G324 Evaluation Task

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Task: Select 10 stills/ images from your Music Video and the 2 ancillary

tasks. Annotate each one of them in Photoshop or Powerpoint to indicate

which conventions you have used at which point.

Fergie music genre: Hip hop, pop and R&B

Image one: Lipstick (Develops)

Fergie follows many pop conventions in her music video using bright bold

and seductive makeup to grab the viewers attention. In Our video Kate (lead

actor) wore a vibrant red lipstick to help her lips and mouth stand out in

close up shots against the variety of backgrounds. At 1.36 through our music

video Kate mimes the words “my lips make you want to have a taste” this is

shown with an extreme close up of her lips in a similar red lipstick to that

worn by Fergie in her video fergalicious. As well as helping her lips to stand

out this bold red gives the line a more seductive and playful feel. The use of

classy makeup is followed in many conventions of other similar female pop

artists.

Image two: school girl outfits (Develops)

In many music videos Fergie and other similar female pop artists appear

wearing distinctive flirty costumes to fit in with the backstory of their

narrative. In fergilicious you see Fergie and her backing dancers all dressed

in short Girl Scout outfits using their attractive and seductive look to sell

cookies In the narrative of the video. Similarly you see Britney in her video

“hit me baby one more time” wearing a schoolgirl outfit. Our video features

Kate and the girls walking to college in schoolgirl outfits tying in with the

narrative of our video featuring school becoming cancelled for the day. As

Kate was the lead artist in out video we wanted her to stand out more from

the rest of the girls, so she wore a short skirt which shows of her legs more

and focus’s your attention. Fergieand Britney also stands out from the rest of

the dancers wearing a shorter top showing off and advertising their torso’s.

Image three explicit (Develops)

Many female R&B and Hip Hop artists are indirectly and directly explicit in

their music videos. They use suggestive imagery or turn of phrase that fit

into the lyrics of their music video enhancing the star persona. Fergie

portrays herself with attitude and in fergilicious she blows the boys kisses,

which come out as red lipstick prints. We built up the image F**K over any

explicit language in our video. This helps to enhance Kate’s star persona of a

rebellious and edgy out of control schoolgirl that doesn’t care what people

think about her.

Image four: Background/setting (contrast)

There is quite a big contrast in background and setting choices between our

video and other similar pop artists videos. Whilst many of the shots in Cher

Llyod’s music video oath feature her in glamorous locations posing on top

of expensive cars or fighting off attention from the boys. We chose to use

different graffiti background in our video as we felt it tied in well with the

lyrics and style of music we were using. The backgrounds feature plenty of

bold and vibrant prints on the streets, which help to enhance the stars bad

girl persona. This is a similar background to the graffiti backdrop used in

Chiddy Bangs music video – Opposite of adults.

Image five: Comical (contrast)

We have used comical elements and shots throughout the “oh snap” sections

of the music video that help to keep the music video alive and energetic, this

also takes away some of the intensity of focus on the stars narrative. All of

our “oh snap” shots tie in with the narrative of our video as most of them

show myself and Azza messing around in school uniforms. Similarly Fergie

has many bewildering dancers in some of her shots to help inject more

energy and excitement into her video. However unlike our video that

features a small side cut away from the main narrative, fergie always

remains the focus and centre of attention throughout her videos.

Image six Digipack (challenges)

Our digipack challenges many of the typical ideas surrounding the pop

genre. Instead our graffiti themed album cover follows many conventions

surrounding the R&B genre. The artists featured on the album cover are all

wearing school uniform, this helps to make it relatable to a younger target

audience. It also helps it to tie in with our music video which features Kate’s

journey to school. We used the same font as we did in our music video

“chalkduster” font. This font is bold and edgy and helps to develop our

artists star persona in being a “rebel without cause”.

Image seven Poster: develops and contrasts

The poster both challenges and develops surrounding the female pop genre.

The background used is a bold graffiti print similar to the R&B genre style I

used in my Digipack. Instead of showing the artist in the schoolgirl outfit we

decided to use feature the “oh snap “ t-shirt which is shown throughout the

video, which follows typical female pop conventions giving her attitude and

enhancing her rebellious attitude. We used the same font for the digipack

video and poster which is chalkduster which has quite an urban look to it as

if it’s just been spray-painted onto the wall. The poster also features a few

reviews and companies that sell the album similar to many other pop artists

posters.

Image eight: font (develops)

Our video uses bold vibrant font to illustrate some of the lyrics. We chose to

add a layer of chalkduster font to all of the Oh Snap shots and to Fergie and

Polo’s wrap towards the end of the song. The chalkduster font is effective

for the pop genre music video and fits in well with our video as it blends in

with the graffiti background almost looking as if it where spray painted on.

Many similar style of pop artists such as Robin Thick in his video Blurred

lines use bold fonts to advertise and grab the viewers’ attention. It can also

be used to help relate to a younger audience, many pop music videos often

have a tweet come up in bold print just like #THICK in blurred lines. The

use of text also helps to liven up the music video and give a wider variety of

shots.

Image nine: Oh snap t-shirts (develops)

I designed and made three custom oh snap t-shirts to be worn in our music

video. We thought this would fit well with the video as the lyrics “Oh Snap”

are featured so frequently. The design of the t shirts are bold and creative

featuring a rice crispy “Snap” print that stands out and is worn by the artist

for both the poster and graffiti shots in the video. This follows many similar

pop artist conventions for example Justice’s entire music video D.A.N.C.E

just features them with a series of eye-catching prints and animations

including some of the songs lyrics on their t-shirts. Many other artists such

as example shown above wear clothes and t-shirts advertising their songs

message or lyrics.

Image ten: narrative and relative to target audience (develops)

In order to sell the artist effectively and draw in there target audience pop

stars like Taylor swift make them selves and there music video relatableand

attractive to a younger audience. In Taylor swifts video we are never getting

back together the narrative follows the story of her getting dumped by her

boyfriend. Many teenage girls can relate to this narrative and will be

intrigued to buy her album as a result. Similarly we tried to make our video

relatableto a younger audience by including a narrative that follows a group

of girls on their way to school only to find it closed for the day.