Evaluation 1: In what ways does your media

product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media?

For my main media product, I created a music video for the song “Pieces” by a band called Stone Sour. I chose this song because it doesn’t have its own music video so I could start from scratch. I looked into the music genre for inspiration among different artists and the main artists that influenced my media product were Stone Sour and Parkway Drive, a band in the heavy metal sub-genre, metalcore.

As Stone Sour is the band that I am using for my media product, I thought it was a good idea to look at a few of their music videos so that I could use the conventions of the videos to make mine more realistic. I found one video that I really liked the look of and used it in my work.

“Hesitate” is the song that I have taken most of my inspiration from. I especially admired the computer generated images, unfortunately I do not have the knowledge or equipment to create something like they did with the fire, so I only took the composition of the frames. Here you can see that I have used the conventions of the song and woven them into my video. The first set of two frames, show the actors hitting a wall. Still one is from “Hesitate” and shows the actor punching a photo frame, I have interpreted that he is trying to shatter a memory. I have taken that and used it by having my actor punch the wall where him and his previous partner had written their initials. This shows that the situation was out of any control in both videos.

Stills 3&4 show us what the narrative of the music video is based around. The photo frame is spinning in air across the burning room, this brings emotion to the character and he just pushes it aside. I felt that this was a major turning point in the music video and had to use it in my own video as dismissing the woman gives the character power over what is to come. Frames 4&5 show the characters in an open position. Holding their arms wide open let the audience in, it keeps them interested because the characters are not in closed positions and are keeping a relationship with the audience. I really liked this shot from the music video because the flames in the background are giving a bit of flare on the camera, signifying the power in his position. I also used a flare effect on my own video. Frame 7 shows the character to be in a fairly natural position, the character seems to be comfortable in the situation by having his arms down by his side. I have used this position most of the time when the character is singing, like he is at his most comfortable when singing, this signifies the move from turning point to the better life.

I have used different conventions of a real media product in my own from a Stone Sour video to create the illusion that my

video has also come from Stone Sour. But when watching other music video’s, I felt I

needed to challenged the normal conventions of a music video. Parkway

Drive’s music video “Karma” inspired me to do so.

These stills are taken from an unconventional music video for a metal sub-genre song. The music is quite heavy and would expect a fairly dark and meaningful music video; instead we are given a video that is filmed on an Australian beach and the members of the band start surfboarding with their instruments. The video has a humorous element because it is very unexpected and doesn’t conform to the conventional expectations. In the first still, we see the band together on a beach performing. A performance clip is very often used for this genre because the performance itself is quite impressive. The rest of the stills are of the band surfing and messing around with their instruments in the sea, the singer is still singing whilst sitting on a surf board, but there is no way the rest of the band would be able to play in the sea. We see that by the last frame as the guitarist throws his guitar into the sea and plays air guitar, this shows the humorous element. I have interpreted this as the band taking a stand agains conformity of a serious/dark music video for the genre and have created a light feel. I really admired them for this video because it has told me that not all video’s have to be conventional.

“Karma” inspired me to do something different with my video as I was not able to get a band together to film. Heavy rock/metal videos are often filmed indoors and have a depressing tone. The tone of my video is quite uplifting, because the narrative isn’t a sad one but it may be interpreted that way. The character is looking forward to starting his new life. My media product does not conform to the conventions of my genre, as shown by each frame, my video is outside and the filter I have used gives a warm glow which gives a feeling of contentment. In frame 5, my character is at the beach. The beach is seen as a tranquil place, somewhere people go to relax, this does not match my genre but I feel it works quite well. Frame 6 shows my character lying down on the grass singing. The position with his arms behind his head show him in a relaxed position, once again, representing how comfortable he is when singing and enjoying the move into his new life. In frame 2, my character is running toward the beach(his new life). In heavy rock/metal music videos, the characters are often static with little movement during a narrative clip. By having my character constantly moving, this shows the significance of the narrative.

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There have been two main influences on my media product which help me to use and develop forms and conventions of real media but they also help

me to challenge it. I feel that the balance between conforming and challenging conventions helps my

product to mimic a real media product and also pushes it to be unique without being tacky. Having

a different narrative will keep an audience interested because they would not often see a

heavy rock music video without there being a lot of performance clips within the narrative.

Performance clips can be repetitive which is why I haven’t created a performance based music video. My music video is repetitive in some ways without being too noticeable and boring. The way I have

created my music video, by developing and challenging real media products, has helped mine

to appear as a real media product itself.