In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Shots where we STAYED with the conventions of a Singer Songwriter music video.
ONE - The close up of the artist playing the musical instrument is an important element in every singer songwriter music video, this shot is essential as it emphasises the talent that the artist has, and shows the audience that the artist can actually play the instrument, (or in some cases, creates the illusion that they can do so). We chose to film 3 different close ups of the artist playing, the close up of strumming the strings in time to the beat, the chords changing, and the guitar as a whole; although in our final product we only used this shot. The close up of the guitar strumming is very important that it is synchronised with the rhythm of the music video to make it look more authentic.This is a close up from Joshua Radin's music video 'I missed you' showing a close up of the artist strumming, Joshua Radin is another Singer Songwriter. The element of including the shot of him performing on the guitar emphasises his musical knowledge and skills that allow him to play instruments; in this specific shot of Joshua Radin he is playing an electric guitar, in contrast of the acoustic video which we used for our music video.Using an electric guitar in this music video shows the more developed side of him as an artist, as in context for his music video the performance links to him performing in front of a crowd. This has a large contrast to ours in context that our artist is a 'free performer' and using an acoustic guitar allows him to perform wherever he wants to. I chose these two frames as the lighting and composition of the two frames are similar, and the main content of the shot with the guitar facing the right, a close up of the artist playing. Joshua Radin and his music videos became a big influence in the production of our music video, as he is what our artist inspires to be, when creating Lewis Mokler as an artist we decided that he would be coming out into his career just starting in the music industry; Joshua Radin has developed from there and is now established, therefore the link created by the two frames shows how we stayed with the convention within the music video and the genre of singer songwriter, emphasising the influence of his music onto ours.
TWO - This idea for the notepad and writing the lyrics came from Ed Sheeran's music video 'Lego House', when I watched the video this particular shot stood out for me as it creates the idea of a flashback to the artist writing the song, emphasising that the artist was the composer and writer of the song. We used this shot to emphasise the lyrics in the song, 'lets not pretend', by doing this the audience then pay more attention to the lyrics themselves and the meaning and connection between lyrics and music video. Using Goodwins theory of lyrics we decided that using the idea of illustration was a good way of showing our understanding of the music industry and the conventions of music videos; use of illustration and amplification are commonly found in music videos. This shot is within the usual convention as it shows how the artist is involved with the music, instead of just performing it; an example shot taken from Ed Sheeran Lego House shows the correlation between the videos.
The lyrics which were emphasised in our music video through this shot were 'always then I call you my lady friend, lets not rush and lets not pretend' the word 'pretend' was edited so that it was underlined in synchronisation with the song. In comparison, in the Ed Sheeran video, the lyrics illustrated are not actually correct with the tempo and section of the song. The artist sings 'Im out of luck, I'll pick you up when your getting down' whist the frame illustrates and amplify the lyrics 'and its dark in a cold December, I'm out of touch'. The context of showing the lyrics out of synchronisation with the music is to show that the artist in the music video does know the lyrics, and it again creates the idea of a flashback and watching the artist write the lyrics; therefore we stayed with this convention. Comparing the two frames I think that the two shots suit the rest of the music video well, they use Goodwin's theory to emphasise lyrics and music and they fit the context and genre relevantly. In my personal opinion I enjoy shots like this within a music video as it does add more to the narrative and allows the audience to have a deeper understanding of the music and the lyrics, which could possibly explain the meaning behind the lyrics in relevance to the artist.
The lyrics which were emphasised in our music video through this shot were 'always then I call you my lady friend, lets not rush and lets not pretend' the word 'pretend' was edited so that it was underlined in synchronisation with the song. In comparison, in the Ed Sheeran video, the lyrics illustrated are not actually correct with the tempo and section of the song. The artist sings 'Im out of luck, I'll pick you up when your getting down' whist the frame illustrates and amplify the lyrics 'and its dark in a cold December, I'm out of touch'. The context of showing the lyrics out of synchronisation with the music is to show that the artist in the music video does know the lyrics, and it again creates the idea of a flashback and watching the artist write the lyrics; therefore we stayed with this convention. Comparing the two frames I think that the two shots suit the rest of the music video well, they use Goodwin's theory to emphasise lyrics and music and they fit the context and genre relevantly. In my personal opinion I enjoy shots like this within a music video as it does add more to the narrative and allows the audience to have a deeper understanding of the music and the lyrics, which could possibly explain the meaning behind the lyrics in relevance to the artist.
