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

The advanced subsidiary level brief states for students to create a music video; our personal objectives centred around our video being professional and enjoyable. In order for this to be achieved, it was pivotal that we created our product using generic conventions typically associated with the genre if music. After deciding upon using the artist Andrew Belle's song 'Make it Without You', we researched the genre in great detail to understand its conventions and associations, and what is expected of it from it's target audience. Belle's music can be defined as a sub-genre of acoustic folk, within which are often meaningful and moral lyrics. We connected this understanding of the genre to link with our narrative vision of reflecting the lyrics in the story and characters we created, something achieved by many rivalling acoustic folk artists that we researched.

Firstly, location was of great importance to us during our planning of the video filming. The two video links below come from the artists Ben Howard and Amber Run. Both texts use conventional rural, pastoral locations in their videos.

(Ben Howard - Keep Your Head Up)

(Amber Run - Pilot)


In these real media products, there is an evident convention of a focal point on nature and it's connotations of beauty and liberation, as an escape. There is often the inclusion of long shots, or panoramas of the surrounding countryside and visual aesthetics which aid the creation of a pastoral setting. This was mirrored in our own video whereby we showed footage of our protagonist and her boyfriend during fond memories of a countryside walk, as well as shots of the nature in the graveyard she visits.






Furthermore, for smaller artists such as Andrew Belle who are not yet in the mainstream, a music video which follows the genre convention of using this rural location is also a connecting branch between them and their audience. As a local acoustic artist, mirroring or replicating the location of your target audience is important to provide a sense of identification and connection with them. For example, rap or grime singers can connect to their audience by using a conventional location in which the music is popular or typically connected with, such as urban London (a location largely used by rappers such as Wiley).

(Wiley - Can You Hear Me)

The roots of the acoustic genre stem from this rural setting, from predominantly young British males and females who are instrumentally talented, mostly using guitars or pianos. This is seen through Tom Odell's works, and his gift as a pianist is highly emphasized in the majority of his videos, as well as being inter-cut with a narrative which links to the lyrical value. This convention of such texts was something we used in our own work, and we feel we have almost intertextualised Odell's piano shots in our own video, not only connoting Belle's stance as a talented pianist, but also linking him to mainstream artists of the genre.

(Tom Odell - His piano skills are demonstrated in videos such as Grow Old With Me, and Long Way Down)

Using and developing conventions of the real media genre also allowed us to target the correct demographic for the artist. The acoustic, folk genre is a hard one to pinpoint to just one singular age range, as it has become so popular over the past few years following the rise of Ed Sheeran and other similar artists. It would be all too easy to suggest that Belle's own audience is that of his own age or younger, and this is evidently not the case. After going to see Tom Odell live at Larmer Tree Festival in Somerset (an iconic rural festival documenting many acts of the acoustic genre), we realised that he was popular with both young and old members of the audience who turned out in their thousands to watch.




(Tom Odell at Larmer Tree Festival 2014)




(Larmer Tree - an iconic acoustic festival)

With this realisation in mind, we then came to the conclusion that the demographic for the acoustic folk genre is largely targeted by shared values presented in the lyrics. For example, when the audience can identify with or feel an emotive connection with song lyrics, perhaps fuelled by their own experiences as suggested by Roland Barthes's theory, they become part of the audience. In this sense, it is not categorized by age or race. The importance of the lyrics to the song and genre was something we decided to pull into our music video, and so the narrative follows the distinct lyrics and connotations of 'Make it Without You', shedding light on themes such as love and loss. This fits into Andrew Goodwin's theory which envelopes the idea that audiences find interest through a clear relationship between the visual and the lyric.

The use of costume and mise-en-scene within our product was key in representing that of the conventions in real media. It is hardly typical of the acoustic genre to have outlandish costume or settings, and often the costumes simply resemble the audience, which creates a sense of identification again because the audience feel connected to the artist and characters the more they mirror their image. Particularly with our own narrative which, in order to be identifiable, needs to reflect daily life and everyday scenarios. We chose to use everyday mise en scene which connote a sense of normality which people can relate to, for example, the interior of our character's house. This idea of reflecting normal life in a visual to mirror the audience is realised in Ed Sheeran's videos such as 'Give Me Love'.

( Ed Sheeran - Give Me Love)

In terms of forms and conventions of real media products of which we challenged, it would be evident to begin with stereotypes. Propp's narrative theory of 1982 focuses on a largely patriarchal idea of women being passive, objectified objects which are often the reward or possession of a man. Obviously, his theories were developed around the traditional folk tale, but it is still widely referred to in today's modern media theoretical analysis. The two women represented as sufferers of grief in our video are shown as active subjects in their own right. Admittedly, Anne (the elderly woman) is more reflective on her memories and fonder times, but together with Emily (the younger girl), they actively come together to resolve their grief through companionship. This idea of passive women is also often reflected in some media today, for example in Sam Smith's video for his single Not the Only One. Diana Argon plays a woman who is aware of her husband's unfaithfulness, yet the video follows how she continues to play the dutiful wife. In addition, the video features some questionably voyeuristic images which would conform to the media theory of 'The Male Gaze', in which she is shown to be an object of lust despite her grief-stricken state, and this was an aspect we largely aimed to avoid in our video.

