Question 1:In what way does your

media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

IntroductionFor my advanced Media Portfolio project this year we decided to do the music video task. We had to create a music video to any song of our choice. Alongside this we had to complete two ancillary tasks to accompany the main project. For this we decided to complete a CD insert, including the front and back cover of the album and a band website.

When deciding on a song, we as a group wanted to go for a very up beat, fast paced song but at the same time wanted to follow on from our preliminary task song choice which was from the 1970’s era. After many suggestions and much deliberation we decided on ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’ by Stealers Wheels. We felt this up beat folk, pop song was an image we could capture and hopefully recreate well. We also felt we had a wide spectrum of ideas that we could pick and choose from such as performance based ideas, a narrative and even some intertextual references. Therefore this was the obvious choice for our group.

Music Video: IntertextualityWhen it came to the narrative of our music video we decided we wanted to do something which we thought was quite clever and challenged the typical conventions associated with a music video. We looked into our song choice and we recognised that it featured on the 1992 hit film Reservoir Dogs. So as a group we came up with the idea to essentially parody a parody, in a sense we would include our own version of the Reservoir Dogs scene where one of the characters is tortured to the song and actually has his ear cut off with a cutthroat razor. Instead we decided we would give off the initial impression to the audience that we are going to cut someone's ear off but instead we would simply shave him. By doing this we believe it is very unique and challenges typical conventions associated with music videos as we are incorporating several forms of intertextual references in our film. This is because our narrative is referring to the movie Reservoir Dogs, but our performance based scenes are recreating a version of Stealers Wheels original video.

To make sure that people who hadn’t necessarily seen the film Reservoir Dogs, for example some of our younger audiences, we decided to actually feature one of our characters watching the iconic scene in the music video. We believed this would draw the audiences attention to the intertextual references we were making in our music video.

When it comes to actually watching our music video some of the audience will simply be passive and watch it for the entertainment purpose. However some will be active and even research around it, watch the Reservoir Dogs scene and the Stealers Wheels music video and look at how well we captured our intertextual references.

We thought it was essential as soon as we realised that Reservoir Dogs used this song in the film, that we had to make some sort of intertextual reference to it. However we didn’t initially plan on basing the whole video around that whole concept. But I believe when looking back the intertextuality between the Reservoir Dogs narrative scenes and Stealers Wheels performance style scenes, it was very effective and successful.

Music Video: Editing/EffectsThe general concept and purpose of a music video is to essentially entertain and keep the attention of the viewing audience. Therefore when it came to the editing and effects in our music video we decided to go for a fast paced, quick cuts and sharp transitions concept, to keep our audience hooked on what they were watching throughout.

When it came to the cuts from one scene to another, such as band shots to narrative, we kept them very fast and swift as we felt it packed more into the experience. This however challenges the original video created by Stealers Wheels. In their original video they kept to quite a slow paced video, with various shots of the band and the odd lyric to video match, such as when they say: “clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right”. This didn’t exactly match up to their upbeat song and we decided we wanted to do the song justice and match the video with the songs tempo. Therefore we challenged the conventions of the original videos pace and tempo involved when it came to cuts In the video.

As there are both band performances and a narrative featured in our music video, we had to get the correct balance of this and not feature one more frequently than the other. So to prevent this we decided to go from one band shot to one narrative and so on. We believe by doing this it allowed us to stretch the two parts of the music video out and keep the audience hooked. This is a common editing technique used in existing media products, as getting the correct balance is essential In keeping the audience’s attention. Showing in some cases we followed typical conventions of existing media products.

Music video: Editing/EffectsOne piece of editing we used to make a scene in the music video stand out, was in the shaving scene. For this we used a lot of fast paced cuts to show different angles of the shave and make it look like a long period of time happened in a couple of seconds (effectively a time lapse). We felt like this was an effective editing technique that is used in a lot of music videos, films etc. to show a long period of time passing in a short period of time and because our song only lasts a couple of minutes, we needed to capture this scene in the shortest possible time.

One effect that took a large proportion of time to perfect was the motion tracking at the very start of our music video. To do this particular effect/ piece of editing we had to zoom in on the radio and actually freeze frame it and this is when we motion tracked. The radio was actually turned off when we filmed, however we later edited it and found a font for the radio so it looked it like it was turned on. The writing went from right to left across the screen, as if it would on any normal radio. We thought to give ourselves that extra bit of mise-en-scene and link better with our ancillary tasks, we had the writing say ‘Stuck in the Middle With You – The Bike Locks’. We thought by having our band name on the radio, instead of Stealers Wheels, it was more effective and actually drew the audiences attention the editing we had done there.

Another key effect that we used was to put different filters on top of the different clips. For the Reservoir Dogs clips we decided to drop a filter on that made it darker and stand out from the other clips. We felt by doing this it drew the audiences attention to the narrative we were trying to display. We also thought that it made the camera quality slightly grainy and added to the era we were trying to capture and develop on the original scene from Reservoir Dogs. We also decided to put a filter on our performance element of the music video. We did this because in these parts we had a lot of lights that changed colour to sound, we felt by adding this filter it drew attention to the work that had gone into the mise-en-scene of our performance section and got the most out of the lighting we used. We thought this idea of filters for different sections of our music video, challenged what existing media products do, this is because they tend to use one filter throughout the whole video, however by us using two different filters for the different sections, it makes each individual section stand out.

