Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product both follows and challenges the forms of conventions of real media products. Our video also develops important music video theories. As 'Red Planet' is a mixture of pop and R&B, our music video follows the main conventions of pop/R&B music videos, predominantly to appeal to our main target audiences. However, by reversing the stereotypical role of a female in a music video, we have challenged the conventions of the pop genre, in an attempt to attract our main target audience - young females and to make our video more interesting.

General forms & conventions of music videos 

Forms of Pop Videos

Simon Frith

Performance/Narrative Examples

Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk

Taylor Swift - Blank Space

Most pop videos come in either a performance or narrative form. Performance videos involve the artist singing or playing an instrument and this could be happening in front of a crowd. Dancing and lip syncing is very common. In Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk the lighting used makes it very exciting and upbeat which is what we have tried to do in the performance sections of our music video. Taylor Swift's Blank Space music video is a narrative video - it tells a story and so the visual imagery is key. Love is a very common theme in these types of videos and this video is no exception. We liked the idea of incorporating a narrative about love in our video, especially as there are themes of love in the lyrics of our song.

Rihanna - Take a Bow

However, some videos are a mixture of the two (performance and narrative), allowing the artist to act as well as perform. In Rihanna's Take a Bow it flicks between her performance and the story which progresses throughout the video and is also about a relationship. We liked the idea of using both performance and narrative in our video as it meant that we could show what the band could do (dance etc) and we could also connote the themes in the song by adding the narratives with the male actors.

Therefore, our video, like Rihanna's is a mixture of the two forms. 

Performance in our video

Narrative in our video

Promotional

Music videos will often be used for promotional purposes, especially if the music video features a new and upcoming artist.

Rita Ora - R.I.P

In Rita Ora's R.I.P video, her name appears at the beginning to remind audiences that that is her name. We liked this and thought it was important to somehow incorporate our name into the video. In the end we decided to have a backdrop where our name was designed by graffiti. It is big and bold like Rita Ora's name.

Our graffiti backdrop

Conventions of Pop Videos 

Synchronized dancing/lip syncing

TLC -No Scrub

Rihanna - Where Have You Been

It is extremely conventional for a pop video to feature the artist lip syncing and doing a syncrhonized dance routine, particularly for female pop artists and bands. The dance routine is often shot at a variety of different angles which the video then cuts between to make it more interesting. Dance adds an exciting effect to the video and makes the video more captivating and memorable.

Synchronized dancing and lip syncing in our video

As you can see in our video, there are quick cuts between our dance routine which is done in different set ups and at different angles. It was important that we were all in sync, otherwise the cut would not look right.

Narrative structure

It is highly conventional for narrative scenes to occur in pop music videos. The narratives are often based upon relationships or at a party/club. The relationship narrative is particularly common as many pop songs contain the themes of love/lust/heartbreak. It also makes the music video more emotional and relatable which enables the audience to connect to the artist, song and story more.

Our video followed this convention. Each member of the band  has a male actor whom we flirt with. The intention was to convey the theme of lust and desire and portray the female as the dominant one in the relationship. It made sense to incorporate this narrative as it links to the lyrics.

Bright colours

Pop videos will often contain bright colours. This includes brightly coloured outfits, props and lighting. This reflects the upbeat nature of the pop genre and makes the music video more fun. Lots of colour also enables the artist to stand out and makes the video more visually appealing, particularly to young audiences. Overall, the bright colours engage the viewer and focuses their attention on the artist.

Our video follows this convention. We have many different lighting set ups that consist of bright colours such as red, light purple and pink. This adds intrigue to our video and makes it fun and more enjoyable to watch. The sets in general that we have used are predominantly colourful, for example the red and green stars and the grafitti/warehouse set up. My bright red basketball top and Gift's red and black checked shirt in particular are brightly coloured which makes us stand out. Finally the props we use contain colour, for example the red balloon with colourful confetti.

