Evaluation - Question 1

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

Voyeurism - use of conventions
 

Conistently within our main product, myself and Mollie decided to encorporate an old, vintage television with our footage placed inside, not only to add to the theme and style of our music video, but to also add to the sense of voyeurism found within most other real media products today. This was a type of convention that we found we could utilise in order to conform to our genre whilst also being able to use it to our editing advantage. Voyeurism has been a main tool used throughout our A2 music video to gain a sense of being watched, this aspect of our video conforms to conventions in other music videos over a long period of time; artists such as Bombay Bicycle Club use the same concept within their video for Always Like This, as the sense of being watched comes from the changing of the actual video, to the recording of it:

The Male Gaze - challenging conventions

One convention found within other real media products was portrayed in Laura Mulvey's theory (1975) of the sexualisation of women in the media, which depicts men to be the main dominators within the industry and women are only of use for performance value and to be looked at. This was the one convention that we mutually agreed we wanted to challenge within our music video. Many women in the media can be seen as in the spotlight purely for the male gaze; artists such as Rihanna dress, act and create lyrics provocatively for the reason of the visual satisfication her audience feels by watching her videos. As a way of rejecting this type of convention, we dressed ourselves in jeans, Vans and hoodies and acted - at times- foolishly within our video in order for our image to remain free of sexualisation and for our artists branding to be known for it's individuality and talent, whilst also fitting in with our chosen genre.

 

Linking lyrics to video - developing conventions

'Lights are blinding my eyes'

'When the sun comes up'

Andrew Goodwins theory of music videos suggests that there has always been a strong link between the lyrics within an artists song to their music video; this form of a convention found in most other real media products fit our genre well so we encorporated its use many times throughout our main product and anciliary taks. In the research and planning stages of our music video, we found that The Streets 'Blinded by the Lights' video was a perfect example of the convention, whilst also not be too obvious for the audience; within 'Blinded by the Lights' the powerful use of lighting to reflect the chorus and the title of the song was used throughout and was very effective. We used this idea at various different times in our music video, one example being the use of a rising sun shot in correlation to the lyrics 'When the sun comes up' - we liked this concept as it also allowed us to excel in our editing skills and create shots that weren't just of the two artists.

However, we also continued to develop the concept of the linking between lyrics and music video by creating a more complex and effective way of portraying this technique; most music videos just plainly show footage of the words they are trying to depict, whereas myself and Mollie used a mixture of a snorricam, a POV shot and a split screen moulded into one to create the desired effect we planned for the lyrics 'chase your boyfriend let's have him'. This use of editing and filming skills not only helped in portraying the lyrics in the song, but also showed our artists branding and individuality in our main product compared to other real media products.