Evaluation: Question 1 - Part 1 (Music Video)

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

Music video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8izhrBOtJI&feature=youtu.be

Genre –
The song I have chosen for my media product is ‘Oblivion’ by Bastille. Bastille is an English band originated from London with the genre of 'Alternative Rock' and 'Electronica'. It was formed in 20-10 to present day. Their institution is ‘Virgin Records’.

Alternative Rock also named 'Alt Rock' or 'Alternative' was originated in late 1970's - early 1980's but only became popular in 1090's. It is a broad umbrella term consisting of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound, its social context, and its regional roots. R.E.M was a popular band in 1980's.

The popular band Nirvana (reached its popularity in 1990s) by their single 'Smells like Teen-spirit' (shown below) helped Alternative Rock enter the 'music mainstream'; which made many other alternative bands commercially successful. Nirvana also helped the 'Grunge Explosion' and the creation of 'Britpop'.

Alternative Rock would cover terms such as 'Punk Rock', 'New Wave', 'Post-punk' 'Gothic Punk' and also 'College/indie Rock'.

Typical Instruments are Vocals, Electric Guitar, Bass, Drums and Keyboards.

Alternative Rock in 21st Century includes bands like 'The Strokes' 'The White Stripes' 'Franz Ferdinand' and 'The Rapture'.

By 2010 - Alternative Rock is now commonly known as 'Indie Rock'.

Technical aspects –

From looking at Alternative Rock videos, (like Arctic Monkeys 'R U Mine?' & Between The Trees 'The Way She Feels' and also Paramore 'The Only Exception') the conventions of the videos are based on narrative and performance by the band structures. Although a select few are based on an abstract structure.

The narrative of an Alternative Rock music video is based on a contextual event which a lot of the main target audience will relate to. Examples of this would be in 'Between the trees - the way she feels' the narrative of that video involves self-abuse, divorce and a death in the family. Another example would be in 'The only exception by Paramore' which involves love and the difficulties a person can experience by their own experiences or the impact it has had on loved ones around them.

And normally the narrative videos also experience scenes of performance elements in them by the band - this can be vocals singed by the singer or the full band playing with instruments.

Calvin Harris Ft Ellie Goulding - I Need Your Love. 

Referencing to the Cinematography - using a handheld camera to film a couple style video. At the beginning of the video, there are shots of the couple in bed; using close-ups and two shots to capture the attitude and feeling created by the couple.

As well as Editing of this video references to the idea I have for my own video. For the Editing i really like the fast cuts and jumps from scene to scene - past and future, can capture the 'out of control' feeling people may have when they're in a relationship.

Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness.

1:35 - linking to Cinematography, i like the footage of each character like they are spinning each other around - this connotes to the audience that they are happy like children with each other because you associate that kind of behavior from a problem-free-young child. That can connote the feeling she had with this girl - young-wild and free.

00:00 - 00:30 - linking to Cinematography; is the establishing shot of the location. It shows the audience that the characters are away from everything. I especially like the Editing as well; it creates the illusion that the footage is old/antique; by the dis-colouring of the footage, and the fact some parts are jumpy.

 Here are some pictures taken from the music video - to the left - is a shot when the characters are spinning with each other and are care free. By the prop it shows she is filming a home made video. - Below left- shows a two-shot of the characters in the car. - Below - shows the audience another side to this music video - changes from happy to sad. Close up of the characters face as she cries.

Ideas –

There is no video produced by Bastille for the song Oblivion so making my video was easy as there was no official media product to copy, it was purely from my own interpret of the song and how I can express it to the audience.

From the lyrics of Oblivion by Bastille; the word 'Oblivion' means a state of being forgotten or forgetting/unawareness or overlooking on past offences. The first verse shows he is caring for someone, because he is holding them as they fall asleep - 'But you've gone somewhere deeper' could insist that person has an inner demon or problems, he is in great thought about what they are thinking, he could be worried about them. Just by the first verse of this song it already has the context of a problem. And, I can develop the ‘problem’ in the narrative of my own video.

