Evaluation 1 (Joe)

Genre:
The Genre of our music video is Alternative Rock, a genre that emerged from the independent underground in 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. Alternative Rock differs from mainstream Rock due to its general nonchalant, defiant attitude and other individual differences in each song. Some bands whose music falls under this genre include Green Day, The Black keys, Franz Ferdinand and more. Alternative Rock videos do have forms and conventions, like most genres, however the videos often differ from one another in order to show creativity. Below are some videos that can our music video can relate to and showing some of the forms and conventions of this genre that we followed.
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Music Videos relatable to ours:

Red Hot Chilli Peppers-Under The Bridge:

Much like ours, this video has a shot of the lead singer singing whilst walking down the road, being part of the narrative, as well as him standing still or with a band member, performing. We also do this in our video, with the lead singer walking down the road singing whilst reminiscing on his past. This is him being part of the narrative whilst still singing, showing how the lyrics relate to the characters life. Then, to show his role in and to promote the band, we also see him performing with the other members. However, our song is much slower than this one, therefore we have our main singer walking slower, and have the camera facing him front on to show the emotion in his face.

Left-shot of of our main singer walking down the road singing. Right-close up of the singer whilst performing.



Royal Blood- Little Monster:
This video relates to our one because there are many close ups of band members performing together. For example, in our video we have close ups and different shots of him and the other members performing. This video has no narrative but instead is many shots of the band performing, this works well with this song because it is an upbeat song meaning the editing could be faster and more shots could be experimented with and put together. However, our song once again is quite slow so we decided to have a narrative mixed with performance of the band because if we had a video of just the band performing, it would be quite boring. Also, the black and white filter gives a very Alternative Rock effect, We used a filter as well that gives the same effect.

Left-close up of the guitarist in the band.
Right-shot of the drummer.

Green Day-Wake me up when September ends:
This video, much like ours, has a narrative mixed with a performance from the band. The narrative of Green Day's song is similar to ours as it too puts a heavily important role of a girl and what impact she has on a guy, in our case the lead singer. The performance in the video on the left is a lot more glamorous than ours, this is partly because we had no budget and Green Day did but also, we wanted to give the indie effect of an upcoming band. However, our video and Green Day's both have the performance at the end of the song where each song livens up.

 Left-long shot showing the couple together.
Right-shot of the band performing.


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Conventions of music videos in general:
Through my research i have found many different conventions of music videos in general. Goodwin's theory, explained many conventions that fall under the majority of music videos today. However, I have found other conventions of what tends to be involved in music videos. Below are 7 key conventions of music videos with examples of how we followed these conventions.

1- There is a relationship between the visuals and lyrics
We based our whole narrative around the lyrics, however, the lyrics do not give a clear story but give suggestions for what may have happened, allowing us to be creative with constructing the narrative. Our narrative follows the main singer story; reminiscing on the good times with his girlfriend who he has just broken up with. We analysed the lyrics and thought that the song was about a break up due to lines such as:
"So what did they tell you that made you run?"
"But you don't need me"
"What did you mean when you said enough?"

2- There is a relationship between the visuals and music
Being a slow song, meant that we had a lot of slow shots connected through transitions to complement the tempo of the song. If we were to use fast editing and short shots it would contradict the music, this would be more suitable for an upbeat rock song.Also, we included lip synching, and guitar and drum playing to the beat so it looked like the actors were playing the actual song.

3- There is a different style for each genre, as a genre changes so does the characteristics within the video
Our video followed the conventions of our genre. This genre often involves a performance from the band alongside or instead of a narrative. Ours was a mix of both narrative and performance and followed the Alternative Rock style of both, with the narrative relating to the lyrics with an indie edge to it and for the performance side, close ups and emphasis on the band members.

4- Voyeurism takes place(tends to be towards women)
Voyeurism towards women does not take place in our video because it would work in opposition to the lyrics and music in the song. However, the role of women and the impact that they have on men is explored through our video.

5- There is a demand for close ups of the vocalist/main artist
We use a few of close ups of the lead singer in our video, as well as shots primarily on other band members as well. We kept in mind that this is a major convention of music videos as it makes the artist or band recognisable. To make sure that it wasn't boring, we ensured that we used different shots, experimenting with different angles.

6- There is a narrative and/or performance from the band or artist
We used both a narrative and band performance for different reasons. Firstly, we wanted the lyrics to relate to the video at the same time as promoting band. Also, our song is quite slow and if we had purely performance or narrative I believe that the audience would get bored. Finally, using a narrative and performance based video we were able to use, experiment and develop our media skills.

