In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
First of all, we needed to find out what the forms and conventions of music videos were in order to use them in our video. This meant researching typical videos for certain genres and analysing a currently popular music video to see which shots and aspects of mise-en-scéne were used throughout. When researching the conventions of music videos, a theorist by the name of Andrew Goodwin came up repeatedly. He had a theory that music videos had to include:
As a group a decision needed to be made on how we would use Goodwin's theory to our advantage. First of all, we decided that we would not especially need intertextual references as these seemed to normally be reserved for videos with a comedic value - such as Geri Halliwell's 'It's Raining Men' and the references to the film Flashdance. Also, our interpretation of the song was that there was a depressing break up between two people, so we felt it unecessary to use voyeurism in our video as a needs of boosting attractiveness as the story was more about the lead artist's attempt at overcoming his split.
However, the rest of Goodwin's theory seemed to be useful in order for us to create a successful and professional video. Below I shall describe how we used each of the theories in our media product.
Relationship between the music, lyrics and visuals.
The narrative within our video paints a picture of a relationship turned sour to the point that the main artist (Drake) despises his lover, with this idea coming from the line 'I could tell this wasn't love, I just thought you'd fuck with me'. This also came from our idea that the 'Fireworks' in the title were perhaps a metaphor for their relationship. In order to create this effect, each of the verses include him either drowning his sorrows or destroying the photos of his lover.
In order to keep the audience's attention, we decided to use at least two locations for our video - especially for the performance part of the video during the verses. This is because it will reduce repetition and the audience would not get bored of the same location over and over again.
Genre-related style and iconography.
Our video needed to keep the conventions of a specific genre, the Rap genre (and arguably the R&B genre). This meant that our product needed to have the same variety of narratives, performances and camera shots found in videos in the same genre.
The most prominent feature of our video to show the genre is the artist's attire which had to give the artist an urban look.
Secondly, the video had to contain certain types of location in order to give the effect that the artist is in a rap environment e.g an alleyway or multi-storey car park. The deserted alleyway scenes definately complement the video's urban feel and more so the car park scenes.
Lighting was also extremely important because the lighter or darker a shot is influences the connotations of that shot. We used predominantly darkened shots to emphasise our artists anger and depression. Colour correction using Final Cut also allowed us to emphasise this light as mentioned in Evaluation: Question 4. Lighting effects were also advantageous for us as they allowed us to create an effect of fireworks as we were unable to create the effect we wanted with real fireworks. By using strobe lighting we could create the effect of fireworks flashing on our artist's face, which was an effect appreciated throughout our feedback.
Close-ups of the artist.
- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- Genre-related style and iconography present.
- Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.
- There is a big emphasis on the notion of voyeurism - especially in relation to females.
- Intertextual references may be present (references to other media texts).
As a group a decision needed to be made on how we would use Goodwin's theory to our advantage. First of all, we decided that we would not especially need intertextual references as these seemed to normally be reserved for videos with a comedic value - such as Geri Halliwell's 'It's Raining Men' and the references to the film Flashdance. Also, our interpretation of the song was that there was a depressing break up between two people, so we felt it unecessary to use voyeurism in our video as a needs of boosting attractiveness as the story was more about the lead artist's attempt at overcoming his split.
However, the rest of Goodwin's theory seemed to be useful in order for us to create a successful and professional video. Below I shall describe how we used each of the theories in our media product.
Relationship between the music, lyrics and visuals.
The narrative within our video paints a picture of a relationship turned sour to the point that the main artist (Drake) despises his lover, with this idea coming from the line 'I could tell this wasn't love, I just thought you'd fuck with me'. This also came from our idea that the 'Fireworks' in the title were perhaps a metaphor for their relationship. In order to create this effect, each of the verses include him either drowning his sorrows or destroying the photos of his lover.
In order to keep the audience's attention, we decided to use at least two locations for our video - especially for the performance part of the video during the verses. This is because it will reduce repetition and the audience would not get bored of the same location over and over again.
Genre-related style and iconography.
Our video needed to keep the conventions of a specific genre, the Rap genre (and arguably the R&B genre). This meant that our product needed to have the same variety of narratives, performances and camera shots found in videos in the same genre.
The most prominent feature of our video to show the genre is the artist's attire which had to give the artist an urban look.
Secondly, the video had to contain certain types of location in order to give the effect that the artist is in a rap environment e.g an alleyway or multi-storey car park. The deserted alleyway scenes definately complement the video's urban feel and more so the car park scenes.
Lighting was also extremely important because the lighter or darker a shot is influences the connotations of that shot. We used predominantly darkened shots to emphasise our artists anger and depression. Colour correction using Final Cut also allowed us to emphasise this light as mentioned in Evaluation: Question 4. Lighting effects were also advantageous for us as they allowed us to create an effect of fireworks as we were unable to create the effect we wanted with real fireworks. By using strobe lighting we could create the effect of fireworks flashing on our artist's face, which was an effect appreciated throughout our feedback.
Close-ups of the artist. 
Close-ups, as mentioned in Goodwin's theory, are incorporated in many music videos - especially in this genre. The use of the close-up has the purpose of allowing the audience to relate to the audience and to implant the artists image into their head, thus promoting them and making them recognisable. Also, through seeing the artist's facial expressions you can identify their emotions and this makes the narrative much stronger. An example of this can be found in 'Not Afraid' by Eminem.
Shots and Transitions
The transitions (movements between cuts) used throughout our video also conform to the conventions of a typical rap music video. We used two types of dissolves, cross dissolves and dip-to-colour dissolves. The cross dissolves were used for changes in location whereas the dip-to-colour dissolves were used for small movements in time.
Examples of this can be found in many music videos such as Dead and Gone by T.I
Shots and Transitions
The transitions (movements between cuts) used throughout our video also conform to the conventions of a typical rap music video. We used two types of dissolves, cross dissolves and dip-to-colour dissolves. The cross dissolves were used for changes in location whereas the dip-to-colour dissolves were used for small movements in time.
Examples of this can be found in many music videos such as Dead and Gone by T.I
Ancillary Tasks
Digipak
The conventions have been followed because there is a rating on the advert to influence possible customers to buy the CD and there are places that the customer can buy it on there too, such as iTunes, AmazonMP3 and HMV.
The digipak created by Tom and John follows the exact conventions of a rap genre, four-panel digipak. As found in our research there are two types of digipak - simple with bold text and abstract. As a group we decided it would be best for bold and simplistic by incorporating a firework design onto a dark background. This would make the digipak more recognisable in the shop. By adding the tracklist, barcode, parental advisory sticker and the required copyright information.
This digipak was influenced by the digipaks in our research, with large text displaying the name of the artist (or artists) and the name of the song.
Magazine Advertisement
Our advert is hard to compare to other magazine adverts as all are so different and it was hard to find any inspiration during our research. However, this allowed us to create a completely unique design. In order to keep our house style, we kept it simple and used the oranges from the digipak on the stripes on the advert.
Magazine Advertisement
Our advert is hard to compare to other magazine adverts as all are so different and it was hard to find any inspiration during our research. However, this allowed us to create a completely unique design. In order to keep our house style, we kept it simple and used the oranges from the digipak on the stripes on the advert.
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