evaluation task for my A2 level media studies

1. Evaluation Task 1
By Immy Evans

2. • This close up shot of the lead singer in the band conforms to the normal
conventions of music videos, as it uses the attractiveness and shows it off as
an asset. This shot, and similar shots to this in throughout the video appealed
to our target audience of young males and females, aged 16-25. This makes
them feel connected to the audience, which relates the teenage audience to the
band. As the lead singer is very attractive, it appeals to the female sector of our
target audience, as it applies a ‘female gaze’ to the product. Also, as he looks
directly into the camera into this shot, it makes the audience feel as though he
is looking directly at them. This helps to build their star image, as this makes
them feel a connection to the artist on screen. This is used by other bands like
‘My Chemical Romance’.
Screen Grab From Our Music Video

3. • We decided to follow in the footsteps of other popular bands within this
genre. We were inspired by bands such as My Chemical Romance, and
included the use of conspicuous lighting in our video. After much
consideration, we decided that blinders would be visually stimulating in
our video. By using blinders, it created a surreal effect, giving this
section of the video a dream like quality. The strong white creates a
contrast between the dark black of the drummers costume. This is used
in other music videos to create intensity and highlight contrast between
a person/object and the environment that it is in. Other musicians also
use this in their videos, shown in this shot from “SING”
Screen Grab From My Music Video

4. • We used shots of the whole band to use the band’s
musical talent as an asset, adding to part of their
appeal. This was to highlight the whole band as a
part of the star image. This is fitting with our genre as
often in the emo/grunge style music, a band is
marketed as the artist, as apossed to in pop music
when a single person in the centre of attention.
Therefore, by doing this it both challenges and
conforms to typical music video style.
Screen Grab From My Music Video

5. • We used corrugated iron walls to give the video an
industrial atmosphere to it. The industrial element is
very popular in music videos and is often used to make
artists look more strong and independent. We liked the
way that this made other artists appear and so we
decided to use it this theme as the setting for our video.
We thought that this was particularly fitting as it
highlighted the rebellion of the bad, while contrasting
the delicate beauty of the dancer.
Screen Grab From My Music Video

6. • We used a dress with a tail of flowing cloth to create
elegance and grace, when choreographing the dance. This
is often used in music videos to highlight the beauty of the
artist/character wearing it. This conforms to the typical
music video conventions as the female in the video is
presented as being beautiful and innocent, whereas the
males in the video are shown to be strong.

7. • In this video we conform to the typical view of women by
having an innocent, female dancer. However, we also
challenge this convention as we use a female bass player
within the band itself. This goes against the norm as bands
are typically all male. Due to this diversity, our video
reinforces all views of females presented in the media, as
they are shown as being both, elegant and beautiful, whilst
also being shown as strong, independent and equal to men.
The Band’s Bass Player Music Video Dancer

8. • We included multiple performance elements to the video, as our
target audience of indie rock listeners, are mainly focused the
musicianship as a whole, as apposed to the person behind the
music. This is where the video varies from most pop videos
targeted towards the mainstream. Most listeners within this
genre has been proven to prefer a performance based video, as
opposed to a love story, or a video with a narrative, which is why
we didn’t include any form of narrative in our video. It is a part of
the band’s star image that their unique selling point is their
talent. This attracts the correct type of target audience. The
purpose of using the performance element so strongly is to
showcase the band’s talent and affectively demonstrate the
genre which the artist belongs to.

9. • We decided to limit the music video to only three minutes long, as
this fitted in with the norms of this genre and it matched the length
of the song. Often, in videos with a strong narrative there is a
section of plot at the beginning of the video, before the song starts.
However, as mu music video does not have any form of prominent
narrative, we cut it so that the video started on the first beat of the
song. As the pre-narrative before the video is a very mainstream
pop convention of music videos, often (but not always) videos within
this genre tend to only cover the duration of the song. In addition to
this genre convention which we followed, we also decided to cut it
to a length of three minutes so that the footage remained fresh and
interesting throughout the whole duration of the video, and we
thought that if the video was longer than three minutes, it would
become boring.

10. • Our digipack uses a brick wall as a background,
with industrial, urban style setting. Then, on both
digipack covers, both artists have something which
is not fitting with the overall setting the the picture.
In The Killers’ album it is the goat which is out of
place in an urban background, while on our
digipack, it is the red arm chair which doesn’t fit in
with the overall setting. This style of setting is very
common in this genre, which is why we decided to
set the video and band’s look, based on this style.

11. • We also adapted the idea of using graffiti on a the
wall, inspired by Linkin Park’s, Hybrid Theory
album. We decided to graffiti imagery from the
video and of the band overall. The album
parallels that of our digipack, as there is heavy
graffiti/art element to it, with the back cover of the
digipack, the text is over a large patch of wall,
spray painted to be a neutral background that text
could appear easily on.

12. • Just like this album by The Kooks, we put the
band members with their instruments on the front
cover. We did this to highlight the band’s talent,
as this is one their selling points. While The
Kooks has a different atmosphere to Broken
Lines, both artists exist within the same genre,
indie rock, so while their music sounds different,
the band’s follow a similar image style due to their
shared target audience, and genre.

13. • Just like band, Imagine Dragons, we also
had the band’s logo present in the same
place on each page of the sight. This
connects all of the different pages
together, and makes the viewer/website
visitor feel more immersed in the full band
experience. This helps to continuously
connect each page of the website
together. This is an important element of
the website to have, as it brings together
the whole image of the website.

14. • For our website, we put in different tabs, which
connected the visitor to other pages with
information on them about the band on them. This
is a typical convention of most bands or artists
within the mainstream. On both web pages, this is
visible on all pages and easily accessible at all
times of the website. However, they are positioned
differently, as Coldplay’s is positioned vertically
down the side of the website, whereas we
positioned ours at the bottom of each page.

15. • Like The Killers’ website, we also have social
network links present on the website. This give
the viewer the ability to easily access the band’s
social network profiles, which would allow them to
feel closer and more connected to the band,
which would entice them to follow the band, and
this helps to build up their star image. This
feature attracts audiences to the band as an
entity.