Music video and ancillary text evaluation

My Product conforms to most of the conventions of real media products abiding my Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos. This is shown in my products in my ancillary texts as well as my final Music Video. Andrew Goodwin’s theory states that in a generic music video there will be a clear link between the lyrics and visuals. I used this within my music video such as in one shot the lyrics say “lest’ you find my strangling fingers wrapped around tight” I used a shot in which the character is shown grabbing the female character by her neck in a way which I represented as a mixture of abusive behaviour with lust as he pulls into her.

It is again shown within the narrative of the music video itself. The Male character (my artist) is shown singing the lyrics as part of the narrative itself. I used the lyrics to show the males half of an argument. This is because the story is shown almost backwards from his point of view as he brings himself through his past to discover where he went wrong in this relationship. I wanted to focus on the males story because he is my artist and I believed that the visuals and the lyrics would fit in better if the story follows his search for retribution in himself rather than the female character’s story as a victim of the Suggested violence.

One way I do not believe my video conforms to Real products is by not physically sexualising neither the women nor the men. This was done deliberately to help the audience to pay attention to the narrative. I want them to understand these characters on an emotional level and if I were to have sexualized either of these characters (excluding the sexual tension shown between the two characters within the narrative) this would not have been possible to achieve. I did not want to conform to Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory that states that the camera is from a males point of view. This is why women are heavily sexualised in film, I did not want to conform with this as i believed it would hinder the audiences focus from the narrative itself. I also connote towards violence between the two characters with sexual tension this is similar to Eminem and Rhianna's video for 'Love the way you lie'   Another Convention of my music video that conforms to real products is in my performance shots. My artist 'Lee Frank' is a singer/guitarist Therefore I show this within my video as a character this is popular within all genre's of music such as Adam Lavine from Maroon 5 would play the main character in the narratives of their music videos. This is also a way of enabling the audience to identify with your solo male artist and see he is a talented singer/songwriter and performer while not being a part of the pop culture manufactured artist. 

I believe that the combination of my main and ancillary texts capture the Impression I wanted to produce for my artist. When thinking of the interpretations of the genre I believe the musicians profile needed to be emotionally driven. The mixture of this between powerful shots, my emotional narrative behind the break up of my artist’s relationship with the ancillary texts such as my Digipak and my poster both have my character being represented as emotionally wrecked or mental instability this is what I aimed to achieve within my ancillary and main texts.

As a part of my A2 Film Studies course we have been learning about postmodernism as the idea of intertextuality within the film 'Fight Club'. I wanted to include a reference to my understanding of this concept, so towards the end of my music video Lee's face becomes distorted and out of focus, to show his emotional confusion or 'breakdown'. I took inspiration for this shot from Finchers 'Fight Club'  which he had pastiched from a famous film 'Apocalypse Now' where Marlon Brando's character descends into utter madness.

As you can see in my Digipak I have used a mixture of dark and light lighting this is a representation of my characters painful and dark past with the enlightenment behind exploring the mistakes he made and looking for retribution for this. This is also apparent in my video and is why I had shown the narrative about his past in black and white while the performance shots contained a lot of dark lighting. This combined with bright lighting in some of the narrative that contains this disgust in his actions and pain this has caused him as he realises his mistakes. This is again shown in my poster even with a bright orange filter exposing the lighting along with the bright “energy” around him that represents his enlightenment. However even in this Photo the artist is shown half in darkness this is once again to represent the darkness in his past what he attempting to get over.

            

Throughout making both of my ancillary texts and my main Production I spent a lot of time speaking to members of my target audience. I would be asking for their opinion on what they would expect to see in an artist like this. This led to most of my creative decisions being made. From the appearance of my artist to the way I represented the narrative of my video. After producing my ancillary and main products I presented them to my focus group and they all agreed that this is what they would have expected to see from an artist of this genre. These choices I made due to their feedback seemed to work well within the combination of my texts.

Throughout my Texts I used a lot of different technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of the creation of my artist. I was originally using software on computers to note down my planning (props needed, locations etc.), my shooting script, designing my storyboards. These were useful as at anytime I could add, re-draft and edit things to any of these stages in my planning.

When filming and doing my photo shoots I used a Nikon DSLR Digital camera, which filmed in up to 1080p. I used this as I could adjust the settings such as, aperture, focus etc. with this I also used extra lighting equipment such as LED panels and a LED camera mount. I also used both Strobe and Continues lighting during my photo shoots I used these to capture the appropriate lighting for the representation I was attempting to get across.

I also used many software on computers for my editing and Post production additions. I used Final Cut Express to edit my video as it is a useful non-linear editing software that enabled me to use effects such as colour corrector and many more to get the representation I was attempting to capture within my video. For my Post-production I used Live type to add my titles and writing onto my ancillary texts. I used Photoshop to edit my ancillary texts. As it also enables me to edit the still images in a way, which captures the representation, I was attempting to achieve within my video. So throughout every step of the process of creating this artist to the evaluation staged of my production I have used several technologies’ that have enabled me to capture the image I wanted for these texts.