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

eval q1 from laurensmotors

I chose to produce a music promotional package for an already established song. I chose the song 'Lost' by 'The Calling'. The song did not have a music video so I created a narrative for it. I carried out planning and research into what people like in music videos, conventions of music videos and conventions of the genre before creating my video to help me create a more professional looking product. When I had finished my final product I uploaded it to YouTube, a website that allows people to view videos, therefore, found uploading my video to YouTube conventional and gives easy access to my audience to watch my video. I then link the YouTube video to my blog. For my ancillary texts, I decided to create a six panel digipak and a magazine advert to promote my fictional artist.

My chosen song is a Japanese bonus track from the Camino Palmero album. The song has a strong beat with an emotional and personal feel. As the song did not have a music video I found it much easier to create my own narrative and not be influenced by an existing one. In my music video, I followed conventions of music videos and conventions of the genre that I had found in the research stage of my coursework. 

Stuart Halls theory suggested that all media texts are encoded by the producer and that whoever produced the media text fills the product with their own values and messages. Therefore according to his theory I have filled my products with a message, this message is that the boy is lost and alone after losing someone who he loved and is having flashbacks of the good times and trying to escape this nightmare he is having. Hall also argues that there are 3 main spectators that will decode my text in different ways, although not always in the way I intended. These are Dominant/preferred, negotiated and oppositional.
Dominant reading of a text is that the audience views the text in the way the producer intended, that being that the boy is upset and lost, having flashbacks of when he use to be happy and is trying to escape this loneliness. 
Negotiated reading of the media text refers to a compromise, where someone could read the meaning I aimed but possibly not relate to it or care about that message.
oppositional reading of media texts refers to the audience ignoring or missing the message I intended to put across. Rather than the audience getting the message that the girl has passed away and he is lost in his emotions trying to escape, the audience could completely miss that message or mistake it for the fact the boy and girl are just no longer happy. 

From audience feedback, I have found that my audience have a dominant reading of my texts as they have viewed my text in the way I intended, that being that the male and female were in a relationship, something bad happened and now he is trying to get to grips with life without her but still remembers the happy times they had. 

Rick Altman argues that the genre offers the audience a set of pleasures, emotional, visceral, stylistic and intellectual. My video conforms to this theory anAltman would argue that my video offers the audience emotional pleasure as it has a relatable narrative and, therefore, creates a strong audience response. 

Barry Keith Grant suggests that genre is divided up into groups with familiar characteristics that the audience can recognise. My video adheres to this theory of genre as I have recognisable characteristics in my video such as the addition of the classic American car and the clothes that my characters wear, especially the skater dress that the girl wears. 

Steve Neal argues that genre is not a system but a process of systematisation such as dynamics and evolution over time. The genre is dynamic, it has to change to reflect the times that they are made in, the ideology of that era. We gain pleasure from the change in conventions. 

This theory applies to my music video as I have created a video that does reflect the time it was made in as my video does not have a happy ending, like many stories in real life, there is not a tragic ending, just a simple getting on with life. 

Camera Shots

'Broken' by 'Lifehouse',' The Reason' by 'Hoobastank' and 'Wherever You Will Go' by 'The Calling' were the main music videos that influenced and inspired the creation of my video.  I looked at these video's as they are all from the same genre as the song I chose to create a video too. The video's also all had deep meanings with a narrative that reflects that meaning, so I similarly wanted to create a narrative to follow the deep meaning of my chosen song. 

Turning the key

I decided to have a close up of my artists hand turning they key in the car, this was to represent the turning of a new chapter in his life or to initiate flashbacks, like going back in time, both of which I have in my video. I took inspiration from Hoobastank and Lifehouse as they both had similar shots in their videos. Although, in the Lifehouse video, the artist is turning up/down the radio, it symbolises a similar thing, going to an alternative reality. 

Opening/Closing the car door

Again I found that I took inspiration from the music video for The Reason by Hoobastank. In the video the one of the lead singers gets into the car, symbolising that he was trying to escape, literally where in my video I decided to include the shot of opening the door to symbolising escaping his feelings of being lost and alone. 

Slow motion

I took inspiration for my slow motion bottle drop from the music video to Here Without You by 3 Doors Down when the lead singer flips a coin in the air in slow motion, this was to represent their feelings being muddled up and again being lost and everything going wrong. 

However, I felt that a close up of the bottle smashing reflected the lyrics as well as his emotions smashing all over the floor like they guys emotions flipping in the 3 Doors Down video. 

I went against conventions in my video according to Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory as she states that women are there to be seen and that the use of the camera portrays  them as sexual objects through the shot types and movement. Unlike other media products I have not displayed women as a sexualised object in my video, but simple as a girl who was deeply loved by a boy and now she is gone. Instead of focusing on women my video focuses on the narrative of the boy's feeling for the girl now she has gone (passed away) and the loneliness he feels without her. This theory does apply to a lot of video's however I have found that video's with deep meanings and a relatable message such as loss, women are not as sexualized in the video's. 

Tessa Perkins suggests that stereotypes are assumptions we make based on groups of people. She argues that stereotyping is not an easy process and it contains a number of assumptions that can be challenged. My video contains stereotypes of a happy couple, just having fun in a coffee shop. This adheres to Tessa's theory because she suggests that stereotypes are not always negative. Another stereotype in my video is that of a sad, lonely person who has lost someone very close to them, on the verge of life. However, he turns himself around and gets on with his life

The hypodermic needle theory suggests that the media injects messages into our heads. My audience could see my video as injecting ideas of being incredibly lonely after losing someone and that you just have to get on with life. 

Textual analysis of my video from laurensmotors