In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. music videos)
In order to create the 9 shot frame grid situated above, I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0.
- A shot that shows a link between lyrics and/or music and visuals
This extreme close-up shot, shows a large glamorous diamond ring being adorned on the hand of our artist, Ameli. This well reflects the lyrics that are sung at this exact point in our music video which are, “physical things”, within the context of the rest of the song, hints at the fact that she doesn’t need these material possessions because all she wants is the man she loves. We continue to reflect this rejection of her personal possessions later in the video also as there is a short sequence displaying our artist ripping off the ring from her finger. This particular shot is part of a quick montage of shots that displays various other material things including a watch, cufflinks and our artists glamorous dress. The cuts in this montage match the intonation, speed of the lyrics and number of syllables in the two words as they are spoken.
[CUT]phy[CUT]si[CUT]cal[CUT] things – matching the 4 shots of the montage. - A shot that typifies the way a record company would want their artist to be represented
I have chosen this wide over-the-shoulder shot to represent a shot that typifies the way the record company would want the artist to be represented as we see Ameli in her prime environment in which she flourishes. She is shown performing on a stage which instantly highlights the fact that she is a grand performer, and often when this type of location is depicted within a music video it produces a vision of the artist being a ‘diva’ that demands all eyes on her, much like Beyoncé in her music video for ‘Listen’. It is this type of old-fashioned glamour and star quality that we aimed to replicate for our artist’s identity. We can see the era that Ameli s replicating through her sense of style and costume. The over-the-top sequined floor-length dress adds to the sense of occasion and her hairstyle is that of the 1920’s which is becoming increasingly popular once again in today’s society. She is being looked up at from a low-angle displaying her as a figure that young girls would like to replicate and get inspiration from. Our aim was to make her look as ‘perfect’ as possible in order to fit in with so many other female artists in the music industry which try to portray what society would class as the female ideals. - A shot that illustrates how your video uses music genre
With our artist being categorised in to the Alternative-Pop-R&B genre it was important that we captured the video in a way that would appeal to a broad audience but while sticking to the genre specific conventions. Close-up head-shots are used generously within these genres as they best represent the artist, their image and the emotions they are feeling. This particular screen-grab typifies a shot you would expect from our genre as it is a close-up that clearly depicts our artist situated in a glamorous London location by the river with the skyline in the distance. This beauty shot appeals to many people as it is a person girls want to replicate and be while it is also a person boys want to be with. - A shot that shows an intertextual reference
This shot is perfect in displaying one of the intertextual references that we had within our video. For the sequence that were shot on stage we made up a large paper cut-out of our artist’s logo and stuck it to the back wall of the stage. It stood out tremendously against the plain white canvas adding to the overall mise en scene of the shot however, also served us very well as the audience would subliminally see the logo in the video and then whenever they saw it placed anywhere else (for example, a promotional poster down the street) they could instantly relate the two together and know of its association with Ameli. - A shot that demonstrates your use of camera
Shot number 5 from the 9 frame grid above is a good example to use when displaying the camerawork that was employed during the filming of the music video. I chose this moment in the music video as it required the most amount of skill and had the most movement in this one shot. We used the stedi-cam in order to improve the quality of the footage and steadiness so that this didnt have to be done during editing at a later stage. With the equipment I then slowly moved around our artist in order to get a nice moving, panning shot of her face as she is about to perform. While moving around slowly I was also required to manually change the focus of the lens in order to produce a nice push-pull focus affect. Overall, I am very pleased with the final outcome of this shot and the camerawork that was required to produce it. - A shot that demonstrates your use of lighting
Another close-up, here, is a good example of the lighting we had to employ for the shots on the stage. We used a three-point lighting kit but was only required to use one of the three lights that were provided. We felt that this would be best as we wanted to make it look as though a real spotlight was used. We had originally intended to use the spotlight in the theatre but this was not possible due to health and safety issues. I feel that this one strong light source placed directly in front of our artist worked particulaurly well and actually probably provided us with more light that the spotlight would have done had we been able to go with our original plan. It well highlights our artist and the beauty that we want to be represented. - A shot that demonstrates your use of mise-en-scene
The over-the-shoulder high angle shot from behind our artist looking down towards her one man audience is a good shot to look at when analysing the mise en scene used within this sequence. This shot focuses on the man and so here we can clearly see his costume. He is wearing a smart three piece suit along with a fedora hat that was very popular back in the 1920’s, the bow tie which adds to the smart occasion and performance, with the table lit by candle-light. The use of the candle, gives a generally more period feel but also heightens and hints towards the looming romance that is to occur. The vast spread of floor behind appears to have no end and is only subtly lit by moon-light. It well gives the feeling of a gentlemens club with the theatre having been emptied out after closing time and has left us with a private performance from the clubs in-house performer. - Two shots which you feel demonstrate something which shows you have watched other music videos
Shot number 8 is one of my favourites. It demonstrates something which shows we have watched a different music video already in the professional music industry as it closely mirrors shots from Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z’s music video for their song ‘Suit and Tie’. The way that the artist is shown in a silhouette with a strong light source directly in the centre of the shot is a great way in giving off the impression of a spotlight and a grand performance on stage. Although we see little detail of Ameli or Justin Timerlake, they are centre of the shot and the main focus as we eagerly anticipate the beginning of their performances.
