1. For my A2 Media Coursework, I created a music video to the song “Goner” by Twenty One
Pilots with the two promotional products alongside it. I used constant close ups to highlight
the singer and his instruments. The mid shots are used to show the movement of the artist
as he walks or plays the instruments. Conventionally, the audience are used to the main
focus being on the artist performing rather than watching a narrative. I used this convention
on my music video as I wanted it to reflect his need for escape. I wanted my video to be in
monochrome. This tells the audience that is a meaningful and sad song. I also altered the
colour of the outside shots so it looked drained of colour. This symbolises the drained
emotions of the artist. For example, the band Alt-J's music video “Breezeblocks” is in the
alternative genre and has the same colour scheme as mine. However, my video strays from
the typical colour conventions slightly as usually the videos are in colour.
I have endeavoured to make my products conventionally correct in regards to mise en
scene. His costume is conventionally correct as he is wearing skinny jeans and his hair is mid
length. Furthermore, his general look is a casual and carefree style which is a prominent
look in the genre. The props which I have used are the conventional props used in an
alternative music video, which are the instruments. The theme within the video is
depression and the need to escape the feeling of depression and anxiety.
In addition to this, I have used natural lighting to highlight the outside location. However, in
the practice room shots, I have used high key lighting to challenge the convention. This links
to David Buckingham’s theory that “genre is in a constant process of negotiation and
change.”
In my video, I have tried to do a pan in which the actor would be playing both instruments.
However, I did this shot without tapes to line the shot up and it ended up too fast and it
wasn’t lined up correctly. If I was to do this again, I would take more time in completing this
shot correctly. Furthermore, the close ups which were filmed outside represent his mind-
set and the need to escape.
When I edited it together, I realised that conventionally the editing is the same pace of the
song therefore in the beginning the editing is quite slow. This is supported by the slow
dissolves from the practice room to outside. Additionally, the dissolves created a smooth
transition from the two locations. This gives the shot more of a dream-like feeling. The
ending has faster cuts as the pace of the song becomes faster. This links to Vernallis’ theory
regarding editing and camerawork. Her findings discovered that edits are much more
frequent in music videos than in films. In addition to this, she found that the edits are to the
rhythm and/or beats of the song. The main points of her observation were: To draw
attention to what is on screen, the usual rules of continuity are broken and edits may be
very obvious to draw attention to them. For example, in my video once the pace of the song
gets faster, the cuts of the video get faster.
2. The two ancillary tasks I created were a digipak and a poster for the song.
My digipak reflects on those already on sale. I have looked at existing products such as
Rihanna and Gwen Stefani and I found that they have a simple but effective layout.
Furthermore, I have used and developed the alternative genre conventions as it features the
band and the album name on the front cover. The back cover features common conventions
like appropriate industry logos and they are positioned suitably. For example, the track
names and a bar code. The pictures of the singer are not clear and they are not stretched to
fit. This gives the digipak a professional look. The album title is due to the song I have used
for my music video as it would be the most popular song on the album. Therefore, the
audience would recognise it. In addition to this, the colours reflect the album name as it has
a simple colour scheme.
Furthermore, my poster is inspired by Ed Sheeran's poster for his albums “+” and “X”. Again,
these are simple but effective which I tried to convey through my texts. I used the same
image from the cover to make it easily recognisable to the audience who see it in shops. In
addition to this, I used the same colour for the album title on the digipak and the poster to
create synergy between the two texts.
