Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We have created a Music Video that largely follows forms and conventions, however, we have also disregarded some of these rules in order to create a Music Video that appeared different and therefore more exciting.

Music Video Conventions
The following theorists have developed their own lists of theories for music videos, and I have evaluated  how we used them...

This Gif shows our character falling asleep and entering the 'dream sequence'. We are then immediately brought back to the studio narrative through a dissolve. This is an example of when the narrative does not necessarily appear in a linear fashion. We were inspired by songs such as Runaway Love by Ludacris ft Mary J Blige as they fuse many different narratives together, depending on what area of the lyrics that they are on.

Vernallis' theories have been developed within many music videos. For example in the music video for the song Rather Be by Clean Bandit they use very rapid cuts. This helps to create pace in the video as well as bringing the editing into the foreground. We also decided to use this technique as it was an interesting way to create a variation of shot types.

Rather Be fast pace editing

Our fast paced editing

Another example of how we exaggerated our editing was through our choices in grading. We decided to make our colours appear brighter and more saturated as this is usual to music videos and helps to connote youth and energy. Hard Time by Seinabo Sey is an example of a song that uses colours and grading effectively

Our use of bright colours

Conventional bright grading

Below is an example of when we used camera movement in order to reflect the mood of the song in order to follow convention. We were inspired by music videos such as Every Little Word by MNEK as we felt that the use of tracks were very effective.

Our use of slow camera movement to create a somber atmosphere

MNEK's more upbeat use of camera movement

Below are some examples of where we have developed Firth's theories...

Narrative is a key element of many different types of music videos, especially those in the genre of R&B/Neo-Soul as they usually tell a story.This Gif shows the end of our story in which the male protagonist is shot, however, when he wakes up he is back on the train and realises that it was all a dream (hence his confused and frightened facial expression).

An example of our use of visual imagery through our use of sign language.

Our use of fairy lights in order to link visuals to the lyrics. 

The aforementioned Mob Deep reference

Voyeuristic shots are expected in music videos and representatives of an artist often establish a minimum amount of beauty shots that would be accepted. This highlights the importance of these types of shots as they give an artist an opportunity to develop their image. It also gives an opportunity for the video to further develop convention as it follows the male gaze. 

One of our voyeuristic shots

Voyeuristic shot from the song Lips Are Moving by Meghan Trainor 

Neo-Soul/R&B conventions 
R&B Conventions:

• Depicts strong and powerful women. In contrast to other genres such as Hip Hop, women are often depicted in a strong and powerful manner. However, one thing that I have noticed is the genre's tendency to make their artist appear more masculine in order to be seen as more powerful. For example, in the examples that I have chosen, Beyonce takes on the role of a Police Officer which is a role usually associated with men, whilst Ciara is dressed in very masculine clothing. Although this is a stereotypical representation, it is a good example of how men are seen as powerful. 

Beyonce in her song 'If I was a Boy'

Ciara in her song 'Like a boy'

Although our video doesn't explicitly represent this ultra powerful and masculine manner, the fact that the entirety of the song is sung  by an independent female Artist brings about a sense of power in itself as she is able to control what the audience sees or hears.

An example of our artist controlling the audience's attention by speaking directly to them

Neo-Soul Conventions:

• Majority of artists are female. Artists such as Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill have dominated this genre, therefore, we thought it would be appropriate to follow convention and have a female artist in order to continue to the role of strong female icons.
• Lyrics often speak on person and political issues. For example, Laury Hill's song 'Zion' speaks of the industry's backlash on her for deciding to keep her baby at the peak of her career...

Our music video followed convention by choosing a song which had a very apparent political message. It commented on the issues between Police officials and Civilians, informing listeners of problems that they may be able to relate to...

Website Conventions

Album Cover Conventions
Whilst researching real album covers we discovered that the main conventions consisted of the following...

In response to these conventions we developed our Album Cover in the following manner...

We broke convention through our inner panels by using a different colour scheme to the outside panels. We did this in order to create an striking contrast between the exterior and interior. Although we still wanted to stick to the idea of Graffiti, we decided to do this in a much simpler way through the use of hand drawn doodles and a very minimalist colour scheme. Rather than following convention and simply including more written information on our interior panel, we decided that this would be a good opportunity to add more images of our artist instead in order to develop her brand image.

The inner panels of our Digipak

In conclusion, I have learnt that it was important for us to follow some conventions in order to fulfill our audience's expectations, however, this should not hinder you from experimenting with your creativity as occasionally straying from convention makes for interesting and conceptual decisions. I think that this is especially important for a debut single, as it allows the artist to effectively convey their image and stand out in a very saturated industry.