Question 1

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

Conventions

A music promotion is required to do one main task- promote the music, the artist’s style and generate sales. Many elements may be exploited in order to create a successful music promo. The most important out of all the elements in a music promo is a continuing synergy throughout the products. In terms of a music video there has to be a good range and balance between these elements; performance, camera work, actors and mise-en-scene. Performance is the most integral part of a music video because it provides a connection between the audience and the artist. This connection allows the artist to portray their interpretation of the lyrics and the emotion they feel as they sing the song the acting has to be authentic, as if the audience are watching a performance.

Performance in a music video has to be suitable for the song and it’s important that a range of different camera angles are used such as high angles and canted angles so that the miming doesn’t become repetitive and boring throughout the course of the video. A canted angle may be used so that the performance appears edgy and unstable. A narrative may sometimes be used in a music video which helps to keep the audience interested, this is especially useful in longer music videos. A narrative may be classified as illustration, amplification or disjuncture. An illustrative music video takes the lyrics and directly manipulates them into the narrative, an amplification music video takes a key idea or line from the lyrics and develops it into a whole narrative concept. Finally, a disjuncture music video bears no resemblance to the lyric or its meaning, it’s seen as unconventional and arty. The purpose of a narrative is to make the video more interesting, and sometimes music videos may be completely narrative based with no performance at all. 

Good camera work is essential to a music video, a variety of shots such as close ups and long shots must be used and the editing in many cases must be fast paced with cuts to the beat of the song. Using a variety of shots, some taken with a tripod and others freehand make music videos more interesting as there’s more movement between shots and can make the music video seem faster paced in some scenarios. Choice of actors is also an important part of a music video, if there’s a narrative to the video that involves more than just the artist or if the miming is going to be performed by another person they have to be able to mime in sync with the song otherwise it breaks the immersion of the video and makes the acting seem poor.

Choice of mise-en-scene is another factor which drastically affects the quality of the video. If the video has a specific era in which the action is taking place, it’s important that all of the mise-en-scene adheres to it otherwise it makes the whole production seem sub-standard and poorly scripted. Mise-en-scene of a typical indie music video is generally very ‘normal’ it’s the kind of setting you’d see every day and the objects you’d find around your own home. Genre of a music promo greatly affects how a music video looks; if it’s a pop music video there is usually little to no narrative and the main focus of the video is the artist singing with backing dancers. Typically, very bright colours are used and artists wear outrageous costumes that are often promiscuous for female artists this links to Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze as men who are watching may be attracted to the costume that the artist is wearing. An indie music video like my own typically includes more of a narrative based performance and is generally more creative. The artist is often portrayed in a real world situation that the audience can relate to, one example of this is Gabrielle Aplin’s “Panic Cord” music video.

I created an indie music promo so the typical conventions are mostly different compared to that of a pop promo. An indie music video is typically very realistic which is created through the natural mise-en-scene and performance that is very personal to the artist. Indie music videos typically have a narrative that the audience can relate to, this is because indie artists and songs usually talk about issues that people encounter every day, like the death of someone they’re close to or just their daily life.

Editing Techniques

The editing that I have used in this video is fairly simple, with few effects used which is typical for the indie genre so that the audience can focus on the artist more than the video itself. The editing is relatively fast paced, especially for a song this slow- this was a decision that I made after creating the first rough edit of the music video, which felt very slow and repetitive after the first minute.

 I had to find a way to make the editing more exciting so that I could keep the viewer’s attention for the whole length of the song. I found that if I cut multiple times on a single line of a verse it made the video feel much faster paced and exciting. I also cut to the double drum beats that are repeated throughout the song, this quick editing allowed me to add in a lot of jump cuts which really enhanced the music video making it feel more natural. 

I included some overlay shots nearer to the end of the video which I feel made the video much more interesting, these shots were also cut to the beat apart from one, which was in sync with the chimes in the music. This type of editing isn’t widely used in the indie genre but I feel that it really worked well with my chosen song and the locations that I shot in. I was planning on using different effects and filters in the promo such as film grain and lens flares, but I decided against this because I felt it would degrade the quality of the video and distract from the costume and other mise-en-scene elements that had been carefully planned.

One piece of editing I am extremely happy with is the introduction at the beginning of the promo. The three shots are long in length and they’re cut together using simple straight cuts- but the overlaid text and background sound effects really set up the video’s style and theming even before the song starts. The narrative has been edited together in a non-linear fashion with performance cutting into it. This is conventional for an indie music video because having a linear narrative can often become quite boring very quickly.

Applying Theories to my Production

My music video does have some elements that can be explained by some media theorists; for example, some of the shots I have used may be considered promiscuous and the direct eye contact between the actress and the camera could be considered flirty. This links to Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze, where visuals are catered around the thinking and sexual desires of men, often objectifying the woman and turning them more into objects rather than people. My music subverts other theories, such as Todorov’s theory of narrative; equilibrium and disequilibrium. My music video starts half way through a narrative, the front door is left wide open and the girlfriend is dealing with the breakup from her boyfriend. There is no attempt to repair the damage, instead she runs away- becoming her true self in the process. My music video does follow Andrew Goodwin’s theory of narrative, which suggests that music videos use different techniques to interpret the meaning of the lyrics. My music video uses a mixture of both illustration and amplification. Illustration music videos use visuals to display exactly what the lyrics say, such as when I use a shot of the actress lighting a cigarette to illustrate the line “So light up another one.” Amplification music videos take certain parts of the lyrics and then develop it into a concept. My whole narrative is based on a storyline where a boyfriend and girlfriend has had an argument, possibly violent and he has walked out on her. I derived this concept from various lines in the lyrics, the violent fight was derived from “The blood dries in your hair” and the boyfriend walking out was taken from “Come away honey, come away, just leave.” My music video does support some of the theories of a typical music video, but in many cases it subverts them, and actually my whole narrative is non-linear with many parts of the story jumbled up.