Evaluation Question 1

Question 1

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

Carol Vernallis' theory explains that music videos are constructed around 4 main concepts, which are: Narrative – Editing - Camera movement and framing - Diegesis (the world of the music video)

Vernallis’ Theory

NarrativeShe says the music video is a visual response to the music and lyrics of the song, but she also says that there isn't always a balance between the narrative and performance.

EditingThe editing may match the musical phrases in the song, or the beat which is not unusual in music videos. Also, the video may break, or disrupt, the 'rules' of continuity editing and this is a convention in music videos.

Camera movement and framingVernallis says that when it comes to shot types, extremes are very common and the style of framing and movement may run through the video and is distinctive to that video.

DiegesisThe diegesis may be revealed quite slowly and the actions are not necessarily completed - they may be interrupted in some way. She also says that the characters or objects may move to the music and some frames may be more important than others.

Rizzle Kicks – Lost Generation is a video that illustrates most of Vernallis’ ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iL51Tsh6Sdg

Narrative The shots in the music video directly respond to the lyrics and the title of the song. At each lyric, they show a shot that matches the message they are trying to get out during the video.

“Turn on the TV and see someone else’s life displayed.”

EditingThe camera shots switch and change on the beat and there are some odd, irregular camera changes throughout the song.

Camera movement and framingThere are many mid shots of both members of Rizzle Kicks and some close ups of them both which is a common convention in music videos.

DiegesisThis music video has not got a ‘world of the music video’ as the song is about the audiences world and the different shows, ideas and examples of technology in the normal world.

Vernallis’ Theory – Our Music VideoNarrativeIn terms of narrative, we knew that we did not want a clear story line in our music video. Our video supported her theory of no equal balance between the narrative and the performance. We had a link with the music video and album rather than the music video and song title.

EditingIn the editing stage, we counted beats of four and six to make sure our camera cuts would land on the right beat and we had hardly any cuts off beat .

Camera movement and framingThere is a wide variety of shots in our music video. There are mostly close and mid shots of our artist, as she is a new artist we wanted to introduce her in a specific way.

DiegesisOur music video was shot in various, well known locations around London, so there was quite a blurred line between the world of the music video and the audiences world. Although in the video itself there wasn’t a part in which we made an obvious reference to both.

Goodwin’s Theory

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narrative styles don't really apply to music pop videos. He feels that they approach narrative from a different angle to novels and films.

Some videos are autonomous from the music they come from. What the video shows may go beyond the original meaning. Sometimes the video provides a visual pleasure that encourages repeated viewing which therefore promotes the music. Sometimes the videos will promote other commodities like films, therefore it can be said that there are three types of relations between songs and videos: illustration amplification disjuncture.

Illustration: This is where the video tells the story of the lyric.Amplification: This occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meanings.Disjuncture: Where there is little connection between the video and the lyrics. Or when the video contradicts the lyrics.

Pop videos often have easily recognisable features. One feature is the way women are presented as objects of male desire. This is usually seen in the hip hop and heavy metal genres. Some artists such a Beyonce and Nicki Minaj deliberately present themselves this way but they directly look back at the viewers through the camera and they cease to be passive

Video Examples

An example of illustration is the music video from Kanye West ft. T-Pain - Good Life.Here there are different illustrations and lyrics that correspond with the lyrics that they're both saying.

An example of amplification is the video by Naughty Boy ft. Sam Smith - LaLaLa. The video is quite random and has some elements that we don't here in the lyrics, but the lyrics are 'I'm covering my ears like a kid, when your words mean nothing I go la la la' and there is a little boy that does the actions in the video

An example of disjuncture is the music video of Fatboy Slim - Praise You. The lyrics seem to be about a relationship and how much he loves her. But the video doesn't show this at all and only has random people that have come together for a dance.

Our video

There are no examples of illustration in our music video. We thought about having some of the lyrics appearing on the screen, or coming up in the video in a subtle way, however we realised that it would not have fit in with Molly as an artist or with the type of music genre she was included in.

In terms of amplification, I feel as though it was in our video but not in an obvious way. The song lyrics are about Molly as a person and about how she is feeling. Us using the close and mid shots on Molly especially during the chorus capture how Molly would look while expressing these feelings. I feel that the different looks that Molly gave to the camera was the subtle use of amplification we needed.

Since our lyrics were not about the nightlife or London trademark buildings, there is use of disjuncture in our music video. However, I would not say that our music video contradicts our lyrics in any way.

Unlike other famous music videos with female artists such as Nicki Minaj or Mariah Carey, we didn’t present our artist in a way for male desire. We all those the costume for our artist with that in mind, and all of her clothes were not revealing in any way. Our camera angles were not looking up at her in a male gaze and there were no close up shots on inappropriate parts of her body.

We chose to challenge certain aspects of Vernallis’ and Goodwin’s theories, such as the male gaze, a narrative story line and a clear diegesis. These parts of their theories simply wouldn’t have gone with our video or genre, or we simply chose not to include them.

Ancillary Products

For the ancillary, I feel that I did follow conventions in terms of constant colour schemes, clear and consistent font, clear professional pictures, and no words over the artists face. My digipak resembles artists such as Ellie Goulding and her albums were definitely inspiration for mine.