Media Evaluation

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

My media product was a music video based of the artist Avenged Sevenfold and the song Nightmare. We also included a digi-pack design and a magazine advert/poster for the album. Our media product follows many conventions of already existing in media products today and therefore is a good example of using the theory of “The boundaries between genres are shifting and becoming more permeable” this was stated by Nicholas Abercrombie. Good examples of where we have followed this idea of genres being influenced by other forms of media and that following typical conventions that people already know and understand will make it easier for the audience to distinguish what genre the music video is. We thought it was a good idea to put this theory into practice in the hope that people would see that our music video was of the metal/rock genre and could be considered having influences from sub genres such as “heavy rock” the line between metal and rock.

Like many other products our media product uses conventions taken from other real media products. For example the camera work used throughout the video is mostly inspired from the analysis of my Avenged Sevenfold videos earlier on in my coursework assignments. A good example of this is taking the wide shot of the entire band playing when the band starts playing in the song. This is also edited so that the band is synced up with the playing of the song which is used in many rock/metal music videos to give the viewer that feeling of the live performance as if they were there. This is also supported by Andrew Goodwin’s theory of demonstrating the genre via characteristics such as the stage presence of the band in the music video. A very aggressive start is used with everybody strumming/swinging in a downward motion in time with the beat.

A perfect example of this technique also being used is in Avenged Sevenfold’s official music video for Shepherd Of Fire. We did this in the hope that people who are fans of the genre would recognize the stereotypical introduction to a metal/rock song and easily distinguish the genre of the product by these conventions.

The use of the camera shot containing all the band members is also widely used throughout real media products and reflects in our audience research that people wanted to see this.

Another good example of following these kinds of conventions associated with the metal/rock genre is the guitarist standing back to back playing at the same time which is commonly associated with live performance of the band and also again reinforcing Andrew Goodwin’s theory that the demands of the record label will want close ups of the artists creating a visual style that people will recognize. We wanted our media product to be just as professional so included little details such as these shots:

This also includes the use of props (showing the instruments) and making the artists look like idols, so that people want to be able to play to that standard. Therefore we also included instrument flares such as drum stick twirls and tricks etc.

In terms of the other half of the video, or the narrative we have also used camera work here to further show the use of typical conventions to display a message or emotion. A good example of this is the low angle shot used on the “Nightmares” or the “Chasers” as people would refer them too.

This low angled stared down directly into the camera gives a sense of fear, in combination with the camera work we also used editing such as fading to black in time with the music’s “Chimes or bells” to create suspense and curiosity. This is used in things such as horror films to create a sense of fear of the “Chaser or bad guy” In combination to the editing and camera work we also took into account what the character would look like (Mise en scene) Giving the actor makeup very much related to the joker which again following Andrew Goodwin’s theory of the use of intertextual reference to things such as films, in this case the Joker from the Batman films. Also the Joker as a character is feared for being devious and scary throughout the films and we think we reflected this through our narrative. We also took into consideration the use of costume by giving the actor a leather jacket and hoodie, mostly black clothing and ironically but creepy smiley faces on the actors shirt. This all adds to hiding who is behind this makeup and what they intended on doing, again creating the effect of fear and suspense which is what we wanted in our narrative as many other media products out there also use this. This shot is repeated via use of fast cutting in the music video to remind the audience that he is a threat, to be feared and also the use of reputation in a music video is a typical convention which is followed by real media products and we wanted to replicate this and it is reflected in our music video.

Another example of using camerawork to express conventions of typical real media products is the use of this over the shoulder shot showing the “Nightmares” behind the protagonist. This shows that she is being followed and they are also both staring into the camera again giving the sense of fear.

The next sequence of shots shows how we have used editing to create suspense and fear whilst following conventions of horror films/games (Slender man). This further uses conventions of real media products. (Between all of these shots there are fades to black in time with the music)

This series of shots shows how the nightmare is following the protagnist and this editing technique is used to further reinforce this idea of stalking and fear. This is used in horror films and we belived would intrest the audience to find out what happens next. We also used fast cutting in areas of the music video where there is either a drum fill or the song speeds up creating further suspense and this also seems to be used in typical rock music videos. We used tracking to show the entire band playing as one and also to make the audience feel more like they were there in the woods or to even give the perspective of the nightmare.

During this clip the lyrics state “As your nightmate comes to life” this is the first time that the nightmares then start chasing the protaganist, this follows Andrew Goodwin’s theory of a realtionship between lyrics and visuals in the music video. This is also a use of camera work on a higher angler over the shoulder shot used to make the protagnist look vunrable and scared.

We also have additonal intertxtual refrence to games in our product which bands such as Emmure have also used within real media product and we thought we would replicate this by taking inspiration from the game Slender. Below shows the notes from the Slender game which give a mysterious and creepy feel to the video and also shows Emmure relating to games in their media products:

Additionally as you can see from the font use it looks like very rushed scrawled writing and draws pictures of trees to say that someone has possibly been in the position before and that there is no escape from this “nightmare” again relating visuals with lyrics and rough and scrawled writing is used a lot in creating fear, suspense and in horror films/metal/rock music videos.

