of heels was used to symbolize height, the height of Demolishers dreams, showing how much he wants to achieve

• We make constant reference to height throughout the video eg Tall bridges, heights, shots from below, Stairs etc

• For the male, we dressed him in Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren is a well known brand. The fact he wears is so obviously (label clearly shown) showing again how wealth and material possessions is important to him. Another meaning behind is that he likes to show off what he has and wants people to know what he has and has acheived

Drake-HYFR

Without stating it in his lyrics, he uses mise-en-scene to represent his Jewish faith

Sound…

• Diegetic sound : Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film:

voices of characters sounds made by objects in the story music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music)

• Non-diegetic sound : Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action:

narrator's commentarysound effects which is added for the dramatic effectmood music

• At the end of the music video we used diegetic sound of a director clipper board being shut together. We used this to signify the end of the music video. However there was a deeper meaning behind this, we used this to represent the end of his old life, so he can begin to aim towards his new, desired lifestyle of gaining money and success, which is part of his ideology

• As well as sound, the use of the prop was significant. The director clapper is associated with directors and films, who are associated with fame and money. Both of which Demolisher wants

Stuart Hall ‘encoding-decoding’ theory

• Stuart Halls theory states that a producer encodes a meaning in a media text, and then it is up to the audience to decode the message, which they may decode differently

• Jay Z is a well known rap artist who includes messages in his songs that can be decoded in different ways. You may think he means something, but he may actually mean something else

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjsXo9l6I8

When listening to the lyrics of this song, the way we decode meaning may be different to how the producers encoded it

• "8th Street": • It's known to be where St. Mark's Place is (which of course is in NY), which is where urban teenagers hang out, according

to Wikipedia.

• "BK from Texas": • Beyonce Knowles is from Texas. It might be one of the few songs where he acknowledges her, I think.

• "Bed-Stuy": • Short for Bedford-Stuyvesant, it's a predominantly black neighbourhood found in the center of NY.

• "Home of that boy Biggie": • Biggie Smalls. Also from Brooklyn.

• "Say what up to Ta-ta“• It's Ty Ty, who is Jay-Z's nickname to Tyron Smith, who is his "BFF".

• "Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game":• OG referes to Juan Perez, President of Roc-La-Familia, and co-owner of the 40/40 club.

• "Yellow cab, gypsy cab, dollar cab, holla back": • He names all types of the most common transportation in NY (yellow cab - taxi, gypsy cab - illegal taxi, dollar cab - one

dollar taxi).

•"3 Dice Ceelo/3 Dice Marley“

• - It's 3 Card Molly. Both refers to the stereotypical "alley" games. •

"Lights is blinding/ Girls need blinders" • - Just referring to the chorus about the "big lights" being everywhere in NY. Lights go on during the night time, where girls

would be on the streets for A. prostitution or B. nightime clubbing.•

"Or they can step out of bounds / Quick, the side lines is blind with casualities" • - They could get caught up with the lights (which also refers to fame, the in-crowd as he points out a little later).

•"Who sip the light casually, then gradually become worse"

• - The fame can become an addiction.•

"Hail Mary to the city, you're a virgin / And Jesus can’t save you / Life starts when the church ends" • - Still referring to girls chasing fame in the city, where "virgin" means the innocence they have before they get into the real

world.•

"MDMA got you feeling like a champion" • - MDMA is better known as ecstasy. But it means that the girls, who have lost their innocence when chasing fame, are

officially in the "in-crowd" by doing drugs and such making them feel like their champions/made it•

"The city never sleeps, better slip you a Ambien" • - Ambien is a drug for people who can't sleep. Since they're doing drugs already, why not slip another one?

Semiotics- Signs and signifiersSaussure's 'theory of the sign' defined a sign as being made up of the

matched pair of signifier and signifiedRoland Barthes then developed this

• We seem as a species to be driven by a desire to make meanings

• Semiotics, or semiology, is the study of signs, symbols, and signification. It is the study of how meaning is created, not what it is

• Signifier: any material thing that signifies, e.g., words on a page, a facial expression, an image.

• Signified: the concept, the meaning, the thing indicated by the signifier