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

After our first attempt at filming (below), which was in our school's drama studio, we uploaded our video to YouTube to help generate some audience feedback to evaluate what the audience liked and didn't like, in order to improve on any weak aspects. Indeed, as mentioned before, our first attempt made us aware of many potential pitfalls that we should be aware of in future filming; the mise-en-scene in particular subverted many conventions of the genre - from the location to the actors themselves - yet for no particular reason.

First attempt at filming: having two females and one male in the rock band was seen as 'unconventional' to the extent that one member of the audience said it 'didn't represent the rock genre by having that band line-up'. Indeed, the costumes, which included blue hair-extensions and home-made 'paramore rock' t-shirts, coupled with the fact that our drummer and guitarist didn't look professional as they didn't actually know how to play their respective instruments, furthered the idea that the actors weren't conventional for the genre of Rock-music.

To try to rectify our mistakes that our audience feedback had made apparent, we looked again at real media products such as the official 'Misery Business' music video (above) and other videos that were of the rock-music genre, especially those with a full-band present to help inspire our next session of filming; by examining current codes and conventions of the rock-music video we could choose to subvert and/or convert them for particular reasons.

In our final music video, we had learnt from our previous efforts and carefully adhered to the codes and conventions of real rock-music videos. Our location had changed to an industrial warehouse (above)- the gritty nature of the set complimenting the narrative that we were trying to portray. The fact that the band shots were permanently housed in this warehouse helped to enforce a professional consistency to the video.

  

Indeed, our final mise-en-scene for the video was conventional of the genre - our band (above) looked like realistic and appropriate musicians of the genre (similarities exists between our band and the real 'Paramore', shown below). There was now two males in the band, alongside the female lead-singer - all of which learnt their respective musical parts; this set-up inspired by our audience feedback.

Regarding my ancillary tasks, I wanted to show that my products were conventional of the genre and product itself. To evidence this, I used Adobe Photoshop to plaster my own advertisement into existing media products - the flyer's (above and below). I feel that my product - due to it's adherence of the codes and conventions of the magazine advertisement  (such as one main image, the band name prominent, consistent font and colour-scheme) fits alongside these 'real media products' effectively.

Similarly, I have placed my own ancillary product - the CD Digipack - alongside real media products (Paramore's 'Riot' and The Used's 'In Love and Death' - both of the rock-genre') in the following pictures to represent visually how my design conforms to the conventions of existing media products:

Front Cover (bottom left)

Inlay with Insert (middle)

Back cover with Booklet (middle)

Booklet's double page spread (middle)

When evaluating our moving-image media product alongside existing media products, it is clear that we have both developed and challenged the conventions of the rock-music genre music video with justified reasons.

Below, I have taken stills from our own music video (left) alongside those of Paramore's own 'Misery Business' video (right), to evaluate certain aspects of the video.

To follow the conventions of the 'music video', our research had shown that the main focus of band shots was the lead-singer; we maintained this conventional focus by having close-ups and extreme-close-ups of our singer - which we kept interesting through using different filming techniques, such as the lead-singer holding the camera herself.

Wide shots that featured the whole band were also common aspects of rock-music videos - we incorporated this research-finding into our video by including several wide-shots of the band. These shots were effective in evidencing our synchronisation of the instruments and singing to the diagetic soundtrack, whilst also simultaneously showing the iconography of a music video - the band themselves and the instruments.

We felt the genre of rock music that we had chosen appealed to young people and we wanted to capture the band having fun whilst they performed; we filmed the band members through two-shots that captured the band members interacting, such as the lead-singer singing to the drummer.

In the research stage, I had noticed that the music videos belonging to the rock-music genre had a focus on the instruments more-so than those of other genres. To ensure that we had portrayed the genre conventionally, we included many close-up shots of the instruments themselves.

The narratives in music videos have clearly defined characters due to the carefully constructed mise-scene; we tried to achieve this feat too by constructing Joanna's character to be instantly recognisable as slightly 'different' and 'unsettling'. We did this through lighting, costume, props and set - as well as using unusual and clearly manipulated editing such as multi-screen shot below.

Below is a still image evidencing our use of splitscreen within our video. We subverted conventions of a music video by including split-screen's as they weren't a common occurrence when researching existing music videos. However, we felt it's use would be appropriate as it captured the fast pace of the song - the quick visual barrage of three different scenes on one screen matched the rhythm of the soundtrack.

Below, is an example of how we have used a unique motif throughout our music video. To add to the unsettling nature of the 'stalker' character, we used several editing techniques to add to the 'spooky' atmosphere, such as the grainy 'home-made-video' filter and multi-screen which resembled a security camera-like effect. This editing helped enforce the 'unhinged' character which we were trying to portray.

Finally, another motif, seen below, carried on the theme of enforcing the 'stalker' character as one who is unstable and antagonistic; her setting alight of 'Paramore' pictures, resulting in a flame. We felt the flame represented danger, and it's returning appearance would be a reminder to the audience that this character is possibly dangerous herself, which serves as a narratorial hook - just what is she capable of/going to do next?