Evaluation task

Anne-sophie

In this evaluation task I will be evaluating the use of conventions in advanced media products. Including the music video and the digi-pack.

This is one of the examples of our music video linking in with the video of the pretty reckless. We used the same camera angle as they did having the guitarist on the same side as they do and the drummer. Taylor Momsen is also holding a microphone, they both have the same sort of look, the main difference is that the pretty reckless have a much more ‘dark’ look to their video than we do, ours is more bright. The distance between the main singer is about the same as we had in our video, creating a similar depth of field. The lights they have sort of falling out of the sky, we have replaced with glitter falling from the sky. The shadows on the two band members in the pretty reckless video is much more darker than in ours. We wanted to give them more recognition. We wanted to show that they are a whole band and have a connection. The body language of our main singer and Taylor Momsen are also very similar sort of rock/pop behaviour. Also the organisation of the band in both pictures, the shot distance and lighting is very similar to each other. The use of body language in out video is also very similar to Taylor Momsens video which is something we did on purpose. We have chosen to opt for a different lighting system in our video to be able to share the spotlight amongst all the musicians rather than just focusing on the lead singer. Something else that played a large role in the decision of the lighting was that we wanted our video to be more glam than rock.

In this slide I am discussing the convention of grim lighting. Dark lighting is a typical convention of rock videos, suggesting the dark and dangerous personas of the rock artists. We have gone against this convention in our video by putting more light in the video to show the facial expression of the singer more and make the video look more glam in general. In this second scene which is in both videos, in the beginning, in the real media product they have zoomed out more showing more information since the rest of the scene is already very dark. In our video we used lighter lighting again because we wanted to show her face more to create more of an intimacy with the audience. This is also the reason why we decided to use this shot, in Taylor Momsens video she has a connection with the audience in the very beginning of the video making her fans feel some kind of intimacy with the audience. As you can see our close up shots start a bit later, this is again due to the fact that we want to promote the band as a group rather than as a solo artists which is what is happening in Taylor Momsens video.

I have taken this shot from the band called ‘The Kills’ which is also a rock band with a performance element in the video. Again this is a very similar shot from the two videos. In the video from the kills this shot is following the convention of rock and roll and individuality. We are not following this convention which is shown through the use of lighting and guitar. The shot in our video looks less individual. Their genre of music is mainly described as Indi rock. Our video looks more mainstream, which is done by using an electrical guitar, due to the rock element and the lighting. The lighting in our video is brighter and shows more instead of the lighting in the video from the kills which is very mysterious and shows very little information.

This is a scene from the video ‘untouched’ by the band named the veronicas who are mainly known for their alternative rock and synthetic pop music. Which is the same genre as our video. This shot from the video ‘untouched’ is challenging the typical convention related to champagne being a glamorous thing. In their video they are at a glamorous party where people are dressed up and they are drinking champagne. In our video we are challenging this convention by putting our actors in morph suits, this way you are not able to judge them by anything but themselves, we are challenging this convention by showing that people have become so blinded by the everyday media and materialistic products that this is all they care about. This fits in with the lyrics of our song ‘all your cities lie in dust’ where ‘dust’ is referred back to as glitter.

Here we are challenging the convention of close ups. A close up usually intends closeness and a personal connection with the artist, it also helps the audience to remember the lyrics as they can see the artist singing them up close. In the chorus of the music video ‘makes me want to die’ there is a close up of Taylor Momsen as she sort of whips her hair making the audience feel interacted with her and also dance to the song, they know that this particular part in the song is the chorus.

Another thing is that the shadows used in this shot are very similar, in both shots. Which usually means grim and rock, according to the typical convention. We are going against the convention again here because we haven't changed the colour of the shot into black and white which makes it look even more grim and dark and this shows extra shadows while we kept the lighting quite bright. The singer turns her head away and only the highlights are shown. The biggest difference is that the Official video is in black and white.

This shot is taken from both beginnings of the music videos of the same genre. By editing these sequences we established the style of the music which is rock/guitar music. We chose to add close ups of the instruments playing to catch the attention of music lovers, from the information we found out earlier by audience research. The majority of our target audience is into music which is why we decided to do some close ups of the band member playing, to make it interesting for them. The lighting is different to the other video. Again, the colours in the videos are different and the use of shadows is also different.

Our video is also similar to the video of Taylor Momsen in a way of dressing in body language, the same dress codes and the same body language was used, our video was a bit less grim and more ‘glamorous’ compared to hers.

Another big element of similarity is that the video is edited to the beat of the song, when the pace of the singing becomes faster or slower the editing became faster or slower compared to this. This gives a feeling of really interacting with the video, because they are doing the same as the audience is doing whilst watching it. They feel as if they are part of it. This is a multi media experience giving a type of 360 experience of the track.

As I said before the two lead singers look similar and were dressed similar on the shooting day, they are both wearing a black dress tights and boots. On the shooting day it self our singer was also wearing a lot of eye make up like Taylor is. We chose to dress Laila in this costume because it follows the convention of glam rock, we chose a glamorous dress with rough boots making it edgy but glam at the same time

Digi-pack

I was inspired by the Taylor Momsen’s digi pack when I was making it. I used a photograph of the band as well as her first album cover. This promotes the band as a whole, not just the solo artists. Because they are a beginning band it would be good to promote the whole band. I also used the fact that they simply put the title and the artists name on the front cover of the digi pack. I also used a simple lettering but less dramatic as the Taylor Momsen's video because our video is again, more ‘glamorous’ and less grim.

I also used 4 black and white photo’s which is similar to the Taylor Momses digi pack, she used black and white on her album covers. On her cover photo with the whole band you can see that she still stands out even though she is with other people, we also tried to create this with by putting her in the middle and making her as the main subject matter.

On the back side of her album she had a very simple back cover. Just back and simple text on it showing the album songs. I also used this but by simply using a glitter photo, to make it more ‘glamorous’.