In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our completed music video we wanted to keep to the
traditional conventions of an indie-rock music video. From research into the
genre we concluded that our band members should wear simple ‘smart casual’
clothing as it best connotes the genre and appeals to our target audience of
young adult/teenage woman. We found that from all the music videos which we
looked at, more often and not, this type of clothing was the most popular – so
we chose not to challenge this.
We took a lot of inspiration from the music video ‘Matters
at All’ by Kids in Glass Houses. The most obvious aspect is the generic
boy-girl relationship which we have also used, however in this music video it
had a twist at the end. This isn’t as conventional as the generic indie music
video, but we wanted to follow a similar path by giving the illusion that the
main female character was only imagining the situation – much like in the video
we had based it upon.
We found that one of the most significant which allows indie
music to stand out as a genre is the lighting – all very neutral lighting or in
black and white. From the music videos by Noah and the Whale and Kids in Glass
Houses we were able to decide what form of lighting we wanted to use for the
narrative aspects. They both used very dull, natural lighting and we therefore
wanted to mimic this, we found that it not only followed the genre but also
complimented the tone of the song. After analysing a number of performance
based videos we found that the same understated lighting was also used – for
example in ‘I Bet You Look Good on The Dance Floor’ by The Arctic Monkeys the
lighting used was normal stage lighting. We chose to mirror this as it allowed
us to experiment with the lighting in the drama studio. We found that the
lighting allowed us to give it a very ‘low budget’ feel as it isn’t very
striking, this allowed the video to fit the normal conventions of indie-rock
even further. However, the low-budget look was especially made by the setting
as it was only filmed in a drama studio and notable public areas. To add to
this, in editing there was a distinct lack of any effects which if used would
make the video look far more upmarket. There was only the use of quick cuts
between the narrative and performance – which within the genre is extremely
common, notably in the performance itself where if the shots are changed
between one another it may only shift angle.
As the genre we are following is for an indie-rock band we
wanted to challenge many conventions of ‘Star Image’, however we wanted to
stick to certain aspects as we wanted our band to still be branded. For example
our band members are for the most part kept apart from the advertisement for
them as a brand – especially in the ancillary task aspects. On the digipak we
chose to use a drawn image on the front cover and therefore this image can be
used to represent and define them. This therefor eliminates any form of
representation due to the way they look (such as the Male/Female Gaze and Body
Morality) and focusses on their music. On the Magazine Advert the band is
shown, but with their backs to the audience as we wanted to stray away from
their appearance being the object of attraction. On the other hand, the band
members are a large aspect of the music video, but are for the most part very
monotonous for a large part of the video which strips them of a large part of
their personality – this matched with the dark clothing which lets them fade
into the black background almost renders them insignificant. However, certain aspects of them in the video
do give them an image, the use of one of the band members in the narrative
gives them personality which may otherwise not be there. We chose to do this as
we wanted the band to still relate to their fans. It isn’t common for a band
member to be part of a narrative in an indie-rock music video - so this
therefore challenges the genre in more ways than one. The band’s name and the
album name are main contributors to star image as the same fonts are used
multiple times on both the digipak and magazine advert. This follows research
we found on bands such as the Arctic Monkeys and My Chemical Romance who chose
to keep their name in the same font over multiple albums. The name itself
brands the band and gives them their image. This is common however over all
genres, as is noted upon when looking at My Chemical Romance who are more
commonly seen as a rock band. Most aspects of star image which we have chosen
to apply are common in the indie-rock genre as a whole.
We broke the 180 degree rule in our music video at the
beginning of the video when the main female character opens the door to reveal
the band members. We decided that we could still use this as it didn’t affect
the flow of the music video over all. However, it is rare that this is broken
in most common media texts and is for the most part avoided by using different
techniques.
For our female characters in our music video we found that
we followed some aspects of the Male Gaze, Body Morality and the Beauty Myth.
For our lead female character we wanted to challenge the general theme of the
male gaze by having her wear normal everyday clothing, instead of having her
objectified to appeal especially to a male audience. This allowed her to appeal
to the audience we have chosen as she is portrayed more as a role-model to the
young-women watching and promote the choice to be happy with the way they look.
The second female is represented as the opposite of the main female. She
follows the typical aspects of Body Morality as she has the long blonde hair
and Barbie-like look. This paired with the dark clothing on red which are typically
together very seductive allows her to appeal to the Male Gaze. Having both
challenged and followed many of these aspects allow the video to challenge the
typical stereotype of what the audience should fine appealing – especially
since the audience are meant to feel an affiliation with the ‘normal’ female
character over the second. Through this the video therefore promotes healthy
self-image and challenged the Beauty Myth.
The attitude of a band doing what they wish could allow them
to be a role model as they appeal to those who want to be individual and not
follow a brand provided - however, indie music puts a huge emphasis on the
music over how they are portrayed which could mean that they may not appeal to
a mass audience. This is further portrayed due to the simplicity of the music
video and digipak which isn’t directly striking. They may appeal to a younger
audience, due to the strong connection to new-technology such as Youtube, which
allows themselves to be noticed - many of which could chose to make them a
role-model. Also, the lead female character may appeal as a role model in this
video to the female audience as she is portrayed as to promote a positive self-image
which is a different view than what is represented in popular music. This
against other role models could reflect well on the band itself and allow them
to be a Role-Models by simply having it in the music video.
