1. 1. A2 Media Evaluation Q1 By Amy Crouch
2. 2. Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
3. 3. Indie-Rock Conventions Based on the research I conducted about the Indie-Rock genre here are the typical conventions that seemed to be a common appearance in the genre: Usually set in urban environments, backroads due to low budgets. Indie Clothing- Dark colours,skinny jeans,leather jackets,checked clothing. Close-up shots-show emotion Editing effects, (black and white) All male bands are more popular and females that star are usually under the theory of the male gaze.
4. 4. Rural Environments In our music video we challenged the typical convention of a urban environment however were we could we tried to use backroads to fit with the genre conventions. With living within the rural area it was appropriate to film around the area and it was also convenient to us. However videos such as Arctic Monkeys- One For The Road, also challenged this convention setting their video in a rural area on a farm. As you can see from the images below you can see it is set in rural environments and the use of backroads. We believe this image displays some urban with the use of industrial work taken place.
5. 5. Clothing Within music videos there is a convention that costumes/clothing are often indie-rock/grunge fashion. We conformed this convention and used this as part of our costume choices for out music video. Due to the indie-rock band usually consisting of male members we made one of out female roles have the tomboy look and wear the more boyish items of clothing. As you can see Alyssa is wearing skinny black jeans and the baggy checked shirt from research in indie bands, bands such as Arctic Monkeys wear this style with the checked shirt and skinny jeans,this ensures we are suited to the clothing convention.
6. 6. Clothing With the other cast member (played by myself) we wanted to have a more feminine look however sticking to the indie-rock/grunge fashion. With the use of females in indie-rock videos rare it was difficult to find appropriate clothing inspiration based from other artist and their music videos. In order to get the most appropriate fashion for the genre I carried out some research and look on various websites such as boohoo.com and topshop.com. I also used Pinterest to research the grunge clothing fashion to get an understand on the fashion.
7. 7. Clothing From the research we felt the appropriate outfit was to have a Tartan skirt as tartan/checked was a common theme in grunge fashion and we felt a skirt was appropriate to represent the famine aspect which we desired. Black boots and black top was also a common theme and also conforms to the indie rock theme of dark clothing as well as the leather jacket that is worn. Leather Jacket Tartan Skirt Black Heeled Boots
8. 8. Close-Up Shots In Indie-Rock video close up shots are often used to show emotion of the character/band members, this is emotion is often anger,sadness or even emotionless. Throughout our video one of the main characters remained unidentified through as part of the narrative so the amount of close up shots were limited however during the end of our video when the characters identify was revealed the close up shots of this character showed happiness challenging the usual conventions. In the video 1975-Robbers and Arctic Monkeys-Whyd you Only Call Me When Youre High this demonstrates to close up shots used of the artist and their facial expression used compared to our use of close up shot
9. 9. Editing From looking at other Indie-Rock music videos as part of my research and planning tasks a large majority of music videos produced by the 1975 are edited in black and white and this is also a common theme in other indie-rock music videos. We decided it would be appropriate to edit our own video this way in black and white to convey to the indie-rock conventions and we also believe is creates to the dark mystery feel to the music videos which is something we desired to have.
10. 10. Goodwins Theory Andrew Goodwin identifies key features that distinguish music as a form: A relationship between visuals either Illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics A relationship between the music and the visuals again either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music Music genres have their own music video style and iconography There is likely to be voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women Theres a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist/vocalist. There is likely to be intertextual references either to other music videos or to films and TV texts. I believe that our music video conforms to 5 out of 6 of Goodwins Theories.
11. 11. Goodwins Theory Relationship between visuals and lyrics Our music video Robbers conforms to the theory of the relationship between visuals and lyrics, we demonstrated this on multiple occasions. At the start of our music video one of the main characters is sat on the bench reading a magazine which contains images of models,whilst this is happening the lyrics state She had a face straight out of a magazine. This highlights that the girls/models in the magazine are what she aspires to be also the girl whom she looks up to (who you see further into the video) represents these beautiful models and she is a representation of those models.
12. 12. Goodwins Theory The second example of demonstrating the relationship between visuals and lyrics is in the middle of the video where the lyrics state Shes got a pretty kind of dirty face. During this particular lyrics there is a clip of Alyssa putting up pictures of the girl who she admires and wants to look like, these lyrics represent that her face is beautiful and she has beauty on the outside but she also has a dirty way of showing who she really is and under that beauty it is something not very nice. This overall mean that beauty isn't everything that personality and being a nice person is also important and this is demonstrated later on during the video.
13. 13. Goodwins Theory Relationship between the music and the visuals Throughout our music we tried were possible to use on beat editing, I believe this makes our music video more engaging and as an audience it makes a better viewing experience as well as making some scenes more memorable. A common theme which we created in our music video is creating an on beat edit between the footsteps and the background beat of the original song. Also in the video there is a scene of the girl putting up the pictures then standing back to appreciate her work, at this point the lyrics repeat stay and the shots change each time on the beat. Another example between the relationship between music and visuals Is where there was a use of lip syncing at the moment where the girl character that is being admired finds the written note and at lip syncs You find out everythings gone wrong Please click the boxes below to view our examples of on beat editing in our music video.
14. 14. Goodwins Theory Voyeurism of women Voyeurism is the watching of people in certain behaviours. often in the media and most certainly in music videos we see females portrayed as a sex symbol and more likely from a male perspective. However in our music video we did not really portray the females being seen as a sex item as we did not feel this would be appropriate for our genre. However the common theme for our video does demonstrate the use of voyeurism by the use of following/watching a female, this is shown twice in our video Firstly the main character who has obsession with the other female demonstrates voyeurism several times through out the video, one in which is the following her to school and waiting by the gates for her to walk in
15. 15. Goodwins Theory Another example of voyeurism is the arranging all the photographs of the girl and circling the particular targeted girl. Although this may not be physically watching the girl it still initially portrays the aspect of stalking. Typically voyeurism of women is usually shown from a male perspective, we also demonstrated this in our music video to. Towards the end of the video the popular female character is being watched from a distance by a potential robber (which also links to the title of our song) who is a male, this conforms to Goodwins Theory of watching someone in a certain behaviour.