Post 53: EVALUATION Q.1

Q1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP, OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

1. What media platform have you used to present your video and ancillary tasks?

From the beginning we have used a blog website called blogger to help us show the making of our music video. we used it for everything; this included writing blog posts, adding images or videos from online, inserting presentations and much more. Overall, it really helped create a mood board, so we could pull visuals of what inspired us, and of what we wanted together with our idea. We also used YouTube to upload all of the practice (i.e. experimentation footage), research (i.e. audience research), planning (i.e. our ideas) videos that we had made along with our final and rough cut to showcase properly the production of our music video and ancillary tasks. We think this is the best way to present our work because it would reach our target audience fastest. If we were to use a different platform, I don't think that our music video and ancillary tasks would have to scope and ability to get out there (after all, the whole point of music videos, posters and CDs are to attract new listeners and sell more music). 

2. What are the genre conventions? (compare to existing examples.)

The conventions of music videos can be quite varied depending on the genre of choice. A number of factors are thought of when creating a music video that conventional to the genre of the music. For instance, for rap or hip-hop music videos, you may expect to see a performance of some sort, money on show, scantily clad women and fast cars but for folk or country music videos, this wouldn't be the first thing that came to mind. Looking at our chosen genre for our specific music video, Wikipedia defines The Strokes music as a mixture of 'Indie rock', 'Garage rock', 'Post-punk revival' and 'New-wave'. However, generally they would be considered as indie or alternative. Considering this, we then can research these genres typical conventional music videos and see what the quintessential features are for this genre.  

Conventions Of Music Videos and The Indie Genre

Indie music videos are usually quite low budget due to the artists not having the funding of the mainstream record labels. For this reason, the videos tend to be simplistic. An example of a very simplistic but effective video from this genre is Jarvis Cocker's video for 'Further Complications':


Performance vs Narrative: 
It is common for an Indie music video to include an element of live performance within the video. This is because it keeps the focus on the music rather than any complex visual elements, which would go against the ideology of the Indie genre. It also allows the artist/band to do what they love, which is create and perform music. However, they often still incorporate a narrative into music videos, as this adds more of a contemporary twist to it. It allows the artist to have more creative freedom with their music and express themselves through visual means as well as in their music. The use of a narrative is also an effective way to make a music video stand out and be more memorable to the audience. Narratives in Indie videos also tend to have a deeper, underlying meaning to them, giving out a specific message which may relate to the song, and help the audience understand the song better. An example of an Indie artist/band that includes both performance and narrative is Noah and the Whale in their video for 'L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.': HERE.

Mise-en-scene:
Mise-en-scene is commonly a main element in Indie music videos, as certain locations, costume, props, etc. can all be very reflective of the Indie genre. Depending on whether the artist/band has more of a rock or pop dynamic, the costume chosen will be different. Indie rock bands tend to wear dark, very casual clothing, such as skinny jeans and a plain t-shirt. On the other hand, if it is an indie pop artist, their outfit might be a bit more well thought out, bright and weird. This is especially the case in female indie artists, such as Kate Nash (e.g in her video of 'Mouthwash'), who often wear more inventive clothing, hair and makeup, as this adds to their creative, 'indie' look.

Locations:
Locations in indie videos are usually very simple and easy to access. This is because the videos are on a lower budget in comparison to those from the pop genre, whose record labels have large funding. Therefore, typical locations are studios, inner cities, parks, a forest, etc.


Props:
Props are also used a lot in indie videos. The props can range from musical instruments to completely random everyday objects, it just depends on the concept the artist wants to present in their video. Examples of videos that heavily rely on mise-en-scene and manipulate whatever they have around them are Ok Go's video for 'The Writing's One The Wall' and Red Hot Chili Pepper's video for 'Can't Stop' (both these videos are abstract). 

