Formation- analysis, themes and representation (to be added to)

Top tip - repetition is an excellent learning technique. Music videos are designed to be watched over and over again, and with their short running time, it makes them excellent candidates for close textual analysis. So make sure you watch these two videos in particular again and again and again...

Context

Formation, lead single for the album Lemonade, was released the day before Beyoncé performed at the Super Bowl final in February 2016. The Formation music video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, was released with the song.
This music video has won numerous awards including a Clio Award for Innovation and Creative Excellence in a Music Video at the 2016 awards, and has been nominated in the music video category at the 59th Grammy Awards.
The video is set against the backdrop of the flooding in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and the associated racial tension in America, and also draws historical parallels with references to racism and slavery.

Task - Watch the video again, and make notes under the following questions/headings. 

• In what ways are the themes of conflict encoded in this video? What media language is used to show conflict? 

-Proairetic code of police car lights, mise-en-scene of costume with 'police' on it- you can't see the persons face only their back removing identity and emphasising it's a force not a person

-beat-matched editing in the opening builds tension

-mise-en-scene of the setting of the flood connotes distress

-aggressive style dancing at the camera 

-mise-en-scene of Beyonce wearing complete black with men standing behind her like bodyguards

-the strong lyrics emphasised by Beyonce's singing of them

-shots lasting a long make audience feel uncomfortable and unsettled- editing

-panning shots of women making eye contact with camera- direct mode of address builds conflict

-the 'formations' build a sense of unity within conflict- Beyonce dancing with other women of colour, standing next to men in full black clothes- other men dancing. dancing is a symbolic code for fighting?

-cinematography- the pans and tracking shots have a cinematic effect and build tension and strength

-women wearing the same costumes like they're a uniform for battle

-binary opposition between the 'rich' settings and the poor ones.

-references to historical moments remind the audience of the racial conflicts of the past 

-binary opposition between hd footage and vhs style

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• What are the functions and purposes of this music video? What is it trying to get its audience to do? How do you know?

It's trying to intensify the song and make the audience think about the issues raised.

• What groups are represented in this music video? Are these representations typical or subversive?

black ethnicities- mixed representation in terms of stereotypicalness. common traits are represented, e.g- good at dancing, 'ghetto.' but overall there's a positive representation- powerful- which subverts racist stereotypes common in media.

• Is this a typical music video? How do you know?

It's non-stereotypical with stereotypical elements. The dancing and singing featured are very common in a music video but the political themes it tackles are completely atypical. The use of shots of the police and floods show this.

Task - using the textual analysis toolkit, analyse how the video to Formation creates meaning for its audience

Rather than simply pointing things out, you must make explicit reference to media language in every single paragraph you write, and explain how it encodes meaning. Codes and conventions – performance/narrative/experimental features

• Camera work (framing – shot types, angle, position, movement)

long, establishing shot of Beyonce on the car in flood- immediately tells the audience something bad has happened, the half-submerged police car and houses function as hermeneutic codes, which position the audience alongside the person saying 'what happened?'- non-digetic sound (this sound also anchors the location of the song as it's an African American speaking in a New Orleans accent). framing makes Beyonce look small which shows that humans and her were a victim and have been rendered powerless. A binary opposition is set up between man-made things and nature with the mise-en-scene of the houses and water.

tracking shot of the neighbourhood positions audience as an onlooker within the neighbourhood, someone in a car going through looking.

none of the shots are still to reflect the movement Beyonce is forming, the message that both onlookers and victims of issues can no longer be still or silent.

lots of wide shots are used to convey power and impact

the camera zooms in slowly a lot to build tension and reflect distress, the audience and characters are positioned with the frame closing in around them- polysemic zoom also conveys power

Close-ups express emotion and gestures (e.g- middle finger)

Wide shots establish mise-en-scene and emphasise conditions created by Katrina

Midshots- establish characters, costume, movement and background details

• Editing – beat-matched?

Opening shots in time with the beat- the sound is unsettling and acts as a siren setting the audience on edge and translating that the shots aren't good- the audience is being shown something that should alert them. Soft and bare tones reminiscent of a serious genre of film.

Binary opposition between the day shots and succession of dark night shots immediately after- sends the audience through a journey from brief light to complete darkness. 

Binary opposition set up between the wide shots of the neighbourhood undamaged vs post hurricane

There are no consistent colour tones throughout the music video- there's a balance between cool and warm reflecting different narratives. (e.g- vhs style vs church colours)

• Elements of continuity/montage
• How does the video interpret the music and/or lyrics?

a shot of the paparazzi shows up before Beyonce sings the word.

