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

Year 13 indie-pop music video

Using real media is important because it helps us with our research as well as giving us ideas on what we should put in to our own production. By suing real media conventions this will ensure our coursework is as authentic as possible.

Our chosen song was an indie pop song. We had to be careful that our music video conveyed aspects from both indie and pop songs, and formed the hybrid genre of indie/pop. These aspects have been incorporated into our music video through location, costume, voyeurism and casting.

On the whole our music video conformed to the expectations of the hybrid indie/pop songs.

Reflecting back I have realised that some parts of our production were great while some parts needed more work.

‘EVERYBODY’ INGRID MICHAELSON

From our research we realised that generally most pop songs have a lighthearted feel to it. The topics are mostly about love and relationships. We found out that the locations were bright and outside such as parks and cafes.

Because our love song had two couples of different ages, our location choices had to suit each couple individually. This notion impacted on our decisions on where to film. We took inspiration from popular pop songs to get an idea on where to film as location is an integral part in music videos.

LOCATION

We took inspiration from these real media texts. We recreated the location and lighting so the relationships between the actors could be portrayed across. In the real media texts the locations was a way to show what kind of couples they are, which is what we wanted to do too. For example the cinema location is a typical place where teenagers hang out.

In indie pop songs the costumes that the artists wear is very particular to that genre. Our artist’s costume had to fit in with both a pop and indie song. We had to be careful in what we decided she should wear. There had to be an element of voyeurism in the video but we didn’t want her to be too revealing as this is not a convention of indie pop.

From our research into costumes in pop songs, we learned that the artist is girly and feminine. This, however, contrasted from what we gathered from our research into indie songs. In indie song there is less emphasis on the artist because they want the listeners to focus on the music. Their music is the the crucial part. Due to these contrasting results, we had to ensure that there was a balance in what the artist wore. It couldn’t be too pop-esque or too indie-esque. This means that in terms of costume our lead singer conformed to most of the aspects expected in these genres.

COSTUME (ARTIST)

From these screen grabs it is clear to see that we have conformed to both indie and pop songs. But because our song is mostly pop and the bulk of our research was on pop songs we decided to ensure that our costume was feminine and incorporate voyeurism. This led to the decision that Maria will wear dresses and skirts and her hair will be styled into loose flirty curls. To sustain the indie look we kept the colours dark and she wore a beanie hat. So overall she looked both like a pop an indie artist.

Maria also wore make up as this is a must for pop songs. Her nails were painted as well, we chose lilac as this is a girly colour and we felt that this reflected pop songs adequately. Rings were also worn to emphasis that the pop-y feel of the song. Female artist always take care of their appearance – even in indie songs where the focus is on the music.

According to our research of real media texts, the actors dressed correspondingly to their age. They were portrayed as authentically as possible, which meant that they had to wear costumes the audience expect people of their age to wear. We had to make sure that our actors’ costumes fit into the generic conventions for teenagers and adult couples.

However there were some changes from what we initially wanted for the actors’ costume to what they actually wore. This was due to the weather. We had to accommodate for the freezing cold weather, thus leading to the change from autumnal clothes to winter wear. Although this change was unprecedented, we were able to work this to our advantage and make the actors (the female adult) look good. It allowed us to have more creativity in what Ms Bayley can wear. In the end we decided on a patterned woolly skirt, a wooly hat, a woolly hat, tights, jumper and boots. I feel that her costume choices made the video look very authentic. It was also womanly enough without her freezing.

Ms Bayley’s husband had to look mature. Both adults being the correct age was a great advantage. Also the fact that Mr Bayley had a beard really emphasised what kind of couple they are in relation to the teenage couple.

Like Maria, Ms Bayley also had make up on to convey that she is feminine, who looks after her appearance and she is on a date with her husband.

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The Bayley’s costume was important because they were an adult couple and we weren’t sure at first what adults should wear. We then decided that the man should have a smart casual look to emphasis his maturity and the woman should look mature too but have a feminine and flirty touch too. This led to the conscious choice that Mr Bayley will wear a check shirt and trousers. The shirt will be open at the collar because he is with his wife and there is no need to be formal. We wanted him to look relaxed and totally in love. To balance smart and casual, the shoes are more on the smart side. As Ms Bayley is an adult we thought it would be appropriate for her to wear heeled boots, this conveyed her maturity and femininity. She is wearing red lipstick which has connotations of love and passion which is perfect for a scene where the couple are in love. For the teenagers we wanted something casual. Sow e settled on dress for the girl and jeans and a jumper for the guy. They both wore trainers because it’s easier that way to convey their age and the difference between the two couples was emphasised by the costume choices.

Pop songs mainly consist of girl artists aged between teen to mid twenties. For this reason we decided to use someone our age as it fits the criteria and it would be easier for us to attain a teenage girl. Our artist had to have a indie pop look, which is what we eventually found.

For our couples we needed a older and a teenage couple. These were the main ages portrayed in pop songs.

Casting

For our artist we decided to get a dark haired girl rather than a blonde one as this will allow us to convey the indie element as well as the pop. Her hair was styled in curls because this creates a fun flirty pop-y feel and has an element of voyeurism in it. We took inspiration from these two pop singers (mainly Ellie Goulding).

One way in which our music video subverted to the pop conventions was our “clapping scene”. This kind of scene may be normally associated with country or folk songs. It was unusual for us to have close up shots of hands in a pop song because usually pop songs – especially ones with female artists – have many shots of the artist’s face. We thought we should have a clapping scene because it fitted with the acoustic part of the song where the central noise is the sound of clapping. Subverting

conventions

One aspect in our construction of making a music video was the four frame scene. When we filmed we should have been more careful of the size of our actress so she moved seamlessly from one frame to another. While filming our camera changed so the sellotape that was on the first camera to indicate the size was no longer available. This meant that we had to estimate her size. If we were given the chance to refilm, we would ensure that the size of her in all four scenes were exactly the same.

Initially we planned to have four different aged couples in the music video. We changed this idea after realising that finding an old couple and a young couple willing to film was unrealistic. This led to having only two couples – this worked out incredibly well as not only did it conform to our research findings it made the video look authentic.

Apart from that everything else suited and complimented our video. The actress especially looked like an indie pop artist and it fit with the theme.

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