Harry Fagan

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

For my A2 media project my brief was to create a music video and ancillary texts (Magazine advert and Digipak), these media products had to appeal to a particular audience and promote the artist and their song and my music video had to be approximately 3 minutes long. This music video and ancillary texts could either follow or subvert the stereotypical conventions of the chosen music genre.To complete this project we were put in groups, I was put into a group with James Barry and together we planned to create a music video for the song 'Blame' by Calvin Harris, which is from the dance genre. My role in the group was mainly with the post-production process where I done the editing process and made the magazine advert and digipak. Our group worked well together as we both had the same views and aims of how we wanted to represent our artist and promote them. My strengths were in the post production and James' strengths was in the planning process, such as making the storyboards and filming schedules- therefore as a group I think our individual strengths helped and benefited each other and made our media project successful.

The brief was to create a music video to a song of my choice. Music videos are visual creations that are made to promote a song. Music videos generally follow the conventions of the music genre that is being promoted in order to appeal to the appropriate target audience. Not only do music videos promote a song, but they also promote the artist. Music videos provide the audience with a clearer understanding of the artist's personality and style, therefore allowing the audience to build a relationship with the artist and their music.

Purpose of a Music Video:

A market tool to promote an artist/song
A short narrative or representation of the artist
To attract a particular target audience
To identify an artist/group
To buy into the artist’s lifestyle
To show the different generic conventions of a genre/music video
For the audience to remember the music video
To make a song available to a wide audience
To show more about the artist
The audience request music videos
To build a relationship with the artist
For the audience to understand more about a song

Styles of Music Videos:

Music videos are split into 3 different categories:

1) Performance - (singing/dancing) a performance based music video is a way to show off the artist's performing skills, whether that be through singing or dancing. For example - Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' music video is a performance based video as it purely shows her singing and dancing, informing audiences that she is a very talented performer.

2) Narrative - (telling the audience a story)a narrative based music video is one that tells a story. Usually these videos involve a large variety of locations and iconography with a more movie-like feel to it. Some artists prefer music videos like this as they like to promote their music rather than themselves. For example Ed Sheeran's 'Give Me Love' is a narrative based music video as it doesn't involve Sheeran performing.

3) Concept - (selling the audience an idea/theme or ideology) a concept based music video is one that sells a theme, moral of ideology to the audience. However, a concept is usually displayed in a narrative or performance based video.

Some music videos contain a mixture of the different styles and some contain only one style.

As part of the planning process I analysed various music videos from the dance genre on YouTube to help me find out what the stereotypical codes and conventions which are commonly used. This helped me gain a greater understanding and one of the music video I analysed was 'Antidote' by Swedish House Mafia vs Knife Party, this is from the dance genre. This video includes two styles of a music video and these are a narrative and concept style- the narrative is one which shows the audience, people partying in a club this then unfolds into a robbery inside the club and the concept of the video is one of partying and alcohol- both these styles help promote a certain life style about the artists to their target audience. A major purpose of a music video is to promote the artist and song, this music video does both and helps express and make the song more interesting and appealing to the audience. The artists are not present in the music video and this is because the music video is mainly about promoting the song, this is commonly found within the dance genre as DJ's want the focus to be on the songs and themselves. This music video has many purposes these are to promote the song, and also buy into the artists lifestyles. Many dance artists are associated with living a party lifestyle and this music video helps promote this stereotype, this will attract an audience who would want to live a similar lifestyle being portrayed of having money, girls and partying, this will also help build a relationship with both the artist and their fans, as they are being promoted in the video to live a life of partying, which many of their fans can relate to or look up to as their fans will be going clubs and partying or hoping to live a lifestyle like this being portrayed. The music video helps promote the song as well with the video being very entertaining and appealing to watch, this is done through the narrative and the codes and conventions used within the music video such as flashing lights and fast editing, this will make the song gain more attention and could lead to more people watching or listening to the song. The song does not have any lyrics so the music video helps add to the effect of the song, with the narrative matching the beat and tempo of the song, this is done as the beat gets quicker the narrative starts to pick up and more action happens such as the robbery, which helps make a greater impact on the audience.

