In what ways does your media product

use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products..?

ResearchPrior to the start of this project, we were shown in class many examples of different real music videos as well as student work. I also researched on my own into different genres and how they specifically construct their music videos to cater for their target audience. This has helped me a lot in terms of ideas such as locations and mise en scene in my own work. At the end of the project, I have produced 3 of my own media products (music video, digipak and advert). Researching in depth into the typical conventions of a music video has enhanced my personal knowledge and allowed our group to construct (hopefully) successful products.

Purpose of music videosMusic videos serve many purposes for different people. They benefit 3 primary groups of interlinking people; the artists, their companies and the consumer of the product. Music videos have become crucial for artists

for many reasons. It provides them with a platform that gives them exposure, promotion

and publicity. It allows the artist to have a visual and personal connection to their fans

through the video. Often, videos show clips of the artists performing live which would urge

the fans (consumers) to buy tickets for a concert and further promote the artist. This would also bring potentially bring in further

revenue for the artist and their recording companies.

Furthermore, videos heavily promote material products some of which are available for the

public to buy, for example Dr. Dre Beats headphones that are promoted in most Universal Music Group artists’ videos.

Conventions of music videos

•Performance•Repetition•Narrative•Lip synching•Camera shots, angles and movement

We have followed each of these key features because •Marcus Green performs through the entire video •There is repetition of lyrics in the song and repetition of locations •We have visually portrayed a narrative from the protagonist’s POV about his lover•Marcus Green sang in the video but we used Final Cut Pro to edit the lip sync•We have used a range of camera shots, angles and some camera movement

Theoretical ideas... • Carol Vernallis • Laura Mulvey

• Andrew Goodwin

Carol VernallisCarol Vernallis is well known for studying music videos in terms of editing and camera work. She recognized that editing was more frequent in music videos than in film and often fitted with the rhythm of the song.

One video with special effects in editing Warm Myth’s ‘Working’ music video . There’s a lot of use of kaleidoscope origami effects which goes well with the slow , trippy relaxed song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoYilekwxIk&feature=player_embedded

We followed her theory because our music video was edited perfectly to the beat of the song. This means that it was at the same face as the song. We did not too many random or unexpected cuts as it is quite a slow mellow song. However, we used faster edits and jump cuts during the dubstep part of the song as the beats were faster.

Laura MulveyLaura Mulvey, a British feminist film theorist, has this theory which highlights the power imbalance between men and women analyzing the way men see women. Her theory indicates that an audience are forced to view the text from the perspective of a heterosexual male; this is evident in films and music as there is a constant focus on women’s body parts (something Mulvey calls dismemberment, which suggests women are treated as pieces of meat) and events that happen to them are portrayed at a male angle.

Mulvey’s theory of male gaze is perfectly exemplified in Dizzee Rascal’s single

‘Holiday.’ It follows everything such as the males being active (looker) and the females

being passive (looked at) and none of the females are shown as a full person but just

dismembered for their body parts.

My full post on Mulvey’s theory can be viewed in detail earlier in

the blog.

We didn’t really have any need to use Mulvey’s theory. Our music video wasn’t the usual type of provocative video so we never had the need to show the male gaze. As the narrative is about a male leaving his female companion, to an extent we have switched Mulvey’s theory and the male is being pursued by the female.

Andrew GoodwinAndrew Goodwin was a Director of Music for 37 years, he wrote in his book ‘Dancing In The Distraction Factory’ that pop music videos challenge the traditional narrative style. There are 3 main reasons why the structures of pop videos are different to films. Pop videos are built specifically for songs which is why they don’t always have the traditional structure of normality-problem-resolution. The singer is used as both the narrator as well as a character at times. The videos are an artist’s performance for their audience; they would look directly into the camera often in order to reach out to their audience and make them feel more involved. This intimacy between the artist and their audience also promotes the artist.

There are 3 types of relations between a song and its music

video. The first is known as illustration,

where the video tells the story of the lyrics. Dance is often used to

express the feelings and moods of the song.

