Q1: IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

In this picture you can clearly see that the artist is singing into the camera, this is called breaking the fourth wall. When the actor inside the video acknowledges the camera and talks to it by making references etc.… rather than acting as though they cannot see the camera. Many indie music videos are known for breaking the fourth wall, these include; Coldplay – The Scientist, Oasis – don’t look back in anger, etc.. This breaking of the fourth wall makes the music video interact with the audience and can create a feel that the artist in the video is talking to the audience.

This is the scene in Coldplay – The Scientist that inspired me to introduce this short cut into my music video. Although it is vice versa and instead of the artist approaching the camera, the scene is being rewound and the artist is actually seen to be moving away from the camera. There is still the same convention of breaking the fourth wall as the artist is looking directly into the camera while singing.

FOURTH WALL

This scene cuts to what may feel like a totally different video to the first scene, this is because this is where the video starts to feel like it has a storyline and therefore does not break the fourth wall. Throughout most indie music videos there is two story’s being played out throughout the video an example of this was one I found when I was researching the music genre prior to producing the video, this was the Courteeners ‘not nineteen forever’. Throughout this music video the artist sings towards to the camera at different points but then at other points he becomes part of the video. This ‘other’ part to the video is part of a storyline of him being in a café while a girl walks in. when the artist seems to switch scenes he seems to zone out of the scene he is sat in and normality continues around him. I have done this with my artist by having various scenes where he talks/ sings and acts towards the camera as though he is addressing the audience and then other scenes where he does not even acknowledge the camera and there is the clear fourth wall in place.

NARRATIVE

This scene shows my artist standing in full, in this shot you can see his costume which I specifically chose to suit the genre of the music video I wanted to produce. This costume consists of a ‘”Guns’n’Roses” t-shirt, skinny jeans and standard boots. Although the indie genre stands for independent meaning it is unique and can mean anything. The fact that the artist is wearing another bands t-shirt/ merchandise will put the artist into a category of what the music will sound like. Also doing this will attract fans of this band to watch and show some sort of interest into this artist. This technique of wearing other bands merchandise to attract people is relatively unknown because artists who are already ‘famous’ will not need to use other bands fans to gain fans as they will already have a big ‘fan base’. The ‘skinny’ jeans and boot fashion has been introduced into the indie genre recently as it has evolved from the punk culture. Choosing this individual look for my artist was key as he needed to match the conventions of fitting into the indie genre to make him look more like an original indie artist.

COSTUMES

This scenery in this section is key, although it is simple and is only just a stage with a white background which looks very plain. It has a big meaning as a stage means a lot to a musical artist, generally performing on stage is some sort of achievement, that your playing to an audience and therefore shows that your career has progressed. But due to the fact this stage looks very plain and bare, this shows that the artist isn’t playing to any audience, its as though he is rehearsing for when he believes he will become popular and successful. This is different to what most music videos show the artist doing when they are rehearsing, this is usually shown in a music studio or in a ‘back stage room’.

This is one of very few music videos which show a performance as a rehearsal, in this picture you can clearly see it is a rehearsal as all the seats in the arena are empty, this is very similar to my artist although in my short scene I do not turn the camera to face the empty audience, I keep the soul focus on the artist as he is the centre/ focus point throughout my video.

SCENERY

MOTIFS

The motifs throughout my music video was the costume and the guitar, these are the two most recurring themes all the way through. Both of these pieces are what gave my artist/ character his identity, these both tell the audience the most about my artist. The guitar tells any audience who cant hear the music but can see the video what the style of music that the artist plays and also the costume will tell the audience what genre it will fit into, what artists this music is similar too and what they can expect. There is only one things that changes about one of my motifs throughout the video, this is the guitar he uses, this is because there is a scene which shows him to smash up the original guitar meaning he has to change.

This scene is used for one part of my chorus. This scene is a plain black room with the spotlight focused only on the artist who is sat central within the room meaning he is the centre point. For this scene the artist is singing directly forwards and not directly into the camera, this is because of the fourth wall.