This music video is very conventional to the dance genre and follows almost all codes and conventions of the dance genre. Typically in dance videos the video is themed around partying and clubbing scenes where dance music is often played and in this music videos it follows these conventions with the setting of the whole video being inside a club, using a club helps promote a party lifestyle and clearly show the audience the music video is from the dance genre, this is aided by all the girls dancing and jumping around with alcohol. By using the location of a club it also helps audiences to relate to the artists as this lifestyle is achievable of partying and going to clubs, i feel using a location of a club is more relatable than using a location of big expensive mansions as this would be an unrealistic lifestyle for many viewers to achieve. Through Mise-en scene this music video is conventional to the dance genre as the clothing used is stereotypical with shorts skirts and heels this is typical clothes worn for nights out in clubs also it helps make the girls look like sex objects which is commonly found used in dance videos, this makes the video more appealing as it promotes a lifestyle full of girls. The iconography used is conventional to the dance genre as we can see alcohol and money being thrown out which helps promote a certain lifestyle which attracts to many or the target audience, by using this type of iconography it helps enhance the artists image of living this kind of lifestyle. Through cinematography, there is the use of a variety of shots accompanied by fast editing this helps makes the video more entertaining to watch as the fast editing matches the fast beat and temp of the song. All these micro-elements help promote the artists image of living a lifestyle full of partying and girls. The use of flashing and bright lights and lens flares along with blurry editing all are found in the dance genre, The music video for 'Antidote' heavily uses these which makes it conventional to a dance genre, the use of all these effects help give an image of drunkenness as the blurriness symbolises the actors in the music video being drunk, the use of this also helps make the music video more entertaining and visually more attractive to watch. The only part of the music video which goes against the codes and conventions of the music video is the narrative as this shows a robbery, a narrative of a robbery is not commonly found in dance music videos but by using this it makes the music video have another dynamic and make its more entertaining to watch. By using all these codes and conventions typically found in other dance music videos it helps make the video more appealing for the audience as the music video is much more entertaining to watch with these codes and conventions being used.

Overall from my research into this video and other dance music videos I found they commonly contained flashing lights, partying, girls and quick fast paced shots- many dance videos have lots of editing effects over the shots to change the look of them such as 'blur' effects and distorted effects this helps to portray the themes of drugs and drunkenness. To achieve my representation of my artist living a party lifestyle I wanted to include these stereotypical codes and conventions, this helped me not only represent my artist clearly but also make the video more enjoyable to watch for the target audience as the club scenes and flashing lights are entertaining and gets the audience buzzed. I used a variety of effects in my music video such as the 'graphic', 'blur', 'dazzle','Kaleidoscope', 'glow' and 'flashing lights' effect. To include these effects I used them throughout the beat drops to accompany the quick changes of shots the effects helped show a theme of drugs and partying as it made my shots distorted. One example of using these effect is from 1 minute 40 seconds in as the beat drops my shots change from my artist Max Kruse changing to him changing but with an 'graphic' and 'flashing light' effect this helps make the video more entertaining but also shows the audience he is under the influence of alcohol as the shots are becoming distorted. The 'serpia' effect was applied over the shots of my artist performing and dancing this made him stand out as every time the shot changed quickly to him the effect serpia made the shot have an x-ray look; this also emphasises the the theme of drunkenness and drugs as the effect can show the audience my artist is under the influence of alcohol.

My camera shots also followed the conventional shots I found from my research into other dance music videos. Most of my video was filmed from a P.O.V shot as I wanted my audience to see the lifestyle my artist is living through his eyes, this helps build a relationship between the artist and audience as they feel they are getting an insight into my artists life. The P.O.V shots also helped emphasise the theme of alcohol and girls as we can see it zooming in onto alcohol and them partying. There is also the use of a time lapse shot where I fast forwarded my shot x10 this was done using a wide shot and showed various locations throughout London, this was done to show my artist is under the influence of drugs and alcohol and the world is passing by him so quickly while he is under the influence of it. Another conventional use of cinematography is close up shots. I have used these particularly as they are conventional within a dance music video and also relate to Goodwin’s theory as their needs to be a variety of close ups in order to connect the artist with the audience, the use of close up shots allows the audience to see the DJ and feel a connection with him as they are seeing what the DJ is doing.

