Eval 1 - Conventions

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?


The music video is the primary product of our coursework, accompanied by two ancillary texts (magazine advertisements & digipak). These 3 texts all share loosely linked conventions and imagery to link them together, although they each have their own conventions too, which they follow and challenge. Below, I shall be using my knowledge gained from the groups research and planning to discuss these texts and their conventions, and how we have used and challenged them to fit appropriately with our products.
   To begin with, I shall be looking at both the general and genre specific conventions that are commonly seen in music videos.

MUSIC VIDEO
General Conventions

Lana Del Rey lip syncing and looking
into the camera lens - an example of
Direct Gaze

After extensive research into music videos across all genres and sub-genres, both individually and as a class, I gained a strong idea of what to expect from a music video and how conventions can be used and interpreted differently for the different genres.
   Most videos tend to involve lip syncing and a direct gaze. This means that the singer(s) will look directly into the camera whilst lip syncing, to create a relationship with the audience. Lip syncing can be incorporated into a video in many different ways too. Some videos are solely performance, and so the lip syncing will act as though the artist is singing in a stage/professional setting. Others include the lip syncing into the narrative and/or concept, rather than on its own.

Rihanna

Two of Lady Gaga's outfits in 'Telephone'

   Another convention that is commonly reflected is the Male Gaze Theory, which carries the idea that female artists will often wear revealing/tight clothing and allow the camera to objectify their body, to attract a male audience. The ideas behind the Male Gaze Theory can still be seen today, as it can be debated that artists such as Rihanna andLady Gaga are being advertised in their videos as modern day 'sex symbols'. Their outfits and dancing is provocative, which, may be arguably giving out the wrong signal to their young teenage girl primary audience, however it increases sales and hits from their secondary male audience. This theory is also seen being reflected in girl groups' videos and styling, such asGirls Aloud and The Sugababes. On the flip side, it can be argued that there is a relatively modern idea of a Fe-male gaze, which is when the male body is objectified in a video, rather than the woman's. An example of this idea being used would be in Chris Brown's Turn Up The Music, when he is dancing without a shirt on. This helps to also keep the audience engaged throughout the video, as well as increasing the audience.

Alex Turner is the lead singer of the Arctic Monkeys and
is featured the most in the video for 'WYOCMWYH'.

   Star treatment can be observed throughout all genres. This is when the lead singer of a group is focused on the most, usually because they're the most recognisable and are often seen as 'the face' of the group. The lead singer may sometimes also feature in the narrative as well as performing. At live gigs, the vocalist will interact with the audience the most, meaning they have more of a personal interaction with the fans than the other members. Some examples of where this can be seen is in the majority of Bastille's videos, in The 1975'sChocolate and the Arctic Monkeys Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High.
   A large number of music videos often begin with a diegetic introduction and/or featurediegetic interludes. A diegetic introduction means the music doesn't begin straight away. A narrative will often play with diegetic sound until the track plays. A diegetic interlude is when the track will pause during the song, but there will be a continuing narrative and diegetic sound introduced until the track plays again.

'Miami Vice' titles

'Reaching Out' titles

   Finally, intertextuality can be recognised in a variety of music videos. Lana Del Rey's National Anthem features intertextual references from Marilyn Monroe's 'Happy Birthday Mr. President' and the Zapruder film, which can be clearly recognised (Stuart Hall's reading). Earthquake by DJ Fresh is another example which uses intertextuality, as well as cross promotion and product placement. The video interlinks with Kick Ass 2, acting as an advertisement for the film. These 2 different products tie-in, which is a positive feature as they advertise each other and can be more widely recognised. In the video for Reaching Out by Nero, the titles offer a tele-visual intertextuality of Miami Vice and provide a sense of realism.

Genre Specific Conventions

Once I had determined what to generally expect from a music video, and once we had decided upon our song as a group, we set about researching the genre specific conventions so that we could apply and challenge these in our own production. These are just a few of the common conventions that were recognised during research:
   Pop videos tend to be colourful and bright which is eye catching and engaging, and also often involve different transitions and effects, which keeps the pace of the editing consistent and fast. These features can be seen in solo artists and groups' videos, as a bright video appeals more to the target audience, which for pop, is usually a young teen audience. The transitions and effects add an extra element of excitement, and break up the linear shots.

