Media Evaluation Question 1 : How does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Draft

Media Evaluation Question 1 : How does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The music video itself conforms to the conventions of music videos of it's genre, the conceptual video style with abstract imagery is used throughout the punk and new wave genre, in the videos by such artists like Talking Heads and Devo, but whilst the band that I used was a punk band, the song itself is more new wave with surf rock riffs. So I built upon the conventions of these genres, this is shown in the wave montage which uses iconography that is typical of that genre (waves, beaches, surfing) and I further explored the genre through the use of black and white photography, a convention of surf rock videos that was probably due to necessity at the time rather than choice (being that the genre reached it's zenith in the '50s). This also fits in with the inclusion of iconography typical of '50s sci-fi into the video's mise-en-scene as it stylistically fit the tone of the song, fit in context with the narrative that I was trying to create and is a also in keeping with the use of these elements in videos of the new wave genre.

These conventions of the surf rock genre were then skewered to fit in with the punk aesthetic, this was done through placing the pollution as the central point in the beach shots, exemplified in the use of close ups in the video's cinematography as a means of making the imagery more confrontational and stressing the juxtaposition that is created through the use of montage between the images of surf and the beach covered in litter, which not only hammers home the message of the song (which is a convention of punk music videos- a clear message that may be political or societal, an example ebing The Strikes song Shots Heard Around the World, which promotes a Marxist message), but it also explores the more "ugly" aspects of the location shown through the use of litter and pollution, this again fits in with the conventions of punk videos, with the punk ideology as a whole exploring the "uglier" aspects of topics. Therefore, this video may be challenging to the surf rock genre, but it is fully within the conventions of the punk genre.

The videos challenges Todorov's narrative theory, in that the conventions of a narrative would entail that they follow the order of equilibrium, disruption of the equilibrium, recognition of the disruption, attempt to repair the disruption and new equilibrium. The music video eschews this in favor of presenting the disruption and the recognition, but showing no action against this or reconciliation of this to form a new equilibrium, the character instead just views this passively in the same way that the audience are, leaving a sense of overbearing impotence. This challenging of narrative convention provides a means of conveying the message of the song to the audience, whilst drawing the viewers attention to the fact that they're watching a music video, in regards it could be described as being postmodern and as breaking the fourth wall (Bertolt Brecht). This technique was utilized not only to make the audience identify with the video's protagonist, but in that it evokes similar techniques used in the Beautiful World music video by Devo, an experimental new wave video that challenges the audience to look further through use of the Kuleshov effect, in the juxtaposition of idealised '50s visions of happiness and archival footage of atrocities and hate.

The representation of the protagonist through close ups and long shots fits the conventions of the punk genre, which typically feature characters that are outsiders which is shown in numerous videos, such as NOFX's Bob, The Residents' Hello Skinny and Andrew Jackson Jihad's Coffin Dance videos, the use of long shot stresses the isolation of the character to the environment, whilst the close ups humanize the character to the audience. In that representation, the video conforms to the conventions of the genre, however, this doesn't conform to the music video theory of "The Ideal Self" (Carl Rodgers, 1960) being that the character that is presented isn't strong, or holds any aspirational  qualities for the viewer, therefore it goes against these conventions.

Traditionally music videos of this genre would feature the band in a performance type mode, however due to the band I had dropping out as filming started I had to abandon this, initially I had intended to film the band in a manner in which would have been in keeping with the conventions of music videos of the genre (Siouxie Sioux and the Banshees - Hong Kong Garden being a good example of this), as performance in music videos is usually used to establish the band's Star Persona (Richard Dyer, 1975) and links back to Roy Shuker's theory that music videos are a "promotional device" (2001), even as one of my early questionnaire feedback stated that this was the most important element of a music video, by going against this it breaks convention.

The editing of the video, isn't quite as fast-paced as that of other videos in the genre as I decided to go against the generic conventions to try and convey the melancholic contemplative nature of the song, hence the longer shot length when compared to fast paced videos like NOFX's Bob video which makes extensive use of cross-cutting and generally has a low average shot length. However, given that the punk genre is pretty wide in terms of sub-genres, not to mention the overlap that does occur with the new wave genre, there is therefore a spread in the approach to music videos, with some conceptual videos like mine that utilize longer takes and a more abstract imagery, such as in Death Grips' "I Break Mirrors with my Face in the United States" which uses a continuous long single take throughout the video or Talking Heads "Road to Nowhere"  video which has a high average shot length. Therefore it could be argued that the use of long takes doesn't conform to typically to the mainstream conventions of the punk genre, but it does c onform to the genre's more abstract and conceptual examples. Though the video editing techniques used do conform, with the use of cross-cutting and overlays being used a lot in the genre, usually to either move from the narrative aspects of a video to the performance or to underscore the lyrics with an image (either to create a visual metaphor or to contextualize the lyrics for the audience, as shown in The Dead Kennedys "Holiday in Cambodia" video), I attempted to develop these to give use the overlays and cross-cutting to further the message of the song by creating a juxtaposition between the protagonist and the environment around him, an example of this is shown towards the beginning of the video wherein a medium 360 degree low angle tracking shot has an image of the industrial factory images overlaid on it, this was used to illustrate the character's state of mind whilst underscoring the lyrics "a crowded future stings my eyes".

The video features numerous shots of the character walking away from the camera, I tried to use this as a visual motif, intertextually referencing back to The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel, 1972), as a means of conveying the idea of being constantly unsatsfied, this theme is similarly explored in the Talking Heads "Road to Nowhere" . In my use of this, is is to express the song's message through the character's dissatisfaction with the world around him becoming moving from the natural into a urbanized dystopic vision wherein natural images are awash with pollution and even the moon resembles that of an LED light, in a sense then the video conforms with Sven E. Carlson's 1999 theory that lyrics and visuals interact to create meaning, with the chorus of "bathe in my moonlight" and "there will always be a moon over Marin" taking on a more cynical reading thus giving the audience more intellectual pleasures rather than visceral or emotional. The theme of dissatisfaction  can also be linked back  thematically to the nihilist hedonist themes that dominate all rock music, within normal rock music this is a promotion of outlandish behaviour, whereas in the punk genre this dissatisfaction leads to a rejection of societal norms and a challenging of authority,

Stylistically, the video makes use of black and white cinematography, this connotes the genre in the fact that many of the videos that I have looked at from the punk genre utilize a filtered cinematography, it also fits in with the dystopic '50s sci-fi aesthetic that I tried to achieve whilst also owing a debt to Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965) which used regular Parisian locations shot in black and white to try and convey a vision of the future. By modelling some of the cinematography on this along with Aleksei German's Hard to be a God (2015) and Peter Bogdonavitch's The Last Picture Show (1971) this fits in with Andrew Goodwin's theory on the codes and conventions of music videos (1992) which state intertextuality as one for most music videos.



DigiPak
For the DigiPak , I did some research into the conventions of DigiPaks associated with the genre, and for the most part the DigiPak that I have constructed conforms to a majority of the conventions, such as:production information, Dolby Digital, CD and DVD logos, track listings, a barcode and company logos. The grey scale colour scheme fits with the generic conventions of the punk genre whilst promoting synergy between the products, and the artwork that is used on the product is typical of nihilist black and white imagery that can be seen on albums such as Dead Kennedys "Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables" and X "Los Angeles", though it does lack the irreverent humour that is evident in other punk releasing.

Advert
For the advert, after looking at various examples of them it became clear that the majority used a black and white colour scheme, this fit back in to what can be considered a convention of the punk genre, considering I used this colour scheme across my products, this further perpetuates a house style, that helps establish a brand identity and synergy across the products. This is further established through the use of screenshots from the music video, whilst a generic feature of DigiPak adverts is to utilize an image of the artist to bank on their Star Persona, as is the case with a few of the adverts I looked at such as the Adam Ant advert which shows only him on a black and white advert, it also links back to the low-budget "diy" ethos associated with punk whereby bands had to use their Star Persona as a means of self-promotion. However, given that the band I had lined up pulled out and I had to use the original song, it was unrealistic to therefore try and get the real band, so I drew on influences from some artists that used iconic images from their out put as a means of self-promotion on their adverts, such as Nirvana  using the images of a baby swimming after a dollar on a hook. This image has been indelibly linked to the band due to it's use on the band's breakout album Nevermind and has since become a part of the band's brand identity, in a similar way to how a logo might be used.

In keeping with this idea, I used screen grabs from the video to create a coherent brand identity across the products, whilst using various filters on the screen grabs to promote the "cut-out" dirty black and white aesthetic that is commonly associated with the punk genre as it pushes the "diy" ethos, as many of the original punk adverts were hand made as that was the only way of promoting themselves. This therefore sticks closely to the generic conventions of the punk genre.