Evaluation Question 1

Question 1In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?

Camera WorkOver-the-shoulder shot – We used this shot to emphasise the girl’s emotions and her loneliness by showing her watching other girls her age talking and having fun as friends. It exaggerates the fact that she is on her own and wants to be part of them, she just lacks in confidence. We also used an over-the-shoulder shot when the girl is writing in her diary, this gives the audience closer detail of what the girl is writing (song lyrics) and how she is feeling. We also felt that because the diary was a key aspect of our video and the narrative, we needed to show a clear shot of this.

An example of an over-the-shoulder shot being used in a real life music video is in Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran. This video portrays a young woman as ‘Cupid’, creating love in the world with her bow and arrow. She watches as other people fall in love and this is where the over-the-shoulder shots are mainly used.

Camera WorkClose-up shots – We used a variety of different close up shots of the artist within our video. A couple of these were reaction shots, therefore we showed a clip of something the girl is watching and then a close-up of her face showing a reaction to it. The reaction shots were used in the urban location and therefore were more in the narrative section of the video, where the girl was wandering the streets, rather than in the singing part. Close-ups are used very often in real life music videos as they allow the audience to feel a personal connection with the artist.

An example of a close-up in a real life music video is in Only Girl in the World by Rihanna, Rihanna is seen as a role model for many young girls and by using close-up shots it allows the girls to feel a connection to Rihanna.

Camera WorkExtreme close-up shots – When the artist is singing in the video, we also used extreme close-ups of her mouth, showing her singing the lyrics of the song. Extreme close-ups allow the audience to feel even more up-close and personal with the artist and can feel this further personal connection with them.

Extreme close-ups are also regularly used in music videos e.g. in the video for Heartbeat by Enrique Iglesias and Nicole Scherzinger, this makes the viewer feel a very strong connection to both artists. Showing only a certain part of an artist’s face very close up allows the audience to feel as though they can touch them and see things as if the artist was there in real life. It reveals the artist’s personality more, just by seeing them so close up, the audience may feel they can relate to them more.

Camera WorkEstablishing shots – We used a few establishing shots of our different locations within the video. Establishing shots allow the audience to have more of an insight into the location and also creates more of an atmosphere to the video. The establishing shot for the skate park really represented an urban location and we felt that we really needed to use an establishing shot to make it clear to the audience of the location and to also exaggerate the girl’s loneliness by showing her sat on her own next to this big wall with noone around her. The establishing shots of the forest location created the opposite atmosphere, this showed a sense of beauty and peacefulness.

An example of an establishing shot being used in a current music video is Keep Your Head Up by Ben Howard. He has also used a forest location for his video which is also from the singer/songwriter genre.

Camera WorkHigh angle/Low angle shots – We used both high and low angle shots within the music video. We used a high angle shot in the urban location when the girl is wandering down the street, a low angle shot has connotations of being looked down on, as though the person is small and less significant, this is exactly how we wanted the girl to be portrayed as this is how she feels at this point in the video. We also used a low angle shot in the forest location when the artist is singing, low angle shots look up at the person, portraying them to be big and superior, this is the image we wanted to put across, this is the girl’s confident side and therefore we used this camera angle to emphasise this confidence. We used a low angle shot at the end of the video when the girl has gained her confidence, this is when she is singing on the skate ramp.

An example of a high angle shot being used in a current music video is Next To Me by Emili Sande, here she is shown playing the piano in a big room, the size and emptiness of the room is emphasised by using this high angle shot, it also makes the artist look very small and inferior.

Camera WorkMid shots – We used a few mid shots within our music video, one of these is when the girl is sat down writing in her diary, we felt that this scene required a mid shot because we wanted to make it clear of what she was doing and she was sat down and therefore we only needed to show half of her body.

An example of mid shots and long shots being used in a current music video is in the video for Skyscraper by Demi Lovato, the long shots make the artist look more powerful and show confidence, it also emphasises this big flowing dress which Demi Lovato is wearing. Midshots and close ups are also used to portray the artist’s emotions.

Long shots – Long shots reveal the artist’s full body, music videos often portray a female artist having a ‘perfect body’ which makes young girls aspire to look like this. A long shot also reveals the costume, allowing the audience to have an insight into the artist’s style and also shows their individuality.

Camera WorkPoint of View (POV) shots – We used a POV shot in our video when the girl gets approached by a boy who wants to help her, it shows a shot of her face looking up and then another shot which is from her point of view looking up at the boy. The POV shot adds a more personal touch to the video, showing something from the girl’s point of view makes the audience feel as though they are part of the video and are enwrapped in the narrative.

An example of a point of view shot being used in a current music video is Part of Me by Katy Perry, it shows her looking closely at something and then cuts to an advertisement about becoming a marine. This is what she is seeing from her point of view. Putting a point of view shot here gives the audience more knowledge of the narrative of the video and helps them to understand the woman’s thoughts and what is going to happen next.

