A2 Media Studies: December 2013

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

The conventions of a genre, in a music video, are in place to create an image and persona of the artist, the conventions are vital to refer and gain ideas from in the process of creating you’re artist’s videos. As we were creating our video as a group we looked into the typical conventions of our genre, indie, and what conventions thy typically use in their music videos. The research and planning we undertook gave us a considerable amount of conventions linked to our genre, which we initially used as a guideline or inspiration when creating our own; although what we found was that some music videos from the indie genre used conventions of different genres such as pop and rock. We felt that as an indie artist it was more about the music that was created more than the music video itself, through this we aimed to create a simple but effective music video which was still fitting into the genre and was recognisable as an indie product. In my opinion, I feel that we succeeded what we want to do, which strongly shows in our final product that has been exclusively created for our chosen song, it is unique and effective, but focuses strongly on the music.

Used

Performance- Guitar

Our Video

Inspiration

The most recognisable and important convention of the indie genre is without a doubt the performance of the artist. In several of the similar artist’s music videos which I viewed whilst researching and planning, I noticed a trend in them that they all refer strongly to instruments, mainly the use of acoustic guitars (post here). Due to our song being the sub-genre, acoustic indie, we identified that the guitar in our music video will be very well received as due to our audience research they want to see the artist doing what he loves, seeing the guitar being played not only makes the song liked but the artist starts being desirable to them. We also wanted to make sure that the guitar featured in the other media products and ancillary texts such as the advert and digipack. Due to the audience enjoying the guitar, I noticed that indie artists play on and emphasise the performance, for their image, which is them singing and playing instruments, which proves to the audience that for them they are true musicians and artists and for them it is purely about the music. Due to the results in this research we included a large amount of performance shots throughout the music video, which cuts consistently to the artist playing his guitar using various shot angles, to keep the audience interested, and show that he performs and carries his guitar around as it is the main inspiration for him and his music. We repeatedly used these shots as we feel that it could create a connection to our artist for audience as well as him expressing music ability, proving that he is the artist behind the song. As you can see in the print screen from our video we used a distinct angled shot of the guitar’s strings or from the neck downwards to the body, which resulted in various and diverse views on the same instrument making it more interesting. The close ups on the guitar also shows that the artist is truly playing the instruments, proving his talents further. These shots are common within indie conventions, and the shot below our one is from a video of the artist, Joshua Radin, for the song I'd rather be with you, this also shows the Artists talents as Mayer is very similar to Mike Dignam.

Mise-En-Scene- Costume

Our Video

Inspiration

The importance of artist image was greatly discussed in our group’s research and planning as the audience’s portrayal of the artist effects the way his image is received and seen; we wanted our artist to feel like any other indie artists who come across as down to earth people, compared to other stars in the mainstream industry. Therefore we felt that an important factor in the deciding of our artist’s image would be the use of costume (post here) within the mise-en-scene aspect of our video. We felt our video and artist needed to be as seen as professional and authentic as possible, which evidently you need to consider every aspect of mise-en-scene, but overall the clothes he wore played a huge part in his on screen image. Through viewing similar products I feel that we styled our artist appropriately and very similar to a typical indie male artist. We chose the particular clothing through the use of the colours, style and fashion trends of people his age who are fans of this genre; the use of nature being a big convention in our chosen genre, we felt the use of browns, greens and oranges would work well for our artist and the indie genre. The use of the clothes was beneficial to creating a professional authentic product as if he was incorrectly dressed in a trend that did not suit the style and genre at all the video would not have the same impact or feel to it, and the artist will look out of place and uncomfortable. The typical ‘style’ of an Indie Artist is casual and laid back with usually a expression of individual style by their own personality.From a far it seems to the public eye that Indie Artists do not put effort or thought into what they wear, but due to research a planning it became clear the construct there image to reflect their personality and music, but also will wear very similar outfits in all his media products and ancillary texts.

As you can see in our image from our video, our artist, Mike Dignam is dressed in black n chinos and a green parka jacket with desert boots; the colours he was wearing were casual, neutral and very appropriate to his located. The print screen below our image is of the band Two Door Cinema Club from the video for their song Sun, where we can see the artists are wearing monotone neutral clothing. Even though the main singer is wearing a jacket not a parka you can style see the trend they are trying to reflect and it still comes across as very casual and laid back. I believe that the use of costume has greatly helped our music video to be recognised as indie.

We stayed within these two conventions throughout our video although we decided to add in more guitar shots whilst story boarding, overall the decisions to use both were made early on in the planning stages.

Developed

Camera- POV

Our Video

Inspiration

Through the use of camera, we could develop the way the audience viewed the Artist and the past memories that were shared between him and his old love, which we know is what the song is based upon. The POV idea was a gateway for us to show off the relationship at its fullest due to the use of the camera developing the audience’s knowledge, which helps them to relate to it easier. As you gain an insight into the Artists life, I feel that the audience can emphasise with the Artist more, as they feel like they have gone through the breakup with him, therefore developing the connection to the audience further. This has been successful within our project as we feel it has allowed us to build up the story in the video, without creating a boring, typical, or predictable for the audience. As you can see in our video, we have the love interest in the background as the artist spins in circles, this shows that he is happy as he is with her. The inspiration was from a song, I need your love’ by Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding; which is a perfect example of the POV style filming, working and being successful. We were happy with adding in these shots as it made the relationship seem authentic, and created a background for the audience to relate to what the Artist was currently singing about.