Amplification music videos give a depth to the song and video by

adding layers of meaning. These videos are usually a combination of

the artist’s performance as well as a story.

Disjuncture music videos contain little connection between the lyrics

and the video. This is most common in dance videos.

My full post on Goodwin’s theory can be viewed in detail earlier in the

blog.

Structure of music videosWe have followed the conventional

structure of music videos discussed by Andrew Goodwin. Marcus Green’s ‘Too Close’ features a combination of disjuncture shots as well as illustration shots. The 2 disjuncture shots below, taken from the video, are just performance based and do not tell a major part of the actual narrative of the music video.

This is an example of illustration because it is edited into the video when Marcus Green sings “We’re headed separate ways” and there is a clear visual link of the couple separating.

Another disjuncture shot used is with the lyrics of “Yet there’s

oh so much that you deserve.” The image

of the protagonist playing with the ring

creates meaning in the video as it

indicates that she deserves better-

maybe an engagement ring.

This final shot of the video is significant because it gives a conclusion to the story told in the video and now the male protagonist has decided to leave his partner as he is not ready for long term commitment.

Influences

Fun- We Are Young (ft Janelle Monáe )

This video had an influence on me in our production of Too Close. Firstly, the genre

of alternative rock is similar to our song choice. I admire the way they show the

artist performing as well present a story with an illustrative video. This is an

aspect we will be employing in our video; our main focus will be on Marcus Green

performing but we will also show the story of the song through interior scenes where he is packing and leaves his lover.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

feature=player_embedded&v=Sv6dMFF_yts

Keane- Silenced By The NightUpon recently viewing this song on YouTube and I

realized our ideas had a lot of similarities with the video. First of all, Keane are also a part of Island Records, which is the same company as Alex Clare and our artist Marcus Green. This has an impact of the genre of the song/video as well as the mood of it. Like Too Close, Silenced By The Night is also a song that portrays an emotional narrative rather than the mainstream music we see on TV with a catchy choruses and no real meanings to the songs.

I admire the effective way in which lighting was used in

Silenced By The Night. This has influenced our idea that

our main base track will be filmed in the early evening.

We have created effects like in the still above, taken from SBTN. This has enhanced in capturing the mood of Too

Close e.g light vs shadow and the character's decision to 'stay or go.'

Furthermore, there are parts of SBTN that is filmed during the day, I have noticed that the happier narrative is filmed during daylight in this video. Similarly, the lively chorus to

Too Close was filmed during the daylight and at bright locations that reflect the mood of the character and

present the idea to the viewer that our protagonist is happier without his lover.

Here is a shot from Marcus Green’s “Too Close” that is clearly similar to Keane’s “SBTN.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HrV_B0qrdY&feature=player_embedded

Eminem- Not Afraid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5-yKhDd64s

Our video is similar to Eminem’s “Beautiful” in the way that both of songs and music videos are about escape from personal problems. Eminem is running from his demons while MG is breaking up with his lover.

Not afraid also influenced us in our shot choices. As can be seen here,

both videos start with the artist with his back to the camera, which creates

a sort of mysterious effect.

We also liked the idea of our artist

being dynamic and walking whilst performing in the

video. This was another choice

we were influenced by

Eminem.

DigipakTo make an effective digipak, there’s certain aspects of a conventional digipak I followed:

•Name of artist- clear and bold

•Album title- clear and bold

•Clear facial shot of artist

•Consistent fonts and colours used in the text throughout

•Track list

•Colours used in the digipak are similar to the dark locations in the video

•Company logo- Island Records

•Copyright information

•Barcode

Advertisement posterI also followed all the typical conventions of an advert poster:

•Name of artist- clear and bold

•Album title- clear and bold

•Clear facial shot of artist

•Consistent fonts and colours used in the text throughout and linked with the digipak

•Locations from the video are used in the photo

•Company logo- Island Records

•Album review/ratings

•Tour dates

•Marcus Green’s website

•Promotion through social networking sites

•Other associations and ways to buy the album (iTunes, Amazon MP3, Beats etc)

•Picture of album