Evaluation Question 1

1. in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (BLOG)

My media production was to create a three minute music video of a particular genre as well as create ancillary texts which included digipak and a magazine advert. These media products helped us with our understanding of music videos and gave us many ideas and inspirations into what to include within our particular genre. My group members included Charlotte Monksfield, Leandra Saunders and myself, although unfortunately we lost Leandra at some point during this experience, Charlotte and I continued with the process of making our music video. 

There were any roles in which Charlotte and I were responsible for, for example where only having two members in our group for the most of the task, we divided the roles equally to make it fair on the both of us. My particular role was to be the actor/artist in our music video. This involved me to commit to filming, and take time out to film in areas such as Camden, London and Woodford. This was a big commitment to agree to as we had to be able to 
work as a team to cooperate when we were both available to film. This role gave me an insight to artist’s performance, artist representation and what it is like to be a part of a music video (which was very difficult and hard work). From this particular role, I learnt that to create an artist image I had to be able to pretend and act like somebody the audience would be able to connect to. I also learnt that to be able to create this image I had to act through drama and show the audience that I was able to take on a serious role. This has taught me that cooperation between the group was essential in the making of the music video, in order to make it look more professional.

I also had the role of being the producer and editor of our music video. The role entailed me to edit the footage that we collected on our HD camera, being able to use technology such as Final Cut Pro X to put this music video together, whilst also being able to edit and use effects to make the music video more professional. Where not being a techniqual person myself, this was something my group struggled with as we were not too familiar with some of the effects, but we learnt from this by working together and deciding what footage went where and also what editing styles and effects looked best and were conventional to our music video. This helped me gain experience with different technologies as well as an editor and a producer.

I believe we have made a successful music video as we gathered a lot of research into our chosen genre (which was indie) and by doing this and watching indie music videos by different artists, it has given us the inspirations and codes and conventions to be able to create a music video and ancillary texts that would entice and entertain our niche audience.  By looking at particular micro-elements of  indie music video’s/digipak’s and adverts such as mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and artist representations, we have created an artist ‘Lola Star’ who is representation of a conventional indie artist as well as somebody who is easily relatable to an audience. We have shown this by looking at the mise-en-scene elements (clothing) to create the conventional theme of realism. We used realistic clothing, something that people would wear on a day-day basis to be able to let our audience connect with the artist, as they may feel that she is just like them and be able to copy her style so they can be more like her. We also produced a very conventional indie music genre, as I research gave us ideas and inspirations on what conventions to follow, as well as see what conventions are mostly used within the music video. By doing this it has given us a successful music video and ancillary texts as we have created an artist image that is realistic and relatable for our niche audience. We have also given a steady balance between narrative and performance. By using a narrative which was about relationships and arguments, this again showed the audience that it is something relatable and something that everyone goes through. By having performance as well, it shows off the artists skills as a musician as we incorporated the mise-en-scene element iconography (guitar) which was also conventional to an indie genre). This enabled us to show the audience that she is musically talented whilst also being able to inspire the audience to take up an instrument.

Once chosen our particular genre, for my group being indie, we gathered as much research into the genre as possible by watching different music videos of indie artists and then choosing one music video in particular to recreate. A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes.

Through my understanding, a music video allows a particular audience (niche) to be able to connect with the lyrics of the song and also the artist. It allows the audience to be able to experience escapism whilst being able to create a relationship with the artist; whether that is from the artist’s style or even the representation, it allows them to be able to connect with the song itself. My media production was to create a three minute music video of a particular genre as well as create ancillary texts which included digipak and a magazine advert. These media products helped us with our understanding of music videos and gave us many ideas and inspirations into what to include within our particular genre. My group members included Charlotte Monksfield, Leandra Saunders and myself, although unfortunately we lost Leandra at some point during this experience, Charlotte and I continued with the process of making our music video. 

There are many codes and conventions to an indie genre that we had to consider in order to make a successful indie genre music video; some of them included elements such as;

·         Mise-en-scene – conventional clothing such as baggy clothing (to make the artist more realistic and relatable for the audience) , checked shirts (giving the artist more edge and individuality) – iconography such as a guitar (lets the audience look up to her playing an instrument) – body language (rebellious/sweet and innocent body language) and finally makeup, usually (really subtle but heavy on the eyes so the audience can gain eye contact better and focus more on the artist)

·         Cinematography – close ups are essential within an indie music video as they make the audience see what they artist is doing at a closer angle. They allow the audience to be able to connect with her more as they can see what she really looks like. Other conventional camera angles are high angles and low angles as well as panning shots, to show different angles of the artist and to show off the entire body of the artist, with her clothing and performance based material.

·         Editing – The editing styles that are conventionally used are colour filters. The colours filters that are stereotypically used within an indie genre are the use of black and white. This can show isolation, depression and memory for the narrative and shows that the artist is in a darker place or in remembrance of something. It connects with the audience as it makes them feel sympathy and empathy for the artist and lets them create a better relationship between them as they are able to show the feelings and the sorrow that the artist is experiencing and lets the audience experience it with the artist too, giving them a better connection together. Other editing styles included many different transitions such as swirls and fades, these are used so that the connection between the narrative and the performance are not jumping from one to another, and they are connected and made to look like the production flows better and is connected.