NSYNC - Pop: Justin Timberlake individually lip sycning
& bright colours and effects

   There are also a variety of shots and set ups in videos for a more upbeat pop song, which have the same purpose of the effects and colours; to keep the audience engaged. They make the viewing more interesting and open to interpretation/preferred reading. Music videos are designed to be watched a number of times, so these conventions play a key role in allowing the audience to enjoy the video many times without getting bored.
   As I mentioned before, the portrayal of star treatment is common across all genres, however it is most common in pop videos. Within a group, there is usually one lead vocalist, who has the most singing parts in their songs. In videos, this individual will be always be at the centre of the group or closest to the camera, along with more individual lip syncing shots than other members. For example, in Pop by NSYNC, Justin Timberlake stars the most. This was because he was the most famous member of the group at the time, and so the audience could recognise the group easier when he was shown on screen.

Dance performance in S Club 7 - S Club Party

   Music videos can be de-constructed into 3 different categories; performance, concept and narrative. It is most common for a pop video to be constructed around performance footage and a concept. If there is a narrative, it will most likely be romantic, to link with the lyrics (which are commonly based on a romantic love story). With an upbeat tempo there will also usually be a dance routine incorporated into the performance on top of the lip syncing.



How We Used/Developed/Challenged Music Video Forms and Conventions:


Transcript:

• After researching both general and genre specific conventions, I was able to recognise areas in our own video so that we could use these conventions . We began with planning our idea fully, taking influences from previous Atomic Kitten videos, including It's OK, and other current groups like The Saturdays, for outfit and location inspiration. Atomic Kitten  follow most common conventions, such as incorporating lip syncing and direct gaze into the concept and/or narrative, and reflecting the Male Gaze Theory through the use of tight and revealing clothing, with the camera often panning across the body to objectify body parts. we thought it would be appropriate to apply these elements to our production. 
• The outfits that we decided upon were thought of with great care. The performance outfits have been greatly influenced by other female pop groups, like Atomic Kitten themselves, the Sugababes and Girls Aloud. All these groups will often be wearing smart dresses and heels in their videos, with heavy makeup and styled hair. If there are other set ups, then sometimes a more causal outfit will be shown too. We have incorporated both of these styles into our video, as we used 2 formal dresses and 1 causal outfit for the performance footage. We used 2 styles of dresses each, one blue and one black, and then we wore floral and patterned clothing for the casual shots. We mixed up the outfits to provide a visual range and to keep the audience from getting bored. We took particular inspiration for the casual outfits from the original video for It's OK, as they're wearing headbands and floaty tops, to fit in with the beach location. Because one of our locations was a wooded area, we thought it would work effectively if we wore floral clothing, to reflect the natural hippy theme associated with woodland. We feel that this worked well, as it broke up the formal side and added a more relatable, casual side to the video adding boy band characteristics. Again, there were 3 different outfits for this section, yet this time they were all relatively causal, to provide a sense of realism. Because the narrative was split into past and present, there were 2 outfits for the past and one for the present. We used 2 outfits for the past , one for the outside shots and one for the inside shots, for both the boy and girl. The 'inside' outfit was the most formal out of all 3, as it was worn for the romantic meal set up, we felt it would be appropriate for the boy to be wearing a shirt and for the girl to be wearing a nice top and skirt. The 'outside' shot was the most casual, as this was worn for the dog walk set ups meaning the clothing needed to be appropriate for outdoors, and because it had been raining the paths were muddy, hence the need for wellies. We thought that because of the cold weather and wet scenery, there was a greater sense of realism portrayed, as it made it easier for the audience to relate to the characters and situation. The present outfit was another ordinary outfit, and the characters were in a house wearing normal clothes, so the audience could relate to these scenes, even if there was no romantic narrative and it was just the outfits shown on screen.
•  we have applied the Male Gaze Theory to our video however this has been hard as the girls are an innocent girl band compared to a band like the pussycat dolls.The dresses that we wore were different, with some being low cut and others being tight/bodycon and for the 'hippy' outfit, we wore tight jeans and shorts, and vests and crop tops. we chose the outfits that we thought would look most effective on camera whilst also considering what clothing would reflect the Male Gaze Theory the most. In the editing of the video, we included some close ups to objectify specific body parts, however because the target audience is 12-24, we did this in moderation, to accommodate the younger girls' viewing. Despite this, there is objectification used in some parts of the video, with some shots being more subtle than others, for example the shot at the end, of the group walking away begins as a slight pan up their lower bodies then as they move away from the camera they fully come into shot.
• With our chosen locations, we challenged what you would typically expect to see in a girl group video. The pop genre tends to be centred around urban themes, with gritty backstreets widely used by both female and male artists and groups, for example Blue's One Love, which provides street credibility for the boys. However, in contrast to this, we shot both our performance and narrative footage in rural areas. This was mainly due to accessibility and time scales, as we had very little time to complete the video, so we needed to ensure that if we were to need any last minute footage we could easily access the same location that same day and with no transport. The areas in which we live are rural, which also meant there were many possible locations to choose from. For the narrative section, we used one of our own houses which was further out that what we had wanted, yet this house provided us with the most scope and more location opportunities. Because of this, we planned the narrative shoot thoroughly and carefully to make sure that we would not need to re shoot any of this footage and have to rearrange transport at the last minute. Most of the feedback we received praised the rural aspect to the video, so we feel that by challenging the common conventions we actually created a video with more of an impact on the audience.
• To add more emotional pleasures to our video, as spoken about by Rick Altman, we used a particular style of editing to convey the romantic narrative clearly. Pop music videos tend to be edited to fit the tempo and style of the lyrics, and because the lyrics are romantic, we thought that it would be best to leave slightly longer takes than what you would expect to see in an upbeat dance video, as it portrays the romantic element more effectively this also reflects the pace and makes the video slower so the audience can connect with the narrative. The use of mise-en-scene further allowed us to convey the romantic theme, as we focus on the exchange of the roses and a necklace in the video, and then re-use the petals of these roses again later in the video. We needed to make sure that these props were not the total main focus points. yet they still needed to be clear enough for the audience to pick up on, through preferred reading, as explained by Stuart Hall. The transitions we chose were also picked with consideration, as these also needed to fit in with the 'soft' editing style. We used many fades, and created a transition out of some existing shots that we had. We had a shot zooming into water, and a zoom out to show the duck pond, so we put these two shots together to create a new transition, rather than using a pre-installed fade or zoom out. We received great feedback from this transition, so we decided to keep this and use it in our final video, as it worked effectively and looked professional. Layering has also been featured many times in our video, as this again fits in well with the theme of the video and our editing style. We layered performance shots onto narrative shots, as it added visual variety and made some shots, particularly scenery shots, appear more effective. Compared to other existing romantic pop music videos, we have tried to edit our video appropriately and similarly to how these videos are cut, as we wanted to make it as realistic as we could.

