A2 MEDIA STUDIES
.EVALUATION.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? For my A2 coursework I made a music video to Oh Wonders “Technicolor Beat”, which comes under the mainstream indie genre. For this reason I found it quite easy to adhere to the forms and conventions of real media products as they are clear to follow in mainstream artists’ indie videos such as “The Neighbourhood”. For one of my research tasks, I created a slide share where I discussed the main codes and conventions of music videos which includes, mise-en-scene, editing processes, props and sound. In terms of cameras, the shot types such as close ups and over the shoulders were all used a numerous amount of times as I found these to be the most effective at portraying the narrative of my video. I also incorporated a variety of camera movements / positioning were all important in reflecting the meaning of
the song for instance by using the close up of my performers face helped get through the emotion my performer was feeling, so therefore if my shots were not pre planned this may have caused the general undertone of my music video to be wrong and therefore my final product would have looked messy and not included enough variety. I spent a lot of time planning out the different shots I planned to use and the camera movements which were most suitable for the pace of the song, by planning my camera shots/movement such as when I thought it was suitable to incorporate a jump cut meant that my video fitted appropriately with my song choice. Music videos tend to incorporate a range of shots, such as aerial shots, long shots, close ups, mid shots as well as movement’s shots such as pans and focus pulls, I attempted to incorporate a majority of these into my
own video so that it showed variety. By incorporating all of these camera shots adds emphasis to my artist, chosen locations (the black box and performer’s bedroom) and most importantly the emotion the lyrics are trying to get across to the audience. I decided to adhere to the camera conventions as I wanted my music video to look successful whilst also allowing myself to be comfortable with the equipment when using it so I did not become stressed. Moreover, for my long establishing shots of my performer dancing I placed the camera on the track so that I could follow the movement of my dancer which enabled the camera movement to flow alongside the music making my video remain professional. I slowed down my dancing clips when editing on Adobe Premiere as it allowed the camera to focus primarily on my performers’ movement which made the footage captivating to the eye whilst also getting thought the emotion of my performer which helped set the tone for my entire music video which allowed the audience to emphasise with my performer who is meant to be feeling “alone and lost”. Moreover as well as this I also incorporated a lot of close ups so that the audience could connect with my performer and understand her emotions / passion via her facial expressions and slight movement of her body parts
especially her feet. Additionally I used a lot of wide shots to establish to the audience the change in locations throughout my video so that they were able to understand that the video is based in three places (the black box, performers bedroom and outside). I decided to use the black box for the dancing shots due to its eerie look and darkness when juxtaposed to the bright bedroom shots of my performer looking happy whilst getting ready. I decided to use over the shoulder shots in my video add this added effect to my performer getting ready making it look more picturesque. I believe all that I have discussed adheres to the forms and conventions of real media products as it follows the conventions of using shot types to give significance to locations, emotions and the song itself which enabled my music video to be successful. Moreover, in terms of miseen-scene, there isn’t a set of conventions for music videos as they are all different, but
professional makeup and correct costume decisions are essential to make the product look real and professional whilst also being pleasing for the audience’s eyes. I spent a lot of time researching into the makeup look I wanted my performer to wear too make sure that it was both pretty and suitable to the “eerie” theme to my music video. To enable my audience to notice the different between my performers mind. I kept the mise-en-scene consistent throughout the video regarding hair, makeup and costume; I included three different settings and two makeup looks so that my audience could establish the difference between my performers normal “look” and her getting ready for her night out “look”. For my black box shots, my performer had minimal makeup and just wore black dance attire, I kept the room dark with only certain parts of the room lit brightly, and this gave the footage a dark eerie vibe whilst also making it aesthetically pleasing for the audience. The use
of the black outfit choice portrayed independence and darkness to the audience which helped maintain the “indie dark” vibe. For the other inside shots of my performer getting ready I kept ambient warm lighting and had my performer dressed in a pretty dress, these shots were opposite to my black box shots as they portrayed beauty and innocence to the audience. Having my performer apply her makeup during the process of filming allowed her to look visually pleasing to both the male and female audience. Lastly for my outside shots I dressed my performer in an unusual outfit so that she was easily noticeable and stood out in the darkness due to my choice to film in the night-time. I had my performer brightly lit up so she was the main focus point of the camera, this allowed my video to have a cold feel to it whilst also portraying my performer to be a “free soul” to the audience. In regards to editing the main forms and conventions
for real music videos vary but they are all likely to include jump cuts, fades and dissolve transitions. I decided to use mainly fades and dissolve transitions in my video, as I used adobe premiere to edit all of my footage, this meant that it was extremely easy to add in fades in time with the music. Not only did I edit my video by placing in different speed transitions, I also colour graded my footage and adjusted the brightness on some of the clips to really emphasis my performer in contrast to the background. With my black box shots I adjusted the black and white contrast, which made my performer stand out in the warm lighting in contrast with the black background. I also enhanced the colour on all of the shots of my performer getting ready towards the end of the video as the vibrant colours represented my actresses’ happy emotions to the audience This adheres to the codes and conventions of real music videos as it was visually pleasing to the audience and allows the footage to all blend together which helped tell the narrative. Real music videos will usually have some form of narrative
which adheres to the song and this is what I aimed to incorporate within my own video, otherwise the audience wouldn’t have been able to follow the video and the reasons why I filmed what I did. Narrative refers to the story of the film is told, as well as the actual film itself. This would include narrative structure; this is where the story is told in an order which is easy to follow, such as how I have filmed by performer getting ready in a chronological order. The pop indie genre is one of the most mainstream within the music industry and the videos usually feature a lot of performance being why I decided to include my performer dancing in the black box. The narrative of my video follows a young girl getting ready for a night out, even though she is insecure and rarely goes out due to the worry that society is judging her. In my music video I incorporated the black box to emphasise the performance bit of my music video and to make sure the performance was suitable for lyrics. This gave my video a good variety of footage so that the audience were able to engage with the music and understand the narrative.
