Described by Agile Films in 2012 as "an exciting new talent…
entirely self-taught… working in a dizzying variety of styles across live
action and animation". He has made a diverse portfolio for himself, working
with the likes of companies such as Walkman, and artists like Alt+J and Lianne
La Havas.
Southam operates with a "one man band" mentality, performing
the tasks needed to make a music video by himself. That means he would setup
and film, organize lighting and edit the footage all by himself. Making sure he
could take full credit for all his work but now as he has become more popular,
he has a director of photography in order to help him with his camera and
lighting work.
He prefers to make music videos than to make commercials as
there is more artistic freedom in making them and commercials are often
restrictive in what directors can and cannot do. Vimeo is his more preferable website
to share his videos as he feels it has higher status than YouTube and is
becomingly in the music industry.
His Works
His breakthrough came with the music video for “Tessellate”
by Alt-J, he had a budget of £10,000, use of a very large cast and was able to
add special effects through the use of AfterEffects. In regards to a storyline,
there isn’t much to go on as it consists mainly of people standing around doing
nothing and doesn’t really relate to the actual song, suggesting a
disjuncturing relation between the two.
Another music video he is known for is the one for Chase and Status' "Lost and Not Found",working with a budget of £50,000, filming in Los Angeles and inspired by Massive Attack's "Unfinshed Sympathy". Alex wanted to get an early 1990's video look and film the entire music video in one take with a Steadicam. He intially filmed the entire video at 36 frames per second instead of the normal 24, slowing it down during editing. There are only three shots in this whole vido, which really emphasisie the lack of editing put into this video. In regards to Goodwin's theory, you could argue the music video is an illustrative one as it relates to the lyrics of the song, a fugitive on the loose.
Richard Dyer, an English academic, proposed Star Theory, the idea that
artists are manufactured by institutions for financial purposes. He believes that artists are artificially constructed though images such as
films, magazines, advertising and music in order to attract a specific target
audience, with there being a ‘niche’ and ‘mainstream’ market for audiences, record
labels therefore have to market their artists differently to cater for their
target audiences. Dyer claims that artists who seem ‘real’ and are not prepared by record
labels who create fake/artificial images for them are preferred by consumers.
Consumers love artists who convey their true emotions in their songs and
image as they themselves can easily identify with them. For the artist, they
can use this ‘realness’ as unique selling point.
Culture
He beleived artists create trends, which their fans could follow while they listened and consumed their music. Fans would often copy their clothing and hair styles that their favourite artists would have. This was especially evident during the rise of The Beatles in to mainstream society, fans of the groups would often copy their favourite member's haistyle. With the advent of new technology such as the internet and social media, audiences can now have even more access into their favourite artists life.
Representation
The music indusrty is able to create and promote artists who specialise in different genrse as they are able to appeal to different target audiences. For example, if an artist specialised in rap music, the music industry would help the artist develop him/her to have the image of a rap artist and help the person appeal to the audience thats interested in that kind of music.
Deconstructing Britney Spears
When Britney Spears was introduced to the mainstream
audience, she began to raise issues regarding the imagary of females within the
music industry. Then, the music industry was dominated by males so it
was initially thought for it to be very hard for her to break out and become a star. Her initial image
was seen to be a role model for the average teenage girl.
Her early videos were able to appeal to the young female groups through really 'girlie' imagary e.g. bedroom culture, dolls, signature pigtails look with choreographed
dance routines which girls could copy them and feel like they are part of her 'gang'. In regards to Laura
Mulvey's theory, she could also be seen as exploiting male audiences by being the object of erotic desire through her clothing, wearing a
crop top and some kind of sports bra showing off her body to the
audience.
She was able to connect with most teenage girls by raising up some the problems they go through with her songs e.g the music video for 'From the Bottom of my Broken Heart' addresses relationships with boys.
What was quite unique about some of her music videos was the ability to empower and exploit at the same time. For example, in the music video for 'I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet A Woman', she empowers by showing she's mature and moved on from her childish gimmicks but also exploits through revealing clothing attracting voyeuristic views from male audiences.
Recieving constant backlash over the choice of clothing in her videos, she used the music video for 'Overprotected' as a way of responding to the comments being made against her saying that she is a grown woman and doesn't to be need told what to wear. She believed showing off your body was a form of empowerment for women and being able to do that was a good thing.
More recently, Britney released a music video for 'Hold It Against Me', she used this a way of rejecting all the previous images she had formed and try to start afresh, she wears a white wedding dress to empasize this message like she was pure and innoncent but was forced into marrying this industry. She shoots paint at TV screens showing footage of her previous music video and shows a scene of her fighting herself which I infered to be this constant internal conflict she has between her personal and professional life.
Adele market's her image in quite a unique way in contrast to other artists in today's industry. She wants to be known for the true talent of her singing, the depth of her songs and not for the controversy that comes with being a celebrity today. In the music video for 'Someone Like You' is set in a real setting, there are no gimmicks, just her walking around and singing the song. She isn't wearing any fancy clothes and presents herself as a very ordinary person, the same as everyone else. By doing this, she able to connect to women who are similar in looks and age to her.
Lady Gaga markets her image very differently to Adele. She doesn't have a voice as powerful as Adele's so uses other tools of marketing to promote herself. Her one of a kind music videos could be seen as works of art, often causing controversy. The persona she has and the costumes she wears are often regarded as unconventional and strange, appealing to niche groups such as the LBGT community.
Media texts such as film, TV and games are consumed by audiences who experience these texts in a number of ways. The nature of the media markets are rapidly changing, this is due to the dramatic rise of piracy within the markets causing a massive decline in the financial transaction that audiences undergo when consuming texts, particularly music.
As a result of this behaviour, music videos are now primarily as a promotional tool. Institutions such as Amazon, Sony and Universal exhibit, market and produce these media texts for audiences to consume.
