Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Firstly, Carol Vernallis closely studied editing and camera work in music videos. Carol explains that the usual rules of ‘continuity’ editing are broken in order to draw attention to what is on screen; edits may be really obvious to draw attention to them, for example jump cuts are often used. She also explains that base track is often used to give the video a structure; the camera may move in time with the music.

In our music video the main ideas of Carol Vernallis we've followed are that there is no balance between narrative and performance, we have our artist performing and a narrative, the performer is part of the narrative herself so she does dominate the screen a little. The narrative in a music video is not always complete, and this is the case in our video, at the end of the video the character and the artist do finally meet however the screen fades at the end and the audience aren't show what happens next. So there is no narrative resolution at the end. Vernallis makes a point that music videos pose questions and we've followed this idea because our video poses a question to the audience what happens next? Is there a happy ending?  

This is a music video which illustrates Vernallises ideas:  

Rizzle Kicks - Lost generations
















During this music video there are regular jump cuts used, one example is during the beginning of the music video when the two artists walk into the living room. There is slow motion used in this music video when the younger boys are being chased and also when the boys are being beaten up. There are obvious edits such as jump cuts and when we see the CCTV footage. Throughout this music video the camera is moving in time with the music, and also the artists are making eye contact with the camera – addressing the audience. Repeated shots of the artists/performers are shown, there are base track examples shown when the boys are in the Big Brother house and also the living room scene. In this music video there is also editing in time with the beat of the song when the beat goes down, the shot changes. 

Now watch our music video and see how Vernallises ideas are illustrated in the same kind of way: 

During our music video there are many jump cuts for example, when Umar is on the tube, making his journey, then the audience see Farha on the screen singing, we also have jump cuts between Farha singing and shots of the city. There is slow motion in our music video at the end when Umar notices Farha as she's walking away before the screen fades. Throughout our music video the camera is moving in  time with the music, and we notice at times when the artist makes eye contact with the camera - at these times she is addressing the audience. Our video has 7 base tracks altogether, 2 in Barbican, 2 in Southbank - by the trees, 2 in Millennium Bridge and 1 in St Pauls - In front of the Millennium Bridge. 

In the video below I discuss our main influences from existing music videos, and how we used or developed these ideas. 

In the video I made above I was discussing our influences and how we challenged or used these ideas, here I have decided to add images of the ideas in the videos that have in some ways influenced us, and I have also added images  from our own music video to show how we used or developed these ideas: 

1. Ideas taken from 'Alesha Dixon - To Love Again'

- Wide shot of the artist - singing directly at the camera 

- Mystery character revealed at the end in the same location as the artist - (idea challenged)

- Close up shots 

- Location choice - in the forest area 

2. Ideas taken from our second video - 'Pixie Lott - Tonight'

- Night scenes 

- Singing surrounded by lights and the city

- Shots of just the city 

Have we challenged the genre in the music video?

In our music video we followed the typical style of a pop music video, when we researched pop videos we found that trying to challenge the genre in a music video would be difficult, because we would have to change the whole style of the video. Our music video is very simplistic but also entertaining and enjoyable to watch, with  many simple edits, and with effects which is usually seen in pop music videos.

How conventional is my digipak and advertisement and how have i challenged the genre?

The majority of my research was based on Ellie Goulding's ancillary products on her album 'Lights'. Ellie Goulding is a pop artist so her products would therefore belong to the genre pop. Pixie Lott was another artist which i researched, she is also a pop artist, her ancillary products on the album 'Turn It Up' was what influenced me. 

One of the main ideas i decided to take from both Elli Goulding's and Pixie Lott's products was simplicity, i have learn't that simplicity isn't boring, simplicity can be made into something creative and eye catching. The simplicity in both artist's products tells me that  simplicity is the main concept of the genre pop. 

The main ideas i took from Ellie Gouldings digipak was the fact that she used bright colours, she didn't use too many colours, she had a simple colour scheme, she had one main colour (gold) which suits with her background and font style. I decided to use this idea in my digipak, my main colour was pink. By researching Elli Gouldings products i found that most pop genre digipaks tend to use bright colours and the artist image would be a simple close up, with a simple background. I also found a close up shot of Pixie Lott had been used on her digipak as well, and decided this was a good idea to develop.  

The ideas i took from Pixie Lott's album 'Turn It Up' was the simple text. The text was clearly readable and the font colour used stood out from the background, i decided to carry out this idea throughout my products. I used the same colour scheme for my digipak and advertisement, when presenting my artists name i used the same font for my digipak and advertisement, however for the album information on the advertisement i decided to change the font to something more simple, i got this idea from Pixie Lott's advertisement. 

The research on both artists tells me the advertisement tends to be very similar to the digipak, this is so the idea of synergy can be closely noticed, which is what i tried to achieve in my products. I decided that challenging the genre could confuse the audience because they might not know what genre the videos lies into, so i decided to stick to the conventions of the genre so it would be a recognisable pop video.