Ella Sutherland

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

What was your production brief? What were asked to create?

My production brief required the making of a music video lasting at least 3 minutes with at least one other member of my media class. Prior to this creation, I was first required to research into our chosen genre in order to identify the typical codes and conventions. Following this, we were then required to carry out primary research in which our target audience were questioned according to their preferences on the codes and conventions so that during the planning stages, we can aim to included what was deemed favourable to increase appeal. Furthermore, we were also asked to create ancillary products in coherence with the music video; a magazine advert promoting the artist and a 6 panel digipak.

What is a music video? Explain what a music video is and explain your understanding of one.

A music video is a visual accompaniment to the song in which it was made for. Originally, music videos would consist of various images in addition to the music, however with the development of technology; artists began to use footage which influenced the term music ‘video’. There are many reasons that an artist may decide to release a music video including; use it as a market tool, provides a short narrative/representation of artists, to attract target audience, to buy into artist lifestyle, encourage audience to remember song, to build a relationship with the artist and to provide an understanding of the song. For example, In Justin Bieber’s ‘Beauty and the Beat’ music video, a relationship between audience and artist is built by the use of hand held camera as it has a much more intimate interaction than simply seeing the artist of screen. This therefore makes the audience feel much more included and important while watching it. This ‘attracts the target audience’ as the use of hand held camera creates the illusion that Justin is almost singing to them individually, again making them feel more important to him personally. Therefore this music video is purposeful in attracting the target audience through a relationship being built between artist and audience, encouraging them to maintain such relationship and interest.

A music video has three main styles; Concept – this style of music video often promotes an idea or movement which may or may not go against the ideals of society. It frequently is used to encourage the audience to become open minded to a situation or idea i.e. homosexuality. This style of music video appeal the audience has they have to engage with the concept; it stimulates their thinking and therefore is more likely to be remembered by the audience. The second style is Narrative – a music video that has a narrative may be used to allow the audience a deeper understanding of a track as the lyrics and narrative often correlate in order to create this. Therefore this style of music video often appeals to the audience as they have a deeper understanding of the song. Also, such understanding comes from the artists’ interpretation of the song and therefore they know more about the artist; encouraging them to build a relationship with them. Finally the last style is performance – this consists of the artist simply performing the song with the music video which is used to show the actual artist within the video in order to appeal to the audience as this allows the audience to engage with the artist’s ‘extraordinary’ side and therefore become interested as this in unconventional to them.

A music video not only has a style in which it follows, but also has conventions according to which genre the song falls under. Conventions are set in each genre so that the audience can easily recognise which genre it is. Also, generic conventions are a result of what the target audience find favourable and therefore, including such conventions within a music video increases the chances that the target audience find the video appealing. Conventions found in a Dance music videos are; a party scene showing lots of people dancing to create the illusion that they are having a good time and that the song is successful in creating this. Other conventions consist of flashing lights, girls and the showing of alcohol to reinforce the party like atmosphere. The party content is an effective convention of the dance genre, as it appeals to the target audience as it indicates that the song itself creates a good time, an ideal atmosphere for a party and therefore continue to listen to it for improve their mood.

On the other hand, conventions found in a RnB music video are; based around love between a couple, consisting of a depiction of a relationship, whether it be happy, sad or showing the stages of breaking up i.e happy, arguing, breaking up and then individuals conveyed as lost/sad afterwards as a result. This appeals to the target audience as it is a subject that they can relate to as it is a universal issue. Love is a topic in which many can relate and therefore portrays the artist as more appealing as the audience can relate, allowing them to build a relationship and maintain an interest. During the video brands/products are promoted in order for the target audience to buy into the artist's lifestyle. For example, there may be a close up of an item of clothing the artist is wearing in order to promote the brand and also provide a short representation of the artist in terms of their fashion style; an aspect that target audience are interested in in order to copy and therefore feel like the artist. Furthermore, RnB artists are known to try and push the boundaries in order to stay relevant and controversial; consequently a topic of conversation and therefore the public are more aware of the artist and therefore more likely to listen to their music. By pushing boundaries, this provides the audience with an unconventional quality which will provide interest as the audience are unfamiliar with such behaviour.

