1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We included studio shots of the band/singer that we interspersed with shots of several characters who made up our main narrative. We had multiple narratives, depicting 7 sets of characters; each of a different age and in a different location. We therefore, challenged our conventions by including more than one narrative.
We made sure that the singer addressed the audience by singing directly into the camera. We found this to be a typical convention of many music videos; whereby it allows the audience to establish a relationship with the singer.
We wanted the narratives of each of our characters to be shown clearly to make it recognisable for the audience. I think we achieved this by having strong, easy to follow narratives. When analysing existing music videos e.g. Billy Joel – Uptown girl, we took ideas on board to help with our own video. We did however break conventions by adding in a predominant performer not performing in the narratives that were featured in the video but appearing in a solo studio based scene as apposed to being a part of the narrative, which is what is normally done in a typical pop video. Throughout the video, synchronisation was used in regards to editing in time with the beat, along with dance moves and lyrics of the song being adapted to the music. This was essential for our video as accuracy is an essential factor.
Because our video was of the pop genre it was important to take into consideration the mise-en-scene that we would use for each of the characters performances. As we had a vast range of characters; each telling a different story, it was important that the attire of the characters was correct and in keeping with their task.
Before creating our ancillary texts we looked at a number of existing products, created to go along with other music videos of the pop genre. There were some clear conventions that we decided to follow such as the song name, artist photos. We had to adopt a house style that would enable a theme to be carried across each of our products to create a clear and recognisable marketing package. We then came to the decision that a picture of the main singer would work well on the each of the products.
One obstacle we were faced with when creating our ancillary products, was creating a package that would attract a wide audience; as we hoped our music video would. It was a challenge to make the ancillary texts appeal to a wide variety of ages, and both to males and females. We did this by keeping each product simplistic but with bright colours, which stand out and share connotations of our chosen genre and dance music.
We wanted our products to convey similar stylistic features, as we understood the target audience would be the same for each. I think we succeeded in reflecting the genre of our video in our ancillary texts, whereby we used bright colours, and photos of the singers. I think that by adopting a similar house style for each of the products we proved that they were promoting the same product. For the advert and the digi-pak we used the same typeface and the same logo, again showing a link between the two.
Overall I think that our audience feedback has been very positive. Many of our choices made, in filming, editing etc have been praised and liked by those who have watched it, and I therefore think should be pleased with our final product. We set out to produce a music video that stood out from many other ‘‘pop’’ music videos, and I think we succeeded in achieving this by using multiple comical narratives, different mise-en-scenes, a studio character or artist, and a well-known song.
The range of characters was something we wanted the audience to enjoy and something that we decided to incorporate from the beginning. We wanted the audience to be able to relate to them as well as allowing us to appeal to a much wider audience. I think we have successfully managed to attract this wide audience and this can be supported by our audience feedback. The range of ages is something that helps us achieve this. We learnt through some of the feedback that by having an improved range of characters of extreme age or different ethnicities is might have been more successful in terms of censorship. In terms of locations, however, we limited with the type of actors available. I also think that given more time to create the video, we would have been able to include locations outside peoples homes; something that we wanted to include - evident in our original character listings and animatic. If the locations had been more easily accessible we would have been able to include the shots of a workshop, hairdressers, bar, classroom etc. providing us with a bigger range of mise-en-scenes.
The fast cut rate of our video was again something that we set out to achieve from our initial planning stages. We questioned our audience about this when it came to audience feedback; as we were not sure whether the cut rate worked. After gaining feedback, I think our choices involving the cut rate of our video were successful. We wanted the audience to keep watching each character, at first to establish who is who, and later simply to want to see what was going to happen next, and I think we accomplished this by using the fast cut rate not lingering on any one character at any time; this also means that the audience doesn’t get bored.
For the initial research stages of researching towards our final product, we used popular and reliable sites like youtube.com, which allowed us to watch and analyse music videos. We also used online encyclopaedias which gave us reliable and beneficial information about our chosen track, ‘Footloose’, as well as information about the conventions and stylistic features of music videos, digipaks and advertisements – helping us when it came to create out final products. We also found the internet to be very helpful when researching online tutorials about how to use relevant software. We knew we were going to be using Final Cut Pro, and Adobe Photoshop during the production stages of our final products, so by researching tutorials and help forums on each program, it gave us a clearer understanding of how to use each. We had also never used the programs before, so the tutorials were essential.
When it came to the construction of our video, we used cameras, lighting and tripods. For the studio scene, in particular, we made use of the lighting and the HD camera –because we wanted these shots to stand out slightly, contrasting with the other shots of our characters dancing. I think we achieved this by having the background, completely blacked out. We experimented with zooms, close ups, long shots and mid shots. This gave us a bigger selection of shots to choose from when it came to editing. For the scenes outside of the studio, the lighting became quite a problem – we had to work around this by choosing rooms and locations that had very a good degree of natural light. However, this made the video inconsistent when it came to lighting, but because of time we had to work around this in post production by using video filters which corrected the colour and lighting of some of our shots. It is still however, evident that lighting was a problem.
When it came to editing, we had already learnt the basics by using the tutorials found online. It was the first time we had used Final Cut Pro. Synchronisation was a key factor in the editing for music videos, and we took this on board for ours – we had to make sure the cut rate was in time with the beat of the music, as well as making sure the lip-syncing and dancing was in time. We found this to be quite a challenge, particularly considering that it was a first attempt at making a music video. However, I think we achieved in making it in time with the music.
For the construction of the digi-pak and advertisement, we used Adobe Photoshop. We made use of layers, and many layer-editing tools that enabled us to create a professional looking advert and digi-pak. In particular, we used drop shadows, outer glows and inner glows – which all helped to make the features of the poster and digi-pak stand out.
