A2 Media Studies Evaluation

Brad Linney

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of real

media products?

My Music Video

• My music video can be found at the following URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gowZ9SL_P6w&feature=g-upl&context=G20ace0fAUAAAAAAABAA

• All being well the link should work fine. I’ve had a run in with EMI blocking all my videos. They should all work. However I’m working on resolving the issue

Andrew Goodwin

• Relationship between lyrics and the video

• Relationship between the music and video illustrating, amplifying or contradicting

• Genre’s are diverse

• Link between text, posters, album, single, music or film

Andrew Goodwin is a renown media theorist and his theory is particularly useful when analysing music videos. His theory consists of six aspects, however some can not be applied to my media project as it a male only video, my video genre also being rock music means I am unconventional in genre choice therefore I have an unconventional music video with few close ups therefore analysing a video’s use of close up in a video with few close ups is rather pointless. These are four aspects of Goodwin’s theory that I will be analysing with my music video.

Relationship Between Lyrics and Video

The lyrics for my music video were rather difficult to incorporate into the song for me, instead I incorporated time as a factor rather than lyrics. Such moments I used time are the jump at the start and the famous shout of “WHY!” to begin the chase sequence. The lyrics give the impression of anarchy, therefore I used the modern example of hoodies, whom most would consider the current rebellion in society.

Relationship between the music and video

illustrating, amplifying or contradicting. The music style is “hard rock,” or can be interoperated as

the unconventional “rap rock” genre. It is vital that a music video, to at least some extent resembles the lyrical content.

In my video I have focused on the theme of rebellion and conforming to social masses. The idea of conforming to a social norm is an event that any teenager can relate to and is an important issue in society.

I incorporated the rebellion aspect by using in sense the stereotypical view of “hoodies” being a “threat” and in joining the “threat” people feel safer, more like a gang. In the video the entire chase sequence is a example of gang violence in that two are better than one, therefore the one gets caught.

Criticisms explained

One moment in the video that my target audience picked up on that didn’t seem right was the kicking leaves, my audience said that it promoted child like attributes rather than rebellion.

When one thinks about it the whole aspect of gangs and rebellion are thoughts of a simple follower or an intelligent leader (Think the Nazi’s or Stalin).

Genre’s Are Diverse

The genre I used for my music is rock music. I picked this as a personal choice due to my love of the rock and metal genre of music. I chose rock over metal as generally rock is considered more listenable to the mindless masses of people who listen to the same few over-played rock songs (Aerosmith, I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing and Bon Jovi, Livin’ On A Prayer are such examples).

Basically a rock album would get more sales than a

metal album due to the increased popularity of the genre. While it is interesting to note, if the masses of conformities individuals who fuel the talentless artists, “despise” metal music, then how come metal artists still frequently produce brand new material? It shows that the metal and rock genre’s are not as unpopular as is stereotyped by the masses.

Conventions of Rock and Pop Videos

Conventions of a rock video: • Close ups of band members playing instruments.• Not as many close ups on the singer or band

members themselves. • Band members rarely make eye contact with the

camera unless the song is a balled such as Aerosmith, “Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” and Five Finger Death Punch; “Remember Everything”.

• Conventions of a pop video:• Many close ups of the lead singer, showing off the

person as a product due to their aesthetically pleasing looks and figure such as Justin Beiber who is himself a walking advertisement.

• No or very few views of people playing instruments, everything is focused on the singer.

• Usually utilises many low angle shots to show the figure and full body of the singer.

Conventions Of My Video

Conventional aspects of my video: • Has few close ups of the band members in general.• Only a couple of moments of eye contact in the whole

song.• Follows the theme of the song closely (rebellion, power

struggle).

Unconventional aspects of my video:• Has some parts of the song has no lip syncing to show

the rebellious aspect and the action sequences.• Promotes conforming to an unjust cause that of bullying

and youths.

How Have I Incorporated the Same Theme Between my Video and Digi-Pak?

My digi-pak follows a similar theme towards the video. When I was shooting the video, my original intent was to incorporate various aspects associated with rebellion and being powerful. I originally picked the colour green as I was incorporating a natural theme, however I realised when editing my video that green did not suit the products so I changed it to a grey.

The grey can be seen as either an attempt to conform to social norms as everyone

else does, or the way its intended to be read as the industrial fight back against the masses. I then decided after consulting my target audience to change the colour to fiery, uncontrollable colour scheme which relates to theme of rock and generally looks better and more vibrant than the grey but also relates to the theme of rebellion and danger.

I also created a red symbol to stand out on the page, the added yellow inside the

circle enables it be seen far more easily and stand out on a shelf against its rivals.