Also, conventions found within a music video by a girl band are; all members having a similar identity in order to create the illusion of unity and companionship. Each member of the band will be matching with one another in order to create and image in which the target audience can recognise and associate with the band; giving them a certain quality different from other bands to differ themselves. Typically, there is one main group member that videos show more of this person so that the audience have a central member to relate to rather than being unable to relate to any of them as a result of a balanced status. However, the illusion of companionship and equality is still present in order to appear happy, friendly and approachable for the audience to feel as if they were a part of the group.

Finally the conventions found in a Hip Hop music video are; based around 3 main topics; money being one of them, often the artist emphasising their lavish lifestyle through the exposure of expensive cars, houses and clothes. This particular convention of hip hop music videos provides the target audience with a representation of the artists' lifestyle in which they find unfamiliar as they cannot directly relate to it. In turn, this appeals to the target audience as it allows them to engage in a lifestyle in which they cannot in their day to day lives and therefore are encouraged to maintain an interest within the artist in order to engage with their lifestyle. There are 2 further conventions typical of the genre; alcohol and drugs, in order to create the illusion that the artist is rebellious and care free. This representation of the artist portrays them as having little worries and plenty of time to party as a result of the amount of money they have. Again, this engages the target audience as it is dissimilar to their lives. Furthermore, the exposure of the female body is also commonly evident to suggest to the target audience that as a result of their lavish lifestyle, they attract females and therefore, such aspect typically appeals to males as they aspire to be like the artist themselves.

Explain what the codes and conventions are of an Indie music video. Include detailed examples to support the points that you have made.

Indie as a genre can be defined as an artist or group which does not belong to a major record label. Therefore such artists are considered to be 'alternative' to those appealing to a mass audience. Their fan base is typically niche, as many feel that once such artist has become well known and liked by the majority, this exploits their originality and uniqueness.

Throughout the music video for 'Let Her Go', they are many close ups on the instruments being played, including a guitar and piano. It is conventional for a guitar to be included in an indie video as it connotes the origin of the artist as they probably started busking in order to be better known, in which this is specifically relevant to 'Passenger'. By zooming in on the artist playing an instrument, this emphasises their talent to the audience and the depth of their dedication to music in order to learn how to play such instrument, portraying them as authentic in their ability. Such use of cinematography, appeals to the target audience as this gives a short representation of the artist, allowing them to further their knowledge on the artist and therefore build a relationship with them. This will effectively evoke their interest in the artist and consequently encourage them to continue listening to the artist.

In Mumford and Sons’ music video ‘Little Lion Man’, there is a long shot to show the audience watching the live performance, the context of the video. A live performance is very much conventional as an indie music video, as it portrays the artist's attitudes regarding the importance of the music as this becomes the focus. A live performance conveys an artist's true talent as it hasn't been altered by a recording; therefore conveying a raw talent as well. By including a live performance in the music video, this indicates the intimacy of the performance, suggesting the artist's niche target audience. For example, in comparison to Rihanna's 'Cheers' video, there are short previews of a live performance she has done, however we can assume this was from a concert on her tour as the amount of people in the frame convey that she is an artist appealing to a mass audience.

Female artists in the Indie genre have a recognisable image that could therefore be deemed conventional in terms of the genre; they normally have dark, heavier eye liner, red lipstick, hair typically long and wavy or short and bright coloured and wear unusual vintage clothing. Such image deviates from mainstream convention and therefore target audience find this appealing is it is deemed ‘different’ and ‘quirky’. The target audience typically find these qualities appealing because they can relate to the artist’s image as they can achieve a similar style themselves. This also makes them feel increasingly similar to the artist and therefore maintain an interest through mutual style.

Explain if your finished music video and ancillary texts develops or challenges your chosen music genre

The final music video is an outcome of the feedback we received from our target audience. Overall, the music video does highly conform to indie generic conventions as this is what our target audience claimed they favoured. By conforming that our target audience wanted, this increased the level of appeal and therefore success of the video itself.

