Question 1

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

For our A2 media project our task was to create a promotional package for a music artist consisting of a music video, a digipak and a magazine advert. We decided to select a song that we both liked, leading us to select ‘Tamara Laurel – There Is A Line’. The genre of our song was a hybrid genre mainly consisting of elements from indie folk and country pop. This meant when producing our media product we could consider several different forms and conventions.

Overall I feel that our music video from the stages of research and planning up until our completed product both challenges and develop the conventions that are used in real media products. Because our product is of a hybrid genre, it allowed us to challenge certain conventions if they did not appeal to us, develop others and left room for creativity and with aspects of uniqueness as our product is more likely to stand out for the rest.

Conventions of Music Videos

In order to create the music video I researched into existing media products, firstly in a general sense, but more importantly within our chosen music genre. I looked at artists such as Ellie Goulding, Passenger, Taylor Swift.

We studied a media theorist Andrew Goodwin and according to him there are 6 key aspects, the audience should look for when analysing a music video. Genre characteristics A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals A relationship between the music and the visuals Star image – close up of artist Voyeurism Intersexual references to other media texts.

Genre Conventions

From watching Passenger and Taylor Swift, one of the conventions I came across was the use of instruments was apparent in every video and also heavily emphasised.

For example in Passengers music video there was a large amount of close up shots taken of the instruments being played from various angles. Because of this we decided to also incorporate it into our music video. We decided that the singer’s instrument should be an acoustic guitar which is a conventions of indie folk.

We made sure that she was playing this in the two main performance scenes and we also made sure we included close up shots of the guitar alone. This emphasized the importance of the instrument and how it is a vital part of her star image. Additionally, because this instrument is a stereotypical representation of indie folk we hoped that the emphasis placed on it would help the audience identify clearly what our genre was.

Locations

• Another convention of the genre is to use the mise-en-scene to show the setting of the video usually focusing on natural settings.

• Indie Folk music is particularly raw and simple, and some may even call it old fashioned. There’s a general lack of manufactured imagery in the music videos to avoid contrasting with the themes – everything is usually natural with a focus on the environment. This idea is shown in all of the music videos I have looked at, from Ellie Goulding in forest scene, to Taylor Swift and her use of a castle to portray her love story. So this is a very strong, popular theme in the majority of Indie Folk videos.

We decided to film in Thames Barrier Park as this was a very large outdoor open space scenario. We shot various shots of the singer and the love interest here and it proved to look very effective. This gave of the impression of a sense of security and seclusion between the couple. Because they were the only ones present in the park it made it seem as if they were indulged in their own world.

There was a sense of irony as they were in a public place, however there were no people from the public present connoting that when they are together they don’t notice anyone else but each other’s company and how they can block the outside world out implying a sense of strength and bond.

However we chose to develop this convention as we didn’t only want to have the park as the only outdoor scene. Therefore we chose to do some shoots near the riverside in Thames Barrier Park and Winter Wonderland during sunset, this looked very romantic. The setting of the riverside looked unique and it also looked like it was not something typically seen in London or Indie Folk videos.

Makeup & Hair

o The makeup of our artist was minimal and natural. This is because it needed to look realistic and relaxed. We used a small amount of mascara and subtle lipstick.

o My research showed that Indie Folk artists often have their hair styled naturally, looking effortless. This makes them appear more natural and they have less of the star image which is normally conveyed through most Pop artists.

o This is because the notion that the performer is also the artist should be evident, and a small element of star image can be introduced here, without it breaking the Indie Folk conventions.

Costume

The artists’ costume had to cater to the Indie Folk genre. The conventional pop costume would be girly and voyeuristic, however typical costumes from the indie genre is less revealing and more grungy and simplistic. This is because, indie artists do not want emphasis on themselves but rather their music to be highlighted. Therefore, we had to make sure we were careful in picking out the right costumes for our artist.

According to our research of real media texts, the actors dressed correspondingly to their age. They were portrayed as authentically as possible, which meant that they had to wear costumes the audience expect people of their age to wear. We had to make sure that our actors’ costumes fit into the generic conventions for teenagers.

We tried to conform the artists costume as close to the conventions as possible. We made sure there was an element of girly-ness because she nice tops and pretty dresses however, there was a still a large hint of indie-ness.

