In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My digipak and magazine advertisement were both closely
integrated, as can be expected by an artist. They often follow on from one
another in terms of aesthetic in order to help the audience know what to look
for in the shop or digital store.
For instance, my digipak and advertisement both used the
same font, which was white, and this was carried throughout both products. They
both feature a phone box, and the predominant colour of the products is a dark
blue.
I think the products themselves were also very in line with
typical expectations of digipaks; for instance, the inclusion of a copyright
message and a barcode.
I don’t think that I developed or challenged conventions in
terms of my digipak. For this piece of work I tried to keep to digipak and
genre conventions as much as I could, for instance with the title and band
name, the direction of the text on the spine and the way that linked images
featured throughout the product.
I have always enjoyed simple album covers and I think I have
translated that through in my own work. For instance, there is one central
image on the cover, and the images throughout the product make reference to
this; the cover is the phone box, the inside left panel is the phone itself,
the inside right is the view of the phone box from the floor inside, the back
panel is another part of the phone.
This use of one image helps to attract people’s attention. I
think the inclusion of the phone box on the front panel was a good decision as
I think it is quite an eye-catching image.
The magazine advert is also easy to compare with other
adverts; most adverts feature the band name and title of the album, as well as
some kind of tag, maybe showing the release date, and often there will be
reviews from well-known artists, newspapers or magazines. I replicated all of
these features in my own work.
Similarly to the Foo Fighters advert for ‘Wasting Light’
that I looked at earlier on in my research, my advert featured one main image
that captures the eye of my audience. However, I develop conventions here
in the sense that in most adverts, the image is central to the page, whereas
mine is located to the right. There is a lot of dark, empty space on the
advert, which is not typical – especially since the space is not surrounding an
image on all sides and highlighting it.
In order to be able to follow these conventions I had to
discover what they were. I did this by analyzing many different CD covers, for
example those by Mikill Pane and Twin Atlantic, which are both artists I used
when exploring music videos earlier on in the process. I also looked at Hyro Da
Hero, though his covers are not entirely similar to my one.
I also looked at magazine advertisements for the Gorillaz,
Alison Krauss & Union Station, as well as the aforementioned Foo Fighters.
Magazine adverts are becoming harder to come by these days as so many artists
choose to primarily market their work online, hence why I was limited.
However, these helped me to identify themes that I ought to
carry through all my work in this area. For instance, the variation of font
sizes to make a product more aesthetically pleasing, and the similar themes
that exist in both the video and the advertisement; for instance, in Alison
Krauss & Union Station’s track, Phoner
to Arizona, the location is rural and the colours used are sepia tones. The
sense of rural life is carried on in the advertisement, with Krauss and her
band all wearing simple clothes that remind an audience of days gone by, as
well as being shown in a sepia shade. This helps to create a brand identity and
it also tells an audience unfamiliar with their work that the band likely plays
folk or country music, thus helping them to decide whether or not they want to
listen to the music.
However, my research also helped me to see that an aesthetic
does not have to be carried through as strongly as with Paper Airplane. The cover for Foo Fighters Wasting Light is very artistic and abstract, something which cannot
be replicated all too well in a video. The band seem to be well aware of this
and have gone for something almost opposite to what we saw on the cover for
track Rope.
However, this still carries a message and some form of identity
as the stark contrast makes them appear very interesting.
In terms of my music video, my product tells a story of some
kind, as is expected and common in music videos. This is also very common in
rock and hip/hop videos, which are genres to which The LaFontaines fit into.
However, unlike many of these videos, the artist does not feature in my own
video. This definitely challenges expectations of a music video.
Like other artists, I have used editing in order to convey
messages across to the audience. For instance, there is a vignette effect
applied to the outside of the ‘darker’ times in my music video, where the main
character, Max, is facing pressure from his friends to be violent and drink
alcohol. This creates a sort of ‘blur’ around the outside frame, which helps to
portray that this is not real to Max and that this is not his permanent way of
life.
Conversely, the effect I have used when he is reconciling
with his family and riding his BMX is much lighter and brighter, conveying the
message that he is happy in this situation.
I don’t think that many music videos use such a range of
emotions and hence it is probably not common to see such different types of
editing in a short period of time.
In addition to this point, it is fairly unusual to see an
entire story told like this in less than 3 minutes, with a beginning, middle,
climax and end, and especially for the genres I have identified The LaFontaines
as belonging to.
These videos included Twin Atlantic’s Make a Beast of Myself, Middleman’s Spinning Plates, and Hyro Da Hero’s Sleeping Giants. These videos stuck out to me as not being
overwhelmingly positive in nature; with ideas of being a social pariah and also
about following the crowd throughout all the three videos. Since these three
bands all fit into different genres, I was able to see that these are common
themes in music videos, and I was able to include this in my own video without
feeling that it might not be too well received.
I also looked at Goodwin’s conventions in order to help me
develop my music video further. I found that I had used many of the features he
identified in my own work.
The first I used was that there was a relationship between
lyrics and visuals. I tried to take many of the lyrics in a literal sense in
the early stages of my planning in order to help me generate ideas about the
content of my video. For instance, I have a scene where the artist says watch them, yeah I said watch them, and
on screen we are watching the main character, then we see what he is watching
himself. It is therefore illustrative of the lyrics.
I can also identify that there is a relationship between
music and visuals. This amplifies the images on the screen, in my opinion. For
instance, when the chorus is playing, the visuals are quicker paced and more
uplifting, as is the accompanying section of music.
As the song progresses and becomes more positive, with the
lyrics having a more positive outlook, the video meets the climax and the story
reaches a happy ending.
I tried to cut to the beat of my track, and I think I
managed to get the video to change pace with the music. The shots get longer
towards the end, when the song gets more uplifting.
However, I did not use close ups of the artist or develop
any motifs which could then recur across the work. This is partly due to
practical limitations but also because I wanted to develop a whole story, and
using images of the band would have distracted from this.
I think I did use a notion of looking fairly often; for
instance, when Max is watching the computer screen, a phone screen and when he
is examining his face in the mirror.There is no sexualisation in my music video, which is partly
because I decided not to include any element of sex in it. While I had
originally in my planning intended to have Max feeling pressured by a
girlfriend or relationship I decided to focus more on other areas instead. I
also did not want to risk featuring a woman purely to sexualise her presence,
as the other two females in my work did not receive this treatment, being his
mother and sister.
I would say there are some small intertextual references in
my work. One that we see early on is when Max is watching a computer screen
featuring a cartoon named Mr Freeman.
This is a popular Russian political cartoon with very striking images. The
video encourages people not to let other people do their thinking for them and
to take action against oppressive policies. However, the images are fairly
contradictory and I think that this is representative of how the character of
Max took the influences of his friends in a negative way.
I also included a short clip of the London Riots of 2011,
which were viewed on a mobile phone. In my opinion, this helps to reinforce the
idea that Max is dabbling in something negative; the riots were a low point for
the youth of Britain, and it is well known that many of the events in the riots
were ignited and worsened by the use of mobile technology.
This is a narrative-based music video, and this is evident
in my work because the entire piece is a short story. However, this is fairly
unusual for a new band to do because it reduces the amount of time allocated to
showing them and getting their faces and image known.
I think that my music video was varied in how it followed,
developed and challenged forms and conventions, as were my ancillary tasks.
