Evaluation - Question 1

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

Use:

Lip Sync:

Lip syncing is a major element in any music video and it can either make or break a video. After doing much research on music videos within my genre, I found that there were a large amount of mid close up/ close up shots of the performer lip syncing. Therefore I knew that this element needed to be executed well within my video to fit to its genre.

I chose to make a large amount of screen time dedicated to the performer lip syncing as this was what I had seen in a number of other videos.

 The use of lip sync is a redundant feature of the text, this is because it portrays the emotions felt within the song and also shows the performers musical talent (as if they are actually singing).






Combining Narrative & Performance:


According to theorist Andrew Goodwin, narrative is important to portray meaning behind any music video. However narrative and performance come hand in hand, it allows the viewer to take more of an interest in the video and also makes it more realistic. In all of the videos I have researched previously there has been some form of narrative that contributes to the meaning of the song.









Musical Performance being Filmed:
There are always actors in music videos if a narrative is involved. We have chosen to use an actor to show a realistic interpretation of the music; an illusion is created to the audience, that the actor is really part of this emotional story. We wanted to ensure that the audience would connect with the actor on a personal level due to the illusion they have created.

Lighting & Proxemics:

When considering lighting and proxemics during the research phase, I found that overall there was a large amount of mid close up/ close up shots of the singer within my genre of music videos. Therefore I used these shots within my video.

The lighting appears quite minimal in a large majority of the videos I had researched, which is why I chose to maintain this theme throughout my video. In the performance parts of the video I used a plain white background which allowed all of the focus to be on the singer rather than the background.

These images are fairly similar in terms of proxemics and lighting. They both include mid close up shots of the singers and plain backgrounds. Also lighting is fairly minimal, illuminating mainly the singer's face.

After researching a number of album covers within my genre I found that many of them included a close up of the artists face. In addition to that I found that some album covers had included to artist looking away from the camera and I was intrigued by the effect this had so I used it in my own work

Graphics:

The graphics I chose to use within my advertisement are fairly similar to what I had seen in my research. I chose to create a bar of text layered over the top of the image as I had seen this on one of Rihanna's advertisements and liked the effect it created, also by adding the small image of the album cover it showed how they fit together.

Develop

Performance & Narrative:

In many videos I looked at previously they had used separate actors for the narrative and performance. However we chose to use the same actor for both, this was because I felt the narrative would appear more realistic if the singer was involved in it as well as the singer.i

Use of Zoom:

It's fairly unusual to see zoom used in a music video in the way I chose to use it in my video. However I am extremely pleased with the entropic feel it has created, as we have included a good focus pull which immediately catches the attention of the audience. In many music videos I found that when wanting to zoom they instead cut to another shot that was considerably closer up, however I think my approach was much smoother and interesting.

Digipak:

I noticed that in many Digipak's a  number of different images of the artist were included of different mis en scenes, however I chose to include two images of the performer within my digipak that were fairly similar as the complimented eachother well. I think due to the overall minimalistic feel of album I wanted to show a straight forward theme throughout.

Challenge

Exposed Lighting:

In many music videos of this genre I found that minimal lighting was used to contribute to the overall feel and atmosphere portrayed by the song. I chose however to use slightly overexposed lighting for the performance sections of my video because the harshness of it bought out the emotion within the singer's face much more. I think this entropic use of lighting showed a big difference between the performance and narrative parts of the video.

50 cuts per minute:

According to theorist Andrew Goodwin, the idea of 50 cuts per minute in every music video allows for an overall professional outcome and also ensures that the cuts are in cohesion with the beats within the music. Due to the song I used for my music video being rather slow, I chose to not stick to this 50 cuts per minute rule. I am pleased with how my video looks due to this as I think it fits the feel behind the song much more.