Those conventions are essential into making a successful music video and I have included some of those elements into my music video to make it more conventional to the indie genre. I used many of these conventions in my music video in order to make sure the audience feel more connect with the artist and the genre itself. For example, I used conventional mise-en-scene clothing such as a baggy denim coat and red and green checked shirt (colours are natural and conventional to the indie genre) and also tight bottoms and maroon boots to show off the artists figure but in a more subtle and simplistic way. This creates a relationship with the artist as the they see that the clothing is very simplistic and they are able to possibly copy the artists image and feel more connected with her as they feel like they look like her more. This is therefore conventional because I am using conventional colours for examples greens and blues which are natural and neutral colours which portray a theme of natrability within the genre and this is what the indie genre tries to portray. This show the audience that the genre of the indie genre is more natural and relatable for the audience and something that they feel they can connect to due to it being a natural and realistic genre to try and capture and portray.

Another convention I used within my music video is the use of cinematography close ups. I have used these particularly as they are conventional within an indie music video and also relate to Goodwin’s theory as their needs to be a variety of close ups in order to connect the artist with the audience. I have used close ups of the artist particularly when performing, for example when the artist is in the area with a white background (which looks like a studio) and she is playing the guitar and singing to the cameras. This was used as a close up in particular because I wanted the audience to feel a connection with the artist when she performs as the audience will be able to connect with the artist better if they can see how and what she looks like. They may even be able to copy her image and replicate it to feel a more personal connection with her and themselves. These conventions used within my music video are very conventional not only to the indie genre but also the music video industries as the close ups are essential so that the audience are able to connect and feel a more personal connection with the artist that before. The use of the close up allows the audience to see every feature of the artist, and because of the artists eye contact with the camera it makes the audience believe that they are signing the music and the song to the audience (only themselves) and nobody else. This makes it conventional as close ups are needed so the artist can connect with the audience better and see the facial features of the artist, possibly allowing them to copy the artists image and feel a more personal connection with the artist herself.

Editing was also another convention used and obviously to make our production more successful and also professional. We used effects such as flashing and prism to create enhancing effects to highlight the feature of the artists face, and then the flashing effect to create a more professional look which would also make it more entertaining for the audience to watch as it matches the tempo of the song. By doing this I was able to create a more entertaining music video and create effects that were conventional to my genre, being able to keep my specific genre intact and relatable for the audiences. These effects made the focus be on the artist and make her the centre of attention within the music video and this was something that was needed so that the audience were able to focus on her and see how the artist really is as a person and as a performer. This was very conventional to an indie genre as this example showed that the artist of the indie genre had to be main focus of the music video, and by using conventional editing such as the flashing to enhance her face, it then let the audience connect with the artist better as they could focus more on her facial features and the other mise-en-scene elements on her body and face too.

My finished music video, and ancillary texts which included and digipak and also magazine advert, both developed and challenged our indie music genre. Within my music video we developed and both challenged the indie genre through micro elements; in particular I used to develop the genre we made our artist very relatable but more rebellious than your stereotypical indie music artist. This was shown through the use of mise-en-scene body language, iconography and facial expression. This is specifically shown when the artist through narrative is being shown as rebellious as she turns to drinking and smoking after a break up. Her body language particularly when drinking in the street is very hunched and distressed and shows the artist in a dark and emotional point in her life. This is challenging my indie genre as we usually do not see the artist’s behaviour revolve around alcohol and make it so vivid for the audience. It makes the artist look more damaged as a person that what you would stereotypically see within an indie genre artist, however by challenging this I wanted the audience to see how something like a break up could possibly effect somebodies life, and this would be a relatable subject for the audience and therefore make this something that the audience could possibly connect to themselves. This therefore developed the genre into something more relatable to the audience so that they were able to connect with the artist in a more personal way.

A way in which I challenged my genre is by the use of dark colours within my magazine advert. Stereotypically within an indie music genre this wouldn’t be something that was conventional as they want to portray their artist as somebody who is natural and conventional to their genre, by using indie colours such as natural blues and greens and yellows.  In my magazine article I wanted to portray my artist as somebody who has a lot of individuality and somebody who doesn’t follow the crowd and what the music industry want them to be. I used in particular dark colours such as black and blue within the background so that the artist would stand out and be the main focus and centre of attention within the magazine advert. The dark backgrounds contrasted with the artist’s natural makeup and beauty and enhancing features to brighten up her face. This could of possibly made the audience believe that the artist isn’t true to her own genre, but by challenging these elements it shows the individuality of the artist and this is something the her audience could possibly find inspiring as she is trying to make herself known as herself and not a copy of somebody, she is portraying herself as a person who is her own and not a copy of someone else.

My digipak both conforms and subverts the stereotypes of my indie genre and also challenges them too. For example in my digipak the use of cinematography close up was used to take a picture of the artists face with a peace sign over her eyes used by her fingers. This develops the genre into more things as it makes the features on the artists face more noticeable, and the whole stereotype of the indie genre being natural and calming, the peace sign over her eyes develops the indie genre conventions as the peace sign matches the calming nature of its stereotypical genre images. This challenges the indie genre as it something that is out of the ordinary, although it does make the artist centre of attention which is what the genre wants it does it in a more subtle way and makes the artist stand out due to the body language, and it makes her personality be seen through her body language and this makes the audience believe she is just as natural as her genre as she is a peaceful and representable artist, that they are able to connect too.