MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT

OF

FILM AND THEATRE ARTS

STUDIES

NAME QINISELA

SURNAME KEITSE

M.O.E

CONVENTIONAL

LEVEL 2:2

MODULE CODE HFTA 206 (RESEARCH

METHODS)

LECTURER DR. MUSHORE

REG No R124248X

DUE DATE 08/10/14

RESEARCH TITLE: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

OF SELECTED

MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTORS IN ZIMBABWE. DEGREE OF IMAGINATION AND

CREATIVE REPRESENTATION IN MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCTION. A CASE STUDY

OF ANDY CUTTA, ENQORE AND SLIMAZ.

SUMMARY

This research study is targeted on scrutinizing problems and the

potential prevalent within our local music video production

industry. The research will focus on three selected music video

directors as studies to formulate and gather relevant information

required to come up with solutions and/or recommendations to the

ascending problems. Andy Cutta (Andy Cutta Films, Bulawayo); Enqore

(Nafuna TV, Harare) and Slimaz (Slimaz Pro, Harare) will be examined in

line with their productions to identify the degree of imagination

and creative representation in their respective works. The study

will therefore, discuss Channel O and MTV broadcast standards in

relation with local productions and therefore formulate solutions

and recommendations from the data collected in the study.

KEY TERMS

Music video - A film or video rendition of a recorded song, often

showing the musicians performing or showing images that

illustrate the lyrics or the mood of the song.

Imagination-

Theabilitytoconfrontanddealwithrealitybyusingthecreativepowerofth

emind

Representation- is the use of signs that stand in for and take

the place of something else.

Assets- a useful or valuable thing or person.

MTV Africa(originally an initialism of Music Television) is an

American basic cable and satellite television channel owned by

the MTV Networks.

Channel O- is a South African-based music channel, its main

concept is African music in Africa and the Diaspora.

Full HD 1080p Video quality-is a set of HDTV high-definition

video modes characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of vertical

resolution and progressive scan. This is the broadcast standard

recommended by Channel O Africa.

Directing- a film director controls a film's artistic and

dramatic aspects, and visualizes the script while guiding the

technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision.

Dslr Filmmaking – the use of still cameras to produce music

videos.

Color grading is the process of altering and enhancing the color

of a motion picture, video image, or still images either

electronically, photo-chemically or digitally.

1.0 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Music videos now dominate all forms of entertainment distribution

(Spice, 2010). It is an art form that has become popular within

the urban and popular culture since the inception of America’s

Music Television (MTV) in the early 1980s. Music video production

has assisted most music artists to appeal to a larger diverse

audience especially in Africa through Channel O Africa. Channel O

Africa is the leading music television channel that is considered

as the hub of playing quality videos. However, it is of

importance to note that individuals measure quality in different

levels and Channel O Africa also seems to have its own level of

quantifying quality in terms of music video production. Music

videos have been at a moot point as most scholars have seen music

videos as a tool of negative representation in areas of gender,

race and ethnicity. For instance,Conrad et al (2009) notes that

sexual exploitation, objectification and degradation of women is

common place in music videos.

Literature that is available has focused around those

representations. However, it is imperative to note that apart

from High definition resolution video quality, Channel O Africa

also seems to recommend music videos with women, nice cars and

elegant locations. This is the gap that has been left open in the

academic sphere. One has to note that urban culture music which

is popular on Channel O Africa and that carries these tenants is

popular with the watching audience, therefore, women are selling

points and elegant locations also create an imaginary world that

interests the audience.

Music Video directing has taken a different stance in Africa. It

is encompassed with a high degree of imagination and a level of

creative representation. In the last four years, Zimbabwe has

seen creative music video directors being born out. These include

Andy Cutta, Enqore and Slimaz. They all carry different

directorial styles that have contributed to the visual image of

Zimbabwe both locally and regionally. However, with their level

of creativity, their productions do not enjoy air play on Channel

O Africa and the reasons are going to be unraveled.

This study, however, seeks to critically examine music video

production in Zimbabwe, its level of creative imagination and

representation in relation to the selected Zimbabwean music video

directors.

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The problem identified as the core of the study and that is the

moot point; is to look at the development of the local music

video industry in relation to selected music video directors:

Andy Cutta

Enqore

Slimaz

Their directorial styles and techniques will be explored.

Their degree of imagination and creative representation will

be unraveled.

1.2 RESEARCH AIMS

The aim of this study is, therefore, to:

Expose the potential engrossed by the local creative

directors in terms of imagination and representation.

Discuss the development of the local video industry in

comparison to Nigeria and South Africa.

Project women as assets in music videos rather than as mere

objectification of gender stereotype.

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

It is of importance that by the end, the research should achieve

the following:

What is meant as a quality music video production

recommended internationally.

The effect of high degree of imagination and creative

representation in music video directing.

The role of women in music videos as assets.

