IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOU MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

THEORISTS TALK ABOUT GENRE AND MUSIC VIDEOS!

• Williams:• ‘Formats and formulas’ used by media producers are there to provide ‘comfortable moulds which will create meaning for the audience’.

• Different genres have different styles and conventions which they can be identified with, e.g. pop genre would include a lot of colours, dancing whereas the rock genre would include instruments, leather costumes and long hair.

• Goodwin: • Music videos should have include characteristics of its genre e.g. Rock videos should have a lot of focus on instruments and guys wearing

leather with long hair. • There should be a relationship between what you hear and what you see, e.g. the lyrics may say ‘big, big booty, girl you got a big booty’ and

the visuals could be of a female bum.• You should include close ups of the artists. This will establish who they are but will also mean they are exposed to the viewer and the viewer can

connect to the music better.• There should be relationship between the music and the visuals, e.g. cutting the visuals to the beat of the song.

• Turow:• Mention that formulas are widely recognized principles which bring organization continuity and consistency.

GENRE: INDIE ROCK BAND NAME: MALIKI

SONG: LONDON LOVE • Conventions of the ‘Indie rock’ genre: Mise-en-Scene

Costume:Laid back and unique. Whatever the artist feels comfortable in will work, as there is not a designated style.

Arctic Monkeys take the more rocky styles with their leather jackets and

quiffed hair.

The Kooks fashion is more laid back and comfortable.

Like ‘The Kooks’, Maliki are an indie band with their own individual

styles, that are very laid back and casual.

Props: The main props used in the indie genre is musical

instruments.

Oasis are seen here during a performance shot, as we can

see the guitar is being played.

In Maliki’s video we see a close up of the keyboard.

• Conventions of the ‘Indie rock’ genre: Mise-en-Scene

The use of a cigarette was also used. The reason for this was was so that we could create a realistic picture of the character, in addition we had a close up of this so that the attention was completely on the girl

which would bring the ‘male gaze’ into place. Although she is not being sexualized, the close up of her face exposes all her features and allows

for the viewer to be close and personal with the main character.

GENRE: INDIE ROCK BAND NAME: MALIKI

SONG: LONDON LOVE

• Conventions of the ‘Indie rock’ genre: Mise-en-Scene

GENRE: INDIE ROCK BAND NAME: MALIKI

SONG: LONDON LOVE

Lighting and location: Many indie bands tend to have black and white music videos which give the effect of them being quite old fashioned but also means the viewer is not being

distracted by lots of colours. When deciding on our music video we planned on filming everything in colours and then experimenting with using the monochrome filter. We soon realized that this would not work with our video as we choose to have both a narrative and include performance shots and

therefore wanted the whole video to look and feel as real as possible, so by keeping the colours in in meant that the audience were able to picture exactly what the area was like. In addition, we decide to film in daylight so that the audience could really see the beauty of London and see the nature all around. We also filmed performance shots, with these shots we decided it be best t again keep the natural lighting as it really gave the video a naturalistic feel and

meant that the viewer feel as if they were part of the band, or felt as if they were sitting there with them listening to them play their song.

MY INTENTIONS

• When planning the music video I wanted it to look as successful as

possible. To do this I did the obvious thing such as conforming to the indie-pop genre and using characteristics from the genre such as performance

shots and props like cigarettes.

• We also made sure that when editing the video we used a lot of close ups of the main character. This is because

is because record label’s demand this but in addition we were able to establish the singer and the main

character in our narrative, these close ups also meant that the male gaze would be there as well as we have used a young beautiful girl who has done her self up

and is looking directly into the camera on various shots.

• In addition, during the editing process I wanted to make sure that their was a relationship between the

music and the visuals. To do this I decided that cutting to the beat would not only make the music

video flow but it would add in the element of connecting what we are seeing and what we are hearing. This was seen to be done a lot when we were introducing the performance shots. So when

the drums could be heard we put visuals of the drummer drumming to the beat.

• I found that although we did have close ups which will attract the male gaze, we did it in a way which wasn’t sexual. For example in many pop videos such as Nicki Minaj’s we

see that she is half naked and uses her body to get attention, whereas in our music video we wanted the attention to be on the young

girl but not to sexual advertise her using her assets, but to portray her as an

innocent beautiful girl. We were able to achieve this by making sure she was done up but still looked natural and laid back.

MY INTENTIONS

LOCATION AND BUDGET• Due to having a low budget our music video didn't look as successful and professional as most indie-pop music videos. However, the

fact that we had a low budget didn’t affect us being able to create a successful music video. I found that we were able to create something that did conform to the genre and included many conventions of the indie-pop genre.

• When filming we decided to film in a local park nearby the actual bands homes. The whole band have grown up in London, Ealing so it only felt right to film their first music videos somewhere where they are familiar with and have shared memories in. we found that Walpole Park in Ealing was a great location for the filming to take place. It was big and beautiful. We found that the park had many different spots which we could film by, such as the bridge and river. I found that due to having a low budget the park was the best

option as it was out in the open and this just conformed to the indie genre being free and laid back, so having a natural environment this meant it was emphasizes the indie genre.

CAMERA SHOTS USED

Close up

Over the shoulder

Panning/establishing shot

Medium shot

Long shot

Tracking shot

ANCILLARY TEXT

Digipak

On the day of shooting the music video we decided that we would also do several photo-shoots that we could use when creating our ancillary texts. We found that this not only would save time for both us and the band but also meant that the music video and

ancillary texts would link and look similar. We found that by doing this the ancillary texts turned out to be very successful as we were able to have actual shoots of both the main singer and the rest of the band. When choosing the images to use for the products we decided that for the digital we wanted to included the main artists on the front so that she would be advertised and that her face

would become recognized straight away, we found that a close up shot was best as it would expose her to the public. In addition we also wanted a shot of the band so we used a group picture, this meant that the band as a whole were being established, we decided to use a picture were they were laid back and having a laugh as we want to convey to the audience exactly what type of band they

are.

ANCILLARY TEXT CONT.• Furthermore another image we used was of the main singer and keyboardist,

we used this image as the music video showed a love story between the two, we found that this would further advertise the video and people would recognize them and pick up their album. Due to their number 1 hit being ‘London Love' we wanted to incorporate a London vide into the digipak. When shooting the video we took several images on our travels but the one in which we found was most successful was a image taken of a passing train. We found that this would fit perfectly across three sided in the inside of the digipak. We felt that the trains were unique and were something that you would associate with London and therefore fit in perfectly with their number one hit ‘London Love’, the image itself was also perfectly composed using the rule of thirds and had many elements to it such as the beautiful orange sunset, the moving train and the nature of trees.

Magazine advert

ANCILLARY TEXT

When creating the magazine advert we wanted it to be eye catching and stand out from other magazine adverts. We decided that we wanted the main image to be of the main singer as she also was the main character in the music video ‘London Love’. We found that

an image that was taken on the park bench of the Laura looking to the left was the most successful and would work best on the magazine advert. The image was perfectly composed using the rule of thirds. The way in which the image was composed meant that when creating the magazine advert we could perfectly put together the image with the text. We found that we were able to use the

park bench as a guide as to were we could put the bands hit single ‘London Love’ the text sat perfectly on the aliened bench and looked very professional. When deciding on what text we were going to use we wanted to go for something bold yet simple. We did

not want the attention taken away from the main image but wanted everything to fit in together. We decided to have the bands name stand out in a dark purple so that straight away the viewer would know who the band were, and we had all the other text in white which again stood out against that background. The link between the band name being in purple was to do with the album being

called ‘Purple Blood’ we used this as a synergistic element that would be noticed by viewers.