Evaluation Question 1

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

Throughout the creation of my music video one of the focus points that I have engaged with a lot would be the ideology of forms and conventions with my music video and the relation to other music videos. My music video has the mixed genre of both indie music and folk music. Both collaborating together positively to create Buffalo Son’s “A Healing Song”. As the genre is both folk and indie a lot of the ideology was mixed between relating the video back to the typical conventions of an indie music video but at the same time also relating to the folk conventions. Upon realising these two genres are quite different I then took it upon myself to research into similar products that have been created looking upon both genres.

For the opening sequence of my music video there is the portrayal of first person viewing to represent personal movement. This meant that that camera, from how it was shaking, connoted that it was a person. This convention has been used in the music video “Stampede” by ‘Biting Elbows’. This video portrays someone life from their point of view. Whilst planning my music video I though how I could portray an establishing shot that would lead to the inside of the main charcters life. So by using this idea of a first person view this would be achieved. Then to follow this by going into the home of my dying brother and then having a shot of myself it would indicate that the camera was the main brother. This, from having the camera act as the main person, meant the story felt close and more personal. This link will direct you towards the video that my inspiration came from.
The image that you can see below is from my music video where I have shown the use of subjective first person camera work. By doing this it allowed myself to put the reader in the video. It allowed for the passive audience to then feel that they were this person. This is shown through the opening clip of my music video and thus allowing the audience to become intrigued with the video, wanting to know what is happening and where the camera is leading them.

The next sequence portrayed myself going into a house and then going into my brother’s room where he was dying. This convention of having an establishing shot and looking in on the life of someone came from the artist ‘Eminem’ with his song “Stan”.

The first shot that is shown is a scale of a wall and then the entrance into Stan’s life through a window. This made the feel of the music video more personal by connoting that the audience is going into someone’s home and looking upon their lives. This, I thought I could incorporate with my music video as the song is so personal. This convention proved to work very well and aided the ideology of a personal story towards the audience. The use of this convention allowed for the audience to look into the life of “Stan” and this, I thought was a great idea to bring in the audience. By allowing myself to film a camera entering a house and the door to open automatically it looks inviting. We chose to speed up this clip as if to signify someone running and the passive audience would then get a first person view of this. This would then make the audience want to know what was following this sequence.

Upon creating the music video a lot of planning went into the bases of what our video would entail. I and Ben both thought that originally a good idea would be to have a narrative music video. This would be without the performance side so that the audience can just focus towards the music video and then link the lyrics with the visuals. One artist I found would be Ed Sheeran.

Ed’s Music is a form of indie music with the style of only himself and his acoustic guitar. From hearing this sound I could relate back to my music video with the effects of an acoustic guitar in the foreground. From being indie I was able to explore his music and videos and see what types of conventions are used to symbolise the story line. One music video that looks at this convention of a narrative video would be Ed Sheeran’s “The A Team”. From this music video you focus upon a woman who is living very poor, selling the big issue on the street and selling herself for drug money as emphasised in the lyrics. This is all portrayed without any performance aspects, only one section where the singer Ed appears in the video and interacts with the main girl for a few seconds. This is done so that the audience don’t get distracted with the performance side and can focus and engage more with the storyline and plot. Also, the whole music video is shot using a black and white filter. By allowing the audience to look upon this video with a black and white effect it connotes a sense if misery and despair throughout the video which helps to relate back to both the music video and also the lyrics.  This was one convention that I incorporated into the music video. This lead to an idea where, in my music video, when the flashback sequence occurs, that I would have it in black and white and make that section only narrative. This way the main focus of the music video, the narrative, is portrayed without any interruptions from cut away shots of the singer. The audience are now able to engage with this and feel more interweaved within the storyline.

Another band that focuses in on the convention of only using a narrative to portray their music video would be the artist ‘Just Jack’ with his song “The Day I Died”.

This film is a great example of linking the lyrics to the visuals and you can say that for this reason the artist is more lyrical with his music and doesn’t rely on the music videos to make the song a hit. The lyrics and visuals featured through link together in every aspect. For example, every sentence he sings is shown through the video. The song’s lyrics describe a journey of one man and his daily routine, The Opening lyrics “made breakfast, one egg, two toast, three Weetabix” is depicted through the main character eating breakfast. Because the lyrics are telling a story the visuals were easy to create due to the lyrics describing what is happening, almost Asif it were a narration of somebody’s life through music. In the video, just like “The A Team” there is no performance side to it, just a narrative. This allows for the audience to follow the story and look upon the main character with focus, not becoming side tracked by the singer. Here is the link to the song.