We wanted there to be a clear link between the two ancillary
tasks and the video. We did this by using images from the video itself as a few
of the pages from the digipak, for example the image of the guitar and the
microphone. We found that this was one of the easiest ways to make a link
between the two.
We also chose to take the posed images for the digipak on
the same day as the last day of filming. This allowed us to create a link
between the two even more obvious. The only real changes made between the actual
filming and the digipak was the use of Photoshop to make it back and white.
Another way in which we connected the video with the
ancillary is the use of ‘Footsteps’. As the song is called this we wanted to
make it the main image on our digipak – it was however more difficult to put
this across in the video. We filmed a few shots of the band member’s feet
during the performance and put a lot of emphasis on the different characters
walking throughout the narrative.
All of the texts presented were purposely made to be quite
simple – as to compliment the style of indie-rock. Whilst the digipak and
magazine advert were both grey-scale the video itself was not, however, we
still kept to an overall muted colour scheme which could allow the two to
intertwine. They are both very understated and would probably be left unnoticed
if an individual was not already a fan of the band, it therefore still appeals
to its own niche audience.
I think all three very much follow the genre of indie rock –
the main reason due to how they are all muted in their aspects. Another major
aspect which could link it to the genre was the overall disinterest of the band
throughout. In the video the band is largely very lacklustre and detached, and
in the digipak the band’s faces aren’t in it minus the lead vocalist –
especially when the digipak is put together if a passer-by would not find an
image of the band at first glance. Similarly in the magazine advert there is an
image of the band, but they are looking away. This not only connects once again
to the genre of indie rock due to the hope that the audience would be most
interest in their music over their image as individuals but also links the
three together.
Overall I think that the combination of the three is effective
and match the genre which we were aiming for, however many of the similarities
are very small.
What have you learned from you audience feedback?
From our questionnaire we were able to decide what our
target audience would be – as well as getting feedback we were also able to
choose bands which were popular amongst this audience. From this were able to
choose some of the band’s videos, CDs and magazine adverts to shape our own. We
further used this information to find aspects of target audiences from YouTube.
From Youtube we were able to further discover what our
target audience is – however in the case of some bands, we found that the
audience differed from the target audience we had discovered earlier. We
eventually put this down to how long the bands have been famous for as bands
such as Kasabian and the Foo Fighters portrayed an older audience. Also, we
also found that the younger the band members are – the younger our target
audience became. Therefore we chose to have young band members to match the
target audience portrayed by our questionnaire.
Whilst making our video we were told that the video was very
tedious as many of the separate shots were very long – this matched with the
repetitiveness of the song that we had chosen made it very dull. To combat this
we decided that we needed to put more different band shots in the performance
aspects to pick up the pace of the music video overall.
We had created two different magazine adverts as the first
advert which we had created we were told that the advert was too busy as we had
also added tour dates. Due to this we created a second poster which only sold
the debut album and got feedback on the two from our target audience – from
this we found that they preferred the second as it was more simple and eye
catching. From this we were able to choose the more effective advert for our
final choice.
From the feedback for our final video we found that we got a
mainly positive response for it as an indie-rock video as well as how well the
song matches the video itself.
I think that this was one of the most important aspects that
make the video effective with the ancillary task and is fundamental to
advertising of the product as a whole.
The main way in which most of the audience seemed to differ
is by the use of lighting. Many found that it was the correct use of lighting
for the genre, but not for the narrative itself. One individual states that
they wanted the lighting in the narrative to look more like a dream sequence –
however in our music video we wanted to hide the concept of it being an almost
dream sequence until the end of the video as to work with the idea of a twist.
One issue with the video which was brought up a couple of
times was the fact that during certain aspects of the video that the displays
were on view during certain angles of the performance. We didn’t think that
this was an issue when editing the video together however as we found that it
added to the ‘home-made’ look which we wanted. We chose the drama-studio
especially to give it an almost ‘practice performance’ look.
The narrative was possibly the most popular aspect of our
video – and the way in which it merged in with the performance. Some however
have stated that the narrative isn’t clear enough and certain aspects could be
tampered with the improve it. The most popular aspect of the narrative was
possibly the twist at the end and how the panning shot was positioned to
portray how she may be dreaming or ‘be going crazy’.
From our pitch that we created on PowerPoint we were able to
get feedback of our music video idea before we had created it. From this we
were advised to consider certain aspects – for example we were originally going
to use flashing lights to the beats in the song itself and were asked how we
could do this. We ended up removing this idea as it would be too time consuming
to do. We were also told to make sure that we don’t stray from our given genre
too far. Due to this we chose change certain aspects accordingly – for example
the black and white within the video was changed to mutual colours. From the
feedback we got from the pitch we were are to re-consider certain aspects which
could potentially have damaged the final product.
I have found that the feedback which we have acquired from
our audience has been vital to both the creation of our band’s image and
following through with it. I think that this therefore has allowed us to follow
as rigidly to our genre as we had first wanted, and has also helped our
products be the best possible.#
How
did you use media technologies in the construction and research and evaluation
stages?
How did you use media technologies in the from 06Gatreb
To conclude I am pleased with the outcome of the task which
we have created. I find that there are a few aspects of the video that I would
like to have improved – for example how the lighting is on the lead vocalist in
the video. However, I think that the video has turned out well – especially in
terms of how it matches the indie-rock genre as well as we had hoped. This in
addition to the ancillary task and video as I whole I find that they work very
well together and I am satisfied with them as a brand and publication. If I were
to do the task again I would like to improve on my time management.
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