Evaluation 1 part a)

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

Music videos allow artists and record companies to further promote a song. This is by creating a visual representation for the meaning of it. A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Andrew Goodwin stated that “… a music video can anchor meaning and gives the record company/artist a method of anchoring meaning”. This would be to assist the meaning that is interpreted by the audience as well as the one that they would interpret individually. There are three different forms of music video that are used according to Goodwin, and these can be combined together to form a single music video. These three types are; performance- based, narrative-based and concept-based. Depending upon which is used, can create an alternative meaning or enhance the meaning of the song. The meaning of the song can come from the lyrics and the music itself, as well as the visuals that accompany it.

Mirrors- Justin Timberlake

This music video is narrative based. Narrative based videos attempt to tell a story. This type of video generally involves a main actor(s), and maybe extras, to portray the story. The narrative of the song isn’t always lyrically literal. In Justin Timberlake's 'Mirrors' the use of a mirror object is used and it focuses a lot on reflections. The song's chorus describes a man who is fighting to hold onto his relationship with a girl he believes to be "the one". In the music video this is literally represented by a female and a male actors, who are seen to be young and together at one part, old and  together in another shot and young and fighting in the other shots. By choosing a literal representation of the lyrics in the music video enhances the meaning that can be interpreted from it.

One- Ed Sheeran

One by Ed Sheeran is a performance-based music video. By choosing just this form for it portrays the simplicity of him as an artist, being just him and his guitar. This allows the consumer to understand more about him and what to expect. As well as this  by using a simplistic set up makes the song and the meaning that I interpreted more personal and allowed me to empathise. The lyrics of the song are about a girl that is no longer  present in his life, yet he still wants a relationship with her and thinks that she is his 'one'. The performance based video creates a strong sense of emotion similar to those in the lyrics. Goodwin suggested that music videos should create a link between visuals  and lyrics... as done here.

Californication- Red hot chili peppers

This music video is concept based as it is based within a computer game. It is based solely on this one idea and has no link to the lyrics.  Californication is a biting social criticism of the culture of excess we have. The song holds California up as a symbol itself for wider problems and issues we, as society have. The lyrics constantly repeat how people dream of being able to enter into this dream world, totally naive and ignorant of the problems those within California have to deal with.  
The types of shots varies in the different forms of music videos. In performance based music videos, more close ups tend to be used. This is to show any emotion shown on the artists face and therefore enhance the meaning of the song. However in narrative based music videos, midshots and long shots tend to be used to portray the narrative. This makes it easier to be followed. In concept based videos a range of shots are used, but these depend upon what the idea is associated with. This is due to the visuals rarely having a link with the lyrics of the song. 

Below is the music video that we made to the song 'Friends' by Eliza and the Bear:

Our music video complies to the narrative based form with some influences from performance based and concept based forms. We did this because we felt that this is what best suited the song we chose best. The aspects from each form are listed below:

• Concept based- the masks as they don't particularly have a link to the lyrics in the song.
• Narrative based- there is a story linked to the visuals throughout the music video.
• Performance based- we decided to represent the band in the music video, we did this by using the masks so that we could keep anonymity of the actors and therefore not have to use the actual band members.
  

Our music video contained both performance based and narrative based aspects.

This is the music video that we created as a production team:

This is a four shot that we used in our music video of the different band members. We found inspiration for this editing technique from an existing music video that was previously done by Eliza and the Bear. We found that this could be important to include in our music video as it may make it more recognisable as one of the bands products. This would increase the realism of it and ensure that fans of the band would like it.

This is the four shot that is used in 'It gets cold' which is one of Eliza and the Bear's songs. From this it is evident that both music videos use close ups in their four shots, which makes them identifiable as the products of the bands. 

We decided to conform to the conventions of our form as within 
a music video, the conventions are quite strict. This included the shot types that we used due to it containing narrative and performance based concepts. Thus using more close ups and mid-shots than could be found in a concept based music video. These are some of the close ups that we used in our music video to ensure that we followed the conventions of the form that we had chosen. These are similar to those shown in 5 seconds of summer's 'she looks so perfect' where Luke Hemmings can be seen holding a guitar in a close up shot. This is important as it shows the similarities between performance based music videos. A screenshot of this is shown below. 

In conclusion our music video follows the conventions of a narrative/ performance based music video through the shot types used and the way that the shots are out together. This was influenced by the genre of the song.