Shots where we DEVELOPED the convention of a Singer Songwriter music video.
ONE - Whilst watching relative music videos to our genre, we came across a few videos which used the technique of split screen editing, my favourite example of this is shown below in the clip from 'Hey there Delilah' by the Plain White T's, another singer songwriter indie band. In their music video they divide the screen into three segments, the left showing the artist performing and singing the song, whilst the two on the right show elements of the narrative, therefore the split screen portrays the two main conventions of the music video combined at the same time. In the music video compared, the split screen effect is used throughout and there is no examples of one frame taking the whole of the screen; we chose to only use the split screen effect once, therefore making the shot a memorable part of the music video; this is how we developed the convention. In the composition of this shot we decided that having the bottom half sectioned off from the top 3 would create a bold statement as the majority of split screens are vertical. Developing on further, within the top section of the screen we decided that a division of 3 different shots would look effective as it looks evenly distributed along the screen and sticks to the well known theory of the 'rule of three'. To assure that all 4 of the shots were watched and payed attention to we decided that the timing of the shots should be in a cannon, therefore a gradual buildup to create the frame of the 'split screen'. We followed the convention of performance and narrative elements involved within our music video, so in the split screen we took the opportunity to show both elements together, creating a combination of the 'cheeky chappy' that the artist is presented as in the 'blooper' style shot with the contrasting image of the passionate performer. Another element of the convention that we developed from this shot was the use of editing, it is important to notice the contrast of the editing in the two segments of the screen shot from the Plain White T's music video, the left of the artist is in black and white, using low key dark lighting and high contrast, this is very different to the left which emphasises the oceanic colours, using filters, high key high contrasting colours to create diversity from the shots. We decided to develop this convention by not actually applying any editing to our shots, we are a less main stream artist in comparison to the band as a product, Lewis Mokler is less advanced in his career and represents a different image, therefore we decided that applying no editing to the shots would stick to our convention of being authentic and someone that the audience can relate to. When comparing the two frames, I think there is a clear contrast shown, and it manages to emphasise the development that we have applied in context to the music video and effect used.
TWO - For our second shot where we developed a scene was the idea of development in the camera, through editing we created the illusion that the artist was coming closer and closer to the camera, we first saw this shot whilst watching the Joshua Radin song I'd Rather be with you, in this they use this effect of editing to shorten the space of time for the two shots, they condensed the shot from what would have been a long 'boring' shot of the actor walking, instead they have used a jump cut to show one position to the other. We have therefore developed this shot, we used 6 jump cuts varying position of the artist in relation to the centre of the shot, each different frame consisted of the artist leaning against a side of the alleyway whilst playing the guitar and gradually coming closer to the camera; we did this as we felt is created a contrast from the rest of the video and created a 'light hearted' upbeat mood which suited the type and tempo of the song. We have developed this shot by multiplying it into 6 shots, showing the development of the jump cuts, and also by using the artist and performance element of the music video in the shot instead of the narrative. When considering the composition of the frame from the Joshua Radin, another way in which we have developed the shot is through lighting and costume; we chose to film the shot during a damp day, therefore no rain could 'damage' the shot although it showed the typical Autumn English day, we didn't want to loose the authenticity of Britain and its weather. Lewis Mokler being a proud musician we felt this type of weather condition would be suitably fitted in his music video; we used natural daylight for the lighting in this frame as we wanted to emphasise the 'realness' of the video, being a break through singer songwriter artist he is not yet established in the music industry, therefore a music video with a lot of artificial lighting and editing would be out of genre and a convention that was not required for our aim; therefore we have developed the conventions of the frame shown in the Joshua Radin music video, we developed the context and composition of the shot into an effective video slot which would suit our genre.
Shots where we CHALLENGED with the conventions of a Singer Songwriter music video.
