Roland Barthes

Barthes's analysis is influenced by the structuralist linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure; both Barthes and Saussure aim to explore and demystify the link between a sign and its meaning. But, Barthes moves beyond structuralism in that he criticises the propensity of narratology to establish the overall system out of which all individual narratives are created, which makes the text lose its specificity différance. Barthes uses five specific "codes" that thematically, semiotically, and otherwise make a literary text reflect structures that are interwoven, but not in a definite way that closes the meaning of the text. Therefore, Barthes insists on the (different degrees of) plurality of a text - a plurality that should not be reduced by any privileged interpretation. Barthes also flags the way in which the reader is an active producer of interpretations of the text, rather than a passive consumer.
Barthes defines five codes that define a network (or a topos) that form a space of meaning that the text runs through. But, these codes and their mutual relations are not clear structures, because it would close the multivariance of the text. Thus, Barthes defines the code in a vague way: Each of the units of the text marks a virtual digression toward a catalogue of other units. Each code also appears as voices that altogether weave the text, though each of them for a while may dominate the text.
Two of the codes are sequential and structure the text in an irreversible way The hermeneutic code denotes an enigma that moves the narrative forward; it sets up delays and obstacles that maintain suspense. The proairetic (ACT) code organises (small) intertwined sequences of behaviors. Each such sequence has its own regularity that does not follow the logic of the narrative (though it is used in it).
The rest of the codes are reversible. The two of them structure the text: The semic code (SEM) designates a special kind of signifiers (e.g. person, a place, an object) to which adhere unstable meanings and that enable the development of a theme through the story.The symbolic code (SYM) are meanings that are constitutive (stemming from the fields of rhetoric, sexuality, or economy), but cannot be represented in the text, except in metonymies, which renders the text open to different interpretations.
The last code refers to meanings that are external to the text: The cultural code is the references to science or wisdom (sagesse).
Barthes does not provide an overall structure for how the codes are integrated because he wants to preserve the plurality (multivalence) of the text. Since reading is plural, a different reader might invoke the codes differently and combine them differently ending up with a different understanding. Moreover, whereas the classical text tends to enforce a particular model of integrating the codes, the modern plural text does not.

Album cover research

I have been looking at album covers for the genre of music which our song is in, which is pop.
So far what I have noticed is the use of bright colours, to make the picture look feminine, the clothes that the artist or artists are in always seem to be dresses or skirts, which just add to the fun, sassy, cute and feminine vibe to the single or album cover.
the aim is to make the artist or group look attractive and use the 'gaze' to make people want to buy the single, lets be honest being pretty, feminine and cute sells,you want to make the use of having a pretty artist.
After looking at other pop artists single covers I have decided that I definitely want to include our artist in my album cover, and have her in a bright coloured dress with bright lipstick and have the photo as either a close up or long shot, if I decide to have a long shot I would want something fun in the background to fit with the song, so maybe having a bouncy castle in the background would be a good idea.

Our Idea!

I've just watched pinks new music video for Raise your glass, and amazingly she has some of the ideas in hers that we have in ours, the whole idea of the WW1 we can do it posters she has Incorporated into her video, with the wearing the head scarf and the flexing of one arm is exactly what we have just filmed in our first filming session, because we are using these posters as the anti feminist iconography in our music video.
Pink as an artist is also someone who is portraying what we are trying to get our performer in our music video to be like, not taking any messing around from anyone and a strong personality, coming across quirky and confident.

Ode to the great art of advertising!

You watch these highly elaborate music videos and can imagine the thousands of pounds that get spent on them! And what better way than through the support of advertising?
In this lady gaga video I have seen eight different brands that this music video has provided advertising for (so this is why the video is so good) once vocal artists have become successful company's will pay more for the artist to advertise for them in their music videos, and there for the singer will become better promoted, having better promotional videos.
I think from the non existant budget that we have, we will be able to produce a good video, having the ability to make an audience watch it more than once.

Somthing we just stuck together!

So the other day our group went out to do some practice filming just to get some shots done and to try out our ideas with the song we have chosen.
After getting it back, and uploading the shots we realised the extent of how many shot types we are actually going to need to make our video really good, and also how we couldn't really make much up from what we got, however we managed to do a few little bits, and this is what we done, the first short video we put together was a few shots to our song, and the second is just a bit of a trial of our editing skills with what we filmed and a different song:

Feminism

Our music video is going to go against all the typical feminist views of women because we think it fits well with our song, our song is about men constantly chatting up girls, and how they are fed up with it.
This is like taking an action against the feminine view men have of women and seeing them as an object of lust and attraction.
We want to make sure the actress we have in our video comes across as quirky and fun, and kind of taking the mick out of a mans view on women in today's society, so for example we were thinking of having one of our locations in a kitchen which is supposedly seen as a woman's place in a house, however we wont have our actress cooking she will be doing something like watching her boyfriend cook or clean.

Idea Change

So originally our group though it was a good idea to present our music video with a band, however after thinking about it A LOT!! we Have decided that it would be best to present it as a soloist, we have decided this because our song is performed by Lily Allen who is a soloist, and it would make more sense to fit the type of audience that would want to watch our music video.
Also it would be more practical for us to get one person performing in the video, it hasn't had a big impact on all our ideas, everything we planned to do will still be the same except with one person doing it all and not swapping between people in different verses.
We think that a soloist instead of a group works better with our song, and is more practical for our ideas, and works perfectly because we will not need to change any of our story board ideas.