1.4 JUSTIFICATION OF RESEARCH STUDY

It is of high importance to study and unravel information

about music video production in Zimbabwe. The medium is

still a developing genre in Zimbabwe that has become popular

with the audiences. However, music videos have been

perceived as models of communication that degrade,

objectifies and portrays individuals from a different

perspective. The Zimbabwean music video industry has been

seen as an industry that churns out below standard

productions. The aim of the research is to vehemently

disclose the degree of imagination posed by local directors

and also discuss around their weaknesses as a way of

developing the local industry.

Andy Cutta, Enqore and Slimaz are the few creative directors

that have contributed to the development of the local music

video industry. It is justifiable to conduct this research

so as to fill the gaps in music video directing concepts and

techniques and also deal with the issue of representation

within local productions.

The research study will also examine why Nigeria and South

Africa are Channel O Africa’s biggest market in terms of

music video submissions and recommendations compared to

other countries. However, all goes down to a quality

directed music video that meet the requirements of a given

station.

1.5 RESEARCHQUESTIONS

The questions that this study advances in relation to the

development of music video directing in Zimbabwe are:

What are the tenants of a quality music video in terms of

technicality and content?

Why is the local music video industry still embryonic in

terms of productions?

How has DSLR filmmaking changed the visual nature of music

video production in Zimbabwe?

Why are music videos perceived as stereotyped

representations of gender, race etcetera?

Why is that few Zimbabwean music video productions are being

played on Channel O Africa compared to Nigerian and South

African productions?

In order to come up with relevant answers and solutions to the

above raised inquiries. The Zimbabwean embryonic music video

industry will be strongly examined in relation to upcoming

creative music video directors. Andy Cutta, Enqore and Slimaz’s

productions will also be of assistance in answering the above

raised research questions.

1.6 LITERATURE REVIEW

Music video production is one of the film genres that needs

extensive amount of formulating ideas through conceptualization.

It is an art form that became popular in the 20th century through

the work of the American Music Television company, MTV (Moller,

2011). As noted earlier, it is a form of art that requires a high

degree of imagination and the ability to visualize ideas into

reality through Creative Directing. Creative Directing in Music

video production embodies the directorial fundamentals prevalent

in film, as a music video is more of a short film accompanied by

background music (Carlsson, 1999). Therefore, a music video to be

termed a quality music video is born out from the directorial

techniques employed by a given director and the use of

recommended equipment that produces the required video quality,

hence, the aim of the research.

However, the high degree of imagination and creative

representation employed by a given music video director comes

with mixed feelings from critics and the academic discourse.

There seems to be different layers of perception as noted by

Carlsson (1999), when a human being is audio-viewing a music

video including critics and scholars. He further notes that

interacting layers of perception may be instinctive, inter-

subjective and individual, which in turn activate social aspects

such as family, peer group, region, country, language, gender

etcetera. A music video is also a form of film language as it

carries cinematic language.

Stam et al (1992) sees cinematic language as a set of messages

whose matter of expression consists of five tracks or channels:

moving photographic image, recorded phonetic sound, recorded

noises, recorded musical sound and writing. However, critics and

the academic discourse have focused merely on the photographic

moving image’s impact to the viewing audience rather that the

artistic element, for instance the use of women, expensive cars

and the elegant locations that adds the glossy element in music

video production.

The nature of music videos has had a wide range of literature

covering diverse issues. However, the art of imagination and

creative representation has been ignored in the academic

discourse that focuses in music video content analysis. Most of

the available literature has analyzed music videos through the

lenses of ideological representation of class, gender, race and

ethnicity. Arnett (2002) clearly notes that critics maintain that

the dominant discourse in music videos reproduces distorted

ideologies of women’s sexuality.

The research aim therefore, serves to also bring to light the

creative and positive representation of women in music videos as

selling points. It is of importance to note that a music video is

a promotional film (Britannica, 2014), that is used for

commercial exhibition and women are used as selling points and

figures of exhibition (Frazier, 2013) to promote the artist. This

therefore, is a high degree of imagination from a given director

to use women as ‘selling points’ not as sex objects as noted by

Conrad et al (2009) that sexual exploitation, objectification and

degradation of women is common place in music videos. Thomas et

al (2008) also notes that levels of violence and sex are

particularly high in video formats likely to feature Black

artists. Thomas et al (2008) like Conrad et al (2009) sees music

videos as sexually objectifying women and Thomas et al (2008)

also tackles the racial ideology of perceiving black artists as

violent.

The above statements from Thomas et al (2008) and Conrad et al

(2008) fall short in explain the art of using semi-naked and fake

violence in music videos. In the research study, this gap will be

further explained in relation to the Directorial techniques

employed by selected Zimbabwean music video directors. It is of

paramount importance to highly note that music videos though they

reflect or represent some elements of reality. They are more of a

fictional or imaginary world of the directors and artists than an

actual picture of reality.

In Zimbabwe, the music video directors under study have used and

are still using women as ‘selling points’ and ‘figures of

exhibition’ (Frazier, ibid) as their directorial styles. Most of

the literature reviewed as stated in prior arguments has focused

on the objectification of women on screen. Frazier (2013:3)

furthers this realm; “…sexual objectification is common place

within media culture; however, music videos provide the most

potent examples of it…” Frazier’s (2013) statement ignores the

role of women in music videos as characters that further the

directors’ concept of a particular video and to give the video a

glamorous look that is common place in urban culture contemporary

music videos. It is therefore, imperative to argue out that 75%

of the videos played on MNET’s Channel O include women.

