Question One- In what ways does
your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
My music
video conforms to many conventions of its genre, through which I have all
chosen deliberately to show my knowledge around the genre of indie music. I
wanted to conform to such conventions to explore true indie music videos and
what makes a good music video for this certain genre, by doing so I have reinforced
such stereotyped conventions.
Narrative Structure
My music video
raises the theme of troubled young love, the audience sees the main characters’
constantly reflecting on her past romantic relationship that has subsequently
left her feeling sad and isolated. The flashbacks I used reveal what their
relationship used to be like, happy, idyllic and in love juxtaposes what I have
shown to be the present day, a cold and lonely time for my main character. This
juxtaposition of the two dynamics conveys the message that young love does not
last forever, we see the characters being pictured in love and then later on
showing feelings of hate towards each other. This oxymoron of youthful love and
then anger illustrates the theme of troubled young love.
I have portrayed
the theme of heartbreak and it is effectively shown in my music video as
something we will all, consciously or not in the romantic form, experience in
our youth. Leading on from the difficulty of recovering from heartbreak I have shown
the other effects that are not usually explored in similar media texts, these
include; isolation and questioning one’s own character. I have shown this
isolation through wide shots of waking up alone in a coldly lit, grey room.
This is the establishing shot of my music video; the grey and coldness of the
bedroom represent the feelings she is experiencing from her recent heartbreak. Furthermore,
I have extended this message through the use of showing my main character to be
seemingly reflecting on the relationship and person she has lost.
A nonlinear
narrative is employed in my music video that is seen from just the main
characters point of view. I took inspiration for this chosen structure from the
1994 hit film ‘Pulp Fiction’ in which this narrative structure is also
employed. Non-linear narrative is effective at helping the audience understand
the emotions of the characters through techniques such as flashbacks. These
show the causes and reasons for the characters emotions and also insight into
their memories and experiences. For example when the main character is pictured
standing in the kitchen, a shot of follows this showing her and her ex
boy-friend standing together looking happy and laughing over a cup of tea. This
juxtaposes the previous shots of our main character standing alone with her
body language expressing that of a sad feeling. The narrative of my music video
conforms to the conventions of ‘indie’ music videos due to the narrative
telling a story, an example of other music videos employing this story telling
technique is James TW ‘When You Love Someone’ music video. This story telling
technique is an example of Goodwin’s theory of the relationship between lyrics
and imagery in which we have employed in our music video to create a successful
media product.
A single
perspective has become popular in the field of indie media texts, for example I
took inspiration from the Channel 4 television show ‘Skins’ which features
episodes that focus on one characters’ perspective per episode. I chose to
employ this technique in my music video to showcase how the audience can gain a
greater understanding of the characters personality and their emotions. My
music video effectively does this by showing exactly how the main character
reacts to certain things creating a connection between them and the audience
when only their perspective is shown.
Continuously
throughout my music video I have employed the technique of a repeating motif,
this are the shots of my main character staring into mirrors. This technique is
effective in representing how the main character is self-reflecting and also
reflecting on a relationship she has lost. For example I have featured our main
character looking into a large hall way mirror, then following this shot there
is a flashback of our the couple looking into the same mirror with facial
expressions of happiness. Again, this juxtaposition represents her emotional
state at the present time of how she feels alone and sad. To further emphasise
her emotions I have used the motif of the mirror towards the end of the video also,
she stares into the mirror whilst in a fit of anger after arguing with her ex.
She has a questioning facial expression while she considers what who heartbreak
has led her to become and where it all went wrong. But also her self-reflection
is also on her youth as it is a time of changing as a person, it is often said
in popular media culture that difficult emotional times such as heartbreak will
change you as a person.
Mise-en-scene/Locations
Costume
In the indie
world of music the costumes in music videos can often appear mundane compared
to pop videos, this could be due to the low budget factor or the fact that
indie artist typically like to go for a minimalistic approach to their style.
In my music video the costume has conformed to this convention as our main
characters are placed in what could be perceived as basic or mundane clothes
however I have chosen the costume to significantly represent their emotional
state. Each character is shown to be in dark colours such as a grey and blacks.
I took inspiration from Sam Smiths ‘Stay with Me’ music video where he is shown
to be wearing all monochrome clothing signifying his emotional state at this
time. This colour symbolism is typical of the indie genre especially when the
song has negative or sad connotations and effectively communicates the genre to
the audience.
Character
Indie
artists typically feature younger actors in their music videos, this is because
indie artists are often independent from a large corporate label company. Thus
their music videos are low budget and cannot afford older and more
experienced/skilled actors. As well as this, indie artist are often young
themselves and write their songs based around their own experiences in their
youth, therefore this means they use younger actors to represent their own age
and appeal to their desired target audience.
