Q.1

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

By Sabrina Caruso

Close ups

One of the ways in which our music video used conventions effectively was the use of close ups which was demonstrated clearly throughout the duration of the video. This is specifically highlighted as it is very typical for pop genre’s to include many close ups especially when we were singing so that it enhanced the emotions on our faces to the audience which then helps represent the meaning of the song and reflects the lyrics so that the audience gain a better understanding.

For example a real pop video such as Beyoncé's use of close ups in her video Countdown.

Narrative & Performance

In our music video we combined the narrative and the performance scenes together so that we were singing throughout the storyline while portraying actions and performances that fit with the lyrics to make it more intriguing to watch rather than the audience just watching a narrative. This convention has been known to be representative and developed traditionally in pop music videos which is what we wanted to illustrate.

Split Screen

The use of split screens that we used in our video are very conventional to our genre of pop. This editing technique enabled us to show two different scenes on the screen at the same time which enforced our ideas of showing a strong contrast between our settings of graffiti and the studio which showed the difference in the lyrics of love and war. It also makes the video more interesting to watch.

This example is from a real pop music video by Little minx in their video “wings” where they have used a variety of split screens throughout their video.

Digi Pak & Magazine Advert

It is very essential and popular that pop groups emphasis is on the main artists So, for our magazine advert, we wanted to continue this idea so it would be recognisable to the audience. We also carried on our theme of graffiti which links to our video so it would be noticeable and a consistent on going structure.

We put a review on our advert as a promotional technique which is also always found on real music magazine adverts.

Magazine Advert

Digipak

Our digipak includes a particular motif that connects to the video and the magazine advert by ensuring there was a link between them by the use of graffiti background and close ups. For example Little Minx use of consistency by using bright colours and funky outfits ontheir album cover aswell as in their video.

This still represents pop convention by signifying strong independent women with strong characters which tends to be very common in pop music videos . It shows females as modern, powerful and confident. Which gives an edge to the whole video.

This still in the studio of our music video shows bright lighting with colourful and vibrant colours to produce a happy light hearted feel to the video as pop videos mainly focus on bright attractive props instead of dark and gloomy.

Slow motion

We used slow motion techniques in our video to enhance the meanings of the lyrics at that particular moment of the song which makes the viewers think about the song and our actions towards it.

Mise-en-Scene

The mise-en-scene we used was also typical of a pop group as we all tried to reiterate a different style outfit each of the artist of our song. It gave the view and sense of us being a girl band as we created an urban feel with our locations, outfits and performance.