Overall, I am really happy with the outcome of my video and think it illustrates the message I wanted to create. Through using particular outfits and locations (mise en scene) I think I have created a really effective and professional video; I think that the message of the video is really easy to understand. I will find out if this is true when I do some audience feedback on my product, and see if other people know what the narrative is supposed to be and if the video portrays it well.
I decided to print out a physical copy of my digipak so that I could create a real-life version of it. This has helped me as I can look at the product and see if it works well as a product because looking at it in a two dimensional form isn't ideal. I think this looks really professional and has cohesion with my music video but will again find out if this is true when I do audience feedback on the product.
QUESTION ONE. I tried following conventions when making my products because this makes the products look more professional and realistic. I am going to look at each section of my digipak, my whole
and music video in depth and explain why I made the choices I did, why I followed the conventions and also why I challenged them in places to create my products.
MY DIGIPAK.
Here is a presentation that includes each section of my digipak individually:
FRONT COVER:
BACK COVER:
DISCS:
I have noticed that the first disc of my digipak looks very similar to the design Lana Del Rey used for the disc for the album 'Ultraviolence'. This illustrates how I have been conventional because I have created something similar to a product that already exists in the music industry. Also, Lana Del Rey is categorised into the same genre as the artist I have created - indie pop - and therefore I think my product looks realistic and professional as it has aspects of another product within itself.
INSIDE IMAGES:
IMAGES BEHIND THE CDS AND THE SPINE:
MAGAZINE ADVERT. MY MUSIC VIDEO.
My music video was inspired loosely by the 2004 film 'Mean Girls': written by Tina Fey, directed by Mark Waters and based on the book called 'Queen Bees and Wannabes' by Rosalind Wiseman. The film focuses on a teenage girl (Cady Heron) who moves from being home schooled in Africa to being taught in a high school in America. It illustrates the struggle she goes through of trying to fit into different cliques and groups of stereotypes:
She ends up sitting with and becoming friends with the 'popular' girls whom are labelled as the 'Mean Girls' of the school. These are the girls who everyone looks up to but also who everyone fears because of how much power they have over everyone. Cady then starts being fake to try fit in with the rest of the group, which means that she isn't being true to herself. It ends with one of the 'mean girls' getting hit by a bus, which then makes Cady realise that she just needs to be herself and people will still like her for being her. In my video, I wanted this to be a focus because I wanted to create something that would be really positive and have an outcome in which everyone is happy. The outfits that I chose for the 'popular' girls in my video to wear (played by Zoe Baxter and Amber Griffiths) was inspired by one of the most famous quotes from this film: "On Wednesday's We Wear Pink", and also by the way in which the 'Mean Girls' dress:
This really fits in well with and reflects the message I wanted to portray in my music video, as the main girl in the group is the one who is telling the new girl of what she can and can't do. This is a scene from the film in which Cady is telling them that she is thinking of joining the 'Mathletes' as she enjoys maths and is good at it. This illustrates how she is having to brush her hobbies aside and conform to how she is expected to be seen, and portrays how she can't do something she finds enjoyable and be herself because this isn't the stereotype of that particular social group (Tessa Perkins states that there must be some truth in a stereotype, and the other 3 girls are the evidence that this is true. Cady is also showing that this is true because she starts acting how she is expected to).
This is a quote said by one of the 'Mean Girls' of the film, and perfectly demonstrates the message I want to portray through my video. It supports Tessa Perkins Stereotype Theory 100% because the girls in the group have to follow certain rules and guidelines to maintain their status within the school. It is used as a scare-factor to make sure that they all abide by these rules and keep their reputation.
I used a lot of music videos as inspiration when deciding on the storyboard for my music video because I was a little stuck for ideas for shots, although I had an idea of what I wanted my video to look like and some things I wanted to include.
This video I made is me explaining the different techniques I used in my music video; the techniques I have explained are the ones I used from the research part of the video making process. I am now going to do some research into my video to see if I have been conventional or not.
In terms of music videos in general, I have used a variety of shots to ensure that my product is entertaining to watch and also keeps the audience interested and makes them want to watch the video. I think this is really important because this will be the first video that the artist has released and therefore will be the first one that will determine if people like her or not. They could like the music that she has created but not the video and this could ultimately mean that they don't want to buy her album or merchandise, and will also not want to go to any tours she has.
I have created this gif to demonstrate one of the shots I have used in my video because this is one that I feel works especially well and I had to plan perfectly so that it worked. In this gif, it is slightly jumpy in terms of the location because I had to screenshot the individual parts and put them together, but in the video the mise en scene and cinematography is exactly the same.
