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

For out A2 media coursework, we were tasked with creating a music video promo for an unsigned band, along with some of the marketing and packaging for the videos release, which includes a digipak design and a magazine advert.

Promo: A music video promo’s main aim is to advertise the music track to the target audience. The video will be displayed in a range of digital media, from music channels to iTunes and if the video is created in an eye catching way which specifically appeals to the target audience (in this case the indie market) it will help to sell the music track digitally or through CD form. The promo must be interesting and eye catching enough to be able to be played repeatedly. This helps to keep the song alive as it will be directly connected with a music video that is constantly being replayed.
Magazine Adverts: The magazine advert is usually an a4 spread, is made to specifically sell the album or CD in question. It must be designed to appeal to the targeted market, and the advert should be placed in a magazine that the target audience would read.
Digipak: The digipak is a CD case which contains the CD, bonus content such as lyrics or a poster, and an aesthetically pleasing set of visuals which will appeal to the target audience. The digipak is a must have for a collector or a big fan of the band.

Because of the way that media products are created to appeal to a specific target audience, the different media products must be created to either incorporate, or develop and subvert different conventions. The music track we have picked fits into the indie genre, and after consulting similar bands to the one we have chosen we decided to have a quirky, indie influenced theme running throughout all of our different elements. Indie bands tend to push conventions to assert their individualism on their audience, and that is an element of what makes them so appealing. We have decided to embrace this and use it to our advantage, creating something truly unique and eye catching. An example of this would be the use of the 70s theme in the Beastie Boys song Sabotage, or in the Automatic's song Monster, where a serious performance and a quirky narrative are featured. A music video is required to consist of many different elements and conventions which are typical to the genre of the song. A typical convention included into music videos is the use of performance and narrative. This is when there are shots of the band and of a story developing, which helps to keep the audience intrigued and interested significantly more than just a band performing. A video containing performance alone has no engaging element for the viewer to interpret as their own. Using a narrative convention creates a link between the video and in turn the music with the audience allowing the music to be more memorable and increases the chance of them purchasing it. Camera work usually involves close ups of instruments, mid shots of singers and artists and long shots of the band in the performance aspect, as these help the viewer feel closer and involved with the band whilst watching. We also used unconventional camera shots to intrigue the viewer and convey artistic license and make the promo feel more unique and eye catching. The conventional shots we have used have also featured the performers prominently.  The frontman is nearly always the focus in the band shots and the other musicians are in the background or to the side of the shot unless it is a shot of them on their own.

These are examples of unconventional camera angles we have used in our music promo. The low angles focus change shot is an unusual element to include, however we thought it added to the artistic, indie feel, similar to professional; car showcasing videos. The fisheye lens being used inside a fridge and the Spacemen looking into it adds a quirky dimension to the video. The viewer is suddenly being exposed to the surreal image of 3 homemade astronauts as the fridge door opens, and the fisheye lens helps to warp the image, creating a very peculiar shot for the viewers to be exposed to. The shot of the guitarist’s foot bouncing to the beat is unconventional as feet are very rarely focused upon in promo videos. The fact it is in time to the music helps to reinforce the link between the band and the song, as they themselves appear to become part of the music. The final shot is a low angled shot which highlights the bassist and the guitarist playing together and rocking out. This helps to keep the pace and momentum of the visuals up and helps to emphasise the song’s energy.

The locations and props usually link with the song in some way, and these help to reinforce the themes and ideas behind the song and help illustrate them to the audience, unless the video decides to throw all of that away.  Our song may have some obscure lyrics but we have decided to illustrate certain aspects and themes of the song such as space, and exploration, and have amplified the idea into a unique anecdote.

Illustration:
Illustrates lyrics in the song
Amplifiction:
Takes the lyrics and adds to them and elaborates from one point.
Dysjuncture
Completely unrelated to the lyrics. Example; radiohead, no suprises.

The track we have chosen is a conventional indie track, so we drew inspiration from other videos of the indie genre. (insert examples). We very specifically wanted to have separate narrative and performance, similar to something seen in the Automatics’ Monster video, where there is the hunt for the monster, and the performance in the van. We decided however, to push the conventions and Indie genre expectations by creating a very tongue and cheek narrative regarding astronauts exploring a supermarket. This helps to contrast with the serious performance we have constructed, which uses a very classic car as a backdrop, to help highlight the individual theme, and the costumes also seem very typical of an indie band. By creating conventional and nonconventional elements, we have brought them together to make a quirky indie music promo to help the video stand out from the crowd.

Our music promo challenges typical narrative conventions. We took the idea of the song title, Space Elevator, and place it in a real world setting, creating a quirky, tongue and cheek spaceman exploration video. The costumes are very different, eye catching and unconventional, creating a hook to draw people in.

 Our performance is quite conventional. There are close ups of the lead singer lip syncing to the song, which helps to add a level of realism to the video. The singer is in focus so the rest of the location is out of focus. This is so the singer is the complete focus and the audience can be drawn into the performance.

