Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life products?

Throughout my creative process, I researched current music videos as I wanted to create a piece that would not look out of place if it was shown today on a music television channel such as MTV.  

I researched the conventions of music videos and applied them to my own video.

The main videos we used as our style models were “Oceans” by Mallory Knox, “All About The Money” by The Blackhand , “I feel so” by Box Car Racer and "Nobody to Love" by Sigma. 

We complied with some of the conventions present in these music videos, but also defied some others.


I Feel So

Oceans

All About The Money

From my research, I have concluded that most indie/rock/pop rock music videos use one continuous band scene with short break ups in between - much like Oceans, one of our style models. We wanted to use this convention in our music video to connote the genre to the audiences, and create a familiarity. 

Both “Oceans” and “I Feel So” follow the conventions of a typical band music video. The videos both feature clips of the band playing their instruments in large open rooms. We used this convention in our music video as we liked the atmosphere the shot created. The band shots gave the video energy and the image of the band “Rocking out” were relatable to our target audience who would also be in bands.

Both of the videos for "All About The Money" and "Dirty Little Secret" make use of extras - members of the public or the band's family and friends, holding something. We decided to incorporate this into our music video as we felt it would give a personal touch to the video. 

The local band, The BlackHand, use members of the public holding up whiteboards that say which they have wrote on saying what they would do with £1million. The All American Rejects use postcards that have the holder's secrets on. In keeping with this theme, we used postcards that had the song chorus on, and our friends held these up in the music video.

We also took inspiration from the pop song "Nobody to love" by Sigma. This video defies pop conventions by featuring a mixture of landscape and people shots, and having a continuous narrative throughout the video. We decided that half of our video would be narrative.

We incorporated Andrew Goodwin’s theory into our filming. Andrew Goodwin states that:

•        Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
•        There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
•        There is a relationship between music and visuals
•        There is frequent reference to the notion of looking and also voyeuristic treatment of the female body in music videos.  
•         There is often intertextual reference

Our video contains many of the themes outlined in Goodwin’s theory.

We demonstrate the characteristics of our genre well through mise-en-scene, costume and editing. We use shots of our band performing because this is a convention of our genre. The video splits between band shots and a “story” which is also a well-used convention in rock music videos.

The costumes we have used in the band sections of the video where specifically selected to connote the genre of the piece. We wore band T-shirts and jeans, which are commonly worn in music videos by rock bands.

We also took into account the positions of the band in the video. We placed the drum kit on a higher level on a pallet. We were influenced to do this by the video for “Oceans” by Mallory Knox. This is because the drums are usually at the back of the video as they are the largest instruments, but in order to be able to see them we decided to raise them up.

We used fast paced close up shots of the different instruments in order to match the pace of the video; this links with Goodwin’s theory that there is a relationship between music and visuals. When the tempo of the song increased, the shots became shorter and more numerous, and when the tempo decreased, we made use of longer sweeping panoramic shots and lyric shots.

We linked our lyrics with the visuals, supporting Goodwin’s theory.  In the chorus our actors held postcards that had the lyrics from the chorus on them. These were synced up with the song lyrics.

We also included lots of close ups of the band, along with motifs that reoccur across the music video. These motifs are:

•         Postcards: One of our most prominent motifs are postcards. These postcards feature different designs, some with only images, some with the lyrics printed on them. We were inspired to use these postcards from two music videos: “All about the money” by the Black Hand, and “Dirty little secret” by the All American Rejects.  These postcards reinforce Goodwin’s theory by linking the visuals to the lyrics. The chorus is presented as an onscreen lyric video so that the viewer can sing along.

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•         Close ups of the instruments: We followed conventions of Rock music videos and used close up shots of the instruments being played. This also links to Goodwin’s theory that there is a relationship between music and visuals, as we linked certain parts of the song

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•        Sweeping Panoramic shots: We used panoramic shots of the environment to show that the band were travelling on tour, and to establish a location. The shots also added an interesting aesthetic to the video, as they were shot on location in Greece and New Brighton.  The Narrative follows the band on their European tour, so the sweeping shots establish the tour locations.

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•        Close ups of the artists: We included close ups of the artists in our music video because we wanted them to become well known and this helps to promote them.