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

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

I gave myself a good understanding of what is thought to be usual within a music video before beginning my piece, particularly focusing on Goodwin’s Theory. However, although elements of these codes and conventions have been included, I did choose to deviate away from a few, feeling that this would be more beneficial in making my video unique in itself. For example, this theory argues that the female performer is frequently objectified principally for display purposes, often through a combination of camerawork and editing with body shots emphasising a sexualized treatment of the star. This was not included in my video, aiming to prove that this is not necessary in increasing sales of music. I felt that in doing this, it would also mask the true feelings of the character, wanting the audience to connect with her emotion much more than her appearance, ensuring a relationship between the lyrics and music here, which is also considered typical of a music video.

I also chose to challenge the idea of lots close ups in relation to the band members themselves. Although minor examples of this can be seen, using a lot as record companies are thought to demand, I felt would interrupt the story shown through the other characters. Knowing that the band seem to present themselves as being laid back and having a slightly cocky approach, therefore feeling no need to attempt to be noticed by the audience, this may also ruin their appearance and representation of themselves that they have already given. The reason i have chosen to include this slightly is to ensure they are given some publicity in the video, acknowledging the audience that it is them who created the music, knowing that the purpose of this video is one of a promotional device. However, although many close ups of the band members are not evident, I did use this idea of close ups in much the same way but with helping with the plot of the video’s story. Knowing that they bring attention to exactly what you want the audience to see, I chose to make us of them throughout my piece, particularly in aim of showing the appearance of the boy within the film.

Goodwin explains that there will almost always be a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. I aimed to ensure that this was true to some extent, but did not want this to be too obvious as this would not allow for the audience to question or attempt to work out what is going on, which I felt was important in keeping them intrigued. The most obvious link in which I made to the lyrics I felt was the red room, as the lyrics suggest that the persons ‘counterpoint’ is ‘behind a red room, locked behind a door’ which I felt was efficiently portrayed with the use of close ups on the girl, showing sadness in her emotion. Using these extreme close ups in such away, allowing for me to make the background colour obvious and to almost merge the character and this into one, showing them to be close together. This extreme close up used only showed the bottom part of the face, along with the girls hand, although this seems an unusual shot, it was purposely done in aim of showing only certain information. The lips of the girl and nails were also seen to be covered in red, helping to exaggerate the colour and relationship to the lyrics. I felt that this was an important line to the song to link to as this was the most influential line in the music, helping to cleverly show the emptiness that the character feels, also using the colour red to help represent sadness and death in this way. Another example of this would be to relate near to the end of the video, where a door is seen to close as the lyrics sound ‘locked behind a door’. This is shown twice in the video, once in slow motion and the other sped up. This could be said to help show the imbalance of emotions that the girl is feeling, along with distorting the audience in such a way, creating a somewhat giddy and nervous approach, relating well to the feelings of the girls stomach. The main character is also seen running outside in some places, creating a link between these visuals and the words ‘run through streets and empty corridors’.

In much the same way, Goodwin explains how the music and the visuals will illustrate, amplify or contradict the music in terms of the tempo and speed here. For instance, a fast paced song should have a fast cutting rate and a slower song should have the opposite. I felt this was important in creating a successful video, allowing a further exaggeration of the songs beat and rhythm, therefore allowing more enjoyment from this, leading to further sales. The song I chose to complete my music video has a very fast rhythm throughout, creating my decision to use a lot of fast cutting in terms of my editing. As well as this, I also felt it would be beneficial to use a lot of slow motion, contradicting the music’s tempo effectively. This also helped break down, and calm the video as a whole, making it look more efficient and easier to grasp. In using this convention of a music video, I was able to reflect the sound of the song and the effect is has on the listener.

Falling away from this theory here, another convention of a music video is thought to be in relation to performance. The belief here is that the characters or artists seen within the music videos will often dance or perform to the music, again helping to exaggerate and reflect the sound of the music as mentioned above, however, due to my video taking an indie and individual style, I chose to focus on a vague story line rather than to concentrate on this, much like the band have done in their previous videos.