Evaluation task1 1 – In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 

Keith Negus identifies 11 common generic conventions of Popular Music

Ø    The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s image as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass production.

Ø    The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)

Ø    A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement

Ø    Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography

Ø    A possible narrative structure

Ø    A possible performance element

Ø    The flexibility to disregard Realism

Ø    Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track

Ø    Use of special effects

Ø    A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone on the track

Ø    High impact instantly.

Our media products use, develop and challenge these forms and conventions.  I  will elaborate on how;

Ø    The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s image as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass production.  Our group develop a video which established a pop star image.  The clothing, is simple and formal with all members of the group wearing similar clothing, giving the appearance of unity.  The posture of the group gives focus to the main vocalist with the guitarists and drummer not generally looking directly at the camera.  This presents the group in an unashamed way with a distinctive and unique identity.  

   

Ø    The featuring of the artist (almost without exception).  Our video is approximately three minutes long and feature the artists exclusively.

Ø    A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement.  We use  a wide array of camera shots and angles to present our video in as realistic a way as possible to maximize the promotion of the artists.

Ø    Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography.  Our main themes behind the production of this video were recycling and reuse, hence the production of the video in the junk yard.  The mise en scene combines synonymously with the constant subliminal message of recycling and reusing – to create the concept of re-use and recycling using a mod culture.

Ø    A possible narrative structure.  Our music video production is presented in a narrative form with the screen shots carefully edited so as to create synergy between the music and video in order to create a narrative.  In the creation of this narrative we realized that the viewer will bring to the video their own personal experiences that are triggered by the music video and in so doing extract a narrative or meaning from the music video.

 

Ø    A possible performance element.  Our groups performance in the junk yard is the pinnacle of our production and what we are presenting to the world.  Most media packages do this – attempt to blend video image with music in a way that is both entertaining and attractive  to the viewer. Our performance entailed the use of green screen so that the narrative and performance were taking place on the same location.  We combined this with after affects using different screen shots and angles.

Ø    The flexibility to disregard Realism.  Our video was shot on a Sunday as this was the only day that the junk yard closed.  In this small way, we have disregarded the reality of an operational junk yard which paradoxically is a prime example of the themes and ideas behind the group.  In essence we have combined many of the elements above to create a realistic concept or idea, by using artificial means.  This idea is suppoted by Friske (1987) who states, "What passes of reality in any culture is the product of the culture's codes, so reality is always encoded, it is never raw." People will derive meaning from the junk yard, even though it is not open and operating as it should.

Ø    Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track.  Firstly we agreed on a production of the audio.  Then we took many video takes and shots from many different angles and views before bringing this all together with the final editing.  Certain screen shots and views were made to sync with the beat of the track.

Ø    Use of special effects.  We used the green screen as well as fading in and out to present the narrative.  It was important to get the right balance of special effects in order to present a realistic message to our viewers.

Ø    The mise en scene seeing the whole group together in a junk yard where focus is given to the singer fits together with the track to create a high class music video.

All of the above elements combine to create high impact instantly.  Upon viewing the video you are immediately develop an awareness or understanding of the brand or image that the group is presenting to the world.