- Two shots which you feel demonstrate something which shows you have watched other music videos
This mid-shot with the artist placed to the left side of the shot with the out-of-focus city lights in the background was inspired by the music video that was made to accompany Ed Sheeran’s song ‘A Team’. Both show the protagonist as she walks through the streets of London and are from an appropriate distance from the artist/character in order to see the emotions on their faces as they struggle to either survive on the streets or find their lover. Both shots help to progress the narrative of the videos while seamlessly fitting in the with performance shots that are shown throughout the remainder of the video.
Screengrabs from other, real music videos in the industry:
In order to create this 9 shot frame grid I used a newer version of Photoshop called Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended.
- A shot that shows a link between lyrics and/or music and visuals
For this convention of a music video I chose a shot from Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ video. This carries the convention the whole way through the video but none more so than the final chorus when the lyric exclaims “-‘cos baby you’re a firework”, at this point of the video, Katy can be seen dancing in the centre of the screen of a low angle mid/wide shot, with shooting fireworks surrounding her. When the lyrics of the song and the action in the video match, I feel it is a great moment as the audience can put the song into context and makes the whole listening and viewing experience combine and is more enjoyable. - A shot that typifies the way a record company would want their artist to be represented
When Taylor Swift first began to make it big worldwide she had a very vivid country identity, her first breakout single ‘Love Story’ typified this innocent, pretty and cute image that the record company were so eager for her to represent. This particular shot displays the country ideals with the location being a country field with rolling lawns and the costume is also key to her identity. She wears elegant yet age-appropriate clothing that doesn’t show too much skin which so many young female artists are prone to do in today’s society. The high angle makes Taylor appear young, vulnerable and innocent running towards her love. This simple and classic scenario appears in many country genre videos and aids Taylor’s country life-style, girl-next-door identity. - A shot that illustrates how your video uses music genre
‘Bound 2’ is the highly controversial newest single from the rapper Kanye West due to its explicit content and amateur style video quality. However, it is still a good case study to look at when giving an example of a video that conforms to the conventions of its genre. The shot displayed above depicts Kanye West and his fiancé Kim Kardashian (the mother of his daughter) explicitly riding a motorcycle while Kim is naked. A common theme within the rap genre video is expensive vehicles as it is a way for rap stars to display their wealth. Furthermore, young women with very little clothing is also an image that is often seen and backs-up Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory with a wide range of the rapping community being men. - A shot that shows an intertextual reference
The 1975 is a relatively new band that have recently made it into the charts with songs from their self titled debut album ‘The 1975″. Their video for the song ‘Girls’ draws upon one of the most iconic music videos ever, that is Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted to Love’ with the famous supermodel girl band. When modern audiences watch the music video for ‘Girls’ – if they know of Robert Palmer – they will immediately get the reference and associate one with the other. It works well as we can see that this new band would love to become as successful as Robert Palmer who sets a good example within this indie-rock popular genre. This particular shot clearly displays the whole band of glamorous women and is the same long shot type as is used in ‘Addicted to Love’.
