WOWWWW IT'S FINALLY OVER. I've learnt so much over the past months and I'm so happy and confident with the work I've produced. We've had our ups and downs but at least I can say I guess it made us more determined to our music video done. Overall, it was really fun especially during the research stages. Now exam preparation -_________________________________-
EVALUATION QUESTION 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF MUSIC VIDEOS:
In music videos the conventions that we normally see are:
Camera Shots: Music videos tend to include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist , location and emotions. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflects the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist.
Camera Movement: The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.
In our video we used various shots such as an extreme close up at the beginning, long shots, mid shots and close ups.
Mise-en-scene: This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for a production of a music video or any other media text. Mise-en-scene puts importance on the representation of something. An example is, 'Do You' by Miguel. The mise-en-scene involves him traveling around with his girlfriend and being in each others company. This reflects on his love for his girlfriend. Also the props includes casual clothing such a t-shirts, jeans, and more evening clothing such as leather jackets and dresses. This represents them going around at night, enjoying themselves. Similary, the lighting is kept quiet dark when he and his girlfriend are shown in black and white obviously looking back on their time together. In the performance scenes the lighting is kind of colourful but the setting itself is dark. I believe this was done to represent him still being happy because he has his girlfriend if if at times they're in the dark (having problems in their relationship). This is just one example of the mise-en-scene used to give an idea of how it works.
Miguel - Do You
Editing: Jump cuts is the predominant technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another. Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts.
One of the many jump cuts we used in "Wonderful".
Lighting: Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the artists in an enhanced look. However in "wonderful" we didn't really use any lighting due to most of our shots being outside. We didn't use it as the natural lighting was effective.
Props: These are a vital in aiding to add to the scene and create significance on particular objects or people.
Costume: This goes with the scenes in the song and reflects the genre. Costume is an important factor because it has a slight influence on how the viewers will dress because they use some of the celebrities as role models.
Colour: Colours tend to set the mood of the song through creating an atmosphere. For example, dark colours are used more in Rock songs such as Kings of Leon and bright colours are seen to be used more in Hip Hop and Pop videos.
Music Conventions in Hip Hop/R&B videos:
- Locations tends to be a party, club or a fancy location.
- Use of alcohol.
- Recognised brands and clothing
- Expensive cars and houses.
- Camera shots tend to be long and establishing to show the money involved. Close ups to show the jewelry and assets of the artists.
- Attractive women.
- Does not follow a storyline, only follows the genre.
- Artists tend to be involved.
50 Cent - Candy Shop
JUICY J - BANDZ A MAKE HER DANCE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF ANCILLARY PRODUCTS:
- Clear Font
- Appropriate image size
- Clear photos in focus
- Layout must follow rulw of thirds for composition
- Must follow the Three Color Rule for font, background and images.
THEORETICAL IDEAS:
CAROL VERNALLIS THEORY (Edits, Basetracks, Camera work)
Carol Vernallis' theory centre around 4 key concepts that all relate to the way music videos are constructed. They concepts are:
- Narrative
- Editing
- Camera Movement and Framing
- Diegesis
NARRATIVE - the video is a visual response to the music, there is not necessarily a balance between narrative and performance, the structure of the video may appear disjointed, something drives the video forward, but often it is not the narrative, it could be the music, the performance, a mixture or some other element.
EDITING - The editing may match the musical phrases or the beat, the video may break or disrupt many of the 'rules' of continuity editing - this is a clear convention of music video editing, editing may become 'foregrounded - the edits may be really obvious, to draw attention to themselves as opposed to invisible, continuity editing. For example: jump cuts, breaks of the 30 degree rule, breaks of the 180 degree rule, cutting against the movement, cutting within the lyrics, fancy edits or cuts, extreme jumps in time and space, extreme, changes in paces, juxtaposed frames, graphic matches, a style of editing that runs throughout the video and is distinctive to that video, we also may not see smooth transitions, matches on action, and even pace throughout. Jill Scott - Hear My Call, breaks of the 180 degree rule.
In my media product there are many breaks of the 180 degree rule. Also many times where it cuts against movement and lyrics from one basetrack into the other, for example. There are also special effects used to highlight the fast paced movements and edits (show that). We used these types of edits as they are used in real media products and also because they suited the song, having quite a fast beat.
CAMERA MOVEMENT AND FRAMING - When its comes to shot types, extremes are very common, the style of framing and movement may run through the video and is distinctive to that video, the camera may move in time with the music, the camera may move on the lyrics, the master shot (or other establishing shots) is used frequently, as are close ups. Kirk Franklin - Smile. Many different types of shot types were used to introduce the audience to our artist 'Solo'.
KIRK FRANKLIN - SMILE
Shots we used to introduce the 'Solo'.
