MC: Question 1 - Evaluation

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

·         Andrew Goodwin, Dancing in the Distraction Factory, 1992, found the conventions of music videos which can be applied to music videos now. Using Goodwin’s critical framework, the relationship between lyrics and visuals in conventional pop music videos is marginally illustrative. It usually involves performance of the artist which can sometimes be intercut with narrative, or the artist is shown in the narrative as well. We found this to be evident in our research when looking at other Ella Henderson music videos such as ‘Glitterball’. Within ‘Glitterball’, Ella is placed in front of a white screen and there are images of the narrative being projected onto her face as well as the narrative being intercut throughout. This is very conventional of this type of music video. In our music video, we tried to conform to these conventions because we included multiple shots of the artist performing to the camera which is essential in a pop music video as well as intercutting it with a narrative fuzz in which what is being shown relates to the lyrics. The friends are often shown when the lyrics ‘I’m here for you’ are being said so our music video is marginally illustrative.

              

·         Pop music videos also have a illustrative relationship between music and visuals. This means that when there is a beat in the song, there is a cut between two different parts of the music video, or that when the tempo of the music changes, so does the pace of the cuts. This is conventional of pop music videos, for example, it is shown in the music video of ‘I Need Your Love’ by Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding.  As the pace of this song increases and the beats become more strongly heard, the cuts become a lot faster in order to fit the music. This is something we constructed in our music video so we had a fast cutting rate where the cuts of our clips were in places where there is a beat in the music. We wanted a fast cutting rate to act as emotional colouring as it emphasises the happy nature of our music video.

· Goodwin also states that multiple close ups of the artist are used in order to 
establish their star image. This convention is used to show the artist throughout 
the music video to try and promote their star image to gain more sales. This is shown in One Direction’s ‘Live While We’re Young’ music video. They are constantly shown throughout. They are either singing or having fun. To keep it visually interesting, multiple close ups and meat shots of the artists are used and this helps establish their star image. In our music video, we wanted to establish the star image in order to conform to the conventions of a music video so we included lots of close ups of the artists as well as long shots and mid shots so there are a variety of shots shown. Therefore, our music video included voyeurism as the audience is often looking at the artist so our music video is quite conventional.

·         The form of our music video is apparent in the way our visuals respond to the music, tempo and emotional colouring. We have chosen to montage the clips of the friends and place them in black and white in order to show that the happiness of the friends has some emotion to it as they are there for each other. The cutting rate of the music video also is in time with the tempo of the music. We have intercutted a narrative fuzz in with a performance which is very conventional of the pop music genre.

·         The conventions of pop music print include close ups of the artist being the main feature. An example of this is on Ella Henderson’s digipak front pane of her album ‘Chapter One’. It shows a close up of her face with the album name and her name written next to her. We therefore tried to replicate this within our digipak front cover by using a close up of the face with the text next to her, however our photo shows her smiling as we wanted to keep with the happy theme.

·         The theme of friendship is constantly shown throughout the music video through the montage editing creating a narrative fuzz. The absence of conflict creates a consistently upbeat mood throughout which is what we aimed to achieve within our music video.

·         Semiotics are used in our music video due to there being no dialogue so we had to visually signify the meaning we wanted to portray. We used visual signifiers of close ups of the friends smiling and laughing to connote the fact that they are happy. We also showed them doing fun things like having a coffee, going on a ride, playing in an arcade and taking photos to connote that they are having fun together and emphasise that they are happy and that they are there for each other. These create a paradigmatic relationship connoting happiness within the video. This is similar to the One Direction music video as they are doing fun activities such as off road driving and playing in a paddling pool. They are also shown with smiling faces which helps to reinforce their happiness and it also relates to the lyrics of ‘live while we’re young’.  

                      

·       We also used semiotics in our print work. On our digipak front cover, an image of our artist smiling a natural smile is used to connote the fact she is happy. This therefore gives the whole album the theme of happiness. Throughout the rest of the digipak, iconic images on Brighton are used. This gives our digipak a seaside theme to it which is a place people often connote to being happy and relaxed. Therefore our digipak represents the theme of the album.
·       On our magazine advertisement, the artist is smiling again which signifies that she is happy so it relates to the whole promotional package. The background is of a light blue sky which we took at Brighton. The light blue colour has connotations of relaxation which fits in with the light hearted, happy theme we have created throughout. 

             

·         Our music video is polysemic due to the fact it could be interpreted in a variety of ways. For example,  it isn’t clear why the friends are happy together or why they need to be there for each other as the lyrics say. This therefore makes it open for interpretation on how people view the friendship narrative fuzz part of the music video. This could mean we have an ambient viewing of our music video so the preferred reading would be that the friends are out having fun and being there for each other whereas the oppositional  reading could be that males are alienated from the group and are underrepresented in it.

·         Our video is postmodern in its style due to the fact we have included narrative fuzz and that we used a blue screen to remove the background around our artist to include our own backgrounds. This takes away from the realism of our music video to make it more stylized. An example music video of where this has been done is in Marina and the Diamonds music video for ‘Oh no’. She is shown in front of multiple different coloured screens singing and the effect of it looks like it has been blue/green screened. This makes it conventional of the pop genre so we wanted to include this look into our music video.

·         The cult of youth and beauty is a common myth shown in pop music videos and print. This is culturally marked by the west as they place a high value on looking beautiful and youthful. Pop music videos often try to represent this, especially of female artists. We therefore tried to create our female artist as looking naturally beautiful. We tried to do this in our magazine advert and digipak as well by having the photos of our artist looking naturally beautiful by having a natural smile on her face as well as enhancing her from the background.

·        There is a discourse on gender, seen through the representation of the female artist and female friends. They are represented in a positive way due to the happy smiling faces. The absence of males reinforces the dominant ideology of equality in society as it empowers women and presents them positively. It emphasises the values of the west of women’s independence and freedom.