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

Andrew Goodwin's 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'

When looking at Goodwin's work we discovered the importance of meeting the conventions of our music video. These being:

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, e.g. stage performance in heavy metal music videos, dance routines for girl/boy bands and aspiration in hip-hop videos.
• Music videos can also link to film genres, this is known as intertextuality, e.g. many heavy rock songs are influenced by horror films).
• There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The lyrics can be represented with images (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting).
• There is a relationship between the music and the visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visuals reflect that of the music (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting).
• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artists and the artist may develop motifs, which recur across their work (visual style). 
• There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
• There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc). 

Forms of Music Videos:

A performance based music video will show the artist or band performing a specific song and can play throughout the entire video or perhaps just include snippets of the performance. This type of construction is often used when working with a lower budget as it is an easy way to promote the artist and their products.

Concept based music videos are based around an idea or perception of something. They tend to be fairly unique and utilise a particular editing or filming technique. One key element of a conceptual music video is that they are dramatic and try to convey a message by being metaphorical. This sets them aside from performance and narrative style videos because they both tend to be very stereotypical.  

A narrative based music video contains mostly footage that attempts to tell a story through a moving image. Music videos that are narrative usually have a story line that is linked to the lyrical content. Sometimes these types of music videos are popular with songs that have been featured in films, scenes from the film are often inserted into the music video.

Typical Conventions of the EDM genre:

• Target audience = mostly teenagers (16-24 year olds).
• Music videos for the genre of 'EDM' tend not to have many codes or conventions, thus allowing more freedom when creating an idea for a video.
• They tend to feature videos about love, sexuality and things a young audience could relate towards.
• The videos tend to feature clubbing scenes, women with minimal clothing, jumping/dancing around, pools, UV paint, drinking and the atmosphere is wild and crazy. Thus it could be argued that this type of content is not suitable for a younger audience due to the representation of experimenting with alcohol/drugs and people 'finding themselves' through impulsive and sometimes dangerous acts.
• Dancing plays an important role in the fact that dance music often plays in clubs (where dancing is the norm).
• The artist of the song rarely features in the music video as they normally have random narratives that tend not to link with the lyrics.

Does our music video conform to the forms and conventions of EDM?

Setting - Did not film in a club or festival due to age restrictions (every member of our group was still 17 as was our actor and so it would have been impossible to enter a club and film whilst drinking legally). Instead we filmed mainly outside in natural environments, therefore we did not conform to this convention and opted to route against the representation of the EDM genre within music videos.

Editing - Fast paced cutting is used to reinforce the beat of the music. Fast forward and reverse sequences are also representative of the EDM genre, therefore in our music video we decided to develop this convention and embed it into our music video, as it would be effective.

Mise en scène -  Saturated, neon lighting with very bright colours is very common in the EDM music genre. This type of music is predominately played in clubs, music festivals or any type of loud/rowdy event with a target audience of 16-24 year olds. These events usually take place during nigh-time hence the need for a lot of artificial light. We did not conform directly with this convention because we filmed a mixture between night and day shots.

Filming during the day

Filming during the evening

Even though we did not conform completely with the lighting conventions of the EDM music genre we did manage to capture some bright lights in some of the sequences, which we filmed at night. Therefore in this respect we did conform with conventions of EDM within music videos in terms of featuring neon lights in some of our shots.

Comparing a successful EDM music video (left) with our own production (right): Dillon Francis, Kygo - Coming Over ft. James Hersey:

• Night footage within a night club, featuring people drinking and dancing. This also shows a sense of youthfulness as it is a light-hearted video with lots of impulsive, care-free actions being performed - links to our target audience and the overall target audience of EDM as a genre of 16-24 year olds.

• Has a performer - this being the lead male. We also used a performer in our music video (Phoebe) which is very typical in EDM music videos and lots of other videos from a variety of genres.

 

• Love interest between himself and his ex-girlfriend, along with the females he has relations with to try and get over his former lover. The whole concept of our own music video was a love interest between Phoebe (our main performer and her ex-boyfriend). Romantic connotations conform to the EDM genre because it is something in which young people can relate to.

