Evaluation – Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Alternative Conventions

During A2, I had already created a document referring

to the conventions of the alternative. I looked upon this

work to help develop my understanding of the

characteristics.

Original Ideas

For our original song choice we had decided on three songs.

The chosen songs were:

Nina Nesbitt – Mr C

Kodaline – High Hopes

Bastille – Things We Lost In The Fire

Bastille – Things We Lost in The Fire

Conventions Dark and Dismal - Lighting

Enigma

Large group of people

Obscure Environments

Use of animals

Close up of a bullet, suggests violence

Another group of people, running whilst wearing obscure outfits hiding their identities

Performance Element

Slow Motion

Symbolism – the car, featured on all of their products

Music Video Conventions

Alternative videos may be seen to use a basic style within

their music videos with a understanding of independency

and struggle due to support or money. Many alternative

videos may also hint at a narrative but usually do not

explore them to create a sense of enigma. The use of

black and white filters are very popular among

alternative artists with low key lighting. Some may even

use older cameras or edit the video in a manner allowing

them to create a retro feel to the product. Mis en scene has no clear pattern as it depends on the individual artist.

Our Music Video

In comparison to the conventions of alternative videos with our own, we have managed to follow the alternative stereotypes. The narrative of our piece has been developed in a sense that there is a clear narrative that is understandable. However we did not use any supposed “band members” and chose to suggest that the characters featured were in fact, just characters. Our group also implemented theming into the video, something quite anti-stereotypical for the genre. In addition to theming, we used symbolism which we incorporated across all the products constructed. The symbol used was the wallet which features across all of our products. A standard for many alternative music videos is the performance element, something we challenged in our piece by focusing on narrative. Intertexual references are another convention we challenged and did not feature in the piece as we felt they weren’t necessary in terms of plot and would become complex if they weren’t understood. One final convention we challenged is the use of visuals matching lyrics as we felt this was not necessary in our video. Our music video features a chronological narrative throughout the clip. However there are moments which s how flashback scenes which allow the narrative to proceed and improve the understanding. The setting of the video was something we did not challenge in comparsion to alternative video conventions as we stayed in the same location throughtout the whole video, deciding to use outdoor locations instead of interior.

Our Advert and Digipak

Symbolism is used as the wallet is one of the key focuses of the advert. After we received group feedback, there was a clear understanding that using the wallet as a digipak design was essential and popular. This is when we decided upon the wallet being a key figure in all our products. A very general idea in the alternative genre is to use an actual image for the cover and this something we have challenged by enforcing the idea of the digipak being a wallet. Across the adverts and banners, the same symbols have been used as a way of promoting the debut. The use of QR code is a challenge towards the genre due to the fact social media is usually the main focus, something we decided against as we believed the QR code was easier and more interactive. The same fonts have also been addressed across the formats as a way of continuation.

Products

Magazine Advert

Standard Album Cover

Pre-Order Banner

Final Release Advert

Deluxe Album Cover

One convention of the

alternative genre is the use

of close ups. In Lana Del

Rey’s “Shades of Cool”

video, she is pictured here

walking along with a close up on her face. The use of

this shot allows the viewer

to be clear of the central

character of the narrative.

Even though the character

below is not the artist of the

song, he is still the key

character in the video.

One convention of the alternative

genre is the use of slow motion.

This editing technique allows the

director and artist of the video to

create a certain atmosphere to

the video they are creating. The

top image shows a still from a

video by “The xx” with their single

“Chained”. Our video also

features speed editing as the still

below shows our protagonist

tearing up a photo and throwing it

to the ground to which this section

is in slow motion to create

dramatic effect. By using slow

motion in this respect, we have

followed the conventions of the

genre.

Black and white is a common

characteristic of the alternative

genre, something we have

implemented into our product. Our

use of the colour scheme allows

the viewer to distinguish the time

period of the video. Black and

white represents the past and the

memories of our protagonist. The

top still is from the video

“Gentleman Who Fell” by “Milla

Jovovich”. The video, with a

release from 1994 sees the entire

clip presented in black and white.

This creates a very gothic feel to

the video. Most videos use black

and white to create a certain

atmosphere, something we have

challenged in our video by using

black and white to help improve

the understanding of the narrative.

Editing can assist the flow and

production of a music video and

Alternative genre videos tend to focus

on this aspect to improve the quality of

their video. Many alternative videos

will successfully match their editing

alongside the beat of the track. In the

case of “Lower Than Atlantis’s Here We

Go”, the clip begins to change shot

correspondingly to the drums on the

audio. The bass drum appears to be

the usual cause for the change of shot.

Our music video challenges this

convention by following the same

traditions but due to the track, we

chose to change the shot (allowing

narrative progression) usually at the

end of lyrics line. As well as the

progression, the use of live footage

also matches the lyrics of the track.

Because the song is the same as the

footage shown, we made it possible to

match the vocals with the visuals.

An abstract convention of the

genre is the implementation of

dance. Many alternative videos

feature dance that features a

certain style but is mainly

improvised. The dances which

are usually not choreographed

allow the video to create

different atmospheres. “Lorde’s

Yellow Flicker Beat” is a dramatic

soundtrack and her unique

sense of dancing is a

characteristic most viewers will

expect form her now. “No

Doubt’s Push and Shove

however features the band

roaming the streets with random

dances to create a fun feel to

the band. This convention is

something as a group, we feel

we did not need to use. Dance

would have not benefitted the

clip in any way.

A popular convention for alternative

rock bands is to feature a

performance element in the video.

Most music videos constructed by

bands usually do not follow a

narrative. “Red Hot Chili Peppers –

The Adventures of Rain Dance

Maggie” features a rooftop

performance to showcase the

band’s return to music. However,

“Linkin Park’s – Castle Of Glass”

which features a performance

element, also includes a narrative.

This is very anti stereotypical for

alternative rock. For our product, we

chose to focus on narrative rather

then a performance. Even though

there were possibilities to include

both performance and narrative

elements, we decided against it as

narrative was more important to us.

An alternative convention we have featured in our product is the use of a split screen. We chose to film “before and after” footage. We believed this would improve the visuals for our video and group feedback suggests that it worked well in the feature. A similar video that also uses the editing of split screens is “The Vaccines’s –Melody Calling”. Their use of the split screen is different in comparison to ours due to the fact their use is solely for narrative. The split screen sees two of the videos main characters conversing on the phone, allowing the viewer to see both characters at the same time. This however was a common theme throughout the video with the introduction of three split screens as well.