Question 1 - In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Used in Real Products
Music Video
Conventions: Stock CharactersI have looked at four different Dubstep music videos (see research), and have noticed similarities throughout them. When looking at the stock characters in these music videos, they are not all the same, but there are trends.
For instance, two of the music videos contain the artist's themselves, however in both of these their character do not contribute to the story-lines In Chase & Status - 'Time' the featuring artist, Delilah is shown at several points throughout the music video. She is sat in a car, and singing, this however has no effect on the main storyline. It is as though she is watching the story unfold, but is unable to do anything. In Deadmau5' - 'Ghosts N' Stuff' he appears in a few shots at the party, but although he is portrayed within the story itself, he doesn't make contact with the main character, and does not influence what happens in the music video. Unlike in the Chase and Status music video, he is also not there as a performer, but as one of the crowd. I personally think this has been done to show that Deadmau5 is just the same as his target audience - he is one of the crowd, not on the outside. Both of these music videos have another common factor, they both have a clear 'main character'. In 'Ghosts N' Stuff' the main character appears in every scene (in two different costumes), but spends much of the time on his own, with no real 'secondary characters'. However, in 'Time' the main character is often with her family (secondary characters), and there are only a few shots of her on her own. This is largely because to understand the storyline, the viewers need to see what is happening with the rest of the family. In this storyline we can also see Propps Theory, the father is clearly portrayed as the 'villain', with the mother being the 'princess' who needs rescuing however, where the main character should take the role of 'hero' she is unable to do so, and becomes just a bystander, watching helplessly as the villain takes control. In the other two music videos that I researched, the main characters were groups of 3 individuals. In Modestep - 'Sunlight', the 3 main characters are a lot older than their target audience. This has been done to give a 'shock factor' as the storyline makes sense, but you wouldn't expect people that age to behave as they do. In fact, many people in that age find the behaviour seen in this music video 'disgraceful' and 'disgusting', so it is quite amusing to see someone of that age acting like a stereotypical young adult. In Skrillex - 'BANGARANG' the viewer is also shocked by the main characters. Like in 'Sunlight' there are also 3 main characters, however they are children, possibly in their early teens, but they also act in a way you would not expect them to. They make a group attack on the innocent ice-cream van driver - using weapons such as explosives, to steal some ice-cream from him, in doing so, one of the boys even seriously injures the man. This displays clear themes of crime and gang violence, which is characteristic of young adults in the working class, however not necessarily expected of someone as young as the boys in the video. When the boys grow up, their ideology has clearly not changed, as they perform another robbery. So where before there was under-age violence & crime, there is still crime and violence, but in a some-what greater degree (for instance the weaponry, etc used is much more advanced and dangerous . This shows that the men know what they are doing, however, we see another side to this stereotype, as the boy who injured the ice-cream man goes back to him at the end, and gives him a great amount of money - this can be seen as a way in which the man is trying to apologise for what he has done wrong. In the second robbery they also seem to be stealing from thieves, so they could technically be seen as the heroes here. Once again we see Propps Theory in action, it could be said that the ice-cream man is the innocent victim, who is robbed by the villainous youths, however, the youths turn into heroes who steal from real villains, to give back to those who they have injured - the victim. The social group of young adults has been represented in some way in all of these. In 'Time' the main character is in the social group of people who listen to this kind of music. She is portrayed as a characteristic teenager, she has many adult characteristics, but is still obviously lacking those extra few that will make her an adult. In 'Ghosts N' Stuff' the main character is also in the social group of young adults. Much of his behaviour is 'anti-social', this is a stereotypical attribute of teenagers. He also goes to a party, where the other people are assumedly a similar age to him, and therefore also fit into the social group. In 'Sunlight' the main characters do not fit into the social group, although their behaviour characteristically does. However, their age and appearance excludes them somewhat from the typical member of this social group. Although, the social group is displayed in this music video through the bar-maid and the other party goers. At the beginning of 'BANGARANG' the main characters are a few years younger than the social group generally is, however, when they get older, their older selves are the sort of age-group that fits into the social group. Their criminal behaviour however is slightly more than you would expect from this social group, but it does not exclude them from it. The stock characters that have been shown also show a lot of the ideology that the social group has. Many of them will have family problems (as in 'Time'), and are at the age/stage where they wish to move out and live alone or with friends. They are also generally somewhat anti-social (as seen in 'Ghosts N' Stuff', 'Sunlight' and it can be almost as extreme as in 'BANGARANG'). Mostly it is because they want to have fun and rebel against what they are told to do. They will therefore often be linked with drugs, alcohol, crime, violence, sex, etc, which is portrayed in the music videos above. |
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Conventions: Stock EventsEach of the music videos I have researched follows a storyline. In most of them there is only a storyline with no (or little) imagery of the artist. In those where the artist is shown, the artist has no effect on the storyline. Two of the videos include party scenes, which are usually towards the end of the music video. These parties are the sort of place where it would be expected to hear music from this genre. They are held in dark, empty rooms, with a lot of young people, who dance and enjoy the music. This lets the viewer escape and feel as though they were there, enjoying the music as the people in the video are.
