A2 media evaluation question

1. By Bridget O’Connor

2. What are forms and conventions?
 Forms refer to the style and layout of which the media
product is constructed
 Conventions are the building blocks that make up the
media (Andrew Goodwin's 7 conventions).

3. Question Plan:
 media product= music video and promo package
 real media products= existing music videos/promo
package forms= building blocks of a text materials used to
construct. music video forms= mise-en-scene/sound/
camerawork/editing
 conventions= the expectations-rules to follow to make a
'normal' text.
 music video conventions= Andrew Goodwin's 7
conventions
 use? Compare with real music videos - give examples (e.g.
how has your music video used camera work/editing/ mise-
en-scene/close-up etc in a similar way as a real music video.

4. Andrew Goodwins 7 conventions
There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
2. There is a relationship between the music and the
visuals
3. Particular genres may have there own style and
iconography
There is a predominance of the close up shot.
5. The video helps to develop the artists own style or
iconography, which then becomes recognisable beyond
the video.
6. There is likely to be reference to voyeurism, particularly
in the treatment of women & in systems of looking.
7. There is likely to be inter-textual references, either too
other videos or to other film or TV text.

5. Conventions I used...
 There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.
 In my music video I used the narrative to amplify, illustrate and contradict the lyrics . This is conventional of both
R&B and Pop genres in order to make the song more meaningful and clear. Furthermore, with a narrative this can
also, create intimacy between audience and artist because it explores their lives or thoughts and outlook on the
world in the song which connects audience and artist and essentially interests more people, creating a bigger fan
base. Ways I formed a relationship between lyrics and visuals was through some powerful lyrics which I illustrated
through narrative and would have effected the audience themselves for instance:
 “Whatever it is, it feels like it's laughing at me
Through the glass of a two-sided mirror” – I created a relationship between lyrics and visuals by filming an over
the shoulder shot of the little girl (Molly) standing in front of a mirror looking at herself. I decided to create this
simple shot of the girl looking in the mirror because I felt as though it creates so many connotations and meanings
for instance it covers a lot of global issues for both men and women looking in the mirror at themselves and
because the song wasn't specific about what was ‘laughing’ at her then it could make people think about worldwide
disorders such as anorexia, schizophrenia, depression and many others and also, creates awareness for people who
aren't aware. Subsequently, making the video instantly even more effective. However, this also, challenges the
forms and conventions of a real media text because covering such touchy and heart wrenching topics could be hard
for people.
 I took a lot of influence from P!NK –Don’t let me get me
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asaCQOZpqUQ
 In this video P!NK a connection between lyrics and visuals by illustrating each lyric through narrative for instance
she sings “Teachers dated me” which then shows P!NK in class with the teacher looking at her slightly seductivelly
and this carry on throughout the video. This influenced me a lot in how I wanted to make my video because I
found it very effective as it makes the lyrics stick and makes them more clear to the audience.

7. There is a relationship
between the music and the
visuals
I used narrative in order to amplify the music which is used
in real media r&b/ pop texts such as P!NK:
I decided to use this convention in my music video because I
found editing the video in sync with the timing, mood and
pace of the video worked very effectively and amplified the
video completely especially at the chorus when the music
climaxes. I took a lot of influence from the work of Eminem –
love the way you lie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uelHwf8o7_U
This video influenced my work in particular because it made
me think about how I can make my video even more
intriguing and how to create suspense or even tension
because of how when the music starts slow the video is edited
slow and the shots are slow but then when the music begins
to get louder and faster so do the edits and the visuals which
I found this video did very well and how I wanted to replicate
it.

8. Close-ups in real media text:
 close-ups: Pop/R&B artists tend to have a majority of close-up shots
throughout their music video, predominantly focused on the artist his/herself,
this is for them to be portrayed in the manner they would like e.g.
provocative, fun, cool, sassy and so on, this in turn develops their star
iconography, proven by many past and present artists, for example: Michael
Jackson, Michael is famous for his style, moreover, his white glove, white socks
and red leather jacket used in the filming of 'thriller.' More importantly to my
genre however, stars that have successfully developed their star iconography in
the Pop/ R&B genre are: Lady gaga, lady gaga is a pop artist who has
successfully developed her star iconography on a worldwide scale by creating
new, quirky and most often crazy and mad outfits and looks for music videos,
concerts, shows and so on:

12.  Inset is an image taken from Lady gaga's music video,
'Telephone' also, starring Beyoncé.
The mise-en-scene in this video shows off her star iconography very well:
•eyelids are a deep blue/black colour
•bottom lash line is layered up with thick eyeliner
•lips and cheeks are a bright pink
•eyebrows are coloured in black
•hair is a bright yellow colour
•white nail varnish

13.  All of these colours used in the video are extremely
contrasting and unusual for the normal and
appropriate everyday look of a person. Lady gaga has
successfully developed her star iconography by going
out of the norm of contemporary societies expectations
and creating a new look assigned to her as an artist,
that not only works but, inspires thousands upon
thousands of people. Moreover, leading back to the
main point, Lady gaga was able to successfully develop
her star iconography through the range of various
close-ups, not just due to her music video, 'telephone'
but also, many others.

