In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

MUSIC VIDEO

Over the last few months for Media A2 we produced a music video, digipack and advert. We linked all of them together with the theme “multiple personality”. This is the name of the album, and also is related to the video Make Me Smile. They suit the genre and a similar to other music videos, however they also challenge certain conventions.

Media theorist Andrew Goodwin suggest “music videos are simply an extension of the lyrics” and we have used the narrative to match the lyrics. However the performance element is not an extension of the lyrics, and is used for humour and to match the conventions of the genre.

The two characters, performer and spoof character, are played by the same person however by using costumes and split screens we effectively shown that they are not the same character. This is why we called the album multiple personality.

The original video for this song was a performance by the band in the studio, similar to a top of the pops video. Because of this we had to look at other video’s in the pop rock genre.

Instead of a solely performance heavy video we added in narrative. The song itself, Make Me Smile (come up and see me) is mistakenly known as a happy upbeat song, but the lyrics are about somebody leaving. Because of this we kept to the lyrics but combined humour so it matched the tune.

We looked at a lot of video’s which use humour, and decided spoofing famous video’s would be the most effective. This is because it makes people more interested in the video, as they know the original. However we did use an original idea for the narrative part.

We challenged conventions by using the same person doing both narrative and performance, but putting them in the same scene. In other comedic music video’s they keep the two roles apart, however we felt by combining the two it would show that they aren’t related. Otherwise people may think the narrative character is happy that the bear has gone. I believe it works very well for our video.

Because we were spoofing famous video’s, Amarillo, Here It Goes Again and Bohemian Rhapsody we had to stay very similar to the conventions of them.

CostumesI tried to get as similar costume as

possible. As you can see in the OK Go video, they wear ties, waistcoats and bright colour clothing. I wore a blue sparkly tie, flowery waistcoat and a white shirt.

In the bohemian rhapsody spoof I wore a black shirt, this is so only my face way shown.

In the amarillo spoof I wore a similar suit, however a black suit because I couldn’t get a purple one.

I believe the costumes play a vital part in making a connection between the spoof and the original video, however this was part of a group of reasons.

For the narrative I wore the Bristol Rovers shirt and scarf and Paddington wore an Arsenal scarf. The was to make a connection between the score on FIFA and the players, it showed Paddington beat me by 28-0. This was for humour as it is just a stuffed bear, which you do not see move.

LocationSimilar to costumes, location was

also key. As you can see in the OK Go video, they are on treadmills. We also placed me on the school gym treadmill.

In the narrative we used my living room to give the scene a homely real feel. Pictures on the mantle piece normally connote they are special and have meaning. Living rooms are normally the hub of home life and are often used in music videos if they want to do a scene at home.

For the Amarillo spoof, location was key. To match the conventions of Kay’s video we needed to have it as similar as possible. We copied the opening scene with the door, and used long corridors to have people behind singing.

Shots

In Amarillo and Bohemian Rhapsody the shots are mainly the same throughout. Bohmian rhapsody use’s a mid shot to contain all the four members of Queen, however I used a close up then put the shot in 4 times, cropping each picture.

Amarillo uses a lot of long/midshots, however it does use some close ups, like I did too.

In OK Go’s Here it goes again the camera is kept the same and is constantly in a long shot. This is because the video is mainly about the song and dancing. For comedic value I used various shots, although it was different to the original video, it does suit the conventions of other comedic music videos.

ChoreographySimilar to the shots, there wasn’t

much leeway to edit the choreography of Here it goes again. Both are very iconic. I used similar choreography of the ok go video, I researched what was possible to do with the resources, however again I had to edit it for comedic value.

Props

Props were vital, I used things like the fifa advert on the iPad and my frisbee to connect the performance and narrative and give the video a flow. I very much stuck to conventions for the narrative. I used a suitcase for comedic value, however it is often used to show someone is back for good. I used tissues and chocolate to show I was upset, it is what stereotypical sad woman always use in movies after a break up.

At the start of the video I use my mobile to connote the story that Paddington has gone away. In many narrative music videos they normally start off without the music so viewers understand what is happening first.

I also use the picture on the mantle piece at the start and end of the video, this is too show a full circle of the story.