Media Evaluation task 1

Daniel Rayson

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

Here is a couple of screen grabs showing the main male character in different costumes, the point I am making is the amount of costume changes within our music video, this is very typical of any other music video and relates to Goodwin’s theory. It slots into demands of the record label and is about the stars persona selling them to the audience. It is also conventional of the alternative/inde genre which is where our music video falls. An example of this is in Florence and the machines song ‘Say my name’ , in this video Florence changes costume many different times allowing the audience watching to relate to her and also to take inspiration from her due to her fashion sense and possible ideas for trend setting. It makes the star more desirable and also more likeable to the audience. Throughout out our music video the main male character and also the female character have many different costume changes keeping their fashion relevant and helping to sell the star.

This over the shoulder shot of the male character looking at the female character is showing the conventions of a typical music video by setting up the narrative. It carries on to be a shot reverse shot showing the characters in conversation and laughing, this is setting up the narrative for the rest of the video. The shot reverse shot is a typical shot type used within alterative/inde music videos as it is used when portraying a narrative between two characters, this being an argument or a normal conversation etc. The combination of a narrative during the music video and the rest of the performance is to be expected from alternative/inde music videos as it makes them more interesting. An example of this is in Alt-J’s music video ‘Breezeblocks’ where the male character is talking to another female character expressing concern and distress.

Either side are screen shots showing the amount of different and varied locations used within our music video. This challenges most music videos made by alternative bands. In our music video I counted that we used 15 different locations compared to watching Alt-J’s ‘Something Good’ video where there are only 5 different locations used, and even less in within ‘Breezeblocks’ where there are only 4. Although even though slightly challenging the conventions of the genre our music video falls in to, I feel it improves our video helping to build a believable and linear story line.

On this slide are examples of how we have used lighting to creative an emotive tone and portray to the audience how the characters are feeling. As can been seen fairylights have been used in both of this scenes creating dim low key lighting. This low key is used alot in the alternative genre as it creates a atmosphere -

and emits an emotive tone which is what the video intends to express due to alternative/inde music video’s having more serious storylines. I feel we have achieved this convention of our genre quite well expressing feeling through our video effectively.

Here is an example of visuals and lyrics which is one of Goodwin’s theories. The song just said “so pour it out before you go” and the female character just poured a glass of water over the male actor. This is a common convention used throughout many different music videos and genre’s. It helps to connect the music video to the song. Bottom left is another example of us using visuals and lyrics as the main male character is singing “the mirrors in the sky” and then pointing towards the sky which the camera then follows. This convention can been seen being using in Alt-J’s ‘Breezeblocks video which has the murder weapon as a breezeblock.

Here are screen grabs showing our main male character looking down the camera and creating a direct gaze with the audience. This is one of Goodwin’s theories called Notions of Looking. This is a convention that is strongly used within the pop genre but not so much in the alterative. Therefore we are challenging the convention. An example of this not being used is in the screen shot below from the XX’s music video ‘Chained’. The character is looking past the camera and never directly into it. I have noticed this is the case with many alternative videos. I think by including this convention in our music video we help to increase our male characters vulnerability and also allows the audience to identify with him.

To the left are two screen grabs I have taken which display some of the different filters we have used upon our video e.g. colour process and also the effects we have used like cross dissolve. This convention of filtering and effects is commonly used throughout all music genres and boosts our music video into being conventional of a real music video. Effects and filters are used quite alot within alternative music videos as they aim to be original and provide the audience with interesting shots.These effects and filters help to make our music video more original and also to increase our creativity with our shots.

The screen grabs I have selected above show that our music video is very conventional to all genres as a whole based on the subject of love. We have a male and female character that are encountering problems which is a theme present in many real music videos. To try and fit this more solely to the alternative genre we have dressed them in alterative clothing and also based it a lot on just one male and female which whilst doing research is something I noticed. Within the alternative/indie genre when a love story is portrayed it is mostly based on only one couple and that it also tells a story through the use of interesting shots.

To the right are images from real music videos showing couples.

Our magazine advert has been created very much with the idea in mind of following to the conventions of the alternative theme. For this we have planned a shoot and taken an unusual image. The layout is simplistic yet effective much alike other alterative/inde advertisements. It has been framed to have the advertisements for where you can get the song from at the bottom. The name of the band and the single are central to the advert and the record label is in the top right of the advert ‘XL RECORDINGS’. The image relates effectively to the music video and also digipak having the girl hide her face, ergo the female character wanting to hide from the arguments. Overall I think it fits effectively into the expected conventions of an alternative genre advert. It has an interesting and original image which is also simplistic and effective.

Within our digipak we have used quite simplistic and understated images. Many mainstream artists mostly within the pop culture catch your eye and draw you in through the use of lots of colour and strange outfits/makeup. This is not always necessarily needed, simpler images can be just as effective.

This image of Paloma inspired our idea for the front cover, being simplistic and effective fitting into the convention of the alternative genre.

Here is an example of a front cover used within the pop genre. I feel that it is too in your face and prefer the much more simplistic front of alternative music.

To the left is an example of another album cover from the alternative genre. As you can see it is a lot less in your face and screaming to grab attention.

This image of her face straight on is an image that would usually be more conventional of the pop genre, therefore here we are challenging the convention although I do feel it has worked well to express and portray the feel we wanted.