My idea for this music video is that it will be orientated around the cliché narrative of love. But throughout my narrative it will portray a realistic view of love - involving problems that the lover may face in their lives like self-abuse. It will be filmed on a hand-held camera to capture the relationship between the couple to the audience of the couple making a home film of their relationship. So in the narrative, the audience will see the reality of relationships - the sad/argumentative moments and the happy/'in love' moments - and everything in between which could relate to personal problems - which I will be touching upon in the area of self-abuse. I will connote the distress presented by the characters by the use of cinematography - cantered angle or by the lighting/editing, and by the developing narrative the audience will understand it by relating it back to the song lyrics so it will connote a deep meaning.

• ANIMATIC VIDEO

• STORYBOARD

Prezi Link: http://prezi.com/-70y1tpoxxlc/story-board/

Audience –

My target audience will be focused on those who like the Alternative Genre; but my main target audience will be both male and female 'Teenagers' - aged '16 to 20's' years old. In the social class of B, C1 & C2 because my main target audience will be students so they will be in full time education (or hold a part-time job as well).

Audience Research:

• ·        Blog Poll Questionnaire (Aim - Do want to know what audiences like; concerning music videos.)
•      E-mail for my Blog Poll - An e-mail - featuring a link to my blog - to all the media groups so people can fill out my blog poll questionnaire for my audience research. This is a good strategy so I can reach out to a wide range of opinions from my target audience who are both male and female)
• ·        Focus Group – Questions and video - I had seven questions (featured on another post) which were created to get any full information out of my audience which will be helpful for my audience research. Referencing to the conventions of genre, preferred music video style and style for my genre, why they watch certain music videos, what catches their attention etc. 

Blog Poll Analysis

Reflecting on these results; it is clear that my target audience is fitted to my chosen genre by the audience who answered the questionnaire and the results shown. It portrays how popular music videos are and how essential the planning of the music video will be to raise to the expectations of my vast target audience. It is clear the genre 'Alternative Rock' is a popular choice amoungst Teenagers.

My ideas for my own music video (my initial ideas) are reflected in these results; the popular music video type for both personal opinions and for my chosen genre is Narrative. And the video for my genre should be in black and white since it was a popular choice. My initial idea was for a Narrative styled video in the combination of both colour and black and white - this will be a popular choice with my target audience due to this blog poll.

Focus group analysis:

From my audience focus group feedback it is clear that my audience have stereotypical views on my chosen genre of Alternative Rock. The music video should be a performance/narrative, involving genre conventions of the genre - including a performing band including typical instruments drums and guitar, dark connotations - stereotypical colours like black which reflects the rock feel. When informing the focus group about my chosen initial idea; they were able to create their own interruption of what they may see in the music video - combination of colour and black & white, smashing plates/objects on a wall when the couple fight, and you see the object smashing in slow motion. These are very good ideas that I can interpret into my music video because it would be effective to make the audience believe the narrative, and it is what the audience will be expecting.

Representation –

This will be associated with the 1950's era where 'Teenagers' were invented by Rock'n'Roll created by Elvis Presley, where rebellion and alternative clothing were worn.

They will be people who like the Alternative Rock music; which are artists like 'Bastille', 'Paramore', 'Snow Patrol', 'Biffy Clyro' and 'Bloc Party'.

Through my characters costumes, and Mise-en-scene including props I will convey my audiences interests and clothing: the alternative choice. This can be linked to the stereotypes associated to the alternative genre, by tattoos, certain jewellery, hairstyles and clothing. This can be linked to theorist Tessa Perkins and her stereotype theory.


Prezi: Girls Influence For Costumes: 
http://prezi.com/2gwb6c4iug3c/costumes/

Prezi: Official Female Character Costumes: 
http://prezi.com/owlyizr-ptem/females-official-costumes/

Prezi: Boys influence & Official Costumes:
http://prezi.com/xjfkidotlqlg/males-influences-and-official-costumes/