I feel like this opening scene from
America's hit TV series 'Dexter' has very good use of abstract, graphic matched
mise-en-scene. This TV series is based around a sociopathic serial killer who
works for Miami Metro as a Blood Spatter analyst. I felt like the creative
director, Eric Anderson, did a good job at representing the protagonist's dark
character through mundane situations such as getting up in the morning. The
idea of being mundane is exactly what characteristics a sociopath is and from
personally watching all of this series, it is evident that he (being a dark,
twisted, shady character) fits in well with society but evidently has a dark
secret.
“We then started examining normal everyday things that could
be seen as horrific…. I believe the original idea was to have him do these
normal things violently, but that soon became the idea of recontextualizing
normal everyday things in a sinister way, kind of how crime scene photography
does as I described earlier.” - Eric Anderson
This hit TV series has been criticised for its controversial ideolisation of a murderer. It has been said to be too graphic and therefore insensitive to more delicate viewers. However, this does not coinside with the Uses and Gratifications theory as it states that products of media are chosen to be consumed by the viewers and therefore, wouldn't be forced upon an audience. Therefore it would be up to the viewer on whether they thought it was controversial or not. Therefore this can be related to explicit music videos such as 'You don't know - Eminem' as this ideolises prison, crime, gangs and violence. However this type of content has a target audience and therefore would be at the discrimination of the audience/viewer. When applying this to my own music video, insensitive content or content that could be seen as controversial could be adapted as a video with a certain type of audience, not just age. Rap fans of Eminem are usually exposed to high explicit content and therefore it is not surprising when there is swearing or visual representations of violence as this follows the conventions of the urban rap genre. However, with my song being within the English Folk genre, it may break the conventions to input explicit, violent, slightly immoral scenes as it doesn't usually fit that genre.However, the surveillance model suggests that people have a gratifying need to know what's going on around them, therefore, Dexter is an example of showing this through entertainment. Therefore, when applying this to my own mise-en-scene, I can cleverly integrate mundane aspects such as getting up in the morning or going to bed, but in a more graphic narrative and subversive way.
Furthermore, the reception theory states that media texts are encoded with information for the reader to understand/work out. Therefore, for Eric Anderson's opening scene for Dexter, he wanted to portray mundane aspects in a violent way to show that Dexter is a normal person trying to fit into society with his dark, violent side. Therefore, for my video, I need to decide on a certain message,maybe moral, maybe controversial in the sense that it may not appeal to certain groups within society, but that is cleverly integrated within a social clique. In addition to this, Rick Altman states that an audience needs certain pleasures to encourage a strong audience response. Therefore, by having something very abstract and unlike modern conventions of the genre (drama series being about the 'bad guy -Dexter - instead of solely focusing around the 'good guys' -police- it breaks social conventions) it may have the polar opposite of interest when intriguing the audience (English Folk fans and indie music) and therefore satisfying their needs to experience something in a safe place. With this in mind, via researching artist Bill Viola, I can be influenced by some of his work and how he collaborates the human form with deadly things such as fire and drowning. Also, some of his work is very spiritual, for example 'Tristan' s ascension' - it is almost holy and has string religious connotation that I think would work quite well with a spiritual song such as Marika Hackman' s Drown.
This hit TV series has been criticised for its controversial ideolisation of a murderer. It has been said to be too graphic and therefore insensitive to more delicate viewers. However, this does not coinside with the Uses and Gratifications theory as it states that products of media are chosen to be consumed by the viewers and therefore, wouldn't be forced upon an audience. Therefore it would be up to the viewer on whether they thought it was controversial or not. Therefore this can be related to explicit music videos such as 'You don't know - Eminem' as this ideolises prison, crime, gangs and violence. However this type of content has a target audience and therefore would be at the discrimination of the audience/viewer. When applying this to my own music video, insensitive content or content that could be seen as controversial could be adapted as a video with a certain type of audience, not just age. Rap fans of Eminem are usually exposed to high explicit content and therefore it is not surprising when there is swearing or visual representations of violence as this follows the conventions of the urban rap genre. However, with my song being within the English Folk genre, it may break the conventions to input explicit, violent, slightly immoral scenes as it doesn't usually fit that genre.However, the surveillance model suggests that people have a gratifying need to know what's going on around them, therefore, Dexter is an example of showing this through entertainment. Therefore, when applying this to my own mise-en-scene, I can cleverly integrate mundane aspects such as getting up in the morning or going to bed, but in a more graphic narrative and subversive way.
Furthermore, the reception theory states that media texts are encoded with information for the reader to understand/work out. Therefore, for Eric Anderson's opening scene for Dexter, he wanted to portray mundane aspects in a violent way to show that Dexter is a normal person trying to fit into society with his dark, violent side. Therefore, for my video, I need to decide on a certain message,maybe moral, maybe controversial in the sense that it may not appeal to certain groups within society, but that is cleverly integrated within a social clique. In addition to this, Rick Altman states that an audience needs certain pleasures to encourage a strong audience response. Therefore, by having something very abstract and unlike modern conventions of the genre (drama series being about the 'bad guy -Dexter - instead of solely focusing around the 'good guys' -police- it breaks social conventions) it may have the polar opposite of interest when intriguing the audience (English Folk fans and indie music) and therefore satisfying their needs to experience something in a safe place. With this in mind, via researching artist Bill Viola, I can be influenced by some of his work and how he collaborates the human form with deadly things such as fire and drowning. Also, some of his work is very spiritual, for example 'Tristan' s ascension' - it is almost holy and has string religious connotation that I think would work quite well with a spiritual song such as Marika Hackman' s Drown.
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