analyse one of your coursework products in relation to genre

Media texts rely on audience’s previous knowledge of codes and conventions in order to be understood and well-received. I researched and applied many conventions of other media texts to my A2 music video – a task which enabled my group and I to create a realistic and appropriate music video to a song as well as establishing a brand-new artist or group. Thus, Alleyways, an electro-alternative four-piece, were born, performing a music video to their debut single, Fast in my Car.

Andrew Goodwin’s theory states that music videos follow several generic conventions. For example, he believes that companies use the star performer’s image and push it through close-ups to sell them to the audience; voyeuristic images are used to sell a media product to an audience; intertextual references are used; there is a link between the lyrics and visuals; there is a link between the visuals and the music. He said that conventions depend on the genre of the music.

My group conformed to this theory as we used lots of conventions of other similar-genre music videos. We studied many other similar-sounding artists and their videos in order to replicate these conventions. Particular artists we studied were The 1975, Charli XCX, CHVRCHES and PVRIS. The 1975 heavily influenced us through their contrasting use of both black and white and bright colours, as seen in their ‘Girls’ video. We applied this to our own music video. The band also use black and white throughout all of their marketing schemes, as do PVRIS. We adopted this convention and translated it across all of our ancillary texts – our website and digipak etc. were all in black and white. Something else which influenced both our music video and ancillary texts is CHVRCHES use of silhouetting in their ‘Lies’ music video. Another aesthetic commonly used in similar-genre videos is the use of interesting/’pretty’ lighting. Fairy lights, neon lights and bonfires are common in alternative and electronic videos, which we incorporated into our video.

We conformed to Goodwin’s idea of pushing the star performer through close-ups. I, as the frontwoman of Alleyways, was seen alone in several shots in the video, very close up to the camera. Even in shots of the whole group, I stood further forward than the rest of the members. There are particular shots where all band members are seen but just my head is seen as I am extremely close to the lens. However, we subverted from this, too, through our use of silhouetting. The theory behind the silhouette is that we are all equal; you cannot tell who is who.

We did not include voyeuristic images in our music video or ancillary texts as this isn’t a convention of any of the genres we were included in (rock, electronic, alternative). Voyeuristic images are more a convention of pop music videos and are used as a way to sell the artist to the audience in a very personal, bare-all way.

We included a link between the lyrics and the visuals immediately; the first shots are of the band getting picked up in a car and the choruses show the band through a GoPro having a party in a car which links to the predominant lyrics ‘We’re driving fast in my car’. Little sections of the song also include links through the video; the lyric ‘We get along so sweetly’ is accompanied by the group putting their arms around each other and huddling closely to depict a very close relationship. We found through our research that similar-genre artists also use this sort of narrative; a particular example is Arctic Monkey’s ‘Why’d U Only Call Me When You’re High’ when the lead singer is seen holding a phone and ‘tripping’ on hallucinogenic drugs. It was found that narrative and stories were not a popular choice in electronic/alternative music videos, but rather performance throughout, yet there are always links to the lyrics. For example, The 1975’s video, Girls, depicts the band being replaced by girls performing the song. Another link we made was that between the visuals and the music. We used quick jump cuts throughout the video, cutting to the music and making the editing quick-paced and interesting. This is a convention of all music videos as too-long scenes can bore and cause people to lose interest.

We did not incorporate any intertextual references to movies or games as we felt that this was too risky a step for a debut music video. We didn’t want to dwell too much on these references for fear of alluding the viewer away from the band as we were still trying to introduce the band to the audience. However, we did revert from black and white into full colour in several parts of the music video, a subtle reference to Alleyways’ labelmates, The 1975.

