Evaluation Question 1

In Which Way Does Your Media Product Use Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products 



My A-level coursework involved making a music video for a song of my choice. I chose to create a video for Conor Maynard's cover of 'Good Ones Go' by Drake. Once the music video was completed I then had to complete two ancillary tasks. A digipak and advert for the album. Before completing any of these tasks, I conducted some research to learn more about the music video industry. An important part of this research was finding out more about conventions of music videos. I then used the information I found to create my own product, one in which looks realistic and is identifiable to the audience. I included many conventions of the particular genre that the song I chose to do is (RnB). I felt it was extremely important to ensure my products included common conventions, so that the audience can easily consume the products.

Music Video

A key thing that helped us create a conventional music video was Andrew Goodwin's theory. He created a theory based on what he felt are the key aspects of music videos:

• All genres have different characteristics.
• Women are often sexualised.
• There is a relationship between the song and the visuals.
• There are lots of camera shots making the artist the centre of attention, thus creating a star image.
• They often include intertexuality.  

Although we did not include all these aspects, almost all of them can be linked to particular moments throughout the music video. What we felt was a particularly important element to have in the music video is the large quantity of shots making the artist the centre of attention. It is vital to include these types of shots in the music video, to help engage the audience and build a connection between them and the artist. 

An effective shot for this is a close-up shot. We included many close-up shots of the artist singing. It allows the audience connect with the emotions of the artist as, they will be able to clearly identify the artists emotions. In the close-up shot above, the artist is looking directly into the camera. Due to the eye contact it will feel a lot more real to the audience as, it will feel as though he is singing to them.

Frank Ocean - 'Novacane'

Selena Gomez - 'Good For You'

This shot is very commonly used in music videos. Especially for Pop and R'n'B. Songs that come under either of these genres often have the subject of love in the song. This could be why directors choose to use close ups like this. As it makes the audience connect more with how the artist is feeling and the meaning behind the song.

Whilst researching the R'n'B genre signifiers, I found that there is often a wide shot/establishing of the location somewhere in the music video. It usually is a very scenic location, such as a mansion or an exotic holiday destination. As we did not have access to either of those locations, we chose to include a wide shot of London. We felt that this would go well with the story line as, it is about the boy moving on in his life and focusing on his career. London being the capital city could be associated with success. This is because, stereotypically, Londoners live a fast moving and expensive lifestyle. Therefore, people sometimes think, if you can make it in a big city such as London, then you can make it anywhere.



A$AP Rocky ft. Miguel & Rod Stewart - 'Everyday'

Jeremih ft. Krept & Konan - 'London'

The locations usually look like rather expensive or luxury locations. Therefore, this shot may be used to really highlight the setting to the audience. If the shot establishes an expensive looking location then the audience may start to link that to the artist. This would then represent the artist as luxury and make them seem like they have money. It is something commonly used amongst R'n'B artists especially males. They want to be associated with money so that they are seen as powerful and successful, the two things that often come with money.

Usher - 'Burn'

Another shot commonly used in all types of music videos are extreme close-ups. These are often of the mouth area. Placing the shot on only the mouth places emphasis on the lyrics of the song. This is usually used at a moment where the particular lyrics are significant and the artist wants the audience to think more about what is being said. It encourages them to do so as, they have nothing distracting them from the actors mouth. We only included this kind of shot once. We made the shot very short and subtle. As seen in the clip above, we lowered the opacity of the footage. The shot shows the female actor lip syncing to the lyrics "haven't changed". We edited it to be quite transparent so that the audience can tell it is not something that actually happened. It is really the artist wishing that his ex-girlfriend will come and tell him he has not changed. The audience will be able to see this because the lips are overlaid on top of an over the shoulder shot, whereby the male actor is pondering whilst looking out a window.

Goodwin also felt that there are clear relationships between the lyrics and the image featured in the music videos. This is something we definitely followed throughout the video. The moment with the lips that I previously spoke about is one example of this. We also included images such as the female actor walking away from the camera whilst the lyrics "the good ones go" are playing. It helped to illustrate the song and the story behind it. We wanted to do this to make the story line easy to follow and understand.

