In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
To understand how our project relates to conventions of other products we had to first understand what they were. Through our research we discovered the forms and conventions of a R&B video. Andrew Goowin's theory defines conventions like so:
ANDREW GOOWIN’S THEORY • Visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics and music.
• Genres often have their own music style/iconography.
• Close ups should always be included.
• The artist/band might want o develop their own star iconography, which become their stars image, Voyeurism is common theme within music videos
• Intertextual references are also popular.
• Goodwin argues that the female performer is frequently objectified principally for display purposes, often through a combination of camera work and editing with fragmented body shots emphasising a sexualised treatment of the star.
• Genres often have their own music style/iconography.
• Close ups should always be included.
• The artist/band might want o develop their own star iconography, which become their stars image, Voyeurism is common theme within music videos
• Intertextual references are also popular.
• Goodwin argues that the female performer is frequently objectified principally for display purposes, often through a combination of camera work and editing with fragmented body shots emphasising a sexualised treatment of the star.
By this theory, our video fits well into the forms and conventions of a music video as:
So our video followed and used conventions in its use of colour correction, transitions and shots, but challenged the conventions of our genre with its narrative, which is usually reserved for more indie music. Our use of mise en scene both challenged and conformed to conventions in its use clothing, Formal and casual clothing are both conventional, but blending the two is rare. Our videos ending with the burning picture defies convention in its duration and style. However we felt it fit well into our video and genre, despite not being conventional. I think here we have successfully challenged a convention with good effect.
Like the ending, the intro was also unique to our work and didnt't use convention. However most videos in our genre have their own unique type of beginning. For example 'Dead and Gone' starts with a bible quote, 'Whatever you like' starts with a short story and the intro to 'Not afraid' is a slow zoom into Eminem standing on a roof. It seemed there was no set convention on how to open videos in this genre, other than to do it your own way. So I think that while being uncommon, our firework overlay and cuts to different scenes are, although unique, conventional.
Our video also contains other, rarer features of music videos. However they still do all use develop and challenge conventions of real products:
Our use of height in the video makes use of a trait we noticed scattered around videos in our genre. 'Written in the Stars' is a good example of where height has been used to good effect in a music video. Our video uses this convention to achieve a similar effect.
Our video also makes use of Strobe lighting, as is seen in some professional works. However we developed the convention further by using it with a firework overlay, making the Strobe light add to the firework effect were trying to create.
Finally, all professional music videos have a correlation between the audio and video, and it is this that allows the video to flow well and draw in the audience. It is an important convention, and our video makes use of it by using a different style in different areas. When Drakw was rapping, or singing his part of the chours, then the camera would be mostly moving, like the verses. But when it came to Alicia Key's pert of the song, which is much slower and more relaxed that Drake's part, we slowed the video down to match. In these slowed down sequences, we told our story. Another example is at the end of the video; the song trails off slowly, so we made the video do the same with an extended shot of a burning photograph, that I think made a nice, conventional conclusion to our work.
Ancillary Task
Like our video, our ancillary task images use, challenge and develop convention. Below, I have compared our works with similar professional works.
In our album's front cover we use, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of real media products, Our use of a firework overlay is not common, but is not unconventional, as overlays can be seen in album covers such as Tinie Tempah's 'Written in the Stars'. Our use of Font is also conventional, as we used strong bold lettering, as can be seen on T.I's 'Whatever you Like'. We did not use an image on our cover, when convention dictated that we must, here we develop conventions from other genres, such as House (a good example is 'When Love Takes Over') and bring them into our genre effectively.
Our CD challenged convention more than any other piece of work we did. A conventional CD artwork from our genre would be dark, plain and have something linking to the album (such as bullet holes). In our work we made a fairly light cover to fit into our product's house style, but we did use conventional fonts and layouts, so it will be identified as part of our genre. The burning effects used however, I think are conventional as they link into the theme of our work, which is a feature seen on many others.
Our poster also challenged conventions of our genre. We used a 'stamp' effect to make the image of our artist look like it had been drawn, this fitted into the paper/burning theme of our work. A conventional magazine poster fits the themes of the music and the album, which ours has done, although it does not look clear and neat like a conventional poster of our genre. We did this deliberatly, developing conventions from the rock genre, where our style of poster is common, and bringing it over to our work.
