A2 Media Evaluation
Madeleine Brown
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Throughout the production of my A2 media music video for the song 'Hazey', I have had to keep referring back to the codes and conventions of the alternative music genre. The concept of genre is quite restrictive in my work, for then it would be in the environment that music videos are created as the mark scheme gave certain criteria that would not be found in all videos, especially not alternative music video as they are usually on a smaller, indie budget. An example of this would be the music video for Shawn Wasabi's, 'Otterpop' which is one continuous shot this would not have filled the mark schemes criteria but can definitely be considered a music video.
Like the majority of music videos, my music videos main purpose is to entertain the viewer. This is supported by Bulmer and Katz theory of 'Uses and Gratification', by focusing on the entertainment of the viewer this conforms to the conventions of what a viewer would expect when they go to watch a music video. By instead having, for example, a documentary with little amounts of music would not fit the modern day conventions within the music video industry. Following the idea of entertainment and aesthetics throughout my program made the decision making much easier through the research and planning stages of my project. An example of these decisions being made in my project would be whether or not I would have a cohesive or non-cohesive narrative model in my work. By having decided on a parallel edited cohesive narrative I can use audience intrigue over the story and content as a lot of more risque 'pop' genre videos are known for.
Instead of being risque visuals as many pop videos use as supported by Andrew Goodwins Music Video Theory using voyeurism to attract viewers a prominent example of this point in the theory would be Nicki Minaj's 'Anaconda' my video, however, disproves this section of the theory being focused on the aesthetics and the narrative to attract viewers to watch the video. In this way, my video disproves this theory.
'Anaconda' by Nicki Minaj
My aim for a realistic music video and ancillary product were achieved through firstly identifying what makes these media products look 'professional'. The main features that made them professional being the company logos and the use of conventions. For the modern alternative genre, this would be the use of minimalist black and white to achieve an easy aesthetically pleasing website to the demographic that will see this as a sign of currently 'popular' alternative bands such as 'The 1975' who's website and album art follows this theme.
However, the music I created could have stuck closer to genre conventions such as having the band featured in the video to create the brand awareness that a smaller and indie band would really benefit from. Replicating this would create a more realistic and conventional feeling and would definitely be a more prominent feature were I to do it again.
On a whole, I believe my work has used enough conventions to be easily identifiable not just to an audience but to an examiner using the mark scheme, whilst still subverting some conventions like the lack of the band's appearance in my music video.