DIEGESIS - The diegesis may be revealed quite slowly, actions are not necessarily completed - they may be disrupted or interrupted in some way, character or object movements may move to the music, there may be gaps in the audience's understanding of the diegesis - in time and space, music, performance and narrative, some frames may be more important, there may be maby repetitions, e.g musical phrases, the beat, other musical elements, themes, lyrics, performance, images, colours, camera positions. - Janet Jackson - I Get So Lonely, uses mainly 3 colours in the video, which are black, blue and white. Our video uses mainly blue.
We took inspiration from from Rihanna - Cheers, Hit-Boy - Jay Z Interview, as both videos use different types of camera work to make it look very candid. We decided to use these types of edits to show the artists personality and things that they must obviously enjoy, e,g skateboarding.
RIHANNA - CHEERS
HIT-BOY - JAY Z INTERVIEW
ANDREW GOODWIN:
Andrew Goodwin identifies 5 key aspects of music videos that we the audience are exposed to when watching them:
- Though beats
- seeing the sound
- The star image
- Relation of Visuals to song
- Technical aspects of music video.
1. The structure of the song, e.g chorus, verse, bridge.
2. The voice of the song. For example, a very distinctive voice can help build an image and popularity for an artist e.g Rihanna.
3. Goodwin points out how artists tend to want to tell a story in their songs and illustrate it through a music video using it as a communication device for a viewing audience, for example, Common - Come Close Ft Mary J. Blige shows this perfectly.
- The star image is another vital aspect of music videos. Making sure that the artist of the song's image is portrayed in a way that will give them recognition is important as it helps them build a reputation that could benefit them in the long run, for example artists such as Michael Jackson e.g clothing.
As a group we decided that we wanted 'Solo' to have a very urban look rather than a lavish over the top look because we wanted him to be able to relate to his target audience of young people, probably still students.
- Relation of visuals to song - Goodwin also believes that there are three ways in which music videos work to promote a song.
Illustration - Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics and genre. For example:
LILY ALLEN - LDN
Amplification - Meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown through the video. For example:
TLC - UNPRETTY
Disjuncture - Where the meaning of the lyrics have nothing to do with the video. For example:
RIHANNA - RUDEBOY
Our video has elements of amplification mainly as different people have different views on what they regard as 'Wonderful'. I believe the term 'wonderful' to people, can mean a lot of things. For example, to some it may mean to have their family around and to others it may mean living a very lavish lifestyle. This is something that you can't really interpret, but it's to follow what the artists regards as 'wonderful'. So we used skate boarding, a bit of karate and people messing about and having fun.
LAURA MULVEY:
Mulvey says that the concept of gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented. For feminists it can be thought of in three ways:
- how men look at women.
- how women look at themselves.
- how women look at other women.
Laura Mulvey came up with the term 'Male Gaze' in 1975. She says that in television the viewing audience have to watch characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. Slide 17: Features of the Male Gaze - The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events. It also relegates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male. Especially Hip Hop/ RnB videos. Genre of my music video. However we challenged this as our video does not conform to Laura Mulvey's theory. We wanted to focus on what we thought was wonderful, and also entertaining for a viewing audience rather than having females being placed on screen for the sake of it.
DO'S
Clear font
Appropriate image size
Clear photos in focus
Layout must follow rule of thirds for composition
Think about where the font is
Must follow the Three Color Rule for font, background and images.
All conventions must link to chosen genre (ours being Hip Hop/R&B)
Use appropriate industry logos, for example "Island Records"
DON'TS
Do not stretch the photos as they'll lose focus
Do not use layer styles or unnecessary effects
All effects should suit the genre
Do not place the texts over the artists face as they'll not be visible and it would not look good.
Digipaks can also be used to influence the artists chosen audience. For example, on the album cover for TLC, I believe they was defiantly trying to show female power. On the digipak you can see TLC wearing baggy clothing (possibly to show that they are equal to men). TLC possibly also wanted their fans to be free and comfortable with themselves. At the time the album was released in 1992 many women didn't dress the way they did. TLC wore bright, vibrant and loads of baggy clothing in their music videos and many public appearances because they felt comfortable. And soon many women started to follow the trend.
The digipak reflects on this lifestyle as the font is funky, bright, and vibrant The use of orange, green, yellow and red reflects on their bright clothing. TLC also used these conventions in their music videos and also spread messages through it as well. For instance, in the videos for the singles "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg", "What About Your Friends" and "Hat 2 Da Back" one of the group members Left Eye is seen wearing sunglasses with a condom stuck on one of the lenses. This was done to represent safe sex as I believe their was a growing epidemic of H.I.V AIDS spreading. As a result there is a connection between the music videos and digipaks.
As I have done more research and looked deeper into digipaks and how to make them appealing I've decided that I want to change mine. I got inspiration from "datpiff.com" where mixtapes can be downloaded for free. I've noticed that most of the mixtape covers tend to really reflect on the artist which gives them a unique style.
