Evaluation - Question 1

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

In this question I will be looking at the meaning through conventions I developed within my A2 music video. I believe the creative decisions I made in following, developing and challenging existing conventions played a key role in the success of my final piece, and is definitely a talking point concerning what conventions I used to portray specific meanings and encoded messages. Exemplars of a number of conventions can be seen woven into the fabric of my music video, of which I have demonstrated below. I have compiled 9 key shots from my video in the image below, identifying where I have conformed or challenged a specific convention currently used in real media texts.

My media product ‘Laughter Lines’ conforms to and challenges an array of different music video conventions. The video combines a performance element from my artist Brad Orlando, following the break up of two people previously in a relationship, played out in reverse. However rather than spoon feeding my audience a chronological narrative, I incorporated the distinctive music video convention of narrative disjuncture. Opposed to the continuity, story-telling nature used for last years thriller opening, my music video requires my audience to piece the fragmented narrative together in order to create a personalised meaning. This follows the theorist Vernallis, and her idea that music video narratives are unique to other media texts in the sense that they rarely ever follow a story and incorporate a very fragmented narrative. This convention gave me creative freedom, enabling me to encode a variety of messages, of which viewers can intentionally perceive in many different ways, relating to another theory known as Stuart Halls perception theory.

Encoded messages are also existent in my music video, even from the very first shot. The broken glass, ripped photographs and broken stick all subtly represent thebreak up of the relationship, a message dismissing the artificial 'happily ever after' theme that many videos undertake and provides a harsh insight of the reality of most relationships. These almost hegemonic messages give a slightly deeper meaning to my music video for audiences not just to intake my work at face value.

The second shot highlights my conformity to artist close-ups, another very important element of real music videos and my music video alike. A music video, as well as focussing on being visually interesting, should be centred around the artist and therefore play on the star image of, in this case, Brad Orlando. The demands of a record label often request a number of artist close ups to build a recognition for them. The demand for artist close ups is prominent in works like MAGIC!'s 'Rude'. My music video is no exception as I have consciously included many close ups of my artist within my music video, following the conventions of many existing media texts and again the ideas of Andrew Goodwin in what can usually be found within a music video. I believe being such a prominent feature in existing texts, my own work would benefit from close up shot of the artist.

I adopted existing conventions within the music video industry not only through the editing and post-production, but through the shots I achieved whilst filming, using a typical camera technique referred to as the 'over the shoulder shot'. This enabled me to portray a conversation or rather ann argument within my music video , showing one individuals shoulder in the foreground whilst focussing on the individual opposite them. This shot is utilised in a range of texts, often in partnership with the 180 degree rule, something I also incorporated into my own work. Using these conventional shots enabled me to clearly depict the communication between Brad Orlando and his partner via my camerawork.

One of the most notable differences of a music video to other media texts is the pace of editing. In general, editing is fast paced and each shot last no more than 3-4 seconds. Often called 'Montage Editing', the significance of the past paced cuts made it hard to ignore. This convention I have embraced along with cutting to the beat, what I consider to be a technique iconic to the conventional music video. Timing my transitions to the beat of the music helped me achieve a professional end product which seamlessly flows with the soundtrack the visuals partner. This again provides evidence in ways in which I have accepted conventions seen in real media texts in order to improve my own and displays evidence of Andrew Goodwin's theory outlining the common link between audio and visuals, a theory that is further reiterated with the multiple shots of the supporting band playing their instruments.

Theorist Andrew Goodwin also identifies the common link between the song lyrics and visuals. This is demonstrated by the fourth screenshot, where a calendar page is being ripped off the calendar, but played in reverse. We see that we are going back in time, as February is replaced by January  strongly relating to the accompanying lyrics, frequently referencing going 'back in time'. This relationship between lyrics and visuals make a frequent appearance in many modern music videos with similar genres, with 'King' by Years and Years a good example.

The combination of performance and narrative is possibly one of the more generic and evident conventions of music videos, yet very important regardless. Whereas some videos compile of just a performance element, much like MNEK's 'Please don't call this love', I stuck with the conventional mix of narrative to accompany my artists performance. This helped me achieve a variety of shots, scenes and aesthetically pleasing features.

As previously mentioned, the use of camerawork was also used to adhere to music conventions. This rings true with my camera movement throughout my piece. In an effort to keep every shot interesting and dynamic, I have a great deal of sweeping camera movement with the help of a steadicam. This is common of music videos, with MNEK's 'Every Little Word' being a prime example of the importance of camera movement has over the visuals. The screenshot used above is taken from 3:05 of my music video, just one of the many shots which incorporated fluid, freehand movement for maximum visual pleasure.

Music videos almost always integrate many different costume and location changes throughout. My music video narrative features two main characters, both of which change clothing once, twice and even a third time for my artist Brad Orlando. These costume changes are common of the genre of the song and music videos in general, and used in my video to demonstrate the change of scene and timeframe. This is also true with the changes of location within my and the vast majority of existing music videos. My video features a total of 4 location changes, ranging from both performance and narrative clips. This conformity to real media conventions contributes to my work achieve one of the core measures of success in creating a music video, to make it visually interesting.

Finally, intertextual references have influenced the creation of my music video. In preparation of the production of my own music video, I watched a wide variety of existing music videos of all eras and genres, one of which was 'Mine', a song by Taylor Swift. Despite being a seemingly unlikely source of inspiration, the 2010 music video ignited the idea of holding the performance element of my video in the forest, and the inclusion of photographs representing the artists memories. In fact the video also inspired the shot seen on the left. Shots within Taylor Swifts video, much like the one at 1:12 and 2:19, provided some significant inspiration. Watching this video evolved a number of ideas which I have incorporated and benefit my final product.

My knowledge and understanding of media conventions can be seen clearly through my music video. Rather than basing conventions used blindly on clichés I have picked up from watching other media texts, I can now identify and be selective over each of the conventions I decide to use in my own video productions in order to create the desired effect. As I now have a far more developed understanding of existing media conventions surrounding music videos, I have been able to demonstrate this through my A2 work.