In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?

In my attempt to allow my product to stand out against others in the industry, I found that I would need to use, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of real media products to varying degrees.
Here is a short video where I firstly explain the main concepts briefly;

By rejecting my initial temptation to use an established artist's single for my music video, I finally decided to create my own music track, a hybrid of a new indie band 'The Golden Filter' and then, hopefully more conversely, audio from an interview with a rock and roll artist, Thurston Moore. I chose to do this, as I wanted to remove any initial pre-conceived ideas my audience might hold before they even came to see the finished product. From my research, I recognised that a brand was built around an artist and therefore their target audience EXPECTED it to meet certain criteria. If i was ever to attempt to challenge the forms and conventions of real media products I felt it would therefore be crucial to expel any established images and representations that the closest fans would perceive as the correct way to portray the artist. 

Of course, I needed to specify my target audience, and as my remix followed many of the indie music conventions of being unusual, experimental but remaining accessible to as wider audience as possible, I chose to concentrate on an audience primarily consuming indie/alternative music. So as much as I hope to challenge the forms and conventions of the mainstream music video, I would hope that this would, to certain extents, be appealing to my target audience.

To accentuate the challenge of conventions in my visuals, I used emotive and spurring words from Thurston Moore in discrimination. 'BOGUS, CAPITALIST' are two words I chose to repeat and use out of context later in the remix to add to their controversial purposes. In my research I repeatedly met the success and impact of YOUTUBE on the music industry and in particular the emphasis of the CONSUMER BECOMING PRODUCER. The remixes I found on Youtube had amassed hundreds of thousands of viewings, and I believed that this was due to the increasing need for music to appeal to us as something we have helped to create. The success of people like Justin Bieber is always linked back to his support on Youtube and the followers that gave him opportunities to showcase his talent.
Hereby, my remix would be joining this demonstration of the consumers ability to comment and challenge with a brilliant amount of freedom, hopefully encouraging viewers to see this as a new way for music videos to evolve online.

The theories of Andrew Goodwin hold their own in the majority of music videos today. Trawl through any of the music videos in the current charts and the link between lyrics and visuals is prominent for most, as is the concept of voyeurism,    and particularly satisfying the label by representation of the artist.

However in development of this direct visual communication of lyrics, (as in Navas physical interpretation of the lyrics in the action and performance element of his videos, as in Single Ladies for the superstar 'Beyonce') I decided to have less explicit reference, and invited my audience to infer from the connotations of costume, action and set as to how they related to the lyrics. This makes the visuals therefore, less descriptive and more symbolic of the message behind the video.  In this way, I was also relying on negotiated meaning and the difference between denotation and connotation in making the references less obvious and more abstract. The cultural experiences that make our viewing experience differ from others perspectives as explained by Barthes, encouraged me to include intertextual references to enhance the viewing experience, as recognition and attribution would play a part in keeping my viewer interested.

I included several minutes of footage from a BBC arts programme featuring the CELEBRITY photographer RANKIN, being played on a large television screen in some frames, I made this the only light source of the piece so that the subject of interest (the wooden figurine) would be represented differently to the viewer as the colours of the light dramatically changed in contrast, hue and saturation. In this way, I hoped to portray a more postmodernist interpretation as I was forcing the viewer to reflect on the impact the media, and television has on us even on a daily basis. It can change our own appearance and alter how we choose to portray ourselves, as well as how we perceive others. I was also challenging the calculated approach taken in representing artists in music videos, as Goodwin places emphasis on the role of the director to satisfy the label through the representation of the artist.

There appears to be the temptation in current music videos to represent the artist in as many different lights as possible, with countless changes in outfit, expression and mis-en-scene. By using props, lighting and mis-en-scene in the context of my video this scene attempted to challenge this concept and demonstrate the destructive results on the artist, as I show the musician character push away her guitar (and her passionate musical talents) to replace it with the consuming vanities of celebrity, fame and fortune.

I took a postmodernist approach in exploring the role of the label in exhibiting the female artist in front of the camera. I constructed the gaze of the viewer around the main character  through her pose and use direct gaze with sexual connotations in the scene of her entrapment. As Mulvey points out, the male gaze theory remains relevant to so many media publications of today, and in connection with Goodwin's principles of 'Notions of looking'  and 'Voyeurism' I expose these concepts to the viewer in my music video. By using these somewhat conventional scenes whereby the female is certainly objectified and manipulated aesthetically for viewers gratification (most would argue male, although in my research I felt that females are also gratified from experiencing new fashion styles and comparing their own dress-sense) I hoped to challenge the usual 'indie' genre that my audio track was confined to.

