Ev question 1[1]

Blur- ParklifeBy Jamie and Tom .

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

The Genre: Britpop

The Britpop genre is a sub genre of alternative rock , adopted in 1960s and 1970s. The genre was also widely expressed in the 1990s by such bands as Blur and oasis.

The conventions mainly associated with this genre include an old fashioned British way of life, music videos that represent the layout of British culture such as the pubs, excessive drinking habits and street culture.

When researching into the genre our audience feedback showed us what people would associate with the genre .They said they would consider it to have drinking , pubs and a care free way of life. From our audience feedback we chose to comply with the genre but subvert it to a modern view point.

Main Conventions of music videos.

When looking into making a music video you must consider what things make it fit the genre chosen. When making a Britpop music video our research showed us that there are many shots associated with the genre such as close ups , mid range shots , over the shoulder shots and generally they start with a establishing shot. The Britpop genre is also a genre that doesn't focus upon band shots completely , they like to tell the story through the mise-en-scene you see on screen.

When looking into the original park life video we wanted to keep some generic conventions the same. With the original video there were many comical moments we wanted to try and include to show its a Britpop video , we also wanted to keep it very white British which we found was a convention of most Britpop videos. With the main conventions in place we set out looking to make it as typical to the genre as possible , When looking at our music video you can instantly tell its Britpop.

Conventions and our music video

Our music video conformed to the Britpop genre , the genre depicts white British males which was one main aspect we wanted to keep in our video. We like the culture surrounding the genre and looked into promoting this aspect , the genre usually consisted of a geezer culture in the mid 80’s , this old school fashion was surrounded by this culture and we modernised these looks within the video. We updated some of the fashion to modern day but left it mainly to show off the genre. We understood the aesthetics of the genre were the mise-en-scene which told the story of the lyrics for example the joggers running round and round was included as actually joggers which was a comical moment in the original video.

The editing within the video was also used in context with the genre , the speeding up of the pint glass is comical to the audience which is one aspect of the Britpop genre. We also done a fast rewind of the band walking , this went to the beat which is a aspect of all music videos . The SFX was the most challenging part to the editing stage , keeping in sync with the speed of the lips but also have a time delay so the words are said to the exact pace of the soundtrack seemed difficult and some bits were impossible to do well but we edited to the best of our abilities and found most of the lip syncing (95%) worked perfectly, Our audience feedback showed us that our original magazine cover wasn’t conventional or a good representation of the genre , we decided to re-think our idea’s and worked from a mood board of the conventions to re-create our magazine cover and it came out much better with brilliant feedback.

Conforming and Subverting our music video

There were many situations throughout the production of our music video where we decided to subvert the genre. For example, we decided to include a wider range of modern elements into the genre rather than stick to the original clothing that would have been evident during the 1980’s. In contrast, there were many situations where we conformed the genre rather than subverted it, for example, we kept the carefree lifestyle, the key elements of the Brit Pop genre of the 1980’s such as drinking and smoking, and also the use of settings that fit into the mise-en-scene and other conventions that are evident in a Brit Pop music video.