14.  Another example of someone who has successfully
developed their star iconography through range if
close-ups in the R&B/pop industry is Nicki Minaj,
famous for her provocative and curvaceous body:

15. How I used close-ups:
 Taking all examples of past and present media texts on board who have
successfully developed their star iconography helped me weave this
convention into my own work. However, personally i found that the
song I created the music video to was less conventional of a typical
pop/R&B video because, it was more dark, sinister, confusing and
upsetting at times. Therefore, as I was planning the mise-en-scene, set-
ups, shots and angles i thought really hard about how I wanted to
portray my star's iconography. I decided to go for two looks for Bronte
(the artist) to make her appearence more ranged. Close-ups are also
very important in R&B/Pop videos because it is needed for intimacy
between artist and audience, especially if a song is meaningful or is
showing a lot of emotion it is important for the audience to engage,
this way it makes the music video more successful because the
audience are not only interested and intrigued to a large degree but,
they are also, able to connect with the video and song which proves why
Andrew Goodwin's conventions are extremely important, for instance:
Lyrics and visuals and music and visuals.

16.  In my music video I made sure I used close-ups like these
existing artists to create the same effects for instance I
zoomed in on the little girls face in my music video as her
role was to show so much emotion to engage with the
audience and make them empathise/sympathise with her,
below are a few shots of the little girl in the video:

17.  Also, to make sure I included a lot of synergy to create star
iconography/identification, I included a lot of close up shots in
my Cd album and advert too by taking photo’s of the artist in
various different poses in front of the green screen which is
most conventional of the pop and r&b genre
 Close-ups in the main product and ancillary texts were also,
included because I found it creates intimacy between artist
and audience, being the reason why I assigned the artist to two
looks because I wanted her to have a close connection with the
female population but also, when I dressed Bronte in a black
dress with excessive makeup and jewellery it was for the main
purposes of linking it to r&b’s stereotypical association with
provocation and andrew goodwins convention, voyeurism.

18.  In R&B videos a lot of the editing is fast cuts between scenes as they
usually consist of pure performance by the artist in the form of singing
and a choreographed dance routine evident in Beyonce’s single ladies
music video, or on occasions there may be narrative included. The pop
genre tends to have more narrative and performance so again there are
clear and quick edits in between scenes. The editing of the music video
also, needs to be in sync with the song therefore, you’ll find in existing
media texts that if the song is slow there will be slow edits and/ or fade
in and fade out transitions. Pop genres are associated with the words
‘fun’, ‘cool’, ‘elegant’, ‘sassy’ and often rather ‘quirky’ therefore, a lot of
the music videos are colourful and have some interesting theme or
story line much like Katy Perry's ‘Last Friday night’ or ‘dark horse.’
Where as R&B is associated with words like ‘urban’, ‘hip-hop’ and often
overly sexualised, the music videos vary a lot from purely narrative with
the artist doing a full dance routine or singing to the camera or
performance and narrative.
Editing in real media texts:

19. How I used editing in my own
work:
 I planned for my music video to include both narrative
and performance because I wanted to associate it with
both Pop and R&B, furthermore, the song I chose was
‘What Now’ by Rihanna which I would describe as
starting off at an unusually slow pace and tone and
then the chorus is more explosive, loud and crazy
therefore, I needed to make sure I marked every beat
so when editing the video it would play in sync and I
would know exactly when the chorus would start,
furthermore, this benefited me when editing
performance to match the artist singing with the song.

20.  Because I wanted to include both narrative
and performance and include both
conventions expected in Pop and R&B I
chose to edit the artist performance with
brightness and contrast and then vibrancy
to bring out the colour of the red dress that
the artist wore in the video, also, because I
used the green screen I chose to brighten
the background in order to draw more
focus and attention on the artist.
Furthermore, I chose to add more colour
associated with the pop genre for the artist
performance because I wanted the
narrative to be filtered in Black and white
making it a huge contrast simply because it
had a melancholy, sinister and dull vibe to
the concept of it, I also, wanted to filter it
in black and white because even though it
may seem unconventional I believe it is
conventional because in Beyonce’s ‘If I
were a Boy music video’ it was all black and
white as it was a song about cheating which
had a good effect therefore, I decided I
wanted to replicate the same theme and
effect.

21.  In my music video I took a Low angle shot (worms eye
view) of the sky which was the only part of narrative
restored in its natural colours, I decided to edit it in this
way particularly as a metaphor for ‘hope’, ‘normality’ and
‘out of reach’, the scene then quickly changes to a flashback
of the little girl with her mum and then contrasted with
present day with her alone to show she is far away from
hope and normality, I chose to edit my video with a lot of
flashbacks due to influence from Katy Perry’s part of me
music video which includes a lot of present day
performance with flashbacks and I found it makes the
video much more interesting and helps the audience
empathise/sympathise more and the whole basis of a music
video is making a connection with song and audience.

22. How I challenged forms and
conventions:
 In pop/r&b videos especially, there is a lot of sexualisation of women and
voyeurism because it focuses a lot on the image of someone and the ways they
dress, show off their bodies and body language which successfully grasps the
male attention and inspires girls to appear a certain way which has a lot of
negative connotation for the younger generations. However, in my music video I
used voyeurism very little to almost not at all for instance I devised two looks for
the artist (Bronte) e.g. A red dress and a black provocative dress but it was not to
the degree and extremity of existing artists, even though my song falls under
this genre I did not want to make the video appear this way because my target
audience was for the younger population and I didn't want to create negative
connotations. Moreover, the song was very unique for that of an r&b song as it
was more dark and weary and had a very different atmospheric feeling to it
which definitely could not be sexualised in anyway. Furthermore, because the
song was also, categorized as Pop I geared more towards pop, however, again the
song was not conventional of a normal pop song therefore, it was extremely
difficult at applying all conventions when the song seemed to have already gone
against some of them as such. Lastly, I had already decided to match the song
with a sad concept about a little girl being all alone and the feeling of depression
and loneliness after the loss of her mother, therefore, again it would have been
morally wrong to try to sexualise the artist in the video in anyway.