As our song is strongly structured in a narrative way these two examples are great to consider when talking about whether both narrative and performance is needed for a music video. These two videos are clearly music videos that do not consist of performance scenes but focus more upon the storyline that progresses. This idea, myself and Ben have included, but have added in a performance aspect to signify the singer as the main character in the narrative, that way the passive audience can identify that the song has a personal message to it.

Ben and I decided that we would in fact add in performance sections to the music video but only before and after the flashback sequence allowing the focus to be on that main section for a limited amount of time. Then by including cut away’s we were able included some performance aspects that would feature throughout. This way the singer is focused on as well as the storyline. As the singer is also the main character it also meant that the audience can make the connection of a deep and personal message. Once the structure was complete myself and ben used “In Medias Res” which meant that we began the story in the middle and then with the help of flashbacks, are able to retrieve the past then to finally carry on with the running storyline until the end.

This signified to the audience that the structure of the music video began with a Disequilibrium of the brother dying, Then with the use of a flashback sequence we were able to create an Equilibrium portraying an establishing shot of myself and my brother playing with the dog, Then this was continued by another Disequilibrium with the brother falling to symbolising himself dying. The shot of myself portraying my facial expressions and emotions would help to represent the Recognition. Coming out of the flashback Reparation was shown when I got to lay flowers on my brother’s grave and then finally a new Equilibrium is looked upon when a polaroid image of my brother with his thumb up at the camera transforms from black and white to colour to connote he is ok. one music video that looks at this convention of starting with the middle or using reverse chronology would be the indie band ‘Fun’ with their song “Some nights”.

Through the first few sequences you look upon a variety of characters. This is then aided by themselves having flashback of a war that has previously happened. Then followed by the war sections. This structure, I found really useful to go by and it has helped convey the storyline giving a slight look upon the charcters beforehand instead of rushing, straight away, into a new story concept for the audience. Also this music video looks at the conventions of flashbacks. They do this by the use of quick cut away’s from the narrative storyline. This was proven effective and I and ben looked into this idea. From using flashback we were able to focus on the beginning of the story, the exploration of the past that and thus following with the lead up to what’s happening.

During my music video a sequence occurs that represents a flashback where the main character’s brother has just died. At this point you spectate the fall down of the brother and the utter despair that the main character is feeling through body and facial expressions.

This, I changed in the editing process, and inserted an overlay of a black and white filter on this particular section. I conjured up this idea from the indie band ‘Oasis’ in their music video “Wonder wall”. The reason for including the convention of black and white effects would be to take out all of the colour from the image to portray a bold distinguished look. Although their song is a lot different from mine in the aspects of the lyrics and the meaning behind the songs it is still clear that both mine and Oasis’s song has used a black and white overlay when representing an emotion that is coming from a character. This is one convention that myself and Ben both looked into and decided it would be best to include for the music video. That way the audience can then make the clear assumption that the black and white sequence is from another time setting due to the colour switch from vibrant colours to a black and depressive state that fits with both lyrics and visuals.

Also whilst looking into oasis and their music video “Wonder Wall” one convention that they seemed to have included would be the aspect of having the main singer of the band the main focus. This, with a lot of other music videos was quite common such as the band ‘Munford and Sons’, where their main focus is the band and the main singer. This, I picked up on and explored more into the focus of the main singer. As the main actor was to be myself I thought it only sane that we include myself as the singer. That way it conveyed my emotions towards my bother as if I were singing to him, but at the same time I was sharing my story with the passive audience for them to engage create the feel of a more personal message. This has been done again in the Oasis Video “wonder Wall”. They chose to break the Forth wall whilst singing meaning that they were looking at the audience and engaging with the camera. This convention of breaking the forth wall, I thought would be good to include as from the eye connection between myself and the audience it, again, made the music video more personal.

 

One convention that I looked at the expressed emotions and images of the past would be the use of polaroid images that are found in a sequence after the flashback scene of my music video. Here there are three image of my brother that I Photoshopped to give of the feel of a polaroid image.

The choice of polaroid makes the image feel old and at the same time very personal. One music video that has chosen to use this idea would be “Fit but don’t you know it” by ‘The Streets’. In this music video the main character picks up some polaroid images from a camera store and looks back and his previous night. This idea of looking back would help to make the clear consumption of just how close the two brothers were in the music video. Also it portrays the stages that have progressed in life from being babies to around aged 5 until now where the death takes place.

 

One convention that I looked into would be the sad side of music videos with flowers and graves. During my music video, after the flashback sequence there is a section where the main character walks through some woods to a wooden cross to symbolise a grave.

