Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?


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

Location:
Music videos of Dance genre often use busy places such as towns, clubs or festivals in order to match the tempo of the song. Our music video goes against this convention as our locations only showed our actors, props and what we wanted to be in shot, but in order to create the pace within the shot we used choppy and fast cuts in sequences, as we wanted the powder paint to be the main focus of the shot and also as our music video is concept based we think it made it easier for our audience to understand what is going on, as the lyrics do not link to what is happening therefore making it vital for the audience to watch what is happening in order for them to understand the music video. This can be seen in a few dance music videos such as Bingo Players ft. Far East Movement- Get Up (rattle) as what is happening throughout the music video has no relevance to the lyrics. Also, the other location of the studio allows the audience to juxtapose the paint fight and also represent John Newmans image and style as he has developed a very retro, smart style as our music we chose was a remix, we wanted to show both pop and dance genre throughout the music video.

Lighting:
The lighting conventions of dance music videos, is generally bright and bold as everything in shot is intended to be there and be seen. The lighting throughout our music video is generally the same in our various locations as it intends to be bright to emphasise the colour of the powder paint and the actors, although the lighting in the studio is more so made to resemble a set up as a result making it appear slightly darker as it is using other equipment to reflect it on to the set.

Colour:
Colour of the powder paint is used in our music video to represent the issues and problems of the actors, although could also be interpreted as the things that they have done wrong individually and as a result they have been scarred by this, the clothes worn by the actors, are plain in order to emphasise this and show there initial innocence.

Costume:
For the studio location we wanted it appear to be a dinner set up and that the actors were in a day to day set up therefore, the actors would be dressed casually.The actors wore smart, plain clothing in the paint powder fight shots in order to show John Newmans representation and also goes against conventions of how women are represented in dance music videos, as Laura Mulveys, male gaze theory can often be applied to dance music videos as we have represented the main actresses as independent for example. close up shot, also we wanted plain clothing for this sequence in order to emphasise the colour.

Sound:
Dance music videos do not tend to use non diagetic sound, as result we chose to only have the music as sound for our product. Although we did find some dance music videos which used elements of non diagetic sound as, they fit in with the visuals shown for example. Don't You Worry Child- Swedish House Mafia as the music video shows a collaboration of shots from various festivals.

Camera:
From our research we found there is often a wide variety of cuts and camera angles used throughout dance music videos. We chose to use panning rotation shot in the studio scene in order to make the audience feel as though they are gaining an overall perspective of what is happening throughout the sequence, also the wide shots used in studio scene suggests the distance between the couple, whilst quickly going to a close up of the phone suggesting this is the main cause of their argument, furthermore as the actors start arguing we chose to use close ups and mid shot types because it would make the audience feel as though they are getting involved within the argument and make the sequence feel more intense especially when the actors start physical argument.
The camera angles used in the powder paint fight sequence use a variety of wide, mid and close ups.
The close ups of the individual actors creates distortion initially within the music video as it makes the audience question who are the main focus within the shots, and also makes them question what has happened as the first shots seen are of the actors feet covered in paint. Also, the two shots showing the main actors focused in the middle show they are being backed up by other people and suggests an element of empowerment. Towards the end of our music video a variety of different camera angles are used to show the couple making up and various other shots of the actors looking less intense as they have come to a resolution for example. the mid two shot of the actors smiling and dancing

Editing:
This was a very important part of creating our music video as Dance music videos require lots of choppy shots and various other post production techniques. In order to create the effect of an argument we chose to overlay footage of the two main actors in their individual shots over smashing plates in order to literally illustrate the argument and disruption caused but it also, allowed us to distort the images as we also used this method during our choppy sequences in order to regain the tempo of the song as at different points in the music it would slow down. During our music video and more so towards the end we chose to use a reverse effect in order to show the resolution of the argument for example. the reversal of plates smashing we thought this would be a simple way to symbolise the couple resolving their fight and also juxtapose the choppy sequence prior to this.

-We also considered Firths 1998 theory which suggests that music videos are in three categories: concept, narrative and performance



  • Our music video used a combination of all three of these elements as our concept sequence was the paint powder fight because some shots do not link to the lyrics and the overall concept of the music video and uses the powder to symbolise.




The narrative was the studio shots
between the two actors, as the shots used the lyrics in order to represent the argument between the couple for example "know i've done wrong, left your heart torn"








The performance element of our music video does not use our actual performer although we have used close up shots of lip synching in order to create an element of this in our product as this is what often happens in dance music videos for example. Dibby Dibby Sound- DJ Fresh.





-Goodwins music video theory, suggested links are created between lyrics and visuals in music videos, we did this with our product as the lyrics say  'can you love me again, again , again' as the fast, choppy sequence begins repeating itself, in contrast to this it is also suggested music and visuals link to each other, as a result we chose to juxtapose the rapid sequence with slow motion shots of plates smashing and the actors fighting, to emphasise this change in pace and also to show audience the relationship between the song and image they can see.