In what way does our media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?

By Sophie O’Dell

Still Images synced to the beat...

In our music video we developed the convention of using the beat of the song to enhance our music video. We achieved this by syncing up the beat of the song with the images and cutting them so they flashed to a different still image on each beat. This effect was inspired by Beyonce’s video ‘Countdown’ which uses this same technique however we challenged it by creating different images rather than just repeating the same one. This adds more interest for the viewer and allows us to show clearly each singer in the band.

Looking...

Mirror image

We developed the Goodwin convention of looking by using a mirror effect in the editing process on two clips within our music video. The first one was of Chloe and I mirrored so there was two images of our faces side by side, and the second was a mirror image of all three of us in the studio. We were also inspired by Beyonce’s video ‘Countdown’ to use this convention . Although we developed it by wearing black clothing on a white background, to enhance the dominant female pose instead of copying Beyonce’s idea of bright colours and stark backgrounds. Other videos which also inspired us was Rihanna ‘ Where have you been’ where they use the mirroring convention at the beginning of the video when she is in the water.

Sloow motion walk – Emphasising emotion

We used the pop video convention of slow motion shots of Chloe walking towards the camera. We developed this convention by editing the lighting on this shot so the audience cannot see her face, emphasising the feelings of depression which are felt through the video by the artists and also the feeling which is highlighted through the lyrics “Cant we just make love and not war”. We were inspired to use this convention from looking at various pop videos which used slow motion actions to emphasise moments and emotions of the song.

Pop Genre Girl Band

In our music video we used the typical girl band convention and Goodwin’s Voyeuristic convention of presenting close up shots of the girl band, to enhance emotions, attraction to the band and highlight each band member. We challenged this convention by filming the shot in front of a bight graffiti background which emphasised the urban theme. This shot also gave the video continuity as we used this shot for every chorus section. Our idea for this shot was inspired by Little Mix’s song ‘Wings’.

GRAFFITI

We have used the convention of a motif on our pop group album release advert to connect all three elements of our music package together. This motif is an image of graffiti which is a common theme throughout our music video, seen on the backgrounds behind us and the use of bright colours. This motif also creates and highlights the urban theme of our pop group. We were inspired by Rita Ora for our theme and so went onto relate all our elements of mise en scene to urban styles.

Split Screen with Wipe

In our music video we used a split screen convention to show the contrasts between our two settings. This idea was inspired from the video Intersections – Diptych. However, we developed this convention by adding a wipe transition effect, allowing it to smoothly wipe from one setting to another. Showing our urban setting and our plain white room setting.

Repeating it slooow

When the lyrics “White Flag” repeated at the latter end of the song, we wanted to use an shot which also repeated to add an element of continuity to this part of the song. We chose to use a typical pop music video convention of using an abstract shot which had been edited , cropped and slowed down to create the bold image we wanted. We were influenced to use this sort of shot by videos of Rihanna such as Only girl in the world. However, we challenged the idea by cropping out just one simple movement of me falling backwards and repeated it, we also co-ordinated my clothing (white shirt) with lyrics in the song (White flag).

Movement sped up and repeated.

Posterise!

On our digipak we have used an editing convention to create a common background theme which we have also used on our advert. This editing technique is called posterise which gives the digipak and advert a distinctive style, and also adds a unique effect to the images of ourselves, creating artistic imagery for the consumer to be attracted to. It also highlights the our genre of band because its artistic like our urban theme of graffiti but also quite fancy like a typical pop theme.

Posterise Effect

Close up – directed to camera

In our music video we have used the convention of a close up shot which is directly addressed to the camera. This is a typical pop girl band convention , used to attract the audience through elements such as voyeurism. Also the close up gains interest and catches the eye of viewers. We were inspired in general by pop music videos for this shot, especially Beyonce’s video ‘Countdown’. However, we developed this shot by using hand gestures to create a different image from the others in the video but used the idea of wearing contrasting colours to the background in order to make us stand out.

Ghost!

Throughout our music video we have a continuous editing convention that we have used to maintain the audiences attention throughout, and make every shot more advanced from its raw foundations. We have used a ghosting affect over some of our shots like the bean bag shot, the chorus shot (in front of graffiti) and the black and white dancing shot. This convention has allowed us to blend two or more shots together so they can both be seen at the same time. We found this convention particularly effective when singing the chorus as two people can be seen singing the same lyrics up against two different backgrounds. This was a unique idea of ours and was not influenced by existing artists for this effect