1. In what ways do your media
products use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?
QUESTION 1
2. Goodwin’s study of semiotics (‘Dancing in
the Distraction Factory’, 1992) in mainstream
music videos can be applied to both the
performance and narrative of our music
video.
Costume and props used in the video were
fairly conventional of the genre (pop rock);
youthful attire and three guitars and drums
are conventional of a young band. I analysed
two McFly music videos in this project, both
of which portrayed the band performing with
three guitarists and a drummer. From these
videos, it would appear that, in terms of
screen time, the lead singer has the priority,
followed by the rhythm guitarist/backing
vocalist, then the drummer and finally the
bassist. We planned to make the breakdown
very similar to our video’s mise-en-scene
form.
Our Front pane and one of the inside panes
3. Our video’s form is illustrated here (red sections highlight the performance parts and yellow
sections highlight narrative parts). We stated in the pitch that we had planned to structure the video
with two thirds performance-based footage and one third narrative-based.
The video begins with a number of MCUs and CUs of the band member playing the
start of the song on the stage. Then a section of narrative is shown to underline the
story that takes place out of the performance (the story connoted through the song’s
lyrics). As the performance continues, a resolve is reached in the narrative which goes
without dialogue from start to finish. This conforms to the linear narrative structure
theory of Pam Cook. Similarly, Todorov’s equilibrium theory can be applied, in the
sense that the conflict and unrest at the start of the video is resolved later, with
multiple shots of the band enjoying themselves. This breaks the fourth wall and
informs the audience that the situation is resolved. The visuals respond to the track in
a number of ways; lip syncing and instrument syncing being the most obvious of
these. There are sections that respond to the track’s lyrics and tempo through
visualisation.
4. The music video certainly incorporates a lot of bright stage
lighting, and the digipak includes an MS image of the band
together as the front pane.
I studied similar
album covers;
taking inspiration
for the title, band
image and
background.
With the genre of the song/artist being pop rock, the audience
expects to see bright colours, lots of images of the band and
evidence of youthfulness – whether this be via costume,
activities they are seen doing, or just lyrics.
Three examples of
album covers I
studied: ‘Busted’,
‘Meet The Vamps’
and ‘21st Century
Breakdown’
5. The conventions of the genre are not often challenged in the campaign, but there is
very often the inclusion of an audience shown in music videos of the genre. Our
video does not contain this element. From my research of music videos of the
genre, I noted that My Chemical Romance’s music video for ‘Helena’ and Bon
Jovi’s video for ‘It’s My Life’ both include interaction with an audience of
considerable size. In evaluating our decision not to include an audience, we think
it wouldn’t have been possible to include this element because casting at least
thirty people would have been very hard to pull off.
The video is voyeuristic towards the lead singer as he takes up
a protagonist role. The first tracking shot here begins this.
There are other examples of voyeurism in the video, such as the
close ups in the protagonist’s bedroom and the fact that, every
shot, bar one (in the ‘blooper’ section of the narrative towards
the end), has the lead singer in it.
6. The audience would make focused viewing of our video, rather
than ambient viewing, because the priority is on the band and
their performance as an artist, rather than a narrative that does
not sell the brand, i.e. a priority in narrative fuzz. The video is
designed for primary consumption.
Intercutting the narrative and performance throughout was not easy, but the
inclusion of a conventional meat shot of Jack singing the backing vocals split up a
section of narrative here, very well. In music videos featuring performance, meat
shots of the artist singing conform to Dyer’s second paradox; the audience want to
see the band close to them, but in reality, they are not near. Meat shots in ‘It’s My
Life’ are very similar to the ones used in our video – including mainly just the
mouth of the vocalists. A meat shot from ‘It’s My Life’
7. The singer breaks the fourth wall in the performance so as
to introduce a para-social intimacy with the audience; he is
performing to them after all, as they are the consumer of
the product. The technique of breaking the fourth wall to
construct a link with the consumer is used in our digipak,
with the front and back panes showing the band looking at
the camera.
The track from left to right features a pull focus from deep to shallow and shows the empty
theatre. This smooth-blended focus represents the blend between different time periods
throughout the video.
Binary oppositions of success and failure are encoded in the video. We see this in the
emotions of the protagonist when the band is together and the way he behaves during the
time they were not together. Through editing individual clips in post-production, it was
possible to make the difference between these two moods even more clear, by reducing the
saturation in narrative shots and increasing contrast and brightness in the performance.
The back pane of the digipak
The stage is
empty in the
final shot
8. It can be argued that a number of Barthes’ narrative codes are present in the music
video. Conforming to conventions in music videos with narrative that cannot contain
dialogue over the song, action codes in the form of the protagonist’s non verbal
language – such as having his head in his hands – connotes distress in the band. This
is something the audience will want to see resolved, so they will continue to watch.