Tehn Diamond’s music video, Happy featuring Junior Brown (Nafuna

TV, 2013) Directed by Enqore has been criticized to an extent of

being banned by the censorship board for projecting semi-naked

women. It is therefore, ironical that the national broadcaster

plays American music videos of the same nature. One can therefore

note that Happy music video (2013) explicitly exemplifies the

high degree of imagination and creative representation in terms

of the art of creative music video directing. Frazier (2013) like

Thomas et al (2008) all view music video production with

ideological lenses without taking into account the degree of

imagination and creative representation.

The initiation of creative music video directors in Zimbabwe has

to some extent changed the visual nature of local productions.

The directors under study have produced music videos in urban

music to afro-pop genres that can to a greater degree be

recommended to air on the region’s leading music channel, Channel

O. However, Charumbira (2014) notes that Zimbabwean musicians

have of late been failing to produce quality music videos. He

further notes that the advent of the internet and satellite

television makes it inevitable to compare local music videos to

the standard found in the region. It is of importance to note

that Charumbira (2014) fails to define a ‘quality video’ or the

‘standard found in the region’. One can therefore note that the

standard quality in terms of digitalization in most music

channels or television broadcasters is the style of directing,

conceptualization and rendering full high definition to the

recent 4K-6K video resolution. This gap will also be fully

examined in relation to music video directing in Zimbabwe.

The onus of this research is to vehemently fill the gaps left

open by existing literature that has merely focused on music

videos as a medium that sexually objectifies women. It is

important to note that existing literature has also failed to

tackle music video production as a film genre: short film or

montage. Frazier (2013) and Thomas et al (2008) fail to consider

the nature of music videos as a promotional short film

(Britannica, 2014), that interprets the lyrics and that producing

a short film around a music track depends with the director’s

level of imagination and creative representation of reality.

In addition, Carlsson (1999) clearly notes that production of

meaning in music videos is complex, comprised of several flaws of

audio-visual information. Bulk of literature has content analyzed

audio-visual information in terms of the ideological framework

especially gender representation, race, and ethnicity. Hence,

this research will consider the degree of imagination and

creative presentation enclosed in the ideologies and the

development of music video production in Zimbabwe.

The research will also attend on recommendations on how to

develop and sustain a vibrant music video industry that will

generate viable content for local and international Music

television stations.

1.7 RESEARCH DESIGN (METHODOLOGY)

In this research the qualitative research method will be used in

coming up with relevant answers therefore, formulating

appropriate solutions to the embryonic local music video

industry. In this qualitative research study, local music video

directors will be fully cross-examined, scrutinized and their

works evaluated. Since this research is concerned with the

problems faced by the local directors; their inability to meet up

with international standards and the reasons behind the embryonic

industry. With these kind of questions and assumptions raised, it

is therefore, advisable and imperative to glean the answers to

the questions from selected Zimbabwean music video directors

under study.

Qualitative research method is applicable for this research study

compared to the scientific quantitative research method that

involves the counting of numbers, statistics and hypotheses.

Walliman (2006) clearly notes that qualitative research method

does not involve counting numbers but is based on information

expressed in words description, opinions, feelings, and etcetera.

It is therefore, important to note that this research study

dwells much on opinions, feelings and the creativity element

within music video production. This however, can be achieved

through discussions, debate, analysis, question and answer

technique, therefore, qualitative research method is appropriate

for this study as it has multiple methods to collect relevant

information.

1.7.1 DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES

Since there has not been much that has been recorded and written

in terms of the local music video industry. Primary data which is

information collected for the first time, will be used to gather

relevant information through the use of qualitative research

methods. These include personal interviews, which involves face

to face communication between the researcher and the subject

through a question and answer sequence. Questionnaires will be

used also to gather relevant data. It is a form of interview

questions written on paper either closed or open.

These data collection techniques will ultimately assist as the

researcher will have first-hand information from the music video

directors under study. However, secondary data which is

information that has been collected and analyzed by another

person will be used also to gather information so as to balance

the research findings. This will help in coming up with answers

and working solutions to the problems affecting the local music

video industry.

1.8 CONCLUSION

This research study contains the statement of the problem that is

under scrutiny. It has been noted that the research study will

look and the embryonic development of the local music video

industry. The problems and developments within the aforementioned

industry will be fully scrutinized in relation to the selected

music video directors in Zimbabwe. Their directorial techniques

and level of conceptualization will be examined in relation to

their degree of imagination and creative representation in

dealing with gender, race, and class etcetera in their video

production.

It has been noted that international and regional stations such

as South African’s Channel O Africa and Music Television (MTV)

have their broadcast standards and recommended quality for music

videos to qualify for air play. However, some of the selected

music video directors have produced the required quality but

their productions do not enjoy air play. Answers and solutions to

these questions will be fully formulated in this research study.

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