Analysis of Beyonce Music Video

Throughout this video there are several scenes associated with sex, orgasms and intimacy.



Within the first 10 seconds we are presented with Beyonce. She is seen to be wearing no clothing, or very little which we cannot see and appears to be wet. Her hair is a little messy which put together with the absence of clothing and wet skin we connote this with sex and pleasure. 

About 19 seconds in we see that Beyonce begins to turn to face the camera, looking down the lens at us the audience and essentially 'breaking the fourth wall' to show that it is all just a fantasy and that she is fantasying over a parter/lover.

She begins to tilt her head upwards to expose her bare chest. Her mouth is slightly parted and her chin is tilted which again leads us back to the connotations of pleasure, sex and even orgasms.



We are presented with a close up shot of her face after about 25 seconds which shows that the scene is intimate and she wants us to see how she is feeling and possibly feel it ourselves. Her eyes are very enticing in this shot which we refer to as a characteristic of the 'invitational' look.

After 30 seconds the camera begins to move slowly down Beyonce's body to again, show that she is bare. This allows the lighting to shine upon her wet skin so we are again reminded of the connotations and assumptions we make that are sex related.

44 seconds in we are presented with Beyonce tilting her head backwards again which we connote with orgasms and pleasure.

Just before the 1 minute mark we see a first glimpse of her clothing. It seems to be some sort of night garment or lingerie, made of either silk of lace which we connote with sexiness. She tilts her head back slightly again and we see that her lips are parted and that she is almost smiling.



Again we are given a close up of her eyes to remind us that it is intimate and imaginary. 

About 10 seconds into the 1 minute mark we see Bey take of her straps from her shoulders while she tilts her head backwards. Throughout the video she is presented as wet and in this particular scene we most defiantly connote that wet look with sweat as she looks incredibly sexual and almost orgasmic, again her mouth is parted and her eyes are closed. It is both invitational and sexual.


After about a minute and 15 seconds we see Beyonce once again tilt her head backwards, we are presented with no visible clothing and her groping herself moving from her neck down to her chest. We see this as suggestive and invitational as her lips are parted and she elongates her blinks.




Movements like this are repeated all the way up to the 2 minute mark where we see Bey in leopard print lingerie and black stockings with heels. We connote stockings and heels with sexiness which supports the ideas that this scene is sexual. She is represented as sexy and is most defiantly invitational by the way she stands with one leg opened out to the side. We see that the lingerie puts emphasis on her figure. She continuously looks down the lens (breaking the fourth wall) to remind us that this is all a fantasy of hers and that it isn't real.

At the 2 min 44 second stage we are introduced to a male. We don't see his face only the back of him, this gives the element of mystery and we assume that this is her lover, the person she has been fantasying about. They engage in physical contact and the light shines on the males body to show that he looks wet, like beyonce does. We can then justify the connotations to sex and pleasure as they are both wet and we come to the conclusion that it is sweat.

Just before the 3 minute mark we are shown beyonce being lifted up. She starts bent over backwards with her head tilted toward the floor with the male holding her back and lifting her up. The camera moves upwards from the feet to the head as this movement takes place to emphasise her body.

At the 3 minute mark we are presented with skin on skin contact where, again where we see no visible clothing and sweaty bodies groping each other, we associate this with orgasms, pleasure and sexual contact.

At about 3 mins 15 we are again shown a close up of Beyonce's eyes to re-enforce the idea of fantasy and to remind us that it is not real.



She continues to run her fingers through her hair and tilts her head back several times toward the end of the video and we are show another shot of her and the male addition. Her mouth is parted at all times and her eyes remain closed throughout, leaving us to connote what we see with sex, pleasure and orgasms.

