EVALUATION - QUESTION 1 MUSIC VIDEO

My finished video









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

MUSIC VIDEO

Our brief was to create a music video, magazine advert and digipak to promote our artist. In order for me to do this I have looked at many music videos to get inspiration for the song that we chose, Avril Lavigne My Happy Ending. I have seen many music videos from the same genre as Avril, which is usually known to be punk/pop or pop/rock. Within all of the videos that I have looked over the genre is represented as very rebellious, and that the common convention is to reject the norms, and to shock the mainstream. Taking this into account we have tried to incorporate it into our music video, for example, the locations, costume and props, lighting, editing pace, etc, which are all there to create a rebellious feel.


Firstly I am going to talk about how my music video has used forms and conventions of real media products from the same genre as mine. 
Starting with the locations and costumes, as you can see from the screen shot below from Pink's music video for 'Just Like a Pill', the location is very dark and emo/punk looking, which is usual for this genre. Also she is wearing black/dark clothes, which is a convention of our genre, the connotations/meanings of this clothing and the locations that I have spoke about are so people in this genre are noticed, it also sends our a message to everyone, that 'I can do what I like, where what I like, etc..'. We have used this within our music video as we have Kate (our Avril character) in a very dark room playing the piano and in dark clothes throughout the music video. Also we have performance shots of Kate on the roof and on industrial style rails as we were thought that they would add to the rebellious feel, also the graveyard which has more of an edgy, Gothic style, which I believe fits in with this genre.






Below is a screen shot of of the dark room where we shot our piano scenes:

Also in Pink's video there are shots directly elating to the lyrics. For example at the start the lyrics are 'I'm lying here on the floor where you left me' and she is actually lying on the floor singing. With regards to our video we have done the same,e.g, the lyrics 'held up so high on such a breakable thread' are related to the images that you see as we have made our artist into a puppet, with her boyfriend character holding her up, also on the lyrics 'you've got your dumb friends' we have a shot of Tom with all of his friends laughing and joking, with Kate stood in the background between them.

You can also see from other videos that there are reflective shots where the artist does not sing or act, she is just sat looking into or away from the camera, we have used this convention as we have reflective shots of Kate looking sad.


From Pink's video:

From our video:

As you can see below in Paramore's music video, Ignorance, from Youtube, the use of lighting is essential for setting the mood that is created for this genre:




The spot light from the light bulb is mainly on Hayley Williams suggesting that she is the lead of the group, we have done something similar within our video as we have shots of Kate, who is playing Avril Lavigne, as a puppet in our drama studio, we used a spot light to create the usual conventions of this particular genre, below is a couple of photographs of our puppet scenes:

These scenes make it clear who the artist is, who's being promoted and who the audience should be focusing on.

Evanescence - What You Want

In the music video for 'What You Want' by Evanescence (above) the lighting is also essential as it creates a certain atmosphere that is related to the genre, it is very dark, and they have used many different styles of lighting as we have in our music video. In Halestorm's video for 'Love/Hate Heartbreak' the lighting at 2.56 shows how effective lighting can be, as it draws your attention to the artist that you see.

Within Evanescence's music video for 'What You Want' there is many cuts/edits, they usually go on the beat, I have counted how many there are and there is 144, this is similar to our video as we have only made edits where the beat is and there is about the same number.

In many music videos I have researched into, like Evanescence, Paramore and Halestorm, the main artist is female and the attention is mostly on her, this is exactly the same in our video as the attention is always on Kate, apart from where we have some narrative shots, which mainly contain her and her boyfriend figure.

We have tried to use most of the dress/clothes that are usually seen in music videos from this genre, e.g. we have used studded belts and accessories, strips (the black and white striped cardigan that we have used), we have used a waistcoats, e.g. the piano shots, also converse shoes, bright coloured clothing (jeans (blue and red)) and finally the tutu which Kate wears on one of the performance shots, below are some of the costumes that Kate has worn in our music video, also the locations in which she has performed for us:

Within our music video the shot at the beginning and at the end are almost the same, I have seen this in a few videos from the same genre, e.g. Paramore, The Only Exception and Halestorm, Love/Hate Heartbreak. Our start and end shot are of the same photograph, but at the beginning the photograph is whole and at the end it is torn in half, I believe the reason behind this is to tell the story behind the lyrics/song and to complete the narrative. Below is a screen shot from Premier Pro of our start and end shots:

Start shot:

End shot:

Below is a screen shot from Youtube of Paramore's establishing shot, which is also at the end of the video:

 

You can see that the first shot is of a couple which has been seen in many videos from the same genre as ours and in other songs that are about love and losing someone, we have used this convention within our video as our song is about the loss of a relationship and about her boyfriend, so it feels right to include a couple within our video.

