Q1

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Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Shannon Lewis

To begin with, I researched in the basic types of music video styles that exist; this includes performance based, narrative based and concept based. Some real music videos use more than one of these conventions, such as Jason Mraz’s music video ‘I Won’t Give Up’, which is a performance and concept based video.

Because I decided to create a music video of one of Jason Mraz’s songs, I choose to make my video performance and concept based. This means using singing, dancing and random shots linking to the lyrics. This style fits Mraz well, as his song ‘Coyotes’ is rather up beat and the lyrics don’t show clear meaning behind them. Also I decided against narrative because I believed it would have been difficult to fit the song with a story, even though I had twelve votes for narrative and ten for concept on my questionnaire.

Researching more into the forms and conventions of music videos, I read up on a theorist called Andrew Goodwin. He published a book in 1992 named ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’, which mentions his theories on what are usually included in music videos. There are seven in total, including: showing genre characteristics, links between lyrics and visuals, links between music and visuals, close ups of artist(s), motifs and iconography, ‘looking’ and voyeuristic treatment to the female body, and intertextual references.

I followed four of these conventions in my product, and slightly challenge two. The ones I slightly challenged were motifs and iconography and voyeurism and intertextual references. I analysed quite a few of Mraz’s real music videos and noticed that there was always a scene or two where Mraz would be it the shadows with his figure or profile silhouetted. I challenged this by keeping my Mraz actor well lit up, but the coyotes as silhouettes instead. Originally I was going to follow the motif, but whilst filming I decided to just have him in the light. I felt there was too much darkness already with the other scenes, and also in the lyrics he openly says ‘We’re coming for you’, suggesting that there is no need for him to hide but there is for the coyotes. For challenging voyeurism, I included female dancers, but decided to keep them completely covered and act more childish: Blue coyote messing about, yellow coyote swinging on swing. 

Other than challenging the theories, I basically followed the more popular ones but only to an extent. I decided to use more mid shots of the artist than close ups, as I wanted to show the contrast between the white wall and the dark clothing to highlight the suggestion that he is the ‘bad’ guy. There are also links between the dancing and music, and subtle hints between the visuals and lyrics. I used these typical conventions in music video, as I wanted to compliment the fast upbeat sound and the odd, conceptual lyrics.

My music video uses similar techniques to some of the real Jason Mraz music videos, as it includes layering of footage to create an obscure image that’s not realistic or fully clear. In ‘I Won’t Give Up’, there is a shot of trees over an extreme close up of an eye, and in my music video there are tree branches covering a variety of shots. I did this to show foliage and camouflage, to suggest keeping hidden.

There are also use of overlapping other clips, linking/ referring to a separate scene.

Another feature I liked from the music video ‘I Won’t Give Up’ is introduction the video with the song title. I felt as though this started off a story almost, even though my music video has no narrative.

My magazine advert was mainly influenced by the Jessie J advert for colours and layout. I wanted to have elements of the design to be centred such as the artist’s name, coyote eyes and the album title. This is to help gain a sophisticated and professional appearance. I included reviews, which is more typically used for movie posters, but I believed it would help advertise how brilliant the product is. I was also inspired by a past student’s design, as they included a QR code to allow websites to be easily accessed.

The Jessie J poster also inspired the digi pack, as the Jessie J poster used the same image for the CD cover. However, I decided to follow some of the real Jason Mraz products conventions of keeping the imagery simple. Examples I was influenced by were ‘Love is a Four Letter Word’ and the real ‘We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things’. This includes not mentioning the artists name, which makes the CD seem more humble compared to other CD designs: About the music not the name.

For other features of the digi pack, I looked physically at real albums I had at home. I noticed that they all had booklets inside with information on the album and images to do with the artist/ band. From this, I decided to create a booklet that includes images relating to the song Coyotes and lyrics to each song that is on the album. On the back cover of the album I numerically listed the tracks, like I realised how they are listed on real albums. I also included the typical logos such as the institution and social websites. Behind the disc, I noticed that the albums that I have looked at included a faded image of either the front cover or an image that has already been used. Influenced by this, I used the coyote eyes again.

 In conclusion, my whole product has used many forms and conventions of real media products by following the layout and style - especially from the real products created for Jason Mraz. I did this because my goal was to create a product suitable for Mraz, by considering his typical style of simple layouts and concept-based designs. I challenged a few conventions, but I wanted my media product to pass off as one of Mraz’s, so I used and then developed the real designs and styles.