Evaluation Question 1

Script:

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

As part of my pre-production plan to make a music video for the song ‘Intertwined’ by dodie, I compiled a pitch [insert clip of me presenting pitch] in which I presented to a small sample of people that gave me feedback throughout the presentation. I talked about my ideas and my intentions, and took notes afterwards about the feedback that I received to progress my ideas. In a professional background, most people would compile a bunch of potential shots and concepts for a music video, and they would go to a production company with a presentation alike mine and try convincing them to get rights and funding. There are definitely differences between my pitch and a real media production’s as I had no test shots to try influence the crowd, but instead I had other music videos I was taking influences from. However, I understand that if I was doing my music video in the ‘real world’ I would have to conform to conventions and give a reel that would illustrate how I want my video to look.

 

Editing – During the editing process I made a decision to not use a lot of editing techniques that would be quite jarring in contrast with the slow music, therefore I stuck to straight and jump cuts. An example of my use of jump-cuts is evident in my argument montage [insert clip of montage]. This appears quite jarring and disorientating, but I believe that this is fitting for this scene due to how I wanted to illustrate how frustrated the couple is with each other. This is conventional compared to real media products as music videos like “everybody have fun” by Wang Chung, who uses jump cuts in almost every frame to create a disorientating, abstract effect, I then used straight cuts for the rest of my clips (so far) as I often cut in time with the music, and straight cuts are more subtle compared to transitions that are more comic. I did use a graphic match in the scene with the beach when I cut from one character to another, but other than that I stuck with straight cuts as they seemed to fit without being too jarring like my jump cuts.

Cinematography – Within my music video I tried to practice conventional styles of cinematography with my shot sizes to imply different meanings. For example I tried to use long shots to emphasise the distance between the couple and the troubles they are having in their relationship. Though if I was to improve upon most of my shots: I would try to use professional lighting as I didn’t have access to these resources so I usually had to resort to using lamps or fairy lights to get an effect. This is why I prefer some of my seaside shots due to the bright natural lighting that I was able to get, rather than some of the shots that I shot within my friend’s living room that I only had the room lights to work with.

Narrative – In terms of narrative, I followed Andrew Goodwin’s theory as I applied the amplification aspect, as I had a variation of performance and illustrative elements between having my actor playing the artist singing directly at the camera, and having clips of fire when lyrics such has ‘heat’ are sang. An example of a real production that utilises this structure is Coldplay’s music video for the Scientist and Vance Joy’s Riptide.

Sound – Due to me producing a music video, I didn’t have to think about sound as I would be putting music on top of the clips, yet I understand that in some music video they insert dialogue before, between or after the music – this is similar to Green Day’s extended video for Jesus of Suburbia.  

Genre – The genre of music that dodie produces is ‘singer songwriter’. A typical convention for this genre’s music video is that it will include narrative and performance – alike Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud. I followed this convention fully as I use this technique as a narrative structure, as explained earlier in this video.

Another convention is one that links in with mise – en –scene, as the setting tends to be very simple like bedrooms or streets, as it helps the audience be familiarised with the locations as they are so simple, hence becoming aligned and relatable. This is used in dodie’s music video for ‘Sick of Losing Soulmates’ as the settings are narrowed down to a bedroom, house or the street. This is what I conformed to when filming my music video, as I mainly stuck to either a house setting or a street setting for my narrative elements of the video, but when doing illustrative aspects I didn’t disclose the location.

Ultimately, the clothing and props included in the video were also very relatable and simple for the same reasons as the settings.

If I was to improve the mise en scene within my music video, it would be relating to my actors, as I wouldn’t use the ‘artist’ in the narrative aspect of the video to conform to more of the singer songwriter genre conventions, though I don’t believe it to be too much of a problem, as I still believe that my choice is effective.