AISHA HUGHES EVALUATION

QUESTION ONE

Q1. In what ways doe your media product use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?

Our music video follows the typical conventions of the genre of music that we focused on; pop. We stuck with the typical conventions seen in pop music videos; we used research from looking at other artist music videos of the same genre. From this we worked out the typical mise-en-scene, make-up, camera shots etc. used. We then translated this information into our own music video.

The way that we have made our music video is by following the conventions of a narrative, with a large base of performance. This style of music video is very typical to ones that are used in popular POP artist videos. It allows the artist to be in 80% of the camera shots to give them the biggest face time available. This is done so the audience know straight away who the main artist is and what they are about, i.e. the style of clothing they wear, their typical make-up aka the branding of the artist. Having large bases of performance in the music video does this, however the narrative of the music video is very key in making it a popular music video and something that the audience can engage in.

By having a narrative it allows the audience to be straight away engaged into the music video. It makes the audience want to keep on watching to find out what happens later on and how the situation unravels. This is very typical to a POP genre music video, such as Katy Perry Last Friday Night music video. Both Katy Perry and our artist have a very similar audience base their for portray our music videos in a similar way to get the audience interested in it.

The use of camera shots is very important in our music video; the use of close up shots has been a large percentage of our video. It is key to get a close up shot of the artist whilst performing and not, as they are the selling point in the video. The audience wants to see their favourite artist singing instead of images. The close up shots are important for the artist as it gets their face out into the industry and therefor generates their popularity, making them more popular i.e. more audience awareness, more money.  Something that was made clear in Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’- 1992.

There were several shots that were typical to the ‘male gaze’; Laura Mulvely ‘Visual pleasure and narrative cinema’ – 1975. These shots showed the artist in a seductive way allowing the audience to be over both genders and different ages, as these shots are most attractive towards males in their 20’s.

From using several factors from Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’- 1992 we were able to link the visual images with the lyrics, as well as shows a relationship between the music and visual images.

The starting sound in the music video is of two cups hitting each other, with the image to follow. This sets the scene of the music video and allows the audience to have a second of understanding the surrounding and what the concept is without jumping straight into the song. This effect of having a ort story of sound before the music starts is seen in many music videos so is a popular concept that we thought would be appropriate to use in ours.

The editing used is similar to popular music videos that follow the same genre, by having fast edits it makes the imagery more interesting and grabs the audience’s attention. Whilst also having slow motion parts, this highlights key moments and also exaggerates moments, such as the ballet dancer with the wind going through her hair. By having that slowed down it becomes far more dramatic and visually interesting. By having scenes which are faster to match the music, in the clock sound scene. This links the imagery with the sound and connects both well together with a concept, which is interesting for the audience.

For our music video we were inspired by many artist, we found inspiration for a large mise-en-scene based music video by artists such as Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, the props they use in each music video they create is very over the top and creates a visually interesting atmosphere for the audience to look at, something we aspired to create.

Lady Gaga also inspired the costume and make-up, the way that she allows her make-up and costume to be a large part of her music video. She is seen as a fashion icon by her outrageous fashion choses, this makes her even more popular through a larger audience base, Not only her musical fans but now by her fans who are inspired and are more interested in what she is wearing than her music. This is an idea we went with, creating interesting outfits that our target audience will respond positively to and want to follow.

For our mise-en-scene I was inspired by old fashion toys and games I would play as a child. The use of the tea party scene with the teddies is something I did as a child. It relates to our concept of having an edgy and imaginative atmosphere were grown adults are still acting like children. Showing the way one doesn’t grow up and shows the strong friendship bond these two friends had, and they way that they stayed friends through the years.

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WIX LINK : http://www.wix.com/aishaliz/media