Evaluation Question 1

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

Using varieties of genre conventions in music videos presents an image for both the artist and its genre, from earlier research it was clear that there were specific genre conventions within the Pop genre that we can expect. After looking at other music videos, we have been using, developing, and challenging conventions of pop and have exploited these within our final music video.  

Conventions Used

Performance - Lip Sync 

Lip syncing is obviously very common across music videos and can be used in all genres. However, this performance side to our music video and other pop music videos can actually be used to create an emphasis on certain lyrics, or portray deeper emotion or messages to what the artist is trying to say, and who they are saying it to. In addition to this, lip syncing can be used to interact with the artist's audience, especially if they are singing directly to the camera. 

An example of this genre convention we used within our music video can be taken from Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus where she is singing directly to the camera. She expresses her emotion through crying however our artist isn’t really trying to portray an emotion or feeling, as we know that her character is a very secretive person leading two lives, and the things she does during her night-life is purely for hedonistic purposes.

  

Lip syncing can engage the audience which is what we have aimed for here to what would be our generally young target audience. It not only portrays different meanings by singing lyrics we chose to emphasise, but it generally makes the music video more entertaining to watch which is exactly what the genre of pop wants to aim for.

Voyeurism

When researching solo female artists within pop, it became clear that the theme of voyeurism plays a huge part in creating and presenting an artist’s image and attitude. It certainly engages an audience of generally men. Voyeurism also links in to the idea of the male gaze because of its sexual connotations as it focuses on the female and intimate moments.

This genre convention is used in many pop videos because this is how female pop artists want to be presented, when researching other videos we noticed that voyeurism is a big theme within Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance. There is a scene in which she is leading a dance in front of a group of men who watch her. This here is a clear example of voyeurism as there is a strong reference to sexual connotations. Andrew Goodwin suggests that women objectify themselves in music videos for sexual appeal. This is present throughout Bad Romance especially through the use of costume and close ups of Lady Gaga.

In our music video we used this convention to create the same sort of appeal. We have used the convention of voyeurism to keep this image of a female pop artist by using various close ups to show the artist changing clothes and undressing etc. This is an important aspect when it comes to how we want our artist to be presented to her audience.

Conventions Developed

Mirror Shots

A convention that we developed and have taken further is the use of the mirror shot. A variety of mirror shots are used throughout all of the performance area of the video, and we do this to present the different side there is to our artist; the side that is seen as an ordinary woman leading an ordinary life, by doing this we were able to show her ‘con-artist’ lifestyle through the narrative.

Our mirror shots were inspired, again, by Bad Romance. In this video they use a mirror shot to show Gaga singing in the mirror. She is striking a very dominant pose which suggests that she is completely in control and that she is powerful and this is the exact character we portray Mayla Lee to be. Furthermore, the use of the all-black costume (including the black crown which again highlights a sense of control and dominance) suggests that she quite literally has a darker side to her and we are given the impression that no one has authority over her.

As stated, the only shots used in the performance section of the music video are the mirror shots. This is done to portray, or to reflect her other side of life. Cleverly, the whole story is actually mirrored between two different lifestyles and we are shown this through performance and narrative, and the use of the mirror shots is a way of reflecting who Mayla Lee’s character really is.

Fast Cutting Rates

Most pop music is relatively quick, with fast beats and therefore cutting rates are much quicker to fit the song. This feature of music videos is fairly common as the quick cutting rates usually emphasise or exaggerate the effect of the performance and/or narrative.

We looked at Katy Perry’s music video for Hot N Cold where there is a fast cutting rate when two characters are running in the narrative. The cutting rate seems to increase as the events grow tense and more things begin to happen, however as well as the cutting rate needing to fit well with the narrative, cuts obviously have to also flow and move with the beat of the song.

When creating our music video we have tried to use this fast cutting rate, especially in our poker scene and we did this for previously mentioned reasons as to why songs such as Hot N Cold use this editing technique. The beat of our song gradually becomes quicker which is why cutting rates have to also quicken to keep in time with the music. Furthermore, the cutting rate had to speed up because of what was actually going on within our narrative. It was a generally tense atmosphere. As well as this, it also provides a better viewing experience for our audience, the fast cutting rates and close ups of what was going on in our poker scene provides more entertainment to the viewer.

Conventions Challenged

Narrative

In our music video, narrative was a very important part when presenting our artist and her story. This challenges the typical conventions of pop because most pop music videos usually focus on the artist's performance and lip sync. This is because they want to show off the artist, females in particular, normally to create a sexual appeal. However, we wanted to show off our artist's lifestyle and attitude rather than the artist herself.

We mainly focused on narrative because we wanted to make sure we clearly portrayed Mayla Lee's lifestyle in this video. By doing this we have made it clear that the artist leads a double life, being an ordinary working woman by day, and a con-artist by night. By doing this, we have shown how dominant Lee becomes as a female character. This challenges the idea that males are more dominant, which is also shown quite clearly in Bad Romance, in which Gaga is seen as an item, she is literally being auctioned off by the men.