Costumes Inspirations

We liked the style of Nanna from Of Monsters and Men, who we thought conformed to the Indie Folk conventions very well. She wore minimal makeup, had a nice Indie style and we could imagine our artist dressed like her. Therefore, we used her style in the performance scenes, as it was a vital part of the music video.

For the narrative scenes we looked at costumes of artists such as Ellie Goulding, Taylor Swift and Carly Rae Jepsen.

The male actor wore denim shirt, jacket, leather jacket, skinny jeans and smart/casual clothes expressing a relaxed and calm attitude, which is closely linked with the genre of Indie Folk. Denim and shirts are a stereotypical convention of the Indie Folk genre, thanks to bands such as Mumford and Sons.

Costumes

Love and Romance

Because our genre is a hybrid we also decided to look at some country pop music videos such as Taylor Swift, 'Teardrops on my Guitar' and also Carly Jae Jepson, ‘Tonight I’m Getting Over You'.

From watching both these music videos we realised that the most stereotypical convention of country pop was the theme of teenage romance and love, shown through an obvious narrative.

Both storylines seemed more focused on the female and her love for the male character. Therefore, we decided to incorporate this sort of narrative into our music video. We decided to do this because we thought that it fit our target audience perfectly, as they would be around the same age as the singer, and it is normally around this age that girls begin to notice the opposite sex. We thought that including this storyline would make it relatable to other teenage girls. By doing this we wanted our main singer to become a somewhat role model for other females, and someone they could look up to.

Our music video had conveyed the concept of love as much as possible. This was through the couples doing stereotypical couple activities like, dancing, walking hand in hand and scenes of them during their date.

Lyrics and Visuals

By watching these two songs we also realised there was a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. For example, in Taylor Swift’s song the lyrics were: ’Drew walks by me, can he tell that I can't breathe?’ and the visuals were the male character walking past her while she looked flustered and accidently poured too much acid into the science pot resulting in it overflowing. By doing this the visuals somewhat amplify the lyrics and give meaning to it. It portrayed Taylor as an innocent young love-struck teenager and emphasized her feelings for him.

Therefore we decided to illustrate and amplify elements of our music video. For example, the lyrics ‘stony eyes’ were accompanied by an extreme close up shot of the female’s eyes gazing at the male. The contribution of the visual and the extreme close up allows the audience to see the intensity of her gaze and how mesmerized she is by him.

We also did this in the lyrics ‘your bulled fired your reckless aim’ as we showed the male shooting her down. Although these visuals may be an exaggeration of the lyrics it once again heightens the intensity she feels towards him. The visuals allow the audience to see how dependent she is on him and how he has the ability to knock her down mentally. Additionally, by matching the lyrics and visuals it helped put our star image across of our singer – a innocent young girl in love which was beneficial as the target audience are able to see her personality more and able to identify with her.

In stony eyes that belong to you

And we’re all alone now

Laid out in all my dreamsYou sittin' like a king in front of me I need your eyes, your teeth,

your skin

Comin’ on like a wayward trainYour bullet fired, your reckless aim

Editing

Goodwin identified that the visuals within a music video may be edited in time to the lyrics/ change in pace of the song. He also stated that these visuals are commonly repeated within a chorus to emphasise the repetition in lyrics and beats.

I used the editing software, Final cut express, this follows the typical conventions of most music videos as it’s the main editing software for professionals editing real media products.

I edited most shots on the beat of the music and I used cross dissolves and additive cross dissolves to evoke a flowing, soft and delicate affect. As a result I’ve developed the typical Indie conventions by enhancing the smoothness of the editing through these transitions which helped to reinforce continuity and a calm atmosphere of the music video.

Structure of Music Video

One of the key features of any music videos especially Indie is the use of a narrative alongside the performance, normally involving a theme, explaining to the audience the story behind the lyrics of the song, most linking to love and relationships of the artist or characters in the song. A strong narrative is key to a good indie folk music video. The lyrics of indie folk music are rather deep and emotional, and the music video needs to reflect that. Telling a story through both audio and visuals is essential, and what makes indie folk quite unique. No flashy images or special effects, but a solid story.