There is an incidence of an enigma code in the music video, too. The fight scene
towards the start of the video encourages the audience to consider what has caused
the fight. This is conventional, too – music videos are often vague in portraying
reasons for band interactions in narrative sequences. It can be argued that there is a
cultural code present in our digipak; the CU of the guitar EQ modifiers is something
that only some people will be able to easily identify. This conforms to the target
audience of the text being a fan of the band, rather than a more general consumer of
mainstream bands that do not contain guitarists.
There is a postmodern style in parts of the video, with narrative
fuzz in the latter stages, hyper-real lighting in the performance
and slow motion sections, too. It can be argued that this is
conventional, as it is evident in videos researched such as Justin
Bieber’s ‘What Do You Mean’ music video. Here, the artist’s
narrative/performance reaches a climax towards the end where a
new line of narrative enters – similar to our video concerning
the ‘bloopers’.
There is a contrast between the moods
the protagonist exhibits…
9. The stars in our video are constructed by star qualities. According to Dyer, ‘stars’ are constructed
through semi-mythological values – some are real and some are exaggerated by portrayal in the
media. There are a number of common values of stardom included in our video:
The negotiated reading in our video is that the band have regrouped to perform with
greater success and talent – selling the brand is conventional because the music video is
designed to publicise the artist and sell another aspect of them as a product, a subsidiary
selling device.
The preferred reading, or the misinterpreted reading, would be that the band is not
confident after the break up and perhaps, they are trying too hard to be successful.
-Youthfulness is portrayed in the band members’ age and
energetic performance on stage. Moreover, CUs of their faces
and the behaviour they exhibit in the ‘blooper’ clips, is typical
of youth. The montage here creates an ‘absence’ of the band as
they are performing without intention – the shots are only
included to appeal to the audience – the consumer likes to see
the band members enjoying themselves in a natural manner.
This whole concept introduces para-social intimacy between
the artist and consumer.
10. -Originality is portrayed equally in
the video and digipak; in the video,
the protagonist is seen writing lyrics
in his room and on the inside pane for
the CD in the digipak, lyrics from
multiple songs in the album act as the
background. Moreover, the digipak is
not evidently an expensive venture by
the artist. This is to say that there is
no evidence of a large budget having
been spent on it. Thus, the consumer
can trust its authenticity more as the
band will have personally
choreographed and selected images to
include, rather than someone else.
-Talent is evident throughout the video. The performance
is filmed from LS distances multiple times to portray the
band as if they are performing on a bigger stage. With
each member featuring in a CU somewhere in the video,
showing them playing their instrument, the audience can
feel confident that there is authenticity in the artist.
The band maintains artistic integrity and merit
throughout a convincing performance.
The CD pane and reflection in guitar
shot are two examples of authenticity
and evidence of originality
11. -Aggression is a rebellious star quality of artists. In
truth, we did not believe that the song warranted
aggression in our video. However, the narrative
required an incentive for the break-up of the band.
The band experienced a fight early on in the video,
illustrated by using a number of BCUs of each
member shouting. Using a fast cutting rate here, as
well as adjusting the HLS levels, meant that the fight
was sparked with a lot of tension and power.
-Finally, it could be argued that success against the
odds is also present in our video. This is evidenced by
the argument’s influence. It could be claimed that, in
relation to Todorov’s theory of a resolution appearing
at the end of every linear narrative, the video is
expected to end on a positive. The band’s star image
is appealing to teenagers in particular, and I believe
that, seeing the band together and having fun, is very
important for the consumer of our product.
An example of amplifying the lyrics
through visuals in the video comes
after the chorus, where the audience
hears the words, ‘I walk’. They then
see the protagonist walking towards a
bench.
The argument sets up
the narrative line of
action
12. I believe that our video is very successful in selling the band as a product to the consumer. Other videos I have watched do not
do this as well. Some videos look too much like films in some respect. Visually, other videos are more appealing to audiences
than our video, due to the use of a higher-quality camera which makes the end product look more professional. In some cases,
post-production effects were more readily available to others. However, I think in terms of responding to the brief, our video
is very successful. There are very few shots where one of the band members performing is not present. There is a great level
of authenticity surrounding our video and this is best highlighted in the performance sections – the band are not trying to
impress anyone by doing anything extraordinary, they are merely performing their new single and enjoying themselves. While
other videos prioritise screen time on other aspects, our video prioritises the band – the brand that the video is designed to sell
in the first place.
The four minute-long video sells the band as
youthful, entertaining, original and talented. This is
as a result of a simple narrative structure, but in my
opinion, also due to the quality of performance that
the entire band puts on for filming. Whilst the
quality of footage could have been better, by using
intelligent editing to show the band as much as
possible, plus picking a superb location to
accompany the powerful performance, we have
produced a video that makes a great subsidiary
product for the album digipak we have created.
It was
important to
include the
notion of
looking
