Spectatorship Theory

Spectatorship Theory
There are three types of spectator:

• Passive spectator
• Negotiating spectator
• Libertarian spectator

Passive Spectator

A passive spectator is someone who lets everything wash over them, they don't question anything which means they take the preferred reading and they accept the messages and values that the text presents. They accept the characters/figures in it and are thrilled from the text.

Negotiating Spectator

A negotiating spectator has a mature response which means that they understand it's just a music video/ programme/film etc but they also interpolate themself into it to an extent. This means that the viewer is both inside and outside the film which means they question things which concludes that they are an active spectator.

Libertarian Spectator


A libertarian has an oppositional reading which means that they interpret the text in the complete opposite way that the creator wanted them to. This response is mostly associated with displeasure as they don't like the content which means they are questioning everything that is presented to them in a negative way.



Responding To Characters

• Recognition
• Alignment
• Allegiance

Recognition

We recognise the character and we translate them into a credible/convincing person e.g a gangster behaves the way we expect them to but isn't one dimensional.

Alignment

We see and feel part of a story through the character which isn't the same as identifying with them as we can be aligned with a murderer like in A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971). 

Allegiance

Allegiance is about whether we have loyalty as an audience to a character consciously or unconsciously (most mainstream films manipulate us into feeling allegiance to certain characters).

Narrative & Performance

So far, we've filmed all but one scene of our narrative and edited everything we've filmed so we're on track! We need to hurry up and film our last narrative bit because one of  our actors is going to America for three months soon, so if we don't sort out what we need to film we're a bit stuck!

As our band is Sheffield based, we are unable to film them 'on tap' as only one member lives in Bristol. This obviously isn't the best set up for our media group and music video as it's pretty much impossible to film them either rehearsing or to get them to rehearse for our benefit.

Fortunately though, they are playing a gig at a local venue in Bristol so if it's not too crowded and not a 'mosh pit' then we can film them playing Frozen there!

Male Gaze Theory

Male Gaze Theory:
In class we've been looking at the Male Gaze theory with one of our teachers in order to have a better understanding of music videos.

The male gaze theory was created by Laura Mulvey and is a theory based on how an audience view the people presented. It has three main points to it:

• How men look at women 
• How women look at other women and
• How women look at themselves

The theory relegates women to the status of an object and its visuals are presented from a viewpoint of a heterosexual man. For example in newer music videos there are sexual themes to them which convey that we look to them as an object of desire. This video is an example:

This video shows the women in skimpy tight Lycra with lots of leg view. The costumes and performance make them an object of desire as it seems to be sexy but it actually makes them look cheap. This video is bordering on sexist as there's a bunch of skimpily clad women dancing provocatively to dance music whipping their hair back and forth in a way that can only be compared to a stripper/exotic dancer. There is one man in this video and he is seen to be enjoying it by his expressions and the fact that his tongue is hanging out. However, is he next to naked? No he is not. This is why it's sexist as it only degrades the women and not the men making the women out to be cheap and easy. To be fair there are one or two groin shots (during a pan) of the man as he's stretching but he's nothing special and fully clothed so technically it's not really that 'sexy'; compared to the women.

This video is inappropriate to be on music channels such as MTV before a watershed as it's incredibly sexual and demoralising to how women act and the next generation shouldn't be damaged at such a young age by this kind of video.

Newer music videos especially the pop genre now, seem to be more and more daring. For example the artists can be seen in their videos in next to nothing. For example: 

This video can go one of two ways; either Beyonce's in her underwear because it's unnecessary but sells or because she's getting ready for her big day and the lingerie is for her wedding night. There is no real reason for Beyonce to be in her underwear. Narratively it fits but it's not necessary as she could be wearing a dressing gown or a towel or be fully clothed.

Up until her most recent album '4', Beyonce had never really done a music video where she was partially naked to that extremity. Nudity seems to be a big competition between artists in the music industry; it's also a marketing technique. Beyonce seems like she's in competition and you could compare her to Rhianna. They're both talented singers singing the same kind of songs in the same genre - R&B Pop, they both are sassy strong women and are very successful in the music industry! It seems that Beyonce is realising she's getting older and has suddenly decided to let people know that she actually has a good body and that in order to reinstate her crown of R&B Pop queen she has to sink to a new low by getting her kit off,; just like Rhianna. 

One of Rhianna's most outrageous videos is her single S&M: 

After all this information about the male gaze, this music video is quite interesting to view:

It's quite interesting and contrapuntal to watch this video as it's the opposite of the male gaze.

The male gaze doesn't just apply to the music video, it applies to the CD cover too. Here are some examples:

All three of these album covers are controversial and the gaze is explicitly male. However there are some CD covers that subvert the gaze. For example:

Advertisement

I've been looking at some music advertisements in music magazines for inspiration for our advert. Some conventions are:

• The title/band name quite big and eye catching
• The band's logo
• Having a small picture of the actual album in the bottom left hand corner of the poster
• Same album and advert image - not always but quite common
• The band's website(s)
• The release date
• A short review from a magazine/critic/radio station

Poster

Album

For our advertisement we would want a picture that is cohesive exactly with the video and also the CD front cover. We've decided that a big possibility for our advertisement would be a picture of the mask because of how much we see it in the music video so it's certainly a motif! For example Dizzee Rascal's album Tongue N Cheek is cohesive with his poster/advert as it's the same image and you can definitely recognise that it's his. Also, the Gorillaz use the same technique as their CD cover and Poster link too. We're making the front cover of the CD a photograph of the mask so we need a different picture. It can be of the mask but it needs to be taken from a different angle but it would still be cohesive. 

For our advert we've decided to use a font which we think relates to our band as it's quite gothic looking. The image we've used for our poster is one of the mask but it's different to the one we want to use for our CD case. The one we may use for our advertisement is from a diffeent angle so you can see all of the mask which is effective for us because then it's more eye catching and visually stimulating. This is the image we're thinking about using: