​A2 Media Studies

When it came to my A2 advanced portfolio I was required to have an understanding in to the typical conventions of our chosen genre- Acoustic Singer Songwriter/Acoustic Folk Rock so that I was aware of what videos within the genre usually contain, what’s typical and what’s classed as challenging the ‘norm’. However, although I was required to be able to identify typical conventions so I could either use, develop or challenge them within our final piece I always ensured we thought about a theory quote by Steve Neale who believed ‘genres are instances of repetition and difference’; therefore, bearing this in mind I knew that it was important to both show ‘family resemblances’ (Swales) to what people see as typical for our genre as well as making it different and unique so essentially it’s more appealing and more likely to sell. I thought it was particularly important to include the element of both especially with Christian Smith being an unknown unsigned artist that we had to market and brand therefore, achieving the right balance between using conventions and challenging conventions was important. Therefore, when it comes to using, developing or challenging the forms and conventions of real and typical media products for our genre this meant showcasing this via camerawork, editing, Mise-en scene and to an extent sound.

 

We decided on the acoustic singer songwriter genre with the Folk Rock element as not only was this a genre we all enjoyed but it was also a genre we felt we would be able to do a lot with when it came to the creative elements as we knew that this genre often tended to be sentimental songs with a meaning or a story and we knew that by keeping this in mind we would be able to have a hybrid of both a narrative and performance based video that our target demographic which we were easily able to identify would be able to get involved within and connect to on an emotional level. After choosing our genre we were required to find an unsigned artist for us to use for our video whether it was purely the music or the artist themselves. Due to picking our genre before this then meant we needed to find an artist within this genre and after looking on sound cloud etc. we found a website called Reverbnation which was extremely beneficial to us as we were able to look at unsigned artists specifically within the genre we had specified and then came across Christian Smith who at that time was currently ranked at NO.1 and after listening to his songs knew that there were a few with the potential to do what we wanted in terms of a narrative and performance; we also found out he was located in Cambridge which left the option open for us to potentially use him to star in the video itself.

 

The main task we did in order to obtain a thorough understanding of conventions was via our music video analysis’ in our research stage where we were required to analyse up to 20 music videos within the genre to see what they typically showed or if any of them challenged certain aspects. Although I produced less than the 20 analysis I felt I gained a lot from doing this in terms of giving me an insight in to how music videos within our chosen genre are constructed and what conventions did the genre typically use and portray and why perhaps this is.

Reflecting back on the videos I analysed there were actually only a couple that were narrative and performance based much less than me and my group anticipated and instead found a lot of the videos tended to be conceptual with the combination of performance yet again songs that did have meaning and a story behind it were carried out as a narrative video. However, we stuck to our decision of wanting to do a narrative and performance based video and although you could say this challenges the typical forms of a music video within this genre we felt this would work best especially after choosing a song by Christian Smith called Bruises which tells a personal story of love and heartbreak after he reflects upon a relationship but one that is now over because the girl he was with went off with someone else. This is a typical kind of love story seen within videos like boy meets girl, all happy and then the horrid break-up however, this song also allowed the audience to see the journey the artist had made which is something we wanted to portray within our video in terms of looking at the past and present via a narrative which supports conventions to an extent in that our genre does produce typically sentimental songs.

 

Unlike the pop genre which is dominated by women, the acoustic folk rock genre I believed from carrying out my research is led predominantly by males more so than females as looking at the analysis I done 8 out of the 10 were males stars although the other two I did were on the same female star which reinforces the clear divide in gender within this genre. We did actually choose to use this typical convention in that we too choose to use a male star/artist for our video and we also opted to use the artist in the video in both the performance and narrative elements although the person we used was an actor as when it came to the planning we found it difficult to organise for the artist himself to feature in the video and in terms of accessibility and location etc so chose to have an actor feature as Christian Smith. By having the star himself feature in it I would say again that it  supports the typical conventions as nearly all of the videos I analysed featured the artist with the exception of Ed Sheeran who often used a female star or puppet and barely features however, for our video we wanted the artist to feature throughout and often took inspiration from Mumford and Sons when it came to the performance elements in particular as well as the font style/typography which we kept consistent throughout in order to create an identity and branding.

 

In terms of locations used within the video this consists of a stage for the performance elements which uses the typical conventions as we did find performance elements to be apparent throughout all the videos we analysed although location did vary however, we looked at videos such as Mumford and Sons and Passenger etc and felt a stage reinforced the genre and the performance side of things yet by choosing to keep it casual and isolated by having no crowd and the artist sitting on the stage it also linked nicely to the narrative side of our video and the feeling of being alone etc. We also used the beach for both the flashbacks and current day and felt this was a really good setting to use in terms of capturing the desired effect we wanted which in the past was romance and in the present serves as a reminder of being alone and although I wouldn’t say this is a location typically found within our chosen genre in particular I do believe it’s a location quite commonly used within videos in general; other locations we used included a bowling alley, an arcade, town, a field and a house/bedroom. These are all relatively normal locations and we felt by using locations like this especially being a new artist it made the audience feel like the artist doesn’t think he’s above everyone else which links to Dyer’s paradoxes of being ordinary and extraordinary and we also found its typical within our chosen genre for the locations to be relatively normal as artists within the genre often like to keep things minimalistic with an emphasis on the music and we also wanted to do this in order to make the narrative of the story believable in terms of going on dates and a relationship etc. In terms of editing, the transitions we used were mainly fades with some straight cuts when applicable and we felt this worked particularly well with our flashbacks in which we also applied a film burn which we had seen in previous videos but not necessarily ones within our genre which allowed us to develop upon conventions; we also applied a colour corrector on the performance elements known as ‘crushing the blacks’ which deals with the shadowed areas in the frame and on the flashbacks not only had the film burn but a sepia effect to keep the distinction between the past and present clear which I think we achieved and we challenged and developed the typical conventions as this isn’t something I’ve seen done in the same way in our genre before.  Furthermore, another editing technique we did was zooming some of the clips in but opted to use throughout our entire video mainly long shots and mid shots rather than close-ups as we found within our genre unlike pop artists they didn’t really use close-ups as they don’t usually want all the attention and focus even if they’re starring in it already anyway as they usually want the focus to be on the lyrics and the music which I think is a convention we met in that everything we did reflected the song but we did it in a way that allowed it to be interesting and to an extent identifiable with our target demographic. By using long shots as well it reinforced the isolation and loneliness that we hear within the song and by using long and mid shots allows the location in which we filmed to be shown off such as the stage, town, beach etc. In terms of the lip synching I found within all videos that the actual singing of the song was very important within the genre and was very often the main part of the entire video however, we really wanted to put an emphasis on our narrative elements to make it different but I did ensure we had more lip synching in it than we necessarily intended as I felt this was important for our genre and in terms of making it believable and professional. By choosing a stage for the performance elements of the song it could be perceived as typical but it reinforces our genre and the typical conventions and worked well as a contrast in our video between the current day and the past which was further enhanced by the effects we layered over them both to make it more apparent.

 

In terms of Mise-en scene in particularly lighting I believe we challenged and developed this in that a lot of the videos I analysed previously tended to use low key lighting whereas, within our video we used high key lighting and natural lighting and although using low key lighting we could have connoted the dark mood I felt we still achieved this in a better way by the use of editing effects and the way in which we had carried out the video in terms of camerawork and the storyline. One of the big things that we wanted to make apparent within our music video, digipak and magazine advert was the use of the guitar as this is the most significant thing within our genre and therefore should be the one that is emphasised the most. Therefore, not only is the guitar used in all the performance elements but can be seen when Ryan is walking on the beach on his own and is used within the magazine advert and in a lot of the digipak panel shots as this emphasises the music and again uses the convention of the artist not being the central focus. In addition in terms of costumes we kept the costumes casual to allow the audience to feel on the same level and keep in line with the ordinary aspect within Dyer’s paradoxes. This uses the typical conventions of our genre in that men within the genre often wear smart casual clothes but equally I think at times we challenged this especially on the performance elements in which he is featured wearing very casual clothes consisting of jogging bottoms and a baseball top and if anything within our genre it’s during the performance elements in which the artist is seen at his best. However, we didn’t intend for our artist to wear this and did want him to come in wearing something a bit smarter which if we were to do this again is definitely one thing we would alter in order to develop the typical conventions. Another thing we used in terms of costumes was the presence of Ryan wearing the same blue plimsolls throughout as this allowed a direct link between all three media products we produced and we also developed conventions when it came to font in that we used both a serif font and sans serif but kept these two fonts and styles the same throughout all three texts so that the audience could easily make intertextual links between all of them and chose for them to be in black or white throughout to ensure clarity and easiness to read.

 

Overall I’m really pleased with how me and my group were able to utilise both instances of repetition and difference within our video and although we used the typical conventions we were also able to develop and challenge conventions in order to make our video interesting, unique and diverse in comparison to songs and music videos similar. I believe the finished result of our music video is a clear representation of the acoustic folk rock genre and it’s by the use of using a mix between typical and untypical conventions that our target demographic are able to easily identify our genre which we also found to be the case for the magazine advert and digipak as well when we carried out audience feedback but while maintaining the interest and attention by producing texts that stand out within the genre for being different in some aspects.