Bantry Bay

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

When constructing our music video, we felt we needed to give it a quirky and professional appeal to a folk indie genre. When researching for our genre we noted a number of key conventions in which felt would make our video stand out and impress our target audience.

One of a very significant conventions of folk indie is natural, cheap and ‘out of the box’ representation. Through research we discovered that our bands ideas were very similar to that of Bombay bicycle club. For example we wanted to do our performance shots in front of a pavilion as this would create that of a quirky vibe in which I liked. This shot is very effective in displaying the band in an exciting and colourful way, and by doing this I feel it gives the video something extra, this being idiosyncratic unlike that of mainstream pop bands like ‘Take That’. http://www.takethat.com/

You can see that these two shots are very similar to each other and contain the same conventions, this is because we felt that sticking to this ‘far out’ convention would be necessary as folk indie is relatively new and we wouldn’t want to alienate our target audience. However it can be said that we challenged these conventions slightly due to the mise en scene of our video, as you can see we are wearing smart yet casual clothes. By doing this it gives our band a sense of professionalism and vigor. We also added to the low budget appearance by only having a snare drum in use, because I feel this does create a sense of quirkiness in which we strived for as a band, as it is simplistic.

In the planning stages of our video we felt we wanted to have a dramatic narrative which creates a story for our audience to understand. Obviously this story would have to link to the lyrics and I feel it does successfully, as we linked the words ‘I don’t believe you’ to a ‘crumbling relationship’. Through research we looked at a Laura Marling clip and we wanted to develop her forms of conventions.

You can see that this clip does display a negative colour tone and generally looks dull. We felt that this would be perfect in suiting our narrative as we are talking about a break up, and obviously this is supposed to display sad connotations. Overall we planned to follow her use of low key lighting and developed it by using black and white. By developing this convention it meant we could separate the narrative to the band performance, as you can see that all the relationship issues are in black and white and will give a negative ambience to the audience.

For example on the clip on the right you can see that we used black and white. Through mise en scene you can see that both clips are similar styled sitting rooms however we have developed that convention and planted two characters on one seat but far apart. Both characters look negative and are separated from one another. This creates a simplistic image which symbolises tensions and trouble with in this relationship. We chose to have them arguing on this sofa because that is ‘common ground’ for people to relax, and by situating this narrative here it really helps to make the tension greater, making it more effective.

We used the conventions of basing our band in front of garages in the same way that the Bombay Bicycle club did, by following this convention it gives our video an urban feel because it is based in front of these and is on a road.

By having the contrast of urban with lots of colourful garages is really creative as it is a huge contrast to a stereotypical garage in a street. By doing this it does create an unorthodox and wacky atmosphere effect; it’s almost as if it makes it humorous. It also gives each member of the band an identity as they are each situated in front of a different colour which I feel gives this shot a unique edge. This is what I feel indie is all about.

As you can see we have used the same convention but to a toned down and less colourful degree, however I feel it is really effective because it does create that urban feel which is demonstrated among numerous indie videos. By doing this it gives the band a more ‘hard edged’ and ‘street wise’ approach, by doing this it gives the video a more current effect. By having this urban effect it should appeal to all of our audience who have that of an urban background.

When making this band, we did want to have a female influence as it challenged the whole ‘boy band’ approach. And by having a girl in the band it does help create a more friendly and less man orientated group. We challenged the convention of the typical boy indie band and I feel it really worked.

You can see that this stereotypical boy band creates a very masculine image, and I feel with all this masculinity the sense of quirkiness would not appeal as much. As by having the one feminine member seems to challenge the stereotypical boy band, therefore making it different and fresh. Not only this it helps to appeal to a wider audience, as girls could aspire to Fiona the pianist.

You can see on the image on the right that fie is playing the piano and does sing along to our song. By having fie in the band it helps appeal to a feminine audience, and girls will aspire to be Fiona.

Relationships and the feeling of love play a big part in thousands of songs around the world, however I feel is massive amongst the indie genre. Our song and video uses the conventions of relationships effectively as it follows the convention perfectly. By having this song about a relationship and love it enables us to create a narrative in which would interest our audience, as this is a huge branch of music. I find it really effective in how our song is relatively upbeat and happy however it completely contrasts the feeling that the song creates. And I believe our vdeo has created that very same thing, as in parts its black and white which creates the negative tone needed. All the parts of the band shots seem happy and upbeat this is the effect that the song creates, and this is how I feel we wanted to make the video.

This is from a clip of a song on YouTube which displays that relationships are amongst songs in mainstream music today, and they do play a big part in creating emotion for the fans as they can relate to these songs. This means that overall the song would become more popular and have a greater affect in sales and overall success.

As you can see from this clip we have conformed to this convention and in this one shot we use natural lighting and the colour creats a real beautiful image of love. They also look so happy together which makes people think about themselves and would give them a good vibe. However our song is about splitting up and this one nice shot is outweighed by a whole host of angry and moody shots, so in effect it does challenge numerous conventions, but I feel as a whole does conform to the whole relationship genre. Without having conformed to this convention I feel that our video would be less successful than it is. I feel the narrative is what sets it apart in certain ways, and it brings the whole feeling of the song together.

Our video needed something extra, a scene in which would define the video and set it apart from the others. During research we found this clip of a TV in which displayed the artist playing on the TV, this gives it an added dimension. We chose to follow this technological convention and develop it to our video.

As you can see this is the artist performing on a screen, in the music video. This use of convergence within this video is really effective and creates a technological feel. You can see the futuristic style of this screen and how simplistic the shot looks; we found this looked really good. So we decided we would use a similar idea.

We conformed to the conventions of the video through their se of editing by having this TV. Of course it is a similar style but we decided to make it more vintage to suit our genre as vintage and it gives off an indie vibe, as numerous indie videos contain a vintage mise en scene. We also found it would give another dimension to our video, because it links the narrative to the story through convergence. By doing this I feel it is really clever and does give a sense of originality to our video. It also gives a sense timescale to the whole video.

In conclusion I feel that our video does link to a lot of conventions seen in indie videos today, and I feel we had to follow certain conventions as these have been previously popular with other indie songs therefore it wouldn’t alienate out audience. I believe we have been successful in developing certain conventions o, because we have made them link to our narrative and our song. And by developing them it does give us that extra sense of originality.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

How effective is the combination of the main product and ancillary texts?

What did you learn from your audience feedback?

After looking at our audience feedback i noted that we did need to make certain changes. After long contemplation we decided to cut certain parts of the video out. For example we originally wanted to have images projected onto a wall using a projector, i used at my house. But the footage we got was just not adequate enough because i feel it was too cliche and made the production look cheap. Due to audience feedback it meant we had time to make the changes necessary to make our video look and feel professional. It also meant we may have subverted from genre so we took the necessary steps to take it out.

When getting the audience feedback, we did encounter some unsolvable problems, for example people commented on my drumming not looking real. This is because i cant play drums and struggled to, therefore in numerous shots we had to sort the footage out through editing. However i still believe we made it look good despite minor hiccups like the drumming.

Overall I do feel that the audience feedback did aid us with our video because it meant we could re-evaluate what we had produced and cut our footage that was not needed. This meant we could improve our video to a higher degree.