Jem Akpinar A2 Media

Oliver Law A2 Media

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

PRODUCTS?

Our music video uses ways in media productto develop or challenge forms and conventions through real life products, such as real life TV and music videos already released. The Genre of our video is Pop/Rock, which we believe is modern but different because there are not many media products similar to our product in this time era. Our music video uses conventions of real music videos, website pages and CD digipaks. As a group we decided we wanted to use an old song but add a modern twist to it and we did this using props, an old location and using black and white editing techniques at the start of our video. The Kinks – All Day And All Of The Night, did not have an official music video so we decided that this was a great opportunity to make a video as we could use our own ideas and techniques. We watched music videos of The Kinks and similar bands such as The Beatles and The Monkeys, so we could get an idea of how they acted in the 60’s. The digipak cover also represents our real life product as we have edited the lighting to contrast with the style of our band. As our type of music style is from the 60’s, we had to use as many techniques as we could that would have a link to these time period with the audience understanding it quite easily.

I feel as though we have developed conventions by linking to the time period of our music video through our website and digipak front page. For example, the font of the word ‘Parody’ makes it look as though it is stuck against the wall and it also has an old fashioned look about it. We also made the title of the band name link to the real life media products in the 60’s. the group all analysed a music video each that was similar to the type of video we wanted to create. We decided that we were going to set our style on The Beatles as they were around the same time of The Kinks and had the boy band image that we wanted to set our band on.

Our video links to media theory such as the Male Gaze which also links to modern media products especially modern music videos. One of the male’s in the band obviously is caught staring by the woman and links to the Male Gaze theory as Mulvey says that the audience are likely to take an interest into a woman on the screen especially in modern music videos. We wanted to add a modern twist into our video, so this is why we added a woman who is getting the male band members to notice her and purposely ignores them. However, this can link to the Post Feminism theory as it shows that the woman is the most dominant and doesn’t position women as objects for men.

We had to make sure that our music video linked to our chosen genre all throughout. This was important because otherwise it could be confusing for the audience and we wanted to stick to the conventions that our audience would expect us to stick to. We expected the audience to take a liking to our 3 band members and for them to feel sympathy. The conventions had to be spot on for our characters, so the costumes we wore had to look very professional. We looked a costume boards of people in the 60’s and decided that suits would definitely look good as they emphasise the time era.

We studied Andrew Goodwin’s features of a music video theory. There are 6 features which are: • Genre Characteristics• Relationship between lyrics and visuals• Relationship between music and visuals• Star Image – Close up on the artist• Intertextual references • Voyeurism Goodwin states that the audience look for these 6 features whilst watching a music video. The opening to our music video is a series of really quick jump shots which do not show the band members straight away. This challenges the codes and conventions of modern videos as most videos like to promote the artist straight away. The opening lyrics in our video start of with myself in a suit walking down some steps. We wanted to make each band member look smart but casual at the same time. This is similar to the way that The Beatles acted in the 1960’s.

The star image that Goodwin uses as one of his features in his theory is something we have linked to quite regularly in our video. I think that with the close up shots on the band members, the audience may take a liking to them. This breaks the conventions from the 1960’s as videos that we researched didn’t really have shots of individual band members. However, in modern videos we see individual band members singing such as boy bands like One Direction. We decided to add the modern technique but also get shots of the whole band so we could create the twist.

We also created intertextuality through some conventions in our music video. One of the band members perform an ‘Usain Bolt Pose’ which links to a real life product. This links our video to other conventions in media products. The pose is widely recognised by audiences and if the audience see this in the music video then they will get a sense of reality whilst watching it.