Jcutts - Question 1

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

The title of the band's album we chose to promote was called 'Science and Faith' this vague name allows the band to go into issues such as relationships, emotions, and other things through song. Our particular song we chose to make a music video to called 'walk away' is about a relationship which shows a male character who know he is bad for the female character, however she cant bring herself to leave him , and a vicious circle begins.

Conforming to Conventions;

• In terms of convention of the band 'The Script' are we looked into previous video's they had released . They conformed to most Indie Rock type styles, this included plenty of performance shots but with some sort of narrative running through it . However we were very indiscive whether to go ahead with the amount of performance shots as other videos did. This was due to the fact our equipment was obviously a lot less superior to ones available to professional musicians. On top of that none of us played an instrument . However in the end we chose to go ahead with the performance shots, we recorded several times to ensure we had covered every angle we wanted and also had enough in case any part was out of time, after all if this wasn't convincing it would ruin our video. Fortunately the footage we had was good enough for most to believe we were actually playing the instruments .
  

• Of course, when looking at forms and conventions, we had to look into Dyer's paradox's . His first being that the star must appear to be ordinary yet extraordinary at the same time . This meant clothing for the lead singer and band member must be fairly fashionable, yet at the same time the audience must be able to compare themselves to him and therefore compare the song and lyrics to a situation they may be in.

• This image here shows a shot of the lead singer just after he has been seen walking through the streets, just like any other person, he was not over dressed, and could well have been the person watching the video from an audience perspective. However in this shot, the lighting and facial expression shows a deeper meaning, conveying that the lead singer has something to say and it extraordinary in terms of the band. However his facial expression also suggests meaning and that he could have been in this situation , and that what he is singing about, is in fact true, or of a past experience.
• The second of Dyer's paradox's is that the artist must be both Present and absent. We conveyed this by lots of early performance shots, and meat shots of the lead singer, this meant you associated his voice with that face, and branded them as one.

• This early establishing shot means that the audience can quite clearly see the main voice ( the lead singer ) is most definitely present. However there are certain shots in which we can hear the artists voice and therefore tell it is him who is singing , but can see a different couple , in which the lyrics have a strong link to. This could be seen as being both present, and absent.
  

• The evident link between the lyrics and video is on that is obvious in terms of that the lead singer is talking about the characters included, however the clear reason and problem certainly creates a narrative fuzz. This slight vagueness, allows not only for people watching to remain engaged as they try and figure out the plot further, but also will allow any watching to put themselves in the position of either the character or lead singer, this first person mode of address is enhanced with plenty of meat shots and the lead singer looking into the camera.
• In order to convey the problem in what is clearly a relationship between the two characters we had to initiate a clear contrast between a memory that appeared to be happy, and those that showed emotion, for the worse. For the majority of our ''happy shots'' we used an effect which showed a a high contrast in the colour red. The colour has stereotypically got connotation of love as in a heart, which showed the relationship and when put together with a shot with plenty of movement, proved to work well. However equally red also has connotations with anger, and frustrations, we felt this was a clever way to convey both emotions in one, and leave it up to interpretation of the audience to decide what emotion was going through the characters heads at that specific time.

• On the flip side, when we wanted to show a clear time of when the characters seemed upset or feeling sorry for themself we using a grainier wash , with little bright colours, we felt this best described and showed connotations of a broken couple or relationship.
  

• This shows little colour and only one side of the characters face. She is looking away from the camera suggesting she is deep in thought, which when placed in with the lyrics, we can only assume is about the relationship .
  

• The lyrics of the song 'walk away' suggest a male telling a female to 'walk away' from him as he is bad for her. Yet she cannot. This suggest that the male is in control of the relationship and that the women cannot see past her feelings for him, this conforms to the stereotype that men and predominately superior in relationships , in todays patriotic society.

• Here shows a shot of the male character walking away from the girl, yet she chases after him. The fact that this is such a common problem in todays society which is shown on TV drama's films, and even in real day to day life, means it's social currency is increased . People can talk about the video , comparing it to things they have personally seen, watched or even experienced

.Goodwin's Framework;

Goodwins critical framework is something we considered upon constructing our music video, we used a strong link towards the lyrics and video. However despite the link between the lyrics and video, we avoided a ''story telling'' type approach , we wanted to leave a lot down to interpretation.

At this point the lead singer sings; '' Fallen in love in the worst way'' it then cuts to a POV shot of the female character laughing and clearly happy. However the amplification the colour red could suggest a deeper meaning of a problem she is not showing. And how her obsession with the male character is eventually her downfall. This complies with the stereotype that women are often the obsessive ones in relationships.