Here is a pie chart that shows the findings to the questions asked to our target audience: ‘Do you prefer a music video to be conventional to its genre or diverse?’ 29 out the 40 participants that we asked claimed that they preferred a conventional music video. Jackie Jarvis claimed, ‘Conventional music videos offer visual appeal without taking the focus away from the song and artist. If there is too much going on the audience is unable to connect to the song and artist.' Because the song we had chosen was highly emotional, we decided to keep the song conventional as an unpredictable visual may take away the emotion from the narrative as the audience will be too concerned with the irregular visual. Therefore, similarly to Nina Nesbitt, our artist image was relatively quirky in that she wore conventional clothing, red lipstick and eye liner; allowing the audience to relate to such image as they are familiar with and are able to interpret it into their own style choices. Furthermore, the final music video also includes close up shots of the artist playing the guitar. By using a close up on the artist playing an instrument, this highlights their ability to the audience and their dedication to music in order to learn how to play such instrument, portraying them as authentic in their ability. This convention appeals to the target audience as this gives a short representation of the artist, allowing them to further their knowledge on the artist and therefore build a relationship with them. Lastly, a live performance is very much conventional as an indie music video, as it portrays the artist's attitudes regarding the importance of the music as this becomes the focus. A live performance conveys an artist's true talent as it hasn't been altered by a recording; therefore conveying a raw talent as well. However, we decided to challenge this convention as we felt this wasn’t suitable to the song. Therefore the style of our music video was a combination of both performance and narrative. The performance was located in front of a white wall so that the intimacy that live performances provide within indie music videos was still created as the audience could only focus on the artist; allowing them to engage with her emotion in order to build a relationship. We also incorporated a narrative so that the audience could have a deeper understanding of the song as well as engage with the artist’s emotion, giving them a holistic understanding of the artist and her story. Overall, our music video is typically conventional to the indie genre, which we chose to do so that this increased the appeal of the music video, as well as our target audience being able to recognise the genre. The artist representation is highly conventional as we constructed an image that was down to earth so that our target audience could relate to the artist and therefore influence an interest in them. However, indie music videos are typically performance based, whereas my music video was a combination of both performance and narrative. My group and I felt this was more suitable to the song as they lyrics were emotional and therefore creating a narrative that illustrates the lyrics allows the audience to understand the narrative more and therefore they can connect to the song, video and artist.

As well as creating a conventional music video, my group and I also created a magazine advert that followed indie conventions. However, prior to making our final group magazine advert, we each conducted research by analysing other indie magazine adverts. Personally, I analysed Nina Nesbitt’s magazine advert that promoted her UK tour. From this, I identified many conventions that I also had noticed were on other magazine adverts for indie artists. One being the artist image being included. This convention allows the target audience to see the artist and therefore their representation according to their style and image. For example, Nina Nesbitt is wearing conventional indie make up and is wearing simplistic clothing; qualities that her target audience will be able to relate to and therefore will deem her more appealing as she seems similar to the audience themselves. Therefore, in order to generate more appeal, we included an image of the artist that represented her as similar to the audience; wearing indie make up and clothing that the audience would typically wear themselves. From this, the audience are encouraged to build a relationship with the artist through mutuality. Furthermore, the location of the magazine advert was typically based around nature or a brick wall, evident in Nina Nesbitt’s and Mumford and Son’s magazine advert. However, we decided to use a brick wall for our background as it creates the illusion that the artist started her life from the basics and still remains there, due to her down to earth nature. The audience are also familiar with this location and therefore creates a further sense of realism rather than false construction. Lastly, the final convention we noticed when analysing was the consistency of font. Typically, the same style of font was used on all of the products associated with the artist so that the audience would recognise it more easily. The font itself was usually very minimalist, hence why we used the font that we did, so that the audience were drawn to who the artist was, but the style of font was not the centre of focus.

Finally, we also created a 6 panel digipak. This ancillary product also conformed to generic conventions as it was based around a nature motif; a common method of symbolism used by indie artists to connote their down to earth and natural image. By doing so, this encourages the audience to build a relationship with the artist as she has qualities that are similar to the audience themselves.Also, in each image of the artist she is either holding or playing the guitar, reinforcing the concept that she is truly talented which appeals to the target audience as they favour such genuine ability. It also provides a representation of the artist that the target audience may be able to relate to through mutual talent/interest in instrument playing.

