Digipak & Advert: Our Digipak

Below is our digipak, the finished product. I have taken various printscreens of the digipak as a whole, then the inside, the outside and each panel seperately. We tried to keep certain aspects common throughout. Firstly the brick wall, which we also maintain on the magazine advert. Also, the graffiti font, and the modified pictures, particularly on the inside. The colour theme was brown and red.

Below is the product as a whole

Below is the inside panels;

With the ice cream picture, we did debate whether to put 'The 99s' next to it, but decided to leave it off to keep it simple, and allow the audience to work out the relevance of the picture themselves.

Below is the outside panels, including the front and back cover

Digipak & Advert: Our Magazine Advert

Below is the final version of our magazine advert. It encorporates the images from our digipak, and from the actual music video, and continues along the theme of the indie-looking brick wall. To match this, we used what I considered to be a graffiti, spray paint type of font, not only on the information, but also over the top of the writing on the 'oh' 'me' 'oh' 'my' boards, to make it stand out more.

Theory Work: Application of the Feminist theory to our video

When considering our music video, the Feminist theory is the most interesting to apply to our video.

In terms of the gaze, it is true thhat the audience IS made to view the video through the mans perspective, particuarly as at times when we see the 'desired female', we see it through his eyes, as a point of veiw shot. Triple gaze applies; in the video, i am seen by Tom, through whom the camera sees the perspective of, and therefore so does the audience. Furthermore, in our music video, i am veiwed, to a certain extent, as an object, although knowing the male characters relationship with the female character, it is likely that he is not only viewing her as a physical object of desire, but also considers the the other aspects of their relationship that he misses. Due to their being no background on the story, and no dialogue in the video, the audience can only see the physical desire.

In contrast to the usual interpretation of agency, our video can be considered to go against 'the norm' where the man has all the control. In this case, also we follow the male characters side of the story, it is evidentally the woman that holds the influence over the female, as it is her decisions that effect and influence the story of the music video, such as at the end, when i choose Dan over Tom, upsetting him. In this case, the female is active, and the male is passive and powerless.

Looking at Mulvey's theory of erotic desire, although not to the extent of many music videos in this present day, in our video, i could be considered to be the object of the male characters desire; although i do not parade around in barely any clothing, i am still the female character desired by the male; not only on a physical level, but more extensively. In the music video, I do not consider myself to be an object of desire however for the audience; they would only see a plainly dressed girl, not knowing it is also the character of the girl that the protagonist longs for.

Theory Work: Application of Suture to our video

The theory of Suture is hard to apply to our video, as it usually only applies to Classical Hollywood media texts. However in my opinion the simple idea of our music video does not provide many possible different interpretations and readings, so if i discuss in terms of this idea, then the prefered or dominant reading is the only one that is possibly decoded from our music video by the audience, as not much is left for the audience to consider and decode themselves- as the producers, we do not feel like we have particuarly encoded our work with a message, it is more just for entertainment purposes.

Theory Work: Application of the Reception Theory to our video

According to the Reception Theory, our video has been encoded in a particular way by myself, Tom and Dan, and it can be decoded in 3 different ways by the audience. If this is the case;

- Our message encoded in the video is simply ideas of a relationship split up, and the boy imagining his girlfriend in different locations. It is meant to be entertaining and comical.

- If it is decoded by the audience in the prefered or dominant way, then this would have been the message that they got.

- If it is decoded by the audience in the negotiated way, then the audience will accept this message, but may consider it to be inappropriate to mock a relationship splitting up, due to a bad split they themselves went through, or they may just be disinterested and not find it entertaining.

- If it is decoded by the audience in the oppositional way, they may reject its meaning as they cannot to the situation that we have presented them with, or because it goes against cultural, political or ideological reasons. However this unlikely as he video does not challenge any of these and there is no reason it would cause controversy.

Theory Work: Application of the Uses and Gratifications Model to our video

If the Uses and Gratifications Model is to be applied, and the audience uses our media text (music video) then the uses they may gain from it are;

• Pleasure
• Entertainment
• Escapism
• To Learn
• Compare
• To Relax
• To Relate

It's main function is to entertain, and being comical could provide pleasure.
To some, its comical aspects could be used as an escapism, from the 'real world', as with our media text their feelings and actions are irrelevant. This also enables them to relax.
Other groups and people looking at music videos may use our work to learn, or compare to other indie group videos, or even to compare it to the origial youtube video made by The 99s.
Being an average life situation portrayed in our music video,of a couple splitting up and the boy missing the girl is a dialemma that many people can relate to, making them more interested in watching the video.

