Question 1: In what ways does you media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Rough)

It is important to note that our music video is metaphor for the occupy movement, portraying the ideologies that 1% is in control of 99% of the world's wealth. Moreover, acting as a sort of visual representation for current social inequality.

Location:

Location is an aspect of mise-en-scene that is used to enhance and further set the scene, giving the track
and video much more visual depth/meaning. Our video uses a variety of urban locations within London and Norwich that primarily conforms to similar music videos of the trip-hop genre. For example, within the music video for UNKLE's "Rabbit in Your Headlights", a rather dull, bland concrete motorway tunnel is used throughout the entirety of the narrative. Similarly, our music video features locations such as underground stations, alleyways, underground passes and abandoned buildings in order to conform to the generic conventions of bleak, urban location; whilst also, commenting on what it is like to live in a contemporary Britain, blighted by inequality.

     


We have used locations such as The American Embassy and Docklands, London; the
modernist and very politically endowed environments draw similarity to conventions of the spoken word genre. For example, Scroobius Pip's "Thou Shalt Always Kill" features imagery of the artist behind a US presidency seal to connote his antagonism towards British and American capitalism. We also used explicit USA signifiers, the iconic eagle and American flag, to represent the roots of the economic down turn which was in the USA. Therefore, using cultural signifiers as a comment on the economic state of both Britain and America, of which, is a somewhat generic convention of the spoken word genre and so links to the speech sample in "Mr President, We're in Trouble".



Costume:

Our music video deals with two characters with completely different ideas about the world, the costumes are therefore designed to represent the ideologies of our target audience; whereby, the protestor is a representation of the majority audience and the businessman a projection of what the 99% believe is wrong with the world. Firstly, we created the protestor's costume using a plain t-shirt, some old jeans and trainers; the intention of this was to create a character devoid of a consumerist nature, possessing a casual style.

Costumes: Radiohead "Pop is Dead" (left),
RJD2 "The Horror" (right)

This style is commonly seen within bands of the contemporary alternative genre (of which, trip-hop is a sub-genre); for example, Radiohead and Portishead are artists that are almost always wearing plain t-shirts and jeans. Moreover, showing how the casual style has become a convention of this genre as a whole, perhaps to give the message that focus should be on the alternative style of music as opposed to abstract clothing. In this sense, we have used generic conventions of fashion relating to the alternative genre as a whole through our protestor character. However, I don't believe the protester outfit gives accurate representation of costume used in alternative/trip-hop music videos because style seems to vary based on narrative e.g. Radiohead's "Pop is Dead" features costumes that completely differ from RJD2's "The Horror", despite belonging to the same collective genre.

Members from the band, "Portishead".

On the other hand, we have directly challenged the generic conventions of costume and fashion in the alternative/trip-hop genre with our portrayal of the business man character, instead using conventions from other forms of media. The character of the businessman sports a black suit, white shirt, red tie and smart shoes (all of which we are trying to showcase as expensive clothing also); we picked this particular costume as it has strong connotations of power, all of which hand credit to it's intertextual influences. For example, the character of Patrick Bateman in "American Psycho" was a strong influence on our choice, he wears expensive suits of a similar aesthetic and is obsessed with wealth, as well as his own self image. Additionally, the black suit/red tie combination also references Agent 47 from the game series and film "Hitman", this character lacks empathy and is highly dangerous.

The characteristics of these two characters are therefore well associated with their costume, and so in an effort to portray this with our business man character we have used the connotations created through these texts via our creation of costume to make reference to the power and corruption associated with suits. This links to John Hartley's ideas about genre, in the way that genre needs to be understood as a property of the relations between texts.


   
Narrative structure/ editing:

It's hard to pinpoint generic conventions of trip-hop music videos as there is so much variety in narrative structure between the majority of them. That being said, from my research it appears that the main foundations of music videos within this genre are based on the use of experimental production techniques e.g. vibrant uses of colour, abstract camera movement, etc and/or the use of irregular story telling to make a thought provoking point about society. Moreover, trip-hop videos that are absent of strong story telling and remain enigmatic submit themselves more as pieces of art to which music can accompany than anything else e.g. Massive Attack - "Teardrop". In this sense, the majority of trip-hop videos follow Barthes' code of open texts; whereby, the audience is able to create their own meaning due to the overall ambiguity of a text, this can be seen in the examples of trip-hop videos within this post.

The ending shot of our music video.

Our music video uses aspects of both of these conventions within it's narrative structure, making it
similar to videos such as Fatboy Slim's "Don't Let The Man Get You Down" or UNKLE's "Burn My Shadow". "Burn My Shadow", for example, demonstrates how much we value life when it is threatened, but through the use of a rather enigmatic plot-line. Similarly, we've played on this convention using a plot-line that doesn't really give any answers, but makes a impacting final statement. For example, the running enigma throughout our video is the relation between the characters within the split screen, getting people asking, why are these individuals portrayed by the same person? This is met with a rather subjective, yet thought provoking ending to which both characters come to face themselves in what is established as a mirrored reflection. In comparison, "Burn My Shadow" ends with the ticker of the supposed bomb on the protagonists chest reaching zero and not exploding. This explicit relation shows how we have used generic conventions of trip-hop narrative within our production.






