Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3-

Evaluation Question 2-

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 4-

Media Evaluation Question 4

View more presentations from GeorgiaMiddleton.

Evaluation Question 1-

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

From research we listed all the codes and conventions of exising music videos withinthe indie genre. There are various ways in which we have either challenged or developed these particular codes and conventions. The codes and convetions found when researching music videos were:

Close ups of the artist or band and shots of instruments.

Aspects of abstractness or ways in which the music video can appear unique.

Both performance and narrative shots.

Alternative locations.

Close ups of the artist or band and shots of instruments-

Throughout our music video we made sure we got a number of close ups of the performer/artist. We believed that using these close ups would sell the artist and allow the audience to become familiar wuth her. Along with this, this helps with further products of hers that we may wish to produce and sell.

However, in comparison to most other music videos there are no real performance shots showing a band or instruments, except for the lip syncing shots at various parts throughout the music video.

We believed that as this indie artist is an individual artist and not part of a band, we wanted the artist herself to be sold. Although looking back we realised that we could have showed the artist as not only an indie singer but a musician showing her playing a guitar or instrument of some sort, hightlighting the fact that she is serious about her music. Therefore, our music video is different to videos such as Kaiser Chiefs 'I predict a riot', where shots of the band as a whole are constantly being shown on screen playing their instruments. However, our music video is similiar to that of Ellie Goulding's 'Guns & Horses' where no instruments are used in the performance side of the music video and instead more close ups of the artist herself are shown.

Aspects of abstractness or ways in which the music video can appear unique-

Our music video has various aspects in which allows the video to stand out and look unique. Examples of this are shown through shots such as close ups of the artists bright lip stick whilst lip syncing. Another aspect is various shots such as the shots of the artists eyes being shown at different points throughout the music video, in brighter or darker shades. Along with this, props such as the feathers being thrown in the air bring a sense of ambiguity. The shaky shots of the artist up london where bright lights are shwon and the speeding up of traffic also add to this, and the mirror screen showing the same image of the artist, all make the video look unique and 'different' in its own way. These particular aspects may create some confusion for audiences and allow audiences to feel intrigued and leave them wanting to watch more. Aspects of confusion and the use of different types of props can also be shown in the music video 'I just want back in your head' by Tegan and Sara. In this video audiences may not understand exactly what is going on as there is no clear outline to the narrative within the video. Props such as the random balloons that fall onto the stage and the audience with white masks on also add to the sense of confusion with their music video. Therefore our music video like many other music videos analysed sometimes aim to give audiences a surreal and fantasy like music video, which make them stand out from the 'typical' music videos. For example, in other genres such as RNB they focus more on the image of the artist, instead of creating a sense of abstractness.

Ways in which our music video is unique and contains abstractness.

Indie music videos commonly contain some sort of abstractness, whereas RNB music videos prefer to sell the artist and their image.



Both performance and narrative shots-

Overall our music video is narrative based with very little performance. Our music video initially did not contain any aspect of performance what so ever, but after studying music videos such as 'I just want back in your head' by Tegan and Sara, we realised that some sort of performance would be needed as although we wanted our music video to appear unique from most other indie music videos, we did not want to challenge the codes and conventions of an indie music video completely. However, unlike other indie music videos that include both performance and narrative, our music video does not present whole shots of the artist performing or playing an instrument, instead it just shows the artists lips singing various lines of the verses and chorus. Therefore, although our music video contains aspects of performance, unlike most other indie music videos it is short on performance shots of the artist. The narrative within our music video goes with the common convention that indie music videos usually use linear narratives rather than non linear narratives. However, a lot of the indie music videos I analysed actually use concept rather than narrative. For example, 'Guns & Horses', 'I just want back in your head' and 'Rabbit Heart'. Our music video uses a linear narrative, but flashbacks are used, for example, at the beginning of the music video we are shown the young girls memories of her and Jamie. We subverted the typical boy and girl love story which audiences are usually familiar with. We believed this would create a sense of confusion and would leave the audience asking certain questions, highlighting the fact that our music video follows the typical abstract element on an indie music video and the rebellion against convention, which is expected and enjoyed by the 'alternative' audience.

Alternative locations-

When researching music videos I found that a common convention used in indie music videos was that they use alternative and 'different' locations which would not often be found in other genres of music. You could argue that our music video subverts this convention as a lot of the footage was filmed in 'typical' locations such as a house, in rooms such as a bathroom and a bedroom. However, it could also be said that the location in our music video such as the bits of footage filmed in central London (Piccadilly Circus in particular) look quite unique in the sense that the bright lights add to the sense of confusion with the music video. We are shown different locations throughout our music video (About 4 or 5 in total), this is quite uncommon for indie music videos as they tend to be located in one area only. For example, Florence and the Machine's video 'Dog Days' and Ellie Goulding's video 'Guns & Horses' are both filmed in quite unusual locations. For instance both are filmed in outside locations such as the woods or forest, which create almost a eerie feeling. Along with this, both music videos stick to the same location throughout.