Q1. HOW DO YOUR PRODUCTS USE OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS AND HOW DO THEY REPRESENT SOCIAL GROUPS AND ISSUES?

By: Muhammad Faraz Malik

What are Codes and Conventions?

These are a system of signs which are used to create meaning. They are already established and have an agreed upon meaning which helps to communicate ideas and concepts to the audience. Moreover, it allows the audience to create a sense of recognition among different products. Not only that, it also aids in categorising products to their specific category, for example categorising music videos according to their genre.
Before working on my final products with my team, I researched about the codes and conventions of our genre. We followed most of them but also broke/challenged a few as well which I will explain in this presentation.

1.Bright colours

2.Colourful costumes

3.Makeup

4.People are usually seen partying/drinking/having fun

5.Bold and attractive people

Genre

Andrew Goodwin stated that a music video includes already established genre characteristics which is to be expected out of a music video. Our music video genre was Pop music which mostly revolves around love, emotion, feelings, memories, fashion and pain due to which the storylines of the videos directly link with the similar themes. Pop music has produced the highest number of hits because it is upbeat and it focuses on common themes. The lyrics of most pop music songs are said to have had both positive and negative impacts on society. Changes and evolution in the pop music have shaped popular culture and morals. The new trends determine what is considered ‘cool’ and what is not because pop music reflects emerging trends. It has helped in shaping fusion genres such as R&B, baroque pop, power pop, pop rock, psychedelic pop, smooth jazz, country pop, electropop, Indie pop, Latin pop and jangle pop. It has helped in promoting professionalism in music since it puts so much emphasis in technology and production. It has spread from just America and Britain and become an internationally recognized genre. Most regions in the world have their own form of pop. Korea, for example, has its own distinct pop music form that has greatly contributed to the Korean music industry. Pop music has facilitated globalization and cultural integration.Similarly, our song is also based on Memories and Love.

We had to focus on individuals that liked pop music, which is a niche audience. In order to create a product that would appeal to my audience, we had to do conduct a research into the genre and most importantly research the typical codes and conventions that had to be followed. This involved many hours on the internet including reading articles on the music industry, debates and looking at statistics of the different music genres. Pop music videos are mainly based on performance, pop music videos are almost completely on the artist would still play the main character. The visuals in the videos are usually linked to the song in some way.

Lose you to Love me - Selena Gomez

You Belong with me - Taylor Swift

Pop music videos revolve around love and relationship problems, in comparison to ours which revolve around women empowerment and self actualization.

Pop music is not focused on any specific audience. It is meant to appeal to just about everyone that would listen and is therefore very commercial. It is used to reflect emerging trends and not specific ideologies. It is, therefore, focused on recordings and technology and not on live performance. Pop music is often repetitive to create a rhythmic element that stands out. Pop music is danceable but the lyrics can also be listened to. They are usually about common themes such as romantic relationships. Pop music uses Classical European tone for chord progressions and harmony. It is more dominant in America and Britain but is accepted globally.

When it comes to the performance part of our video, we followed the convention of having the performance both inside and outside. Pop performances are usually done outside to portray a punky, funky and upbeat atmosphere which relates to the tone of the music and the artist/band's star image. This not only makes the audience attention focus more on the content and music but also helps save money by having a low-budget setting. However, a more upbeat and fast Pop song usually has the performance indoors or in a studio but we wanted to break this convention by following the setting of a slower Pop song. Pop performance has bright colours, lights which lighten the performance, lots of make-up and fashion accesories, also during editing tints and filters are used to boost colours, photoshopping the artist so they look perfect. We, however broke this convention as our miusic video's theme was mostly dull at the beginning, showing depression and hoplessness, as the story proceeds and the charecter starts to move forward and expresses her motivation, suppression and her anger, the saturation increases and colour is added to the video. The bright colours show strenegth, fearlessness, hope and happiness in our story.

Slow, Relaxing Pop Music

Fast, Upbat Pop Music

 The artists shots were taken with the help of led panels. However, the protagonists shots  were taken by using spotlights and natural lights. We broke this convention and used a natural feel towards the make-up. Whilst during the shoot, many close-ups of the artists faces were taken, long shots of artist performing/conference/riding the horse, all of this is conventionally shot in low budget, accessible place and are often paired with performances to make it more memorable (we followed this convention).

