The document discusses various camera techniques and their emotional impacts in a music video, emphasizing the importance of shots like over-the-shoulder, close-ups, and establishing shots. It also contrasts locations such as urban and forest settings to enhance the narrative, which aims to inspire individuals struggling with self-confidence. Additionally, considerations for costume, lighting, and marketing imagery are mentioned to create a cohesive visual identity that resonates with the target audience.

1. Question 1
In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and convention of real
media products?

2. Camera Work
Over-the-shoulder shot – We used this shot to emphasise the
girl’s emotions and her loneliness by showing her watching
other girls her age talking and having fun as friends. It
exaggerates the fact that she is on her own and wants to be
part of them, she just lacks in confidence.
We also used an over-the-shoulder shot when the girl is
writing in her diary, this gives the audience closer detail of
what the girl is writing (song lyrics) and how she is feeling. We
also felt that because the diary was a key aspect of our video
and the narrative, we needed to show a clear shot of this.
An example of an over-the-shoulder shot being used in a real
life music video is in Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran. This video
portrays a young woman as ‘Cupid’, creating love in the world
with her bow and arrow. She watches as other people fall in
love and this is where the over-the-shoulder shots are mainly
used.

3. Camera Work
Close-up shots – We used a variety of different close up shots
of the artist within our video. A couple of these were reaction
shots, therefore we showed a clip of something the girl is
watching and then a close-up of her face showing a reaction to
it. The reaction shots were used in the urban location and
therefore were more in the narrative section of the video,
where the girl was wandering the streets, rather than in the
singing part. Close-ups are used very often in real life music
videos as they allow the audience to feel a personal
connection with the artist.
An example of a close-up in a real life music video is in
Only Girl in the World by Rihanna, Rihanna is seen as a
role model for many young girls and by using close-up
shots it allows the girls to feel a connection to
Rihanna.

4. Camera Work
Extreme close-up shots – When the artist is singing in the
video, we also used extreme close-ups of her mouth, showing
her singing the lyrics of the song. Extreme close-ups allow the
audience to feel even more up-close and personal with the
artist and can feel this further personal connection with them.
Extreme close-ups are also regularly used in music videos e.g.
in the video for Heartbeat by Enrique Iglesias and Nicole
Scherzinger, this makes the viewer feel a very strong
connection to both artists. Showing only a certain part of an
artist’s face very close up allows the audience to feel as
though they can touch them and see things as if the artist was
there in real life. It reveals the artist’s personality more, just
by seeing them so close up, the audience may feel they can
relate to them more.

5. Camera Work
Establishing shots – We used a few establishing shots of our
different locations within the video. Establishing shots allow
the audience to have more of an insight into the location and
also creates more of an atmosphere to the video. The
establishing shot for the skate park really represented an
urban location and we felt that we really needed to use an
establishing shot to make it clear to the audience of the
location and to also exaggerate the girl’s loneliness by showing
her sat on her own next to this big wall with noone around
her. The establishing shots of the forest location created the
opposite atmosphere, this showed a sense of beauty and
peacefulness.
An example of an establishing shot being used in a
current music video is Keep Your Head Up by Ben
Howard. He has also used a forest location for his
video which is also from the singer/songwriter genre.

6. Camera Work
High angle/Low angle shots – We used both high and low angle
shots within the music video. We used a high angle shot in the
urban location when the girl is wandering down the street, a low
angle shot has connotations of being looked down on, as though
the person is small and less significant, this is exactly how we
wanted the girl to be portrayed as this is how she feels at this
point in the video. We also used a low angle shot in the forest
location when the artist is singing, low angle shots look up at the
person, portraying them to be big and superior, this is the image
we wanted to put across, this is the girl’s confident side and
therefore we used this camera angle to emphasise this
confidence. We used a low angle shot at the end of the video
when the girl has gained her confidence, this is when she is
singing on the skate ramp.
An example of a high angle shot being used in a
current music video is Next To Me by Emili Sande, here
she is shown playing the piano in a big room, the size
and emptiness of the room is emphasised by using this
high angle shot, it also makes the artist look very small
and inferior.

7. Camera Work
Mid shots – We used a few mid shots within our music video,
one of these is when the girl is sat down writing in her diary,
we felt that this scene required a mid shot because we wanted
to make it clear of what she was doing and she was sat down
and therefore we only needed to show half of her body.
An example of mid shots and long shots
being used in a current music video is in the
video for Skyscraper by Demi Lovato, the
long shots make the artist look more
powerful and show confidence, it also
emphasises this big flowing dress which
Demi Lovato is wearing. Midshots and close
ups are also used to portray the artist’s
emotions.
Long shots – Long shots reveal the artist’s full body, music
videos often portray a female artist having a ‘perfect body’
which makes young girls aspire to look like this. A long shot
also reveals the costume, allowing the audience to have an
insight into the artist’s style and also shows their individuality.

8. Camera Work
Point of View (POV) shots – We used a POV shot in our video
when the girl gets approached by a boy who wants to help her,
it shows a shot of her face looking up and then another shot
which is from her point of view looking up at the boy. The POV
shot adds a more personal touch to the video, showing
something from the girl’s point of view makes the audience
feel as though they are part of the video and are enwrapped in
the narrative.
An example of a point of view shot being used in a
current music video is Part of Me by Katy Perry, it
shows her looking closely at something and then
cuts to an advertisement about becoming a
marine. This is what she is seeing from her point of
view. Putting a point of view shot here gives the
audience more knowledge of the narrative of the
video and helps them to understand the woman’s
thoughts and what is going to happen next.

