One of my favourite videos from the previous student's at college is Hannah Dang, Hanna Strolley, Remina Akhtar and Nadia Begum's video to the song Spectrum by Florence + the Machine.
I think this video is really vibrant and exciting. Their location is clearly in Brick Lane/Shoreditch and I think their choice of location works really well with the song. It is obvious that their location is a major part to their video - at the very beginning, of their video, before we even see the artist, they have edited to the beat showing lots of cut away shots of the location.
They clearly show a number of bass tracks throughout the video.
I also really like the way they have edited it, by using coloured filters on some of the footage as well as using slow motion in some parts.
This video is completely different to the original which I think is really positive.
Laura
Mulvey's theory on representation is that women in music videos are 'passive'
and presented as objects of male desire.
They
are 'styled accordingly' and dressed to appeal to men, (most of the time with
little clothing) who are the 'active' ones.
Males
have more 'active', important roles than women in music videos, and are
styled/presented how they want to be, and fully clothed.
Videos
are marketed towards the male viewer, and everything in the video is
exclusively for the 'male gaze' - everything is for their benefit.
Here are two videos that I feel illustrate Mulvey's theory:
Blurred Lines - Robin
Thicke
The women are
presented as objects of male entertainment; they are degraded by being made to
perform acts such as riding a bike and having a model car balanced on them as
they are on their hands and knees as the men watch them. They are made to walk
as if on a catwalk in front of the men, as if their sole purpose is to look
good and be on display for the men, much like mannequins in a shop window. They
are also made to dance in front of the men, like performers in a circus, and
bend over in front of the men.
The women in this
video are wearing very little clothing (in some shots there is implied nudity),
while the men are fully clothed. In one scene, one of the women is sitting on a
stool as one of the males is holding a brush to brush her hair. This implies
that her hair should be groomed like a horse's would be, and should be 'styled
accordingly' to how the man wants it to look; she should be appealing to the man. The women also appear to be
wrapped in plastic in some of the scenes; this implies that they are
shop-bought objects, purely there to entertain men.
In one scene, one of
the women lights a cigarette for one of the men, as if she is a servant to him;
he then proceeds to very disrespectfully blow cigarette smoke into her face as
she coughs and is clearly not enjoying it. The lack of respect for women
continues when one is smacked on the bum by a man, and again when one is held
by the hair and 'walked' like a dog as if her hair is the lead; this implies
that the men think that the women are nothing more than animals.
This de-humanisation
is the lowest form of degradation, and is also shown when one of the women
'meows' like a cat. There are lots of animals in the video, and they are placed
in the frames along with the women, as if the women are part of the animals.
Attack - 30 Seconds To Mars
In this video, there is implied nudity from the women, while the men are all fully clothed. In a few scenes, it seems as if the women are being slightly man-handled. They move in a 'seductive' way, stroking their legs, as if they are there to please the men. There are also shots of the women with their legs open, which is extremely uncomfortable to watch from my point of view, but from a man's perspective; the 'male gaze', it would be enjoyable.