Furthermore, the narrative of our music video can be closely linked to Goodwin's theory of music videos, particularly relating to the relationship between the lyrics and visuals; we've both illustrated and contradicted the link between the two. For example, the action on screen such as the littering of the Starbucks cup and the homeless man directly illustrate the points about self-indulgence and consumption that are touched on in the speech sample. However, the track talks about presidency and focuses specifically on American culture; we've used imagery that is of iconic britishness i.e. The Docklands, references to British politicians, english newspapers, shops and the London underground. Therefore, we've created a rather complicated relationship between lyrics and visuals.

Our music video conforms to the ideas of Strauss' theory that constant conflict/opposition is the main drive behind narrative, executing this using both visual and conceptual techniques. For example, we have shown the opposition between social classes in the use of levels i.e. at one point, the business man stands tall as he faces a crouched homeless man. This creates a conflict of power, whereby, the business man is completely dominant and the homeless man is vulnerable. Similar opposition is seen in music videos such as Leftfield's "Afrika Shox" between the zombie-like African American character and the white, new york business men. UNKLE's "Money and Run" was a huge influence to us in terms of representing this opposition, as, in said music video conflict is created between rich, banker type characters and individuals living a council estate; the comparison between the wealthy and poor society is something we wanted to utilise and so we used similar techniques to this video.

Still from "Money and Run" (left), showing the wealthy bankers assaulting
a council estate youth. In contrast, a still from our music video (right).

Additionally, we used a split-screen effect in order to further create binary opposition, this allowed us to use the same actor for both characters and therefore strengthened the message we were trying to communicate. This method is the simplest visual way by which conflict can be created between two characters as the individuals are always opposing each other within the mise-en-scene. Split-screen is a common device used within media, defined as rupturing the illusion that the screen's frame is a seamless view of reality, similar to that of the human eye; this technique is most commonly used to show two different events happening at the same time e.g. Radiohead's "All I Need" or give the ability to allow one actor to appear twice in one scene e.g. Lauryn Hill "Doo Wop (That Thing)". We've used both of these conventions within our music video as we have depicted the same actor twice within the mise-en-scene, whilst also allowing two different events to run at the same time. Moreover, in a sense developing the notion of split-screen by bringing together both of it's functions and combining it in to one. On a further note, we used conventional visual techniques such as split-screen for the sole purpose of creating binary opposition as a means of satisfying our target audience. This is as our demographic are most likely to have an active say in notifying social inequality and so by portraying the issue in the way we have, we are in essence supporting the audiences fight for what's right.

 

Another technique we have used within our music video is time-lapse photography, this involves either photographing a subject every few seconds and then compiling it frame by frame or filming a moving object and speeding up the video. Commonly, it is used to showcase a subject that would usually move and change slowly, speeding up the process to show it with quick movement or transformation; we have used this technique in an attempt to connote the idea that times are moving quickly but nothing is changing. For example, allowing one subject to stay still as the time-lapse occurs allowing the world to move around them i.e. actors and buildings. Using time-lapse this way is popular in TV and film, a primary example of this would be the "House of Card's" introduction; this was a considerable influence on us when deciding to use time-lapse as of it's rather subtle, but dark representation of Washington D.C.




In terms of transitions between shots, we have primarily used hard cuts within the advancement of our narrative as opposed to cross-dissolves. This is as trip-hop music videos focus primarily on story telling and so it is conventional within this genre to use hard cuts in order to progress the narrative and match the beat. For example, Moby's "Natural Blues". Therefore, we have abided by this generic convention to keep the sense of strong narrative and gritty mise-en-scene; however, there is one instance where we have used a dissolve in order to fade out a split screen segment and then another to go to black for a few seconds, challenging conventions of trip-hop transitions. The reason behind this was to portray a significant moment in the song, whereby, the music begins to slow down and the lyrics have a crucial sense of meaning, and so taking the viewer away from the video for a moment allowed them to step back and think before being re-introduced to the hard-hitting beat. Moreover, relating to Goodwin's theory in terms of relationship between both music, lyrics and visuals as we have illustrated how the video changes to accommodate for the advancement of the track.



Representation:

Further statistics available at:
 http://www.nyfa.edu/film-school-blog/gender-inequality-in-film/

Our music video conveys a very conventional representation of sexuality as both main characters are
male, in fact, our production is completely devoid of female roles (other than passers by). This reflects the dominance of male artists in music videos and the wider media; for example, there is an average of 2.25 male actors to every female actor within film, with only 30.8% of speaking characters being women.

The reason behind using this rather androcentric cast is to do with the fact that within the majority of media, males are almost always represented as the wealthy business man e.g. "Wolf of Wall Street", "American Psycho", "Wall Street" and "House of Cards". Therefore, we decided to use this convention and so we weren't able to include a female lead as both characters had to be the same for the idea to work. However, if we had used a female character for the split-screen, we could have perhaps challenged gender roles in a rather interesting way.