Camera- Lighting

Our Video

Inspiration

We used the development of lighting throughout the natural shots of the surroundings that is the artist in his everyday life. The lighting develops as the song progresses due to the artist being surrounded by sun and brightness but he is unaware of this as he is heartbroken. All the lighting is natural as we felt that the nature convention of indie is very strong and when used well, can be perceived as being artistic and beautiful to the music video, this was also used in the other ancillary texts. The importance of the lighting was developed throughout as the print screen shows taken from our video managed to film popular shots of the sun peeping through the trees, this put the lyrics into your mind and realised what the narrative was and how it relates to his emotions now; it is also a key feature as Mike Dignam sings ‘if I could make it rain’ this is a contrast to the weather that we see, showing that he has no power when it comes to their relationship now, as she has left him. The other print screen is from The Maccabees’ music video for the band’s song Ayla, which shows a similar shot of the sun coming through the trees, and developing so he is unable to control what is going on. It additionally used natural lighting throughout, which is a convention that we also used.

Challenged

Editing- Overlay

Our Video

Inspiration

We challenged the typical editing techniques in our video as we felt we didn't want to create a ‘common’convention for the editing in indie. To steer away from this we wanted to use a technique that would make our video unique in the genre industry and differentiate itself from others; I feel that we successful did this. Usually the indie music companies do not think about using elaborate editing techniques or any editing whatsoever, so we have challenged this convention in the context of our video. The simple editing that they may do is of altering the hues and tones of the video to make the footage appear to be dated or have a vintage effect. The print screen of our music video shows the use of our editing technique, which we could show that the couple was in the same location as the artist is now, and he is again their without her, we found that this would be an effective way to do so. We changed the opacity and overlaid two shots on top of each other cropping the sizes and making sure they fitted well, which we also had to make sure the image reflected the one that would be overlaid when filming. In most of the indie music videos we researched and watched for the research and planning, I have not come across the indie genre using this effect. The overlay editing technique comes across as quite 'arty' which overall fits in too the conventions that Indie is typically based upon. I believe that we challenged it successfully as it wasn't ill-fitting with our video, making it successful and unique from other indie videos. The print screen is from a music video for Olly Murs’ song Dear Darlin’ the overall music video is very simple but due to the overlay it creates an interest that mainly other genres gain.

2.How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I created this slideshow to show the variety of Media Technologies that I used and encountered during the planning, researching, production and post-production of my A2 Coursework. This has now been uploaded to YouTube for people to view it on another media platform. Technology was used greatly during the stages of creating the Music Package, as we used them we gained more and more knowledge of them which i am grateful to have now. These technologies all served the purpose of what they were meant to perfectly and really helped me to complete my coursework at best that I could.

3.How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

To answer this question we created a voice over video as a group in which we commented on the aspects of our music video, digi pack, and advert and the combination of the three. We made some general notes and recorded our audio answers to the question to then edit in final cut express with photos to link with what we were saying.

4. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For our feedback we asked an audience of the ages between 16-19 to view our video then answer the five questions in their own opinion that we felt would be useful for us to gain some helpful audience feedback.

As we received various different answers I felt that using Wordle and other types of presentations showed the answers in an easier format and highlighted the most common ones.

1. What do you think the story line is about in our video?

2. Would you say our video is an 'authentic' indie music video?

3. What do you think stands out in our music video?

4. Are there any alternate locations that you would have included in the music video?

5. How would you improve it?

What I have found from the audience’s feedback that we received is that if we were able start over and redo parts they would be very minor due to many of the audience members not having much criticism towards it. I felt overall the Music Video was not only effective in many ways but overall was perceived as an authentic indie video because of the use of costume, location, filters and simplicity within the camera styles and subjects. We then asked them how they would improve it as a whole; if we were able to take on their advice we would make sure that we did not include as many shots of the Artist with the guitar and included more ‘flashback’ love scenes as that is what the audience really seemed to connect with the most. I also felt that the suggestion about making the storyline more clear, and making sure it was obvious they broke up was really helpful as we would know what to do next time, showing they broke up would of set the story for the rest of the video while leaving the audience questioning the purpose until the lyrics and other flashbacks appeared. I am interested with the suggestion about the order of events as I felt that this ‘improvement’ or change may take away a lot of the feelings you feel when you see the flashbacks and they are no more, and seeing the artists reaction from losing her. The use of the flashbacks was one of the most commented on effect that was featured in our video though so if any changes were made if we redid the project this would not change and maybe to diversify the flashbacks a bit, have the narrative flashbacks in stop motion and the performance of the artist filmed normally. I was a relief and pleasure to see that the majority understood the narrative of our video, and they enjoyed the use of his memories alongside him and the contrasts of performing shots and the flashbacks. This was a common thing the audience agreed on, and that the overall video was realistic and easy to relate to. Another common comment was the effectiveness of our use of different camera shots and angles as well as our use of editing.

I found all the audience feedback we received to be really useful and it was a great insight into how our video is perceived by other people than us.