editing -28/03/11

To day me Toby and Ashlie done some more editing, we added dissolves from one scene to another , also we added an old grainy effect to the scene's which look like there in the past for the scene which show that she is happy and also the scenes that are a bit jumpy .

The editing it going well, the hole group is pulling together in-order to reach the show case on friday , so were all working hard to meet the deadline as there is allot to do and very little time .

editing-24/03/11

Today me and my group member Tobey , done some editing on are music video . we added effects into the scene were she's crying to the scene were she's drinking in-order to create a transition so that the video looks smooth on the eyes . we also added new scenes so that the narrative was more clears , and also added more dissolve affects in the first scene to make it seem like the scene is a memory.

Me and toby worked well together today as we bounced off of each other ideas and also when editing it is always helpful to have a second opinion on what to do, so that we can try to make the most of the footage in order to produce a music video which is original a fresh .

editing-14/03/11

To day i have been editing the music video . Adding the scene wear jennie and toby are spinning looking like a happy couple. Also i have been trying to sort the timing of the scene's making shore that every scene is in-sink with the music, this took me around an hour and a half as we have made scenes longer and shorter this means that others scenes intern become out of time , so i have spent this lesson sorting out this problem, to make sure that the timing are correct and not jumpy.

filming- last few shots 08/03/11

Today we had to re-film shots of Jennie in the cafe as when we were editing we found there was a problems with the face shot of her in the cafe. We also filmed the final scene's which we need of a couple in the cafe. We still have a few more shots which we planed to film the nexst lesson which include as shot of toby getting a ice cream pushed into his face , and also a few shots in jennies house of her looking out of the window at a couple .

If feel that we are on track as we are mid-way threw editing and more or less filmed all shots except for a few . So i am confident that we will have are end product by the due date as we are every organized as a group .

Lady GaGa- Bad Romance- music video analysis

Lady Gaga’s videos and performances are extremely symbolic and filled with hidden messages. Her latest video, named “Bad Romance”, describes the dark and ritualistic inner-workings of the entertainment industry, by symbolically depicting Gaga as a sex slave. This article examines the occult symbols present in the video and its hidden meaning.

The video for the song Bad Romance is a mix of deep symbolism with sheer randomness, creative fashion with corporate product placements and modern day decadence with religious imagery, all rolled up in a great big music industry celebration. Gaga uses her odd-ball theatrical presence to its full extent to shock, creep-out and fascinate the viewers. I’ve mentioned the presence of mind control elements, of the horned god Baphomet, of secret societies and so on. Far from steering away from those themes, Gaga’s latest offering incorporates all of them in this video, which is a great big metaphor for the music industry. Let’s look at the song.

Bad Romance is the first single out of Gaga’s Fame Monster album. If you look back at her past works, the main message of her music is that she is willing to do anything, even sacrifice herself, to obtain fame. The video continues in the same vein by depicting Gaga as a willing victim in the music industry’s shady inner-workings. She wants to live a Bad Romance with the abusive, cruel and satanic music industry. She’s aware of all of its flaws but she still desires to be part of it more than anything else. She is a Fame Monster…she feeds off of fame…she enjoys being famous…if she is not famous, she’ll die or something…you get the picture. At face value, the song lyrics seem to be about her wanting to get “banged” by a kind of psychopath, but the video reveals that the psychopath is in fact the music industry.

The song starts with a weird chant that goes

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
Roma-roma-mamaa!
Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance

This is the type of senseless crap drunk people like to yell in those disco dance parties you crazy kids go to. Is there a deeper meaning to it? Gaga announces it in a weird, gothic accent, in the manner of a ceremonial/incantation, a little like the “Bum-bum-bedum” of Rihanna’s Disturbia (article here). Ra, as the name of the ancient Egyptian sun god, is still of great importance in today’s occultism (see the “Eye of Ra”, the All-Seeing Eye). Roma may be a reference to the roman catholic church, but I’m not sure. This could be interpreted in many ways so I won’t linger on it.

I want your ugly
I want your disease
I want your everything
As long as it’s free
I want your love
(Love-love-love I want your love)

I want your drama
The touch of your hand
I want your leather-studded kiss in the sand
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
(Love-love-love I want your love)

Right away, it is obvious that the love that Gaga is seeking is wrong and sick. She’s a sex slave and apparently, she likes it. She knows that the industry is ugly but she still wants in. There is an obvious sense of sadomasochism, as she seems to know that this love (of success in the music industry) will hurt her and treat her badly, but she’s up for it. As we will examine in the video, there is also a spiritual meaning to the lyrics where fame equals submitting to the dark, satanic side of the music industry. In other words, the song is also about submitting to evil and the imagery of the video corroborates this fact.

