Evaluation 1

In what ways does my music video use, develop or challenge conventions?

For my coursework in A2 media I was asked to create my music video and ancillary texts. The class was put into a group where we planned, researched, constructed and evaluated our work. Overall we made a music video together and an individual digipak and magazine advert.

The purpose of a music video to make a song or artost appeal more to the target audience. the audience can see the artists representation and how they portray their music. An artist is able to express there emotions about the song and show their audience how it's effective. Therefore the audience can relate to how the artist feels and the song, the purpose is to intrigue the audience, making more views. It also gives them something to remember it by, they can relate to the song and therefore mention mentiuons it to friends and family, making them g on to listen and watch. For my music video the group and I decided on Amy Winehouse as our chosen artist and we chose her song In My Bed. 

My music video is of the soul genre. Like most genres whether it is in music films etc the soul catergories has many of its own conventions. A convention is an element which is commonly seen or related to the genre. An example of a soul conventions is specific locations, this is seen in my music video when the aritst and her boyfriend are sitting at the pond and also the stage performance scene. A lot of soul music videos use some kind dark, low key light setting for example, a dark bar or club. This is often used because it shows the sadder, depressive side to the artist. The dark colours connote dull emotions. This is conventional because these emotions are often used in soul music videos, the stereotypical soul song, it is either hopeful or about bad love stories. Therefore the location demonstrating these emotions making a video conventional. 

Another convention of a soul music video is costume, specifically women in sophisticated dresses. I most soul videos including an adult woman consists of them wearing different outfits one of which normally has a classy look. This is because the sophisticated dress makes the artist look smart and professional. Soul artists are known for being serious about their work and it meaning alot to them. This is because they use their own emotions to create their music, therefore meaning they are very serious about their work. The sophisticated look relates to the genre because it shows the audience how the music is produced through the true emotions of the artist, a common thing seen in soul. 

One last convention of soul is mise en scene, specifically facial expressions. A lot of the time if the artist is in the music video they use many different faicial expressions to appeal to their audience and build a relationship with them. It is conventional to soul because soul artists are known for expressing the emotions a lot. Unlike other genre artist who are more focused of impressing their audience not relating to them. 

Overall my ideas were create a conventional soul music video with some modern improvements. The idea was to make the video appealing to the target audience and make it creative. I got my inspirations from other music videos. The inspiration I am following the most is Amy Winehouse's video for back to black, I like it because it has performance and narrative styles which I think are very effective. I wanted to use these styles in my own music vodeo because i think the allow the audience to connect the most.
In my music video my group and I followed many soul conventions to make the product more effective and appeal to the target audience of 25-40. One of the conventions used is the narrative style. In the music video there are lot of connections with a love story. One specific scene is a date between the artist and her boyfriend, they sit at a table and have dinner, hold hands, cuddle and then they have an arguement. This is shown as a flashback, informing the audience of the break up and defineing the past to the present. This love story is often used with soul music because the songs are commonly about a break up or relationship issues. It is convnetional to see a love/heart break narrative as it shows the audience what the song is about and what the artist has or is going through. They expect to see some kind of relationship story and therefore the video is made more effective. This is why my group and I used a date scene because the audience are given a better chance of relating and building on relationship with the artist.
Another convention used in my music video is cinematography, specifically close ups. There are many close ups of the artist in the video especially in the bedroom and performance scenes. The close ups allow the audience to see the blank/sad facial expressions of the artist and can therfore gain an understanding of her emotions. In most of the close ups used in my music video, the artist loks very serious and sad. When the audience see this they not only relate to her but relate it back to the soul genre. This is because these upset emotions are commonly portrayed by soul artist and are most effective for the song. My group and I decided to follow this convention in order to allow our target audience to inderstand the soul music and build a relationship with our artist and her music.
My music video definatly uses conventions to make it more effective. All the conventions within it attract the audience by allowing them to build a relationship with the artist and the song, they are able to look deeper into themeanings of the song and the emotions of the artist. Conventions are used well to make the video more interesting and exciting whilst also creating the correct emotions for the audience to understand the music. The video also develops conventions to make them more modern. For example the convention of women being in classy outfits. The artist is seen in a knee length, high neck black dress. The look was made more modern by the heavy make up and high heels, this adds to the convnetion and develops it. My reason for this was to make sure all ages with in the target audiene could idolises the image, from the younger to the older. I dont believe that my music video challeneged any conventions, everything was suitabe and effective.
An artist whom I found inspirational was Adele. I analysed her music video for 'One and only'. An idea I took from this video was the editing technique of fading. Ths was used a lot in the video to go from one scene to another, it made the video slow and calm. I liked this look because it emphasised the artists emotions of beign fed up and worried. The audience can see her emotions and how se feels when singing the song and expressing her emotions. I want to use this fade technique to give my audience the same calm emotions and allow them to understand how the artist feels.