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

When creating our media products we were inspired and influenced by a range of real media through the research we gathered. We did this before actually starting on the actual production. One of the things I really learnt from doing such extensive research was the importance using real media products, and how it enables us to clarify which conventions we will incorporate in our own production. This was also an opportunity to gather general inspiring ideas which contributed to producing our digipak, magazine ad and music video. Using the research in this way ensured that our final pieces well suited the chosen musical genre.

I think our media product overall use and develop conventions in that it fairly and accurately fits within the genre and successfully attracts our target audience. However there are a few decisions we made which subvert the conventions, some of which were due to circumstances beyond our control.

We used conventions from real music videos in the use of camerawork and editing in Final Cut Pro. For the music video we filmed a close up shot of the actress and actor’s hands moving away from each other. We were inspired by Rihanna’s music video for ‘Diamonds’. Although the song for the music video is not Indie/Pop, there are Indie/Pop code and conventions depicted in the music video. For example, Rihanna’s hands are clasped together and moving away from her lover’s hands in the music video. Since the title of our chosen song is ‘Let’s restart’ and the lyrics is are about the singer, who wants to be in love with her ex-lover again, we used our shot of the hands and developed it by editing the shot and adjusting the speed to slow it down. We changed the speed to match the speed of the song. In addition we repeated the shot but reversed it later in the song to match the visuals with the lyrics, (a convention which Andrew Goodwin found in music video). The slow cuts of hands are one of the conventions of Indie/Pop music video that we found within our research; we used this idea from our research but developed this idea further by editing it using a black and white filter to illustrate the elements of the ‘abstract’ feel. Music videos such as, The 1975 – Chocolate and Lana Del Rey – West Coast are edited to have a Black and White filter. Lana Del Rey’s music video has a flicker shot in the first ten seconds and then it goes to slower fade/in transitions. Whereas The 1975’s music video has more slow cuts and pan and tilt shots. This creates a vintage yet urban feel to the music video; as if the audience is watching an old noir Hollywood film, which also links with both songs, as the lyrics are about memories of love within the sentimental location(s) they are in the music video.

We took this idea and further developed it by adding the Black & White or the ‘Desaturate’ video filter in Final Cut Pro to create that past tense footage of when the couple officially drifted apart. We also added a fade in/out transition to the beginning and end parts of the song, as the music is only playing, then each of the shots in the middle are just slow cuts, as the singer is only singing in the

middle part of the song and the music eventually builds up (the volume gets louder, singing more intensely and more drums beats are playing) in the middle, then goes back to its original slow pace. This editing style was inspired by our research.

We did a lot of research into artists’ looks and image, and had a clear idea of the kind of person we wanted to cast. Initially, we hired my cousin as the actress/singer. Although she is Bengali, she didn’t look Bengali due to her fair skin tone and facial feature. Also her dress sense made her look more westernised, as well as her style conforms to the Indie/pop genre. The actress looked like Lana Del Rey in terms of the skin tone, the ‘glam’ look within costume and make-up. But due to last minute changes, we decided to hire myself for the music video as my cousin has something up last minute. This is an example of where we had used our research to understand conventions in terms of casting and had planned to replicate this as closely as possible but we were limited due to the access to actresses. However looking back, I am glad that we picked me because in doing so we decided to subvert the visual expectation of an Indie/Pop artist; who are typically Caucasian. We chose me because we had to improvise and quickly get on with the production, it was really just a decision that was at the time based on time restrictions and meeting our deadline. But it worked well in that it enabled us to create a product, which could access a wider target audience from different ethnic minorities who could relate to the artist’s lyrics’, and also now the look of the artist, thus linking to Richard Dyer’s star theory.

Usually, there is a man or a love interest in Indie/Pop music video, mainly in Lana Del Rey’s music videos as her songs are frequently about love. We initially hired a male actor, but the overall footage did not go with the song and it looked very cheesy. As well as that the actor did not have suitable costume for the Indie/Pop music video.