Structure of Music Video

When looking at Taylor Swift, Passenger and various other artist, this was consistent. Therefore I ensured I had a balance of shots showing the narrative and the artist performing. In my media product you can see some scenes of the artist with her love interest and the scenes of her singing the song. In editing we structured our music video like this too as it gave a sense of predictability as the audience grew familiar with it as they would know what may be coming next.

We analysed Passenger, 'Let Her Go' and various Taylor Swift music videos. Through analysing these texts we realised that one reoccurring factor was the emphasis on the performance scenes throughout the music video. Passenger’s video was all performance with some snippets of backstage as well as Taylor Swift’s which was nearly all performance but with some outdoor narrative scenes. There were various different angles for the performance scenes with a large focus on the main singer.

We took it one step further and chose to develop this as instead of showing her performing only in one location we had several. We done this because we thought it looked much more interesting when there is a change of sceneries as initially we only had one performance scene which proved to be very long and felt boring and predictable in terms of what was coming next.

The structure we followed was:1. Performance – Genesis 2. Narrative - Locker3. Performance - Genesis4. Narrative - Cafe5. Performance - Genesis6. Narrative & Performance – Mile End Park &

Riverside7. Narrative – Dream Scene8. Performance & Narrative – Genesis & Graphics

Match9. Narrative – Maze10. Performance – Thames Barrier Park11. Narrative & Performance – Riverside12. Narrative –Riverside, Park, Maze13. Performance & Narrative – Drama Studio & Winter

Wonderland

9 Layers

Drama Studio Performance Scene

Dream Scene Graphic Match Scene

Locker Scene Cafe Scene

Mile End Park Performance Scene

Riverside Scene

Thames Barrier Performance Scene

Riverside, Park & Maze Scene

Winter Wonderland Scene

Maze Scene Riverside Scene

Riverside Performance Scene

Drama Studio Performance Scene

Performance Scenes - We shot two scenes inside at Genesis Cinema and in the Drama Studio. Three scenes outside at Thames Barrier Park, Riverside and Mile End

Park.

Drama Studio

Park

Genesis Cinema

Watching particular music videos of these artists allowed us to storyboard our own performance

scenes.

Passenger - Let Her Go

We filmed her singing at a variety of different shots, e.g. longshots, close ups, low angles, right angle, left angle etc. We wanted a variety because in our music video she is singing for a long time, therefore if we only had one angle it would be boring and uncomfortable to watch for the audience as it would be focusing on her face for to long.

It also would look uninteresting and bland, therefore the use of all these angles allowed us to avoid these problems. Additionally, the different angles allowed us to see the artist clearly singing and it shows the emotions on her face and how expressive she was being through the words. This allowed us to show the audience how much she meant the lyrics which contributed to her star image of an innocent, young girl.

Camera Angles

Close ups/Voyeurism

In order for the record label to promote a set image for the band or artist which will attract a certain target audience, artists videos will include many close ups and will often have motifs which recur across many videos. This convention is used in order to show the artist throughout the video but is most common with female artists as it is often used to sexualize the artist following Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory causing a attraction from the audience towards the artist.

In our music video we had many close-ups of the artist to attract audience and make a connection with the audience. Many music videos included voyeuristic angles of women in order to entice a male audiences interest in the artist and also the lyrics to which these shots represent. We however did not want to sexualise the artist and cause a fetish connection for the male audience. We portrayed our artist as innocent and used costume, makeup appropriate to the Indie Folk genre as the idea of voyeurism isn’t big in Indie Folk.

In one of passengers performance scenes there was fairly lights hung up against a black backdrop. We loved this idea as we thought it looked very effective therefore we decided to recreate this.

The rest of our music video had natural bright lighting whereas this one was all black. The fairy lights added an element of ‘coolness’ to the music video as the genre indie folk is usually a relaxed one, therefore the lights resulted in a calm and relaxed atmosphere in the music video and looked eye catching. This was ideal for us as we placed this performance scene right at the end when everything was coming to a stop slowly and suited the tone of the ending.

Subverting Conventions

On the other hand, there were some aspects of our music video which we wanted to challenge in terms of genre.

We took inspiration from Justin Timberlake’s popular song ‘Mirror’. We decided to mimic the scene in where the he looks in the mirror and a woman appears on the other side. Although Justin Timberlake’s genre of music is R&B, which is the complete opposite of our genre we decided that adding this scene in our music video would work and look highly effective.

