Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1

• 1.
  Produced by ChrissieBishop G325 EVALUATION QUESTION 1
• 2.
  In what waysdoes your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? MUSIC VIDEO Lana Del Rey generally has her own genre. With indie rock artists, an audience would typically expect to see a live performance music video, whilst for a pop artist, you can expect to see a lot of bright, vibrant colours with typical sto- ry lines such as love or hatred. However, Lana challenges this and somehow manages to blend both together, by using both performance and story lines For example, in ‘Born To Die’ the audience follow a story line of Lana and her boyfriend on a road trip and at a hotel, although it is an un- healthy relationship. The video then cuts to a car accident where the Lana’s bloodied corpse is being carried by the boyfriend, with some perfor- mance shots added in, and ends where the music video started in a cyclical structure. I think this is an extremely effec- tive style of video as she high- lights an issue through narrative and therefore wanted to use conventions of Lana’s videos within my own. I wanted to create a sense of sympathy for the character and portray a high level of emotion through the narra- tive which is similar to Lana’s typical videos. The circulate narrative of my music video highlights the life of the female performer who appears to have low self esteem. The end scene ties the video together as we see an older lady sat within a modern day house- hold looking back at an old photo of herself, which answers the rhetorical question which is the main lyric within the song. The indexical sign of the pho- to frame next to her is what informs the audience that she is now older and reflecting on her youth. This relates to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of the six elements that all music videos have; one of which being that all visuals illustrate the lyrics: “Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful?”. In terms of representation, I wanted to create the running themes of love and nostalgia within my music video. To do so, I had to focus heavily on Saussure’s theory of signs. The mise-en-scene element was quite important as I had to en- sure my music video was slightly based around the late 1920’s, especial- ly as the song I chose for my music video is from The Great Gatsby (2013) soundtrack, al- though I wanted to put a modern twist on it. Firstly, the iconic signs of their costume; I dressed my model in red and black dresses as well as a black jumpsuit. I also tied her hair back in a high bun as well as leaving it down. Costume will work as a signifier inform- ing the audience of the time period. Moreover, in order to further the theme of love and nostalgia, I got the female to wear a deep pink/red lipstick with a clear explication of this through the close ups of the application. Symbolically, it is purely red lipstick however the connotations of the colour red would create an indexical sign of love and lust which audi- ence’s would notice based upon their own cultural refer- ence points. Another iconic sign was the violin, which is a typical instrument used in The Great Gatsby’s era so the use of this musical instrument links it all together. During the editing process, I decided to edit some footage by putting on soft and somber effects in order for the video to look old. Furthermore, nostal- gia was not only represented through the circular narrative but also through the ongoing theme of photographs within my music video, digipak and poster. Within my music video, the photograph at the end is the most essential sign to ensure audi- ence’s under- standing of the video. The images used for my digipak and poster also reflects nostal- gia. This suggests the idea of memories and looking back on the past. Goodwin also stated that within a music video, the music and visuals must intertwine one another. Whilst filming, in order for the visuals to fit with the mu- sic, I used slow, flowing move- ments with minimal movement; this effect was created suc- cessfully using the Shoulder- mount. This way, all of the shots aren’t static but still do not act as a distraction from the vis- uals. Similarly, during editing I slowed some clips of footage down by about 20% which again made the video look very smooth and fitted with the pace of the music perfectly. Slow motion used in the same way can also be seen in many of Lana’s other music videos to allow an audience to look more closely at certain shots that the director deemed to be the most effective. Another element of Goodwin’s theory I choose to utilise is the idea that due to the high de- mands of the music industry, there is often a strong need or demand for lots of close ups. Within the indus- try, close ups tend to be used to sexualise popular females such as Rihanna, Jessie J and Ellie Goulding. I have used many close ups in a similar way in order to make audi- ence believe that the model is ‘young and beautiful’ which is what the song is about. How- ever, I have also challenged this by using some close ups to highlight certain signs that I want the audience to notice more such as the photo frame, the flower and the violin. The close ups also will allow au- dience’s to identify with the actors which will create a greater emotional response when the narrative becomes clear. Audience would be able to feel like they have a gained a personal relationship with them as stated within the Uses and Gratifications theory. This mirrors the effect integral to the music video ‘Why’ by Annie Lennox which was my main inspiration. Similarly, my video conforms to Laura Mul- vey’s theory of the Male Gaze as well as the virgin/whore dichotomy where the model in this instance would be seen as ‘the whore’. My video conforms to the con- ventions of a circular narrative in the sense that the audience is exposed to seeing the older lady in the modern day at the begin- ning, it then goes back to the old- er era to show the younger version of her- self performing and then back to the older lady. My music vid- eo also demonstrates a restric- tive narrative as at the begin- ning, the audience would be unaware of why there is a shot of an older lady until the end answering the enigma posed as part of Barthes hermeneu- tic code. I also intended for my video to show elements of an episodic narrative as the action does not necessarily happen in one big chunk and through the editing, I decided to cut footage and go back to certain shots. For example, when she is singing which cuts to the violin playing, or when she’s putting on her makeup. ALBUM ADVERT My first ancillary task was the album madvert and once again I have used several conventions that feature in ad- vertisements. I was inspired by existing products and aimed to recreate these typical ele- ments. These include having the name at the top of the page and having reputable magazines and newspapers giving good reviews, which would entice the audience to buy the album. I chose pro- fessional fonts and the images matched up with my overall theme and house style which were the colours of black, white, gold and a deep purple which all represent the artist well. DIGIPAK The second ancillary task was my digipak. I replicated the house style and fonts that I used in my postere to the digi- pak in order for the audience to become familiar with it and recognise it more. The digipak consists of a front cover, inside cover, CD and back cover. I follows this design and fea- tured a special message for fans on the inside cover as well as my track listing on the back. I also put a barcode on the back in order for the digipak to look authentic. Overall, I think all my print and moving image work either use or challenge the conventions of real life media texts which all work collaboratively in order to make them look as realistic as possible. “I put a modern twist on it”