For the clothing of our artists, we followed the convention of dressing them according to their settings. In most Pop videos, the artists are wearing more trendier and fashionable clothing with bright colours and a loud sense of style, which represents their region and reflects the mood of the song as the more stylish the clothes are, the stronger the emotional bond with the audience and the more the focus on the music and content of the band. We did put an effort in selecting a bit fancier traditional but trendier clothes and included many close-ups to promote their star image. Our song is a Pop fusion as it includes Western instruments as well, therefore, the clothes worn by the artist are in a fusion video are usually a fusion of East and West. Despite that, we challenged this convention by dressing up our actors and artist in pure, trendy sense of fashion. The actress in part of our video is dressed in a white 'Shalwar Qameez' because it gives out an exotic vibe and feel to those who do not live in the East. This will help us attract our secondary audience - foreigners who are not familiar with Pakistan. This will allow the audience to further connect with the actors and artist and feel more related to them.

Our artist is dressed in some trendy jeans and shirts along with some accessories whereas our actress is dressed in a polo outfit that represents part of our song, and later on some trendier peices of fashion along with a lighter make-up and accessories which emphasises on the representation as well.

Narrative

A Pop video usually incorporates a storyline in the video which helps the audience visually see and understand the lyrics, and experience the feelings and emotions of the artist aswell as the actor's. This is a convention we followed. Our music video has a narrative, as well as performance.  A Pop music video mostly revolves around a love story where two lovers have to face troubles and challenges to be with each other. Some videos have the representation of their feelings, religion or some social issue. Almost all of the Pop videos are based on this. However, we decided to break this convention as our narrative revolves around two people;  The first one is the girl, who is struggling because of all the suppression she faces because of her dad. The girl is shown to be living in a society where male dominance is common, but how she overcomes her fear of lonliness and empowers her goals to become a famous polo player. The second main charecter is the gir's father, who gives her daughter support when she was young but as she grew up and wanted to achieve her dreams, he didn't support her and abstained her from doing something she dreamed of. In our music video, this mindset and the dominance of her father is killing her hopes of achieving her dreams and she is shown to be bothered by it all. All the flashbacks she's getting is destroying her peice of mind.

Narrative

We, however, did follow the social issue convention as in today's time, many female teenagers have to go through some obstacles in order for them to reach their perspective goals. We wanted to portray the anxiety and depression thew female teenagers feel, to the world as there is little or no representation of the hardships faced by women and how they empower their weaknesses and achieve their goals, in any genre of music video. This not only brings nostalgic feelings for the older, mature audience, but it will also help connect with the younger people who can relate to similar situations they have faced and overcame them or are in comparable adversity .

This is an entirely new and different approach to a Pop music video's storyline. A teenage group is being represented and brought to the audience. Furthermore, we believe that the same, old love story plots are getting repetitive and boring, so we found it extremely suitable to experiment and bring out something entirely distinctive and different for the audience to watch.

Adding on to that, many stereotypes are also followed in a Pop video. Usually, a working class is shown where the rebelious guy falls in love with the innocent and pure female who is from a different class and rank, creating problems and challenges in their lives.  The females are always poindexters, honest and modest girl. Whereas, the male is not financially stabe or has other problems which his/her father dispproves off. This is a typical cliched stereotype found in every movie and book which links with Levi-Strauss' theory of binary opposition. Two contrasting and extremes are shown to drive the plot forward. We completely challenged this convention. There was no binary opposition present in our characters as our storyline revolves around a girl and is more like a montage rather than a smooth, transitional video.  

Popular Pop Songs

Performance

Another convention we followed is how almost majority of Pop music videos feature the artist/band in them which gives them the opportunity to show their talent and lets the audience connect with the story and artist. For our performance, we stuck to both an indoorsy and outdoorsy location which appeared both unique, unpretentious, fresh and natural (a conventional setting found in many Pop videos). Moreover, we selected a polo ground/field to develop a connection with the story and to make the video look more exotic for people not familiar with Polo. This also gives a casual look to the performance, and brings the attention to the storyline being conveyed. Aside from following the convention of wearing and representing trendy clothes and accessories, as well as selecting a conventional location, we also followed another convention by including the original instuments used in the song. A Pop song has many westernized instruments, therefore we included a guitar and a piano to create a better sounding video with a good, accurate performance. Furthermore, it lets the audience know that our artist is a talented person who produces their own work. This helps promote their star image as well. Some kind of dancing and choreography is also always present, especially in Pop videos as they are connected with feeling and emotion but we did not include this convention as we wanted our audience entire attention on the storyline and concept of the video.