Location/Mise en SceneUrban/Destroyed Location – Many current music videos feature an urban location, which is occasionally represented as being the ‘ideal’ lifestyle, however this is normally more the case in rap and R&B videos. For our video we subverted that stereotype, and as it’s from the singer/songwriter genre, we needed to make this clear, therefore we used the urban location and represented it as being a lonely and sad place. The location also looked destroyed, which is another convention in many music videos. Showing a destroyed location adds a depressing atmosphere to the video.

An example of an urban and destroyed location used in a music video is Jake Bugg – Two Fingers. Here it shows the artist in a destroyed looking house with an abusive family, he then sets fire to his clothes in his garden which shows a sense of rebellion as well.

Location/Mise en SceneForest/Deserted Location – We felt that to add more mystery and excitement to our video we should include two contrasting locations. We decided that using an urban location which has connotations of busyness and noise, we needed the other location to be the complete opposite to this, therefore we used a deserted forest location which was quiet and peaceful, for the performance shots of the video. Deserted locations are very often used in real life music videos and often for the performance shots. Here are some examples which match our idea of using a peaceful, deserted location:

Taylor Swift - Mine Coldplay - Paradise Avril Lavigne – When You’re Gone

Jason Mraz – I Won’t Give Up

NarrativeThe narrative of our video is simple to follow, yet holds an inspirational message. The message of the video would hopefully inspire people with no self-confidence or people who come from a troubled background to just speak their mind and just talk to people because there are people out there who want to help them.Many singer/songwriter music videos hold a message within their narrative as this is an important aspect to help attract the correct audience and influence people not only within the lyrics of the song but also what is portrayed on screen. An example of a singer/songwriter video with an inspirational narrative is Mean by Taylor Swift. The narrative is about being bullied, and the lyrics say ‘Some day I’ll be living in a big old city and all you’re ever gonna be is mean’, this is saying that people who get bullied shouldn’t be put down by bullies, they should pick themselves up and they can go far in life, it’s saying that bullies will always be bullies and they’ll go nowhere in life by being mean. I think that this narrative is inspirational because Taylor Swift’s main audience and fan base are young girls. Young girls are stereotypically the people who are most likely to be getting bullied, therefore by watching this video it could really help them to have more self confidence and think more positively.

LightingOur song is from the singer/songwriter genre and, after researching videos from this genre, we found that mainly natural lighting is used. Therefore there was no need for us to add artificial lighting from another light source to create a high key lighting effect as we thought that this would make the video look unrealistic and fake which isn’t the message we wanted to put across. In the video for Lego House by Ed Sheeran, there is no obvious lighting used as he wanted to make the video look like real life to get the message of the narrative across. The narrative follows an obsessed fan of Ed Sheeran, although the narrative is humorous, there is also an element of sympathy for the character, however this is only because of how realistic the video looks. Artificial lighting can prevent a narrative from looking realistic and believable.

CostumeWhen deciding on the costumes, we knew that we needed to make sure that the style of the clothes, the colours, as well as the makeup and hairstyle of the artist, needed to match the location and the narrative. For the forest location, we wanted the artist to wear something extravagant which almost looked theatrical to emphasise the confidence and the fact that this is inside her head, her mind telling her what to do, therefore we used a fairytale-looking dress along with feather earrings, false eyelashes covered in glitter and also pink lips with glitter sprinkled onto them, we felt that this look and costume worked really well with both the narrative and the location. For the urban location, we opted for a costume very different to the one used in the forest location. We needed to make the girl look ordinary and plain and therefore she wore blue jeans, red pumps and a cream jumper which featured the word ‘love’ on it. The fact that the jumper said ‘love’ matched the narrative, as love is what the girl was searching for all along.

An example of a real life music video which features two contrasting costumes is Alice by Avril Lavigne. This song was created for the soundtrack of the 2010 film of Alice In Wonderland, which is a fairytale-themed film, meaning an extravagant costume was needed. The artist starts off wearing jeans and a top, after she falls down the hole, she is suddenly wearing this big, extravagant ball gown-type dress. This makes the narrative much easier to follow for the audience.

Colour/Font/ImageWhen creating our digipak and magazine advert we created an identity for the artist by the use of colour, font and imagery. We matched the colour of the font to the colour of the dress which was a pinky-nude colour, this has connotations of femininity and also younger girls. The font we chose to use is a neat handwriting style font which also looks stereotypically very feminine, it also links to the girl writing in her diary which is a key point of our video.

Ed Sheeran is famous for the colour of his hair, therefore he has used this to help the sales of his CD. He has used a completely orange image for the cover of his album ‘+’ which represents his ginger hair. By using this colour on both the CD and any advertisements, it will make both himself as an artist and the CD more recognisable as people are more likely to know who he is.