Moreover, my music video adheres to the genre theory of Andrew Goodwin. Goodwin is a theorists who created his own theory about genre in relation to music videos. His famous theory identifies the 5 main concepts of music videos that we (the audience) should look out for. These are: Narrative and performance, The star Image, Relation of visuals to a song and Technical aspects of music videos. My video entails some examples of these five aspects, some are more prominent than others. For example my video incorporates relation of visuals to the song, I made sure that a majority of my shots related to the lyrics. For example when the song lyrics read “outside in the light” I used a shot of fairy lights slowly lighting up, this meant the audience could create connections between the lyrics and visuals. As I mentioned earlier my music video follows a narrative as do the song lyrics, so this enabled me to tell a story through the shots I decided to film meaning that the visuals related directly to the lyrics. However, I was unable to use star power in my music video as I wasn’t able to use the actual artists but instead a family friend. Overall, I believe that I have adhered to and developed the forms and conventions of real music videos for my own music video as I have a strong solo performer who tells a story throughout the video. Alongside this I also believe that the camera shots and movements aside the editing really work well to highlight the
key shots in my music video.
artist I was more than happy to use my performer. I also In creating my magazine advert ensured that I had “includes I was able to adhere to the hit single Technicolor beat” on forms and conventions I knew the advert as I knew this was as a consumer of real magazine typical convention that helps adverts as I typically read to attract an audience due to magazines that contain similar it being such a mainstream types of adverts, so I know song. Therefore I believe that I what work wells to attract / adhered to the conventions of catch an audiences eye. This magazine adverts whilst also was very helpful as I was also developing them to make sure within the target audience age they were special to my own range for my own magazine music video. so I also had an idea on what would work well to attract When I created my digipack, the right audience. Firstly I I wanted to continue the knew that reliable information same theme and styling of my from trusted sources would magazine advert so that the really grab the audience’s products linked well. One way attention and trust; so for that I managed to do this was by reason I decided to include making the magazine advert reviews from well-known image the front cover of my magazine brands such as “The digipack, this made a straight Independent”. After doing connection between the two similar product research into products. Additionally all the existing magazine adverts and photos I used in my digipack how they link to the video they were edited the same way that are promoting I used similar my magazine advert image was conventions to make sure edited, this allowed a theme mine looked a professional as to be continuous across all of possible. Therefore I used the my products keeping with the same actress from my music professional style. I decided video for the main magazine image so that a direct link could be made between the two products. The image also looked professional as I had faded it out onto a backdrop of an outside image, this gave it the indie look so people automatically knew the genre of my music video. Also by having my image fade out made it eye catching so would instantly grab the audience’s eye. However the actress in my video is not the actual artist so this is different to similar products as their adverts will typically use the same artists, but because I was unable to use the actual
to create a four page digipack as this is amount of content that you would usually find of a digipack. On the pages I included a range of content including a perusal thank-you message and a track list which showcased the album and the individual artist, my favourite digipack page was the message to the fans from the artists as I think this allowed the digipack to be personal to the audience which is a main selling point. As well as this I also followed the conventions by incorporating a track list on the back of the digipack, this features on near enough all digipack designs so this made mine remain professional. I generally did adhere to the typical conventions of digipack and adverts by following the typical structure of having a cd sleeve, track list and main image of my artist on the front, this also helped my three individual products link and helped make my artists noticeable as she features in all three.