Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When deciding what music genre my group should study and develop, we decided that the indie / alternative rock genre was best suited as this is a sub-genre which allows us to delve into creating new conventions.
We chose the song 'Loving Someone' by The 1975 due to ideologies which grip the audience. This song fitted best with our initial ideas for our narrative based music video because we focus on themes that are not too far from reality. Therefore, making an audience member gain a sense of identification through the lyrics and applying the uses and gratification theory.
From carrying out the questionnaire, the target audience for the indie genre are teenagers and young adults. This is what lead us to use teenage protagonists within our product. An example of this is in 'Robbers' by The 1975 and Fall Out Boy 'Dance, Dance'. Enabling us to gain inspiration and conform to our genre. Our target audience will feel as if they can relate to our protagonists and feel a sense of escapism as they may be effected by one of the issues we focus on, applying the uses and gratification theory.
The majority of our target audience fall within the 'strugglers' psychographic. This is what lead us to focus on subjects that are relevant and engaging as they could possibly relate to the protagonist and empathise. The topics we focus on are bullying, prostitution and alcoholism. Focusing on issues that are apparent within society conforms to the indie genre as it is seen often in music videos, for example 'Cigarettes And Alcohol' by Oasis. This is creating a sense of verisimilitude for the audience.
Research also showed that it is normally the female protagonist who is seen to be the 'damsel in distress' referring to Props 8 stock characters. This is seen in 'Arctic Monkeys - Snap Out of It'. In order to challenge this common convention and make our music video relate to a wider target audience, we included a male protagonist to play this role. Also, this creates a sense of escapism for our male audience members and links to the uses and gratification theory.
Throughout our music video we used a style of filming to create a sense of verisimilitude this was created by using conventional shots to the genre. An example of a shot we used to create this is point of view shots. Research into our genre allowed us to notice the common conventional shots used. The use of a mid shot continuously throughout 'Panic! At The Disco - This Is Gospel' is what lead us to use this in several shots of our product and conform to our genre.
We had also taken inspiration from the extreme close up shot seen in 'Kings of Leon - use Somebody', adapting and using it in our introduction. An extreme close up of eyes doesn't allow the audience to see the facial expression of the individual, creating an enigmatic effect. This shot was adapted to highlight the individuality of the teenagers shown. Enabling the teenage audience to be aware from the outset that the video will be targeting issues that they can relate to.
A reverse shot seen in 'alt-J - Breezeblocks' was also a shot that we decided to adapt to fit our product. It is not often seen within the indie genre but by editing the shot in post-production to be reversed, we believe this plays an important, effective part towards the end of our music video.
Due to the indie genre being a sub-genre we had noticed that indie bands such as The 1975 and Arctic Monkeys take inspiration from alternative genres and their imagery. The use of a projector to shine against a subject matter is also conventional in pop genres, for example it is used in 'Rihanna - We Found Love'. Nevertheless, the indie genre challenges conventions, which enabled us to use this imagery but conform it to our own production.
Also, through the location was where we wanted to challenge our genre. A church location is something thats not often seen in Indie videos. Our stereotypical audience member would normally rebel against such strict, confirmative ways of life. However, our choice to film in an empty church signifies how our target audience may feel as if they do not fit fully into society. By directing our protagonists to misbehave in the church emphasises their disconnection towards the community. Therefore, making our music video relatable for our 'strugglers' audience members and applying the uses and gratification theory.
In order to challenge the conventions of the Indie genre, the final outcome of the protagonists was that they restored their faith in society through the church. An older audience member may be able to relate to this as they may have put an end to their 'rebellion' phase. This is therefore creating a new equilibrium which creates an enigma at the end of our music video.
Through our research we had learnt that the indie genre normally has both performance and a narrative within their video, this is seen in 'The 1975 - Sex' and 'AWOLNATION - Sail'. This is what lead us to challenge the conventions and create a multi-stranded music video and not conform to the conventions of the indie genre.
Conventions such as having a narrative either through the lyrics or the music video is something that has stayed the same through the years when looking back into my research. From the outset it was originally seen for the music video to have only performance while they express the narrative vocally.
Something that is not commonly used in the indie genre are titles. From carrying out our research we had noticed that it has been used in '30 Seconds To Mars - City Of Angels' and also 'The Killers - Shot At The Night'. This creates a cinematic feel from the outset. Drawing focus to the message behind our product as it is conventional for a film to have a meaning behind its narrative. Therefore, making the audience aware that within our multi-stranded music video there is a message to be found. We are therefore challenging the conventions of many indie products.
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