"A way in which something is usually done, esp. within a particular area or activity."For this evaluation question I will be looking at how we have used these typical conventions in our products, as well as how we have challenged and changed them for our particular products.
Within the music video industry there are a large number of genres and deriving from these, sub-genres. As part of the course we have had to consider both format conventions and genre specific conventions. Both of these will be looked at below.
General music video conventions.
One of the early tasks that we had to do in this project was to look at fifteen different music videos and deconstruct them. Having done this we could compare notes as a class and then as a group when we formed into our individual groups. This meant that we had quite a detailed list of general music video conventions and had a good idea of what we would expect to see in a music video. This was a very helpful thing to do as it meant we had a detailed list of conventions, but also gave us the chance to watch and focus on detail a minimum of fifteen videos each meaning we had a strong idea about what does and does not work for music videos. A full list of what we considered to be music video conventions can be found here.
I will now pick out some of these general music video conventions and give examples of videos where they can be seen.
|Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence|
Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence Another video by the same band is a good example of music videos making use of a variety of locations and using a number of different shot types. The reasons for doing this would mainly include the fact that it makes the video more interesting. Music videos are designed to be watched again and again and using a variety of locations makes the video more interesting and increases the chances that people will watch it more than once.
Oasis - Wonderwall This video is an example of a diegetic opening. This is a common idea in music videos and involves the video beginning before the song; the noise and footage is all from the on-screen world and isn't put in over the top by editing. There are a large number of videos that use this idea. It also isn't unusual to see a linear sequence at the beginning of a video that can last a lot longer than this particular example, for example the long version of 'Hello' by Martin Solveig
|Madonna - Hung Up|
More specific genre conventions.
As well as gaining an understanding of general music video conventions, we needed to look closely at and understand the genre specific conventions as these were the things we were most likely to look to challenge or use. To create a list of things we considered as genre conventions, we looked at videos we had already looked at in our genre and used the internet to research our genre. A full list of what we considered to be genre specific conventions for our video can be found here.
As I did with the format conventions I will now pick out some conventions and give example real world products to show how these conventions work.
|Jesus Of Suburbia|
Pearl Jam - Jeremy As with Jesus of Suburbia, this is another video that uses the theme of isolation and continuity editing. The video on You Tube alone has almost eight and a half million views showing that the video is quite popular and has been successful with these ideas included within it. This was also a good example video for us as it includes a suicide scene at the end and scenes shot at a school - two things we included in our own video. However for the purpose of looking at conventions it is a good example because of the style of editing and the themes included.
The Vaccines - If You Wanna This video is a good example of a video including performance footage, the band/singer as a focal point and a video using fast paced editing. These are all conventions within our genre and can all be seen within this video which is one of the reasons this is a particularly good example as it shows the combination of conventions being used at the same time.
|The Vaccines - If You Wanna|
Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly Another video by the Foo Fighters is an example of a video including a diegetic intro and outro. This genre specific example has over fifteen and a half million views on You Tube which again shows that the idea works within the genre and the particular target audience.
How did we use, develop and challenge conventions in our music video?
Throughout the project and the creation of each product we were constantly considering the conventions of each product and looked at real media products frequently to gain ideas and inspiration. I will now look at how we used, challenged or developed the conventions of music videos in general and the conventions of the alternative rock genre.
Music Video Conventions
- Wide range of camera shots and angles - This is definitely a convention that we tried to stick closely to as it is a key convention of music videos and is one of the simplest ways to try and make the video interesting and to make people want to watch the video more than once. We never really considered challenging this convention as it is a main convention of music videos and the alternative rock genre.
- Fast paced editing - This is another common convention of music videos, however we did challenge this in certain places of our music video. The reason for this was because of the nature of our video, a depressed, lonely and isolated protagonist, we felt that slower editing in places could emphasise the dullness of their world and to show how awful their life had become. However we did also try and include some faster paced editing as our song lends itself to this kind of editing, particularly in certain parts with the guitar instrumentals.
- Linear/Non Linear editing - Both of these kinds of editing could be considered conventions as many videos use each, different genres favouring different types. In our case we used a lot of linear editing and whilst this works in places, if we were to do the project again I think we could have included more non-linear editing to try and emphasise the confusion and problems in the protagonists world.
- Goodwin's Theory (Three aspects to music videos) - In our video we included performance footage and narrative footage, which sticks to the usual idea that a video will include two of the three aspects. There are examples of videos using just one aspect (If You Wanna - The Vaccines) but it is very much conventional to use two aspects and we never really considered not including two aspects.
- Diegetic Openings - We decided to stick to this convention and tried a number of different ideas of how to do this before settling on having the band plugging in their equipment. Famous examples of this convention include Depeche Mode's 'It's no Good' and an extremely famous example by Michael Jackson, 'Thriller'
- Male/Female Gaze - Depending on the target audience of the video, the male and female gaze theory is one that appears quite commonly throughout music videos,as do sexual themes. We didn't include anything of this sort in our video however as it doesn't really fit with our genre, band or idea for our video. It isn't something that we were ever likely to include.