9. Location/Mise en Scene
Urban/Destroyed Location – Many current music videos
feature an urban location, which is occasionally
represented as being the ‘ideal’ lifestyle, however this is
normally more the case in rap and R&B videos. For our
video we subverted that stereotype, and as it’s from the
singer/songwriter genre, we needed to make this clear,
therefore we used the urban location and represented it
as being a lonely and sad place. The location also looked
destroyed, which is another convention in many music
videos. Showing a destroyed location adds a depressing
atmosphere to the video.
An example of an urban and destroyed location used
in a music video is Jake Bugg – Two Fingers. Here it
shows the artist in a destroyed looking house with
an abusive family, he then sets fire to his clothes in
his garden which shows a sense of rebellion as well.

10. Location/Mise en Scene
Forest/Deserted Location – We felt that to add more mystery
and excitement to our video we should include two
contrasting locations. We decided that using an urban
location which has connotations of busyness and noise, we
needed the other location to be the complete opposite to
this, therefore we used a deserted forest location which was
quiet and peaceful, for the performance shots of the video.
Deserted locations are very often used in real life music
videos and often for the performance shots. Here are some
examples which match our idea of using a peaceful, deserted
location:
Taylor Swift - Mine Coldplay - Paradise Avril Lavigne – When
You’re Gone
Jason Mraz – I Won’t
Give Up

11. Narrative
The narrative of our video is simple to follow, yet holds an inspirational message. The
message of the video would hopefully inspire people with no self-confidence or people
who come from a troubled background to just speak their mind and just talk to people
because there are people out there who want to help them.
Many singer/songwriter music videos hold a message within their narrative as this is an
important aspect to help attract the correct audience and influence people not only within
the lyrics of the song but also what is portrayed on screen.
An example of a singer/songwriter video with an inspirational narrative is Mean by Taylor
Swift. The narrative is about being bullied, and the lyrics say ‘Some day I’ll be living in a big
old city and all you’re ever gonna be is mean’, this is saying that people who get bullied
shouldn’t be put down by bullies, they should pick themselves up and they can go far in
life, it’s saying that bullies will always be bullies and they’ll go nowhere in life by being
mean. I think that this narrative is inspirational because Taylor Swift’s main audience and
fan base are young girls. Young girls are stereotypically the people who are most likely to
be getting bullied, therefore by watching this video it could really help them to have more
self confidence and think more positively.

12. Lighting
Our song is from the singer/songwriter genre and, after researching videos from
this genre, we found that mainly natural lighting is used. Therefore there was no
need for us to add artificial lighting from another light source to create a high key
lighting effect as we thought that this would make the video look unrealistic and
fake which isn’t the message we wanted to put across.
In the video for Lego House by Ed Sheeran, there is no obvious lighting used as he
wanted to make the video look like real life to get the message of the narrative
across. The narrative follows an obsessed fan of Ed Sheeran, although the narrative
is humorous, there is also an element of sympathy for the character, however this
is only because of how realistic the video looks. Artificial lighting can prevent a
narrative from looking realistic and believable.

13. Costume
When deciding on the costumes, we knew that we needed to make sure that the
style of the clothes, the colours, as well as the makeup and hairstyle of the artist,
needed to match the location and the narrative.
For the forest location, we wanted the artist to wear something extravagant
which almost looked theatrical to emphasise the confidence and the fact that
this is inside her head, her mind telling her what to do, therefore we used a
fairytale-looking dress along with feather earrings, false eyelashes covered in
glitter and also pink lips with glitter sprinkled onto them, we felt that this look
and costume worked really well with both the narrative and the location.
For the urban location, we opted for a costume very different to the one used in
the forest location. We needed to make the girl look ordinary and plain and
therefore she wore blue jeans, red pumps and a cream jumper which featured
the word ‘love’ on it. The fact that the jumper said ‘love’ matched the narrative,
as love is what the girl was searching for all along.
An example of a real life music video which features two
contrasting costumes is Alice by Avril Lavigne. This song was
created for the soundtrack of the 2010 film of Alice In
Wonderland, which is a fairytale-themed film, meaning an
extravagant costume was needed. The artist starts off
wearing jeans and a top, after she falls down the hole, she
is suddenly wearing this big, extravagant ball gown-type
dress. This makes the narrative much easier to follow for
the audience.

14. Colour/Font/Image
When creating our digipak and magazine
advert we created an identity for the artist
by the use of colour, font and imagery. We
matched the colour of the font to the colour
of the dress which was a pinky-nude colour,
this has connotations of femininity and also
younger girls. The font we chose to use is a
neat handwriting style font which also looks
stereotypically very feminine, it also links to
the girl writing in her diary which is a key
point of our video.
Ed Sheeran is famous for the colour of his hair, therefore he has used
this to help the sales of his CD. He has used a completely orange image
for the cover of his album ‘+’ which represents his ginger hair. By using
this colour on both the CD and any advertisements, it will make both
himself as an artist and the CD more recognisable as people are more
likely to know who he is.