Beauty shots

These will often feature in pop videos. Beauty shots are used to promote the physical appearance of the artist and make the artist look good. These shots are often sexualised to engage the viewer and make the video more interesting. Sometimes they are in done in slow motion but they will nearly always be at close angles - either a mid shot or a close up.

Our video has beauty shots incorporated into it in order to show the audience more of our personality. The ones above are close up shots, enabling the audience to get closer to us. Angel and Shana's gestures in particular have an aspect of sexual provocation to them, which is common for female beauty shots.

Rapid cuts and cut to the beat

A music video is often more appealing and interesting if the video is cut to the beat of the music. Adam Levine's 'Move Like Jagger' is a great example of this. The video becomes more fun and even arty as a result of this. Furthermore, if the cuts are quick, we are able to see more which is more exciting.

Section of our video - cut to the beat

The majority of our video is cut to the beat of the song. We liked how prominent the beat is in 'Red Planet' which made this easier to do. The cuts are extremely quick throughout which is good as it means there is so much going on for the audience to take in. It's very energetic.

Make up

Katy Perry - Wide Awake

It is highly conventional for a female pop artist/band to wear a lot of make-up in order to appeal to the audience visually. It also makes the artist stand out from the background or from whatever else is going on in the video. I particularly like Katy Perry's bright purple hair in this video and it reminded me that hairstyles play a big role too. It inspired me to have a bold hairstyle for our video.

We followed this convention as our make-up is extremely noticeable, especially our eye shadow, eye liner and lip-stick. It makes us more attractive, and this is what audiences expect. Furthermore, the red streaks in my hair have made me stand out, which is important.

R&B Conventions

Dominant Female 

In the past, the female artist was always portrayed in an extremely sexualised way, and they would wear barely any clothes and would dance extremely provocatively. However, nowadays it is increasingly common for a female artist to take a more dominant role in the music video. This is the case with Beyonce and Ciara in their music videos below. They seem to take on a male role and so the gender roles have been reverse: they have the power. Furthermore, their clothes are more stereotypically masculine.

Beyonce - Upgrade U

Ciara - Like A Boy

Our video follows this dominant female convention, particularly through my character. I have a tom boy/androgynous style. I am showing through my gestures that I am a strong female and just as tough as any guy. Furthermore, rapping itself which is a stereotypical masculine thing to do. Furthermore, the narratives clearly show that the band members - the females have the power.

Studio setting&special effects

Rihanna- Rude Boy

It is common for female R&B videos to be shot in studios and have cool effects added onto them. It makes the video interesting to watch and enhances the look of the artist. In Rihanna's video above, it looks very creative which makes it different to the typical video. This is what we wanted to achieve with ours, something different and something cool. 

Effect added to Angel's verse

We have followed this convention as there are a range of effects throughout out video. We did this because we think it adds a cool element to our video and certainly pays homage to our 'out of this world' theme. It makes our band stand out and adds intrigue to the video. 

Website Conventions

Album Conventions
It was necessary to look at existing album covers in order to see what the forms and conventions of them were. Selena Gomez's 'Stars Dance' album was influential in terms of this and also for the way in which this information should be displayed.

For girl bands, we discovered that a convention was to have a classy outfit photo for the front cover of the album and despite the fact that we are an urban band, we chose to stick to this convention as we thought it made us look more appealing to our target audience. 

It was important that our both are front cover and back cover had a consistent look. Beyonce's 'I am Sasha Fierce' Platinum edition album was a source of inspiration in this respect. I also liked the selection of images used for the front and back cover of her album - they were slightly different but worked well together, like ours. 

It was equally important that our interior panels were consistent with the front. Rihanna's 'Loud' album was a reference point as her inside image was extremely similar to her front one.

Overall, it was important that all our panels - our exterior and interior ones - worked synergistically and had a consistent look to them as this is a convention that nearly all album covers follow. We have succeeded in this as we have kept a black, red, white and silver colour scheme.