Cinematography:
The cinematography included in indie music videos are similar to the conventional shot types, movements and angles of music videos on a whole. The use of close-ups and extreme close-ups are very popular, as they focus on the artist, introducing them to the audience. Close-ups also tend to take place when the artist/band is performing or lip-syncing, so it keeps focus on the music and the lyrics. This is important in indie music videos, as indie artists care more about the music rather than the visual elements. Long shots and wide shots are often used as establishing shots, so the location and full frame is revealed to the audience. During performance sequences in videos, crane shots and tracks are popular, as it shows the artist/band from a wide variety of angles, keeps the focus on them, and maintains a smooth and professional look. However, hand-held camera is also used in some indie music videos, as it gives a more fresh and raw feel to the video, which fits the ideology of the indie genre. An example of a music video that uses a really interesting and wide range of cinematography, whilst conforming to the conventions is Kings Of Leon's video for 'Use Somebody'.


Editing:
Similarly to music videos of any other genre, indie videos are edited to the beat of the song. This therefore makes cuts and transitions between shots either fast or slow paced depending on the pace of the song. Effects are commonly added over the video to reflect the style or mood of the video. Popular effects used over videos in the indie genre are the sepia or black and white effect, as they add a raw and moody look to the video. If the video is abstract or mainly performance based, editing may be heavily relied on, and special effects will be used throughout. An example of a video which uses a wide range of editing techniques and special effects is MGMT's video for 'Time To Pretend'. It creates a psychedelic feel, which matches the style of the song and the band's image/persona.

These are the forms and conventions for indie/alternative bands and artists explaining a correlation between many of this genre's music videos. Following from this, we have both challenged and conformed to the conventions, as well as developing them in our music video and ancillary tasks. 

How have you conformed, challenged or developed these forms and conventions?

INITIAL IDEAS

In general, when thinking about challenging, conforming or developing forms and conventions of typical existing music videos, we think that although we weren’t particularly deliberating which to abide by or try and rebel against, we achieved both. Through our process of making our music video and ancillary tasks, we have done this a few ways, from performance to narrative, characters to mise-en-scene.

Looking at our final cut, the first image on the screen is the titles of the single name ‘I’ll try anything once’ and the name of the artist ‘The Strokes’. I think the specifics of this title, taking into account size, font, kerning etc. in reference to the indie/alternative genre ultimately conforms to the stereotypical titles that could be seen in existing work. I would say that we didn’t particularly want to think about other examples because when editing we wanted ours to be particular to us and the style/visuals/aesthetic etc. that we wanted and not to be influenced from elsewhere. However, when initially looking for inspiration in the early planning stages we did come across a few titles that we liked, for instance, Haim’s ‘Little of your Love’.

The intro footage displays a 10-second shot in which we can see the characters drive off from what is presumably their house. The aim of this is to establish the style of the video, mise-en-scene, and to start the story. We deliberately kept the audio of the footage to help the audience see that there is a narrative that would be a large part if not all of this music video. I think this challenges the forms of music videos in the indie genre because even though it is typical to expect a narrative, it is common to also include an element of live performance as well. This is because it keeps the focus on the music rather than any complex visual elements, so in saying this, our video goes against the ideology of the Indie genre. However saying this, I think our video is still successful because it fulfils the aim and when watching, it grabs the audience’s attention because the audio isn’t a song which what they may have expected. 

Additionally, another convention, and perhaps one of the most important is a performance or lip-syncing, or both!! There are countless music videos where lip-syncing, together with a performance of some sort is used to convey the lyrics of the song, the feelings of the artist, to be more memorable, and focuses on the music. We deliberately chose not to include to try lip-syncing because we often think that in student-made music videos it can come off as cheesy and fake so, in turn, as we're challenging this, hopefully our music video can hold its own and the narrative will be enough to still keep viewers interested and watching. Getting audience feedback for this has noted that we have been successful and in fact, the narrative does manage without a performance element to create a successful music video.  

Furthermore, viewers can immediately see the framing of the video, as we have decided during editing from our rough cut to our final cut and with feedback from our target audience, to shape the footage into a square instead of it filling the screen. Overall, this conforms to conventions of many recent music videos (i.e. all Brockhampton’s music videos are in this format: HERE.) but not specifically to many indie/alternative artists. I think generally speaking, it varies from artists to artist – for instance The bleachers ‘Don’t take the money’ is in a square framing. In turn, I think our video has joint the rise of music videos being done this way, so in a way we have also developed a convention because we have made it more prevalent. This does surprise me seeing as the square references back to when movies were shot on film and from what I know, lots of alternative artists refer to that quirky, artistic aesthetic in their work. Showing the rough cut compared to the final cut and seeing viewers inclinations, we can firmly say that this choice has been successful as they prefer it. 

