Evaluation Task 1

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

Our Video The Crookes - Afterglow

The guitar close up is a convention in many indie rock music videos as it shows the band member is able to and is playing the instrument. The way the camera focuses on the guitar gives the performer no where to hide and shows off there skills. We decided that this shot would be perfect to use during the guitar solo as focusing on the guitar at some point during the solo is only logical. We chose to include a close up of both me and Ross playing our guitars as we thought it would be important to showcase both of our ‘’talents’’ in the video. During the research process we found it almost impossible to find a performance music video without a guitar close up, just one example is show above in The Crookes music video for their single Afterglow. Through this research we could see that featuring a guitar close up was a necessity if we was to capture the performance aspect of a band within the convention of a performance music video.

Our Video Royal Blood – Out of The Black

Our video starts with a close up of Ross, our lead vocalist, by immediately focusing on Ross the video quickly establishes who the frontman in the band is. We use this same shot for just over 30 seconds, we made this decision as the song starts off at a very slow pace with very little instrumental involvement, this meant that focusing on the vocalist alone was more important than showcasing the rest of the band. As soon as the instruments kick in the video pace quickens with the rest of the band being introduced in a succession of fast paced cuts. We believe this gives of a great effect and we have combined the pace of the song to the pace of the video very successfully. As with the guitar close up the close up of just the vocalist and the microphone is a very common convention and again we struggled to find a performance music video that didn’t include at least one close up of this type. Above is an example of the shot being used in Royal Blood’s music video for their single Out Of The Black.

Our Video Blink-182 – All The Small Things

We thought that establishing our band members was important and because of this we decided to use this full band long shot as our second shot in our video. This shot clearly identifies each member of the band, Ross is clearly highlighted as the vocalist as he is closest to his microphone in a stance that would indicate he is singing, I am clearly identified as the lead guitarist as I am focused on my guitar and it goes without saying that Alex is the drummer because of his positioning behind the drums. Again with the previous shots mentioned, when researching performance videos we struggled to find a video that did not include this type of shot, I believe this is because when creating a performance video it is important to establish the band and show them as one rather than constantly as individuals. Above is just one of many cases where this shot is also used in a professionally produced video

Our Video Foo Fighters - Rope

The over the shoulder shot of the drummer is a lot like the guitar close up, it zooms in on the performers ability at playing their instrument and shows they are actually playing it. Unlike the other shots mentioned prior to this, this shot is actually a lot rarer in music videos with most directors preferring a front on close up of the drummer to the over the shoulder shot. To stop our video becoming somewhat clichéd in the amount of common shots used we decided to include a rarer shot type but one that is still an effective one when used in a performance music video. As you can see above world famous rock band Foo Fighters use the same rare over the shoulder shot of the drummer.

Our Video The Strokes – Last Nite

The side on shot is another shot that is rare in performance music videos, we decided to include this shot for the same reason we used the drummer shot. Although uncommon the side on shot is still effective in portraying a live band performance. The performance type video is meant to make the audience feel like they are actually at the bands gig and this view is one that an audience member could have of the band when watching them live. The shot is featured in alternative music giants The Strokes music video for there indie anthem Last Nite. With the shot being successful in a such a big bands video it was always going to be successful in our video.

Foo Fighters – All My LifeOur Video

The long shot is used to establish the scene and give the audience a location for the performance. This angle is also a typical angle you would have at a gig if you was to get a seated view. By using this shot and the low angled shot the performance is shown from both views you would see at a natural gig. The low angled shot being the standing view with the stage rising above the audience and the long shot of a seated view with the audience level or above the stage. This long shot is used In the Foo Fighters video for there single All My Life, the foo Fighters play many stadiums and this shot is used to capture the view a seated fan would have of their performance.

The mise-en-scene in our video was very important in portraying an indie rock theme throughout. We established this theme by our choice of clothing and instruments, Ross (left) is seen in black jeans with a plain white T-shirt, this casual wear is very prominent in indie music and is worn by many frontmen who do not want to draw attention away from their music with flashy attire. I (Centre) am wearing a Pretty Green polo shirt with black jeans, pretty green is an indie clothing brand owned and designed for by Liam Gallagher of Oasis and Beady Eye, these two bands were/are seen as indie rock bands and Liam is seen as a Mod so clothing designed by one of their members also fits into this genre. Alex (Right) is again wearing casual clothes which do not restrict his movement as drumming is very fast passed and loose clothing is needed to play at a fast pace.

To create a house style throughout our digipack and promotional poster we used the same picture on our album cover as well as our promotional poster. This creates a professional look to the project as it looks coordinated and as one. This method is used in many album releases from band such as The Rolling Stones, Kasabian and Arctic Monkeys. To the left is an example of how ours matches up with indie rock stars The Libertines Album release for there album ‘The Libertines’ the side by side comparison of our amateur digipack and poster to there professionally produced digipack and poster shows no key differences in quality of production and I believe our product holds its own to their professional product showing the success in our design and production.