In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

https://youtu.be/kA6YI_puVvw

Our music video uses, develops and challenges the conventions set out by real media products in a variety of

ways. The video is a depiction of physical, domestic abuse against women from the involvement of substance

abuse. We based the narrative style off of ‘Alt-J’s “Breezeblocks” because it featured an abusive relationship

between a man and a woman. We therefore followed a conventional narrative depicting a broken relationship,

which is common in alternative rock videos. Similar forms of editing were used for our video because we chose to

emulate the slow motion effects seen in ‘Breezeblocks’ through using a 32 megapixel camera and a higher frame

rate. This editing style emphasised the narrative of the video and depicted the heaviness of an abusive

relationship.

Prop inspiration came from this video because in my research I noticed a heavy emphasis on the rings each

character wore to symbolise marriage and ‘stable’ relationships. As a response to this, we decided to have our

character wear ‘promise’ bands, which both eventually end up removing and throwing aside, representing the

neglect of their relationship and, ultimately, the finality of what they had. We combined the ring props with

bottles of alcohol, which we chose to use to reflect the relationship being toxic, as the male is reliant on alcohol

which then acts as a catalyst for his physical abuse to the woman. Using substance abuse as the reason for the

abuse is developing the narrative of our video because it is impressionable in both ‘Breezeblocks’ and ‘Octopus’

why the characters relationships failed. The use of alcohol was seen in my partners research of the music video

“Habits” by ‘Tove Lo’, where there is a strong focus on substance abuse. We took inspiration from this because

the substances such as drugs and alcohol cause the female character in “Habits” to change negatively. We

reflected this in our music video through having Rory act abusively after having alcohol. Giving the props a

purpose helped with creating dynamic to our narrative, because the alcohol was the cause for the abuse, which

also highlighted conventional gender roles of male on female abuse. We chose to use a heterosexual relationship

because this was the convention seen in our research, and seemed the most relatable to a mass audience.

Makeup played a large role because the actress is seen lip-syncing in the conventional performance aspect of the

music video with ‘bruised’ special effects makeup. This was a development of the abusive narrative we saw in the

video, as it shows the consequences the character faces from being abused by her partner, giving irony to lyrics

“we live in a beautiful world’.

Inspiration for setting came from both ‘Octopus’ and ‘Breezeblocks’ because of the use of only internal, domestic

settings of lounges and bathrooms, which were included in our music video, showing that we used conventional

settings. However, we introduced these settings by challenging the conventions of these music videos by having

an external shot of the domestic place. For example, a wide shot was used of the bi-folding doors to show the

lounge setting where Rory was getting increasingly drunk.

King Krule’s music video ‘Octopus’ was an influence into our editing techniques because of the red lighting, rapid

edits and the atmosphere these created. The video has jaunty editing which gives it a unique ‘trippy’ look and is a

visual effect used to portray the way drugs are affecting his brain. We resembled this idea through having an

effect on our point-of-view footage which makes the footage blurred, giving the impression that the viewer is

under the influence of alcohol.

The colour red was significant from both of our research; however, “Mr.Brightside by The Killers” shows

prominent use of red and blue tones. For example, the settings and costume use red and blue to reflect emotional

responses, with red being negative and blue being positive. We chose to use the conventional colour of red in our

video through the isolated effect on black and white. Specifically, we use red for negat ive events, such as the

blood in the shot glass, blood in the sink and the roses, which signify a broken or dangerous relationship.

We challenged alternative genre conventions through the editing and post production effects. Firstly, instead of

using solely slow motion, as seen in “Fun- We Are Young”, “Alt-J’s – Breezeblocks” and “King Krules- Octopus”, we

used normal speed for performance aspects of the video. To remain conventional, all narrative parts of the music

video were put in slow motion. We chose not to have the entirety of our video in slow motion after complaints

from class feedback that it became tedious to watch.

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

https://youtu.be/kA6YI_puVvw

For our ancillary tasks, we found inspiration from our research into existing products. For example, our digipak

was produced with ‘Alt-J’s An Awesome Wave’ in mind. We used the conventions of bright playful colours and

original abstracted artwork for the front cover, which Kelsey noticed in her research. To achieve the artistic affect,

Kelsey watered down acrylic paints in blue and gold tones then photographed the outcome. I chose to use a bold

Sans-Serif style font similar to that seen with St.Vincents ‘Self Titled’ digipak. This is her most recent album, and

most popular as she was nominated for best alternative album and single of 2016. The minimalist layout of the

digipak was inspired from St.Vincent because her music and art-house style is appealing to mass and more niche

alternative audiences. Through audience feedback, we learned that most of our audience found the Alt -J digipak

appealing for its art style, but found it confusing because it has no text on the front cover. Therefore, we

developed this idea by including conventional titles and band name onto our final product. These fonts were

sourced through fontspace.com

The magazine advert was originally drafted with ideas taken from alternative genre products in mind. We liked

the layout and colour scheme of my research of the Wombats album release, because of the quirky insert of the

photograph. I attempted to emulate a similar layout through having the central image, white blank space around

the advert and information in the bottom left. I also used the conventional grid style layout that was in Kelsey’s

research into Kings of Leon’s advert. I found the layout of the images to be eye catching, so we decided to put the

conventional band images in this grid. I developed the grid by utilising the art style in the digipak by having a

hand-drawn effect on the grid.

Overall, our final products took inspiration from a number of researched sources, but overall give an original look

that could appeal to a mass audience. Research into existing products helped us make informed decisions when

trying to use, develop and challenge conventional forms with production of our own media texts. Using

conventional aspects helped us make a commercially respected line of texts, however, learning when to challenge

these elements supports what the alternative and indie genres stand for, showing that we truly understand our

chosen genre.