In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I
believe my music video follows the conventions of music videos established by
Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis. According to them, music videos do not seem
to have a traditional narrative structure, which is true of our music video as
it does not carry a story with continuity, it simply shows the artist wandering
around the city and singing. My music video fits with the amplification type of
structure in Goodwin’s theory. We wanted to really incorporate the mood of the
song in our music video, which I believe we did effectively by contrasting the
loneliness of our artist Ray Jones and the business of the city, as well as
through the use of blue tones to create a cold atmosphere and get the touching
message of the lyrics across the audience through the video. In real media
products it is also common for the artist to play the role of both performer
and character, which we also use in our music video. Most of the time we have
Ray Jones singing looking at the camera (sometimes playing the guitar), which
presents him as the performer of the song. However, in between these
performances, we also have various tracking shots of Ray Jones walking around the
city on his own, without performance, that represent his role as the character
of the lyrics. A very similar structure was used in the music video “The Man
Who Can’t Be Moved” by ‘The Script’, a real band similar to our created artist
and that had strong influence on our music video. You can see both samples below:
My video
Vernallis
observed that the editing in music videos is much more obvious than in other
media products. My music video does follow her theory in a way, although our
editing is not as obvious as in it would be in a pop music videos, there is
some obvious editing in a more subtle way because of the indie genre. Like for example, we do use some jump cuts
that match the piano rhythm; at the opening of the music video we use a fast
cutting between different shots of Ray Jones walking that also follow the
catchy beat of the song; slow motion is used to dramatise certain parts of
the music video and it is a technique conventional of slow songs. The most obvious editing was the blur in the background in the chorus shots.
In
addition, Vernallis believe that the rules of continuity are broken in music
videos, which is also true of my music video, since we jump from cuts of our
artist performing, to traffic shots, or his walk through the city, without
really having a continuous link between one and the other. Most importantly,
Vernallis notices that in music videos it is commonly used a base track. In my music
video, base tracks are effectively used like in real media products, we have
various different base tracks used specifically at different parts o the music
video. Like for example, at the beginning we have the base tracks of Ray Jones
sitting on the pavement, then in the chorus we move to the base track of Ray
Jones singing walking towards the camera, later a base track of Ray Jones
sitting on the pavement and playing the guitar is introduced. Base tracks were
essential to the construction of our music video. We have filmed several base
tracks in different conditions (at day, night, different clothes) so we could
pick the ones we thought were more appealing. The base tracks create a sense of repetition that is also found in real media products, especially the way we chose to use the same base track every chorus. The base tracks are mostly medium close ups and mid shots to keep the focus on our new artist and getting the audience to familiarise with his face, which is also reinforced by the repetition.
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| The Script music videos |
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| My music video |
In terms
of genre and musical style, my music video follows most of the conventions of
real media products. Looking at the original artist Ed Sheeran, his music
videos are often minimalistic and show him as a normal individual rather than
having an opulent production to impress. It is all about the music and the
lyrics, which is not only common in Ed Sheeran’s music videos but in indie
music videos in general.
The same
way Ed Sheeran is portrayed in his music videos dressed casually, often with a
jumper, we also portrayed our artist in a casual style that is kept throughout
the whole music video and my ancillary products. The blue effect is also a
technique very often used in Ed Sheeran’s music video, which helps to create an
emotional atmosphere that goes with his touching songs. In my music video we
used this blue effect to create a cold atmosphere and catch the sad mood of the
song.
My music video also incorporates many conventions of real media products that belong to the same genre, being inspired by other existing music videos like ‘The A Team’ by Ed Sheeran, ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’ and ‘We Cry’ by ‘The Script’. These three music videos I mention have the street and the urban area as their main location, which is also the main location of my music video. Urban areas seem to be popular within the genre, the use of streets as the setting make connections with the real world and ordinary life, which suits the musical style and makes the audience see the artist as an individual, creating a closer connection with the audience.
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| My music video |
See between 1:11 - 1:20 and 1:39-1:43
The editing technique of traffic lights and people in fast motion was inspired by the music video “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” as well as the way they are placed in between shots of the artist singing, we used it to create the busy atmosphere of the city, since the lyrics are about London.
See between 3:20 - 3:44
Some long duration shots in the chorus of our music video are also related to the Ed Sheeran’s music video ‘Lego House’ in which you get long duration shots of Rupert Grint walking. Long duration shots however are not so conventional of music videos in general, but can be used in slow songs like ours.
See example below at 0:22-0:31
Musical instruments are an important prop for the indie genre,
since the purpose of the genre is to sell for the music rather than for the
appearances. Acoustic guitar makes its appearance in some of Ed Sheeran’s
videos, since his songs also have some acoustic style and he is a minimalistic
artist. Guitars are very relevant for the indie genre since it is an
‘independent’ genre and the artists can play the instruments themselves,
differently from genres such as pop and R&B where the artist is usually
just the singer and someone else is responsible for the musical composition. In
my music video we used an acoustic guitar as we felt it would be a very
essential convention of the genre, the acoustic guitar also keeps the minimalistic
style and can relate to the original artist Ed Sheeran.
