1. Q1: In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
BY WILL WILSON
2. Camera shots and angles
I primarily focused Blink 182 videos, I noticed in the majority of videos that there were lots of close
ups, camera movement, shots of the equipment and the story alongside the performance was
random, nothing to do with the visuals but matched the pace of the song.
All picture from “Dammit” Blink 182
I used these close up shots to show the emotion of the characters, with the focus on the equipment. Shows spread use of equipment.
4. …camera shots and angles
A shot widely used is the close up, however, in this particular genre, there is a lot of cut a ways to other things to
disorientate the consumer. So it tends to show the close up in strange tilted angles as the cameraman is
disengaged from any constraining equipment.
5. Narrative
Like most music video’s of my genre, they tend to have a narrative that is not considered to link with the lyrics. Linking the lyrics the with
visuals would show the video to be more of an Emo style video, the bands that I follow: Blink 182, Sum 41 and The Offspring all have the
common link that they do not follow the lyrics, they’d rather have the consumer use their own imagination for the narrative, interpret
the lyrics their own way.
However, as they have progressed they have become more “emo” which shows that early bands when they are young shows they
need to target there demographics as best as they can, as they get older they can change the demographic as they already have
the popularity.
It shows that I cannot change the style of the video to the later versions of the band as the consumer would be confused and will not
like the video.
From my feedback, it is definitive that it did suit the random style. As people were confused by what was going on which how they also
felt when they watched professional videos.
6. Mise En Scene
My initial plan was to have the Mise En Scene, the set, was to have it on stage. Due to complications, I couldn’t do so, so the Mise En
Scene was in a school hall.
I attempted to hide it with fast movement and lots of zoom ins, but it clearly showed itself in any medium or longshots of the band.
However, for the other shots, it was set in the singers house, in a small room for which they could play monopoly. I wanted the audience
to assume the conventions of a fun band that are regular people who get together to have fun.
As for props, we had lots of costume, lots of equipment and a monopoly board. I needed lots of props, to distract the viewer, to be
overwhelmed, as seen in “Up all Night – Blink 182”. I tended to keep a large focus on the equipment as that is one of the main
conventions seen in other music videos, it gives the band members a purpose.
We had the band in there regular clothes, all of them look relatively young as I wanted them to look, the shots reflect their age, that
they are getting older but still want to have fun. Especially with the oldest band member turning 30 soon.
At the beginning of the project I had to decide a band to choose, I was considering choosing a Blink 182 song with some actors to
perform, however, Fancy Dress Party were an option as I know all of the band members very well. They suited the genre well and were
completely up for it, as seen in the video they wore the costumes and started dancing, even though I didn’t tell them to!
7. My product
My product used the convention of being up close with the band, following the style of the band. You feel connected with eye
contact but not drawn in as it suddenly snaps to a shot of something else. It also meant I kept the brand identity, it was easily
identifiable that it was Fancy Dress Party as the band members are plastered over the product.
My product challenges the ideas that Punk outlook and follows a more Ska ideaology, it’s more “Fun” pop than “Punk” pop as it shows
little anarchy. It only shows the band together having fun rather outside causing chaos as showing in nearly every other Pop Punk video.
I wanted the band to seem more fun, as there is no real definition of Pop Punk as it is such a wide variety of style, I think it still challenges
it but still suits it.
10. Ancillary
I used stills from my video to create the Digipak, I tuned
them up with some effects to remove any background
flaws and gave them a boost in contrast/brightness.
I didn’t like any of the stills to be used for the magazine
advert, I so had this one done, I gave it a cartoony look
with a sketchy style.
Conventions used to create the magazine advert.
o Large Title
o Easy readable Font
o Recognisable brand
o Where to buy
o Date available
o Factory Records
11. Ancillary
With Ned (The Dog) as the front cover of the digipak it shows the bands style, fun. The dog looks confused by the camera, and that’s
why I chose the picture over other stills.
The dark yellowy look with the artistic style effects allowed me to match the identity to the video, the stills give the link but the effects
make the recognisable outlook.
I also chose the stills as it meant I could add writing and make it easily readable, to make the band look serious I chose Richard singing
in to the microphone playing the guitar, to give a punk feel that he is passionate about the band.
And to calm things down, I had the still of the band together and Joel looking into the camera playing the drums.
