Question 1

Evaluation

Treyvond Payne

Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop of

challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Introduction» The advanced portfolio brief was to produce a music video with ancillary

products. A music video is a short production which lasts for approximately 2 -5 minutes. The purpose of a music video is to promote the artist/ band in their style of music, which attracts people with the same style of music and a targeted audience.

» The traditional reason for a music video is also for promotional purposes which is a marketing device for the record label to sell their music. This is why music videos need to keep a consistency of engagement and entertainment so to the audience would buy a single or album.

» Most music videos should portray the genre that it comes from, therefore music video production can vary, but what music videos have in similar is that they are all either narrative, performance or a concept based.

All music video vary on how they use micro elements as again, this is conventional to the genre. The micro elements are :» Cinematography» Mise En Scene » Editing » Sound

: Shot sizes » To ensure my group and I were following conventions, we looked at

different videos of the ‘House’ genre to see what type of cinematography was used a lot and then we tried to use this within our own work.

» We found that CU’s and LS’s were used a lot for artist representation and that lots of establishing shots and long shots also set up the scenes. This is something we used and developed as seen below:

» Goodwin stated that CP’s were needed to star image motifs and Dyer stated that star image could be developed my using CU’s and LS’s to see the artist in full. The ‘House’ genre also uses this.

» My music video follows the conventions of the ‘House’ genre by the movement and size of the camera shot. The camera work that we are using is simple but effective. For example we use various closes ups, mid shots and long shots to show the image of the artist and making him appear to the audience as a care free person. This is effective because the audience would be able to see the body language and facial expression of the artist. We also use long shots to show when the characters are dancing to hard routines and close ups were also used here.

We analysed the music video by Disclosure – ‘White noise’ and we wanted to use a similar structure showing the audience the dancing.

Close up of the feet dancing to show the audience the dance moves.

Long shot to portray an image for the dancers dancing to hard routine.

: costume of artistThe Mise En Scene in a music videos is very important as it portrays the artist in a particular way. The Mise En scene can also establish what genre the music video is and the artist’s style. This is something as a group we thought long and hard about.

The costumes in music videos should be conventional to the genre that the artist belongs to, not only to represent the genre but also the style that the artist wants to portray. For example, the costume that my artist wears in the music video shows that he is calm, smooth and an urban hippy. We can compare this type of costume to the ‘House’ genre and the ‘Pop’ because in these genres they tend to wear clothing which can be quite casual to reflect the audience.

Our artist wears:-A hoody-Casual T-Shirt-Black trousers-Trainers

: costume of characters

The costume that the younger characters are wearing in the music video is school uniform, what this demonstrates that the characters are very young and new to a hobbies which they like which is dance.

Costume should be conventional to the genre the artist belongs to. This will not only represent the genre but it can a give and portray a style to the fan base.

As our theme is dancing in the video, our older characters wear clothing which more related to the dancing theme. This makes them look casual, care-free and hipster. We also think our intended target audience would dress like our characters.

: Lighting and colour In the music video, high key lighting was used so that the artist could be noticed in the various settings and also so that he can be seen as the centre of attention. This also helped to represent his facial expressions and body language which were smart, sexy and cool, making the song meaningful to him and further show escapism to the audience.

When the dancing occurs, we use natural lighting to emphasise the nature of dance being part of someone’s life. This is something that was influenced by ‘Run DMC’ and we wanted to use this convention.

: Lighting and colour

» When we see the urban locations, we used a range of high and low key lighting. This was to develop conventions of real media products as we felt a lot of low key lighting was used in ‘House’ music videos to show the location.

Lighting was influenced by the Gnarles Barkley’s video ‘Crazy’ where a lot of white was used. We liked this idea even though it is of a different genre because it made the video stand out so we wanted to develop it.

: Setting I believe that all the settings we use for our music video are convention of the ‘House’ genre, therefore we use conventions of real media products. » A plan white wall so the audience can see the artist clearly as he is

positioned in the centre, making him the centre of attention and making his costume, body language and facial expression stand out to the audience.

» Urban location for the dancer characters to have a battle in and making it conventional to the ‘House’ genre with its gritty location.

» Dance Studio showing the narration of the younger dancers and the older ones practising what brings them together. Reflective of genre too.

» From our research, I believe that the use of iconography also uses and develops forms and conventions of real media products.

» We use a stereo as it represents the theme of dance, I feel is conventional to the house genre. This was influenced by ‘Run DMC` music video It`s Like That. The Stereo in the music video plays a role in the narration of the music video which is base on dance and starts off a battle.

» We also used watches to show the friendship of our characters. The indicates a bond/friendship between our characters going from the younger age to an older age. This was influenced by ‘Rudimental’s video ‘Not giving in’ because it shows a relationship between two brothers and their characteristics

Iconography

– Body language and facial expression » The body language and facial expressions that is shown in my

music video from our artist reflects the ‘House’ genre as the artist is perceived as laid back and cool. He looks smart, sexy and casual all at the same time and this can be read from his body language and facial expression. I looked at artists like ‘Example’ to help me with my artists body language and facial expression to make sure I was following conventions of real media products.

• The dancers body language and facial expressions are very energetic,. This shows that the characters are spirited and lively to their dance moves, We used the video of Run DMC It`s Like That to help us with this representation of the theme of the music video.

Goodwin's stated that the pace of the editing should be in time with the beats in the song. We used and developed this with our editing.

Within my music video, there is a lot of cross cuts between the fast paced shots of the artist and dancers to make it conventional to the ‘House’ genre. We also fast paced editing and also used effective jump cuts as the beat of the song is fast and we thought this would entertain the audience. An example of the jump cuts used effectively is when the camera scans through the graffiti underpass. We used this to reflect the concept idea of the video.

We used a lot of editing transitions on the artist when he is performing to represent him in a stylish way. This is something I developed from the ‘House’ genre as usually there is not much emphasis on the artist.

This song is very upbeat but and has a rhythmic, repetitive beat to it.The sound is very fast paced and there are lots of beats evident in the song. This made the editing a tough and challenging process. To help with this I researched into similar ‘House’ and dancing theme videos to get ideas from. Disclosure –White Noise that’ followed a similar theme such as the dance scenes and we noticed that the editing had to be really fast to match the sound.As the sound is quite repetitive, we use aspects of repetition within our music video, mainly with the artist and location.