My A2 level Evaluation question on "In which ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products"

2. Our synaesthesia tasked revealed that the song has a
general sad and negative vibe embedded in the lyrics.
What this means is that to follow forms and conventions
our music video would have to be sad and emotional. If
we were to challenge conventions our music video would
have been happy and would have contrasted the lyrics.
 We decided to follow these conventions because of
preference. In my opinion a happy and playful music
video is old fashioned and over used, this is because the
playful and happy music videos were first shown by the
Beetles in the 1960’s. We decided not to copy this type of
music video as it does not suit our bands genre of music.
 Lastly although you can argue that following convention is
old fashioned and over used, I choose to follow because
of the effect a video/song can have on a audience and
a sad song with a happy video would not be effective.


3. My preferred reading was Steinbeck’s “Of Mice And Men”
because of the meaning stressed by Steinbeck. Steinbeck
represented Lennie as child-like and that acted as a
hindrance to George, stopping him achieving the
American dream.
 This is proportional to Modern day UK problems as
teenage pregnancies are on the rise, these pregnancies
are seen as a cheap way out of work, for young people so
they don't have achieve a good way of life (a modern
day American dream). Once Lennie is dead George has
no excuse not to achieve his goals anymore. This is
transferred in my modern day adaptation, Because
George lacks the will and motivation, This is due to the
child-like character holding him back. However George
needed that child-like personality to make him happy and
to guide him through life.


4. 


My inspiration for creating my music video
came from John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice And
Men” this was a novel based in America at the
time of the great depression in the 1920’s.
Although this novel isn't directly related to our
target audience, it is read by most of the
teenage population in England as part of the
GCSE English course.
This meant that our target audience was
familiar with the text, allowing a deeper
connection with homeless George. Although
this concept is not directly evident to the
audience it can help with their understanding
of Georges situation.

5. Additionally our target audience may not have read this book,
however this will not hinder their understanding of our text. This is
because of the imagery and signs we used to make the
relationship between George and his daughter evidently clear.
 For example the envelope George leaves on her grave entitled
“To my darling daughter” gives the audience a greater
understanding of the storyline and explains why George is
depressed.
 Another example of how our text spoke to our audience is with
E.A. Kaplan’s key anchoring motif. By having a visual hook,
which is when we keep returning to a close up of the singers
face, we communicate to the audience Georges feelings of
desperation when he is at the cemetery, when he collapses at
his daughters grave. Furthermore we see Georges frustration
when he is smashing items in his old house, this is emphasised by
the close up of George with his back against the wall shouting
the lyrics “... Unless you show me how”. This shows his frustration
and hopelessness without a child-like figure guiding him through
life.


6. 

I used simple universal signs to show forms and
conventions in my media product. An example is
using the cemetery to represent death, this symbolic
sign of a gravestone is universally understood as
death. This follows normal conventions because it is
important for the audience to understand who is
dead, and this cant be done by challenging
conventions.
The mis-en-scene of George also acts as a indexical
sign, as George is wearing clothes directly
connected with being homeless. This sign consists of a
sleeping bag, thick cheap looking coat and a
cardboard sign. This indexical sign follows
conventions because it needs to be stressed to the
audience what situation George is in.

7. I also used Sergie Esienstiens theory of montage editing,
he argued that montage editing is vital in film making.
He believed that the collision of shots can be used to
arouse emotion from the audience. My music video
uses montage editing by constantly cutting from
narrative to performance (lip syncing).
 Todorov's equilibrium theory believes that a narrative
works from equilibrium to disruption then back to
equilibrium, my music video challenges this theory as it
starts on a disruption and is never actually resolved. This
is shown by George being on the street at the begging
then at the end of the video he is back on the streets
showing that nothing has changed.


8. 
My music video challenges normal conventions of music
videos by showing a unique narrative structure.
Furthermore the actual story is fairly rare in music videos as
the main focus of music videos is a boy to girl love story
and vice versa. Our music video challenges conventions
of real media products by using the love story in a
different way to most. When comparing our video to
Kodaline’s “all I want” we se how normal conventions of a
music video are challenged, for example Kodaline’s video
consists of a man trying to win the love of a girl, whereas
our music video is a father daughter relationship ended
abruptly. Our music video still shows love and passion just
like Kodaline’s however our music video uses similar
techniques to Kodaline’s for example low angle shots to
show power, however our product avoids the cliché of a
romance.

9. 

Our music video shares similar conventions to other media products, for
example Avril Lavigne’s music video "when you're gone“ uses empathy when
the soldier is called for combat and leaves his pregnant wife at her time of
need. Similarly our music video uses empathy when George has his cup
kicked over and he has to pick up all the coins off the floor. The audience
empathises with the victim in our case George, because the audience cares
for happy endings (Todorov's equilibrium theory)
Our music video can be interpreted by the audience in many different ways.
For example it could be seen by the audience that George is no better after
this experience, but others argued that the letter on his daughters grave was
one step to getting his life back. This is similar to the Foo Fighters song “The
pretender” this song uses riot police and a wall of red paint, Some people
interpret this as a political message, that the government are causing a
bloodshed that they can not control, whereas others may argue that their is
no message and they just wanted to make a mess. Neither interpretation is
wrong, it allows the audience to connect with the music video in their own
way, as a persons interpretations define their personality.

10. 
Andrew Goodwin came up with the theory
of star image, that meaning how a star is
perceived by the audience. Artists like Elvis
Presley and Michael Jackson had very
positive representations, in contrast our star
has a very negative star image. He is on the
street, grubby looking and is violent when in
his old house. Overall George has a very
negative star image when compared to
stars now a days, however their is some
accept ions to this theory as although
Michael Jackson had a positive
representation he also had a negative one.