In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?Research - Conventions

During my research and planning, I have studied the conventions of music videos so I could get ideas of how I could make my music video looking professional and realistic. From this research I could see that the main ones to look at were:

-Mise-en-scene (characters, props, setting, lighting etc.)-Camera angles and movement-Editing pace and transitions -Narrative storyline

Along with this research, I also have my questionnaire results to look at and see what features my audience liked to see in a music video:-Storyline -Band Shots/Artist-Fast pace

I tried to include as many as these aspects which I thought would work and are needed.

Real Media Product My Media Product

Mise-en-scene conventions:SettingShould link to the lyrics, possibly suggest or link to the happenings ofthe video.For my music video I had three settings:Firstly, a studio area with professional lighting and blackout curtains. This created a sense of professionalism as it looked as they were performing to a audience, the lighting help show the performers outfits etc. The black background help keep the attention on the performance rather than the back ground.

Secondly, a beach in Cornwall, this created a atmosphere to the music video, making the actor look sad and alone, the added element of the rain help create a grunge type feel to this particular character.

Lastly I had a bedroom, this is where the photographs were burnt, having it in a bedroom created the sense of comfort, she is happily in a comforting place while destroying what was apart of her life.

LightingLighting is used to reflect a mood, the angles of lighting can change Because of this research I decided to have the performance have two spotlights, this create an atmosphere which is serious. For this lighting is used professional stage lighting.

When filming outside I could add an additional lighting, the weather when filming was very grey and dark, this added to the astrosphere of the scene. Lastly when filming in the bedroom I used natural lighting from the window, seeing as if I used artificial lighting it would be yellow toned, this wouldn't work well with the flame to burn the pictures.

Characters (hair, make-up, costume)Band imaging should match the genre of the music. I decided that I liked the simple styling already of the band members, and that it was unnecessary to change it for the music video.

Props Instruments are usually included when filming a music video, I therefore decided it was necessary to have the instruments involved. As my song used is an acoustic version, all I needed was a guitar, no other interments.

Editing Conventions:Pace of editingI researched that music video’s editing depends on the speed and mood of the song. If a song is happy then it will have a fast editing pace to go with the mood the song creates.

With my own song, the mood is quite sad and lonesome. Therefore, I decided that I need a slow but steady editing speed. Our clips are very short and each one is edited on a beat making the editing look well paced, neat and interesting.

Transitions The transitions mostly used in almost every music video is always a cuts or fades.

I felt that any other effects may look odd and out of place and decided with the stereo-typical conventions of a music video and didn’t use any. However, to make sure that the transitions flowed well, we used ‘match-on-actions’. This allowed me to swap shots and make it interesting but allowing the action to progress in a different camera position.

At the end of my video, I used chrome tool which allowed to have two clips on top of each other, having a slight fade, I used my actor walking on the beach and a burning photograph.

Camera Movement conventions:Camera anglesI saw that when the was lots of action in music videos, there was a lot more angles used. Whereas in the slower parts, the angles stayed at a more similar height.

I decided that my would also look good in our own music video as the disco scene and band shots are supposed to be energetic and interesting to watch. We used a range of angles during these scenes and feel it looks effective.

Camera MovementThe most common movement for a camera in music videos is ‘panning’, or moving along with the action. Most of this would be done with some sort of tracking device.

As I didn’t have this equipment to pan well we had a few techniques that I used when filming– firstly I used freehand filming with a tri-pod attached to stop camera shake slightly, this was when there is a lot of action happening it’s not too obvious that the camera shakes a touch. I did also film with the camera on the tri pod as it got the best mid shot of the two performers.

Camera ShotsMusic videos often feature the performing artist, I included two members from the band to perform a song while performing live. Music videos that show a people often have close ups showing the movement.

I have used many close ups used through my video, I have close ups of my performers, and the burning photographs. I think this is a convention that is good to keep through as it helps show facial expression an the tone of song, the song is quite serious and full of emotion.

How my text challenges the conventionsContent I have made my music video about myself, I shows a story of a break up. I used my own photographs.

I feel like people can relate to this video as it would be something that many people go through at a time in there lives and effects people in certain ways. The target audience of my video is younger audience, I feel like a relationship issue is something that will happen at some point of someone life. This is a challenge because I doesn’t show myself in it, it is a thought process and a way of dealing with the issue, for example the burning of the photographs.

Advance TechnologyIn my music video, I didn’t have the supply to use advance technology, to create my video I used a HD camera, a simple editing software called ‘Corel’. I then didn’t use any green screens to super impose image behind, I used real locations and sets. I didn’t use special effects, how ever my music video doesn’t need this effects because of my genre of my music. My video works better as it’s ‘raw’ looking and grey.