- A shot that demonstrates the use of camera
Shot number 5, is a screen grab from one of Miley Cyrus’ first singles away from being her alter-ego on screen personality Hannah Montana. This is a good example of camerawork within a music video as interestingly, the whole video is shot in one long continuous shot. While this goes against regular music video conventions, it works well in highlighting the artist and so therefore, does follow the usual stereotype of a Pop music video as it solely concentrates on the artist and their promotion. - A shot that demonstrates the use of lighting
‘1+1’ is the massive hit song from Beyoncé. Shot number 6, shown above is taken from the promotional video that accompanies the song. This video uses interesting and circling lighting around the artist in order to highlight the artists face as she performs the song. The head shot close-up draws all attention to Beyoncé as she sings, even more so as she is placed against a plain black background which absorbs any lights and so doesn’t reflect it. This exemplifies the ways in which real music videos in the professional industry use lighting in a way that highlights and beautifies the artist. - A shot that demonstrates use of miss-en-scene
Lawson, a pop boyband, employ a wide variety of elements in order to make for a believable environment in their music video for the song, ‘Juliet’. Firstly, they have chosen a location that well reflects a gentlemen’s club, much like the one that we aimed to re-create when we produced our own music video. The dimly lit room along with the red draped walls make the environment appear ever-more sleazy and sexual yet love-orientated. The lack of light adds to the mystery but the stage-lighting clearly shows that there is a performance, it blinds out and de-faces the audience which adds to the ideas that they shouldn’t be there and could be there for the wrong reason. The audience can be seen wearing glamorous 1920’s inspired outfits which adds to the overall miss-en-scene and makes the scene look generally more believable. It is these small elements such as costume and small insignificant props like drinking glass types that add to the final aesthetics of a scene. - Two shots which you feel demonstrate something which shows you have watched other music videos
As previously mentioned, when producing our music video, we looked at Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z’s music video for ‘Suit and Tie’ for inspiration. It is a shot type that is used widely within music videos in the professional industry when the location is that of a theatre or a performance on a stage. I believe it is used so much as it is a good way in showcasing your artists stardom and their level of demand.
MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY (Shot number 8 is one of my favourites. It demonstrates something which shows we have watched a different music video already in the professional music industry as it closely mirrors shots from Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z’s music video for their song ‘Suit and Tie’. The way that the artist is shown in a silhouette with a strong light source directly in the centre of the shot is a great way in giving off the impression of a spotlight and a grand performance on stage. Although we see little detail of Ameli or Justin Timerlake, they are centre of the shot and the main focus as we eagerly anticipate the beginning of their performances.) - Two shots which you feel demonstrate something which shows you have watched other music videos
This was the second shot that I chose to resemble in our music video. Its a simple shot but works well in a city location which was one of the reasons that we chose to re-create it. For a song such as ‘A Team’ which tells the story of a young lady struggling to live on the streets and dealing with drugs and prostitution, it is extremely important to capture the emotions of the characters or artist that is involved in the narrative. As our video also contains a relatively gritty narrative of a young lady that fails to capture the heart of her love interest and so is left to traipse the streets of London in order to find him, we also needed to employ shots that would display the characters emotions.
MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY (This mid-shot with the artist placed to the left side of the shot with the out-of-focus city lights in the background was inspired by the music video that was made to accompany Ed Sheeran’s song ‘A Team’. Both show the protagonist as she walks through the streets of London and are from an appropriate distance from the artist/character in order to see the emotions on their faces as they struggle to either survive on the streets or find their lover. Both shots help to progress the narrative of the videos while seamlessly fitting in the with performance shots that are shown throughout the remainder of the video.)
Digipak Comparisons
Above is our album artwork front pane of our digipak and below are two examples of real album artworks in the industry; the Great Gatsby film soundtrack and then Beyoncé’s most recent self-titled visual album. Both of which share similarities to our own digipak and reflect the conventions of their respective music genres.
The Great Gatsby Soundtrack CD is a collection of all of the music that features in The Great Gatsby film and is therefore made up of a variety of artists. The cover therefore doesn’t particularly reflect the identity or style of an artist but more so a general era and theme of the film. Our artist does have a strong identity which matches with this 1920s era which is why we gained inspiration from the art deco lines and fonts. The colour scheme we felt also worked well and so replicated this as it also worked with the black and white filter that we had employed in our music video.