7- There is a range of different media techniques explored(cinematography, editing etc.)
In order to keep our music video interesting and entertaining we chose to use a variety of cinematography and post production techniques. Some of the techniques that we used are below:

On the left is the shot of our main singer leaning on a tree singing, with the camera panning around him.

The right picture shows a transitional effect that we added in post production of our video.

The left picture shows a shot of a guitar becoming focused, shown on the right.

 On the right is an over the shoulder shot of the main artist looking at a photo.

On the right is a print screen of a mid transition going from the singer ripping up the photo and dropping it into the pond to him walking down a path.







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 Borrowing and Subverting conventions from Genres:
Alternative Rock songs vary very much, they can go from being like any old rock video to just downright outrageous. For example, some videos for Alternative Rock videos have no relevance to their songs in order to be different to all others. Audiences tend to either think the videos are amazing or they are left speechless and not in a good way. Below are some examples of Alternative Rock videos that differ from all others.

The Black Keys-Lonely Boy:
This video is nothing but a random man dancing and lip synching to the bands song, there is no sign of the band or a narrative. Many crazy videos like this one fall under the Alternative Rock genre. Even though it does include lip synching and dancing that relates to the music and lyrics, as well as being quite entertaining, there is a lack of media skills involved, which is why we did not make a video like this one.

Franz Ferdinand- Take me out:
This is another very unique video, one that is basically a performance from the band surrounded by what can only be explained as madness. This video is full of chaos and its hard to say what is going on, yet the audience feels to watch on. This video works well in time with the music however, and it is also quite an entertaining video. However, there is not much cinematography skills explored, but instead a lot of post production, where a lot of money would have been involved, which is why we did not make a video like this one.



As a group, we chose to stay clear of videos such as these mainly because it is hard to make videos like this entertaining to the audience as well as it showing a lack of media skills. Also, we believed that our narrative fitted well with the music and lyrics. As well as subverting the convention of being extremely different, we also borrowed conventions from another genre. Our general narrative arguably would fall more suitably under the pop genre where the story is about a girl and a boy, in our case focusing on their break up. However, we didn't want to divert too much from the Alternative Rock genre or the lyrics so unlike typical Pop videos, there is a lack of a happy ending and sense of realism.
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The Digipak:
When designing our digipak, we had to keep in mind what general and specifically Alternative Rock examples consisted of. Digipaks tend to consist or a front cover, back cover, an inside cover, a CD slot and additional pages inside such as lyric booklets or extra small pictures. We managed to incorporate all of these into our own digipak. It is arguably the front and back covers that are most important for a digipak and a lot can be told from these and it is these that encourage people to buy the albums, therefore I have found an example of an Alternative Rock front and back cover below and how ours relates to them.

Arctic Monkeys- Whatever people say I am that's what I'm not:
On the left are the front and back cover to an Arctic Monkeys album. The covers are relatable to ours in many ways, and I believe that this album is a great example of an Alternative Rock album. For example, like ours the album is in black and white, giving an alternative effect to it. This album choose to use a filter for the front as well as the back colour to ensure they compliment each other instead of contrasting which we chose to do as well. However, the front and back cover pictures are almost identical, apart from how the artist is singing, whereas ours consists of our lead singer on the front, and a picture of all of the band on the back. We chose to do this to advertise the band as a whole whilst still putting focus on the lead singer. Excluding the pictures used for the covers, our front and back cover is very identifiable with the Arctic Monkeys one. Firstly, the front cover consists of a simple photo with the Arctic Monkeys logo on it,where as ours is the same, plus the name of the album as well. Secondly, the back cover includes a lot of the same characteristics as the one on the left, such as the tracklist, barcode, production company and website addresses that have additional information. These are things that are generally on the back of most albums so we made sure that we incorporated them whilst still giving and Alternative Rock feel to it, which I feel we did successfully.
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The Magazine Advert:

Much like our digipak, when desigining our magazine advert we had to keep in mind what the conventions of magazine adverts for Alternative Rock albums consisted of. On the right is the perfect example of what we believed needed to be included and therefore used in our own advert. First of all the bands name is clear and stands out at the top of the page to initially promote the band itself. Also, the name of the album which is why the advert is there stands out secondly with a big picture of the front cover of this album so that audiences know what to look out for. The name of some of the singles are also on the album so if a reader is familiar with them then they are likely to give the rest of the album a listen. The very important information that is the release date is also on the page so that people know exactly when they can purchase the album. Like on ours, there is also additional website links at the bottom as well as production companies. However, this advert does not include reviews of the album which we have, and believe to be very persuasive in adverts.