• The artist does not feature in either Dillon Francis's music video or the one in which we created, therefore this is a connotation of the EDM genre.
• Shows a journey of the man's regret for losing his ex-girlfriend and going out with lots of other females whilst he still had feelings for his ex.
• Fast edits with a whole reverse section in the video of the man reflecting on the time he has been missing without his girlfriend. Our production also has a whole section in reverse of Phoebe reflecting on her day as she misses her ex-boyfriend.
• Action code - This is the sequence where phoebe is applying her make-up as the tempo of the music increases as the pace of the footage within the video. We created this in out music video through including a time lapse. This relates back to Goodwin's theory of "There is a relationship between the music and the visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visuals reflect that of the music (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)."

• Narrative based performance (like our production) instead of performance based. This is very typical of the music videos categorised as EDM. 

Other EDM music videos in which conform to the forms and conventions of this specific genre:

Avicii - Wake Me Up:

• Artist doesn't feature.
• Features festival scene with lots of dancing and UV paint, wild and crazy atmosphere.
• Features the love between two sisters and their desire for a place 'to belong'.
• Night footage.
• Narrative music video.
• Shows the journey of them not belonging in their current village so they move to the vibrant city.
• Fast paced editing.
• Sense of rebellion (the two of them escaping and running away).
• Bright lights/colours.
• Features people of all sexes, races etc... which is a very typical convention of music videos from within the EDM genre.

Calvin Harris - How Deep Is Your Love?

• Artist doesn't feature.
• Night footage.
• Features multiple night club scenes with lots of dancing, wild/crazy atmosphere and drinking and smoking.
• Fast paced editing.
• Sense of youthfulness and freedom in which a target audience of 16-24 year olds can relate to.
• Has random narratives that tend not to link with the lyrics.
• Bright lights/colours.
• Sense of rebellion (tattoo scene).
• Women with minimal clothing.
• Features people of all sexes, races etc... which is a very typical convention of music videos from within the EDM genre.

To conclude, our music video does in fact follow many forms and conventions of real media artefacts that are situated within the EDM genre. With the help of our research into real media artefacts that we conducted in the summer and our current research and knowledge of conventions of the EDM genre we were able to make a music video in which adapted some of these forms, therefore making it effective and successful.

Our chosen artist (The Chainsmokers) conform to many typical forms and conventions of EDM and so whilst we obviously wanted to conform along side this with the typical conventions of EDM we did not want to copy or remotely even look like a typical Chainsmokers video as it would not have been very imaginative or original.

However, there were some factors in which we did decide to include as we thought we could benefit from their presence:

• A performer or main character is almost always used. Therefore when it came to us as a group deciding how we would approach this task  (after we researched real media artefacts) we came to the decision of conforming to EDM genre music videos by also including a performer. By using a performer not only does it conform to the conventions and forms of the EDM genre within music videos but also allows us to include a sense of journey and purpose through a love interest - something which our youthful target audience can relate to.
• We also closely researched Goodwin's theory and we followed many of his conventions. One being "There is a relationship between the music and the visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visuals reflect that of the music (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)." Our examples included Phoebe looking into the rear-view mirror as the lyric "When I went away, saw your face in my rear-view" is sung and also through mise-en-scène depicting empty bear bottles as the lyric "To know how it feels to kill yourself with bad habits" is sung.
• Phoebe also looks at the camera directly (breaking the fourth wall). Prior to this she has not shown any communication with the audience and we thought that by showing this interaction it would benefit our music video as it is important  to represent her communication with the viewers and herself being the only actor.
• Lip-syncing: We challenged form/convention as it is in no way a typical convention with the EDM genre. We decided to get Phoebe to lip-sync the main lyric "New York City, please go easy on me tonight." because it would make our music video unique and considering we have conformed to the EDM genre in many other ways we did want to add our own spin on what would be our first musical production.
• Along all of this, fast paced editing, artist not being featured, showing a journey through a love interest and it being a narrative music video are ways in which our music video develops forms and conventions of real media products within the EDM genre.