Evaluation 1

How do your products use or challenge conventions?

From my research on conventions there are basic consumptions in conventions of a music video such as the use of tracking shot, changing of beat , close-ups of the artist as well as having the artist singing the lyrics in the music video.

After investigating in it we decided to use some of the conventions for a music video in our work to allow us to achieve a realistic music video but is adjusted to match with our Indie/ Tropical Progressive House genre.

My music video is portrayed by using narrative the reason for this is because my sub-genre is Indie/ Tropical House/ Progressive music where the beats are very minimal and would not match with a performance type of music video. The main shot type that is used to represent this is that there is a high use of close-ups to focus on the area of the location and the characters within the video. This is also used to show emotions and feelings of a specific character allowing the character to be in the center of attention. This is used as a support for the convention of a Music Video. There is also a use of tracking shot which is one of the narrative elements to follow the singer movement across the location.

The conventions for our music video has a link between lyrics and visuals this is done through using symbolic meanings :


My product also uses conventions by showing a link between the music and visuals.This is done through using the imagery of sadness and * to match with the music which I believe we did really well at portraying the meaning of the music in a form of music video.

Use of intertextuality - references to other texts.

We also use "Voyeurism and a notion of looking” where we present an explicit reference to pictures, mirrors, frames. Focusing on intimate moments . The reason for this is because it * the story altogether.

However we challenged “Objectification" - The thing that stands out is the use of the female perspective so we see things in a more emotional point of view such as sadness in people which challenged the conventions of EDM/ House music where it will be normally from a guy’s point of view and seeing body parts to emphasis on the genre. I believe Objectification plays a huge part in our music video as it is the main element for 

The things we used instead of focusing on the male phisque and bodypart is the parts of the characater which represents melancholy. 

Some expression of the demands of the record label - talk about how the artist star persona is constructed
Generic characteristics associated with the genre is the  way of editing which is similiar to a music video. The black borders along the sides of the music video is done to establish the same way music videos are created which I believe has worked very well to make the project seem more realistic in terms of asthetics and  layout. The other thing that is very obvious is the  footage eiditing where it is  accurately done to match with the changing beat and tempo of the music. In this we use the method of the 4th bar/ 8th bar ( in music) to establish the effect of a changing tone in music to suggest a different mood to the music video. We challenge the convention of music videos by presenting our product without the use of CGI and effects which are done in After effects. The reason for not choosing this is that it will not be effective for our  sub-genre.

( Born to die - Lana Del rey) - close up of the main character/singer to reinforce the main plot.

This is a common shot which will mostly appear in any music video. A close up shot is used to emphasise on the character's feelings.  How the main character is located in the middles makes the audience focus on her because she comes at the start of the music video as she is the first person who is situated in the middle. This establish a sense of attention and the duration of which she presents is abit longer than most of the scenes which further emphsises on the " focusing " effect.

In this case the character is showing sadness and melancholy.  The other thing that uses the convention of a music video is the colour effects. In this music video it is done black and white which is just like 1975's Chocolate music video. 

Also the black and white colour effect is chosen to make it even more relatable to an Indie music video. Most of the music video that are black and white are normally used to establish a hipster feel of art and also to represent sadness or a strong emotion.

In here we use the sky to pin point the plot and the location of the music video. This helps reinforces the plot of the whole story to make the audience understand the whole story better. In this , the music video takes place in Thailand which these things are main symbols of the Thai culture. It also tells us the time of the day it is. 

This is somewhat similiar to our music video as it also focus on the sky where it is symbolic for "change"

Digipack conventions.

In order to know more about  digipaks conventions I decided to do more researches  on digipak. I found that the following convention of a digipak has an artist's name, image, detail of the tracks ,track listing , lyrics. 

We did not only focus on selling the digipak for the audiences but we also have a vinyl version of the CD to target our target audience which are the hipsters who may listen to this type of music. The reason for this is that

We started off researching the Artists which match with our genre of music:

Artist from the same genre. (Similar to our artist) 

1. Robin Schulz

2. Lorde 

3. Grimes 

4. Sky Ferreira 

5. Lana Delby

6. Bjork

7. Lana Del Rey

From my research I found that the type of music matches in general and the type or music video they have. It is very relaxing and quite arty. It is mostly a narrative piece which is not really a performance show. But we also look in more detail at female solo artists like Lana del rey, Lorde and Grimes. The things that they have in common is they show strong emotions in their music videos and most of them tend to have songs which relates to " love". I believe the reason for this is because  the music industry's stereo type of females. Also the female artists in the music tends to be gracefully shown and seen in a beautified version. They way they dress is also very feminine in their music videos the things like makeup and clothes reinforces the female quality and beauty of every female. Their strong emotions are reinforced by the close-ups to their faces as well as OBJECTIFICATION in some parts of the music video to show the female characteristic.Also their music videos are quite similiar to story telling and shows their journey in their lives for example : Lana Del Rey's Ride music video  

The music video tends to follow the main character around showing her perspective and how she communicates symbolically with objects around her.

Also the reason for this is because female dominance is playing a huge part in the music industry these days. So in order to successfully market our product we should follow the trends of the music industry.

The digipak inspiration that we think will me suitable the most is Troye Sivan’s album cover”

It’s a pinting of him instead of a photoshoot. The reason that we use this as an inspiration is to represent the “ Hipster” attitude and the psychedellic sense to the whole album which will be used to attract our target audience which are people who likes art and Hipsters. This gives the buyer the feeling of the album taking them to another world and persuading them to think they will experience another new whole dimension of music. The reason for the “Colour Splash effect” is to fully emphasis on the main points of the whole album which is the rose which is coloured in red and the flag coloured in which contrasts with the black and white background. This shows the important elements within the album cover and hints the audience that it might be about love ( roses) and culture (Thailand).

For our digipak the back cover is intentionally done like this to create a deeper meaning and depth to the overall album. We used the idea of rope to symbolise

and it is used to be a tool of mending and fixing what is broken.

The symbolic meaning or significance of a rope is knowledge. it also mean that the spirit world is handing you knowledge or you were given knowledge you were seeking for where she is learning from love and being heart broken.

 Throughout this album " My Melanie" will be singing songs about her journey through the path of love which she encountered both good times and bad times. Petals is the first chapter to her story which is about her and her loved one. We will be ending the album with "Fountains" 

WEBSITE

Furthermore, we also have merchandise line for Krung Thep where we promote 

" My Melanie "'s product. This is very crucial as it allows fans to stay updated and collect the T shirts. This is benefitical for the long-term as it will allow weares to help promote the artist when they wear it outside.