I thought this short film created by Jamie Dixon is a good example of summing up Slender in a short amount of time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHZm_mUFqlQ (Jump scare at 1:57/1:58)

Our media product also attempts to create a narrative driven from a combination of previously used conventions, theorists and already existing narratives such as the “Slender Story” the idea of being chased by someone or something has always been a fear at some point in somebody’s life and therefore people can relate to it in the video. The feeling of fear makes the audience feel sympathy for the protagonist and many existing media products use this or similar narratives to engage with the audience. Tzvetan Todorov suggests that most narrative start with a state of equilibrium which is then disrupted and then a new equilibrium is created. Most films/narratives end with a happy new equilibrium but our music video challenges this by going about it a different way but by still following the theory. For example the state of equilibrium in our music video is the protagonist walking through the woods as any person would, the disequilibrium is the addition of the “Nightmares” who begin stalking and chasing the protagonist. A new equilibrium is reached when the protagonist becomes one of the “Nightmares” and is caught to only run away into darkness. We did this because it is different from many narratives out there; most would have her escape or reach a point of safety, but our music video challenges this in the hope to make the music video more unique and appealing to our target audience. The use of the protagonist as a female is also reflected in our research analysis whereby people wanted both a male and female actors/actress’s. Therefore we combined the protagonist to be female to satisfy the audience who wanted this and also to implement the male gaze, whilst on the other hand keeping the band very masculine and aggressive to fit conventions of real media products which already exist. Another theorist who we followed quite strongly was Claude Levi- Strauss who believes that narrative is expressed in the form of binary oppositions. This could also be considered some kind of conflict, this is easy to see throughout our music video as the protagonist is trying to run away from evil (Good vs Evil). Narrative in our video is also told through the use of lighting, throughout the video the narrative half to the video gets progressively darker and darker showing that time has moved later in to the night and also adds to the feeling of fear as darkness is considered a fear for some people.

We also took inspiration from various bands in the costume that they were wearing when doing live performances when in a music video, this is reflected in my previous music video analysis on Avenged Seven fold’s music videos and example of taking ideas from them can be seen below.

As we can see from the colour of the clothing of most metal/heavy rock bands we stuck to the sterotypical heavy use of black, hoodies and black skinny jeans. We did this in the hope that the aduience would recoginse these conventions, be able to realte to the clothing worn and also to make our live performance seem more realsitic. In combination with clothing we also took into consideration location, the location of the woods can be a scary place and it can be easily to get lost in the darkness and tress and therefore we thought it was a good idea to use this location. We have

also seen it be used in real media products already existing and this is refelcted in our research. We also chose the woods so we could use the nature element/earth element in our music video which is also reflecteed in our reasearch that music of this genre use elements such as water, fire and earth to represent different things. This is also reflected in using intertextual refrence to horror films whereby many murderers chase people through woods, for example the film Shrooms does this frequently(Obviously this applies to Slender which has been previously discussed):

Our digi-pack also follows most of the conventions already discussed and of existing media products as we wanted it to appear as realistic as possible:

First we have the CD’s which have been designed so that the “Nightmares” are on them hiding between the trees to create a constant theme throughout. We also included the woods to again keep a constant theme throughout the package.

Next we have what would be the inside of the digi-pack and also the placement for the CD’s to sit on so that when the CD is picked up the “Nightmare” is no longer appearing the image which is a little additional detail we think would look good for the design. We then included a picture of the band playing in the woods for both consistency and to relate to real media products as many other bands use this. E.g.

Finally we have the front, back and middle to the digi-pack which includes taking previously used ideas and putting our own spin on them. For example the front cover is the Deathbat logo previously discussed in past research/coursework is taken from Avenged Sevenfold themselves, we did this because the song is done by the well-known artist and also we thought that using this logo would give the product recognition and people would straight away know what the band was if they were a fan or had seen the logo before.

We also included the parental advisory due to the swearing in the song that we used. We also used a very similar font to Avenged Sevenfold with some effects added to make it stand out more. We used dark colours such as black and white to keep consistent with the theme of darkness and fear. We also included the Warner Brothers logo as Avenged Sevenfold are under their media label. We included different coloured Deathbats on the back and again used the colour red due to its aggressive and violent orgin. We set out the track list in a stereotypical way in which most bands display on their albums.

The middle contains the different band members from the band but portrayed as different styles of Deathbats, most fans of the band would recognize this and this could be considered fan service which is what a lot of bands do with real media products. We also included lyrics from the song to keep the relation between various products strong.

We also have our advertisement for the digi-pack which includes the front cover of the album, a date of release which is included in most real media products and the use of the individual Deathbats again to reinforce the idea of recognition and “band” awareness. We also included the Warner Brothers logo again and this time we included social networking integration so that next to the advertisement in the magazine would probably have the link/url to these sites. We included this due to rise in technology in media and also the use of social networking to advertise, portray and spread round various bands. This is becoming a more common sight in things like advertisement so that fans or people who like the genre can follow the band.