Whilst still planning for shooting, I came across Jessie J's new music video 'It's not about the Price Tag', eager to see the video in its exploration of what seemed to be a similar theme to my own. The video appeared at first, to have a noble message 'rejecting materialism' yet the conventions of the typical music video were upheld and in fact the video appeared to fully adhere to the objectification of the artist whilst using her conventional 'pop-star' qualities, as parkeralert.com put it -'good looks, style, talent and most importantly, a willingness to play by the industry's rules'. The symbolism throughout refers to her as a puppet or toy being controlled by the music industry in order to reach fame and recognition. It is true that the video appears to comment on the mind-control and indoctrination of artists by the higher elements, yet it didn't appear in any way to directly challenge this portrayal. As stated by parkeralert.com (a blog exploring semiotics, the impact of music videos and their messages)

Still from Jessie J 'Price Tag',
Emil Nava

'The fact that the same meanings and symbols appear in so many music videos, regardless of the artist, is the ultimate proof of a hidden power structure in charge of the industry. It is the message that is promoted and the values that are glorified that we must closely watch. 

In the case of Price Tag, viewers are exposed symbols associated with Monarch programming, a horrific method of mind control based on child abuse, while a fun and catchy song plays in the background. So, I guess it is a good thing they don’t care about the price tag … ’cause I ain’t buying it.'

Still from Bjork
'Human Behaviour', Micheal Gandry

In this way, my own music video is attempting to reject this idea of the artist as a 'toy' in the video, whilst the reality of hierarchical control is hidden from the viewer as they drink in the noble antics of less-materialistic, capitalist ideas, by including the representation of the music industry as a businessman, who is seen directly manipulating the artist in a mis-en-scene desired to make the viewer uncomfortable with what they are being made to watch and adhere to consume. I wanted my viewer to re-evaluate their role, not only as consumer but as an individual able to reject such concepts. Having made references to the magazines so many of my viewers will buy on a weekly bass, as well as brands, fashion houses and television, I then present to them how the artist is subsequently offered to them. Therefore I am challenging the conventions of real media products, such as  Emil Navas video for Jessie J. I am commenting on the hidden symbolism behind such music videos which sell themselves to the viewer as moral and noble, in order to increase viewing figures as viewers feel gratified by their own modesty. 

However I should point out that in challenging these forms by purposely trying to make my viewer uncomfortable, and reflective of the pull techniques used to lure them in, I have used the convention of disorientation for change in experience effect as in Gandrys 'Human Behaviour' for Bjork'. I was massively influenced by Gandry's  work as a director renown for his excitingly unusual films, and I attempted to develop the idea of disorientation and manipulation on my symbolism, cutting, mis-en-scene and action. I used low key lighting and unusual light-source to continuously shatter and re-establish mis-en-scene, another reference to the power of the label over the direction of the video and the effect on the audience.

I also developed and used ideas from a conversely different area of the film/video spectrum, in Ruth Hogben's fashion video for the designer Gareth Pugh, although I was first drawn to her work for its beautiful sharp, modern aesthetic and concentration of silhouette and movement, I decided to use this reference in order to strengthen the idea of indoctrination via concentrating efforts on our external image, in our fashion, hair makeup and subsequent 'character'. But also in connection with the statement made by Hogben in an interview after her award from the ASOFF'09 jury for her work, she claimed 'Fashion film..it's becoming a genre in its own right' I felt this was a brilliant way to have an underlying reference to genre in my editing, as I used ideas from her 360 shots repeated in selection in quick cuts, with a juddering effect before continuing smoothly before the next sharp change in movement. I was pleased with my efforts, as they did not attempt to replicate this form of editing, merely to use elements of it to re-enforce the idea of manipulation of movements not only by the director but the label and the music industry. 

By focussing several frames around high-end brand magazine advertisements including Gucci, Dior and Dolce and Gabbana whilst having the character flick back and forth, I was challenging our view in society that our image must be improved in line with this fashion hierarchy. I also cut together jerky and sped-up shots which explored slogans of current fashion magazines such as 'You are woman?', 'beauty hot 100', 'Flawless' among others, I also saturated the colour so the print colours became garish and somewhat vulgar. When in the context of the video and overall message I hoped that this would ask viewers whether these magazines are at all moral, or whether they too are encouraging us to adhere to the principles of hierarchy and capitalism as well as the obsession over celebrity and their vanities.

My video attempted to convey how the true talent and creativity of a society are institutionalised and de-personalised to appeal to the masses, or a much wider spectrum of 'types' as we are becoming familiar with. I used and developed conventions as I have exemplified, but only to parallel and juxtapose them with symbols of skill, passion and experimentation without fear. Probably one of the more prominent examples of this throughout both my music video and my ancillary products is that of the hanging headphones, the wires surrounding the artist in a barcode pattern. This is a direct reference to the artist, (specifically, a painter) Scott Blake, and his commentary on our current obsessions to stamp everything with a label, a number, a barcode.

In the ways I have described, I hope that I have challenged the forms and conventions in order to ask my viewer whether this should continue. The music track itself featuring the words of Thurston Moore could indeed be argued to be examples of hyperbole and maybe even moral panic techniques, yet I strongly believe they owe much to a greater understanding of losing the passion and skill behind creating music and driving the creative industry behind it.