Media Language Essay

Media Language Analyse one of your media productions in relation to media language? Media Language is the language film and television defined by how micro- elements such as camera, editing, sound and mise en scene etc create meaning. I will be looking how media language relates to my A2 Music Video, which is Monster by The Automatic. I will be incorporating 5 theorists and how it relates to my production within the media language subject. The 5 theorists I will be using are Andrew Goodwin, Carole Vernallis, Stuart Hall, Charles Peirce and Umberto Eco.

Andrew Goodwin’s theory is on how there are 5 conventions of music videos, which then create the media language within to relate to the audience. One of these conventions is Thought beats, I used thought beats throughout my music video but mainly cutting on the beat of the guitar and lyrics, this is reflecting a typical Indie/Rock genre based video. Another convention is narrative and performance. Narrative and performance is a key convention of music video’s and this was shown in my music video, the narrative of the cookie monster and how we caught him was in twined with the band performance with instruments playing along with the track showing a link. Lastly there is Star Image this is how the main like person is portrayed as a leader/role model. Our Star Image was used through close ups and meat shots of the lead singer Paul, to focus on him and show he is the main man, the star of our music video. An example of this is where he is singing into the camera showing his confidence and posture and showing the audience how he is the Star. This therefore showing media language to the audience. We have used Andrew Goodwin’s theory and we have followed it and adapted it to our video.

Carol Vernallis is another theorist, which relates to our music video through her 4 ways of video construction to show meaning. These 4 ways of video construction include narrative, editing, camera movement and diegesis. Carole is a adaption of Andrew Goodwin’s theory but more in-depth. Narrative is debated in how it creates a clear resolution and if its disjointed or fragmented. Our music video has a clear resolution of catching the cookie monster with the net over the camera lense shot portraying that we have caught him to the audience. Editing is used using micro-elements such as cross cuts between the band performing and the narrative of catching the cookie monster another example of this is a jump cuts of the band walking up the road getting further and further away using thought beats of the guitar solo. Camera movement was used throughout our music video using micro elements such as close ups and zooms to portray media language to the audience. This included close ups of the star person to portray his significance of the video and also the movement of the hand held camera portraying a band members scared face as he is getting chased by the cookie monster this is showing a symbolic/ Humorous perspective to the audience, this is showing that we have used micro elements to show media language and get the point across to the audience.

Stuart Halls ‘Reception theory’ is also closely linked to our music video to show media language through visual micro-elements that we used. In Stuart Hall’s theory we have used a particular reading this is called the preferred reading, this means that we want the audience to see how we intended the music video to be. One example is that we have a clear resolution of the cookie monster getting caught at the end using the net over the camera shot. Another example is that we have made it humorous as the monster is intended not to be scary it’s a light hearted approach which we have taken, we used the cookie monster from sesame street which isn’t scary at all. Lastly the performance of the monster, he isn’t scary he uses humorous actions such as flopping arms and funny poses such as pretending to be a bird and smiling at the camera. Using these examples we have showed that we have used Stuart Hall’s preferred reading within his reception theory to get the point across to the audience through its micro-elements of media language.

 ‘We only think in signs’ is a theory of Charles Pierce, this is split into 3 types of signs, and these are Iconic, Index and Symbolic. Iconic signs are a relation to normality and abnormality, this is shown in our music video as the monster costume is clearly just a person in a costume not a real monster as that’s not real life, its just a fictional character. Index signs are something that has two meanings; this is also shown in our music video as we have a net over the camera shot, this is portraying that there is a net used but also that we have used this micro-element to show we have caught the cookie monster with the camera shot. Lastly there are symbolic signs, this is the audience’s own opinion of what the signs mean and how the media language of the micro elements link to there own perspective. We have used this by the performance of the cookie monster; him chocking a band member with cookies could be taken as chocking and killing him, or feeding him as a humorous act etc. even if it wasn’t how we intended into to show the certain media language across to the audience. We have used all of the sign theories and this therefore shows that we have incorporated Charles Peirce’s theory of ‘we only think in signs’ in our music video successfully.

Lastly ‘Texts have open and closed meaning’s’ from the theorist Umberto Eco. Open meanings mean that the narrative and performance in twined is ambiguous and not easy for the audience to understand the media language used. Closed Meanings is that it is easy to understand and the audience does get the concept that trying to be put across using the micro-elements to portray media language. Our music video has a closed meaning, as it’s quite a easy video to understand, we have used the language successfully so the audience doesn’t get confused of what is happening. An example of this is that we used is that the cookie monster has killed our band member and we have caught him, this is an example of how we have closed the narrative so the meaning isn’t ambiguous and hard for the audience to understand. Another example is that we have used a wanted poster shot to show we are going to catch the cookie monster and this is an easy narrative to apprehend, so we have successfully used the closed meaning not the open meaning of Umberto Eco.