We wanted to represent the artist in an unconventional way. Instead of doing the usual and making the male look like they are in full control and have the females running after them, we have done the opposite. In the story line we chose to make the artist be the one who wants the girl back however, the girl does not want to be with him. The whole video is more about him realizing that he really misses her and know he has messed up by risking loosing her.  By choosing to represent the artist like this, it makes him seem like he is more emotional and caring than some other male artists represent themselves. Considering the main target audience is young girls, representing him in this way will make him more likable as, he does not seem like the typical 'player' male.

Chris Brown - 'Back To Sleep'

It is very common in R'n'B music videos for the male artists to represent themselves as ladies men and be surrounded by girls. More often than not these girls will be half naked and sexually objectified. They occasionally show the artist with one girl. In this case they will usually show that there is not a serious relationship between the two characters but more of a sexual attraction.  

Mis-en-scene can also be used to represent characters in certain ways. Mis-en-scene refers to the way everything in the shot is placed, this includes anything from colours, props, lighting, location etc.

Robin Thicke - 'Blurred Lines'

Ariana Grande - 'Dangerous Woman'

It is common for female artists to be dresses in dark clothing if they want to be seen as sensual and provocative. Men are often dresses in dark clothing to indicate that they are powerful. Like many other music videos we dresses our characters in

Costume No. 1

reflection of their feelings. When it comes to sad songs, it is common for the artist or any other key characters in the video to wear dark colours. The dark colours will help to reflect the way the characters are feeling, as it brings dullness and a melancholy look. Whereas, bright colours will make the characters look happy as they are more vibrant and alive. Our artist's costume was a black bomber jacket and black jeans. As I have already stated this represented his character as sad. It also made him look powerful as black is a strong and bold colour. We also dressed the female character in dark colours too. Her costume at the start were Adidas leggings and a matching hoodie in black. Throughout the rest of the video she wore a black off the shoulder jumper. This helped make her look vulnerable as a bit more skin was shown. She is then seen as wearing a navy coat and blue jeans. Blue is a colour commonly associated with sadness and therefore it continued to represent her feelings to the audience. Costumes can tell the audience a lot about the artist and even the meaning behind the song.

Kanye West - 'Wolves'

There are common ways in which different music videos are edited. After watching a number of R'n'B music videos, I noticed that a lot of them are shown in black and white. It really helps to bring the overall mood down and instantly emphasises the sadness that the artists feels. It is also sometimes used to make the video more sexual due to the fact that it makes it look more mysterious to the audience. We felt that putting a black and white filter over our music video would be perfectly suited with our storyline. We wanted to use it for the effect of sadness.

Trey Songz - 'Can't Be Friends'

We also made use of the different transitions to create some special effects. During the part in the song when he sings "still wishing I was with you right there, but girl it's all changed now", we again wanted to illustrate his wishes with the image shown on screen at the time. For this reason we used the 'dissolve' transition to make two different shots look like one. It gave the effect that that when the male artist appeared on the screen, the female character disappeared. It revealed to the audience that it is a wish that is not possible. It helped demonstrate the fact that they were not actually in the same place at the same time, as she disappeared out of the shot. This effect is commonly used for the same purpose or to create a montage type of video as, it is important to ensure the audience know that the

scene is in the artists head either reflecting on the past or wishing for the future otherwise they could completely misinterpret the storyline.

Overall, our music video conformed to many of the conventions commonly found in music videos, especially R'n'B signifiers. We chose not to challenge many of these conventions as we wanted our music video to be as realistic and identifiable as possible whilst making it easy for the audience to follow and understand.

DigiPak

There are also common conventions found on digipaks. A digipak is a particular type of packaging for CDs. It usually has between 4-6 sides. Artists tend to make their whole digipak synergetic, so that it all comes together nicely.



Drake - 'Nothing Was The Same' Album Cover

Chance The Rapper -  Acid Rap Album Cover

This is my completed digipak front cover. Usually digipaks have the artist's face on the front cover, just so that people easily establish who's album it is as, a lot of people know the face but not the name. I chose to go against that convention. The main reason I chose to do this is due to the overall story of the album. As the audience can see the title of the album is 'Moving On'. The fact that his back is facing the camera and he seems to be walking away signifies that he is walking away and letting go of the past. However I did follow some conventions of front covers.

