Evaluation - Question one

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

In making the music video for our band Young Mistakes we had to consider what the codes and conventions of our genre would be. We decided that we wanted the video to be completely natural which suits our genre and type of band completely, considering that bands that we aspired our band to be like are often very relaxed and almost low profile considering the amount of money they put on show or effects into their video, we managed to portray a fun, carefree video through the normal conventions of bands in todays day and age - not using a green screen, overly expensive props or untypical locations. In doing this, our video relates to the audience.

Following Goodwins theory of conventions for a music video we had the lead singer often miming to the lyrics of the song; the pace of editing matches the pace of the music, which keeps up the lively, fun vibe of the video. We often used small parts of the video to match the lyrics (like in the theory of codes and conventions) such as when the song goes keep our teeth nice and clean and the lead singer pops up into the shot cleaning his teeth and spitting out the toothpaste. We made sure to make the mise-en-scene match the mood of the song, we carefully chose the costume and locations to both make the video enjoyable and relate to their target audience. In using all of this in particular to relate to the audience, the band would sell very easily as the audience will feel like they are very in touch with them and want to be a part of the bands experience. An example of locations relating to audience would be at the arcade, where the band are merely having fun on the arcades, playing pool and at one point we see a shot that says insert coins to play whilst a band member is on the machine, showing that they aren't particularly too wealthy either. In terms of costume, we used very young, fresh looking clothes such as polo's and shirts with skinny jeans or chino's, this means that the band looked like those watching their video and shows them as very carefree and allows the audience to understand they are once again not about the money. Here are some of the locations used to relate to the audience: 

We have the band members playing their instruments in the recording studio, which sticks to the natural element of the band and although there is no real band performance in the video with them all together, the reason we did this is so that the audience would see the video as more of a documentary into the side of the band we would not normally see. This is an example of us challenging the codes and conventions of a music video. We think that in just showing the band having a good time, doing what they always do as opposed to showing the audience what they see all the time (music playing) we could have a unique relationship with the audience through this video alone, which would make the audience feel personal with the band and help them make money in the long run. Although this could be argued to be conforming to the cameo convention, it could also be argued that as the artists do in fact perform at some point within the video, it is merging the two conventions together and therefore could even be seen to be developing on them. We do, however, show a mixture based video of narrative and performance, although the narrative takes over the video much more. Here is narrative and performance examples: 

Although the narrative is following the bands day almost like a documentary and seeing what they do for fun and how they spend their time together, we also challenge this convention by not actually having any real kind of storyline or obvious meaning behind the video. The meaning that comes through quite obviously is that going out and having fun is something young people should enjoy and that just because the band is famous doesn't mean they are any different from their bands. This allows the video to have a very unique feel to it and stops it from becoming forced or badly acted - it also means that when the fans watch the band in interviews, they'll see the same personalities and know that the band are very real in this performance.  Examples of them being natural and having it documentary-like: 

We decided not to use too many intertextual references as we wanted the band to be unique and not to sell out too much through commodification by appearing to be selling themselves on the image of another band. The only real one we used is the part where the band are swinging and clicking their fingers like One Direction in ‘live while we’re young’. The reason we used them is because they are young, popular and very fun. The main reason we used this was in a satirical way, much like Blink 182 mock the Backstreet Boys in ‘All the Small Things’. This is the shot used:

We use a variety of shots, considering how fast paced the video is, allowing the video to stop from lagging and keep everything very fun. We use the notion of looking a lot, as the band members are almost always looking directly in the camera or looking to each other. There is even one shot where the camera is the mirror, which shows the lead singer looking at himself in and looking to the audience - making them feel more in touch with the band. Notion of looking examples are: 

To keep the video fun, in editing we used very fast cuts and even sped up parts of the video - showing that there is so much fun to have they need the most time they can get. We also use split screens in order to show this same thing and also just reinstate just how natural the band is - showing them being like a normal group of friends together at the arcade.

All of these conventions and typical forms of the genre we were using were particularly used, disused or developed with the purpose of showing the band to be very carefree and completely in the industry for their passion of music, not their passion for money. We wanted our band to be outside the realms of the commodification that is always around in the media, showing that the band had not been completely pumped through the system to make them what their record labels think will make money. In doing this, the band will create more of a relationship with their audience and in turn bring more money to the company with their merchandise at concerts and special edition albums as their particular audience and fans would want to know them better and have a lot of respect for them as artists and people.