Dredd Presentation

Gaze Theory

The Four Looks

1. Chocolate Box: half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. Projected mood: blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.
2. Invitational: emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising’s soft sell.
3. Super-smiler: full face, wide open toothy smile, head thrust forward or chin thrown back, hair often wind-blown. Projected mood: aggressive, ‘look-at-me’ demanding, the hard sell, ‘big come-on’ approach.
4. Romantic or Sexual: a fourth and more general classification devised to include male and female ‘two-somes’; or the dreamy, heavy-lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sensual or sexual.Projected moods: possible ‘available’ and definitely ‘available’. 

1 + 1 - Beyonce

Star Trek Research

Written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof 

Directed by J.J Abrams

Produced by J.J Abrams, Bryan Burk and the Writers (as above)

Studios Bad Robot Productions, K/O Paper Productions and Skydance Productions

Distributor Paramount Studios.

Cast included star such as
Chris Pine Kirk
Zachary Quinto Spock
Karl Urban Bones
Simon Pegg Scotty
Benedict Cumberbatch Khan
Peter Weller Marcus

Released 16th May 2013

Genre Action/Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Budget estimated $190,000,000

Box office estimated $467,365,246

Rating PG13

Filming locations consisted of Iceland and Los Angeles, California
(7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California USA)
(Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California)

Critical Rating 7.9/10

Avengers Research

Writers 
- (Screenplay) Joss Whedon
- (Story) Zak Penn

Director 
- Joss Whedon

Producer 
Kevin Feige

Stars
- Robert Downey Jr
- Chris Evans
- Scarlett Johansson
- Mark Ruffalo
- Chris Hemsworth

Genre
- Action/Fantasy

Certificate
12A

Studios
- Marvel Studios
- Walt Disney Studios (distributed)

Budget
$220,000,000

Year Of Release
2012

Release Date
4th May 2012

Gross Profit
$623,357,910

Critical Reception 
92% approval
8/10 (298 reviews)

Dredd Essay

Why did Dredd flop at the Box Office?

                                                          

The action thriller film Dredd was released in 2012. The producers for this film were Alex Garland, Andrew MacDonald and Allon Reich. The studios involved in it were DNA Films and IM Global and the distributors were Lionsgate and Entertainment Film. The main stars in Dredd were Karl Urban, playing Judge Dredd, Lena Headey playing Ma-Ma and Olivia Thirlby who played Anderson.  The marketing strategies used to promote the film were teaser trailers, an interactive website and posters. The estimated box office figure was $36,000,000 which was less than the original budget resulting in the film ‘flopping.’

In my opinion one of the reasons why Dredd failed to succeed as expected at the box office is because the film did not comply with, in Mark Kermode’s opinion, the four ways to enable success which are: to have a newsworthy budget, to include spectacular visuals, to not be a comedy and to include ‘A’ list stars. Although Dredd was not a comedy and contained superb visuals the other two aspects were not met.  The estimated budget for Dredd was a rather unimpressive $45,000,000 as opposed to its rival film The Avengers who had a huge budget of over $200,000,000. Other films released within the same space of time are films such as ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Skyfall’ and ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ which were all box office successes. A ‘newsworthy budget’ is anything above $100,000,000, which Dredd was not. The main reason for the budget being so small is because there were no A list stars involved in the film.

The Avengers included ‘A’ list stars such as Robert Downey Jr who is well known for his roles in Sherlock Holmes and the Iron Man sequels. Downey has been nominated for several awards including two Oscars, and has won three Golden Globe awards, one being for ‘Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical’ in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes’. Downey is a well know and very well respected ‘A’ list star and has been nominated for an estimated 58 awards. On the other hand  Karl Urban, the lead in Dredd, is not so well known and has only been nominated for an estimated 12 awards,  the majority of which are cast related such as the BSFC award for ‘Best Assembled Cast’ for the cast of the well known film Star Trek. Urban is not classed as ‘A-list’ and has had no main roles in any well known or popular films.

