Evaluation Question One

In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout the creation of my music video, I kept referring back to the conventions that already exist in the music video industry. Music videos tend to follow many of the same trends and conventions of previous successful videos. I tried to stick to these conventions as closely as possible as I wanted my intended target audience to be aware of the genre of the video and for it to be recognisable as a music video. In existing music videos the camera shots include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. I used these different shot types so the audience was aware of who the artist was, where the location was being filmed and I used close up shots when I wanted to focus on a specific part in the video, for example my main character ripping up a valentines card as this was fairly significant. Camera movement in existing music videos usually follow and trace and include panning shots. I stuck to this movement in my own production. The mise-en-scene of a music video refers to the arrangement of performers or props in the production. An example of good use of mise-en-scene would be that of the music video, Mad by Ne-yo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAYuOc7_TKg . The mise-en-scene involves him walking down a road and being in an isolated room. This reflects the isolation he is feeling from his lover. Also, the props include hats and dark clothes which represent the down mood of the song. Similarly the lighting is kept very dark as it is black and white and this connotes the angry and depressed mood. In my own video I had parts where my actress was dressed in ‘chill out’ clothes including a hooded jumper and had the prop of the duvet to show that she was upset and feeling sorry for herself after the break up. I used the prop of the valentine’s card to re-enforce to the audience the heartbreak in which she was feeling after splitting up with her boyfriend. There were many moments where she was by herself to show the isolation from her friends and ex boyfriend. Next I looked at lighting. Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which puts the artist in an enhanced look. Throughout my music video I used different effects to help create a different mood. I started off by using a cartoon filter. This was to give the feeling of childhood when everything seemed so much easier and there weren’t these feelings of love to deal with. I also used a dream filter. This changed the lighting of a particular scene which was relevant to the lyrics. At the end of my video I changed it to black and white. This was to help mark an end of an era and to show the depressing mood of the situation. Looking at the colours used within existing music videos, it depends on the genre. For example, dark colours tend to be used more in rock songs, such as Kings of Leon and bright colours are seen to be used more in hip hop and pop videos. I used a natural colour for the coat that the female character was wearing but a dark one for the male to show the contrast in emotion. Costume is an important factor because it has a slight influence on how the viewers will dress because they use some celebrities as role models. I kept the clothes I used in my video fairly simple and not to extravagant such as what Lady Gaga dresses like in her music videos. In media terms, narrative is the organisation given to a series of facts. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on these connections. In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end.Todorov’s theory of narrative states that there should first be a state of equilibrium where all is as it should be. There is then a disruption of that order by an event which happens and recognition is made that the disorder has occurred. There is then an attempt to repair the damage of the disruption and then a restoration of a new equilibrium. Todorov argues that narrative involves a transformation. The characters or the situations are transformed through the process of disruption. To try and break some of the normal and expected conventions of existing music videos I included different techniques such as the use of flashbacks. This helped the audience to understand what my main character was thinking as her thoughts were the flashbacks to her relationship with her boyfriend when everything seemed to be going so well. I also challenged the normal conventions of music videos by jumping between locations as not to be a simple flow of a story where one location leads on from another. The whole storyline was that the female actress was thinking about her past experiences and how that she is now on her own. My music video started of being fairly fast paced as this was appropriate to the beat of the song. Towards the end of the video however I started to begin to slow the pace of the footage down as this helped to show that the video was drawing to a close. I once again challenged what some might expect from a music video. I did this by having my video focusing on just one character, even though this was not my initial plan I think it works quite well because the audience get to understand more of what she is feeling and her personality. In many music videos the artist mimes to the lyrics, however I did not follow this convention as I wanted actions to speak louder then words and more emotion can be shown when the artist doesn’t have to worry about miming along to the lyrics. It also helped me when it came to the editing stage of my production. Overall I think I added my own unique touch onto my music video but sticking with the main conventions that already exist in this particular media.