Further explain if your music video follows, develops or challenges the Indie conventions

In many ways, our music video follows the conventions of the indie genre. One key convention that is evident throughout the music video is the artist playing guitar while performing. This convention is often associated with the indie genre because it portrays the artist as truly talented in their ability to perform, which subverts the mainstream ideals of an artist as they are typically falsely constructed for consumption. The target audience for the indie genre favour an artist who appears down to earth and deserving of their fame and therefore, instrument playing implies this as it conveys the devotion and dedication the artist has to their talent. Therefore by including this convention in our own music video, this follows the indie convention as we are supplying an artist who appears typical of the genre by being down to earth and devoted to music. If we were to challenge this convention by having an artist who did not play an instrument while performing, the target audience may have associated the artist with anther genre such as pop, and therefore not found the artist appealing. They also would not have been able to relate to the artist because of this and therefore are unable to build a relationship with her, hence why we decided to follow the conventional indie artist image. Furthermore, we also followed indie convention through the location we used in the music video. Rural settings are often favoured amongst indie music videos, which I established through research I had done prior to planning. Rural locations that highlighted nature, such as fields, were often used in the indie genre to highlight the purity in the artist much like the use of guitar performance does. By having a location that appears simple, it suggests that the artist is more concern about their music rather than the materialistic and expensive lifestyle often portrayed in the hip hop genre. We decided to conform to the convention of rural location as we thought it was key to create an artist image that the target audience are familiar with, can relate to and that appeals to them. Therefore, overall we decided to also conform to conventions that influenced the image of the artist (such as guitar performance and rural locations) such that this could be achieved.

In our music video, we have also developed the generic conventions. As well as including a rural location to create the desired artist image, we also used a skate park. The skate park was used to highlight the fast paced lifestyle of the artist’s boyfriend, which juxtaposes with the rural location that represents the artist. Therefore this also highlights their conflicting relationship which the narrative is based upon, providing the audience with a deeper understanding. Although skate parks aren't conventionally associated with the indie genre, we felt this was a successful method constructing the boyfriend’s image thus highlighting the differences between them. As the conventional location for the indie genre is rural, we felt this location developed the indie genre because it created an image for the boyfriend that is similar to the conventional indie artist representation. We also developed the indie genre conventions in other aspects of the music video. Through the research I had carried out prior to planning, I had identified that live performances were often focused on. To reiterate a previous point, the target audience favour an artist that is known for being down to earth and easy to relate to; which love performances convey, as they suggest the artist is focused on the music rather than materialistic elements of production. However, because we felt as if the lyrics to our chosen song could create a successful narrative, we decided to do both performance and narrative in the music video. Conventionally, live performances are included to show the interaction between audience and artist, which we conformed to in our music video through the performance based aspects. Therefore the audience were still able to connect with the artist successfully. However we developed this convention by including narrative based aspects along side the performance so that the audience had a deeper understanding of the song, as well as building a relationship with the artist because of this.

However, we also challenged the conventions typically seen in the indie genre, achieving this through. editing. Typically in an indie music video, simplistic and minimal editing is used thus not taking the focus off the music and on the production. This logic reinforces the down to earth nature of the artist which is deemed appealing to the audience and therefore they are able to successfully build a relationship. However, in our music video, we subverted this convention by increasing the complexity of out editing by using a 'directional blur'. This transition blurs one frame into the nest which creates an effect similar to a complete 360 degree shot, which the entire transition looks similar to. The significance of this editing is vital in the representation of the artist's boyfriend, which is central to the narrative. We used a 360 shot to show the distortion of the boyfriend's perception as he is presented as being drunk in the video and therefore the audience are able to recognise this through the shot. It allows them to understand the boyfriends perspective and therefore, his relationship with the artist. We felt that by challenging the indie conventions, we were able to establish the narrative between artist and boyfriend more precisely, therefore the audience understand the narrative in order to relate to it.