Evaluation Task 1 MUSIC VIDEO

I am going to compare the conventions of our music video :

With Florence and the Machine’s music video for ‘Dog Days Are Over’ which falls into the same music genre as our artist :

1st Comparison

Camera Work

We used similar conventions to this music video as we decided for the camera work that we wanted a lot of close ups so the focus was mainly on the artist. This makes the audience have more of a connection to the artist as you can familiarise her face with the audience. A difference however is that in Florence and the Machines music video, they used a white background and focus solely on focused close-ups without distractions to her face, we decided against this convention as we wanted our artist to have more of a mysterious appeal so that her audience feels slightly disconnected. We had Dyer’s Star Theory in mind when making this decision as we want the audience to feel a close connection through the close ups but feel slightly that she is not the same, and more of a star that is not easy to be like, so more of an aspiration.

Costume

In Florence and the Machine’s music video, the costume of the main artist linked well with the set as it was similarly coloured and worked well with the aesthetic. This is what we were going for with our costume, that is fitted well with the background to create an interesting aesthetic. This fits in with the conventions of the alternative genre as it is focused more on style and artistic taste. We wanted the dress of our artist to be flowy, which is similar to the dress of the other music video as it adds again to the interesting visual aspect and to o with the sounds of the music.

Editing

In Florence and the Machine’s music video, they used special effects, this added an extra element to their music video as it fitted more with the specific sounds of their song, of an explosive feel. We decided not to use special effects as we wanted to keep it realistic like the artist so that it showed the more honest personality of the artist and her music. I feel that when adding special effects to a music video it makes the mood of the whole thing that it is synthetic music, but our music we wanted more of a pure image. We decided on using cross fading transitions towards the end of the video to fit with the slow dreamy sound of our track.

Makeup

Both our music video and the real product used interesting makeup ideas. This convention is used in alternative music videos to show again the artistic style for the music. Both our music video and the real product focused the interesting makeup around the eyes. This is a frequently used convention in this genre as it makes the artist connect with the audience by them focusing on the eyes which draws the attention in. By drawing attention to the eyes it enhances the effect of the direct address to the audience.

Performance

For the performance element, we decided to go with the conventions of the genre of direct camera address to give a closeness between the artist and her audience. It creates an intimacy by connecting her gaze towards the line of the audience. We decided to use this element from the conventions of the indie music genre. It goes with Dyers star theory as it is creating a synthetic artist that is connecting directly to the audience and is recognising that they are there.

Set Design

The set design for the real prodct was kept basic but used extra characters into the set which added a sort of set by the position of chracters. We decided against this convention as we wanted to focus on only the artist. We were originally going to have anothera ctor for the male back up singing but we decided against it as this was our artist first music video we thought it waas more fitting to only focus on her to famililarse the audience with her

2nd ComparisonI am also going to compare the conventions of our music video :

With Daughter’s song ‘Youth’, which falls into the same music genre as our artist :

Camera Work

For the camera work, we have worked with the conventions of this music video, as by using close-up of the face of the main artist, the audience can be familiar with the look of the artist, but also enable them to see her singing, therefore enforcing the organic image of the artist, in Negus’ Theory. In the music video of Youth, there also the use of panning shots to give the whole representation of the band, to show that they are not hiding anything and are entirely organic and it also gives the opportunity to show the relationship between the band members. However we used this convention for a different effect, we used it so that the audience were moving along with the sound of the music and it would set the tone of the mood. Our camera work also included in the first section of the music video some mystery as we only saw the artist through sheets or she was partially covered, this was to intrigue the audience. Youth also used this Indie genre convention as the had close up shots that were partially covered by her hair adding an element of mystery to the artist.

Costume

The convention that we used from this music video in our m usic video to do with costume, was that our whole set linked with the costume. The colours of our costume were white which then flowed into the set. Similarly in the Youth music video their costume is in the same colour scheme as the rest of their set. They have black and white costumes, to go with the genre conventions of the indie genre, which we have used in our album cover but gone against in our music video. By using black and white, it makes the audience focus solely on the music, but we decided to use this with a twist of the lighting to add the electronic element our track has.

Editing

In our music video we used the same editing convention as Youth as we used a cross fade in some areas to create a euphoric mood and theme to add to the whole sound of the music and emphasise the fading music quality. Daughter uses this convention of using cross fading, as they fade to black, leaving the audience with their last image, of the artists face so that it promotes her image and leaves a memory of her referring back to emphasising the look of the artist, so that she is memorable, which is what have also done in the last shots of our music video, to emphasis the promotion of our artist.

Makeup

IN the music video for Youth, the makeup is completely different to our as they have gone with the conventions of a indie music genre of promoting the artist as an organic artist, therefore not having artistic makeup to take away from the effects of the sound of the music, so the audience can completely focus on the talent without any distractions. We have decided to go against the convention they have used as we thought that by having bold makeup would draw the audience in and emphasise the direct address of her eyes as the makeup is focused around her eyes. We have also decided to go against the convention as this is our artists first music video so we want her to be memorable to her audience and stand out. The makeup is also a reflection on the twist of the approach to the indie genre that our artist has which differentiates her from other indie artists like Youth.

Performance

In the performance element of Youth, they used a similar convention to our artist of using shots highlighting the talent of the artist, and exaggerating the organic element to our artist. They used many hots of the band members playing their instruments to show their natural talent and the fact that their music is not fake in any way and that the band members are producing it. N ours we show lots of performance shots of the artist actually singing the lyrics to the song, to show that she is singing it herself, therefore going along with the ideas of Negus’ theory of an artist being organic.

Set Design

The set design convention that we have used similarly to Daughter’s mucis video, is the idea of blending the set with the costume. They have used the convention of having the whole set black, which then makes the artist stand out as they are the only part of the whole set that stands out. We have used this convention but having all the drapes and material link our artist into the white set, with no surrounding features, theroefore making her stand out and be the main focus of attention. This will draw the audience attention into her face and concentrate on her real talent and show that she s the artist and not let their eyes divert else where, therefore having them focus completely on the artist and their music.

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