Theory Work: Application of the Effects Model to our video

When considering the Effects Model in terms of our own music video, there is nothing in our video that would have a terrible influence on the audience if they were to copy it, as it does not include any behaviour that should not be imitated, such as violence or drug taking. The only behaviour that may be copied is the nature of the relationship bewteen the male antagonist and his ex-girlfriend, which poses no threat to anyone.
There is no reason why the video would be controversial and consequently banned, and it should not provoke such behaviour as moral panics, meaning failures and couch potatos.
In my opinion, there is no behaviour that anyone would want to, or be able to copy.

Theory Work: Feminist Film Theory and Audiences

Laura Mulvey, a British film theory feminist, wrote an essay in 1975, titled "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema". Her theory is that cinema reflects our society, and therefore a patriarchal, male dominated society. It questions how this patriachal society can manifest itself and present itself within the world of cinema. Mulvey's work considered three methods of interpretation;

1. The Gaze
2. Agency
3. Erotic Desire

THE GAZE
This is where the gaze (what something is looking at) of the camera is the same as that ofthe male character. This means that the male gaze is active, whereas the female gaze is passive.
Mulvey argues that the way that men look at women is different to how women look at men, and by having an active male gaze, with the narrative being that of male characters, their gaze is directed towards female characters the provided perspective is that of a male.
The spectator of the text is made to identify with the male gaze, as it is from this perspective that the camera films. It is an optical, libidinal point of view from the male.
There are 3 levels of the cinematic gaze, known as the triple gaze- camera, character and spectator, all of which objectify the female characters. Below is a diagram that demonstrates the three identicle gazes; the female is objectified by the male, and therefore by the camera and the audience.

One example of this can be seen in James Bond: Dr No, as shown below;

As shown in the clip, the woman is viewed by the male protegonist, the camera, and the audience not as a woman, but as an object. This clip, and others like it, is constructed as if every spectator was male; women view the text as if they were a male member of the audience. This is an example of, and done through, the suture process. Most James Bond films follow this form of the gaze; another example is is Halle Berry in 'Die Another Day'.

A controversial film, which goes against this male gaze on women is 'Top Gun'. Although it is strongly denied by Tom Cruise, the gaze of this film, in a number of scenes, seems to be a male gaze on another male. This is evident from the slow motion shots, and the mise en scene such as close positioning of characters within the frame, as can be seen in the scene, along with others, from the film below;



AGENCY
The theory of agency is that in classical Hollywood cinema the male protegonist has agency- he is active and has the power. He is the agent around whom the dramatic unfolds, and who makes the decisions that make things happen in films. The female characters are passive and powerless, only present to be an object of lust and desire for the protagonist, leading onto Mulvey's theory of Erotic Desire.

EROTIC DESIRE
Laura Mulvey argues that women have just two roles in films;

• An object of erotic desire for characters
• An object of erotic desire for the audience

There is much evidence to suggest this theory is correct, in some films this seems so more than others, such as Megan Fox in Transformers.



Theory Work: Audience Theory- The Suture Theory

This theory suggests that the way that Hollywood films (in particular) are put together, in terms of narrative, editing, sound and mise en scene set the audience up to be 'satured', or positioned, making them see only one possible reading of the text. No matter how conscious the audience is of the position they are in, or what outcome is to follow in the film, they are still forced into this prefered or dominant reading. The audience is emotionally manpulated through various techniques to make them feel a particular way, unanimously. Regardless of a persons film knowledge or experiance, being 'stitched in' to this way of interpreting the text, or satured, is inescapable.
 An example of this can be seen in the film 'Crash', in which in one scene a man gives his daughter his invisible bullet proof cloak to protect her. From this point, the audience can predict that although it is made up to comfort the little girl, the father will at some point be shot, and possibly the daughter will witness it, or be involved. Although we are aware of this, when it happens, we are still horrified, shocked, and saddened.