Here you can see the varying use of locations. Our music video’s sole objective was to portray two sisters’ relationship through them spending time together. We could’ve done this many ways, but we thought that too much of a strong storyline would have distracted from our objective. Alternatively, we have chosen to portray this by having the characters in different locations not doing particularly anything but spending time with each other. Therefore, we needed as much change in locations as naturally possible to keep the audience interested. So, we have the sweet shop, the Abbey, the Tiffey river, the car, the bridge over the A11, McDonalds, the bedroom, the sitting room, the petrol station, the forest and the kitchen. These settings are in keeping with the forms seen in indie music videos because locations in indie videos are usually very simple and easy to access. (this is normally because the videos are on a lower budget in comparison to those from the pop genre, whose record labels have large funding). I would say that our use of locations have been successful to a certain extent, although we could’ve conformed or developed conventions further if we had used a greater range of settings that differed slightly more, so the shots don’t look too samey and the audience don’t get bored. 

Considering cinematography was a huge aspect of the thinking behind our idea. Long shots and wide shots are often used as establishing shots, so the location and full frame is revealed to the audience, but seeing as we enlarged the borders, this was no longer possible. However, we found that with this frame in place, we could achieve lots more of the close-up shots and angles. Also using a hand-held camera, often going in and out of focus sort of visual is used in many indie music videos, as it gives a fresher and rawer feel to the video, which fits the ideology of the indie genre. This idea also refers to us developing the conventions as we’ve extended this form of using close-ups in a wide-screen into an extreme. We can see this here: brushing teeth, Amelia sleeping, daisy playing cards etc. I think this was done successfully because it adds an extra dynamic to our video to make it seem more arthouse cinema, which can only fit in with the indie and alternative genre. 

Our editing technique was purposefully looking for the longer shots, editing them to a softer tempo that would fit the song much better. However, in practice, and in editing our rough cut we found that a mix of both longer and shorter clips worked really well because it gave a variety and if they were all longer shots, say over 10 seconds then people noticed it, queried it or became slightly bored. So, in reality when it came down to it, we in fact conformed to the forms and conventions of existing indie/alternative music videos because we used a range of hard and soft-editing styles. In general, seeing as audience members have said that you can’t notice the editing particularly, we have achieved what we wanted, and the editing is successful.  

When thinking about editing with effects or corrections, we chose early on not to add these or alter the footage and as many existing music videos use these, along with special effects, layers and colour corrections, this challenges the stereotypical forms and conventions. Specifically, in indie music videos they typically add a black and white effect that goes for an alternative or moody look. However, we thought that could look a bit cheap or student-made and we preferred a more fresh and raw look that made it more natural. I think this has proven successful because we like the tone it portrays and ultimately, it makes the story look more real, which obviously we want. 

The costumes and make-up that we chose deliberately reflects the modern and contemporary time period that music video is set in; nowadays. I thought that the actors should wear their own clothes because when filming I wanted to capture a natural look by almost following them when they play out their lives. For this to happen they need to be comfortable in what they are wearing so they are comfortable in front of the camera. This conforms to the majority of indie/alternative forms and conventions, but it could be argued that there are a few artists and music videos that are unusual and so have unusual clothes and make-up. Because you can tell that it is set nowadays, this has proven successful. 

Our props have never been particularly an important aspect of our music video but have only ever been to help and aid the story or characters in telling the story. I think this is an aspect of music videos where were it varies from music video to music video if we are conforming or challenging. In some, they are the centre and key to understanding the concept whereas in others they help to portray the story and aren't typically noticeable. Therefore, I would say that we are conforming to the mass majority of music videos of the indie/alternative genre but could be challenging to some, where props feature heavily. 

Overall, our music video both challenges and conforms to the typical forms and conventions of indie/alternative music videos as well as developing some aspects. 

LR