It could be
said that the characters in my music video use some of the conventional body
language that would be seen in an indie music video. For example, my characters
seem down and lonely through the use of lethargic body language. This conforms
to the genre as already mentioned, indie music is often based around sad
situations therefore the acting seems gloomy. The body language of my
characters in my music video accentuates their emotional state and helps the
audience to understand them further, this reinforces the meaning behind the
song. Perhaps the behaviour could also be considered a genre convention as I
have demonstrated a heartbreak, this is a typical indie genre convention
because many artists connote a theme of losing a loved or heartbreak at young age
through their songs and music videos. Through exploring Vladimir Propps’s, a
literary critic and scholar, theory on character types, we included a ‘princess’
which is a stereotype of a female character in media texts. In my music video
the princess is featured as the heartbroken girl after being in a toxic
relationship and needs to be saved from feeling down and depressed. The only
other character in my music video could be considered to be the villain as he
is only presented in a negative light. The audience is only introduced to him
when he is shouting at the protagonist, here it is clear he could be seen as
the antagonist also. Our character types do not challenge stereotypical
character type in a music video. This is because I have made our female
character a stereotype to conform to indie genre conventions; she is shown to
be heartbroken over a boy whilst feeling sad and isolated because of the
breakup. The male character in my music video is presented as a stereotypical angry
and aggressive young man through his instigation of their argument and his
hostile behaviour.
Props I took inspiration from an intertextual link, an American TV drama named ‘Teen Wolf’, in which their female protagonist sweeps a desk of objects onto the floor in a fit of anger. I wanted to convey her emotional state significantly, thus the act of clears her study equipment off the desk after the argument scene seemed suitable as I wanted this to look out of character and to illustrate to the audience how she was truly feeling. A sudden emotional outburst is common in indie music videos as they are often incredibly emotional songs based around the artists own unhappy personal experiences and losses. By their very nature indie music artists often have quite low budgets for their own music videos, therefore I felt it would be appropriate to use objects from our own homes since it is likely that the artist themselves would also be using items freely available to them. Taking this into account, the location was prominently in my own home therefore the props that make up her bedroom are an accurate representation of a 17-year-old girl’s bedroom. This is an effective way to target our audience as the use of recognisable and familiar objects allow them to more easily relate to the scenes.
Lighting
Throughout
most of my music video the lighting consists of non-diegetic lighting, provided
through the use of a professional filming light lent to me by school. I used
this to create a cold atmosphere by using a white lit light. Mostly the
lighting was backlit and by using this technique I was also able to create a
harsher light which represented my protagonist feelings throughout the video. A
warmer tone of light would not have been appropriate as it would have suggested
a happy atmosphere to the music video and that is not what I wanted to
convey. Therefore, a cold light is an effective way of using lighting to
portray the emotions of my characters. An example of this is at 00.25 when the
audience is being introduced to my audience as she woke up alone in a cold,
grey toned room.
The lighting
shown above is a direct juxtaposition of the happy flashbacks I have featured
in my music video, for example at 1.02 minutes in the lighting changes from
cold, harsh lighting to a more sombre, amber toned lighting which emphasises
the flashback. This is significant because I wanted to reinforce her sadness by
showing how happy she was before the break-up. I have done this effectively
through the non-diegetic backlight lighting as the warmer tones shown above are
representative of the happy times and the cold are a portrayal of how alone she
feels and the stark reality of the breakup. This lighting was created by again
the same light lent to me by school but set to a much warmer light to create
such happy tones, portraying rose tinted memories. This is typical of the indie
genre as heartbreak is a thematic convention, many videos feature such
flashbacks with these types of warm, amber tones to truly emphasise the loss of
a relationship or a loved one.
Camerawork
I wanted to achieve the upmost professional look for my music video, therefore I needed to employ professional techniques that separated my work from that of most other students. To do this I chose the technique of a slider, in which I placed the DLSR camera on the slider and I was able to create smooth transitions that reflected professionalism. I used this technique three times in my video, at 0.34, 0.47 and 1.02. This technique is common of the genre as indie artists tend to go for smooth transitional touch to their music videos. Thus, this is therefore conforming to the genre conventions of indie music.
Composition
I think my standard of composition in my music video is that of a high one, this is because when filming our music video, I used rules such a shallow depth of field at 0.12 when filming my artist for example. This a common genre convention for composition of indie music videos as again indie artist seem to go for a smooth tone for their music videos. This focus pull that blurs the background out gives atmospheric tone to the shot, it almost appears more professional therefore making the brand of the artist seem more mature and professional through composition techniques like this. Another technique I have used to make my music video seem more confident and less novice is the use of the rule of thirds, this can be seen at 1.05. here you can see that her face falls in the middle third whilst her hair and neck fall into the bottom and top third. This is an effective well composed shot and looks deliberately framed, this establishes how I wanted my music video to look more professional.
Editing
A constant
technique used throughout my music video was the cross fade, I used this
between shots of my actors and shots of my artists performing. This created a
smooth transition between performance and narrative and overall creating a smoother
effect. This is conforming to genre conventions as indie artists tend to opt
towards a smoother edit rather than perhaps a choppy effect. For example, I have
this at 0.48, here you can see the performance shot slowly beginning to come
into full screen from the right-hand side first. This also makes the performance
shot of my artist flow rather than seeming abrupt in comparison to the
narrative side of video, this is an effective way to edit in my performance.
As shown in the screenshot, I
also have opted for to add black bars throughout the entirety of the music
video. This has shown to be an effective way to make many media products such
as other music videos appear more stylistic and add a touch of movie likeness
to it.
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