Sunday 5 January 2014

Evaluation Question 1

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


My music video that I designed and directed from nothing all started from multiple inspirational music videos, and by combining all of these elements into one music video, I believe that I have created a very well put together music video.
There are very basic common features that can be seen within all music videos that are produced. These may include numerous close ups of the artists, so that it shows that the artist is the main attraction for the music video. As you can see from my screenshot, I have followed a very basic convention of music videos, by implementing an extreme close up of the artist. And in the other image we have a close up of the artist hallucinating on drugs and this has been shot close up so you feel like your hallucinating with the artist.


            



















Most music videos have the artist singing throughout the music video whilst other things are happening in the music video. For my music video I did follow some aspects of this convention, as I did have the artist sing throughout the music video In some shots, but I also had the artist sing a backing track on a green screen and then edited it so it had a black background for my artist, so I would say I have developed this particular convention to make my music video more unique and fit the type of genre of my music video.

Another common music video convention that is used very regularly is the timing of the shot changes, most music videos will change shots along with the beat of the music, this is so the music video flows better and looks more effective.                                                                                                                                                                               

Watch from 0:30 to 0:43 to see the changing shots to the beat of the song (example)

Watch from the start to 0:08 to see the changing shots to the beat of the song (My Music Video)


For my music video I implemented many different conventions into my music video. One main convention that was used is superimposition, this is where I layered two video files on each other and lowered the opacity of one video file so you can see both images, but the two video files would look faded, this is a good effect for my music video, as it fits with the drug overdose effect that my artist faces in the music video. So as you can see from my music video screenshot I have overlay-ed two video files over each other to cause this effect of an hallucination. This is a fairly common convention and I believe that its a very effective convention to use, in my music video genre, if it was in a more up beat music video It would look out of place with the slow fading of the video with the fast pace beats of the music.











There are two different types of music videos that I had to pick from, there are performance music videos and narrative music videos, I thought that as I did a thriller video last year I could include what I learnt from that and implement it into my music video this year. My music video has a clear story-line as I did not want to confuse the audience with a complex story-line for my music video. During the music video I included prolonged shots of the artist, and as it was a fairly slow song it fitted with the music video perfectly, the reason why I wanted to have prolonged shots of the artist was so that the audience had something to think about, and gave my artist a mysterious look about him, this would therefore engage my audience to watch the music video further.





















1st Screenshot: In this screenshot we have a prolonged shot of the artist hallucinating with the drug overdose, this prolonged focus on the artist is a general music video convention, this therefore contributes to the construction of the star image. Furthermore I followed this particular convention as I thought It would be useful for connecting the artist with the audience.

2nd Screenshot: The second screenshot is more sexual as the actress is on top of the artist, which produces a very sexualised look for the audience. The aim of this music video was to place the audience in the position of the voyeur, because voyeurism is a typical convention of music videos and I wanted to develop this convention in my own.

3rd Screenshot: In the 3rd screenshot the artist is hallucinating, and therefore I try to use an effect known as superimposition, this is where you overlay video clips on top of each other. This is used in many music videos and is a typical convention of them. This convention is used throughout my music video as It helps with the with the drug overdose effect.

4th Screenshot: Throughout my music video, I implemented many prolonged shots of my artist, this is because my artist is the star of the music video and so I wanted this to be known throughout the music video, and therefore I created a start image for my artist due to the amount of prolonged shots of him. This again is another convention I have used for my music video and I have followed this particular convention throughout, also when doing this shot I had to use a green screen and then I edited the background so It would be black, I had to make sure the lighting was even, so that the light didn't make the green screen brighter on some parts, because then the colour would be uneven when editing.

5th Screenshot: This shot shows what type of genre my music video is, as the song we chose is a mainstream song and is R&B I researched what general conventions are implemented into these types of music videos, and one convention kept on appearing, and that was sexualisation and the female and male gaze. This shot shows the artist rubbing the woman's back in a sexual way while the camera slowly tilts down as it tracks the artists hands. In R&B music videos the woman is treated as an object of desire and this is what I have done here, and so therefore I followed this convention throughout my music video.

