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

Editing is a crucial aspect in music videos in general as it focuses on the aesthetic look. Thus, editing was important in order for us to develop the conventions of dance genre. This meant that, me and my partner had to follow the conventions of other established music videos in order to satisfy our target audience's needs. This led to us looking at other artists or music videos that had the same genre for example, 'Blonde- Loved You More' and see what filters or effects they have used for their video for the purpose of us taking inspiration.
I found that it was uncommon for dance music videos to use filters and effects which me and my partner decided to follow however, we decided to challenge this by adding filters and effects for example, using filter to show the audience that it is a memory. We felt that adding a filter to our music video would not only make the audience realise that is a memory but however add more meaning.

FILTERS AND EFFECTS

We were highly influenced by Blonde's music video of 'I Loved You More' due to the fact that it shares the same narrative/ storyline as my music video. Although, in this music video it is hard to distinguish when it is a memory as the filters/ effects are not clear enough however, in my music video we decided to make it more clearer so that it is easy to recognise that it is a memory.

FILTERS AND EFFECTS IN MY MUSIC VIDEO

Here is how we have used filters and effects in our music video.

EDITING

'Habits' was a main inspiration for our music video as me and my partner liked the edit used in 'Tove Lo- Habits'. This is because the video cuts when there is a beat in the song which we was inspired by. We liked the fact that the video consisted of slow cuts and decided to use some aspects of it however, we decided to challenge this convention in our video as we decided to use elements of both slow cuts as well as quick cuts to reveal the fun that is taking place in the video. We used the slow cuts in the party scene to emphasise how effected the protagonist is by drinking.

FILLER SHOTS

We used filler shots in our music video to show that various things are happening at once. We used the filler shot of the sky in our music video to illustrate that time has gone past. We did not want to use filler shots of random things that would not suit our music video as it would look like something that we just added on, we did not want to add things that did not have any meaning or things that would confuse our target audiene. We wanted to include things such as the sky or the city lights to add meaning to our music video.

CAMERA

Me and my partner really liked the way the camera is held in 'Tove Lo- High' as looks like she's holding the camera but however, when we further researched about the way the cameras held, we found that the model in the video was wearing a harness. Although, a harness would be expensive for us to invest in, we decided to use an inexpensive way of this technique by using a different resources. We decided use a tripod and adjust it to our our height and recorded from there. We also liked the way the model is placed in the centre as it emphasises her importance which we also liked. We also liked the video as a whole due to the fish eye lens used however, we decided that we did not want to include this in our music video. Here is the result of us using this technique:

This is a practice video that we did trying to use this technique. Although this is an inexpensive way of doing this technique, we were quite satisfied with this result as we did not have to invest in a lot of money in order to achieve our goals.

CAMERA

In dance music videos, a common feature is to have the band name or the logo at the very beginning. This means that we are immediately introduced to the band as the audience as we are able to identify the genre just by looking at the logo. These examples illustrate the the weirdness and deviance behind dance logos which we wanted to follow in our music video.

The bottom images are how we have started and ended our music video.

CAMERA SHOTS

Close-ups are commonly used in dance music videos as this allows the audience to get an insight of what the model/ artist is feeling and also able to explore with the focus. However, not all the shots are close-ups, there are a mixture of both close-ups as well as medium shots.

These shots allows us as the audience to explore the facial expressions used in the video clearly. These shots were very crucial in our music videos as it allows the audience to see the character's emotions which the audience may able to relate. Here are examples of how we used it in our music video:

CAMERA SHOTS

A common convention of music videos are shots where the audience are able to see the location. These shots allows the audience to explore or get an insight of where the models/ characters are which they can then be able to escape to as music is usually referred to escapism. These shots especially the second on the right looks aesthetically pleasing as the quality is very clear and bright which looks very nice. These shots were crucial as it allows the audience to know where the characters and where the story is taking place and it also allows the audience to get a sense of the atmosphere. The images on the right are examples from my music video. As you can see we have used this convention and also developed it. We have used setting that our target audiences would commonly see to give our music video a realistic touch.

NARRATIVE/ PERFORMANCE

BINARY OPPOSITE-

NON-LINEAR-

Our music video does not follow the typical pattern as it is not in chronological order. It has memory immersions thus adding another story inside the main plot.

Dance music videos usually explore the themes of happiness, fun and partying. We decided to follow these conventions in some aspects of our music video.

There are elements of past vs present and good vs bad in our music video.

NARRATIVE (restricted narrative range)-

The audience are restricted of the knowledge and understand behind the protagonists death at the beginning of the music but however, towards the ending of the video, the audience are aware of how and why the protagonist decides to commit suicide.

