Evaluation - Question 1

Q1 – In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

Throughout the year I have been working on a music video to fit with a piece of music. I decided to choose Hall and Oates- “Out of Touch” as my preferred song. Through the research and planning stage, I looked at different pop videos and covers to inspire my creation of the video itself and also help with my ancillary projects. Music Videos are important to many people as it allows us to actually see the song envisioned to us by the artist through performance, which have worked for the last 40 years.

My A2 coursework does use, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of real media products. The genre of my music video is pop which is developed from the original songs genre. The use of the genre of pop is mainly used for entertainment purposes as the Users and gratification theory by Bloomer and Katz’s states. The genre allows people to enjoy the piece of music and the video but also keeps in the seriousness of the intended story and message either through the performance or the narrative which I feel my music video does. The music that I created my video around also has a sub –genre other than Pop. This other genre is electronic as the song uses different vocal dilations and also voice displacement. This I have tried to incorporate with the overall music video when it came to editing. This was done by using a dissolve effect on some shots. Also I used split screen to place another shot to for the two way chorus and change in sound. This could be interpreted in different ways through Stuart Halls Reception theory where my audience could either agree with my representation of this effect, negotiate this or disagree with this all together. This clip shows this:

Within my video, there is the constant presence of the male artist who is performing and singing parts of the song. This show how I used Laura Mulvey’s Male gaze theory as she argues that females get small recognition in media. This relates to my video as I am the only one present throughout with no gender mix. This can be seen as a disadvantage for my audience as I try to target young teens, male and female so I would feel that this would discourage many female fans to buy this. This could also discourage male fans from watching the video because of the lack of female figures which are described as “eye candy” by Mulvey. However I can also interpreter this as my video challenges the expectations of many people who would expect this feature. Many pop music videos with male artist do feature either female actors or performers as a device to attract a diversity of fans.

As i mentioned, i was inspired by already existing media products. One of which was the actual song which i have loved and find very catchy. Although the original music video is different to my video, i have re imagined and reinterpreted the lyrics of the song to show the feeling to escape from everything. Other music videos inspired me to create that atmosphere, such as a song by Michael Jackson called Earth Song which uses fast pace shots to create an atmosphere for the audience so that their attention is gained. I wanted to create that atmosphere as many viewers now prefer much action and a fast pace story within a video. This is another way I use real media products to create the video.

Overall I feel that I have developed my on conventions with help from real media products to create my video and ancillary tasks, but to show their differences from real media products.