2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
MUSIC VIDEO
Lana Del Rey generally has
her own genre. With indie rock
artists, an audience would
typically expect to see a live
performance music video,
whilst for a pop artist, you can
expect to see a lot of bright,
vibrant colours with typical sto-
ry lines such as love or hatred.
However, Lana challenges
this and somehow manages
to blend both together, by
using both performance and
story lines For example, in ‘Born
To Die’ the audience follow
a story line of Lana and her
boyfriend on a road trip and at
a hotel, although it is an un-
healthy relationship. The video
then cuts to a car accident
where the Lana’s bloodied
corpse is being carried by the
boyfriend, with some perfor-
mance shots added in, and
ends where the music video
started in a cyclical structure. I
think this is an extremely effec-
tive style of video as she high-
lights an issue through narrative
and therefore wanted to use
conventions of Lana’s videos
within my own.
I wanted to create a sense of
sympathy for the character
and portray a high level of
emotion through the narra-
tive which is similar to Lana’s
typical videos. The circulate
narrative of my music video
highlights the life of the female
performer who appears to
have low self esteem. The end
scene ties the video together
as we see an older lady sat
within a modern day house-
hold looking back at an old
photo of herself, which answers
the rhetorical question which is
the main lyric within the song.
The indexical sign of the pho-
to frame next to her is what
informs the audience that she
is now older and reflecting
on her youth. This relates to
Andrew Goodwin’s theory of
the six elements that all music
videos have; one of which
being that all visuals illustrate
the lyrics: “Will you still love me
when I’m no longer young and
beautiful?”.
In terms of representation, I
wanted to create the running
themes of love and nostalgia
within my music video. To do
so, I had to focus heavily on
Saussure’s theory of signs. The
mise-en-scene element was
quite important as I had to en-
sure my music video was
slightly based around
the late 1920’s, especial-
ly as the song I chose
for my music video is
from The Great Gatsby
(2013) soundtrack, al-
though I wanted to put
a modern twist on it. Firstly, the
iconic signs of their costume;
I dressed my model in red
and black dresses as well as a
black jumpsuit. I also tied her
hair back in a high bun as well
as leaving it down. Costume
will work as a signifier inform-
ing the audience of the time
period. Moreover, in order to
further the theme of love and
nostalgia, I got the female to
wear a deep pink/red lipstick
with a clear explication of this
through the close ups of the
application. Symbolically, it is
purely red lipstick however the
connotations of the colour red
would create an indexical sign
of love and lust which audi-
ence’s would notice based
upon their own cultural refer-
ence points. Another iconic
sign was the violin, which is a
typical instrument used in The
Great Gatsby’s era so the use
of this musical instrument links it
all together.
During the editing process, I
decided to edit some footage
by putting on soft and somber
effects in order for the video to
look old. Furthermore, nostal-
gia was not only represented
through the circular narrative
but also through the ongoing
theme of photographs within
my music video, digipak and
poster. Within my music video,
the photograph at the end
is the most essential sign to
ensure audi-
ence’s under-
standing of
the video. The
images used
for my digipak
and poster also
reflects nostal-
gia. This suggests the idea of
memories and looking back on
the past.
Goodwin also stated that
within a music video, the music
and visuals must intertwine one
another. Whilst filming, in order
for the visuals to fit with the mu-
sic, I used slow, flowing move-
ments with minimal movement;
this effect was created suc-
cessfully using the Shoulder-
mount. This way, all of the shots
aren’t static but still do not act
as a distraction from the vis-
uals. Similarly, during editing I
slowed some clips of footage
down by about 20% which
again made the video look
very smooth and fitted with the
pace of the music perfectly.
Slow motion used in the same
way can also be seen in many
of Lana’s other music videos
to allow an audience to look
more closely at certain shots
that the director deemed to
be the most
effective.
Another
element of
Goodwin’s
theory I
choose to
utilise is the
idea that
due to the
high de-
mands of the
music industry, there is often a
strong need or demand for lots
of close ups. Within the indus-
try, close ups tend to be used
to sexualise popular females
such as Rihanna, Jessie J and
Ellie Goulding. I have used
many close ups in a similar
way in order to make audi-
ence believe that the model is
‘young and beautiful’ which is
what the song is about. How-
ever, I have also challenged
this by using some close ups
to highlight certain signs that I
want the audience to notice
more such as the photo frame,
the flower and the violin. The
close ups also will allow au-
dience’s to identify with the
actors which will create a
greater emotional response
when the narrative becomes
clear. Audience would be
able to feel like they have a
gained a personal relationship
with them as stated within the
Uses and Gratifications theory.
This mirrors the effect integral
to the music video ‘Why’ by
Annie Lennox which was my
main inspiration. Similarly, my
video conforms to Laura Mul-
vey’s theory of the Male Gaze
as well as the virgin/whore
dichotomy where the model in
this instance would be seen as
‘the whore’.
My video conforms to the con-
ventions of a circular narrative
in the sense that the audience
is exposed to seeing the older
lady in the modern day at the
begin-
ning,
it then
goes
back to
the old-
er era
to show
the
younger
version
of her-
self performing and then back
to the older lady. My music vid-
eo also demonstrates a restric-
tive narrative as at the begin-
ning, the audience would be
unaware of why there is a shot
of an older lady until the end
answering the enigma posed
as part of Barthes hermeneu-
tic code. I also intended for
my video to show elements of
an episodic narrative as the
action does not necessarily
happen in one big chunk and
through the editing, I decided
to cut footage and go back
to certain shots. For example,
when she is singing which cuts
to the violin playing, or when
she’s putting on her makeup.
ALBUM ADVERT
My first ancillary task was the
album madvert and once
again I have used several
conventions that feature in ad-
vertisements. I was inspired by
existing products and aimed to
recreate these typical ele-
ments. These include having
the name at the top of the
page and having reputable
magazines and newspapers
giving good reviews, which
would entice the audience to
buy the album. I chose pro-
fessional fonts and the images
matched up with my overall
theme and house style which
were the colours of black,
white, gold and a deep purple
which all represent the artist
well.
DIGIPAK
The second ancillary task was
my digipak. I replicated the
house style and fonts that I
used in my postere to the digi-
pak in order for the audience
to become familiar with it and
recognise it more. The digipak
consists of a front cover, inside
cover, CD and back cover.
I follows this design and fea-
tured a special message for
fans on the inside cover as well
as my track listing on the back.
I also put a barcode on the
back in order for the digipak to
look authentic.
Overall, I think all my print and
moving image work either use
or challenge the conventions
of real life media texts which
all work collaboratively in order
to make them look as realistic
as possible.
“I put a
modern twist
on it”
