(Text draft, to be presented finished in a Video, including a screen video)
Prior to the construction of the
media product, a vast amount of research into the three medias was carried out,
in order to develop the planning of the product. When analysing narrative,
performance and concept music videos, I gained knowledge of the conventions
present in each, which was important early on when creating storyboards,
deciding locations, casting actors, deciding upon the composition of
mise-en-scene, and giving consideration to the synergy that could transpire
across the three medias.
When making the music video I
drew on certain conventions that I had begun to recognise during the research
and planning of the project. I decided to construct a performance video with an
intercutting narrative, which shows the band in various locations. By doing
this it allowed me to cover a lot of different styles and showcase a variety of
complimentary effects that I had discovered and learned how to create through
research. Furthermore, by using different environments and locations I could
exploit certain aspects of mise-en-scene, which were in keeping with the genre
of the video. In this way, my video developed the conventions of real
indie/rock music videos. However elements such as the shots of a round down
urban environment and the composition of mise-en-scene including council
housing, wheelie-bins and security cameras hark back to the type of setting
often displayed within Britpop videos, which were therefore a conscious part of
the filming so that the video would adhere to these particular conventions.
During my research into Viva
Brother, I chose to take the ‘firework scene’ from their music video for the
song, ‘Still Here’ and attempt to recreate this in my video as an act of paying
homage. I felt it necessary to do this because of the particular manipulation
of motion in the video used to create an effect that sees the fireworks explode
and then rewind back down to the ground. This was a very interesting; something
that I had not come across before and although it was not specific to the genre
of the song, I felt that it was a brilliant way of demonstrating my
understanding of motion manipulation. Furthermore, I also chose to adhere to
the use of slow motion that is seen in their video and in many present day
music videos. This is not necessarily a characteristic of Britpop music videos
such as seen in the likes of Oasis, however it could be suggested that the use
of effects attempts to tackle the Britpop genre from the 1990’s, in a present
era. Therefore, although Britpop is typically associated with political and
social problems such as the government, unemployment and struggle, music videos
can be moulded to suit the present day that is not so dark and instead
challenges Britpop altogether; as if to almost make a mockery of it. In light
of the homage, I also featured multiple pubs within my music video. In the
original video for ‘Still Here’ there is a focus on pub violence, however I
wanted to move away from this slightly and did not want to cheapen the idea of
a fight breaking out in a music video. This was a conscious decision because my
actors are younger than the 20-somethings of Viva Brother, so I felt that it
would not be conveyed as well. Instead I chose to still develop the idea of a
‘lad’ stereotype in the music video by shots of the actors making a
middle-finger gesture, pushing each other when coming out of the pub and
standing on an urban, working-class estate.
Where appropriate, I found my
video abiding to certain parts of Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Seven’, which I had learned
during my research into music video theory. One part of this theory is the
genre characteristics that have already been discussed. However, there is also
a relationship between the music and visuals when cutting and editing in time
to the music. The next step from this would be a relationship between lyrics
and visuals however I chose not to do this because I felt that it was slightly
cabaret or ‘cheesy’ and would move the video away from appealing to the genre
less, when I did not want to completely challenge the conventions of a
performance-narrative Britpop music video. I took into consideration Viva
Brother’s record label, Geffen, and therefore felt that it would be desired to
have a lot of close up shots of the band members; in particular, the singer.
Frequent reference to the notion of looking is another of Goodwin’s
characteristics that was explored, often when the singer looks into the camera.
This has quite an impact on the audience and allows them to connect with
‘their’ band. In addition to this, the video also explores the idea of
iconography building up across an artists’ work. For example, the pull-up of
the singers collar at the beginning is quite a rock characteristic and could be
an action associated with an artist repeatedly. In addition to this, the homage
paid from the original music video for ‘still here’ could also be an
intertextual reference. I have found that my video conforms to six of Goodwin’s
seven characteristics and could therefore be suggested as a media project that
largely demonstrates and develops the traits of a modern music video.
During my research I studied the
decline of physical CD sales. This contributed towards my decision for opting
out of making a digi-pack and instead choosing the option of creating a poster
and website which are incredibly intrinsic in present day advertising and significant
for viral marketing. Both of these medias are formats that can be ‘shared’
online and therefore, used to engage with a wider audience to promote the
product, instead of simply advertising to a smaller, organic demographic. This
was demonstrated by the promotion poster which acted as an incentive to see the
band live at their debut show, whilst promoting the band’s CD and using a still
photo taken from the music video. Prior to creating the ancillary tasks, I
spent time researching into the conventions of both of these….. screen
grabs etc, examples ---
Relentless garage chosen, significance of this as London capital (deemed as
Central hub of UK music scene, especially for an underground rock market)…
Characteristics of Postmodern
music videos were also featured within the finished product… (to be completed)
My product largely conformed to
audience theory that is reflected by websites such as ‘Tribes’, which explores
the conventions of psychographics…(to be completed)
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