'i came to slay bitch' 'i got hot sauce in my bag, swag' 'Bamma' 

Terms familiar to African Americans, language communicates to a black audience and a mass audience interested in afro-culture.

• Structure/narrative
• Sound

• Mise-en-scene – colour, lighting, location, costume/dress, hair/make-up 

natural/motivated lighting in all the shots to reflect this music video is focusing on a real issue and part of the issue is about natural disasters 

range of exterior and interior settings and environments (especially in the opening)- church, street, neighbourhood, inside houses, pillars) to convey that a variety of people are affected.

first wide shot of Beyonce in police car- mise-en-scene of setting (Mississippi) is a reference to Katrina

Many visual representations of black-american culture.

The man in the Fez, may allude to New Orleans organisation of cooperatives who serviced loans to Black communities (in the era of Jim Crow where it was unlikely that black people would get a loan from mainstream banks)This is a symbol of black wealth, help and progression.

The director (Melinda Matouskas) edit anchors the above visuals (t= 3:23) with the lyrics "You just might be the next Bill Gates in the making" Alluding to the Microsoft entrepreneur who is well know for his Philanthropy

Beyonce's husband, Jay-z is an entrepreneur who likewise has given his wealth to charity ($1.5 million to #blacklives matter).

The media language infers that Black people have potential to succeed.

The visual references to a minister (mid shot) and Martin Luther King (close-up) are illustrative of the religious roots of African American society.

This is offset by multiple cuts to contemporary social conditions within New Orleans depicting:-

• Gun violence

• Poverty

• Natural disaster (Katrina)

Barthes code: The narrative signifies a representation of African Americans as a resilient but oppressed people overcoming social and political prejudice through faith and the assertion of civil rights.

There are several examples of female objectification throughout the movie supporting Van Zoonen's theory.

The representations also convey additional Narratives associated with African Dance, Creole culture and African fashion/hair. Hall's theory of encoding and decoding applies as audiences will read the text in different ways from their social, cultural perspective. The layers of narrative within the video make the performance engaging and open to interpretation.

late 20th century onwards several artists Madonna, Beyonce/Lady Gaga use the corset to symbolise female empowerment (do you agree?

feminists consider the corset as a symbol of male patriarchy where womens bodies were objectified. Early 20th century

Riptide- genre conventions and postmodernism

Genre conventions

While the music video to Riptide may be a promotional video to an indie-pop song, the video itself has many references to other genres of film. We saw in the last session how the video shares many thematic and visual similarities with the surrealist genre. However, the video also makes explicit reference to the horror genre, in particular classic horror films from the 1970s.

Suspiria vs Riptide

Mise-en-scene of the exterior setting of the woods and nighttime shots.

Synthetic lighting- red, purple

the character's looking at something off-camera to the side.

 siloheuttes

the character's being grabbed and pulled out of frame/view

women's bodies being outlined.

Further examples of the horror genre in riptide

Postmodernism

Riptide combines a range of startling images, including images that are symbolically violent and sexual. We have explored the violent and negative representation of women, but there is another possibility: the director has chucked lots of things together in order to make a cool video!

Postmodernism is anti-theory and resists any definition. Much of the time, even experienced academics will completely disagree with one another on both the definition of the term, and how useful this concept actually is for the study of Media.

broadly, a postmodern text can be characterised by wilfully breaking the rules and conventions of media texts.

FIVE ASPECTS THAT COULD MAKE A TEXT POST MODERNCriticism of metanarratives – postmodern texts usually try to distance themselves from traditional ways of making meaning, and will break the rules of existing metanarratives such as religion or science (if you want to brush up on what metanarratives are, then check out this post) 

Metanarrative - Also known as a grand narrative, this refers to an overarching narrative or system of beliefs that helps us to make sense of the world.

Rejection of high culture – postmodern texts will often use a deliberately ‘trashy’ aesthetic

Breaking rules – postmodern texts often break fundamental rules of making media, for example by ‘breaking the fourth wall’

Intertextuality – postmodern texts often routinely make reference to other texts, cultures and times

Style over substance – surface meanings are seen as more important in a postmodern text than any deeper meaning

Why postmodernism?

Using postmodernism is a great way to make reference to a variety of different texts and styles in a media text. It allows the author to complete freedom to use a variety of styles from different times and places. It can arguably challenge the audience's perception of the ways in which we use media... or it could simply be an opportunity to look cool without considering deeper meanings too much. For these reasons, adopting a postmodern perspective works especially well for music videos, which are obsessed with intertextuality and providing endless style over substance.