I want your horror
I want your design
‘Cause you’re a criminal
As long as your mine
I want your love
(Love-love-love I want your love-uuhh)

I want your psycho
Your vertigo stick
Want you in my rear window
Baby you’re sick
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
(Love-love-love I want your love)

Here again, there is a mix of the “horror” of evil with hardcore sex references, which convey the fact that she wants to be “penetrated” by this evil influence in order to gain its favors. There are references to Hitchcock movies (Psycho, Vertigo) that are cleverly turned into sexually explicit lyrics.

During the bridge, Gaga sings emotionally “I don’t wanna be friends“. She does not want to be an outsider of the music industry, she wants to be part of it. Later she says “I want your love and, All your lovers’ revenge”, which means that she wants all of the attention of the music industry to the point that she also wants the “hate” of the artists who are jealous of her.

Of course, the lyrics are open to interpretation but the visuals of the video really give a particular meaning to the words. Gaga is not singing to a person, but to a group, an entity, an organization. She is singing to the Illuminati, to the music industry, to Baphomet: to the ones that have the power to make her famous. She wants to be part of that sinister and corrupt system and write a Bad Romancewith it.

Music Video Analysis: 99 Problems

Both Jay-Z’s third single album “99 Problems” and its corresponding music video were released in 2004. Although Jay-Z is known today as a famous rapper and a producer of Roc-A-Fella record label, he did not start off with the most fortunate setting. The music video portrays the ghetto of Brooklyn, New York in the 1990s and illustrates the struggles that Jay-Z had to go through during his career in order to reach the top of the music industry. This hip-hop music video won “three MVPA awards in 2005, MTV Video Music Awards, Video of the Year, and the Best Male Video” (Wikipedia).

The primary audience for this music video is African American males. The second verse of the music video shows Jay-Z getting pulled over by a Caucasian policeman for something coming out from a discriminating heart—he gets pulled over for driving fifty-five miles per hour in a fifty-four mph zone. Feeling discriminated, Jay-Z raps about what happened and shows that this incident is just one of the many incidents of which him and his race deal with in their daily lives. Driving one mile over the speed limit is something that police would believe is not worth wasting time or effort to pull one over. However, because Jay-Z is from African decent, it is implied that Caucasians do not feel safe about African Americans driving around the streets—Caucasians may believe that African Americans are dangerous, criminals, and/or a possible threat to the community.
Another verse in the song refers to the court trial that Jay-Z faced in 1999. One day in “Kit Kat Klub”, located in Times Square of New York City, Jay-Z “was accused of stabbing record executive Lance ‘Un’ Rivera for Rivera’s bootlegging of Jay-Z’s third record ‘Life and Times of S. Carter’” (Wikipedia, Biography). This incident led Jay-Z to court for a trial. In the end, the court ruled that Jay-Z can bail out for half of a million dollars for what he had done and this illustrates his power in the music industry and is influence allowing him to be bailed.

The effect of music video's on the audience

Music has a been and is presently used in different cultures for different reasons. Music can be associated with religious establishments, dancing, theater, concerts, recording devices, and through out televisions. Overall, it has always been a form of expressing oneself. Specifically, music is as unique as each person here, but should artists express themselves in ways that poorly influence our young people?

In 1981, our televisions began to introduce visual expression into our homes through music videos. It was the first advertised-supported televisions network and it was call MTV. In 1985, VH1 was launched as a second network playing a popular music format as opposed to the rock format shown on MTV. For the first time, viewers could “see” their favorite songs performed and expressed without going to a concert. This allowed our young people to see a world not as readily available before.

Music videos in and of itself is not something that can be considered the absolute cause, but rather the catalysis that for some young people gives them the ideas and impressions to look or act in a certain way. Today young people are anxiously looking older and determined to grow up faster than ever before. They have strong desires to emulate some of these performers. In a recent Newsweek magazine, an article was featured about Brittany Spears. She was cited for changing her image in recent concerts and videos to appear much more seductive. As a 17 year old performer, her outfits consist about skin-tight, sexy attire worn during provocative dance sequences.

Through the artists use of videos, young people have been encouraged to “walk the walk”. As a parent of young children, I am very concerned of the influence music and its artists might have on them. Hopefully, as adults we will try to continue to monitor this situation. A rap singer, Todd Smith, also known as LL Cool J is a father of four living in Westchester County, New York. LL Cool J says, “My job is to raise my kids and explain to them the difference between entertainment and reality, and other parents need to do the same thing”. (Newsweek)