Task 1
- 2. WHAT ARE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS? ▸ Conventions in music campaigns are signs which create meaning for the audience. Conventions, over the years have essentially created what we call ‘genres’ and helped us differentiate between media products, such as pop and rap music ▸ Conventions allow the audience to easily tell each genre apart, and find what they are looking for. ▸ Conventions can be split into two categories; technical and symbolic conventions. ▸ These can be conveyed through a myriad of different things, such as as set design, camera work, costume and editing.
- 3. SIMILAR PRODUCTS RESEARCHED: Katy Perry Dua Lipa Miley Cyrus Taylor Swift Britney Spears Mariana Martinez Ariana Grande Christina Aguleria Lady Gaga Selena Gomez Rihanna Mariah Carey Miranda Cosgrove Camila cabello Fergie Zara Larsson Carly Rae Jepsen Kesha Sia Pink Ellie Goulding Jess Glynne Jessie J Demi Levato Victoria Justice
- 4. VIDEO
- 5. SET DESIGN ▸ In Dua Lipa’s video, the set design is very minimalistic, in that it consists of a single chair in a nondescript white room. In our video, we emulated this and used a single red chaise longue on a plain white set. We did this because the pop genre demands a focus on the artist, above all else, so by placing the artist in a white room with nothing but her and what she’s sitting/lying on, the audience instantly focuses on her, effectively engaging them.
- 6. CAMERA WORK ▸ On the left is a screenshot from Britney Spear’s ‘Oops I did it again.’ On the left, the shot used is a close up of the artist, framing the star’s face in near the middle of the shot. We DEVELOPED this further, by placing half of our artist’s face in the middle, and half of her out of focus body. We did this because our modern age has witnessed a rise in idolising women’s bodies and showcasing their features above all else. A prime example of this is all famous pop stars at the moment, such as Ariana Grande, and people like Kim Kardashian.
- 7. PERFORMANCE ▸ On the left is P!nk’s music video, ‘Try’. It utilises a male ‘love interest,’ to keep the audience engaged, as representing both genders in the music video will of course engage both genders watching. We used this performance convention in our music video, as we knew it was appealing to our target demographic, young girls between 10-25. In addition to this, it adhered to the conventions we had in the video previously, such as the themes of romance and love which came through our choice of costume and colour schemes.
- 8. COSTUME ▸ In the music video on the left, Katy Perry chose to have a regal looking white dress, to what I believe is to connote a sense of regality, elegance and innocence. Similarly, in this frame we used a white dress as a costume to connote a sense of elegance and innocence as well. We did this because we wanted to create a greater contrast to the sensuality and romance portrayed when our artist wears her red dress in the red room. This would engage our audience as it makes the costume change later in the video have more of an emotional and visual impact.
- 9. MAKE-UP ▸ Within the female pop genre, beauty is what essentially creates a best-selling artist. There are have not been, in any era, a famous female pop star whose looks were subpar, or aesthetically dissatisfactory. Make-up is then a helpful tool which helps enhance and highlight beautiful features on the artist. For example, on the left, what makes Taylor Swift attractive in this instance is her lips and eyes, and aptly they are well made up. We used this convention on our artist to enhance her eyes, which are a key feature of her beauty, and we also used red lipstick to contrast against her white skin and white couch, which draws more attention on the artist, contributing to her star-image, in that she is the centre of attention.
- 10. EDITING ▸ Generally, pop music videos utilise editing that cuts with the beat of the song. For example, Miley Cyrus’ ‘We can’t stop,’ cuts to a different shot every time we hear the bass beat. We developed this further and used it in our music video at certain times, to convey something that was emotionally charged, such as when our main artist, Cheri is dancing in a white sheet with her lover, we cut every time a piano chord is played. (The 4 screenshots above represent around 4 seconds of the music video respectively.)