ADVANCED PORTFOLIO 

Music Video

 

I believe that our music video contains many typical conventions of a dance-pop music video. One common feature that we fulfilled was the contrast between a performance and narrative based video, we found these were most popular in other dance-pop music videos. We created a storyboard by following the lyrics of the song, in order to apply the storyline to our video. Within our video we show three girls dating the same guy and they all end up finding out, and get their revenge. This is similar to the song as Demi explains her heartbreak and explains how she is over it “I really don’t care”. I feel that we developed the conventions of a dance-pop music video as in the performance video Demi, lead singer, was playing an instrument as well as lip syncing the song. This developed the conventions as typically the lead singer will just be stood singing, where as Demi is playing a guitar our video. We also used close-ups on the musical instruments in the video (keyboard and guitar), this was effective as it went really well in time with the song and was consistent throughout.

 

There are many other conventions that we develop and challenge some of the most important link to the Mise En Scene.  From looking at the Mise En Scene we were able to identify that the typical narrative settings would be in a home environment or at an event. Within a performance setting it showed a typical basic band set up that was either in a studio or on stage. In our own music video we used both a narrative and performance setting in order to develop the conventions in existing media products. In our video the narrative setting is based in a house- we developed this convention by using a variety of different rooms and for our performance setting we used a studio with a black backdrop to feature a band set up. Therefore this included the typical features of an existing dance-pop music video and we were able to challenge the conventions by personalising the video to the artist of the song that we would be performing. Another feature of Mise En Scene that is key to the conventions of a dance-pop music video was the costumes and make-up. From the existing products we identified that the clothing was very colourful, therefore we were able to challenge these conventions by using our lead singers style to put a twist on the typical conventions. Within the narrative video we used typical, casual clothing that wouldn’t necessarily apply to the dance-pop genre but however related to the storyline of the song. This was different for the performance set up as we wanted to expose Demi Lovato’s (the artist of the song) personality and style through her clothing. In this case she has a punk/reckless personality and style therefore we decided that the clothing would be dark and edgy, we also wanted expose the personality of Cher Lloyd who features on the track. To do this the costume had to have “swag” and also needed to be more colourful than Demi’s. By developing and challenging the typical forms and conventions of a typical dance-pop music video we were able to put our own twist on the video by representing the style of the artist, instead of using typical ideas from other media products.

 

Another main feature of Mise en Scene is the facial expressions and body language. We wanted to use similar ideas to other media products; in this case the artists in a typical dance-pop music video have an energetic mood about them and also come across as quite reckless. To transfer this into to our video, we used a narrative to represent a reckless attitude by using four different characters and applying them to represent a similar. We did this by creating a scandals storyline to which the three females get their revenge on the male that has been dating them all at the same time. We also created an energetic mood in our performance video by using a range of camera angles to make the music video seem at a fast paste and in time with the music. Also towards the end of the video we used bloopers to create a positive and fun theme, in order to develop the energetic and reckless attitude which challenged the typical conventions of a dance-pop music video. Additionally we had to research the lighting in a typical dance-pop music video; we found that in the majority of the music videos the lighting was quite bright. We were able to develop this as we had access to stage lights which we were able to alter within the filming of our video.  

 

Another convention that we challenged within the video was the representation of the female artists. This is because whilst looking at other media products we discovered that the females are portrayed in a way that they are most important for the way they look. This relates with Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory as she believed that females were used as objects to look at in media, purposely for males to enjoy looking at. Most artists are popular for the way they look and will be found attractive by males and females and also envied. An example of this in a dance-pop video is “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj. In this video Nicki wears a leotard which reveals the majority of her body, the purpose being to attract male attention. We challenged this convention in our music video as our main target audience is young females, therefore we wanted to represent our artist as a role model and have a good influence on them. We also wanted to promote the idea that females don’t need a man to be happy and should surround themselves with friends, also not to need male attention to feel valued like some typical conventions have shown in a dance-pop music video. Throughout the video the three girls are not dressed in in-appropriate clothing that create vulgar scenes or cause a bad influence on the audience.