Our work as a whole mostly uses conventions of real media products, however it does contain aspects from other genres and develop on them to fit our style. In doing this it often challenges conventons allready in place.
- Our visuals both illustrate and amplify the lyrics of the music. Lyrics are sometimes illustrated, such as when Drake said 'that's who I make the paper with' Remi chucked money over his shoulder, to show he has it in abundance. At other times lyrics are amplified, such as when Drake says 'where's the magic' in a prolonged tone, Remi's actions reflect a similar mood, the lyrics as a whole are amplified by the feel of our video.
- We use close upsto show Remi's emotion
- Remi is presented in a consistent style throughout the various areas of our work
- The female in our video is for display purposes, but not objectified, she helps tell the story.
(click to enlarge)
So our video followed and used conventions in its use of colour correction, transitions and shots, but challenged the conventions of our genre with its narrative, which is usually reserved for more indie music. Our use of mise en scene both challenged and conformed to conventions in its use clothing, Formal and casual clothing are both conventional, but blending the two is rare. Our videos ending with the burning picture defies convention in its duration and style. However we felt it fit well into our video and genre, despite not being conventional. I think here we have successfully challenged a convention with good effect.
Like the ending, the intro was also unique to our work and didnt't use convention. However most videos in our genre have their own unique type of beginning. For example 'Dead and Gone' starts with a bible quote, 'Whatever you like' starts with a short story and the intro to 'Not afraid' is a slow zoom into Eminem standing on a roof. It seemed there was no set convention on how to open videos in this genre, other than to do it your own way. So I think that while being uncommon, our firework overlay and cuts to different scenes are, although unique, conventional.
Our video also contains other, rarer features of music videos. However they still do all use develop and challenge conventions of real products:
Our use of height in the video makes use of a trait we noticed scattered around videos in our genre. 'Written in the Stars' is a good example of where height has been used to good effect in a music video. Our video uses this convention to achieve a similar effect.
Our video also makes use of Strobe lighting, as is seen in some professional works. However we developed the convention further by using it with a firework overlay, making the Strobe light add to the firework effect were trying to create.Finally, all professional music videos have a correlation between the audio and video, and it is this that allows the video to flow well and draw in the audience. It is an important convention, and our video makes use of it by using a different style in different areas. When Drakw was rapping, or singing his part of the chours, then the camera would be mostly moving, like the verses. But when it came to Alicia Key's pert of the song, which is much slower and more relaxed that Drake's part, we slowed the video down to match. In these slowed down sequences, we told our story. Another example is at the end of the video; the song trails off slowly, so we made the video do the same with an extended shot of a burning photograph, that I think made a nice, conventional conclusion to our work.
Ancillary Task
Like our video, our ancillary task images use, challenge and develop convention. Below, I have compared our works with similar professional works.
In our album's front cover we use, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of real media products, Our use of a firework overlay is not common, but is not unconventional, as overlays can be seen in album covers such as Tinie Tempah's 'Written in the Stars'. Our use of Font is also conventional, as we used strong bold lettering, as can be seen on T.I's 'Whatever you Like'. We did not use an image on our cover, when convention dictated that we must, here we develop conventions from other genres, such as House (a good example is 'When Love Takes Over') and bring them into our genre effectively.Our CD challenged convention more than any other piece of work we did. A conventional CD artwork from our genre would be dark, plain and have something linking to the album (such as bullet holes). In our work we made a fairly light cover to fit into our product's house style, but we did use conventional fonts and layouts, so it will be identified as part of our genre. The burning effects used however, I think are conventional as they link into the theme of our work, which is a feature seen on many others.
Our poster also challenged conventions of our genre. We used a 'stamp' effect to make the image of our artist look like it had been drawn, this fitted into the paper/burning theme of our work. A conventional magazine poster fits the themes of the music and the album, which ours has done, although it does not look clear and neat like a conventional poster of our genre. We did this deliberatly, developing conventions from the rock genre, where our style of poster is common, and bringing it over to our work.
Our work as a whole mostly uses conventions of real media products, however it does contain aspects from other genres and develop on them to fit our style. In doing this it often challenges conventons allready in place.
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