Pennypress is a series of music videos about American historical events that I developed and shot as my graduate thesis project. The following report describes the project in detail, discussing the ideas, goals and challenges behind each video as well as the themes and intentions for the project as a whole. / text

published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-45).

Thesis (M.S.)--Kutztown University. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2717. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-49).

This content analysis study of music videos answered questions concerning the amount and severity of violence content during different time periods of the day. A system of classifying violence content as nonviolent, mostly light, neither light nor serious, mostly serious, and extremely serious was used to evaluate music videos from MTV. One hour from each day was randomly selected for evaluation for a period of thirty days. During this time, there were 313 occurrences of music videos which were aired and subsequently evaluated. The results indicated the majority of these music videos contained mostly light or no violence content. This study also revealed that the most likely time of day a viewer would see videos with violence would be from midnight until eight in the morning.

Thesis (M.S.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1996. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2721. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 33-35).

Thesis (Honors)--Liberty University Honors Program, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Music videos invite the viewer to an enhanced experience of a song, and by combining it with360°, a new dimension of immersion emerges. However, a new wave of complex narrativeand user interface unfolds when intertwining 360° and the contemporary way of telling storiesin music videos.This thesis used an experimental mixed method research design, focusing on collecting,analyzing, and mixing both quantitative and qualitative data in a series of studies. A surveywas first conducted to get an overview of consensus with respect to music videos, VR, and360°. The majority of the respondents had tried VR and 40% of stated that they felt immersedwhile trying it. Around 18% argued it was experience-dependent and 42% did not feelimmersed at all. The survey was followed by experiments showing two 360° music videoswith different storytelling techniques. After the participants had seen the videos, theydiscussed the experience in focus groups in a semi-structured interview. The results were thencoded and benchmarked with theory, which led to the rise of six key 360° storytellingguidelines.All three focus groups concluded 360° music videos enable a deeper level of immersion.However, when combining novelty and a sometimes overwhelming visual experience, 360°music videos can distract the audience if not told right. The guidelines discuss the purpose ofa music video, how the technology affects the experience, if the medium is passive or active,and how different types of interaction can be used as a storytelling mean. They also discussways to pedagogically intertwine audio and visuals. Additionally, the guidelines includediscussions of how different cues and POV’s can be utilized to ensure that the filmmakers andviewers experiences are somewhat aligned, they also tackle the fear of missing out, andfinally compare 360° and traditional music videos.Conclusively, the research shows that storytelling in a 360° sphere will entail a journey oftrial and error, and that the audience have scattered preferences of what different narrativestyles they find work and do not.

The Utah State Standards for media arts are general and therefore give teachers a great deal of freedom in how they present the content for media arts courses. How the teacher engages students and project assignments are left to the teacher as they walk the students through the process of making films. This thesis explores how an art teacher might use music videos to teach filmmaking techniques and engage students in the process of meaning making. My research hypothesis is that, by educating students to understand and interpret the messages they consume through media, I can help them recognize the hidden texts in visual culture. My curriculum provides students with learning activities that foster the development of critical thinking skills and also techniques for analyzing images. An important part of the curriculum for this unit is a critical study of music videos wherein the students examine music videos using semiotics and qualitative film analysis. The students explore filmmaking techniques and the processes needed to create their own messages in a music video.

This thesis examines the interconnected relationship that exists between sound and moving-image in the music-video. The flow of images used in many music videos often carries no definite meaning. Rather, the viewer must perceive the physiological sensations of the video's audiovisual expression to make sense of it. Thus, both the expression and the perception of music-video is a cross-modal process. Using Vivian Sobchack's theory of cinesthetics as a framework, the thesis contends that the music-video produces an aural visuality in which sound can be cinesthetically expressed and perceived as image and the image perceived and expressed as sound.