Music Video: Roles and Characters

When considering different roles and characters in our music video we almost had to divide it into two sections: the performance roles and the characters in our intertextual reference to Reservoir Dogs.We decided in the Reservoir Dogs section that we would have the two key characters that can be found in the original clip from the film. The antagonist which is Michael Madsen, who cutting the ear off and the protagonist who is the cop, which is the character getting his ear cut off. So we decided to keep this as close to the original as we could, we would dress our two characters in as similar clothing. So the protagonist was dressed in a white shirt with a bowtie, as seen in the original clip, however we switched out the tie for a bowtie. Our antagonist was dressed in all black, which is the colour of the cop uniform in the original scene, this was as close as we could come, as we did not have access to an American cop uniform. We wanted to have a joke with these two characters as it was obviously a parody of Reservoir Dogs, however we also wanted to recreate it to the point the audience could understand our intertextual reference to the original media product. So therefore we incorporated similar dancing to the original scene, props such as the cut throat razor and the protagonist is seen to be struggling, as seen in the original product. By incorporating these characters we feel like we have developed on the original characters but also challenged the original characters, this is because we have had a joke with them, as well as telling the narrative of the scene.When it came to the performance element of our music video we wanted to represent a real band and incorporate all the instruments that we could identify, being used in the song: acoustic guitar, base, drums and electric guitar. So therefore we decided we would have four characters, all playing one instrument each. We decided to comply to conventions of real media products by having the narrative scenes played by band members, however we put what we though was a unique twist, that challenges conventions of other music videos by making the two band members who were in the narrative stay in the same clothes. We thought this was a funny twist and played on the parody element that little bit more, as they stayed in the Reservoir Dogs clothes throughout, playing on the intertextual references that little bit more.

Music Video: LocationWhen it came to the location of our music video we had to think about how we could capture all aspect, such as narrative and performance. We decided that we mainly wanted to focus on our narrative side a find/ use a similar location as seen in the Reservoir Dogs scene, therefore adding to our intertextual reference.

We managed to narrow it down to two choices, a barn setting at Stubbing Court Wingerworth or an abandoned warehouse in Sheffield city centre. Obviously we went for the abandoned warehouse setting and this came through out of complete chance as one of our group knows someone that had a gig there, who gave us contact information of the person who owned it and thankfully they agree to let us shoot there. The warehouse was a perfect location to capture the Reservoir Dogs scenes as it completely played on the parody we were attempting to create and looked very similar to the setting in the original scene, therefore adding to our mise-en-scene.

We also decided to film a large proportion of the performance based aspect in the warehouse, we did this because we felt it helped the audience make more of link between the two aspects of our video: narrative and performance. The warehouse is also used regularly for gigs and therefore already had a stage/ space cleared, ready for us to use, along with a lot of equipment we were allowed to use, which we would not have access to if we chose to film somewhere else. We noticed that in a lot of existing music videos it is not common to film a large proportion in one location and therefore we felt we challenged the usual conventions of media products.

In some parts of our performance side we decided to get some shots outside of the warehouse and get some more natural shots. For this we used a classic mini cooper and got some shots inside and outside of the car. This was used because we felt the car fit In with our genre and era and also it combined well with our ancillary tasks. We also used the Stubbing Court area in Wingerworth to get some more scenic shots and also on of our group members house. We felt by incorporating these more natural shots it bought into the theory of the active audience, who want to see more of the band in everyday life and what goes on. This is a common feature in many existing products so we decided to follow this convention.

Music Video: Location

Music Video: Camera AnglesIn our music video we used a variety of different camera shots and angles. One particular shot we used was a wide angled shot, this was used to capture the entire of the band, whilst performing with all the instruments. We did this because this is a shot that is used frequently in music videos to show that the band is actually playing the instruments and allows the audience to establish who is in the band and who does what in the band.

Another key shot used was the extreme close ups of the guitar. This was used because we wanted to show one of us playing the lead guitar solo in the middle of the song. We also wanted to create that match on action feel, where what the audience was hearing, is what they were seeing. We also thought it wouldn’t be a very convincing music video unless the audience actually thought we were playing the instruments, luckily with in the group there was two of us who could play guitar so we learnt the different riffs and chords to make it convincing to the audience. We believe this adhered to the usual conventions of similar music videos because the bands are actually performing in their music videos and playing the instruments correctly.

Also in our music video we used various panning/ tracking shots, we did this in the Reservoir Dogs/ narrative scenes. In particular, we did this in the scenes where one of our characters was dancing and moving. We did this because this similar technique was actually used in the original Reservoir Dogs scene and we thought if we captured a similar shot and similar dancing, it would help our audience follow the intertextual references that little bit easier. Obviously this is developing on top of an already existing piece of media, in particular a film, which is where this particular technique is generally used. But it can also be noticeable in existing music videos, who also go for the narrative concept like us.