- Framing - This is key to making an interesting video and is something we were constantly thinking about when filming. It is often spur of the moment ideas that look really good in music videos and as much of our video was filmed in outdoor settings we had the opportunity to find different ways of framing shots in our video, for example looking through the railings at the skate park.
|An example of layering from our video|
|Game footage - Sci-Fi Aspect|
- Combination of Performance and Narrative aspects - This is a convention which we carried on with through the whole project. Though it isn't seen in every sample footage (as we hadn't filmed performance footage when we filmed the earliest sample footage) it was always our intention to include both of these aspects and this remained the case in our final product.
- Focus on the front man in performance footage - Over the course of the project we filmed performance footage on two occasions. The first time we included very little focus on the front man of the band. When filming the second edition of sample footage, and the footage included in our final video we included more emphasis on the front man. We probably didn't focus on him as much however, as in many videos in our genre and have therefore challenged the convention to some extent as we also focus on the other members of the band a similar amount.
- Fast paced editing - This is very common in our genre, but isn't used very much throughout our video. We felt a slower pace of editing fit in with the mood of our video better and kept the editing pace relatively slow. An example in our video of some faster paced editing comes when the protagonist is by the river throwing stones in. This is arguably the convention that our video challenges the most.
- Editing to the beat - Once again this is another convention of our genre, though there aren't many examples of this in our video. We felt not cutting to the beat seems strange as it is challenging the convention and this reflects the 'messed up' state of mind of our protagonist. If we were to re-do the project then I would probably include cutting to the beat more in particular parts of the video, for example when he is playing the computer games as this is the part of the video where the protagonist has control and power in his life.
- Layering - This is a common convention in music videos in a number of different genres including the Alternative Rock genre. We tried to include this convention whenever we thought it was appropriate as it is also very fitting with the other conventions that suit our music video. Not only is it a convention of alternative rock, but it also fits in extremely well with the sci-fi and futuristic themes of our band, as well as signifying the state of the protagonists mind with problems building up inside their head and showing the distortion throughout the video.
- Specific to Muse - Sci-Fi aspects - Muse commonly use Sci-Fi aspects in their videos and this is something that we have tried to reflect in certain parts of our video, for example with the gaming footage when the protagonist is playing on 'Mass Effect', the only time he is ever really happy and settled in the video. Examples of videos by Muse featuring this kind of theme include 'Sing For Absolution' and the original video for 'Bliss'
- Specific to Muse - Special FX - This is quite a common convention of music videos anyway, but in particular is used by Muse to try and show the Sci-Fi and futuristic theme. We tried to use this convention as it is clearly something that appeals to fans of the band and therefore our target audience.
General Magazine Advert Conventions
Like we had to look at and deconstruct music videos to get a detailed list of conventions, we had to do the same for both of our ancillary texts. We carried out the process in a similar way to when we did it for the videos. We each looked at examples and put together what we considered a comprehensive list of conventions, firstly for general music magazine adverts and then for genre specific magazine adverts. A full list of conventions can be found in our blog post here. The list on the link is of general magazine advert conventions. As you would expect, many of the conventions of general magazine adverts overlap with typical genre conventions. For this reason I will move onto discuss genre conventions, before an overview of all the conventions that we used or challenged.
Genre Specific Magazine Advert Conventions
|Example Magazine Ad from Muse|
I will now go on to discuss the conventions that we used and any that we challenged or excluded from our idea.
Conventions we have used.
|Digipak Example - Oasis|
|Digipak Example - Muse|
As with our video and magazine advert we needed to establish the common conventions specific to the genre we were working in. The conventions that we found for our particular genre included:
|Depeche Mode - It's No Good|
Throughout the project we have generally tried to stick quite close to typical conventions because, as stated in the previous paragraph, they are by definition what the audience expects. As there is a huge number of people who are fans of the alternative rock genre, these conventions are proven to work in the media industry. We have when we have felt it appropriate challenged these conventions, such as the slower paced editing in our video at times, to make our video stand apart from the rest. In general though we have used conventions to really target our audience whilst also using our own ideas to try and make the video interesting and appealing to our target audience.
Our use of conventions has increased through audience feedback where we have received suggestions (for example to watch the "Jesus Of Suburbia" video) that have then influenced our idea to take on board the ideas of particular conventions. The feedback that we have received also supports the areas where we were already using conventions and this generally received very good feedback.
Overall I think it is clear that we have generally made use of conventions by using and developing them in our own way on each of our three products. Whilst the reasons for sticking with each convention that we have has it's own reasons, the ultimate reasons for why we generally stay with convention is to do with audience and our target audiences. This therefore links directly in with Evaluation Question 3 and shows how different areas of creating such products combine and cross over ultimately linking each product, and the whole package, together.