6th Screenshot: In this shot we have a close up of the artist about to kiss the actress, close ups as I mentioned before are another common convention in music videos and therefore I decided to implement them into my music video. I wanted to use close ups as they showed my artist which produces a star image for him, but not only that, by having close ups of my artist it makes the audience feel more amerced in the music video. Also by having the blue colour grading it makes the music video feel cold, and that's the effect I want to give off to my audience. So overall I followed this convention as well.

7th Screenshot: For the 7th shot we have the actresses in high heals walking round the pole in a very sexual way. The actresses high heels are vital in the story-line of the music video, as we see them multiple times throughout. The high heels are part of the mise-en-scene of the music video, as we see her working in them during the start of the video and then after the male leaves she then kills herself, but the camera tilts down next to the bath revealing her high heels and the drugs she was taking, and so there is a distinct link between the actress and her high heels. I have made the story-line fairly simple but In some music videos there is a deeper meaning and in my music video I have tried to not make it to obvious to the audience, yet still make the narrative understandable. So therefore this is a convention which I have developed to fit my music genre and what would look best for my music video.

8th Screenshot: In this shot we have drugs, dice and playing cards on the table, this shot shows a link between the lyrics of the song and the visuals, this is a common convention used in music videos. The lyrics are "bring the drugs baby I can bring the pain" and so therefore I have directly linked the visuals with the lyrics. So furthermore I have followed this convention fully for this shot.

9th Screenshot: The 9th shot shows the artist is sexually stroking the females leg, and its a close up of just her leg, this is known as fragmentation, this is where you take shots of a woman's body parts e.g legs, lips. You see this occur in many R&B music videos, which my video is, and so therefore I had to implement some form of fragmentation in my music video, and again this is another convention used, and so therefore I implemented this into my music video.






















1st Screenshot: The first shot is the artist Kid Ink getting up from the sofa, and has girls all around him, this makes us concentrate on him even more because he is the only male in this shot. His record label want to portray him as a ladies man and a player and so that's why he is surrounded by women, also notice how Kid Ink is central in this shot, therefore showing that he is the star. This particular music video woman are treated like objects of desire and are just there in the background in nearly every shot, and so this follows the general convention of R&B music videos.

2nd Screenshot: The second shot is very sexualised as we have a shot of a woman on top of a man kissing each other, sexualised imagery is also another convention used within music videos and I have adopted this convention in my music video also.

3rd Screenshot: The 3rd shot has the artist hallucinating at a party, and as you can see superimposition has been used as there are multiple layers on this shot and gives off a very nice affect, this convention was also adopted from this music video and was used in mine as I thought it suited with the genre I decided to go with.

4th Screenshot: This shot was the inspiration for my music video as we have the main artist singing directly at the camera. This shot lasted 30 seconds and so was a prolonged shot of the artist which is a common music video convention, and again I used this in my music video also. The lighting used in this shot is has a noire look to it which looks really good on the artist, the lighting used creates a very depressed looking atmosphere which suits the song well.

5th Screenshot: This shot was taken from another R&B music video, and as you can see we a have fragmented shot of the woman's body, in this case her stomach. Because my music video has an R&B song I decided to implement some fragmented shots in my music video as well. This is a convention that is used in many professional music videos and I wanted a professional looking music video and so I used it in my music video.

6th Screenshot: This shot we have Enrique about to kiss the woman and this is part of the narrative of the music video. The music video is called "I Finally Found You" and so near the end of the music video he finds the woman of his dreams and they have a heated moment. This is a key concept developed by Carol Vernallis.

7th Screenshot: Here we have Niki Minaj in her brightly coloured high heels in her song "Super Bass" which is a very high tempo song at times, and does not really have a narrative concept like other music videos, and so the editing is very montage like, with clips of her body and of men and other objects to add to the mise-en-scene of the music video.

8th Screenshot: The 8th shot has the artist puff out some smoke, this gives off a cool affect when its done in slow motion, and adds to the smoke effect, the use of drugs and alcohol are used a lot in the urban genre, so most R&B videos once again use this convention.

9th Screenshot: The ninth shot we have a heated scene where we see a man stroking a woman's leg very erotically. This shot links directly with the lyrics of the song, when we see the shot of the man stroking the woman the lyrics are "make love to me babe" and so this shot is very literal to the lyrics of the song.

Goodwin Analysis













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