Evaluation (Part 1)

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

At the beginning of the project we were given the codes and conventions of music promos they are as follow;

Performance based promos (band/artist playing), Narrative based promos (band/artist telling a story through the song) and Concept based promos (visuals are not relevant to song).

There are also a range of conventions that must be used within the narrative/performance/concept based videos. They are as follow;

- Camera shots; long shots, close ups and extreme close ups
- Camera movements; pans and dolly track shots.

- Editing; jump cuts and raction shots
- Mise-en-scene; is associated to the intertextual link of the music video and therefore depends on the representation. There are different types of mise-en-scene
- i.e. Lighting, Props, Costume, Colour, Sound

The genre of my music promo was alternative pop this genre alone has conventions that I found through my RMA's and also through being taught conventions of different genre of music promo for example;

- Colourful

- Majority of shots involving artists

- Fun and light hearted shots

- Jump shots to match feel of music

- Location friendly - i.e. houses domestic settings and outside

How my product uses conventions of real media products;

The majority of my music promo is based on conventions used in a narrative based video for example, visuals match lyrics; in this part of the music promo the lyrics are "watching me like you never watched no one" so the image is of a boy watching my artist so the visuals match the lyrics, this is a continuing theme throughout the music promo. I have used visuals matching lyrics because it allows the audience to not only hear the story but can see it as well making the video easy to watch repeatedly as it tells a story so you can watch it again and again without being bored, this is important as the more times an audience watches it the more recognition the artist will get.

I have also used aspects of performance based parts of my music promo as there is a lot of piano parts this is shown through the artist playing the piano throughout. The artist playing the piano breaks up the narrative again increasing repeatability as it gives a sense of diversity to the music promo making it more interesting to watch. It also helps promote the artist as it shows their talents other than acting in a music promo. This is matches the conventions of my genre of music because it is more alternative music the artist will feel it's important to show their talents more than in mainstream music.

I have also used camera shots that conform the conventions of music promo's for example, here I have related back to my RMA's in that they use a range of different camera shots for example here I have over the shoulder shots as used in one of my RMA's to help present the storyline. I have also shown how I have used extreme close ups, these shots are important for a music promo as the whole point of a music promo is to promote the artist and allow recognition of the artist for the audience and extreme close ups will allow this happen.

Camera movements also allowed me to conform to conventions of a music promo. I used tracking in the last shot of my music promo to follow the artist into the house to bring the story to an end. This follows the ideas of a narrative based music promo as it allows continuity of the story being told. It is also important as it allowed continuing close ups of the artist, whilst continuing to tell the story so it was being narrative as well as helping to promote the artist in the use of close ups.

I also use panning in the beginning of my music promo to introduce the artist by following her walking, I believe this helped conform to a music promo as it is important to create definite recognition of the artist and by following her to begin with it would help the audience in knowing she is the artist of the song.

I have also used editing to conform to the conventions of a music promo, for example, the music is very fast beat as the piano plays continuously quickly in the background therefore to conform to this type of music the shots would be quick jump shots which I have used for the majority of my music promo.

Mise-en-scene also allowed me to follow and conform to the conventions of my music video. For example, in my RMA of Foundations I found that because the audience would be teenagers/young adults, the props, location and costume would be very familiar to them allowing them to create a relationship with it, I have followed this idea as shown below.

How my product develops conventions of real media products;

How my product challenges conventions of real media products;

Originally my music promo was going to be made up of only shots where the lyrics matched the visuals however, as it came to editing I realised that not all of the song had lyrics as there was many instrumental parts. I therefore needed to find a way that I could fill these parts, this resulted in me challenging the conventions of real media products because;

The music promos I studied in my RMA's followed just one type of genre of music promo, for example they would be narrative, performance or concept based. However, because my song features short parts of instrumentals throughout I believed that it would be effective to include some performance based parts rather than my music promo just being of the artist singing the lyrics or acting the lyrics. I felt this would be effective because it would break up the storyline allowing the music promo to be more interactive with the audience as they would get a feel for both song and the artist and her talents.