A2 Media Studies-Yasmin Knott: 2015

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our chosen genre for the music video task was pop because we felt we know the genre the best and we enjoy listening to it and watching the music videos. Throughout the research stage I learnt many conventions of the pop genre for the videos and digipack/adverts. I found out that the main conventions of pop music videos is that there is always an element of performance, usually by the artist themselves. A typical convention of any music video is that there is narrative and performance, we have used this convention by having the performance mostly in the diner and the narrative of the couple being together in a 'dream' or 'fantasy'. This is also used in Taylor Swift's 'Love Story' where she starts off in a narrative at the school, then into a performance where she sings in the castle, and another narrative/performance in a dream, dancing with her crush.

Used

In this still shot we see the 'fantasy' narrative. We have used this convention of pop videos by placing the couple close to each other under a tree, the background and lighting suggests a typical dream narrative scene and is similar to the still shot from Taylor Swifts 'Love Story'. The colours used in their costumes are very similar to the trees, almost suggesting they are with the nature, where the only real part of the dream would be the surroundings. This is slightly different to the Taylor Swift still where their costumes are different colours, however they are still very neutral and plain colours, tying in with the theme of the nature and outdoors surroundings. In the Taylor Swift still they are using a medium/close up shot whereas ours is a long shot. I believe the closer shot was more effective at the point trying to be projected so if we had to change this shot it would have to be closer up. You would then be able to see more clearly the closeness and chemistry between the dream couple.

The still here, we used a typical pop convention where the artist is singing

with her dancers in the background slightly, in this case her friends she is telling about the guy she likes. Of course as a pop song we believe it should involve some dancing. We used two 'dancers' that were the same height and opposite to our artist so she would stand out. The artist is also wearing different colours to the other two girls to stand out further. We used a Christmas tree in the central background as it looked pretty but now, in hindsight we should have used a plain background like pink or white to match the fades in and out of the video. This would have looked more professional as our background in this still looks messy. This matches the still we have chosen from Meghan Trainors number one 'All about that Bass' where she has used a plain background. But still using the same themes we have, two dancers in the background that look different to the artist. They are wearing yellow outfits whilst Meghan wears a contrasting colour, the skin/hair colour and their height could also be used to differentiate between the artist and the background dancers.

Developed

We chose this still shot for developing the conventions of a pop video
because whilst the artist is performing, by lip-syncing, she is not dancing. She is simply singing to her friends, which is often a convention of pop but we have developed this convention further by making it more intense, conversation wise. We also developed this scene as usually in pop performances they can be in still places, either a plain background or a staged set. We have gone to a real diner to make the story line seem more realistic. Because our performance is integrated in with the narrative, at the diner, it made sense to develop this part of the pop genre. We can see in the shot of Bang Bang, by Jessie J, that the artist is performing with dance, with friends around her as well, also dancing. This is different to our performance.

In our video we have included a montage of outtakes and hand held footage. This is sometimes featured in pop music videos because it lightens the mood and this is why we have developed the convention. Often they are just flashbacks or dreams, we have developed this to show the relationship grow over time and the detail of the dream scenario. The reason we have developed this convention is that it is a dream narrative and we wanted to emphasise this and show the good times the artist would have with her dream guy.

This music video 'the one that got away' uses a series of flashbacks to explain the narrative about her boyfriend from when she was younger. I have compared our still to this video as it is a similar narrative in the beginning, however we have developed the use of flashback and montage by putting it all together near the end whereas Katy Perry has used it throughout. We have also used this technique from a positive view, instead of Katy Perry looking back, getting upset and regretting these event, our artist is happy about the events in her dream narrative.

Challenged

We have challenged the typical convention of the guy being 'hot', muscle-y, tanned, outgoing and have used a guy who is almost socially awkward. You can see in our still shot the artist giving him a kiss, yet he doesn't look entirely happy or even romantic/seductive about it. Throughout our music video you see him awkwardly hugging, holding hands but this is what we have challenged about pop music videos. Usually it is the other way around, the girl being shy whilst the guy is doing everything he can to draw attention towards him and win the girl over. The still shot from 'call me maybe' shows the guy taking his top off. This is typical of a pop video, there is a typical popular guy with tattoos and muscles, this is because it draws in the attention of you females, which is the typical audience of the pop genre. By challenging this convention we hopefully would draw attention to our video and focus on the artist specifically and become well known for doing things differently. This song is different to typical pop songs as she is trying to find a husband rather than a stereotypical hook up. This shows that she is the alpa-female compared to typical pop music videos where the man is in the lead, this also shows to the target audience that the less popular, geeky guys are the ones that girls look for in the long run, this proves that the artist is a good, sensible role model.

Another convention we have challenged (as well as developed) is the performance in the diner. We can see in 'candy man' that the artist is dancing and singing in the diner, even on the bar with a group of dancers surrounding her. In pop music videos we often see a staged dance routine or a lot of general dancing and movement. We have challenged this convention because our video is mostly narrative, and the performance is in a dream/fantasy.

Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q3. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Q4. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What do you like about the video?