Most of the videos also include some sort of criminal offence (e.g. in Modestep's video they steal from a shop) and in at least one of the videos there are scenes of a sexual nature. These are events/activities often associated negatively with 'youths'. People often judged the youth harshly and believe they are all criminals and misbehave. Therefore many youths have started to act this way to live up to the negative expectations that society has of them. These ideas have also filtered down into the ideology of this group. Therefore, these events are often shown in the more 'rebellious' music videos which this age group is associated with. |
Conventions: PropsSome of the main props seen throughout the music videos are weapons, alcohol, mobiles and iPods. Weapons are becoming associated with young people more and more as there is a rising amount of crime (e.g. stabbings) that happen amongst youths. Therefore it is starting to filter in to the stereotype of young people.
Alcohol is a fairly common stereotypical prop for a young person. Many people believe that young people spend much time drinking and behaving antisocially. A lot of young people use alcohol as a release to escape from their boring lives. Having alcohol as a prop in the video therefore is a sort of release for the viewer. Technology and the youth is also a very popular connection. Most young people own at least one mobile, iPod or laptop. Having this prop in the music video makes the viewer relate to themselves. |
Conventions: CostumesMost of the costumes in these music videos are mundane, everyday clothes. The outfits are what you would expect, or generally do see teens/young adults wearing. For some of the party scenes, the outfits become a little more 'exotic'. For instance the girls wear more make-up, and shorts/skirts/dresses. One of the parties is a costume themed party, which means the people wear animal masks, etc. - this is in Deadmau5' music video, where Deadmau5 is seen in his usual mouse head.
In the same music video, the main character spends the majority of the video dressed up as a ghost. It is unclear why this is, maybe to symbolise the fact that many people do not really live their lives. However, this is not stereotypical of music videos in this genre. In BANGARANG the boys wear stereotypical clothing of 'gangsters' (hoodies, scarves covering most of their face). The ice-cream man's costume is a bit over the top, but is still looks fairly ordinary/believable. In Modestep's music video, the elderly people are dressed as normal elderly people. This adds to the shock factor of these normal elderly people acting like youths. |
Conventions: SettingsAll of the settings are in urban areas. In Chase & Status' music video, the majority of the video is shot inside the family's house. The other scenes are either of the singer in the car, or at the prison. These three settings are all linked to teenagers/youth. It is a stereotypical view that young people spend a lot of time 'hiding in their rooms/at home', that they 'drink and drive' and that many of them are antisocial to the extent that they should go to prison.
In BANGARANG the settings are all at an abandoned warehouse/business park. These settings aren't necessarily stereotypical places where you would expect to see young people, however you might expect these places to be where a large amount of crime happens - as it does in the video - and crime is linked to young people. It might also be the sort of place you expect a part/rave to be held at, where you would likely find a lot of young people. The two other music videos contain a lot of scenes in city/town centres, by shops - this is another place one might expect to find 'youths'. They also contain party scenes, the settings for these parties are quite hard to establish, however they seem to be large, dark, empty rooms. |
Codes: LightingThe only time any 'special' lighting was used was in the hospital scenes - here the lighting was used to look like lighting in a hospital, which is generally brighter than normal lights; it was also a bit brighter to emphasise the importance of these scenes (man going to heaven?).
The other 'special' lighting was in the party scenes, where the rooms are generally quite dark. In 'ghosts n' stuff' there is clear use of smoke machines, and neon/strobe (special effects) lighting which is sometimes used at these sorts of parties. |
Codes: EditingMost of the editing in these music videos is unobtrusive. The shots are mostly all in chronological order and the cuts speed up during action sequences.
The only noticeable editing is in 'Ghosts 'n' stuff' when they mix shots from the hospital and the party - this is not chronological. This is similar to 'Time' and 'Sunlight' where they have shots of the artist mixed in to the storyline. However other than this the editing is minimal, so the audience concentrate on the music and storyline. |
Codes: Camera Angle/MovementIn 'Time', many of the shots are hand-held giving the whole video a 'home video' feel, the shots are also mainly mid/long shots. This is most likely so that audience do not get close to just one character, but just witness all of the action.
In 'Ghosts 'n' stuff' there is much more camera movement. They have used a mixture of panning, tracking, changing focus, etc to make a sort of 'dizzy' feeling to the whole music video. In the other two music videos there is some basic camera movement, but nothing as noticeable as in the first two. |