Evaluation - Q1

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

My production brief for my Advanced Portfolio was to make a music video, with two ancillary texts to accompany with it. The ancillary texts were a magazine advert and a digipak. A music video is a short film that is produced for promotional and artistic purposes. The purposes for a music video is to make an artist's song visually more understanding for their audience, market and promote further the artist and also they are made solely for the audiences entertainment. My music video is for the song Wings by Birdy, who is an indie artist, therefore my chosen genre is indie. 

A convention for the indie genre is the use of filters. Filters are usually used in indie music videos to portrays memories. An example of this would be in Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness video, where a reddish sepia vintage filter is used to portray the good memories of her and her lovers relationship. The use of filters are conventional to the indie genre as they illustrate that a certain scene is from the past, and indie artists usually sing about their personal life experiences, especially to do with love. The relationship this creates with the target audience, who are generally young female teens/adults, is one that is relatable through the use of the love theme. This is because artists and the audience are usually the similar age, therefore are likely to experience similar experiences within their lives, with that said the audience and artist relate to each other through the filters that convey the memories, as they may empathise with whats going on. 

Another convention of the indie genre, is the use of having a narrative based music video. A narrative is simply a story that is seen within the video. An example of this is in Gabrielle Aplin's video for the song Panic Cord, and the narrative is about her relationship with her partner being boring to her and that she is confused about whether she's to blame and doesn't know what to do. The music video showcases this through the narrative by showing scenes of happiness contrasting the bad sides of the relationship, which also helps convey her boredom within the relationship. This follows Goodwin's theory of lyrics and visuals matching. To conclude, narratives are conventional to the indie genre because they visually portray the lyrics of the songs, which gives the audience a better understanding of what the song is about. 

Lastly, a convention within the indie genre is the use of mise en scene, costume. Costume in an indie music video usually consists with ordinary clothing. For example, in Gabrielle Aplin's Panic Cord  video, she is seen wearing ordinary, casual clothing. The purpose of this is to showcase the artist as 'normal' to their audience, which makes them relatable to them. Also by having ordinary 'everyday' clothing, it portrays realism within the video which is conventional to the indie genre as artists sing about their real experiences and not just to make a catchy pop song. Through this convention, it makes the narratives or concept look more real, therefore portraying a genuine picture of what the songs about.

There are many ways in which I have incorporated some of the conventions of the indie genre in my own music video. Firstly, the use of having a narrative is apparent in my video. The narrative is about the artist reminiscing about her complicated with her female partner; whom doesn't want the relationship to be out in the open. My group and I decided to follow the convention of having a narrative in our video, so that we could interpret the lyrics of Birdy's song visually and showcase a chapter of our artist's life. The use of having a narrative in our music video is conventional to the indie genre because it matches lyrics of the song and gives the audience a better understanding of the artists life. 

The next convention that I followed was the use of natural, realistic settings. The locations within my music video were; Camden Market, field, forest and bedroom. As these settings were all real, this connoted our video to be genuine, realistic and relatable for the audience. By having real life settings this conveys realism which is conventional to the indie genre. Having realistic locations in the video makes the narrative look more authentic and relatable to the audience as they can relate to the settings seen. For example, scenes such as market and fireworks scene were filmed in a public place so there were members of the public included in our footage. This was beneficial for our video as it made the narrative look like it was real life, also matching the love theme of the video as it portrayed the relationship in real situations therefore validating the portrayal of the narrative.  

Furthermore, in my music video, I conformed the convention of using cinematography, handheld shot. A handheld shot is a shot that is captures without the use of a tripod and it creates unstable shots. An example of this shot followed in my music video, is when the artist and her partner are holding hands, swinging around in a field. As well as being shot handheld, it was also shot as a point of view shot, to portray the perspectives of the couple. This further connotes the realism portrayed within the video, because the handheld point of view shots are conventional as they show how it will really be like when doing the particular actions in the scene. Also the purpose of the cinematography was to put the audience into the characters shoes and empathise with them by seeing their facial expressions and body language through the shot. The use of this was to give the audience a better understanding of the dynamics of the relationship so that they could understand the narrative. This relates to the purpose of a music video, as it shows the story behind the lyrics and entertains the audience, therefore enhancing their engagement to the video and artist. 

Another convention I followed was the use of editing style; filters. This is evident when the good and bad memories of the relationship are shown and I created this on Final Cut Pro X. The happy memories are bright and in an orange tint to connote the happiness that they are expressing, also I changed the brightness of the clips up by 10% and added the dreamy filter effect to make the frames look like flashbacks. For the negative aspects of the relationship scenes, I added the dreamy filter to convey that was a memory as it made it look cloudy and soft. I also added the filter, Cool Tones which is a cold blue/green tint, which gave the clips a gloomy cool feel to portray the darkness of the relationship. This is conventional because beaches artist's in their music video's tend to sing about personal experiences e.g relationships and through the filters, this helps illustrate the stories behind the lyrics so that the audience can visually relate to what they are singing about. Also, the use of filters help build a relationship with the audience because they help give an insight into the artist's life by conveying memories, therefore enabling the audience to emphasise with the artist, creating a relationship between the two. 

In addition, I challenged the convention of a relationship in an indie music video which is usually a heterosexual relationship, by incorporating a homosexual female relationship in the narrative of the music video. This is evident throughout the music video as there is scenes that convey the same sex couple being mildly intimate and also arguing. I decided to challenge the convention of a relationship and include a homosexual relationship because I believe it portrays realism of today's modern society, which is more accepting to homosexuality whereas 10 years ago it wouldn't be. Therefore, by including the same sex couple in the narrative, this conveys realism which is conventional to the indie genre because it is seen as the norm in today's society, which the audience can understand. 

Last but not least, a convention that I conformed was the use of casual clothing through the micro element, mise en scene; costume. I was inspired to incorporate casual clothing in my music video from Gabrielle Aplin's music video 'Panic Cord' as she too wore casual clothing. As you can see in the screenshot, my artist is wearing a blue bomber jacket, black turtle neck and black jeans which are recognisable to the audience. The dark colours of the costume could connote the darkness of the relationship and the effect it has had on her negatively, which also suggests her bottling up her feelings but letting them go through her being alone in the isolated area in this particular scene. Therefore, enabling sympathy from the audiences towards her as they witness the out coming of the artist expressing her feelings, creating an engaging experience in result. Overall, the use of the ordinary clothing is conventional to the indie genre as it represents her as a like to the audience, which makes the artist seem relatable to the audience and helps build a relationship with the two. 

I think I was successful in illustrating and incorporating the conventions of the indie genre, as I followed key aspects of the genre by adapting them into my own music video. This is because I made sure it was clear and showcases the realism aspect for the target audience of 17-25 year olds, so that they can relate to what's going on in the video throughout.