Digipaks do not tend to have genre specific conventions, as they all include similar features. This vodcast explains the common features of a digipak (which can be found across all genres):



Below, this prezi presentation demonstrates how we have considered the conventions spoken about in the above vodcast, and how we have incorporated them into our digipak:

MAGAZINE ADVERT

Conventions:
We decided to create multiple teaser mag ads and final mag ads, so that there were a range of ads, and to give ourselves scope for using different images and layouts. Just like music videos and digipaks, mag ads follow common conventions too.
   The first main convention is the artist name, which will always be the largest text and will usually be central to the mag ad as a whole. This is to draw specific attention to the artist, as this is the first feature that the magazine reader will usually notice first. Some more modern pop artists may not be recognised as much physically by older audiences, yet their name may still be recognisable, and so by placing the artist name onto the mag ad it is being aimed at a wider audience.
      The name of the new album/tour will also be placed underneath the artist name. This is the main feature point and the sole purpose for the ad, and so this also needs to be large text underneath the artist name. The audience need to be informed about what the advert is actually advertising, and so this is a common convention used across all genres.
   An image of either the artist themselves or an image relevant to the artist will also be included. For well known acts, an image can be instantly recognisable whether it is of them themselves or not. This also intrigues the reader and makes them want to read into the rest of the ad.
   A date of release also needs to be included, so that the readers know when they can purchase the material being promoted.
   Finally, the record label will usually be included, through the use of the logo or the website.

How We Used/Developed/Challenged Mag Ad Forms and Conventions:

Our QR code

We decided to follow most of these conventions, except we didn't include the record label, and instead replaced this with our QR code. We included the QR code in our mag ad to entice a younger modern audience. Because smartphones are becoming more frequently purchased and used, QR codes are becoming more easily recognised and so we thought it would be appropriate to add one to ours, which leads to our production Twitter account.
   We added the artist name 'Atomic Kitten' at the top with 'Whole Again' in a slightly smaller font below on all the main ads. We also included another sticker advertising the digipak, in a bold font to make it stand out and eye catching to the audience.
   We have used a professional style in our digipak and carried this on to the mag ad too. The final group mag ad could be argued to be fairly simple, yet after experimenting, we decided that other images and text appeared too clumsy and looked out of place. We feel that because the group have recently reunited, 'less is more'. This means that we have provided sufficient information for the reader, without giving too much away, and again the QR code allows the audience to further gain more knowledge about the new product, if they wish.

SUMMARY
In all our products, we have adapted and challenged conventions, whilst also sticking to the most common, to ensure that the younger audience feel included in the product. We feel that overall, our choices have created products which provide variety for the primary and secondary audience and that we have added modern elements, to adapt to the changing interactive world.