Visual And Technical Codes

Music video: Clean Bandit- Rather Be

Narrative: The music video is about a young woman who falls in love with the song ‘Rather Be’ and becomes obsessed with it. She begins hallucinating and everywhere she goes, she thinks she can see the members of Clean Bandit which shows how much she has grown to like them and how they influence her day-to-day life. The video follows the daily routine of the Woman and we see her waking up in the morning, going to the fish market, travelling on the train and this makes the video much more relatable for the audience. There is a single narrative strand in this music video because it follows the story of this one woman and it is told through a linear narrative which helps to make the video easy to understand. In a way, action codes have been used because after the first minute or so, we begin to understand that normal people or things the woman sees in her daily life turn into members of the band and the audience knows that is going to occur after a significant action takes place. 

Visual codes: At the beginning of the video, the colours are very bright and a lot of  the scenes are set in the daytime to symbolise how happy the band make her and listening to ‘Rather Be’ brightens up her day. As the video develops, her hallucinations become worse and the colours are dull and much darker to represent how the hallucinations are starting to have a negative impact on her life and are uncontrollable. The video was clearly set and filmed in Japan because there are many scenes in a fish market in which Japanese food is being sold and at the very beginning, there are shots of a koi pond. There is use of the bands logo throughout the music video which makes it more personal to Clean Bandit and it helps to promote them. 

Technical codes/audio: During the music video and especially towards the end, there are many close-ups of the girl to show an expression of panic and confusion on her face; this could be to show that she does not understand why she is having hallucinations and she is frightened and concerned by them. At times, slow motion camera is used when the girl sees the band members to make it clear that she is hallucinating and not seeing straight and we are possibly seeing things from her point of view which help the audience to understand how she is feeling. The song ‘Rather Be’ is very upbeat and happy sounding which could be to represent how listening to the song makes the girl feel positive and it should have that effect on the audience as well.

Magazine cover: Vogue

Narrative: The magazine is informing the audience on how they can improve their looks and it has quite a girly theme to it because words and phrases are used such as: 'princess' and 'dress-up'. Enigma codes are embedded throughout the different sections of text on this cover because each section does not give much of the article away and they are used to draw the audience in and they are more likely to buy the magazine to read about and understand the context surrounding each sub-heading.

Visual codes: In the masthead, the title is large and bold in order to make it stand out and attract people’s attention; it would be easily noticed in a shop and is very eye-catching so may be hard to miss. The font used is the same as the other vogue magazines which means it is easily recognisable. The colour of the title is pink, as well as most of the text on the front cover, which shows that the magazine is designed for females because the colour pink represents feminism so a male audience would probably not be attracted to the magazine. Popular celebrities are used as the main image on vogue magazines and in this particular one, Lana Del Rey has been used who is a very well-known singer who a lot of females will know or recognise meaning they may be more likely to buy the magazine than if there was a celebrity they did not know as the main image. These visual codes make me think that the audience for vogue magazine is females aged 15-30 as it is clear that the content will appeal to people ranging from those ages and the celebrities on the front look like they are all younger than the age of 30 so older females may not be attracted to the magazine.

Film poster: Birdman

Visual codes: The main subject of the film poster is a man in the direct centre, he is looking very stern which suggests that the film is going to have a serious tone to it. There is a much smaller superhero on top of the man’s head which implies that the man may be a superhero as well as his normal self. The superhero has large wings which links to the title of ‘Birdman’ and therefore informs the audience that the man’s superpower is flying so gives us more of an insight into the film. The title is quite small in size, the font is basic and it has been coloured white meaning that more attention is on the image of the protagonist and this may have been done to emphasize his importance and to ensure that he is centre of attention. Additionally, the title is all in capital letters expect for the letter ‘I’ which could represent how the film revolves around that one protagonist only and it is about his goals and development as a character. The poster uses subtle colours such as pale blue and brown which suggests that the film is mainly aimed at males because personally, it does not appeal to me as the dull colours do not attract my attention. I therefore believe that the audience is males ranging from 15-25 as they are the age group that tend to enjoy superhero films however I also believe that some adults enjoy films of that genre but it depends mainly on personal taste.

Technical codes: The poster has a mature, cartoon feel to it because it has been edited using a poster effect and I believe that this has been purposely done to make the poster look like it is from a comic book which makes the genres of action, adventure and superhero very clear. This furthermore shows how the intended audience is also superhero and comic book fans who may enjoy films such as Batman and Spiderman.

Film trailer: 22 Jump Street

Narrative: The two protagonists, Schmidt and Jenko are police-officers whose mission is to go undercover at a college in order to find the dealer for a new drug called ‘WhyPhy’. The producer tells the story by introducing a number of narrative strands. Firstly at the beginning, the audience understand that the two protagonists are a part of a community called Jump Street which leads on to the second narrative strand which is how they are going to be going undercover at a college. The remainder of the trailer makes a strong use of enigma codes and we see very small sections of certain scenes which only leaves the audience guessing as they are not yet aware of the context that surrounds it. This is a clever technique because the audience will have to watch the film in order to understand these enigma codes so it is a good way of promoting the film to attract a larger amount of people. 

Visual codes: Bright colours are used throughout the whole trailer and the majority of the scenes are set in the daytime which helps to create an upbeat atmosphere which is relaxed and happy which informs the audience that the main genre is comedy. We often see the two protagonists holding guns which make it clear that they are police-officers who are on a mission and it informs the audience that there will be violence throughout the film showing that it will also cover the genre of action. The visual codes, technical codes and audio make me believe that the intended audience for 22 Jump Street is teenagers, male and female, ranging from the ages 15-21 because it features well-known actors that teenagers are likely to know and the genre of comedy often greatly appeals to that age group.

Technical codes/audio: Throughout the trailer, happy, upbeat and loud music is used to give the audience an idea on the tone of the film and also what genres it comes under which in this case are action and comedy. The loud music creates a positive atmosphere, almost as if you were at a club or a loud party, to represent how you will enjoy yourself and have fun when watching the film. The music goes quieter or silent when there is dialogue or a joke is being told by one of the characters, this has been done so the audience can clearly hear what is being said and so full attention is on the character speaking. The producer of the film trailer may have purposely chosen certain clips from the film which help to explain the narrative and that are some of the best or most funny parts in the film in order to persuade the audience to watch it. Additionally, quick editing is used to create intensity.