I circled a mixtape cover with songs from Jay Z and 9th Wonder called "American Gangster" because the cover reflects on the title. For example, the title "American Gangster" is taken from the film of the same name that explores the life of Frank Lucas, a heroin dealer who operated in Harlem, New York during the late 60's, early 70's. I like the way the cover makes Jay Z look superior with a city (New York, I'm guessing) pictured behind him as if he was Frank Lucas during his drug dealing reign. Also the font adds a very classy effect to the cover. The sepia effect also adds a very old look to it, adding a sense of darkness to it. The sepia effect is defiantly something I would like to use for the background of my digipak and magazine advert. Overall, I've been inspired to take elements of Juvenile's "Juvie Tuesday" mixtape for my digipak as a whole.
JUVENILE - JUVIE TUESDAYS
I really like the use of effects and how it's so appealing. With photoshop I'm sure I'll be able to use this but make it my own. The use of colour brings out the artist. The splattered paint effect makes it look artistic. The color and font used tells the audience that upbeat tracks are most likely to be included. The artist himself "Juvenile" is featured as we can see a close up of his face. The font used is very "funky" and bold.
Disc-Overy is the debut studio album by English rapper Tinie Tempah, released in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2010, via Parlophone Records.
I think this digipak is effective as first of all it shows the artist. through a mid shot. I think it was a good idea to have Tinie Tempah on the album cover as it introduces him as an artist. For example many people in the UK knew about Tinie before his mainstream popularity as an Grime artist, however people in America (one of the places where his album was released) may not know him so this gives them an opportunity to see him. It follows the codes and conventions of a digipak, for example the house colours are black, dark blue/purple, pink and white. Even though more colours were used that we were advised, I believe it still works as they are all similar colours and give an "out of the world/galaxy" effect. Another thing I noticed that follows the codes and conventions are the fonts. The same font is used for "TINIE TEMPAH", "DISC-OVERY" and for also the tracklist. I noticed that Tinie seems to be holding London in his hands possibly. If so I think this is effective as it gives Tinie a superior image creating a dynamic vibe for the album as well as the artist. Tine Tempahs kind of music relates to my artists fan base as well.
RITA ORA - ORA
ORA is the debut studio album by British recording artist Rita Ora, released on 27 August 2012 in the UK[1] through Roc Nation.
I like this digipak as again it has the artist featured as the main focus showing this through a close up. This is effective as Rita Ora is a new artist so it really shows her off. Codes and conventions such as the font and colour scheme also make the album cover stand out. The font is big and bold when showing her name. This may symbolise that she wants to make a big entrance into the music industry. The album title has the same font style keeping to the theme of the digipak. I like the black and white colour scheme as it connotes classical themes, for example in the back cover pictures of Rita Ora she's wearing Marylyn Monroe esque sunglasses that emphasis on this theme. The back cover also uses a collage themed way to style the pictures, which is an idea that I would like to use in my own ancillary work. I also noticed that Rita Ora seems to be wearing red lipstick in the front cover which conntoes a sultry, sexy atmosphere. This relates to Laura Mulveys theory of the male gaze as this may be what attracts a more male audience resulting in a more equal gendered fan base. I also like the way the tracklist is set out as it doesnt really follow the conventions of a back cover of a album by having the tracklist numbered. Again it keeps to the house font and colour of the digipak. The bar code is also featured on the bottom left hand side of the back cover with the acknowledgments.
JESSIE J - WHO YOU ARE
Who You Are is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Jessie J, released on 28 February 2011 in the UK and on 12 April in the US.
This is another digipak that I like and that I think relates to my artists genre/style. I like how the digipak follows the codes and conventions by again having a basic house style/colour scheme and font. The black and white colour scheme allow it to give a very pure effect as she was at the time a new artist and this was her debut album. The front cover shows a close up of her face introducing her to a wider audience/fan base. I like how the colour scheme is even shown through the use of mise en scene. For example, her makeup, hair, nails and jewelry. They are all black with a hint of gold. This relates to her name being shown in big, gold letters, using a very classical and fancy font. The colour gold connotes wealth, prosperity, wisdom and popularity. This makes the cover seem very simple but with alot of meaning behind it. It also relates to Laura Mulveys theory on the male gaze as she's wearing lipstick which may attract men. Her facial expression however seems very aggressive which may connote "female power" maybe. So again there may be a balance in her audience due to this. I like the way the tracklist is set out as its very simple and again follows the codes and conventions in terms of font. The same font is used through apart from where you see "Jessie J" and "Who You Are". It has a white background, probably symbolising the purity and honesty of the album. I've actually listen to the album and I would agree that most of the songs seems very personal as well as uplifting. The design on the CD is simple with an all white effect following a simple silver font.
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