Since we wanted to create an abstract music video, we challenged this convention by not including a man in our music video. Even though, our chosen song is about love, we decided to subvert that expectation of including a love interest because we want more focus on the artist, such as her actions and emotions and making sure it matches the speed, mood and lyrics of the song. We wanted it to be about communicating with the lyrics, as the song is about the singer longing for her love with her ex ‘to begin again’, as well as finding empowerment within the relationship. So we filmed the singer to be singing directly to the camera in several different shots, as if she is singing to her ex-lover. This particular style of camerawork was something we identified in most of the videos we watched for research. For example, the music video for Lana Del Rey ‘Young and Beautiful’ and Marina and the Diamonds’ ‘Lies’, there is always a focus on the artists singing straight to camera. Particularly, the close up shots of the singer create that personal interaction from the singer to the lover and audience as you can see her sincere, upset emotions through her eyes, facial expressions and body language.

We didn’t just use Indie/Pop music video as our research. We were also inspired by Pop music videos too. This is because we wanted to appeal to our target audience; young women aged16-25, who are more interested to the more Pop and glamorous side within Indie/Pop. Marina and the Diamonds is a good example of this glamour image.

We used our research to enable us to make effective changes too. The painting on the canvas scene was initially my idea; we filmed me painting ‘Hold me down’ on the canvas, with the runny paint, falling down to add a suspenseful mood from the song. But when looking back at our research and our first draft, we decided to change this to better fit the genre, as we identified that the genre has a slightly dark feel to it, We felt that the coloured paint we had used just didn’t fit. We re-filmed the scene. This time we painted the words again but with black paint, so it stands out.

We also changed the action by also getting the actress (me) to actually smear the paint onto the canvas quite aggressively to depict that anger. I smeared the paint in my hands in a quite sinister way. This was inspired by Demi Lovato’s music video for the song ‘Heart Attack as she had black paint on her hands and all around her in a messy form. But instead of getting the actress to be singing and screaming like Demi did, we developed this idea to suit our song and wanted the actress to be more depressed and serious, as she previously put all her frustration on smearing paint onto the canvas. The hands in the Black and white filter links with the hands covered in paint to create a symbolic message of need of love and companionship.

The colour of the smeared paint was purple to develop a distinctive purple theme within our media product. We were inspired by Adele’s music video for ‘Hello’, which isn’t an Indie/Pop song, but the music video used a pale dull green filter. This is an example of one of the forms of an Indie/pop music video, which is the music video can be filtered to be black/white or a different colour filter. For example in Lana Del Rey’s music video for ‘Young and Beautiful’, there is an obvious purple filter in the beginning of the music video, and then it quickly fades into a very subtle indigo filter to when Lana is lip syncing, which creates that very retro style to the music video. Also in Marina and the diamonds music video for ‘Primadonna’, there is a faint rainbow filter in some of the shots to create a combination of vintage look from different eras. We took this idea and incorporated it into all of our products. But we developed it, instead of adding a purple filter to the music video, we used hints of the purple through the painting scene, as well as slightly filtering the digipak to have subtle tinted purple filter.

We developed the design of the prints products because they don’t just have a vintage, urban or glamorous look but instead we tried to combine a fairy-tale style into the design. In Photoshop we used a purple filter to create that fantastical and abstract look to the digipak, as the grass had the purple/green gradient effect, and the muddy lane was purple, with indigo tints.

Usually the fonts used in an Indie/Pop magazine ad and album cover are narrow, simple yet bold. In Lana Del Rey’s magazine ad, the font is clear and minimal,

compared the actual artistic and abstract image. We decided to use a simple font for the album details, so the consumer can easily read the text. But we challenged the expectation of the font for the title of artist’s name. We liked this fairy-tale themed calligraphy font from the Dafont website, because it went with the images for the album front and back covers, as well as the magazine ad. Also the font complimented and represented the artist’s name well. Considering it was a calligraphy font, it was clear to read.