The certificate given for Dredd was 18 which is justified by the amount of violent and gore ridden scenes included in the film. I believe that due to the high certificate rating the opportunity to create tie-ins such as figurines and animated games was limited as the audience would be grown adults, not children or teens. In comparison The Avengers certificate was a 12A, aimed at a much younger audience there by providing every opportunity to capitalise on merchandise such as games and figures, boosting the status of the film and its profits. I also believe that the certificate rating correlates with the marketing opportunities: as the film is an 18 the times at which it can be publicised are restricted to eliminate every possibility of an under 18 year old seeing trailers that are considered to be in appropriate for them. Owing to this, the trailers could only be show on the television after a certain time in the evening, if at all.

This film was a remake of the 1995 film starring the A list star Sylvester Stallone. Through researching this film I discovered that this also failed at the box office. Even though the film starred an undoubtedly famous actor. The budget for this film was higher than the 2012 remake, at an estimated $70,000,000, and made a mere total profit of just over $7,000,000. The first thing that came to mind after reading about this film was why the producers decided to make a remake of a film that performed so badly at the box office. As this film starred Stallone, a top ranking A List star, I can only imagine how high expectations must have been, which makes the failure even more surprising to me. 

The film was originally going to be released in 3D alone but due to the poor reception, was then granted 2D viewing. In my opinion the fact that this film was only released in 3D to begin with was another reason why it didn’t reach the targeted profit. With it only released in 3D this limits where the film can be seen as not all cinemas worldwide are equipped with the appropriate technology.

The film was based on the comic book series Judge Dredd which isn’t as famous and well known as those included in The Avengers. The Avengers consists of well known comic book characters, which all have their own separate films, coming together as a team. The film includes characters such as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain American and Hawkeye, all of which are unquestionably renowned. I think that the main reason for the success of The Avengers is because all characters included all have a well known background and all feature. Not only does The Avengers comply with Mark Kermode’s ‘list of four’ of using a newsworthy budget, A list stars, Visual effects and is not a comedy, but the film has such a detailed background that almost everyone is familiar with it. The critical rating for The Avengers was an impressive 92% or 8/10. Dredd also had good reviews with a 7/10 but due to the fact that the original story is not as renowned worldwide as the famous Marvel characters I believe that it had a huge part to play within the failure of the film.

In conclusion, Dredd flopped due to the producers not following the four rules set by Mark Kermode: having A list stars, a newsworthy budget, superb effects and to not be a comedy. With the original film failing surely the producers would consider what they could do differently to avoid a similar outcome. 

Four Quadrant Pictures

A Four Quadrant Picture is a marketing term used to describe a film targeted to all audience quadrants: men over 25, men under 25, women over 25, women under 25. 

Usage
In the movie business, and it is most definitely a business, everyone is looking to maximize the audience for their picture. A four-quadrant picture is that magical type of film that attracts parents and kids, men and women, and brings in huge amounts of revenue on opening weekend. In the term “four-quadrant,” the quadrants refer to gender (male and female) and age (under 25 and over 25).
For most studios, the goal is to get enough details to line up so that they have broad-based, family-friendly appeal in designing a blockbuster or four-quadrant film. An important aspect of getting that appeal is the ratings system. An 18 Rating can be the kiss of death for a studio trying to market a film featuring pre-teen characters. A lowering from PG-13 to PG can mean millions more in revenue as parents feel more comfortable bringing young children to a given film like Evan Almighty.

Examples
One of the most famous four-quadrant, blockbuster films is Star Wars and all of its sequels. Jaws is another landmark blockbuster film. Other more current examples include Night at the Museum, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Shrek (1-3), Spiderman (1-3), Pirates of the Caribbean (1-3), andWall-E.

Implications
Another interesting by-product of the rise of four-quadrant films in the industry is cross marketing. Those films often are associated with toys and other products that both advertise the film and bring in revenue on their own. In addition, four-quadrant films are powerful vehicles for product placement advertisers looking to show their wares to the largest audience possible.
On the down side, many wonder how much effort is placed on credible, engaging story lines as opposed to marketing opportunities in these behemoth cinematic endeavors.