Cinematography

The cinematography allows me to convey a message to the audience through my music video, this involves the typical codes and conventions of an indie rock music video, like mid-shots and close-ups along with a wide range of establishing shots to convey the location and setting of the music video. Having the actress in the centre of the frame allows for the audience to follow her story throughout the music video and to be able to draw the audience’s attention to the character and draw a sense of importance to her. I decided to follow the codes and conventions so that the overall feel of the music video is familiar to the audience that already knows the genre of music. I also used smooth camera movements which is another typical code and convention of the genre, by using the smooth camera movements the audience can follow my main character throughout the music video, this maintains the focus of the main character throughout my narrative music video. By having some shaky camera movements it adds a sense of how crazy a person can get by the thoughts they're getting and how a person is affected by all that is going on in their mind. By having these two main camera movements the music video create a link with the viewers.

Social Issue

In our music video, there's not only one social issue shown. The stereotypical concept of male dominance is shown and how women deal with it is shown. Another concept of women empowerment is shown as our video proceeds to the ending. In the video, it is shown that the girl's dad has been with her when she was younger, went to horse riding with her, taught her everything but as she grew up her dad turned against her doing what she loved. She felt really sad and was depressed by the thinking of her dad.

Technical Codes

Camerawork: The use of camera and the sequence with which a video is presented has a great impact on the meaning. We followed the conventional rules of filmmaking such as the rule of thirds, the rule of 180 degree. Moreover, we also included many close-ups during our performance so our audience could emotionally connect with the artist, furthermore, we also took many close-ups of the actress to show her energy and body language which will further allow the audience to feel a part of the video. I also made sure that our music video had a variety of shots and angles such as top shot, mid shots, long shots, eye-level, low angle, establishing shot, high angle, over the shoulder, handheld, pan and track - all which will help to further convey the emotion of the girl and the activites she is doing.

Editing: Most of the Pop songs are fast-paced due to which the editing is very smooth and includes many fades, fast-cutting and transitions. However, since our song was slow, normal-paced and upbeat, we had to match it and develop a crisp and smooth music video. Therefore, to match the loud and soft beats of the songs, we used the editing technique of jump cuts, and match-on-actions to quicken and lower the paces of the narrative and to ensure that the video has a sense of direction. Our video appears like a montage as there isn't a start or an end, it just shows a few hours in the life of a teenage girl and her activities. There isn't any single activity which will to lead to a climax or a certain event, our editing and story potrays the depression and determination of the girl and her anxiety, stress which gradually turns to determination and accepptance. As an Assistant Director, Planner and an Organizer, I had to make sure that the speed of visuals matched the pace of the song. In one case, I deliberately broke the convention by including a slow motion shot of the girl throwing away her clothes when the beat was soft and the song was slow to highlight the importance the girl throwing away her clothes and the feelings she was showing.

Light: When it came to lighting, we followed the conventional source used in Pop music videos - ambient lighting. We did once try to use fill and key light, but the result appeared harsh and unnatural. Therefore, we used already present sources of light such as the Sun and natural room lights. This helped give our video a relaxed and natural atmosphere.

Prelude and Sound: Our group realized that currently music videos have a small background/prelude at the start of the video to make the narrative more clearer to the audience and to further create a feeling of a story. But we broke this convention and didn't include any prelude as it wasn't necessary to include one. Moreover, we again broke this convenhtion as we added minimal titles instead of cinematic titles.  

We also added diegetic and non-diegetic sounds to make the video appear more natural aswell as refined and easier for the audience to engage with.

Theories

Andrew Goodwin:

• Most artists appear photoshopped and perfect, however we broke this convention by using the natural, unmodified visuals of our cast and band. We wanted the audience to see the actual truth and flaws of our artists and cast, with no retouching, so they could personally connect with their actual self rather than with a fake, photoshopped version of them.

• There is a relation with the lyrics and the visuals which can be found in our music video too. Our visuals symbolically connect with the lyrics of the track.