The research we carried out on Indie/Pop music videos gave us a clear idea of the Indie/Pop conventions of how the actress should look. We found out that the artist should dress suave yet distressed, and the makeup should be glam like Marina or Lana’s typical trademark look, or more natural and smoky like Lana in the ‘West Coast’ music video. The make-up was dark yet glamorous; red, maroon and black themed with doll-like wavy hair, along with the costume to consist of a maroon and indigo tartan cotton shirt, black chiffon long skirt, black velvet boots and a dirty gold collared necklace, with pearl stones. The make-up is very seductive and feminine, but it was toned down when actress was wearing the modest, trendy and edge form of costume. The main outfit was used for the music video as well as for the digital, so the audience can easily identify the artist and see this outfit as her trademark look. The other outfits such as the plain black jumper for the projection scenes and the plain grey jumper for the painting scenes was used to show the casual and rough side of the artist, as well as that plain jumpers won’t be a distraction to whatever is going behind the artist; painting words on the canvas, the smearing and scratching the paint, the wide location pan shot of Wapping (that was played on repeat) for the projection.

From our research, we were inspired by Rihanna’s music video for ‘We Found Love’ and Lana Del Rey’s music video for ‘Summertime Sadness’ in which they both have projection scenes. The projection scene is an example of one of the Indie/Pop conventions of including a vintage/retro aspect to a music video. Originally, we used different clips for the projection scenes. I suggested having our own clips for the projections, but the group had found clips online to use instead. I was filmed within the projections, looking upset and in a daze. Once we developed our own footage by editing and rendering it on Final Cut Pro, we decided that it didn’t go with the music video as a whole. This is because the colour within the location was too bright; it needs to more dull and softer to match the mood of the song. So then we went to Wapping to film a pan shot of the sunset. Then we developed the clip by making it shorter and to be played in a faster speed for the new projection scenes. Also we found that it more effective if the singer (me) was singing in those new scenes, and for it to be a close up, because in the old shots, you could barely see me. Initially, we challenged the use of the real media products by filming abstract shots of the wallpaper, flowers, tea cups and glasses, but we realised that it didn’t flow overall. So we used the shots that flowed more with the song’s speed and developed it by changing the speed of the some of slightly faster clips, so the speed and duration of each clip consistently matches the speed of the whole song.

Another element that we used in our video which we found to be an integral part of all music videos was the lip-syncing. The artist is almost always seen singing the song. Initially we added lip syncing against a green screen and the fairy lights in the drama performance room. Initially there were additional lip syncing scenes of myself and the actor along the Southbank. We decided not to use them as we thought of a better idea. The shots of me with the actor did not make the music video look visually interesting or abstract. Instead we thought it would be better to just focus on the actress so we added more picturesque shots. The green screen shots didn’t work either. It looked more suited for documentaries or a parody narrative based music video, the green screen was used in a lot of Eminem’s music videos and in more upbeat bubble-gum Pop music video.

We found out about Abney Park and researched the location online and we decided to film there. We filmed myself lip syncing, walking away from the sunset within the rural/ forest-like atmosphere, as the park is also a cemetery. This location was more suitable for the song, as it looks more secluded and scenic. Marina and the Diamonds’ music video for ‘Lies’ inspired us as she walking in a creepy yet quite mystical forest at night. We developed that idea by filming our shots at sunset, so the natural lighting from the sun still shows the green in the tree leaves, as well as show a silhouette form of the tree branches against the transition of the sunset; the colours in the sky go from blue, to yellow/orange. These shots actually flowed better with the dark themed music video than the shots with the actor.

Our digipak and magazine advert design was strongly influenced by our research. In particular, the layout and the positioning within the print. For example, we identified that it is a convention for the front cover to have a close up or mid shot, and to include the artist name and album title. In addition, we found that the back had layout convention, in which included the track list and normally a long shot. In the inside panel tend to be more artistic images. However, we still developed our own look in the photography and the editing effects, enabling to still be unique while fitting the convention layout-wise.