In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products? By Emily Roberts

Influence My media product began by being heavily influenced by film and comic characters, those being Scott Pilgrim and the ‘Kickass’ films. Certain artists also inspired myself and my group, especially The Hoosiers, Arctic Monkeys and Vampire Weekend. These three artists influenced us most as we wanted to create a band similar to them. With the cool and professional attire and image of Arctic Monkeys, whilst having the quirks and upbeat songs of Vampire Weekend and The Hoosiers. The Hoosiers song, “Goodbye Mr A”, added to this influenced and pushed forward the idea of using a superhero and science fiction theme, this developed further as we decided on using the Scott Pilgrim franchise as our base idea for the characters (as opposed to the Kickass franchise, which was less comfortable costume wise than Scott Pilgrim). By mixing between the three bands and our film/comic influences, our band was created.

Genre Conventions The genre we chose of being Indie/Pop Rock. This genres videos tend to have a varying combination of conventions, i.e. bright, dark, black and white imagery depending on the tone of the lyrics and music. The narrative of this genre is very wide, from focusing solely on the artist, band or even at times the band would not be shown within the video. Narrative videos music videos in this genre are more symbolic or representational, rather than just mimicking and illustrating the lyrics, it focuses on a story or meaning, making the video versatile and interesting to fans. Editing choices change with the tone and beat of the song and lyrics, whilst the clothing choices remain very casual (even if the outside image of the band is professional).

Linking to the Lyrics In our music video, we don’t specifically link with the lyrics, instead using them to amplify and add layers to the video and lyrical meaning of the song, following the genre conventions of an Indie/Pop Rock video. Our video is narrative and enables us to set a decisive mood and image of our band, the main product showing our quirkiness as a band (alike Vampire Weekend and The Hoosiers) whilst outside of the video and on our website we are professional (alike Arctic Monkeys and Cage The Elephant). The music video ‘A-Punk’ by Vampire Weekend, of which we did a mock imitation, isn’t narrative but sets the image and mood of the band. We aimed to set the mood with our music video and the image with other related media products. This challenges the normal forms and conventions of other genres of music videos and bands as with most bands, the music video and outside image are the same, whilst we aimed to show the two opposing sides of the industry; those doing it for fun and those doing it for work, the creative and the professional (following our genre).

Andrew Goodwin’s Theory of Repetition Andrew Goodwin’s Theory of Repetition refers to images that are repeated to mirror the way the song repeats choruses and lines, it enables audiences to become familiar to the song and the video. Our music video follows Goodwin’s Theory of Repetition through the use of the story repeating itself through the course of the video, with three unsuccessful fights, finally changing at the end wherein the superheroes win. Moreover, when we are lip syncing the image is repeated through each member. When we are playing the instruments in filming, certain filmed pieces are repeated to embed these images in the audiences brain and enable them to become familiar to the band members and their instruments and feel comfortable when watching.

Carol Vernallis’ Theory of Frequent Edits Vernallis’ Theory of Frequent Edits is that the rhythmic base of the song is connected to the cutting in time with the beat. Director Michel Gondry uses this technique and theory in most of his work, his most well known being that of The White Stripes’ “Hardest Button to Button” and Chemical Brothers’ “Star Guitar”. We tried to follow Vernallis’ theory but due to most of our filming being fighting scenes, it was harder for Rebecca to edit to meet the format of the theory as we couldn’t have the quick rhythmic edits to the beats of “Creepin’ Up The Backstairs”. At some point we include this technique and theory but not frequently enough to class it as such.

Camera Shots In our video we use several close ups and extreme close ups, this is to convey the feelings of the characters and to make certain small details significant. Such details would be Rebecca smiling and Tom squinting. As we use close ups and extreme close ups, we are setting an image of the band, enabling possible fans to know and understand who is who in detail. As our band is new and recent to the ‘music scene’, it is highly used and required by these types of bands to establish themselves quickly and effectively. This also helps the audience to link the song to the band, as once they hear it they would envision the band and music video. The use of low angle shots and wide angled shots in our video refers to us conforming to the Indie/Pop Rock genre, who use these and the close ups to establish the band (or actors) and the story, introducing them to the audience and bringing interest.

Editing The editing used goes back and forth from being fast paced (in the fighting scenes) to being normal speed, this is used so that the fighting scenes look professional and similar to how they do in superhero films. As none of my group are great fighters, we used this technique so that more fighting and story could be included, whilst it would look like we are good fighters. In editing, Rebecca added a Health Bar on the tops of the screens during the fighting scenes so that the health would deplete and link further to our influence from ‘Scott Pilgrim’ and video games we play, such as Mortal Kombat. It was also editing into the music video a start up screen where it is like you are choosing the character you wish to play, once again linking to video games, which we all are avid fans of and at the end there is a game over screen.

Editing Moreover, before the ‘Boss Battle’ initially begins, there is a classic and cheesy ‘VS’ image of the heroes versus the villain. These added layers and images bring a cheesiness and quirkiness to our music video, whilst also immediately enables the audience to understand the type of band we are and the interests we have. Although most of these editing techniques and pieces relate to our genre, they do not conform to the conventions given as it singles our band out and gives us individuality in the genre, as opposed to the genres stereotypical use of black and white filters to create an old, classic feel. There’s also the added ‘Downloading…’ wording edited on top of the laptop and the ‘X’ as it cancels once the plug is removed which adds to the previous qualities.

Image/Iconography Our image of a band changes between outside the music video and in the video, which follows our chosen music genre. On our website, we used professional pictures and have a professional image of a new and upcoming band, some of our pictures show a quirkier side to the band, alike the music video, but the main pictures used pass across the serious image. Whereas, in the music we are all dressed in comfortable clothing so that we look like ‘superheroes’, these superheroes costumes aren’t as complex as they could be but rather we decided to use our influence from ‘Scott Pilgrim’ and ‘Kickass’ to wear comfortable costumes (also relating back to our new and inexperienced band, alike the superheroes). Our website and Twitter are used to utilise the form and conventions of our band as our theme remains and we are all seen together continuously, be it in our websites pictures or in the music video where we all join together in the end. The use of Twitter and our Website also makes us more believable as a band.

Voyeurism and Intertextual References Most music videos tend to be questioned about the images they use to project onto the audience, be it through the band members or actors and what they wear. Usually, it is females who are questionable about their outfits and the relationship between them and the video meaning. The is voyeurism, which refers to women being used to increase sex appeal, as well as the notion of looking, i.e. screens, cameras, binoculars. In my media product, both Rebecca and I are dressed quite modestly, both of us having little skin being shown and our outfits are not skin tight to reveal our bodies. On the contrary, it was agreed that we would rather have the audience focus on the band rather than possible sex appeal given by Rebecca and I. Voyeurism was also used in the scene where we see Rebecca using the laptop to look at our band website, as well as illegally download. This links in with intertextuality, which brings in a sense of familiarity and nostalgia when a reference is made within the music video. During Rebecca and I’s fight scene, there are multiple links and references made through mis-en-scene, being the bands website on the laptop and games boxes left in the open which are all friendly to the viewer, two of the games boxes including the word friend (which we can link back to the band being solely a group of friends making music and hoping to become professional).