• A relation between the music and visuals can also be found. I made sure that the visuals match the beats and rhythm of the song. Whenever the song gets slow, the visuals and editing match it by getting slower, and whenever it gets fast and loud, the visuals match it by becoming fast with jump cuts and match-on-actions.

• There are close-ups of the artist due to the demand of record label which can be recognised in our video too. We made sure to include various angles and close-ups of our band to develop a connection with audience so they can sell and promote their work and image.

• There is a reference to notion of looking. This is a convention we broke. Only once or twice the lead singers look to straight in the camera to address the audience, otherwise there is no eye contact.

Sven E Carlsson:

• Binary opposition which drives the narrative forward which can be located in our video too; Empowered vs Powerless, Pain vs Rapture etc. 

• There are two types of videos - performance and conceptual. Moreover, the performance is divided further into - televised bard, electric shaman and commercial exhibitionist. Our video is a mixture of performance and narrative. It is not a televised or electric shaman but it does contain hints of commerical exhibitionism as there are many close-ups of our band which is helping them sell their image and music.

Michael Shore:

• Information overload - we did not follow this. Our video does not contain excessive information and details. It is very simple and symbolic to make it easier for the audience to understand the concept and connect with it.

• Recycled styles - We tried to keep our music video's style original and unique, however, the camera angles and shots can be considered recycled.

Laura Mulvey:

• Male gaze, objectification and sexualisation: Our video does not include any form of objectification or voyuerism.

Steve Archer:

• Strong relation between narrative and performance. My music video definitely has a strong relation between both, it cuts from narrative to performance and vice versa to develop a good pace as it sets the mood and atmosphere for the video.

• The camerawork is significant. We included various angles and shots to make the video entertaining, to engage the audience and to sell the music and the band.

Richard Dyer:

• Star Image - our music video equally focused on both performance and the narrative. A good amount of close-ups and mid shots are included to sell and promote the image of the band. Moreover, this will help develop a recurring motif and add to the iconography of the band which would make it easier for the audience to recognise their future work.

Representation

Social Groups:

Demographics:

• Age - Our target audience was from ages 19-63. Keeping this in mind, we made sure that our band knows their roles and the audience they are presenting their work too. Our concept and idea revolved around empowerment and females which will help evoke nostalgia and emotions in the mature audience, which is why we chose a girl of age 8-12 and then a teenager aging 15-19. Their expressions and acting allowed the audience to emotionally connect with them and get reminded of their childhood.

• Gender - our targeted audience included both females and males, as it is not females that struggle with depression and anxiety. We wanted to emphasise and highlight incidents and events that take place in our country related to women empoerment. Therefore, we wanted to show the determination, strength and confidence of the girl to make sure that both genders can recognise and relate to their emotional sides. On a lighter note, we also wanted to represent childhood and memories to evoke nostalgia. Our girl can be seen struggling with depression, fear and anxiety that would help make some of the audience recall their days of their struggles and hardships.

• Class- We did not target it to any specific classes as Pop music is consumed by all types of classes. However, we showed a girl who was from a higher-middle class. She had all the the modern technology such as tablets and iPads. This relates to the younger audience, like young adults and teenagers who did have access to such luxuries during their childhood.

Social Issues:

• Our music video represents a young girl (16-19 years old) since this age group is represented very rarely in media. In our media, all tv shows, films and music videos revolve around adults and love stories. A stereotypical story is shown where females are either shown as adults who are preparing to get married or as mothers. We found it necessary to bring focus and attention to this age group. Moreover, our video also represents one of the many ttroubles this age group faces like depression and losses.

•   Aside from under-representation, another reason why we chose this is because women empowerment is stil a challenge in our country. Nowadays women are facing serious and threatening problems in Pakistan. Traumatic and dreadful issues are emerging which are physically and mentally affecting the lives of women. Many women are unable to get proper education due to early marriage, patriarchal system, male dominance, etc. Female literacy rate is very low in the erstwhile Fata and Balochistan. Also, women face many problems with regard to employment. Female doctors, business graduates, PhDs and many other highly educated people are sitting idle in their homes due to the fear of male dominance and sexual harassment at workplaces. These unjust and prejudiced laws in our country inspired us to portray the determination, importance and vulnerability of females to the audience.