Usually, the album cover gives the audience some kind of hint as to the feel of the album, or what the album is about. Clearly the name of the album hints to the audience that the songs may be centred around moving on with his life and growing up. Also the black and white colour theme is another hint. The audience may relate the gloomy colours to the idea of the artist being sad. Digipaks also often reflect the music video in some sort of way. I chose to do this to create synergy between the two products. I feel it is important to create a link between the different products that the artist have made, so that the audience automatically associate the two together. It will make all the products more memorable as, they will see the album and think of the music video, vice versa. The most obvious way I created the synergy was through the use of a black and white filter. Also, the shot used on the album cover has the same location as one shot in the music video.



This is the shot in the music video.

The image above is the back cover to my digipak. A major thing for the digipak to contain is synergy between all the different compartments. It has to fit together, otherwise it will not look very pleasing to the audience. It also will not have a good reflection of the actual songs themselves as, if the whole thing is different it'll be difficult for the audience to find hints about the stories they might find in the song. This is again why I chose to put a black and white filter over it. I also chose to use special effects to create the illusion that it is raining in the image. Both these elements helped to keep up the gloomy and sad atmosphere. It will also create a link to the music video as, this is very similar to one of the shots included in the music video. Again I felt it was very important to create synergy because it will make the audience associated the two products with each other which, could help to attract a wider audience as well as the target audience because they would be less familiar with the artist and his album in general. Therefore, it would be likely that they would have seen the music video somewhere in the media before. So these shots would make it easier for them to identify the artist and some of his other work which, may encourage them to listen to the artist's album; if they liked the music video. 

I followed a few common conventions found on the back of digipaks. The most obvious being the tracklist. This is almost always where the tracklist is found, so that when looking the album the audience can quickly identify what songs the album features.

Jhene Aiko - 'Sail Out'

Chris Brown - 'EXclusive'



J Cole - 'Born Sinner'

On the inside left part of the digipak, I chose it to be a close up of the artist's profile. It was again in black and white, still creating synergy between all the media products and among the digipak itself. Over the top of the image there is text. In the text it provides the audience with a bit of information as to what inspired this album and the process of producing this. It is very common to find this in digipaks. Sometimes it will be a booklet instead or tell us a bit about the people who helped make each song. Either way, it allows the audience to have exclusive access behind the scenes and gives them an insight into the artist's work. I wanted to do this so that the audience are aware of the effort the artist put into the album and that they worked on the writing of the songs rather than having others write songs for them. It highlights the real talent that the artist holds.

Digipak Advert

Usually, the conventions found on the digipak print adverts are the following:

• artist's name 
• the name of the album
• artist's official website
• where the audience can purchase/download the album
• the release date/ if it has been released yet
• a featured song - usually the hit single

I decided to include all of these elements in my advert. I felt all these elements were really necessary to create an advert that sells the album to the audience. It is the vital information that allows the audience to know where and when they can buy the digipak. It also gives them the information as to the artist's website, whereby they can find more information with regards to the artist and the album itself. This will then build the relationship and connection the audience have with the artist as, they will feel as though they know more about him and what the album has been inspired by.

Digipak adverts tend to be very simplistic. They often contain as little information as possible and do not put to much to look at on it. For example. in my digipak all I featured other than the information was a close-up of the artist's profile. I put a shallow focus on the background of the image, in order to make the background as simple as possible. The main reason for this is because the places where this advert will be displayed are locations such as billboards and bus stops etc. All places that consumers

could pass on the move, Therefore, the advert needs to be simple enough for them to gage the relevant information needed about the release of the digipak.

Ariana Grande - 'My Everything'

   

Jay-Z - 'Blueprint III'

           

Another common feature of digipak adverts, is to have the artist's face the main image. It is very important to included this particularly when the artist is not particularly well known. Often people can identify the face, but not the name. Therefore, people who may not know the artist so well, will have a higher chance of identifying whose album is being advertised.