When discussing postmodernism, it is best to make sure you tick the following boxes:

• Identify what aspects of the text are actually postmodern
• Consider why the producer has used these stylistic choices, and what effect they may have on the audience
• Consider the purpose of music videos, and exactly what they have to do to get the attention of the audience
• Explain the ideology of the producer, and question the use of postmodern aspects

Applying post-modernism to Riptide.

Criticism of metanarratives- rather than being performance or narrative-based like most other music videos as per conventions, riptide simply directly translates the lyrics of the song to the screen. They're presented as completely abstract with no connection to each other, it's just images which have nothing to do with each other.

Rejection of high culture – 

Breaking rules – 

Riptide- the representation of women.

• How are women represented in this video?

Women are represented as a spectacle in this music video- the audience is consistently positioned as a voyeur (particularly when the women are in danger and the audience should help). Instead, they're watching them in moments of distress for extended amounts of time due to the use of editing. There are many mid-shots of their body and medium shots of their face to represent them as something to be valued by looks. This use of cinematography positions the audience as directly behind/in front of them, they're on the same level as them most of the time and it's very 'casual'- like the audience is there. This represents them as fairly ordinary- they're not placed on a pedastool. 

As previously mentioned the women are often in moments of distress- conveyed by mise-en-scene of low-key lighting, horror genre iconography and performance. This represents them as the stereotypical 'damsel in distress.' However, the woman can be seen to break free from the rope tying her to the tree- whilst this is the only example of the woman helping herself it does break the stereotype.

Furthermore, this video can be seen as challenging gender representation. The video begins with the women conforming to social norms of beauty and glamour- that is associated with women in the mainstream media. However, as the video progresses and you return to the character, her appearance alters as her make-up has smudged and her expressions become more and more vacant.
bell hooks would argue that this video is sending contradictory messages about gender. She would question whether the video is objectifying women or is it rejecting the social norms that women face.

Throughout the music video women are considered to be objectified; which reinforces the idea of a patriarchal society and conforms to Van Zoonen's theory.

• What is the symbolism of the mise en scene of the rope and the dental brace?

The rope and dental brace represent breaking free, the cu shot of the woman with the dental brace reflects how she feels trapped, the metal covering all her face connoting this further but also conveying how uncomfortable she must be. The shot focuses on the brace and her eyes, her gaze lands away from the camera connoting she is looking at the dentist (anchored by the lyrics). The uncomfortableness and sense of being trapped set up by the mise-en-scene tells the audience she wants to escape and break free.

“Is sung paralleled with the imagery of a girl escaping from a tree she had been tied to and her then running towards the sea away from the camera. It is almost as if she has escaped the relationship and is running towards the riptide which will carry her towards the dark side away from the singer. This idea of a fading relationship becomes more prominent as the video progresses with the light become lower as the song progresses, with the beginning shots being bathed in golden sunlight and the final shots a dull evening light. That light being the personification of the relationship which it is going out. This is what drew me to the video and was what I found so interesting about it, that it bares a fairly serious message, about inevitability not only in the context of a relationship, but in life in general. However the video attempts to contradict this and fool the audience into thinking that everything is random and the images are merely literal translations of the more ambiguous lyrics. The way in which it forces you to rewatch in order to find out what is going on is very powerful and achieves the ultimate goal of a music video to create interest in the song.”

• In what ways are we positioned as an audience?

Positioned as a voyeur (see above), this is highlighted particularly by the shots of people turning to look at the audience connoting they've been staring, most of the time their expressions are blank creating an uneasy atmosphere and making the audience want to stare more rather than look away as they 'should.'

The music video is practically formed of pov shots, reinforcing this voyeuristic positioning but also giving the audience personal access to all these women- representing them all as too desirable to pick one but also enforcing the hegemonic value that it's okay for men to be 'womanizers' but not for women to be 'sluts.'

The audience have a very limited point of view, they're not aligned to any one character and whilst they see recurring shots of characters they don't really know anyone- only being presented with abstract scenarios. This is effective as they become dependent on the lyrics for anchorage, thus the mv acts as an ideal advert for the song as the audience become attached. 

• What links all the women in this video?

They're almost all blonde, they're all hegemonically attractive. Although a lot of them are in situations that distort their attractiveness (e.g- braces, horror iconography) they're all fundamentally ideal. This supports Van Zoonen's male gaze theory

• What message about women is constructed in this video, and what hegemonic expectations does this reinforce?