There, the shot that is portrayed shows a flower being placed on the grave and then the main character walking into the distance. This would then connote to the audience the sense that the brother has died. This, I then turned into slow motion in the editing stage to give off a more powerful effect of the flower falling to the grave. This convention has been used before in the music video “Concrete Angle” by ‘Martina McBride’. One sections sees a boy’s mother who has died and the flowers that are rested on the grave. This image indicates a powerful message and again feel like a close and personal message with many emotions towards both the audience and the character in the video. From using this idea many of the audience themselves can put themselves in the character and feel more connected within the music video. From the use of including a slow motion effect for when the main character drops the flower onto the grave it evokes a powerful effect that the audience will feel and this would then indicate a sense of sadness but will still show ideology that the main character is thinking and caring for his brother.

 

One major convention that I focused upon would be the location for where my music video, digipak and magazine cover is. As my music video has the ideology of both folk and indie music genres I thought about how I could incorporate these ideas into my music video to portray these genres. One location on which we filmed would be desolated streets and alleyways. The reason we chose these locations would be to symbolise loneliness, even in the outside world, because of his brother dying. From having streets and alleyways it helps to reflect on the location convention that ‘Oasis’ has used with their album “don’t believe the Truth”.

Here you can see from subjective imagery the image of what looks to be garages and alley ways leading off. This helps to connote the dull and despair in life with a black and white overlay on the album cover. Incorporating this convention and including that idea within my music video has helped to reflect on the situation in hand for specific sections. From looking at this image to your right of my Digipak you can clearly see the use of location has been used effectively to evoke ideology that would relate back to my music video. From the black and white filter, the use of the main character in the shot and also the secluded location, it all ties together to help with the conventions of an indie and folk music video.  

 

During the music video you also look upon the performance aspects of the video where the main character is singing to the camera in a woods.

Ben and I chose to film in a woods as it helps to represent the isolation from the outside world. There is also a link from the woods to where the grave is at the very end. So from having a passive audience pick up on this it could then again connote this feeling of a more personal journey within the music video. One music video that chose to film performance sections in a woods would be ‘Bryan Adams’ and his music video “Everything I Do”. This performance is accompanied by sections of the film ‘Robin Hood’. When in the woods, it helps to isolate the band from the outside world but also link back to the forest in ‘Robin Hood’. This is one convention I have chosen to incorporate with this ideology of having the singing isolated but linking the location to a stage in the music video.

A passive audience, from seeing that I am in a woods would then link this location back to the location of the dead brother’s grave. This then connotes ideology of a more personal message towards his brother.

For the digipak myself and Ben though of a range of different ways in which to represent the song. From expressing many ideas and carefully thinking we decided to include a variety of shots that were just of scenery and locations. We chose this idea purely because it represents the loneliness and despair that the character would be feeling due to the fact that he has lost his brother. The front cover features myself in a field playing the guitar. This shot helps to link together the conventions folk music. The convention would be the location.

We chose a field to help represent the genre of folk. ‘Mumford and sons’ are a folk band that have incorporated this idea of having a filed within one of their album covers. There is a shot of the band that have used the mise en scene of clothing to help represent the folk genre but at the same time the location aids this idea. The location is a field that is isolated from the world. Having this relation back to my own music video ensures that some aspects of folk are shown in my music video and digipak creation. The clothing worn would be that of a folk genre with the chequered shirts and the waistcoats. Even the instruments in hand would be looked upon as very folk like.

Also during my digipak there are a variety of different imagery that myself and Ben have taken when on set. The images then have a black and white overlay photoshopped on them. The reason for this is that a passive audience, from watching this music video, can then make the relation with the black and white overlay in the music video, at the time of despair and bleakness, and then see the black and white on the digipak and this would connote emotions of despair and loneliness. Again keeping with the location I made sure that most of the imagery was based on the field where the digipak cover was shown.

By having a variety of different shots this ensured a range of bleak images such as the field with dying shrubbery in the foreground to represent the death and bleakness. It also would help to represent the mood that the main character is feeling. The use of fields again has become the focus for my magazine cover where the main character is standing in the field with an acoustic guitar. From having the acoustic guitar you could say this links back to the indie genre and the convention of having an acoustic guitar in hand looking deeply involved with the music that is being sung. One magazine cover and album cover that feature scenery with a black and white overlay would be the album “Joshua tree” by ‘U2’. This digipak album and magazine cover portray an image of a lonely tree isolated from everything else. The image, with thanks to a black and white overlay conjures up emotions of despair and loneliness. From using a tree that looks to be dying I can incorporate this convention towards my own ideas with the dying shrubbery.