Ed Sheeran's videos:
Other videos of the same genre:
As my music video is heavily inspired by the minimalistic style of the original artist and it follows most of the conventions of the indie genre and the theories by Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis, I conclude that my music video uses and develops the conventions of real media products.
As for my ancillary work, I carefully looked at real media products of the same genre and I followed the conventions of ancillary print products and the conventions of the musical style. I did not want to challenge the conventions of ancillary print products, so I kept a colour scheme of two colours (blue and white); I used only one font that although its style is not the most basic, it copies a typewriter font style that gives a vintage feel and suits the genre; and I used clear images and placed my text appropriately. I tried to make my text as visible as possible, giving emphasis to important information.
My ancillary products are heavily inspired by the original artist Ed Sheeran.
I kept the outside panels of my digipak as simple as possible. The genre is a simplistic genre, and Ed Sheeran is a minimalistic artist. I used the idea that Ed Sheeran uses orange as his brand colour because he is ginger, to use blue as my artist's brand colour and create visual link with the blue effect used in the music video. Ed Sheeran uses a colour scheme of three colours, orange black and white being orange the predominant colour. I established a basic colour scheme of two colours, blue and white, being blue the predominant colour. Ed Sheeran's official font has also inspired me with the choice of my font, which is a very similar one and it has the typewriter style. 'Plus' is Ed Sheeran's debut album, although in this genre many digipaks do not have the artist's face in the cover, it is very conventional of a debut album by an unknown artist to have a close up of his face on the cover. In Ed Sheeran's cover his face has an effect that feels a bit grainy and vintage, in my cover I decided to leave Ray Jones face as clear as possible and easy to identify, with some blue tones to suit the colour scheme and create connection with the music video.
Ed Sheeran's videos:
My video:
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As my music video is heavily inspired by the minimalistic style of the original artist and it follows most of the conventions of the indie genre and the theories by Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis, I conclude that my music video uses and develops the conventions of real media products.
As for my ancillary work, I carefully looked at real media products of the same genre and I followed the conventions of ancillary print products and the conventions of the musical style. I did not want to challenge the conventions of ancillary print products, so I kept a colour scheme of two colours (blue and white); I used only one font that although its style is not the most basic, it copies a typewriter font style that gives a vintage feel and suits the genre; and I used clear images and placed my text appropriately. I tried to make my text as visible as possible, giving emphasis to important information.
My ancillary products are heavily inspired by the original artist Ed Sheeran.
I kept the outside panels of my digipak as simple as possible. The genre is a simplistic genre, and Ed Sheeran is a minimalistic artist. I used the idea that Ed Sheeran uses orange as his brand colour because he is ginger, to use blue as my artist's brand colour and create visual link with the blue effect used in the music video. Ed Sheeran uses a colour scheme of three colours, orange black and white being orange the predominant colour. I established a basic colour scheme of two colours, blue and white, being blue the predominant colour. Ed Sheeran's official font has also inspired me with the choice of my font, which is a very similar one and it has the typewriter style. 'Plus' is Ed Sheeran's debut album, although in this genre many digipaks do not have the artist's face in the cover, it is very conventional of a debut album by an unknown artist to have a close up of his face on the cover. In Ed Sheeran's cover his face has an effect that feels a bit grainy and vintage, in my cover I decided to leave Ray Jones face as clear as possible and easy to identify, with some blue tones to suit the colour scheme and create connection with the music video.
In real digipaks the artwork is important to give the audience a feeling of having something extra for their money, a feeling of having something special and exclusive. I believe this is one of the reasons why illustrations may be quite popular, as well as because the genre is very simplistic and the artists often portray themselves in a ordinary but original way.
My magazine advert has a very similar layout to Ed Sheeran's advert. Although Ed Sheeran's photograph is a studio shot and most of the magazine adverts use studio shots, I wanted to use an outdoor shot to keep the connection with the other products. As my music video and main single is 'The City', I thought that having the street as the setting was appropriate to create familiarity, especially since it is the main location in the music video and it appears in the digipak. I also think it suits better the title of the album "Escape" because when you think of escaping you automatically think of getting out rather than being indoors. Like Ed Sheeran's I also use only one type of font, which is the same used in the album, and the same colour scheme used in the album. Ed Sheeran's photograph has a sophisticated black and white effect, which has some orange tones. Not only it looks vintage, as it also suits his colour scheme that has orange as the predominant colour. I have done something similar with my advert, by using a sophisticated black and white effect with some blue tones. I decided to have the artist making eye contact because I think it would be more appealing to the core audience mainly consisted of females, as well as it helps to promote his face as a new artist more clearly. The text is placed on his shirt, and the emphasis is on the artist's name and album title, just like in Ed Sheeran's magazine advert. I also decided to add big emphasis to the release date, which doesn't happen in Ed Sheeran's advert because the album is already released, but it is very common in other real media products to have the release date very large with a lot of highlight. In all real adverts an image of the digipak cover is presented, and if not, the same photograph of the digipak is used for the advertising (as you can see in Ed Sheeran's online advert). In my advert I present all the conventional information that will help to promote my artist and his digipak, therefore I believe I have followed most of the conventions of real media products.
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