 (Sam Smith - Not the Only One)

(Clip from our media video, Anne and Emily hugging)

Reception of the video is something we took into consideration, and aimed to provide a certain stance which would challenge the audience's existing expectations of the genre and narrative. To do this, we created the vast binary opposition between Anne as an elderly woman and Emily as a young girl. Despite their difference in ages, it is shown in our video that their love for their husband and boyfriend are no different, and a key moral portrayed is that affection does not grow old with the couple. We used similar close ups of the couples holding hands to juxtapose their physical love, thus conforming to Claude Levi-Strauss's developed theory of Binary Opposites. These two characters also present to our audience the key theme of companionship and reinforces a somewhat stagnant belief of children having a relationship with their grandparents or elders, a belief which has seemed to have diminished in today's society. Bringing these two characters together was not only hugely emotive, as their grief which is portrayed is just as painful, but also opens the audience's eyes to the resurfacing of this relationship which can be seen as less common.

(The contrast between the young and old affection - both hold hands)

Teenagers of our actress Emily's age are often documented in the media as being different to those of the past years; perhaps more violent and less sensitive. Despite the tabloid news headlines and articles which present these false claims, we wanted to reinstate the idea that teenagers and young adults are still just as compassionate and loving towards their elders and others as they ever have been. It would have been all to easy to have presented Emily as a young adult getting over her grief by partying with friends, or isolating herself in her bedroom, conforming to a life of solitude. However, we took a different stance than what the contemporary media would possibly like to believe and chose to construct Emily as an emotive and caring character. The long take with a 360 degree scope when she greets Anne in the hallway of her house is particularly emotional. We placed it at the bridge of the song to build to a climax, and although the diegetic sound of the lyrics and piano instrumental, it is this shot which really challenges some preconceptions and conventions of real media texts, perhaps those conveyed in modern rap and rock.

(Clip of Emily from our media video)

In addition, a very key convention of real media of which we challenged was the idea of black and white being a visual signifier for flashbacks. In our video, the black and white effect is used on the present day, the shots which depict Emily leaving, the visits to the graves, and her meeting with Anne. In this sense, the colours largely connote solitude, grief, loneliness, and sadness, and are more of a signifier of emotion than of time frame. The flashbacks are something we chose to keep in colour, as they are the vibrant, happy memories of which the couples shared together, and again, the colour provides a larger connotation of the emotion connected to the visual as opposed to the Hollywood style convention of a black and white flashback.

(Demonstration of a coloured flashback)

(Reality represented in our video in black and white)

On the other hand, we also sought to use and challenge conventions of real media in our print media work too. The poster was something we understood to require an image which would envelope the genre and present information to the audience about the artist which would then lead to connotations of the genre. We chose a shadowed, artistic image of our model (posing as Andrew Belle) which was similar to existing real media texts which give emphasis on the artist as an individual. We decided not to include any further piano pictures, as this was something we chose to focus on throughout the CD case. The red of the image was further used in the red of the text, highlighting important information to Belle's fans - where he would be playing.

(Our advertisement marketing Belle's tour)

('Maybe She Will' tour poster, one of our researched pieces)



In researching conventions of tour posters and advertisements, we looked at how 'Maybe She Will' had included links to lots of social media platforms for the artist, as well as a smaller thumbnail image of the album cover. This allows for the audience to instantly recognize the album and therefore become quickly aware of the genre and music in question if they don't necessarily recognize the artist's face. This may not be a problem for our given demographic, as we have used the same model for Andrew Belle both in the video and on the poster, creating a scene of fluidity and synergy. Additionally, we were happy to see that it was actually a current convention of real media texts for the location of the concert to be emboldened or in some way brought to the reader's attention more so than other text, as this was what we had already done with our hint of red in the colour scheme of the advertisement.

(The original image of our actor used for the advertisement) 

 (The same actor in the actual music video)

 (Demonstration of Belle's skill via use of close up piano shots)

When researching real media conventions in terms of CD covers and digipacks, as seen in our previous blog posts, we looked at artists of the same acoustic genre as Belle. It seemed evident that this existing idea of an abstract image representing equally abstract and unique music was key in the industry, and so we blurred an image of our actor playing the piano to mimic this. However, we conformed the convention of a straightforward title, choosing to lay the text out in a cubic/square structure, very similar to Belle's own album art already. This creates a link between all of his music productions, a rather signature feature which has become a trademark for his work, recognized by many of his fans. We positioned this text in the centre third of the CD cover (in terms of 'The Rule of Thirds') in order for it to be the main focal point for the audience, and for it to be easily identifiable on a shelving arrangement. We also used a similar piano image on the back cover, creating a solid background for the text arrangement, and also further connoting Belle's skill and main instrument used in his acoustic songs, indicative of the genre.

(An example of our textual analyses, more seen on the original blog post).

We subverted many conventions of existing media when creating our CD inserts. We chose to use a combination of images, a selection of stills from the music video and some other more symbolic pictures to provide surface for the lyrical inclusions. We decided that using still images from the music video would again create synergy between the print and video media, but also would symbolize a clear link between the video and the album as the album is named 'Make it Without You', meaning that the song is of great importance in terms of the album as a whole.

(The following are the images we used for our CD cover, back cover, and inserts)

The above two are the front and back cover of our CD case as part of the overall digipack. As previously mentioned in more depth, we chose to use these images of our actor (posing as Belle) playing the piano to demonstrate his skill, and to clearly indicate the genre of music which he conforms to. 

A range of stills from the original video create a synergy between the namesake of the album (the single 'Make it Without you'), our music video, and the ancillary texts as a whole. We used these images as a background for lyrics too, as this was a convention we had noticed during our research of media texts, such as Tom Odell's CD inserts. 

These symbolic images were also used (continuing the black and white theme throughout) to further connote solitude and sadness, key themes in all of Belle's lyrics. The black and white colour scheme is still very effective, creating a link to the music video, as well as providing a solid background for the lyrics to be easily read by the audience. 

Molly Masters