My answer for my first evaluation question

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

2. The locations that I decided to use are very different in
comparison. It goes from a bedroom that he wakes up in
to a part of town that is busy with cars. Another featured
area that the main character is seen is in the forest. The
use of having multiple locations means that I can switch
between different places to show the difference in tempo
for the song. For example, when the song breaks down
and it begins to get into the bridge of the song, he is seen
alone in the forest. This breakdown of the beat makes the
song a lot slower and it is reflected in his mood and how
he is acting in the music video.
Another idea that using multiple locations does
is that for my type of media music, narrative, it
progresses the narrative along as you can see
him going out and enjoying himself with the
‘new shoes’. Using multiple locations is also a
way that I am able to challenge forms of media
as when the song was released, songs like this
only used one or maybe two different locations
at most.

3. I think that the opening of my music video conforms with
the conventions of music videos for the time that it was
released. If you were to choose a song from a similar time
and the same genre as Paolo Nutini’s ‘New Shoes’, the
closest song I could find would be Lily Allen’s ‘Smile’. This
song was released the same year and is classed under the
same genre as ‘New Shoes’.
The opening of ‘Smile’ is fairly similar to ‘New Shoes’ as it
also starts off with a slower tempo and just has the main
singer in shot. This shows that my music video might follow
some conventions for Pop/Rock music videos. However,
what ‘Smile’ uses to it’s advantage is that it utilises using the
original singer and her singing the song from the beginning
to the end.

4. I believe that there is an underlying concept in
the song, to do with the idea of a prop, a pair
of shoes. The aspect of focusing on the shoes is
a big part as the song is to do with him being
happier and better once he gets the shoes and
puts them on. I really tried to just conform with
the forms and conventions of this song as I
wanted it to be a heavily narrative music video.
I tried to show this through the use of NVC and
facial expressions, for example when the song
describes himself “waking up late one
Thursday” and “rubbing his eyes”, I got my
actors to act the actions out so that it is in time
with the song.
The use of clothing in my video also
was quite important to what he was
wearing. I wanted my actors to be
dressed well when he had the ‘new
shoes’ and then change and not feel so
good when he didn’t have the good
shoes. This was shown in my music
video by just starting it with a pair of
shoes that weren’t as good and then
changed to him being happier and
more cheerful when he puts the new
shoes on.

5. The way that I edited my music video was to
the beat of the song and tried to slow down
the speed of the shots when the slower parts
of the song came up, for example when the
song has it’s ‘bridge’ part, the tempo of the
song slows down and therefore the shots are
longer and the cuts are slower. Also in my
edit, I tried to add in some fades to white and
black. I think that the use of fading to white
just before the bridge section means that it
sets the next part up well as it is slower and
longer takes. This image to the right is just
before it begins to fade to white.
I also tried to make my music video have as
much lip syncing as possible to make it have
more a performance aspect for my video. I
think that this helped my music video feel more
like a real music video as it does fit in with
videos that were produced for songs in
approximately 2005. This shows that I was
trying to make my music video conform to what
real life products would look like, and I think I
have done that quite well as it came out
looking like a fairly real product.

6. I think that the style of my music video is
narrative, but also contains aspects of
performance and conceptual. The reason why I
think it is narrative is because I made the music
video based around the lyrics. This meant that I
could plan what was going to be happening on
screen by comparing it with the music. For
example, the image below is when the main
actor opens up his new pair of shoes and then
song bursts into life.
I also believe that it is partially
performance based as you do see two
people, either could be the original
artist, singing along to the music video.
This makes it have more of a rock aspect
as a lot of Rock songs use lip syncing for
their music videos, for example the Foo
Fighters’ ‘Best of You’ music video.
The conceptual idea comes from the
whole idea of ‘New Shoes’. I think that I
based my music video around the idea of
new shoes quite well as they are always
in some part of the video. I would say
that I have conformed to the conventions
of this genre as the style of the video is
narrative based and for this type of song,
it would be very normal.

7. I think that the way I show the genre of the
film is good as the quick cuts and short takes
really help me provide evidence to prove that.
I think that it makes it conform more to the
normal features of a pop/rock song as there
are a lot of music videos that do this too. For
example, (provide evidence of other music
video e.g Christina Aguilera with ain't no
other man or Nelly Furtado with
Promiscuous.)
I think the genre is more pop than
rock, however I feel like it still has
the rock aspect to it. I tried to
incorporate more ideas that rock
music videos do, by having
someone singing or lip-syncing
whilst the music is in the
background. A music video that
does this very well is Thunderstruck
by AC/DC or Back in Black by
AC/DC. Both songs are rock music
and they both heavily rely on the
singer in the band singing along
throughout the video. This shows
that my music video could be seen
as conforming to conventions as it
does what other music videos do as
well.

8. Conclusion
Overall, I think that my music video does conform to the forms and conventions of
media products. I think that this is because I tried to use as many other music videos
as inspiration before I started the pre-production stage as possible. This meant that I
could take aspects from different music videos that I saw, for example using lip
syncing that a lot of Rock videos use, as well as using more quick cuts between the
clips to make the music video seem more upbeat and happier. I can back this point as
one person that I asked to fill out my questionnaire actually thought that the video
was upbeat and more like a Pop song.