We added this in the dream scene because we thought there could be many connotations to it. For example, the fact that she saw him in the mirror, implies that he is always on her mind. Even when he’s not physically within her view, he never leaves her which once again emphasizes her passion and love for him.

We wanted to leave some things such as this, unclear to the audience as we wanted them to wonder and guess what this could mean, instead of just presenting it to them.

In the music video, it is a see through glass, where they are at opposite sides. However in our music video her love interest appears as her reflection. This was technically more difficult to do and this is something we developed.

Mirrors/There Is A Line

Another way we challenged the conventions of our genre is including intertextual references from the popular film ‘Titanic’. From our research into indie folk and country pop, we realized that none of the music videos included them; therefore we were skeptical about using it. However we decided to film it nonetheless and use it if we thought it looked good when it came to editing.

When we added it in, we thought that it in fact looked very GOOD. This was because it added a slight sense of humour which was ideal, as although this is a music video focused around romance we didn’t want it to come across as overboard and too intense because the audience was teenagers.

Because we chose one of the most known famous scenes from the titanic we knew that anyone watching our music video would be able to identify straight away where it was from. It can also help the audience take further levels of meaning away from a text.

Ancillary Task

When it came to creating our print tasks we also decided to develop, conform and challenge the forms and conventions.

After looking at a number of Taylor swift’s albums we identified the use of font throughout. Her name was always written in a sort of italics handwriting, giving of the impression that it was her autograph. The album name was always written in capitals and a smaller font, completely opposite of her name as it was more straight and fancy.

We loved this concept and wanted to conform to it, therefore we found a font that looked close to an autograph and made it considerably large.

The italics and the slightly curled letters made it bit feminine which related to the star image of our singer. Also It looked like she had put her own stamp on it and personalised it. The simplistic style of handwritten font went well with the conventions of Indie Folk and portrayed in a more positive light.

We decided to conform the same with the album name as well because we thought the contrast between the two fonts worked very well together. We did it in capitals, because although the font was smaller than her name we wanted to put the name of the album across to the audience. We wanted them to be able to see it on an album shelf and see the album name straight away.

Because the name of the singer was bigger than the album name we didn’t want it to come across as though the singer was self-centred therefore the use of capitals counteracted this and showed the opposite.

Subvert

Many of the Indie Folk and Country Pop album covers had had strong visual effects, superficial backgrounds and was photshopped alot.

However we didn’t like these conventions as we thought that it looked artificial and not realistic. Therefore when it came to creating our digipaks we made the decision as a group to shoot it outdoors near woodland/green scenery, to make it more natural and keep it simplistic, a convention we came across in Indie Folk. And this is one way we challenged the conventions.

On every panel natural greenery from outdoors is used and we thought this looked and worked well. The reason why we wanted to do it outdoors was because we wanted to portray that our singer was in touch with nature. When editing we hardly used any effects or tools as we wanted to show her natural beauty and innocence.

Final Digipak

Real Digipaks which helped us decide what conventions to follow and ignore.

Magazine Advert

By looking at a variety of magazine adverts we realized that there is always continuity between the magazine advert and the Digipak. There was also no noticeable difference between the choice of outfits or the setting. There was always a well identified synergy with it all. Having this sense of continuity made the artist identifiable to their audience and kept the genre features consistent throughout.

Therefore we decided to conform to this sense of continuity between the digipak and magazine cover by having her wear the same outfit and keeping all fonts the same which once again made her easily identifiable and kept her star profile consistent throughout.

My Magazine/Taylor Swift Magazine

Reflection

Overall, after using Goodwin’s theory as an pointer of music videos, it is clear that our music video meets a majority of codes and conventions of real media products that are commonly found in that specific genre of Folk/Indie/Country Pop. For example the use of close ups of Shannon to make the artist look important and portray her star image. By conforming to the conventions we have created an effective music video where everything suited and complimented each other well. The actress especially looked like an indie artist and it fit with the theme.

As well as this, we also challenged some conventions such as the use of intertextual references, using school setting which worked out incredibly well as it is rare to find these in a Indie Folk music videos.

However, I feel that we could have further challenged the conventions. In particular, telling a same sex relationship story instead of making it a typical teenage romantic music video where the girl reminisces about the boy. If I were to do the music video again this is one of the conventions I would challenge.