Evaluation Question One

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

The main source that an artist uses to promote their song is the music video, and their albums show the style of the artist and songs it can show their versatility and make sure that it is exciting for the audience. A music video allows the song to be visually represented on the screen. When planning our music video as a group we wanted the style of the video to be authentic as attention was drawn to other music videos typical conventions.

Performance

“Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor. Sometimes, the artist (especially the singer) will be a part of the story, acting as narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip-synch close-up and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can kick it.” (Steve Archer 2004)

Our video confroms this theory as me playing the role of the charcater is present throughout most of the video. I play a troubled girl that goes on a journey through every day life situations. And her charcater fits in with the changing of scenes such as the urban street look she changes her personality and her looks. So we conform to this theory very well and the video looks believable to the audience watching. Showing some target audiences that we had aimed our video at having a critical eye thought that our video looked very professionally done. I do believe that our video looks professional due to the group researching styles and following closely to the conventions of exisiting videos.

'Music videos allow an element of acting, which could include facial expressions, eye contact and mise en scene which allows the performer to be accessed by the audience in various ways, like the use of close ups and panning so everything is seen. This adds a story to the song which can match the lyrics or explore other meanings. As with star image this makes the song memorable and allows connections and implications the song would not have without a music video for people to see the song visually depicted'. (Pete Fraser)

In our music involves me acting a lot of the time as our video is based on the actor and lip syncing. I play a female character that is unhappy in her life with a relationship that is not working. Our video starts with a argument sequence with me playing the female character and Tom playing the boyfriend, this scene was very quick to film as me and Tom have taken A-Level Drama and also GCSE so we have gained experience. We wanted Tom to come across in a threatening manner and for the girl to eventually stand up to him at the end of the argument sequence and it ends with me leaning against the window with a unhappy expression on my face which again looks believable to the audience as was all the acting during this scene. As the music video carries on I portray a number of different personalities and a lot of different emotions through out as different bits of the song requires faster shots and slower parts of the song requires slower shots. As the character changes through the video I portray a different character which shows opposite emotions such as agression and frustration. My acting really shows and fits in with atmosphere of the song and this is the one strongest element of our music video which makes it believable and professional and from comments i think the group are also proud of the acting in of music video.

Camera and Editing

'A variety of camera angles and movements of different locations featuring the artist are used in quick succession to create the unique music video style that differs from how a film operates. This style of camerawork gives the video a more dynamic feel and vibe that promotes the song and generates interest by leaving an 'imprint' or memory on the audience so whenever they hear the song they will have an image of the music video in their head'. (Pete Fraser)

During the planning stage for the music video at the very beginning we said we all wanted to avoid long takes of shots because it looks more amateur and would also get very boring to watch and repetitive. Our video does involve this theory because we have used lots of different sequences in different locations for example the street locations against the wall and walking down the street. We used close ups of me acting and then filmed another shot of the same thing, the reason for using close ups was because we wanted the character to connect with the audience and show her emotions.