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

Siobhan Fox

Evaluation Question One:

First I am going to look into the conventions I used, developed and challenged from my

Music Video

My definition of conventions:Conventions within a media context is something the producer uses

when making a product so that the audience know straight away what genre the product is from.

Question One

When researching into the POP genre I analysed quite a few different, already existing music video’s by artists such as Jessie J, Little Mix and Stooshe to establish the conventions they have used in their videos so I could use and develop them to make my music video look and feel like a real POP video. These are the conventions I picked out that I used:

USE

Question One

- Performers are established first- Shot types- Fast pace editing - Mise en scene- Green screen- Lighting

At the very beginning of most POP music videos it is the performers who are established first so as a group we took this into account and began our music video by establishing performance shots with the singers first:

USE

Question One

Jessie J’s music video My music video

I found out that the shot types within POP music videos are mainly mid shots and close ups so I took this into account when planning and filming my music video so I could use these shots in mine, such as:

USE

Question One Little Mix and Jessie J’s music video My music video

Stuart Hall - Theorists

Question One

USEStuart Hall is a media studies theorist who came up with the Encoding and Decoding theory. This was a basis of three main concepts;

The dominant reading – positioning the audienceThe negotiated reading – audience partly agreeThe oppositional reading – audience feel opposite

The certain shots types used with in my music video which may use the dominant reading and position the audience to how they feel about the performers as well as the characters in the narrative scenes. For example the group mid shots may show that the performers are friends and happy whereas the close ups and mid shots on the performers in the narrative scenes may make the audience feel upset and position them to feel sorry for the girl being bullied.

Stuart Hall – Continued

Question One

USE

Friendship Upset - bullying

I tried to do this with in my section of the music video and I think that it worked well as it went with the beat and is exciting for the audience to watch and from my questionnaire I found out that my target audience like to watch fast pace editing.

USE

Question One

For example on the lyrics ‘ready steady go’ I edited three separate clips together.

Again on the lyrics ‘waste my life’ I edited three separate clips together.

Ready GoSteady

Waste Life My

A common convention used in the POP genre is fast pace editing to the beat, this is due to the fast pace song and along with the bright colours makes it exciting for the audience to watch.

The POP genre is known for its fashionable clothing and when I researched into the different outfits and makeup the performers wear it is seen to be colourful and fashionable so we decided to take this into consideration when filming our music video.

USE

Question One

Colourful hair Bright lipstick

Fashionable clothing

Mise en scene

Green screen is used in some POP music videos as it is exciting for the audience to watch as they are of a young age and makes the video more interesting, this is a convention which we used in our music video. We gave each character their own background to show that even though they are in a group they are still individuals with different personalities, this was used in Little Mix’s music video. In some cases the same backgrounds flows throughout the video and this is what we decided to do.

USE

Question One

Little Mix’s backgrounds

Our backgrounds

Lighting in the POP genre music videos are always bright because they are fast beat and have an exciting feel. This is a convention I used in my music video as well as picking bright backgrounds for the green screen, I done this by at first using studio lights but then on Adobe Premiere Pro I brightened the clips.

USE

Question One

Bright background Bright lighting

Summary of USE

I have looked in detail at what conventions are used in the POP genre music videos and taken the parts that I think would work well and from the finished product I think they have worked as it makes it seem as if it is a real music video and this is the effect I was going for.

Question One

For my music video I wanted to be able to take some concepts and conventions from original, already existing POP music videos and develop them to make the video seem

like our own and not been copied from others.

DEVELOP

Question One

DEVELOP

Question One

We did this in many ways, such as using the split screen with the use of green screen so we could put in our unique backgrounds. We originally took the idea from Little Mix’s split screen however developed it because there are three singers in our group compared to their four, so changed the direction of the split screen.

Our split screen Little Mix’s split screen

The music videos I have analysed have only had one or two different backgrounds, mainly white and green screen whereas we wanted to develop this and add another screen to add more variety and make it more interesting, we done this by adding a black screen which is not used as much as other coloured screens.

DEVELOP

Question One

Green screen

Black screen

White screen

Within the music videos I have looked at group vs. solo shots and they do not seem to be of a equal ratio, the solo shots seem to be used a lot more than group shots so we wanted to develop this to make them equal.

DEVELOP

Question One

Group shots Solo shots

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Maslow‘s hierarchy of needs suggests that there are five basic section that a person wants and needs in life which are:

DEVELOP

Question One

From this I can take that the group shots in my music video represents a need of friendship with in the third section of the hierarchy.

The shot types in POP genre music videos are mainly mid shots therefore we wanted to develop this by adding more shots types such as long shots, close ups and extreme close ups.

DEVELOP

Question OneExtreme close up

Close up Long shot

Summary of DEVELOP

I feel that the conventions I have chose to develop have worked well as they did not need to be changed completely but if I used them as they were it would have made it seem that I copied the music video, therefore by doing this it has made it my own.

Question One

I wanted my music video to try and be original and creative therefore I wanted to challenge

some conventions of POP genre music videos, this meant creating ideas that are not commonly

known for these music videos.

CHALLENGE

Question One

CHALLENGEOne convention that is not common in POP genre music videos is having narrative involved. We thought that the video would be much more interesting and exciting for our target audience if we added narrative, therefore constructed a storyboard on bullying which may be something the audience could relate to. Plus, when I sent out my questionnaire to my target audience I found out that they wanted there to be narrative within the music video. I feel that this worked well and gave our video something to follow.

Question One

Shot establishing the girl walking past the bullies at the beginning of school

Mid shot to show the bullies behind the girl representing the bullying

Todorov’s theoryTodorov’s theory suggests that there are five stages of narrative which are;1) Equilibrium2) Disruption3) Recognition of disruption4) Attempt to repair damage5) State of new equilibrium

This can be seen to go with my music video as we have introduced narrative and there is a beginning where they fall out, the teacher then notices this bullying and then it is resolved, usually within a music video there is no narrative therefore ours challenges this and introduces Todorov’s theory.

CHALLENGE

Question One

Within our group we felt that the clothing in the POP genre may not be suitable for our target audience age as it may seem too provocative with the low cut tops and short skirts, so therefore we wanted to challenge this by wearing clothing suitable for the age of our audience and be covered up.

CHALLENGE

Question One

Our video – covered up

Little Mix’s video – not as appropriate

Another convention which is not commonly known to be used is different angles, such as left/right and high/low but I wanted to challenge this and add more of a variety to make it more interesting. I done this by not only adding the more common angles such as left and right but by adding a moving effect which travels past all of the performers on the right side, this worked really well as it added more variety.

CHALLENGE

Question OneRight angle

Left angle Moving camera

Summary of CHALLENGE

The conventions I have challenged have also worked well because it makes it more interesting and suitable for the target audience as well as adding certain camera movements it makes the music video more creative and original.

Question One