A music video which contains a similar scene is Adele – Rolling in the deep, although her music can be seen to be very pop she is signed to the indie music label XL recordings which had other indie artists such as Jamie T who is very similar to my artist. This meant that taking this scene out of a similar music video would be following a convention of a real life media product.

Similarity of Scenes

OPENING/ END SCENE

My opening scene begins with the artist sat on the bench with him getting up and walking towards the camera. And my end scene is with the artist sat on the bench with the lights fading out. The difference between these two is the opening scene has full lights and looks like a standard image whereas the end scene has flash lights and looks like some sort of performance. This is to define how far he has come yet despite still being in the same surroundings.

Another example of a return of scenery from start to finish is Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds – Ballad Of The Mighty I. this starts the video with him talking to what seems to be the video director and ends with them two meeting once again in the same spot. Although there are differences between the videos such as Noels being one long video recorded the full way through and mine having to parallel storylines, there is similarities in the artist, the music genre and the clothing fashion therefore it felt fitting to take ideas from this real life media product and inject them into my video.

LIGHTING

The lighting in this scene is very dark, this is because there is a repeating of the chorus. Half of the screen is seen to have light and the other half is pitch black with my artist in the middle. This is related to the lyrics which imply leaving the past behind and moving onto better things. This is why my artist is positioned in the middle of the light and the dark, the light representing the good that he is hoping to move onto and the dark representing the past which is seen to be bad.

In this music video (Catfish and The Bottlemen – Kathleen) the lighting is dark red, this indicated what the song can be about, this is because red is seen as a colour symbol of love and romance. Although this has a different meaning to the lighting in my music video, the lighting within the scene still has some significance to the meaning on the video and the song.

MISE-EN-SCENE

In this scene the Mise-en-scene I have used is totally to create an office kind of feel to it. In this small image you can see a computer and monitor, a ‘desk’ chair, various different stationery that you would expect to see in a office job. All of this mise-en-scene has allowed me to produce a scene where the audience can visualise that the artist is at work. Even though the area I used wasn’t actually an office, the equipment and props I have added in has allowed the place to have a ‘make-over’ and look like something it is not.

This image is taken from a scene from the Coldplay song Violet Hill, in this imsage mise-en-scene plays a huge part in setting the feel to the video and what it tells the audience about the video. On the right there is seen to be two men using drums which are in the style of what were used in the war while the lead singer at the front looks to be in some sort of militant styled uniform. These pieces of props and costume create the feel of a war time period but not modern as these drums aren’t used in modern warfare. Therefore just by the props alone we know a lot about the video and that’s why props are important in my video as it tells the audience what's going on through equipment.

CAMERAWORK

For this scene I decided to change the camera from being stationary and make it more involved with the music video. I did this by moving the camera up closer to the artist from a long shot to a close up all in one take, then I panned around the artist to give the audience more of a feel like they were actually there. Therefore I went from taking a long shot to a close up in the same recording. This is not unusual to use

a zoom technique or approach in the indie music genre as it has been used in the Arctic Monkeys video for R U Mine. In this scene the camera appears to follow a female into the band playing, therefore the camera is closing in on them, when it gets amongst them then it pans around each individual playing, very similar to my shot panning around my solo artist.

DIGIPACK

This is an image I have used on my digipack, I produced this image using Photoshop effects. The image is two very similar scenes out of my music video edited to look like one but with my artist appearing twice in the same image. With this image being used within the album digipack creates a feel like this will be the lead song on the album and the one that the artist enjoys the most. This will also create a representation of the album so that as soon as people see this image they will link the song and the album.

Other similar indie artist use this technique of taking an image from their main focus music video and using it within their album digipack, an example of this would be the Arctic Monkeys on their album ‘AM’. The main image on the front of the digipack is taken from the head track of the album ‘Do I Wanna Know’ this shows continuity throughout the album and gives it some sort of representation and symbol so that if people see this image they will instantly be reminded of this album.