Evaluation Question 4 - Gemma Horgan A2 Media Studies

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

The picture on the above left is from The 1975’s ‘Robbers’ music video, and the right is from our media product. The 1975 is an artist I have repeatedly referenced and examined throughout the research and planning stages, and their music video for Robbers was one of my named inspirations in the pitch presentation. I found the close-up shot of the bloody hand interesting, as it occurs early on in the narrative, presenting enigma codes for the audience. As a result, I decided to use this form in my own media product, although I wanted to lead up to the hand shot as opposed to beginning early on with it. Instead of presenting enigma codes through the hand, I used the hand for the concluding section of my media product. Despite using this in a different matter, the real media product of The 1975’s Robbers gave me the idea to use in the music video.

It could be argued that the intimate focus on a central character – or two, in the case of Robbers – is another way I use a form of a real media product. However, while The 1975 explore a Bonnie and Clyde-esque character dynamic through their video, the focus of our media product is on the isolation of the female protagonist – highlighted by how she is always alone, whereas initial ideas of flashback scenes would have been more reflective of The 1975’s influence on the final product. In addition, the technique of silhouetting the central characters against the light is used in both the professional media product of The 1975 and my media product. However, it can be seen to subvert this use in a way – the silhouette scenes in Robbers represent a happy time for the two protagonists, whereas in our media product the girl’s silhouette reflects her own depression.

With the exception of the bottom left digipak, all of the indie rock digipak back covers are a darker colour than my final product, most likely indicative of the genre as a whole. However, Bastille’s back cover is another that focuses on light behind the song names, which is something I wanted merely because it is the setting of our music video and therefore shows synergy throughout all of our media products.

By not showing instruments in our media product, a link could be made (again) to The 1975’s Robbers, where the lead singer only sings through a microphone to the girl, not with instruments. All of this is still within the narrative, as it appears to the audience as if he is singing karaoke or merely playing around with his girlfriend, and keeps the focus on the central protagonists.

I have also followed the conventions of indie rock digipaks through the simplicity of the final back covers (that is, the listing of the songs on the album and not a complicated image to focus on). The four images above are all examples of real media products from different artists within our genre. Arguably the most significant out of the four is the artist we are using a song for in our music video – Imagine Dragons is the top image on the left. I didn’t want anything too intricate for the back cover of our media product digipak, and have therefore used this convention in my final product, pictured below, as it didn’t provide a distraction from the information.

I have also challenged the indie rock convention of showing instruments within the video; while rock videos tend to either be focused on performance (with rock instruments included or the visage of a live performance) rather than narrative, or combine both, my final media product does not show a guitar or a drumkit at any point – instead, it keeps focus on the central character. And the performance scenes we do include all take place within a studio, rather than an indie rock setting. This challenges one of the many

Our media product has also used the form explored in Pink’s official video for ‘Perfect’, using the medium to tackle darker ideologies of depression as opposed to using it merely for music. The strong narrative focus is something we wanted to use in our music video from the beginning, and while Pink’s music is not in our chosen genre, it could be argued that there is still a link that can be made between the similar ideologies being represented. Both characters, in the chosen screenshots to the right, are shown as being depressed through the smeared mascara and the bleak expressions. To some extent, it could also be suggested that our front cover has elements of the form that The 1975 uses – that is, keeping the artist faceless from the potential consumer. However, The 1975’s album cover for their digipak holds no image at all, only stage-lit rectangle with their name. This implies that they are either recognisable to their chosen target audience, or that they just chose a simplistic front cover. Our front cover does keep the artist faceless, but there is still an image for a consumer to focus on

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the girl is facing away from the audience and to the light, referencing various scenes in the video.Our front cover is simple in a similar way – the main focus is on the typography, which is emphasised by the dark silhouette of the girl as she faces away from the camera lens. The light

in front of her, from the sun and the calm waves, is focused on in the music video at several points. We felt that using one of the central settings of the music video for the digipak reinforced synergy throughout, despite being perhaps overly simplistic.

I have also used the convention of adding a black and white effect in post-production. However, I have only used this form for the performance sections of the media product, and by placing it through these lip-synching scenes it adds a contrast to the bright and dark of the rest of the video – amplified by the concluding shot of the beach overlaying and cross dissolving with the black and white image of the girl looking up. The black and white shots are not as dark as indie rock conventions usually show, and have a blue-ish hue to them rather than simple black.