We did conform to generic conventions of our genre and partially to Andrew Goodwin’s theories, particularly through the use of colour and aesthetic and links between visuals and lyrics. We used these to establish our band as a clear genre and aim at a particular audience, as well as to create a memorable, interesting and fun media product.

apply theories of narrative to one of your productions

There are four theories of narrative that we used when created our AS film opening, ‘Luna’. We had to create a realistic opening of a film which was 2 minutes long including titles. We had a list of shots that we had to include, for example wide shot, establishing shot etc. We all pitched ideas to our group and together decided on the most realistic, original and fun idea. Luna is an indie romantic drama told from the point of view of Brody, a heartbroken teenager whose girlfriend, Luna, has passed away. The four theorists that we studied and applied are Todorov, Propp, Barthes and Levi-Strauss.

Todorov’s theory of equilibrium suggests that there are five stages of every narrative: equilibrium, disequilibrium, acknowledgement, solving and equilibrium. This suggests that all is as it should be before an event occurs which disrupts order and causes a problem – the problem is acknowledged and an attempt is made to solve it, resulting in a brand new equilibrium. We conformed to this narrative when creating our film opening. The beginning equilibrium is Brody and Luna as a happy couple who have fallen helplessly in love. The obstacle to overcome is Luna’s death. Brody acknowledges this obstacle and attempts to overcome his grief. Eventually he meets another girl and has come to terms and peace with Luna’s death by moving on.

               

Propp’s character theory suggests that there are five staple characters in every movie which are as follows: hero, villain, dispatcher, princess and donor. We both conformed and subverted to this theory. Our hero was Brody, the teenage male, and the princess was Luna, his love interest. The dispatcher wasn't seen in the opening scene of the movie, but was a mutual friend who set the couple up. The donor was the girl that he met in order to overcome his grief over Luna’s death. The villain is unconventional as it isn’t actually a character, but Luna’s death.

                

Barthes’ theory is based around codes, particularly three codes: action, symbolic and enigma.  Action codes refers to superficial things; things that are done and said onscreen. Symbolic codes refer to the mise en scene; the understated things such as the colours used, costumes worn, props and locations chosen. Enigma codes cause tension and questions to be asked: what happened? What will happen next? etc.

                

The codes we played upon the most were enigma codes as right from the beginning, questions were being asked. The film begins with moody piano music and a wide shot panning to a boy sitting alone with his back to the camera. Immediately, questions are asked. Why is he alone? Why is the music sad? Why can't we see his face? Enigma codes continue throughout. Why is he sad? Who is the girl he is with in the montage? Where is she now? What has happened to her/their relationship? We used a lot of symbolic codes to set tone and character personalities. For example, as the film begins, the colours are all muted and dull and Brody wears black, however when the couple are together and happy, the colours are bright and bold. Luna wears bright yellow shoes and colourful tops and the locations – e.g. the arcade – are very colourful and warm places.

                

Finally, we looked at Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions. This suggests that what we understand of a word, for example ‘villain’, depends a lot on our understanding of the opposite of that word, for example ‘hero’. These exist in almost all films – binary opposites are prominent in horror films. These include good and evil, rational and irrational, sane and insane etc. Teen movies can include binary oppositions such as the big, popular jock and the preppy nerd.

In our film opening we did subvert from this theory a little as the opposites aren’t quite as obvious as the above examples, but there are some underlying, subtle oppositions such as happy and sad – the clothes worn when the couple are happy are very different to the clothes worn by Brody when he is overcome with grief. Even the colours of the screen are different, as stated when explaining Barthes’ theory. The scene where Brody is melancholic reflects his mood through muted blue tones, whereas the montage of happiness uses warmer tones and brighter hues. The music is a more obvious opposition. The montage is overlapped by a happy, upbeat acoustic song beginning with lyrics ‘Baby, I love you, I never wanna let you go’ whereas the song playing during Brody’s isolated solitary scene is a sad, slow piano tune.

The narrative of my film opening was to evoke sympathy, both happiness and sadness (relating to different sections of the opening; the montage evokes happiness) and intruige in our audience. I predominantly applied Barthes' theory of codes and Todorov's theory of equilibrium to my film opening. Using them in combination was a technique to make the audience ask lots of questions about the film and interest them enough to make them watch the rest.