Evaluation Question 1

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

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? From the beginning of the project it was clear that the products that we were going to make had to in some way use, develop or/and challenge the conventions of similar products that already exist. Before even starting our work on this project the work we did for our AS grade showed how important it is to make a product that would fit in with existing products. The cello plays an important role in the song so it is showcased. The first choices we made that directly influenced the forms and conventions we had to look into were the initial choice to make a music video of 'Secrets' by One Republic and the follow up choice that it would be a performance style video. One Republic is an American alternative rock band who released 'Secrets' in the album 'Waking up' in November 2009. Focusing our research on the alternative music genre was the first step on way way in the project. Due to the high diversity, alternative rock as a whole is a very wide genre of music so finding conventions that occur in every single video is impossible. However, there are many conventions that are common among them. Performance videos (or semi-performance videos,) for example are quite common among alternative rock music videos. This could be partly due to the fact that alternative rock bands often have diverse and interesting instruments, not generally found in regular pop or rock bands. For example both a violin and a cello are used in 'Secrets' by One Republic and 'Bittersweet Symphony' by the Verve. These instruments define these songs and make them unique and so we decided to showcase them in our video. This also occurs in the official video for 'Secrets' with many close-ups and medium shots. More so than the violin, cello or any other instrument, the singer has to be showcased. This is a broad convention that is important throughout any genre of music. The singer has the most attention of all of the band members and usually is the star of the video even if it is narrative based. This is because the lead singer acts as the 'face' of the band. A band's image is formed through the energy and appearance of the singer in videos and at concerts as well as through the music itself. Another common theme is to have the singer look directly at the camera for much of the video. This creates a connection between the song and the audience and makes the video more enjoyable to watch. We included this aspect in our video (shown above) to great effect. The other band members that were shown in our video did not look into the camera like the lead singer as this was also common throughout alternative rock videos. They are depicted focusing on their instrument, moving their head to the music and sometimes closing their eyes. Instead of focusing on their gaze, the instruments and the manual dexterity of the musicians were outlined with close ups on their fingers whilst playing or shots of the drums being hit etc. This is another common convention among performance videos as it shows of the musicians' skill and has potential to emphasise each instrument's key moments.Setting was another key choice in the making of our music video. Many performance music videos are set in wide open places with the band in the center. This creates a cool effect and we wanted to do something similar. Early in the development stage we created a mind map linking words from the song to other things that we could use throughout the project. One of these themes was the idea of 'confessions' developed from the title, 'Secrets'. This word gave birth to the church setting idea that went on to become the final location of the video. The church we eventually did the filming in had a wide area to work with similar to the open areas in existing music videos such as Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Fortune Faded' and the Kaiser Chiefs' 'Never Miss a Beat'.