Using, developing or challenging forms and conventions of real media products

MUSIC VIDEO

When I was doing my planning and research, I made a list of conventions that music videos follow. I’m going back to these now to see how many my own video follows in order to analyse how it uses or challenges conventions of real media products

• Performance (live, lip-synced or dance, usually depending on the genre)My video makes use of performance in the form of lip-syncing as well as musical instruments with the guitar that give the impression of live performance even if it’s pre-recorded.

• Usually the artist themselves featuresThis was one convention I chose to challenge slightly. The artist that performs my chosen song is a band and so I invented a band – The Chaos – for my digipak etc. However I only wanted one person performing in the video. Therefore it’s open to interpretation whether the audience sees him as the main character as simply an actor or as a band member.

• A narrative, can be pure or abstractMy video uses narrative, more abstract than pure because of its lack of linearity, but it’s still there.

• Close-ups of the artist or actors within the videoI make use of lots of close-ups of my actors/performers within the cinematography so again I’ve followed conventions here.

• A variety of mise-en-scene: locations, costumes, props etc.I feel I’ve partly followed this convention – I do have a few different locations, colours, costumes and props although I think I could maybe have had even more variety.

• Rhythmic editing and shot lengths that match the tempo of the songI definitely followed this convention as all of m editing cuts to a beat.

• No sound except the non-diegetic sound of the song in the background OR use of sound breaks, again depending on the individual video

For this convention I chose the former option, the one that most videos opt for, to have no sound other than the non-diegetic track over the top of the footage.

• Variety of cinematography - wide-shots, mid-shots, low and high angles, movement etc.Again I think my cinematography is conventional with a variety of angles and shot types, and a mixture of steady and handheld camera.

• Some form of interesting editing instead of standard cuts - might be fades, dissolves, overlaps, slow motion, reverse, adding titles

The effects/washes I put onto my footage I think demonstrate me following this convention and experimenting with editing outside of the standard cutting.

• Use of colour to match the song and the artist's imageColour was really significant for me when representing the artist and establishing a style so I think again I’ve followed this convention.

ANALYSING HOW CONVENTIONAL MY VIDEO IS IN COMPARISON TO EXISTING VIDEOS WITHIN THE INDIE GENRE

As well as just analysing whether my video follows the list of conventions I produced early on in the project, I wanted to compare my work to actual existing music videos to see where I’ve followed conventions or where I’ve challenged

them. Some of the videos I’ve chosen for comparison are ones that influenced my process and some are ones I’ve just decided to use now as examples.

This video was one that really inspired my work. I actually posted it a few months ago during my planning and research stage to show how it had inspired me. Its whole vintage/retro style is exactly what I wanted to achieve so I found it really useful to draw ideas from. As you can see from the screenshots here (Wants and Lorenzo’s video on the left, mine on the right) there are clear similarities where I’ve followed conventions of this video. One area in particular was the mise-en-scene. I modelled my actress’ make-up off the 60s style here and included screens with the old television as they did too. I liked their close-ups like the one of the light switch here and so incorporated them into my video. I also liked the use of 60s style effects in this video, which you can see became an important feature of my own video. In general I just found this video very inspiring and I think the simlarities between it and my video show how I’ve used conventions of existing products.

RHYMES – HANNAH WANTS & CHRIS LORENZO

HOME – EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROES

Again this video inspired my work. I loved the old-fashioned style of it and how it felt really personal because of the amateur/home video quality to the footage. I think it made the love and friendship themes within the song much more genuine. The two screenshots at the bottom show this retro style. As you can see to the left I took conventions from the video such as the use of performance with guitar and hearts in the mise-en-scene to conventionally represent love. I also used the sepia wash over my footage like this video does.

STYLE – TAYLOR SWIFT

Although this video is more within the pop genre, Taylor Swift’s new sound has been said to have elements of the Indie/Alternative genre. Either way, it’s still a good video in terms of comparison with mine. The screenshots here show similarities between my work and the Style video. The use of effects is the first one, with the image of the trees imposed onto Taylor, whilst I edited the image of water onto my performer. The second is the innocent/sweet representation of women created in both with them hiding coyly behind white sheets/curtains. The final one is the use of flashbacks in both, the Style video hints at a past relationship by interspersing handheld more spontaneous shots with performance and art clips. Again I’ve chosen to follow that convention too.