ESSAY QUESTION 1
- 1. Media Studies Question 1 of 4 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Before we even began to start the production plan of our main task, we had to do an extensive amount of research. A music video is essentially a short film, used as a marketing device to promote an artist, becoming more and more prominent since the 1980’s. By looking at luminary examples of music videos in all genres, we were able to gather what specific forms and conventions belonged to certain genres, and why they were successful. However, we also found that Madonna- Erotica going against typical expectations could also lead to success, much like Madonna, who is Our Production now a star in the industry, but is also CAPTION: Here, we have used a major convention of an the artist most extremely successful artist, an extreme close up, to unveil specific persona ideals. associated with music video censorship. In our group, we then decided to work with ‘pop’ as our chosen genre of music, and find out where the social demographic interest came from, plus whether to challenge or conform to traditional conventions of the genre. In addition to research on the Internet and in books, I also analysed case studies, focusing in detail on the ideas that interested me, and what we could recreate as part of our coursework production. Through the in depth breakdown of each video, I learned the features included which made it recognisable to the audience as a ‘pop’ video. I also studied the camera angles, shot Livvi Frank- Now I’m types That Chick Our Production and the mise-en- scene, in CAPTION: The mise-en-scene in this video really stood out to me, as its order to simplicity looked professional and allowed the artist’s persona to be the focus of the clip, without being too busy or taking any visual quality away see how from the frame. the director created a relevant ‘star persona’, and how the techniques are used in order to make it a success. At first, my group struggled with creating a realistic idea for our production, as we started out being a bit too ambitious, considering that we had practically no budget. Nerissa Edwards
- 2. Media Studies Question 1 of 4 Despite this, we knew that we wanted to be very creative and innovative in terms of the way in which we would shoot the footage, in order to avoid the cliché ‘candyfloss pop’ feel. We also Cheryl Cole- Three Words Our Production had to make the star persona of our CAPTION: As well as looking at American productions, I also actress analysed promotional techniques used for British artists. With much really stand smaller budgets, I took particular interest in some of Cheryl Cole’s out, videos, with simple sets, putting all the viewer’s attention onto her however, image and performance. Above, an attempt of this idea was also not so used in our production. much so that the target audience could no longer relate to her. We also used a piece of her costume, the chain, as a recurring theme to help create a sense of familiarity between the audience and our artist. Throughout the research process, we discovered that pop videos do not normally have a narrative, instead, focus more on the image of the artist. So that we could ensure a professional finish to our production, we decided to conform to this feature, especially since the lyrics of our 1 2 3 CAPTION: Here are examples of Bjornberg’s theory, and how we went 4 around the idea of a narrative: 1. With the inclusion of dancers and props, a performance element was added, and there was no direct need for a storyline 2. Creative, abstract camera angles were used so that the viewer is always kept intrigued and interested in how the video would continue 3. Bold make-up made the artist’s persona clear to the viewer, meaning the absence of a narrative did not affect the video 4. Quick cutaways were used on specific beats in the song to help the visuals flow with the audio and help to link the two chosen song did not have a particular meaning, for example ‘drop your socks and grab your mini-boom-box…’. Kaplan, a music video theorist, felt that some music videos ‘reproduced the classic narrative forms found in films, Nerissa Edwards
- 3. Media Studies Question 1 of 4 whilst others emphasised performance and the montage of imagery’. Similarly, another theorist Alf Bjornberg states that ‘narrative structure’ is ‘much less common’ in pop videos, replacing it rather with a ‘linear narrative’. Therefore, instead of trying to interpret the lyrics and creating a visual parallel to the words in a process of synaesthesia, we decided to concentrate on the beat of song, and make the video a bit more abstract. Firth concluded that conceptual videos do not tell a story, but the metaphorical sequence creates a mood or a feeling to be evoked by the viewer. Consequently, we centred our attention on inventive shot types, props, makeup, and costumes in order to create a believable image, as abstract videos are all about emphasising colour and movement whilst showcasing the star, then during the post- production stage we could show our creativity by utilising the software. When it came around to filming, my group stuck to the story board quite well, however spontaneous decisions were frequently made, as 1 2 3 4 5 CAPTION: Here are some examples of how we used and developed conventions of typical pop music videos: 1. The split screen techniques has been used in conjunction with Goodwin’s theory of fast paced cutting to the rhythm of the song 2. Developments made to average dance sequences by incorporating the idea of mirror reflections 3. A normal clip was transformed with an inventive twist by speeding up the time frame 4. This frame depicts our ideology of the glamorous star trapped with urban environments by obstructing the view with metal bars 5. Innovative shot types with various camera positions enabled us to demonstrate our creative flair we developed ideas, or changed them if they did not work. Our primary concern was to be original, and not just copy ideas of videos that we had seen. Our group had so many problems which meant that most things were decisions made on impulse. Screenwriter William Goldman stated that directors were able to ‘transform the ordinary into their vision just by where they put the camera’. We went about this by trying out novel camera angles, or putting our own twist on shot types we had seen during research. For example, an ordinary mid shot was distorted during the editing process by speeding it up, developing traditional music video techniques. This gave an erratic yet quirky effect to the frame, conforming with the fact that we wanted to keep to a theory by Goodwin on pop videos. He explains that whilst songs Nerissa Edwards
- 4. Media Studies Question 1 of 4 such as ballads would include a narrative, pop videos include, ‘fast pace of the cutting, much of it happening on the beat, representing the pulse or rhythm of the soundtrack’. Additionally, instead of shooting a normal long shot of the artist doing a routine with the background dancers, which is a feature present in most pop videos, we challenged the convention by transforming it into extreme close ups and cutaways of their movements. We did this in order to achieve an abstract feel, develop her star persona, and link to 1 3 2 CAPTION: Costume ideas conforming to the ideals of most pop artists. Circled above are the some references to sexual innuendos in terms of the outfits, connecting to voyeuristic themes. However, each costume is designed to draw the viewers’ attention to specific objects: 1. Focus on the chain- her trademark 2. The short dress brings out the angles in her body shape- relating to the abstract ideals of our video 3. Simple leotard allows her face and the extravagant makeup to take centre stage the demands of record labels including the need for lots of close ups. Likewise, we tried to have a wide variety of locations and costume changes, so the actress would seem as realistic as possible. Professional productions normally portray a sense of glamour, charisma, and ‘sex appeal’, especially in women, with frequent reference to the notion of voyeuristic treatment of the female body. We tried to incorporate the same design, with ‘scantily clad’ costume ideas, however without doing it so much so that the target audience would be limited. Music videos show the viewer mechanisms with which a character fulfils a social role, therefore possessing many features that engage the audience. For example, the representation of character ‘reveals the body bit by bit’, an idea which we tried to recreate in our production, allowing the viewer to feel involved in the video, rather than just being passive. Furthermore, for the same reason, the use of partial views, a wandering camera, abrupt editing and post production techniques, Nerissa Edwards
- 5. Media Studies Question 1 of 4 brings out particular aspects of the song, and extends the iconography of the popstar. CAPTION: These two snapshots show some of the cutaways and Overall, I feel that my partial views included in our production. This, along with the use of discontinuous editing at certain points, facilitated the artistic group have nature of our video, whilst adding to the abstract theme tried to throughout. integrate many key forms and conventions of pop music videos into our own production and demonstrated genre characteristics, as well as giving our own personal touch to develop some of the usual ideals. By studying real media products we were able to take advantage of some of the techniques that we analysed, and I feel that we have applied our ‘style in vision’ to our work, creating an original and innovative video which reflects the artist. Nerissa Edwards