What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Both prior to beginning work on my music video and during the course of the production of the video, I have been inspired by exploring and examining other music videos, particularly videos from the punk rock genre. I personally very much enjoy this genre of music and it is my choice of music to listen to in my spare time. I thoroughly enjoy watching the music videos that accompany the tracks of this genre of music and I have gained a real insight into the forms and conventions used in videos in this genre.

I have chosen some of the videos that I used as inspiration and will highlight some of the key factors that interested me in these videos.

Bon Jovi is a group that I particularly admire, and one of my favourite tracks is It’s My Life. The accompanying video incorporates many conventions that are common to the punk rock genre. It is a performance and narrative based video, and it is this style which I have used in my video. I have incorporated shots of the band performing in an underpass and shots in the bar where the story told by the lyrics unfolds.  This video also contains many close-up shots of the lead singer and the rest of the band, and also close-up shots of the instruments, for instance the guitar being played. This is characteristic of this genre, and serves several purposes. It allows us as an audience to respect the work of the band and acknowledge their talent. It serves to bring the artist to the direct attention of the audience and makes them easily recognisable, promoting the track and selling more records for the band. This would be a requirement of the record label as they would want to achieve maximum publicity for the band. In my video, I have included close up shots of both the guitarist and his guitar, and the lead singer as she sings the song. The narrative of this song is also interesting, as it encourages people to live life to the full and take risks while they are young and before it is too late. I can relate this to my video as the boy is prepared to take a risk and start a new relationship. Also the old girlfriend is prepared to take a risk and right what she sees as a wrong done to herself. As in the Bon Jovi song, she doesn’t fear anything. Most of the Bon Jovi video is set in a darker scene, again stereotypical of this genre of music. In my video, the scene in the underpass was shot under natural light, while the scene in the pub was dark, lit with bright artificial lights creating a more sinister, false atmosphere.

Many videos that I have watched contain intertextual references. This is true of the Bon Jovi hit It’s My Life where there is a reference to the song My Way by Frank Sinatra. In Blink 182’s song All The Small Things, they make a mockery of three well known boy Bands and their songs. The songs and bands referenced are:

I Want It That Way-The Backstreet Boys

Tearin’ up my heart-N Sync

Because Of You-98 Degrees.

The aim of intertextuality is to either parody or pay homage to the reference. In All The Small Things, this parodies the numerous boy bands, whereas in It’s My Life, Bon Jovi pays homage to Frank Sinatra. I have not made intertextual references in my video.

I was very keen to incorporate different camera techniques into my video and I have looked at different techniques in other videos of the punk rock genre. Skillet is a Christian rock band and I particularly admire their work. In the video Monster, there are several camera techniques that I find interesting and that I wanted to incorporate into my video. In this video, they use a technique where the camera shakes both from side to side and up and down. This mimics movement and emphasises the fact that the video is as energetic as the music. This shakiness increase as the video develops, but it is cleverly controlled, for it does not mean that the audience cannot see what is happening in the video. I wanted to try to use this, but I worried that it just looked as if the camera was not being held steadily and it looked rather amateurish. In this video I am also interested in the shot where the band member is in the foreground but the attention of the audience is drawn to the doctor in the background. This is an interesting technique whereby the performance of the band is linked to the narrative of the lyrics.

Green Day is perhaps my favourite band and I find all their music and their videos very inspirational. Jesus of Suburbia is my favourite track and the video has many ideas which conform to and challenge the stereotypical ideas associated with the punk rock genre. One aspect of this video that I find fascinating is the way that the band is shown performing on a television. This is very much challenging the stereotypical presentation of a punk rock band performing, as this is usually done either on a stage in a live concert or out in the open air. I was not sure how I could incorporate this idea into my video.

Aggression is very much a part of this genre of music and is shown throughout this video. This is very obvious in the scene where the lead singer shouts into a mirror at his own reflection.

Drugs are referred to throughout the lyrics of this song. This is an aspect I wished to use in my video as I used the cyanide pill in the glass. In the frame where the lead singer is shown with dilated eyes and a dazed expression, I wanted to recreate this look in the scene where the boy falls to the ground after being drugged.

Lighting is very important and it is something I was keen to get right in my music video. In Jesus of Suburbia the video is shot with dark scenes which are stereotypical of the punk rock genre and connote anger, aggression, violence and rebellion. In my video I wished to use lighting to create a sinister atmosphere in the bar where the murder took place. This was contrasted by the natural lighting in the underpass. The lighting of the music video 21 Guns by Green Day is very low-key so as to create a dark and sinister atmosphere. At the climax of the song the lighting fades to near darkness to show the bullet holes in the wall which in turn creates a romantic atmosphere for the couple. I aimed to incorporate the lighting techniques used in these videos to aid me in my video so I followed the conventions of this genre. I incorporated the low-key lighting in the narrative shots to create a sinister and evil atmosphere where the boyfriend gets poisoned by his ex. I have also used slightly higher key lighting when the cyanide gets put in the glass so as to emphasise the importance of the action. I will use very naturalistic lighting for the performance shots of the guitarist and the singer so as to show that they are the main focus of the video and add a sense of realism to the performance.

The graffiti on the walls in Jesus of Suburbia are very dramatic. The main character has done the graffiti on the walls to show messages in the song and to emphasise certain parts of the lyrics. Many videos of the punk rock genre contain graffiti. It is part of the message of rebellion and anti-establishment feelings that are often put forward in this genre. I included this element in my video, as there is graffiti all over the walls in the underpass where the performance shots were filmed. This helped to associate my music video to the punk rock genre.

Another favourite track of mine by Green Day is 21 Guns. This has a lot of close up shots of the male and female leads which show the real emotion on their face and links to the lyrics of the song. This is going to be very much a part of my video, as I particularly want to portray the anguish of the girlfriend and the desperation which drives her to commit murder.

In the video 21 Guns by Green Day, the mise en scene used creates a lasting image of the music video making it very memorable to the viewer. The costumes worn by the band members and the characters in this video are dark which are a generic convention of the genre. The dark coloured clothing worn by both the actors and the band members creates a link between them throughout the song. I incorporated these ideas of costumes into my music video by having the characters and the band members both in dark coloured clothes to create a link between the lead singer and the characters.

The video Dance Dance by Fallout Boy use lyrics to help create the scenes in which the music video take place. In the main chorus of the song, ‘Dance Dance’ is said, and as this happens the crowd surrounding the band immediately break into their own unique dances. There are numerous shots of the dances that happen in the music video.

The music video 21^st Century Breakdown also uses this technique as they have numerous links to the lyrics in the visuals. For example, in the lyrics it says ‘Thrown the Bouquet’ and the music video has a man throwing a bouquet of flowers into the camera. It also has at the start a series of refinery chimneys and factories which again link to the lyrics of the videos.

I incorporated this technique into my music video as the song title is Cyanide and the narrative involves cyanide being put into a drink to poison someone. The song also talks about broken hearts which again links to the narrative as it involves a breakup between a couple. We also used the line ‘Begging on my knees’ to help us with our music video as we have a shot of the lead singer singing this line on her knees which creates a direct link between the visuals and the lyrics.

In my music video I have tried to follow the generic conventions of the punk rock genre as best as I could. I have done this by using dark costumes, which were inspired mainly by Green Day, which are a generic convention of the genre. One of the locations used are a tunnel with graffiti all over the walls. This created a punk atmosphere as the genre is stereotypically associated with this. Death and violence are recurring themes in punk rock genre, so I incorporated these themes into my music video. 

These are images from our music video and some other music video screenshots. This shows the shots that we used that were similar in style to the ones from existing music videos.