Within Paramores video for 'The Only Exception' there is many moments when slow motion is used, e.g. At 2.28 you can see Hayley Williams (the lead singer) in a crowd of people looking at her boyfriend, the way that they have used the slow motion is to enhance the happiness whereas ours is there to create sadness. Paramore's video is below:





Finally within Halestorm's music video for 'Love/Hate Heartbreak' they have used an establishing shot at the beginning as we have, although ours is a little different as we have a short section, cutting very fast with all of the performance shots, this was to create impact whereas there's is used to set the scene.



I AM NOW GOING TO TALK ABOUT HOW WE HAVE DEVELOPED FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS FROM THE SAME GENRE AS OURS.

We have developed a convention that is seen within some music videos from our genre, including Halestorm, where there is no narrative within the video. Ours has narrative as well as performance. I believe that we needed narrative in our video as we needed to tell a story, this was to keep the audience interested, whereas in Halestorms video it created an impact with just having performance shots as it is quite an angry song.


We have also tried to incorporate a rebellious attitude into our music video, the reason why we have done this is so that the audience can relate to it, although we have dialled it down as we don't want to put across the wrong message. If you look at Pink's video for 'Just Like a Pill', below, you can see that they have conveyed a much stronger sense of rebellion in comparison to ours:

With regards to the punk/pop genre that make up is usually quite extreme, in our music video we have not used as much eye liner or eye shadow as you would usually see on an emo/punk person. We have used a little eyeliner, on the puppet shots and used red lipstick throughout to express the emotion that she is expressing, the reason why we have not used the normal amount of make-up that is usual for this genre is because she is more mad at her boyfriend not sad like in other videos that are about the loss of the relationship.

HOW HAVE I CHALLENGED FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Within Pink's video, 'Just Like a Pill' (which you can see above) there are a lot of camera movement within Pink's video and many other video's from the same genre, this challenges our music video as ours is mainly still and usually on a tripod, the only camera movement that we have used is to zoom, tilt and pan, whereas Pink's video for 'Just Like a Pill' is never very still as they use a combination of camera movements.


Also Paramore's video for 'The Only Exception' challenges ours as the narrative/performance ratio is the opposite compared to ours, their video consists mainly of narrative shots, e.g. the speed dating, and the church. Whereas ours is around 60% performance shots and 40% narrative. Although in other videos from our genre, like Evanescence, 'What You Want'. it is mostly performance based. This shows that no genre is exactly the same and every video is different to some extent.


Within many videos from our genre the cutting/editing pace is quite fast whereas ours is slow. We have challenged this convention as we felt that a slower editing pace fits better within our video, although in some parts, at the start, we have used a very fast editing pace, this was to create an impact as well as to follow the beat. Even though we have used a slower cutting/editing pace, we have cut with the beat and at impact points which is usual for any music video.

Within our video we have challenged the way that our performer looks, in some of the videos that I have looked at the women are seen as sex objects, this is Mulvey's theory called the 'male gaze', it is very stereotypical as many women today are not portrayed like that. Within our video we have not done this as women from this particular genre are not interested in what people think about them, they are more concerned with whether they feel comfortable in their own skin.

You can see from the photograph to the left that we have used quite a lot of eye liner, this was to make her eyes stand out whilst shooting the puppet scenes, but this is the only place where we have used make-up. We have not used as much throughout the rest of our music video.

Some of the conventions that are usually seen in punk/pop videos we have not used. For example, the instruments. There is usually known to be one or two electric guitars, an electric bass, and a drum kit, along with the vocals. We haven't used a band as we have just focused on the lead singer, although we have tried to keep one element of this convention, the guitar, you can see this from the screen shot below of Kate playing the guitar:

Within Halestorm's video you see the band, this consists of the guitarists, drummer and vocalist, this challenges ours as we only see Kate and occasionally see her playing the guitar. Although in Paramore's video for 'The Only Exception' they have shots of the instruments that are being played, in our video, 'My Happy Ending' we have shots of the instrument (guitar) that Kate plays, so we have used parts of this convention.




As you can see from other videos from this genre most of the locations are inside, we have challenged this as some of ours are outside. The locations for this genre are usually as dark and gloomy box rooms inside, like on the Paramore video, Ignorance. We have challenged this as some of our shots were taken outside in bright sunlight. The reason why we have done this is to bring out the pop side of the artist and song, as the genre is pop/punk.


Below are the locations that we have used outside:

Although the traditional style adds to the goth element, whilst the grandeur adds to the more mainstream pop genre.