Stills from "Afrika Shox"

Our representation of ethnicity is again very conventional in relation to the contemporary trip-hop
genre; whereby, presently the trip-hop genre is dominated by Caucasian artists (DJ Shadow, Moby, Portishead) although originating from the likes of Afro-Carribean musicians. i.e. DJ Kool Herc and The Wild Bunch (now Massive Attack). In a sense, challenging the roots of the genre through use primarily white actors, but now conforming to the modern development of trip-hop. Additionally, the use of Caucasian actor again goes back to the stereotypically portrayed business character; white, powerful and mostly corrupt male (as seen in the posters above).

A good example of this representation is in Leftfield's "Afrika Shox", whereby, this conventional white business man character does nothing to help the deteriorating Afro-Caribbean zombie, showing the opposition and conflict between these groups. In relation to this example, it may have worked well to use an Afro-Carribean actor as the protestor instead to reference this conventional conflict; however, in order to conform properly to conventions of split-screen and trip-hop narrative this may not work as well, but would be very interesting.



Our music video uses primarily negative representations of Britain in order to illustrate the problems with our nation and link better with the lyrics in the track. For example, we have contrasted imagery of protest with the Union Jack using the split-screen technique. This conveys the idea that within our nation, there is no rightful order and lack of equality, leading to chaotic uproars in order to triumph over hypocrisy; moreover, representing Britain as an unstable country.In comparison, films such as "V for Vendetta", "A Clockwork Orange" and music videos like Clock Opera's "Lesson No.7" all give similar negative representations of Britain. This being said, the traditional representation of Britain is seen as elegant, sophisticated and well-cultured; for example, this is portrayed in period dramas such as "Downtown Abbey". Therefore, our music video challenges traditional representation of Britain as it doesn't positively reinforce positive stereotypes about the nation, instead, it uses aspects of contemporary British representation to convey the negatives stereotypes surrounding Britain.



In relation to audience, our negative representations of Britain were used to parallel the belief systems of our demographic in the way that we are representing the authentic voice of those who feel the recession has cheated them; the ugly parts of this country are what the target audience want to change and by not painting over these parts we are conveying the idea that there is still room to make a difference.

Digipak:

To begin with, I decided to go with a eight panel CD layout in order to give a different creative approach in terms of design, allowing me to express a narrative in itself with the actual panels e.g. use images that told a similar story to the music video via images of protest on one side, contrasting with business men at work on the other. Therefore, challenging the conventional design of CD packaging, which usually conforms to four panels, whilst using generic aspects of Trip-hop CD packaging (as mentioned before, this genre focuses on artful and experimental visual designs) e.g. DJ Shadow's "Entroducing". However, when reviewing how my images would fit together on a eight panel CD case I discovered that the composition of these visuals didn't work to how I'd envisioned; therefore, I went back re-designing my panels to fit a conventional four panel CD case. Using a conventional packaging design allowed me to compare and contrast the idea of class in-equality in a much more simpler and understandable way, something that would perhaps be easier for the target audience to relate to.






The front cover of my digipak challenges conventional integration of text as I have made the band and album's name look as if it is a product of the environment within the photograph, this is as the text is placed in such a way that it appears where the name of the store in the background should be.

Furthermore, the image used on the front cover depicts a working class man walking his dog in the foreground, as we see a closed down shop and another male in the background. I have used this imagery to portray the idea of how the working class are struggling, not receiving suitable help to support themselves or their businesses from government officials; essentially representing how the 99% are in trouble. The composition was inspired by The Street's "A Grand Don't Come For Free" album cover, in the use of flat camera angle with a particular focus on the formation of lines. Additionally, I have used a bold sans serif font for the text, this is to stand out and give a clear sense of the artist; for example, Moby's "Play" uses a similar style. The simple, yet bold nature of this font is common of trip-hop front covers and I have therefore used this generic convention.

For panels two and three, I have used close-ups of both of our characters and cropped out half of each side of their face. This is so when the CD package is opened out fully, both images will compose together to create one face and will reflect the generic convention of experimental visual seen within the trip-hop genre. Additionally, it continues the split-screen effect from the music video.

The back panel of my digipak features a still I took at the American Embassy of the iconic eagle statue that stood at the top of the building, directly contrasting the imagery on the front cover of my digipak. This connotes the watchful eye of the government, American politics and references the buildings history e.g. the 1968 Anti-Vietnam demo, which involved protesters speaking against the war in Vietnam; therefore, signifying the class divide and better representing the conflict between our protestor character and the business man, as well as, linking this from fiction to a wider-world issue. Furthermore, this panel features the barcode, track-listing and institutional information such as copyright implications. These are all generic of CD packages, and I have therefore used this convention to portray legitimacy.  

The magazine advert I have created took great influence from Propaganda art, particularly the posters focusing on the differences between capitalism and socialism. Therefore, I used the connotations created through this to make a poster that instead highlighted the differences between the 99% and 1%, in a sense, satirising modern politics in order to outline social inequality. Moreover, I have included information such as the album release date and a genuine quote about the band in order to promote the overall package; advertising through this information is common with the promotion of bands and so I have again used generic conventions in relation to my print productions e.g. La Roux's debut album.