Here are some videos that contain a lot of different cinematography techniques, with some that are similar to what I have used in my video:
Although this is a completely different genre to the song I
have created my music video to, (this is categorised into rap and the
song I have done is indie pop) there are a lot of different angles and
cinematography used which supports the point I have made that a music
video needs to use a variety to keep their video interesting and
entertaining to watch. Similarly to my music video, I have used a shot
in which the camera goes all the way around the artist:
Because this song is about sex and is therefore very sexual in the lyrics of the song, this part of the video is done to sexualise Minaj by focusing on her most famous asset, her bottom - this supports the theory set by Laura Mulvey: that women are to be looked at by men and are seen as objects. Although I can see similarities between my product and the Anaconda video, one main difference is that I have walked around the artist myself rather than have the mise en scene move. The reason for this is because I didn't have the money to do something as advanced as this and therefore did it myself to get a similar effect, but I also like how the background blurs out as this makes the shot look really interesting.
After looking back at my video, I have noticed that a lot of my shots are very similar to those that are used in Meghan Trainor's video for 'Lips Are Movin'. This song is in a similar genre to my song, although this is only pop. She has used a lot of shots in her video to show herself singing to her song; demonstrating how she is a performer and not just an artist. Similarly to Trainor's video, I have used close up shots of the artist when she is lip syncing because I think this is very conventional as it is the one that is used the most in videos. However, I have not used a coloured background in my video because I feel that this reflects the indie half of the genre of the song, because the colours behind my artist are very plain and have a washed-out' effect.
After watching this video, I have noticed that one of the shots I have used in my video is very similar to one that is used in the video "Right By My Side" by Nicki Minaj. The shot is the one where one of the actresses in my video flips her hair but I repeated the shot because it wasn't long enough to fill the gap needed, although I have used the first one at normal speed and the second clip has been slowed down slightly. I wasn't sure if this shot would look professional (even though I think it looks effective) because it could be misconstrued as a glitch in the editing process and people may think it has been an accident. Looking at this video has assured me that this video follows conventions because I haven't repeated the clip too many times so makes it look like a real product.
Music videos in the same genre that my music video is (indie pop):
This is a video by the artist Lorde, who is the artist of the song I chose to do - White Teeth Teens. At the beginning of this video she has started it off with a simple shot of some water crashing. The sound of the waves can be heard, which is unusual because music videos usually begin with the song playing. I have also used a similar shot in my video to this, but haven't left the original sound in it because it wouldn't have worked as it would have been the sound of wind and cars:
I also altered the colour of the sky when it came to editing my music video because the line from the song in which the sky appears alongside is 'We wouldn't be seen dead here in the day', so tried to make it look like it was dark. I think this works a lot better than starting it off with the artist because it introduces the video and also creates quite a calm atmosphere; allowing the audience to know the type of video it is going to be.
I feel that the shot I have used after the pan of clouds in my video is very similar to this one in Lana Del Rey's video, and therefore shows that I have followed conventions of music videos in the indie pop genre because of similarity between the products. Differently to Lana's video, I have used my artist in this particular mise en scene and the framing/angle of the camera. This is because I wanted her to be introduced as early on as possible and also lip sync this part. This is the reason I used this shot as it allowed be to pan down to her mouth so that she could sing the part that I needed her to.
The way I think this video is similar to mine is the locations that she has used because they represent a specific message for the lyrics in the song she is performing:
Lykke Li has used quite a large, run down, unused parking lot as the location for her music video; and the shot she has begun with in her music video illustrates her as a very small individual. This relates to the lyrics of the song, as it is about being alone after a break up with somebody. I think I have effectively chosen locations in my video too, as I wanted to represent the idea of someone (the artist) being lonely and unacknowledged by everyone. I purposefully chose the centre of town to do some filming because I knew that there would be a lot of people walking around and could capture the idea of the artist being ignored and going unnoticed. I also chose an underpass because of how it looked really dirty and generally not very nice, due to the lack of lighting and the graffiti on the walls.
Music videos with a narrative:
Music videos that have a narrative are quite popular in the industry, as they make the video more memorable for the audience as they tell a story that relates to the lyrics and therefore can make the song more relatable for the audience.
For a video with a narrative to work, I think that characters within the story need to be in the whole video, although not as much as the artist is because otherwise it would look like the artist is the extra and the extra is the artist. I have followed this because I have included 2 actresses in my video to portray the narrative I wanted to, and have included them often in it to show the story/message I am trying to show. Differently to the Blank Space video, the actresses in my video don't look directly at the camera at all throughout the video because I wanted them to support the artist and her story, not to be seen as equal to her. For the part in which they are involved the most, (the shots in the under passage), I have filmed them at quite a distance so that they seem unimportant because this is the part which the artist has become comfortable with herself and removed the 'fake' identity. For this part, I filmed the actresses walking away from the camera and filmed the artist walking towards the camera; this was to symbolise how the 'fake' identity of the artist was being removed and she was becoming more confident with herself.
This is another way in which I developed the narrative of my music video. When filming this shot, I was about to focus the camera on Chloe (the artist) but then I thought about how this could look really effective in my video. Because I wanted to give the impression that the artist is isolated and that she is receiving attention off no one, I thought that leaving her blurry and slightly unrecognisable would create the effect I wanted to. Because everyone around her is focused, I think that the shot works as it is showing how the people around her are more important and deserve to be noticed - this is what is in her mind.