I have followed the conventional lighting I found in our research; when researching music videos from the dance genre we found that their is bright colours accompanied by flashing lights and LED lights there is low key lighting used throughout these videos swell- this lighting helps create a party feel within the music video. The use of colour also creates happiness, bright colour mirror the bright emotions created by the lively and upbeat music. Colour and lighting accompany the music to help it reach its full potential in satisfying the audience, the intense fast use of lighting and colours mirrors the pace of the music to appeal to the visual senses as well as hearing senses of the audience. This is conventional of a dance music video as the artist is often pictured performing in a stereotypical location of a club or festival, which is where the use of colour and lighting is the most evident. The atmosphere that is pictured in my video is mostly created by the use of lights and colour tints, this also encourages audiences who enjoy this rave location and setting to purchase the artist's tickets to familiarise themselves with the actual location and atmosphere witnessed in the music video. Lighting effects is used heavily throughout my beat drops where I use flashing lights in my quick transitions throughout the festival and club scenes also I use a blue tint over some shots with flashing streaks of lights. The 'dazzle' lighting effect helped create a drunken look which also further emphasised the theme of drunkenness. Overall, the use of colour and lighting benefits the audiences experience as well as the artists representation. By incorporating the conventions of the dance genre in the lighting and colour categories, the audience get to see exactly what they want, this helps create a relationship between the audience and the artist as they believe that they are interested in the similar things, lighting and colour ultimately makes the video as interesting and entertaining as possible throughout the club settings and artist performance.

The setting of my music video is conventional to the dance genre with most of the setting being in a club or at festivals. Club scenes are popular in dance music videos such as Route 94- 'My Love' and Calvin Harris - 'Blame'. This makes the video more enjoyable to watch for the target audience as the club scenes are fast paced and promote a party lifestyle which the audience buy into, the concert scenes promote the artists concerts and help promote this to the audience as they will see how good the concerts are and could make them buy tickets to see my artist in concert. The party lifestyle is conventional to the dance genre and is a false need my target audience wants, The target audience will feel a close relationship with the artist as they both enjoy the same lifestyle full of partying and drinking.

The narrative of my music video follows the conventions of the dance genre as the narrative promotes a party lifestyle full of drugs and drinking which has a representation of recklessness. The narrative follows a group of boys who go out partying to festivals and clubs before they have a car crash and die. The music video shows them doing drugs and drinking. The narrative allows the audience feel closer with the artist as they will feel like they are viewing the life of my artist, this means the artist and fans can build a stronger relationship with as the fans will feel they can relate to the artist as the target audience is young adults who also enjoy partying and drinking which means they can feel like the artist is living a lifestyle they either follow or would like to live as well.

My music video followed the style of having a narrative of a group of boys going out having a good time with one of the boys being my artist 'Max Kruse' this was also accompanied by the concept of friendship. Dance music videos are now commonly using narratives to promote a certain lifestyle with the lifestyle mainly being one consisting of partying and alcohol. This is why I decided to follow this trend and also go for a narrative as it will help represent my artist clearly as living a party lifestyle which will help engage my target audience. Along with the music video the ancillary texts our extremely important in promoting the artist and song. My magazine advert and digipak both followed the same conventions I used in my music video, both texts also further helped promote the lifestyle I want my artist to be seen as living. The use of a blue tint was used in both my texts this was also used in my music video this helped keep all my media products similar. I used the background of my artist fading into clouds with bright lens flare lights surrounding him for my magazine advert- this shows the music will take audiences to another place but also with my artist fading into clouds it has connotations of drugs and alcohol as this is what they make you feel like this further emphasizes the artists lifestyle being promoted. My digipak follows this same theme throughout as well I used pictures of party scenes and bright blue lights, there is also the heavy use of photos of my artist and a personal message to my fans this will help my artist and fans build a relationship as they feel it is more personalised and aimed at them.

Both My music video and ancillary texts follows the stereotypical codes and conventions found in other dance music videos this is because my aim was to represent my artist as someone who lives a party lifestyle full of money,drinking and girls this representation was being created as it would help appeal to my target audience as they are young adults who also are going out to clubs and partying but not to the extent my artist is and this would mean my TA would look up to my artist and buy into his lifestyle and therefore watch my artists music video and buy the song. The products all come together well to promote this lifestyle with the common theme running throughout of partying, drugs and alcohol.

Harry Fagan

Sunday, 22 February 2015

Evaluation (Part 4)

Evaluation (Part 2)

Saturday, 21 February 2015

Evaluation (Part 3)

Friday, 20 February 2015

Evaluation (Part 1)

Thursday, 5 February 2015

Music video

Final group magazine advert

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

Final Group Digipak