Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop

or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

• Whilst researching music video and different genres including Indie Rock and R&B, I was initially inspired by the work of The Kooks and The Script. I was particularly keen on the music video ‘Naive’ by the Kooks as it was interesting to watch and understand although it did also go against the conventional rules for that indie rock genre. The camera was focussed on the main artist throughout rather than of the band and it also used the idea of filming present tense to flashback to past tense in order to create an understanding of a previous ‘relationship’. The audience then see two personalities of the female with identify to be in the lyrics. Sweet and innocent to provocative and ‘naive’.

My Print Production Digipak

An Image of the indie rock band - The Kooks

• I took the idea of having flashbacks incorporated in my music video as the lyrics identified a failed relationship – the woman portrayed in both the lyrics and the music video gave the impression that she thought she was and could do better without him.

Print Screen Shots from the music video – The Kooks -Naive

Flashback print screen shotPrint Screen Shots from my music video production

Flashback print screen shot

• Me and my partner put together a breif for an audience of 18 students aged 17-18 (target audience ages) and conveyed an idea in which we thought would be appropriate for the genre although have entropy involved to provoke an unconventional interest. We created moodboards of similar bands, target audiences and also picture images that may appear similar in the video. Many comments were positive for the originality of the idea and read - 'Should work well with a mix of narrative and amplifying' and 'Upbeat, having a happy actor would sound and look good'.

Some people had their criticisms - 'Yes - sounds like it can be realistic but I'm unsure of how the audience will be able to tell the difference between the two different time frames - is there going to be an obvious stylistic difference.’

• We referred to all comments provided to us whilst planning the music video and then decided to adjust some of the ideas.

• The different factors between the products in which I created and those of a professional media producers would be due to time available, budget for location, lighting and props and also the technology available. With more time before my print production deadline, I believe that I could have had the opportunity to experiment more with Adobe Photoshop and then used these learnt skills to the best of my ability. I also believe that with a higher budget available, there would be more scope and possibility for an even more interesting location for filming and I could have also spent more on props.

Adobe Photoshop Software

I found that arranging filming time was quite difficult as many of the actors and the actress was frequently unavailable for filming due to exam and revision time. However we did manage to perform within the time period set regardless of the frequent obstacles. The originality of my idea in comparison to real media products did portray some aspects of the conventions within the indie rock genre. This included instrumental scenes in time with the music and camera focus when the artist sings. The video did follow a sort of narrative as we identified that the lyrics were about a relationship that had failed and the visuals showed the deterioration of that relationship with the insight into ‘why’ as the lyrics do not provide extensive reason.The video is not completely original although what differentiates mine to conventional music videos is the idea that we did not have an establishing band shot but used these artists as characters in the video doing other actions than playing instruments.

• Redundancy has been used within my music video as it shows similarities to conventional music videos. This includes having the main character in focus and following a narrative through his perception.

• Entropy has been portrayed through the use of close up emotion shots of the female character. I could have used more entropy in order to make the video more original and interesting for my target audience.

The genre for my music video is primarily indie. This genre tends to generate a lot of entropic styles, so I would supposedly target this style. However, in doing this it may be constructed as being redundant. Therefore it is arguable that it is following the ideas of previous indie rock music video directors. In my music video I needed to have a mixture of both redundant and entropic styles coming through in my video. However I had to consider not just the genre of the music, but also the audience it attracts. My target audience consist of a individualist market and therefore more entropy should have been established within my music video rather than more redundancy features.

• Challenging forms and conventions can be risky as it might cause problems with audience response. They may not like it or understand what the director is trying to portray. The audience may not recognise the music video as belonging to the genre of indie rock music.

• Audience comments consisted of: ....

Mixing between performance & story is good. Love the Spinning shot. Good use of effects, lots throughout. Lip-synching probably the best so far (if I didn’t know what the main character sounded like, I would say he is the singer) Maybe more storyline needed.

Nice mise-en-scene (different places). Good lip-synching. Close ups of the guitar playing make it different – more interest.

Different shots of the guitar have worked well. The photo part on the phone worked nicely, imaginative and interesting. Lip synching worked well.

Performing the instruments looks really good. The arguing bit is good. The performer is brilliant – really gets into the role.

I like the variation of shot types and how the couple seem happy which fits with the upbeat song. I liked how the camera was like a point of view shot. The lip synching is AMAZING! Works so well as the actor has a lot of emotion and puts in a lot of effort. Love the use of closeups. The final shot was really powerful. Good narrative.

The guitar shots look professional. The shots on the swing are also well done and look good too. How it looks like a person can see the pictures being taken looks really cool and is clearly done – really good editing overall – like the arguing shots. Maybe could have used less guitar/bass shots.

Lots of different shots give interesting & professional looking effect. Fast pace of editing fits well. Close ups are well positioned. Good story setting. Lip sync goes slightly out.

I Like the duck they’re cute. A lot of focus on the guitar. Good place of editing and good shots. Are they meant to have different outfits on?

Good speed of editing. Cinematography and mise-en-scene. Fits in very well with the song.

• With this audience feedback I can determine both negative and positive reactions and thought towards my music video. The audience made positive comments about editing, narrative, mise-en-scene, cinematography, performance, characters and emotion.

• The negative comments portrayed either a slight confusion about mise-en-scene or about the narrative not being more in depth.

Steve Neale – audiences take pleasure from genre because of instances of ‘repetition and difference’

Walter Jon Williams - genre labels are useful only in insofar as they help you find an audience.-

CREATIVITYSir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation. He is also one of the world’s leading speakers with a profound impact on audiences everywhere. The videos of his famous 2006 and 2010 talks to the prestigious TED Conference have been seen by an estimated 200 million people in over 150 countries. Ken Robinson suggested that 'schools kill creativity'. He says that schools are more interested in preparing youngsters for examinations rather than helping individuals to express their creativity. Robinson quoted 'If your not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything.