Our music video, I wish you love, was based around the singer, Luke, throwing a glamorous party. There were many parts of the video in which we created to enhance the atmosphere of the video and leave a greater effect on the viewers.
Above is one of the opening shots to our music video, the way that the lights of the car look in the fog create a mysterious aspect to the video. This is because of the effect that is created due to the weather, also, because of the dark surroundings and the 'flashy' car, makes the audience feel as if somebody important is arriving at the event. This creates the feeling of anticipation because the viewer is waiting to see who will be emerging from the car, this form of convention is used in many music videos. For example, there are other ways in which music videos use different forms of conventions. When audiences are watching a Hip-Hop video, for example, they will expect to see:
- The singer most of the time
- Set in a lively environment. E.g. Party or Club
- Advertising expensive and glamorous items. E.g. Branded clothing, expensive jewellery
- Consisting of alcohol and women not fully clothed
An example of this type of convention is 50 Cents video - In Da Club. Featuring him at a party, the points above are what people are expecting to see in the video.
The second room in the video is of Luke walking through with ballerinas dancing around him while he walks back. Due to them circling him this creates the convention that he is important and enhances the idea that he is a handsome, wealthy and important person. The still below shows the scene of Luke waking through the room. It supports the convention of the use of girls in most male videos, but due to it being a calm video, the ballerinas make the scene look elegant and is still what people are expecting to see due to the glamorous feel of the video. The use of girls dancing around the male singer is popular in videos, but it is either done in two ways:
- In a tasteful and elegant way like our video which is below
- In a non tasteful way with girls wearing hardly any clothes like the still below the image from our video is from the video Low by Flo Rida
As you can see above there are girls swarming him but due to the lighting and their dress code you get the feeling that it is not an elegant event but then again this is one of the conventions of this genre of music videos.
The shot where Luke is back out of the orchestra room and into the second room again but this time it is converted into a room which is throwing a massive party. This is a clear convention of videos which are throwing parties due to the lights, loud music, party decorations and a large amount of people having a good time. So that the scenes in the background of Luke would go with his singing and the beat of the song we made sure that we entered the rooms at specific timing to go with the different verses and different instruments used. The still below is from the second room which is a convention of a typical party, people expect to see everything that is going on in the shot that we created.
A music video using the same conventions as us is One Direction's song Live while we're young. They show the same conventions as we do, which are:
- Crowded location
- People having fun
- Colourful lighting used
They show what people are clearly expecting to see in these scenes, enhancing the mood that goes with it by increasing the amount of people there and using artificial lighting to create a light mood. Below is a still from their video which clearly shows the conventions of a music video displaying a party scene.
The use of props is vital in a music video, it enhances the mood in which you are portraying. In our music video we not only wanted to make it classy but also applying the use of 'randomness' in the video. This is because all the little props is a convention in which people would be surprised about, for example the use of the bear creates this light, happy mood which brings peoples moods up. It shows the audience that even though the video is showing an elegant party, it still provides the chill, laid back and calm factor from not only the tune of the song but props like this. We also added product placement to the first few scenes, we did this by adding a Perroni beer bottle to the scene. This helps the starts image due to him advertising the product and essentially himself. Below is a shot from the scene where the bear is included, and below that is a shot of the beer which we used.
Below is an example from real media conventions in which they use product placement swell. Justin Bieber is seen in his video All I want for Christmas is you running over to a Nintendo 3DS. This gives the company instant recognition and would clearly boost sales due to how big of a star Bieber is and how many fans he has.
Another artist following this convention is Taylor Swift in her video We are never ever ever getting back together. She contradicts her lyrics by adding the use of animal costumes, this is due to her lyrics being like girl-power and rejecting boys so in a way is more sad yet she uses the 'randomness' of animal costumes. This is a convention people did not expect because of the theme and mood of the lyrics. Below is a still from her video supporting this point.
In our video we used a Steadicam to video our whole video, this form of media products is something that not many people use so it creates a unique aspect to our video. It also challenges the convention of music videos always being small shots put together. This means that our video has a original aspect to it and draws peoples attention to our video. We would be unable to do the video without the Steadicam, it created this smooth flowing look to our video which enhanced the classy aspect to the video. It also allowed us to easily get lip-synch close ups, this meant that we could easily market Luke as a singer and his star image.
Media Theorist Pete Fraser said "It is the lip-synch close-up and the miming of playing instrument that remains at the heart of the music videos, as if to assure the band really can kick it."
The shot below is an example from our music video of how smooth the frame looks due to using a Steadicam. There is no possibility of us doing the video without using this advanced form of equipment.
There are many things within the video which represents intertextuality, this is when there are hidden meanings in videos which enhances the overall feel of the video. For example, in our video we had formal attire which represented the intertexuality of throwing a party, as well as the use of champagne flutes and the lighting. We also added the use of balloons because we believe that not only did it attract the viewer to the screen but it bonded well with the mood of the video, allowing the audience to get truly involved.
Below is a shot from our video which displays the use of the balloons and lighting, it shows how the mood is enhanced by just this one small frame.
We ended the music video with a 'bang'. We decided to use fireworks to finish the video still in feel of the party, fun and laid back feel to it. This challenged the audience due to contradicting the conventions of the video, surprising them by using the fireworks. Steadicam enhanced the professional look of our video and kept the audience intrigued until the end. Below is a final frame from our video.
We also created a CD digipak to go along with the campaign. We kept the classy feel from the music video to the digipak to keep a consistent feel throughout the campaign created. Below is the final product.
We decided to not use an image of our artist for the front cover. This instantly challenges conventions of real life albums. This is because normally new and up and coming artists have an image of themselves on the front cover, to let people know what they look like. But, throughout the music video you are constantly getting a close up of Luke's face. We decided to challenge the conventions and show something different. This is why we displayed an image of a landscape, but still incorporating links to the music video in it by adding the balloon. Below is an image from an up and coming singer called Tom Odell. It shows he sticks to the conventions by having a large image of him on his front cover. This is good for singers like him but because we wanted to develop and challenge the conventions of real media products we decided against using an image of Luke.
Jack Johnson, an artist we relate to Luke, also contradicts the forms and conventions of real media products by using a tree as his album cover. But he does keep links to his music video by adding in the guitar. However, there is a difference between Luke and Johnson because Johnson is a well established artist and people already know his face.
So, I looked at another up and coming singer called Ben Howard. He is not only like luke in the sense that he is starting to break into the music world but he is also an artist that has the same brand image as Luke. He's cool, calm, handsome and challenges the conventions of media products. As his album cover he uses an image that is not of him. But, he relates it to his star image, that being all about his music and not needing any glamourous and 'in your face' images as your front cover. Which is exactly what we wanted to do for Luke. He also keeps the lettering of his name and name of album simple, and bold. For our artist, Luke, he does use conventions of real media products by keeping his name larger then the album name, like Howard, because he is up and coming and his face is not on the front cover his name needs to stand out.
Artists that are not like Luke, Howard, Odell and Johnson like to use their synthetic star image as their advantage. Using 'plastic' looking images as their front cover, by this I mean the use of over the top and images to enhance their star image. Showing fans that they care a lot about their look. Britney Spears is a great example as she shows an over edited and over the top image as one of her album covers, an artist completely different to Luke.
