Task 1
- 1. Evaluation Task 1 MV ConventionsHolly Partridge
- 2. Artistic Camerawork Artistic Camerawork makes the artist stand out giving the audience a clear view of the artist. This gives the artist a star image, which is key in the sale of their music. This also helps the audience follow the storyline, if the music video contains a narrative element. Artistic camerawork is shown in our video through the use of mid shots of both our singers, which portrays the star image of the artist. We also used tracking shots however we cut them out in post-production. By showing both of our singers side by side we challenged the conventions as normally you will see a main singer with the other singer behind (as seen below in the Spice Girl’s and Haim’s MV. However The Veronicas also challenge this conventions as they are seen side by side (bottom, left).
- 3. Breaking the rules of continuity editing Breaking the rules of continuity provides a difference from other artists, which sells the star image of the artist. We used this convention in order to sell the star image of our artist, which is seen in our music video through our jump cuts that are seen throughout the video. For example, during the video we have a jump cut that goes from a wide shot of the girls to a shot of their mid-sections, which is shown in the screenshots above. This convention is shown in a real media text, Sky Ferreria’s “You’re not the one”. This is shown by the above screenshots, where jump cuts are used to cut from Sky to a girl’s body, to Sky with a boy (above, left to right).
- 4. Conspicuous use of lighting The conspicuous use of lighting creates a different message from our genre of music, as we used it to create a female youth culture within the genre of our song, Pop Rock. This shown in our MV throughout, but mostly in both prison scenes, where we used both dark lighting and red lighting. This is shown in the screenshots above. Although this challenges the conventional lighting usually used in MV of the pop rock genre, it is seen to be used by a number of artists. For example: Haim (above, left); Sky Ferreria (above, center) and Rihanna (above, right).
- 5. Importance of artist CU The artist close up is used to sell the star image, which in turn makes the audience buy into the star. Throughout our music video we have used close ups of both the artists, and therefore using the convention. However we have challenged the convention as we use close ups of both girls whereas normally they focus primarily on the lead singer. Below are examples of where real artists have challenged and used the convention. In Lana Del Rey’s MV “Young and Beautiful” she uses the convention as a close up of her features throughout the MV (below, right). However in Sky Ferreria’s MV “Everything is embarrassing” there are no close ups of her, only mid or wide shots.
- 6. Lip Sync Lip Sync is a convention used in all music videos unless it is a live performance. Lip syncing is done as it gives the audience a highly quality of the song. It also makes it easier for the industry to make MVs. Lip syncing is seen in our MV throughout, unless we were shooting a narrative scene, as it made it easy to edit the video as well as easier on the day of the shoot. Below are two examples of where the artist lip syncs the song in a MV unless there is a narrative scene. On the left in Sky Ferreria’s MV “You’re not the one” and on the right is Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”. NARRATIVE NARRATIVE LIP SYNCLIP SYNC
- 7. Length of MV The length of a MV tend to be 2.40mins - 3.30mins. This is done to keep the audience interested. Our music video slighting challenges the convention as it is 2.13mins long (below, left), however it keeps the audience interested and means that it can be watched more than once without the audience losing interest. Sky Ferreria’s “Red Lips” (left) follows the convention, being 2.48mins. Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” slightly challenges the convention being 4.32mins (above, center) however the narrative is fairly long. Above and right are examples of the convention from real media texts. Lana Del Rey’s “Ride” challenges the convention, being 10mins long, however there is a speech at the beginning which keeps the audience interested (above right).
- 8. Narrative Structure A narrative structure is used to keep the audience interested and to sell the star image of the artist. In our MV we used the convention and used the projections and the prison setting to tell the narrative story. Our narrative was that the girls were in prison as one of them had murdered her boyfriend and suffered from schizophrenia. This gave an effect of female youth culture as well as the exploration of mental illnesses. Having a narrative in a MV is used mostly in the pop genre and in huge selling singles, with artists such as Beyonce, Kayne West, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift etc. Above you can see screenshots from the narratives of Justin Bieber’s “As long as you love me” (above, center) and Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” (above, left). It is less common in smaller, indie artists e.g. Sky Ferreria’s “Everything is embarrassing” (above, left).
- 9. Use of special effects Special effects are used to keep the audience interested and to make the artist stand out from other artists. In our MV we used many special effects such as the projection of the newspaper clippings (below, left); the duplication of Flora in the prison scene (below, center) and the projection of the girls performing (below, right). Below are examples of when artists have and haven’t used special effects in their MVs. Below left is a screenshot Missy Elliots “We Run This”, where she used the convention and went on to win MTV’s best music video of the year. Below left is Adele’s someone like you, which challenges the convention. However Adele is a singer- songwriter whose voice is so powerful that she does not need any special effects.