COS - Analysis of promotional campaigns

Modestep-Sunlight

Genre and Narrative
Using Goodwin's theory to deconstruct this music video, the text is disjunctive as it follows the lives of elderly people throughout a day, carrying out activities associated with young people, such as drug taking and riding BMX's and as nothing to do with the lyrics of the song, but there actions are widely associated with dance music. This leads to more consumption from the audience, and the tounge in check nature helps to make it a feel good song.
The video is very fetishistic, featuring several scenes involving strippers and young pretty women which add to the party atmosphere of the video and help to make it more interesting and more 'out there' as this is not behaviour that you would expect from the elderly, giving the video repeatability.
The video can be considered artistic as it challenges stereo types of 'boring' old people with its unrealistic nature.
Media Language
There is no purpose to this video, as it does not follow a story line, but a day in their lives, however it does help to make their group image fun and as it was their break through hit, it lets the audience know what they are all about, which is fun and partying, ignoring the social restraints of society, as their video is  ideologically destabilizing.
They use a high cutting rate in their editing to create a fast paced all action series of events, and colour flashes on the screen to make it more lively, as well as a filter which brings out darker colours at night as if it was filmed on a phone at a party. The camera work is deliberately done as if it was hand held, to make it seem as if it was fly on the wall and make it seem more realistic. The Mise-en-scene involved includes loads of drugs and youthful items to make them seem as if they are hard-core party animals.
This video reminds me of the classic film 'Ferris Beulers day off' as it shows what would be the day of their life, doing whatever they wanted and just outright enjoying themselves, however as old people not young.
The lead singer of Modestep is shown at the show at the end of the video performing at their party, and their logo is shown on the balloon of laughing gas, which helps to build their star image and lets the audience know they are present even though the video is not about them. This is a feature of Dyers theorey

Sebastian Ingrosso - Reload

 



Institution and audience
This video requires focused viewing as it is a set story line with many unanswered questions, such what is making the people teleport, and weather it is futuristic or historic, due to the apparently stone age people, compared with the futuristic teleporter and modern landscapes. This requires the audience to sit and watch it instead of having it on in the background. It follows Todorov's Equilibrium theory as the world starts in balance, a disequilibrium arises, the girl disappearing and he eventually finds her and returns home, creating the new equilibrium.
The video is futuristic and feature technological aspects such as the light cube, this is common within the electric dance music scene, which is considered futuristic.
Representation
This video is progressive concerning racial ideology, as it shows an inter-racial couple living together and gives them complete prevalence as they are the only people in the video. They are on their own in the cave and do not have any clear civilised settlement, which suggests that it is a time before any racial barriers and shows them to not care about any of this, and they only care about each other, as he is shown completely disregarding his life running into the dinosaurs mouth into the unknown to follow his partner.
Using Barthes theory, an action code is used, in terms of the man having to save the woman, this is quite regressive and shows the typical damsel in distress and hints that she cant care for herself.

Tiesto - Secrets

Media Language
I would consider this video very artistic as it compares the sturdy boring warehouse, packed with colourless cardboard boxes with the vibrant behaviour of young adults, who appear to be in the life of a video game and are running around shooting lasers at each other. It shines a fun light into a commercial building and suggests to me breaking free from normal life, especially boring jobs such as factory workers. They appear to have broken in showing youthfulness and excitement. I believe it is a reference to having more fun in life and having fun, disagreeing with boring modern life.
Visual techniques within this video help to create ideologies, such as the editing makes the people seem more lively, such as the high cutting rate gives the effect of fast moving action and energy, the camera work features loads of close ups of mechanical/electrical looking components which look futuristic and help to make them seem modern and technologically aware like the youth of today. The Mise-en-Scene used includes their guns, which look like they are from an arcade as they are plastic and colourful, this gives the impression of fun and joy as this is synomanus with arcades.
Institution and Audience
Although this video does not have a real story line, in terms of Todorov's, it does require focused viewing as you wonder what they are doing breaking into the warehouse, and why they have the chips on their neck, this leads to questions arising and leads to the video having repeatability.
Much like the Reload video, this genre of music, EDM, has futuristic connotations to do with it, which spring from the electrical sounds and the equipment/computers used to make it, which explain the chips in the back of their neck and the simulator at the end.

Analysis of Digipack-Netsky 2

This front pane of Netskys digipack consists of his face, which is quite conventional of dance music, as the artist is not really featured prominently in music videos, so they have to get their face known to their audience so they are able to consume them. The simplicity of this cover really shows the artist as just a normal guy, making him relatable to the audience, with the standard typed text in the middle. He is also looking directly at you, making it a first person mode of address.






The colour scheme of the digipack is very simple and honest in black and white, this adds to his simplistic metanarrative he is attempting to create, he is attempting to be pure and innocent. This is not very conventional of this music genre, which is widely associated as party music, and raves. However this may be his attempt at differencing himself from other similar artists such as Sigma. I like the framing of this pane, although simplistic with half his face on one side and the text on the other, it is really effective with the simple metanarrative he is trying to create with this digipack.