Question 1: In what ways does you media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Music Video
Genre
When looking at indie music videos, it was clear to me that videos within this genre vary so hugely, and trying to compile a list of conventions was actually rather difficult. I found that a unifying feature of most indie music videos is the real concern and emphasis on the visuals of the videos. A lot of videos used certain techniques throughout to really push this, e.g. black and white filters, playing in reverse, selective colour palettes, etc. And as such, this was the focus of my video, which is particularly well aligned with Goodwin’s theory that there are conventions within music videos based on their musical genre.
Narrative Structure
In terms of narrative structure, I found that there was no real consistent structure that these videos followed, and it was pretty much an even distribution of performance, narrative, and concept. Videos like Alt-J’s Breezeblocks however are highly regarded within the indie genre, and this video is largely narrative based, with aspects of a more conceptual nature. This was an idea that I liked for my music video, but as this was a student music video with a low budget and limited resources, I felt that I would produce a concept video of higher professionalism than a really strong narrative video, which usually requires multiple actors and more resources. For this reason, I wanted my video to express a narrative concept in an abstract way.
Locations
The locations I used in my video were particularly influenced by contemporary photography trends of photographers like Petra Collins. I conducted an in depth visual study of her work and decided to set my video indoors. I loved the way that the lavish and girly looking props and set decoration gave the effect of a youthful feminine paradise on camera. I worked hard on achieving this look within my music video, and I wanted my work to be a clear nod towards these works of art.
Props In relation to this, I tried to include several key props that would potentially become iconic of the video, these were the heart sequins, the blankets and cushions, the photographs of the protagonist on the wall, and I feel like these were really successful. In the video for Boys by Charli XCX, props are used very intentionally to bring messages of seduction, sexuality, and playfulness, as well as extending the visual aesthetic, and this was very inspiring for my video.
Lighting
Overall, I worked really hard on the aesthetic of my video, and a large part of this was as a result of research I conducted early on into video production techniques in order to advance my skillset. I wanted to imitate the visual techniques I had seen in videos like Alexandra Savior’s Mystery Girl, and with gels over studio lighting, I think this look was achieved really well. Arguably, in filming my entire video in this way I have challenged convention, as these shots are typically used as accents, but I feel really happy with the way my video looks, and because of the minimal nature of some of the shots, the lighting isn’t too much in my opinion.
Editing style
The editing style of my video was very similar to that in the video for Girlie by Alexandra Savior, I focused on a lot of straight cuts that fell on the beat of the music, and throughout the editing process, the tempo and rhythm of the music were absolutely key to where each edit was made. I developed this convention slightly in the instances where my video ‘skips’ to the beat of the song, partially for visual effect as the editing software allowed for, but also because this is a generic convention audiences are expecting, indie music videos do challenge the typical, and extend what we see in pop music videos, that is essential.
Representation
As this video stars a female lead, I was very careful and considerate of the way I represented women throughout. My aim above all was to present a feeling of love and obsession over this character, as though whoever filming it was in a loving relationship with her. As a result of this, certain shots verged on seeming sexualized, which some would argue relates to Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze, in which women are used as a further tool for visual pleasure, I feel that it is clear this could be the case, but in fact, this is a character embracing her sexuality and enforcing it to her own extent. She is not simply sexualized, she is playful, she is charismatic, she experiences emotion- she is a woman expressing herself.
Digipak
Aesthetic
Following conventional promotional packages, I wanted my digipak to fit perfectly alongside the music video I created, but I felt strongly that the role played in the video was exactly that, a role, and so this character would not be the focus of my digipak. This is done a lot within music videos, for example Hayley Kiyoko features many female actresses in her music videos, but these are characters, and not the focus of the branding. For this reason, the links to my video had to be really overt, so that my audience would recognise that this was encoded. For this reason, the overall aesthetic of my video was mirrored entirely onto my digipak. So many artists choose to do this within their products, for example, PVRIS created a number of music videos for their album ‘White Noise’, and each and every one of them showed that same monochrome aesthetic I analysed on their digipak, as well as the key prop of the mirror that signified their branding.
Features
I wanted my digipak to have a really high level of professionalism, so I made sure to utilise conventional features of digipaks within my own work. After analysing two real products, it was clear that certain aspects, e.g: barcode, record label information, track names, credit, etc. were essential to proving that this was in fact a digipak product. I feel like this is a key example of how I followed forms and conventions of real media products within my work. Contrastingly, I do feel that aspects of my work challenged and developed some of the more rigid forms of digipaks, in that I attempted to keep mine quite minimal in terms of the text-based content on the digipak, much like Arctic Monkeys’ digipak for AM.
Layout
As explained, I wanted to replicate some of the more abstract digipaks of the indie genre, and as such my layout was simplistic and minimal. I felt that the focus should be the images, hence why certain important features- the artist name on the cover and the album title, are rather small and out of eyeline. My understanding of the indie genre is that image and visuals are of highest priority, and I wanted to exemplify this within my work, so despite that this may not be a conventional or typical digipak in many ways, it is very typically a digipak of the indie genre.
Album Adverts
Variations
I chose to create 3 variations of my album advert, with a definite nod in mind towards film posters- many franchise films produce variations of their advertisements to increase audience excitement for the new release. With album adverts however this seems to be rather a challenge to conventions, as this is rarely done. When I asked my audience about this in a focus group, all of their responses were positive, which indicates to me that perhaps this is a concept that would be understood well by indie music audiences.
Features
As within the digipak, I noticed several features when analysing real media products, or album adverts, that seemed to be essential for the identification that this was an album advert. These were features like ‘Out Now’, and the artist name and album title, as well as reviews from music magazines. I feel like the features on my adverts needed to be very conventional and typical of real adverts as I was already challenging convention strongly by creating three adverts- getting the balance between a new, innovative product and a recognisable real media form was key.
Aesthetic I kept the aesthetic very close to that of the digipak, as I wanted to really extend the level of consistency between the products in combination with each other. For this reason I also used visually similar images on both of these texts, which is in fact highly conventional of music promotional packages.