Beyoncé is an artist that represents the Pop-R&B genre and is seen as one of the most influential and successful artists of our time. It is for these reasons that she aims to defy regular conventions and be revolutionary and a trend-setter as opposed to being a sheep and following rules and regulations that were created in the past. I believe that within the Pop and R&B genres – as strange as it sounds – it is rapidly becoming the convention, to go against conventions. What I mean but this is that today, every artist within these genres aims to be the best and try something new. For example, there is Beyoncé releasing her album with no prior warning whatsoever with one of the simplest front covers to ever adorn the work of one of the biggest stars in history, Lady Gaga releasing the first ever black liquid fragrance, Katy Perry releasing her SCENTED ‘Teenage Dreams” album or Kanye West releasing his ‘Yeezus’ album with no artwork at all, just a simple luminous orange-red sticker on the side of the hard copy. It was our idea to then follow these artists by trying something different with our albums artwork and so we decided that there would be a cutout in the shape of our artists logo which would make way for a headshot image of our artist to show through which is printed on the panel behind the front pane. To my knowledge this has never been done before and so is a good way to be unique and draw attention to our artist’s debut album. We followed the current fashion, however, within the pop industry and that is to have a self-titled album which is the only text that we have featured on the album cover, much like BEYONCE.
Pictured above is the back pane of our digipak on the left, next to the back pane of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Born to Die’ album digipak. Lana del Rey is an artist whose identity we were very intrigued with from the start as she has managed to create a very vivid image for herself which is reflected in the various other forms of media that she is associated with. We therefore adopted a similar layout to that of Lana’s with that song titles being the main focus of this panel which I feel is very important as the songs are the product and so need to be promoted very clearly. We followed the conventions in using a very simple colour scheme that matched the rest of our digipak with the same border. It was also important that we included all of the necessary key information and small print to this panel also, not only is it a requirement but it also makes the pane appear generally more professional and realistic and as though it would fit in well on a shelf in a hmv store. We also felt it was important to include the artists logo subtely, it helps the intertextuality and continuity of the piece as a whole.
Advert Comparison
Lily Allen is one of the most internationally successful British artists within the pop industry and so it is important to look at the ways she is promoted in order to gain an idea of what is the most common conventions of this genre. Like our poster, Lily’s has one main large image with the sole focus being on her, the artist. This makes any poster instantly recognisable and its purpose is very obvious – self promotion. It includes all of the necessary information such as the album’s title, the artist’s name and information on where it is possible to get your copy of the album. We also copied the way in which that it is all laid out very evenly and is balanced which makes the finished poster simply more aesthetically pleasing and easy on the eye. The fun shapes and cartoon imagery is very reflective of Lily’s young and fun personality and so we too decided to choose imagery, fonts and colours that well reflect the classy, elegant and glamorous nature of our artist. Finally, this poster also includes a review, we feel this is a good decision to any promotional poster as it reassures any potential buyers that they are spending their money well and can just be the last push needed to influence a person to make a purchase. It is for this reason that we added 3 reviews with a 5 star rating from appropriate publications that relate the genre of our music and the artist’s identity.
When researching popular female pop solo artist promotional posters I came across the poster on the right which was used when promoting Britney Spears’ sixth studio album ‘Circus’. I feel it fits the general theme of this album with the circus font, colours and layout and so works really well. It fits in well with her various other promotional materials such as her album artwork which has been created using the same fonts, colours and imagery in order to forge a connection between the two elements. In order to follow this convention of forging a visual connection between the promotional poster and album artwork, we went with a very similar theme, colour scheme, fonts and imagery in order to tie everything together nicely. We used a striking image of our artist to catch people attention, followed by general key information that people will need to know in order to get the album. In the modern technology orientated society that we live in, we felt that it was also necessary to include information about any social media sites that you can look at in order to gain more of an insight into the album and the artist. Therefore, much like Britney’s Circus poster where she has included the link to her website, we also included the link to our artists website as well as the inclusion of a hashtag (#) which people who use Twitter will be able to immediately identify and know that if they were to send out a tweet with this hashtag then they can join an online discussion regarding the album with fans from all around the world. These sort of online social media connections are very popular today and so we have picked up on this up and coming convention and included it into our own work.
Platinum Records Co. - Ameli 