Auteur Theory

Auteur Theory

Auteur theory arrived in the 1950s by French film critics. It is the theory of filmmaking where the director is labelled as the creator in a motion picture. The auteur theory is described as the director who oversees all audio and visual aspects of the motion picture is considered as the ‘author’ of the film rather than the writer.

Alfred Hitchcock became known for his significant style of films. He addressed certain elements that he focussed on in his films such as:

Shot size

Framing

Composition

Camera Angles

Camera movement

Focus

His films noticed him as he was given the name ‘the master of suspense’ and often played with the audience’s feelings. He also has many cameo appearances in his films.

Hype Williams

Hype Williams is known as an American music video and film director. He first displayed his work by tagging local billboards, storefronts and playgrounds using HYPE as his graffiti tag.

Williams has created and produced a number of music videos for a number of artists such as:

California Love – 2Pac

The Rain, Supa Dupa Fly – Missy Elliot

Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See – Busta Rhymes

Big Pimpin – Jay-Z

Gold Digger, Heartless, All Of The Lights – Kanye West

Not Myself Tonight - Christina Aguilera

Viva La Vida – Coldplay

So Sick – Ne-Yo

…And many more.

Hype Williams has a signature styles used throughout many of his music videos that he has produced. 

Another ‘signature style’ involves placing shots in regular widescreen ratio while a second shot is split and placed in the upper and lower bars. Also known as banners. Videos that William has incorperated this style are:

Diamonds on My Neck – Smitty
So Sick – Ne-Yo
My Hood – Young Jeezy
Check on It – Beyonce
…And many others.





Furthur more, he often uses aerial and tracking shots which move backwards or forwards. He also involves quick flash cuts that often match the beat of a specific point in the song, these techniques can be seen numerous times in videos such as: 
Stupid Hoe - Nicki Minaj
Not Myself Tonight – Christina Aguilera
Only U – Ashanti

It is a method that is often used by Hype which allows his videos to be a mixture between dynamic, multi-dimensional and atmospheric as opposed to having static, mundane camera angles.




From 2003, Williams has adapted to a signature style where a shot from just the artist's torso and upwards is showing and a solid colour background with a different, soft, colour light being projected in the center of the background. This gives a sense of illumination of the background by the dominance of the artist. This has been displayed in videos such as:
Gold Digger – Kanye West
Digital Grl Remix – Jamie Foxx
Video Phone – Beyone

Inspirational music videos

We Found Love by Rihanna is a music video that always springs to mind. It has numerous things going on at once creating a busy, exciting atmosphere in the video. It is about love, drugs and addiction, and how it can cause danger and consequences. I think it is portrayed very well in this particular video using special effects giving it a surreal element to it. It is an inspiring video as in the end, her leaving represents her getting the negative, harmful things out of her life. The drugs, love and addiction.

 
 Michael Jackson's Thriller was one of the first music videos to create a huge impact in the music industry. It is without fail, a memorable video with help to its exotic dance moves, acting and story line. The creativity in this video is inspiring as it grabbed the publics attention when it was first released and still does now.

.
..Baby One More Time by Britney Spears was a music video i grew up to watching. It was memorable for me at a young age as she represented an innocent teenage school girl which girls that age and younger would look up to. Her iconic outfit and dance moves rubbed off on most school girls when it was released making it an inspiring music video. The representation of her day dreaming in class relates to normal students.

Case Study Gold Digger Music Video

In class we watched Kanye West and Jamie Fox’s Gold Digger music video to compliment Andrew Goodwins theory.

At the beginning of the video, we see the relationship between the music and visuals by its fast pace editing that matches the beat to the soundtrack at 0:20 seconds.

There is a clear relationship between the lyrics and visuals throughout this music video. As the lyrics talk about money, a clip is shown of Jamie Foxx doing a money gesture with his hands. Another example is when Kanye West raps '18 years, she got one of your kids' a clip of a young boy is shown.

Gold Digger music video demonstrates its R&B genre in relation to its characteristics about women and money. We see this by the different shots of women dressed and posed seductively while Kanye West raps and Jamie Foxx sings about them and money.

Throughout the video, there are clips of women posing on the front of magazines, promoting. This relates to Goodwin's intertextual reference principle. At the very beginning, the Gold Digger video is set out like a film with different credits on the screen introducing the video.

The notions of looking principle is used in a male dominating style which is very common in R&B music videos as the characteristics are very similar. Jamie Foxx looks directly at the camera frequently, where as Kanye often poses and raps directly at the ladies that are dressed in a prerogative manor.

In this particular music video, the demands of the record label are noticeable. It gives the artist, Kanye West a representation of himself. An example of this is how he wears his white shirt which is half tucked in showing his belt.

Overall, by analysing this particular music video, it is clear that Gold Digger uses and compliments Andrew Goodwin's six principle theory.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Goodwin’s Theory

Andrew Goodwin has established a number of key features in music videos. His principles are:

There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals within the music video.

Goodwin says there is a constant connection between what is visually presented in the music video and lyrics sung by the artist. This suggests the visuals will illustrate, highlight or contradict what is portrayed in the lyrics.  

There is a relationship between the music and visuals. 

Andrew Goodwin believes that the relationship between the visuals in the music video amplifies the music by its editing, movement of shots, timing and the speed of cutting in-between shots.

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, which are complex and diverse in terms of music style 

Goodwin suggests there are characteristics within each genre of music that are highlighted through music videos. For example, country music includes lyrics and visuals about failed loves, deep loves, loneliness and usually written in the form of a letter. In country music videos, it is common to see the artist singing with their guitar. They are usually set in the countryside amongst farmyards and fields.

Record companies request close ups of the main artist so he/she is established in the video

Goodwin says it is likely for music videos to contain many close ups as it helps the audience to recognize and become familiar with the main artist and help portray their representation.

Notions of looking

Andrew Godwin claims there are numerous ways of looking in a music video whether it’s directly at the camera or through a mirror. This also helps establish the artist through their lip sinking whilst looking at the camera, almost like they are narrating or telling a story.

Intertextual references to other music videos or films  

Goodwin’s principle of intertextual reflects off of other media’s such as films, video games or television. A lot of music videos are inspired within these categories of the media.

Music Video Timeline

In my research for my A2 practical work i established the key moments in music video history 

A2 media studies task

The A2 task is to create a music video and ancillary tasks that involve making a digi-pack and a magazine advert. I am looking forward to starting this task and excited to get started on planning and producing a music video. I am intrigued to use photo shop as I haven’t used it before. I am very excited to shoot the music video and edit it on final cut express because I have always had a strong interest in music and I am a big fan of music videos.