Evaluation question 1

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

EVALUATION QUESTION - 1

Conventions are what the audience would expect to see in a form of media. For example a title, images and text for a

magazine article.

Form is what style of media product is being used in this case the form is a music video.

MUSIC VIDEO

A music video is a short film that combines audio with visual imagery, produced for a number of reasons but,

primarily for promotional uses. Modern day music videos are made with the intention of promoting the sale of the

song or artist that is featuring in the music video, using the video as a marketing device.

Prier to the 1980's music videos were commonly known as an illustrated song or song video. In the 1980's music

videos became much more popular with a higher demand being shown for them. MTV was created around the

medium to satisfy this demand.

MUSIC VIDEO

Music videos can come in many different forms such as; animation, documentaries, live action filming, and a non-

narrative style like abstract film. Music videos can also use a number of styles at the same time such as narrative, animation and music to help create a more interesting

outcome.

Many music videos are also known for using imagery that matches up with the lyrics of the song, one of Andrew Goodwins theories, while others can take a different

approach and have a video that could portray a different meaning to the song lyrics, some videos also have no

concept to them such as a video of a live performance of the song.

MUSIC VIDEO

Conventions are something that the audience are expecting to see due to a trend being shown in a certain section of

media.

A main feature to consider with this is genre and in this case music genre. Music genre is a term used to describe a certain type of music form or style. For example if you look at the genre I have chosen to work with 'Indie' you would

expect to see a lot of similarities throughout the artist such as; clothing, lyrics, attitude and instruments. here is an example of a few different Indie bands that I have been

baring in mind.

CONVENTIONS

as you can see all four bands I have shown are all wearing very similar clothes, typically black or dark items. The

similarities between the bands can be down to a number of reasons some obvious one are; influences, time period,

record label and location. In my music video I tried to take this into account when choosing a costume for the video. I picked out some dark clothing including dark trainers, blue

jeans, a dark blue jumper and a black body warmer. I thought that this costume was very suiting because it fitted

in well with the genre of the music and what you would expect and artist in this genre to be wearing but, at the same time I tried to not pick all black because I felt that it would look very boring and make the video look more repetitive.  

CONVENTIONS

traditionally, a music video would be either narrative or performance based as a whole. However, in my music video I tried to develop this and get a balance between narrative and performance by having parts of both in featuring in the video. the narrative part was my point-of-view when riding a bike and taking a walk with a dog. The performance part

of my video was my lip syncing the lyrics as if I am performing it as the artist. 

DEVELOP

One thing that you expect to see in the performance side of a music video is a lot of voyeurism to give the audience a desire

for the artist and help them recognise them. this is another one of Andrew

Goodwins media theories on voyeurism. I took this into account and decided that,

because of the genre I was working with, I would dismiss this theory in my video.

CHALLENGE

I felt that the genre that I was using would not be expected to use a lot of voyeurism in the music videos for example if you look at the video for Oasis - Wonderwall there are a lot

of close ups of Liam Gallagher, the frontman for oasis, which may suggest voyeurism however, I do not feel that

this is the case. He is not portrayed by the camera as being sexual or suductive towards the audience in a way that

would be expected from an artist in a pop video. I did a very similar thing in my own video by having some close ups of the artist but not trying to show them in a light that other

genres might have.

CHALLENGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc

OASIS - WONDERWALL

For the narrative part of my  music video one media theory that I used and challenged was

Tzventan Todorov's narrative theory. This theory contains five stages that are shown throughout

the video these stages are; Equilibrium, disruption, realisation, repairing and equilibrium

again. at the start of my video the equilibrium part of my narrative is where I am walking down a road before i find the bike. Finding the bike is the

disruption part of the theory. The way I challenged this was by not having the other

stages of the theory which the audience may have expected to see. I did this because I felt that my music video was from the indie genre meaning

independent or unique so I decided that my video can turn away from traditional features of a music video to show the independence of the band and

genre. 

NARRATIVE