1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
convention of real media products?
The research and planning process was an important part as it helped to establish
the formation of both of my final products. The advance brief clearly stated to
create a successful music video and print. In order for me to do this I have
successfully researched into a variety of different genre including indie rock bands. It
was necessary for me to conduct this research as it helped me to understand the
codes and conventions of at that particular genre.
From my textual analysis of Beyonce’s ‘Pretty Hurts’
music video I immediately realised that the song did
conform into the convention that of an RnB, Pop
genre. In Goodwin’s theory it states that each genre
has particular characteristics that define it e.g
performance element and ‘Pretty hurts’ was in fact a
narrative based music video. Although ‘Beyonce’
music is generally R&B, but she also incorporates
pop, soul which can be seen through this song in
particular with the different tones. Another typical
convention is the use of close ups to convey the
message, to get closer to the audience. There is a clear reference of this in our music
video with the themes of depression that we felt the song conveyed and also our
inspiration from real media product e.g
‘Pretty hurts’. However I noticed that in this
particular shot they used the rule of thirds to
position Beyonce. I also noticed in the
background that it was blurred out making
her stand out. Early on in the research and
planning I wanted to use this composition
into my own work and I think I successfully
met this. I did this by placing the shot in vertical third of the right hand side and by
slightly tilting it, which made the shot more intriguing and creative, gave it a more
appealing look.
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2. We were inspired by 1975’s ‘Robbers’ music video, which Gemma examined in detail
in her own blog for the research and planning stage. Their music video certainly
captured our attention as we decided to use the close ups of the bloody hand in our
music video, although it occurs early on in the narrative, referencing an enigma code
for the audience. We decided we did not want a build up form, rather a concluding
section. I strongly wanted to reinforce the sense of isolation and the battle with
depression. We received some criticism regarding this, as one argued from our
feedback that they were frustrated that we used a female protagonist for a
stereotypical illness. However overall felt that we handled this very well. Despite
the 1975 music video being in a different context, we wanted to use it anyway. It
could be argued that dominant focus
on a central character in this case
two characters is another way of us
using a form of real media in our
media. ‘The 1975’ front man Matty
Healy stated in an interview that the
video resembles a Bonnie and Clyde,
where the two character are
intoxicated with one another,
explicitly referencing this with our
protagonist depression and
intoxication which is the real focus of
our media product. Although in our
initial ideas were to use flashbacks
which would have been a more
accurate depiction of ‘The 1975’s ‘Robber’ video. Moreover the use of silhouette of
the protagonist against the natural light is used both in our media product and that
of ‘The 1975’. In spite of the fact that there is similarities, it can be argued in total
different context, as the silhouette scenes in Robber represents a hopelessly
romantic notion of happy moments, whereas in our media product the silhouette
reflect the protagonist self struggle of fighting her own demons.
Other professional real media product that I have looked heavily into through the
research and planning process included Imagine Dragons ‘Radioactive’ music and
Rihanna’s Man down. From these I took inspiration for both narrative and setting. I
especially looked at Imagine Dragons ‘Radioactive’ for camera techniques and effects
which were important for developing a professional finish. An extreme close up of
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3. the eye in this shot is a typical convention of the indie rock genre as it conveys
emotion and brings the audience closer to the character, however is slightly
intrusive. We wanted to use to this in our music video so I filmed an extreme close
up of Megan’s eyes to create an intimacy between the audience and the protagonist
as well creating a personal connection.
I was inspired by this artist Jade Novah’s who
recreated Rihanna’s song Diamond which has a
professional look. The video contains close ups
and long shot and one with a distorted panning
shot that can be linked to in our establishing
shot. However I was particularly interested in the
bath tub scene, the heavy eye make -up which
we originally wanted. Although the video is
confusing and does not address some the
perceptions of the song, as it took a different
approach. This shows why it’s difficult to recreate
a well unknown song which has a great video. In
addition I believe that we challenged the forms
and conventions of this particular genre because
it normally focuses on performance aspects rather than a narrative.
Rihanna- Man Down- Cross cut
The song has a reggae feel which Rihanna was inspired by, the song itself was
deemed controversial because of the portrayal of
murder. However some argue that argue that the
feel a sense of empowering women through the
effective portrayal of social problems e.g domestic
violence. A Typically a pop genre usually use a
cross cut in their music video, as Man down had
cross cuts to various scenes of the narrative. As I
mentioned in this in my pitch, as I was inspired by
the effective use of cross cuts it as it illustrated two
parallel actions happening at the same time.
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4. I feel like we have challenged the indie rock
convention by not showing instruments within the
video, while generally rock videos tend to either
be heavily focused an element of instruments or a
visage live performance rather than narrative. As
we found out in our focus group many of them
placed narrative above performance so we
wanted to solely focus on narrative. Our media
product does not contain any instruments such
as guitar or drums instead we have a centrally
focus on the protagonist. The performance
element that we have takes place in a controlled
studio rather than a natural setting where they
typically set. This can also be linked to the 1975 ‘Robber’ where the performance
element is seen when the lead singer of ‘The 1975’ is singing in the video to his
female love interest through the microphone. This is the only performance scene in
the video just like ours, but it’s within the narrative, the main focus is on the
protagonist.
Furthermore during my research I was inspired by
Imagine Dragons ‘Radioactive’ music video which I
have referenced quite a lot in my research and
planning. I was inspired by the lighting that was
used, at the beginning of the music video natural
lighting is used which creates a good opening;
similarly we used this in our opening scene of the
sunset and the protagonist. However there are
many shots in the video where the lighting in much
dimmer and low key. Although lighting was an issue
in the outdoor scenes, we were able to control more
in the studio, nevertheless we still used after effect to create that blue-ish and grey
effect. The lip-synching scene added a contrast to the rest of the video. We have also
explored other real media product of the narrative in Pink ‘Perfect’ music video, the
narrative is video is a non-linear as it beings with main character at a much older age
to a flashback of her as a child. However we were more interested in the ideology,
the concept of social expectation and the hidden illness. The video its self is mainly
driven by narrative and we wanted the dark themes to come across in our product.
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