NARRATIVE/ PERFORMANCE

Dance music videos are usually based around performance rather than storyline. Although there are some elements of narrative in some videos however, dance is not a genre which focuses or based around narrative. Dance is a genre which celebrates or promotes the idea of having fun and enjoying life. 'Route 94- My Love' is a good example of this as it explores the life in a club and how fun and unifying it is as people come together to dance.

NARRATIVE/ STORYLINE

DISEQUILIBRUIM (hints of conflict)-

The are explicit shots of disequlibrium by the ways the two friends end up not being friends which is seen in the video however, there are also visible shots of diseqilibrium by how we edited the music video as there cuts from the past (memories) to the present.

DENOUEMENT-

The audience discovers why the protagonist commits suicide at the end of the video.

THE HERMENEUTIC CODE (Barthes theory)-

The Hermeneutic code refers to any element in the story where it is not fully explained. This allows the audience to keep guessing what is going to happen next however, everything is revealed at the end of the story. Our music video is a perfect example of this as the audience can be confused at the beginning of the video however, they start to understand the story at the end as everytging is revealed to them.

CLOTHING

Clothing plays a significant role in dance music videos as well as other existing music videos as it plays with the mis-en-scene. For example, black has the connotations of death or dark so therefore, wearing black would signal to the audience that something is going to happen. In our music video, we played with the costumes that the character would wear:

In this shot, the juxtaposition of the costumes reveals that there are opposition and conflict between the characters. It reveals the in this shot, the character in the jeans (me) is different from the other characters. The white top reveals purity whereas, the black reveals darkness.

CHALLENGES

In Andre Goodwin's theory, he states that there is a voyeuristic treatment of women. In many dance music videos, there is indeed elements of women being objectified or sexualised. Below are examples of how women are portrayed in dance music videos:

- The fact that there are body shots of women and their confirms to Goodwin's theory as there are voyeuristic treatment of women in music videos. This links in with Laura Mulveys theory about the 'male gaze' as she believes that the ways in which the footage is filmed is as though it was filmed from a male perspective thus, to satisfy their needs as women are perceived as sexual objects.

- However, we decided to challenge this by not including any boys or body shots as we wanted to focus more on the relationship between the two friends rather than having bodily images.

ANCILLARY TASK

Many promotional music posters, for dance are very artistic varying from very minimal or very crowded busy posters. We decided to go for a simplistic look, using the same colour scheme as the digi-pack as well as the music video. Usually the ancillary tasks all compliment the music video and have reoccurring images, this is common especially in Dance Genre as it points towards a very niche target audience, thus all the products must be recognisable. Usually the logo stays the same which we did throughout our ancillary tasks however, we decided to use a different logo in our music video as it did not look aesthetically pleasing when we added this particular logo in our music video. We decided to follow the conventions of real promotional posters by adding a release date and album name.

The images used in the ancillary tasks would would reflect the main product or tell us something about it which mine does. With the positioning of the two girls and the album name in the middle exposes the distance between the characters.

THEORIES- Narrative

Levi Strauss- (BINARY OPPOSITES)

- We predominantly kept the pace of our editing quick to highlight the concept that life moves too quickly and that we must enjoy every moment. However, towards the end of the video, we used fast pace editing even in sensitive areas such as when the protagonist is taking drugs and also when the character are no longer friends. These BINARY OPPOSITES give meaning to the audience by juxtaposing the characters happiness with depressing or dark settings.

- We also used slow motions/ slow shots to reveal how affected the protagonist was by drinking. We also used slow shots to illustrate that hurt and loss can consume people that it may lay to their destruction. This is shown at the end of the video where she commits suicide due to the loss of her friendship.

- There is also the concept of good and bad in our music video.

-These clear BINARY OPPOSITES help and as well as give meaning to our video and also to the audience by the juxtaposition of the two characters of one being presented as good whereas, the other is presented as bad. This is shown through the use of the mis-en-scene where the bad character is usually recorded in dark settings whereas, the good character is usually recorded in the light.

THEORIES- Representation

Richard Dyer- How we are seen determines how we treat others, based on how we see them:

David Gauntlett- "Identities are not 'given' but are constructed and negotiated" - this means that the identities of social groups such as youths are affected by the representation of these identities in the media. This idea is clearly shown in our music video as we show the different construction or stereotypical views of youths, as one of the character is portrayed as someone who is innocent and is into her education whereas, the other character is portrayed as the typical stereotypical view of the youth as she is represented as a party animal and someone who is easily influenced which eventually leads to her destruction.

THEORIES- Genre

Andrew Goodwin- there is a succinct relationship between music and visuals (amplify)- this means that the directer is trying to amplify or intensify the lyrics into the visuals.

- We tried following this criteria by the fast pace editing as we believed that it would add more meaning to our music video and also give the audience an insight of what the characters are feeling for example, when the the two friends are having fun and also in the party scene.

- We decided to have a star in the music video to show to show that she is the one telling the story.

- The protagonist commits suicide which makes us as the audience have pity towards her.