ONE - A convention which we consistently challenged throughout our music video, digipak and advert was the presentation and the 'star image' according to Richard Dyer of our artist. The normal conventions of a singer songwriter is the emotional and consuming artist, the image is very original, trying to avoid the main fashion and styles that are popular; within the singer songwriter genre we decided that our artist had to be original and challenge this convention. We portrayed Lewis Mokler as a 'cheeky chappy', in almost all shots he is smiling and joking about, the video is very upbeat and positive and uses a variety of 'blooper' style shots to show his comedy style, immediately diverting him from the normal conventions of a singer songwriter. Challenging this convention gave Lewis Mokler a unique selling point, this would make our artist stand out from his genre and therefore potentially become more and more popular for his originality and refreshing image. When comparing the two frames I think that they clearly show the diverse difference, our frame represents his playful side, emphasising the fun illustrated in our music video, in contrast the image is from James Blunt's music video You're Beautiful, this video clearly depicts the usual conventions of a singer songwriter; the music video has a sad tone and throughout the whole video the artist represents the emotional artist. In conclusion, we have successfully managed to challenge the convention of genre successfully throughout our products.James Blunt - You're Beautiful
TWO - Our last convention that we challenged throughout our music video was the use of the shot below, consisting on a close up of postman Pat's face, this frame was taken purely for emphasis and distraction from the music video. Often, when watching a music video, the audience can become bored or simply loose attention towards watching the music video because it is too similar or has no drastic changes, especially in a singer songwriter or indie song; these are common in these genres of music as the music or the tone of the video can become predictable or simply lack bold shots. To avoid falling into this trap, we decided to challenge this convention of 'typical' safe style music video and take ideas from others; when researching we came across the music video of 'Nine in the afternoon' by Panic at the Disco, this is an alternative rock band. When watching their music video it was clear that it was original, they worked with the uptempo and strong beat to drive their music video forward, avoiding the 'lul' that is sometimes found within our genre. We took the idea from this music video and tried to incorporate it within ours, we managed to challenge this convention as we focused on placing one irrelevant shot within our music video, the specific placement of the frame in context with the narrative was during an intimate moment that the couple share, by placing the shot of Postman Pat here the audience is drawn away from the 'emotional' side of the music, and is almost forced to consider what they see. I feel that this frame worked incredibly well in context to our music video as a product; as mentioned earlier we aimed to portray our artist as a 'cheeky chappy' and down to earth, therefor including a shot like this can be used to emphasise his personality and involvement in the music video; I feel that this emphasises the presence of the artist as a person as well as a musician. I believe that this frame works well to challenge our convention as it aims what we wanted to do, by drawing away from the emotional side of our genre, we managed to place a shot which actually makes people laugh, the unexpected shot triggers an alert from the audience and makes their attention immediately return to the music video, therefore capturing its audience and gaining more involvement from the audience and the artist. I feel we have successfully challenged this convention, and it works well within our music video.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
For this evaluation question we planned our answer, and filmed a group discussion of our answer to this question, we decided that by recording our verbal analysis and adding the relevant photos of video clips to the track would be a creative way of presenting our answer
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3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
For this question, in preparation we created 4 suitable questions to ask a mass audience; we wrote 4 questions being 1 - 'What stands out to you in our music video (is it effective?)' 2 - 'Do you have any criticisms of our video? 3 - 'Does the video go along with the genre of singer/song - writer' and 4 - 'How authentic is our video? Explain your answer'. These questions were written so that a mass audience, varied with different elements of media knowledge, could supply us with authentic audience feedback. We showed our music video in an assembly in front of roughly 160 people aged between 15 and 19. This video has been annotated with different answers of our audience feedback, the green is positive points, the red is negative points and the pink is 'improvements'. The audience feedback which we collected has been proven very useful for us, as we were able to apply audience members opinions to our work, and manage to evaluate our work with the influence of others opinions. I enjoyed completing this question as I managed to analyse our video, and appreciate that the hard work we spent planning, researching, creating and editing this music video; therefore I feel happy with our work and the audience feedback that we recieved.
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
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