Another typical element is full band shots. This helps to establish the main characters and showcases the indie themed clothing and props. The backdrop of the morris minor helps to give a sense of unique depth, having a constant feature present as something to relate these shots too.

Typical close up shots of the performance is typical of an indie music video. The close ups of the guitar from a high angle, places you in the position of the guitar being played, allowing the viewer to be very close to the action, creating a potential personal link between them and the music.

Close up shots of the performance is typical of an indie music video. The close ups of the guitar from a high angle, places you in the position of the guitar being played, allowing the viewer to be very close to the action, creating a potential personal link between them and the music.

The use of the car helps to illustrate the individual feel that is present throughout the promo.

Our music promo has taken lots of inspiration from The Automatic’s video Monster. Here you can see a side by side comparison of some of the similar elements we have chosen to include.

These two shots similarly present a vehicle of some sort. The two vehicles are iconic and funky, a Morris Minor and a monster hunting van with go faster stripes. These two add a quirky visual link throughout the respective videos.

 

Similar guitar shots have been used as they help to create a feel of being up close and personal with the artist. This creates a link between the audience and the video, making it more appealing to them and increases the likelihood of sales.

Lots of our band shots are similar to the ones in the Monster video. The shots of performers sometimes have one as the main focus of the shot, and another slightly out of the shot, or in the background. This gives the impression you are actually amongst the band and is effective at strengthening the link between audience and artist.

Our quirky exploration narrative is similar to Monster’s monster hunting section. The characters point things out to each other, excited and in wonder and this has been translated to our video, with monsters replaced by everyday “alien” items.

Some of the performance shots are of the band acting immaturely or exaggerating performance to give a sense of energy to the performance aspects of the video. We decided to use Niall messing around with his guitar to light heartedly break up performance, similar to the break down from monster.

 We have chosen to include close ups of instruments to continue to include the audience on a very personal level. A shot at the same height of the performer helps to create the feeling that the viewer is there, alongside the drummer of the band.

An uncomfortably close shot helps to add a quirky, abstract element to the song. As it’s a very quickly edited shot, it takes the viewer by surprise and helps to draw them into the song.

During the narrative, the characters are prominently featured together in both videos. This helps to create the impression that the two groups are a party of people, setting out to achieve the same goal, and in our case that goal is to explore the ordinary.

 During some of the vocal sections, the frontman is prominently featured. The shot focuses on him with band members in the background, and this helps to create a sense of them singing to the viewer, something that helps to engage them further.

 Unusual people set against the ordinary world.

These screens above compare our narrative to the Beastie Boys music video Intergalactic. Whilst not hip hop, our song is very fast paced and light hearted which are elements shared by the Beastie Boys’ video. The costumes are strikingly similar and this is the kind of effect we were aiming for. The locations are similar in theme too, with them being ordinary locations on the left a subway station and on the right a supermarket. The use of headwear delivers the appearance or a mask, producing a barrier between us and the people on screen. This is the other worldly idea we were looking to recreate.

Similar composition.

 The close ups from our promo have some strikingly similarities to the Beastie Boys one also. This sort of, in your face quirkiness inspired the trolley scene, where the three band member/astronauts are featured in a very close up shot. The focus is on the person doing the action in both, on the left it is the person singing at that moment, on the right is the person pushing the trolley. The use of fisheye on these shots has helped to create a close and personal yet abstract and otherworldly feeling, which is similar to the Beastie Boys video.

  This analysis shows the similar themes.

This shot is not so much a direct comparison but it is more he similarities in theme being analysed. In this shot the explorers/singers are in a crowded busy are that we take for granted. However, the characters are the main focus of the shots, the abstract among the ordinary. This is a recurring theme throughout the narrative and it is something that we felt fitted our song well. However, there are some significant differences between Intergalactic and Space Elevator. The exploration element is completely separate to the performance. The reason for this is that we felt that the narrative needed to be separate from the performance because of the Narrative/Performance split typical of indie promo videos. This allowed us to create a completely separate and unique performance alongside the quirky narrative allowing us to pull together lots of different elements which we wanted to use.

We have chosen our locations to both go with and go against conventional videos. The supermarket interior is very ordinary. This is exactly the location we were looking for, the normal, everyday backdrop. We chose this as it is a very uninteresting place to explore, which combined with the quirky, light hearted spaceman element can become a very entertaining narrative element. The use of the car as a backdrop gives a classic and unusual location that helps to make the performance stand out and make it feel unique. 

 

The Digipak and the magazine advert have been made to be conventional to the indie genre.  The coloured, natural artwork that looks like abstract paintings has been used to create this familiar feel yet the different images being coloured adds an abstract and quirky appearance to the advertising. This use of image is somewhat conventional of indie genres however one of the panels has an image of a space man on it, helping to create the visual link between the promotional video and promotional material.

These wordles help to illustrate some ideas that we decided to pursue. These are ideas that have been present since the pitch and in our final product some things have clearly been developed and explored. The suits and space helmets have been merged to create “Space Suits”. The exploration feel contrasting against a serious performance is still present, and the fact that the contrast is so great pushes the conventional boundaries.

Inspirational music videos:

Our director's commentary: