Transcript
- 1. For my A2 Media Coursework, I created a music video to the song “Goner” by Twenty One Pilots with the two promotional products alongside it. I used constant close ups to highlight the singer and his instruments. The mid shots are used to show the movement of the artist as he walks or plays the instruments. Conventionally, the audience are used to the main focus being on the artist performing rather than watching a narrative. I used this convention on my music video as I wanted it to reflect his need for escape. I wanted my video to be in monochrome. This tells the audience that is a meaningful and sad song. I also altered the colour of the outside shots so it looked drained of colour. This symbolises the drained emotions of the artist. For example, the band Alt-J's music video “Breezeblocks” is in the alternative genre and has the same colour scheme as mine. However, my video strays from the typical colour conventions slightly as usually the videos are in colour. I have endeavoured to make my products conventionally correct in regards to mise en scene. His costume is conventionally correct as he is wearing skinny jeans and his hair is mid length. Furthermore, his general look is a casual and carefree style which is a prominent look in the genre. The props which I have used are the conventional props used in an alternative music video, which are the instruments. The theme within the video is depression and the need to escape the feeling of depression and anxiety. In addition to this, I have used natural lighting to highlight the outside location. However, in the practice room shots, I have used high key lighting to challenge the convention. This links to David Buckingham’s theory that “genre is in a constant process of negotiation and change.” In my video, I have tried to do a pan in which the actor would be playing both instruments. However, I did this shot without tapes to line the shot up and it ended up too fast and it wasn’t lined up correctly. If I was to do this again, I would take more time in completing this shot correctly. Furthermore, the close ups which were filmed outside represent his mind- set and the need to escape. When I edited it together, I realised that conventionally the editing is the same pace of the song therefore in the beginning the editing is quite slow. This is supported by the slow dissolves from the practice room to outside. Additionally, the dissolves created a smooth transition from the two locations. This gives the shot more of a dream-like feeling. The ending has faster cuts as the pace of the song becomes faster. This links to Vernallis’ theory regarding editing and camerawork. Her findings discovered that edits are much more frequent in music videos than in films. In addition to this, she found that the edits are to the rhythm and/or beats of the song. The main points of her observation were: To draw attention to what is on screen, the usual rules of continuity are broken and edits may be very obvious to draw attention to them. For example, in my video once the pace of the song gets faster, the cuts of the video get faster.
- 2. The two ancillary tasks I created were a digipak and a poster for the song. My digipak reflects on those already on sale. I have looked at existing products such as Rihanna and Gwen Stefani and I found that they have a simple but effective layout. Furthermore, I have used and developed the alternative genre conventions as it features the band and the album name on the front cover. The back cover features common conventions like appropriate industry logos and they are positioned suitably. For example, the track names and a bar code. The pictures of the singer are not clear and they are not stretched to fit. This gives the digipak a professional look. The album title is due to the song I have used for my music video as it would be the most popular song on the album. Therefore, the audience would recognise it. In addition to this, the colours reflect the album name as it has a simple colour scheme. Furthermore, my poster is inspired by Ed Sheeran's poster for his albums “+” and “X”. Again, these are simple but effective which I tried to convey through my texts. I used the same image from the cover to make it easily recognisable to the audience who see it in shops. In addition to this, I used the same colour for the album title on the digipak and the poster to create synergy between the two texts.