Evaluation Question 1

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

Performance music videos pre-date the 1980s. Before MTV, performance music videos were exactly as the term suggested, music performances captured on video. These were used solely as promotion and often called "the promo clips." The rise of MTV started a creative fervor to explore the medium further. Armond White in a New York Press article wrote "The popularity of music video derived from the new thrill of putting imagery to music, the surprise of making graphics out of the beat."

Our music video uses a variety of music video conventions throughout, which is what we were aiming to do with our task, but also challenges any of them along with the production of it aswell.

Performance videos Are mostly used by bands.This type of video is used for bands because this makes the viewer absorbed in the energy of the performance.Our group decided this was the best type of video to create , firstly because as a consumer we enjoy watching these types of music videos and secondly we believed we could create an authentic performance videos by using the conventions of a music video.The group at first was thinking of maybe using a narrative for the video but we all agreed the style and genre of the band was best suited a video focuses on them performing.

To make the video realistic to our target viewer we had to use the conventions of a performance video such as

- Quick cuts
- A variety of camera shots
- A combination of camera angles used
- A well lit set
- The correct camera movement

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Firstly we used a lot of the usual conventions of media products by using a lot of the ordinary, basic shots that can be found in many famous music videos, this makes the music video easily viewable for our audience and easily accessible.The shots we aimed (and succeeded) in using the singers face shot,

this seems to hold some importance as it lets the audience quickly develop an unspoken connection with the singer in the video, as if he (the singer) is singing to the audience himself, it also identifies them to the audience letting them know who it is, and making it easily recognizable for later on,a very usual convention of music videos. The shots in the video use are mainly close ups , focusing on the performers eyes , mouth and face to connect the emotion of the performance between the audience and the band.This is also to make sure that the viewer can identify who the lead singer is in the band.

In our video we have a lot of guitar solos , so Alex ,Sarah and I thought i was necessary to put close ups of the solos in the video so that when the viewer watches the video they need to know where the sounds are coming from.The close ups were used to see finger work and to get the viewer involved with the song and beat.In a performance video close ups of different parts of the drum are used to give the sense of rhythm to the viewer.

I feel the group and I have successfully utilized typical conventions in media through our shot choices, using classic and recognizable methods of shooting our band for example switching between the instruments and vocals.The Editing was synchronized with the pace of the music which matches the convention of a performance video giving the viewer a video easy on the eye to watch.
above you can see the drummer in the foo fighters video "pretender" and the one in ours, the shots and camera movements are exactly the same.Music videos give a voyeur impression on the viewer so i believe our video looks professional because our camera movement makes the viewer seem like they are there on the stage with the group.The combination of shots and angles makes the video look professional just like a real media product, below is more comparisons on conventional shots in a performance video which we have used.