Group 33: Evaluation Question 1

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Nathan Miller - Flashback, underwent an intricate level of research and analysis to create the final products. The ancillary work derived from conventions of a traditional digipak and poster with a strong sense of our chosen genre: Electro pop. Throughout this blog I will explore the ways in which we were inspired to create and develop our media products, and challenge real forms and conventions of real media products.

Upon coming to the conclusion that we will use Calvin Harris Flashback for our music video. I analysed the original for a general sense of direction but to also interpret for general conventions of a music video...

Conforming to Carol Vernallis's interpretations of the characteristics in a music video includes the very important discontinuity editing which allows for the fast rapid edits to entice the viewer and somewhat go with the beat varying on the pace and feel of the music video. Jump cuts allow for a speeded process, but also adds a strong sense of rigidity to the music video. As well as the ever important close ups which allows for the audience to identify who is the main character/artists dependent upon the narrative structure of the music video. The narrative structure of our music video as Andrew Goodwin put it, share the conventions of either an Illustrative, Amplification or Disjuncture style.

Eye contact and close ups were vital in the style music video we were trying to achieve. A lot of viewer interaction was in place in Calvin Harris's from the point of view camera shots to the eye contact used allowing for a visual connection to whoever was viewing the music video. With this in mind we reenacted many of the shots in our own interpretations from the real feel of a party to the drunk feel which is why our version of Flashback is very heavy on the superimposition:

At the beginning of the A2 year, I analysed the Calvin Harris Flashback music video and made bullet points in the way our own music video will differ from the original, here are those bullet points:

How ours will differ

We will focusing on the night of three young males collectively rather than one individuals experience.
Our cover will divert from the party and the liveliness when we shoot our street scenes whilst I am leaving the party to get a sense of emptiness and regret.
Similar in concept but noticeable difference in the way it will be executed...

Laura Mulvey stressed on the fact that women are projected in music videos for visual pleasure for the male audience. We as a group wished to challenge her theory. I felt that this assumption varies from genre to genre for example in rap videos, women have become an expected convention of the genre in terms of the music video. Our genre electro pop rarely conforms to this, as the my detailed analysis of the genre proved to exhibit flashing light, clubs and sunglasses as opposed to women in bikinis . We did have a clip of a females legs walking into the kitchen part of the party but this was not stressed in the music video, not presenting this female as Laura Mulvey's notion stated. This bring us to our first bullet point: we stressed on the night for this three males as we felt we could create believable scenarios that the audience could relate to. The second bullet point explains our initial thoughts as to creating an after the party effect allowing for a sense of emptiness and regret within our artist which references to the original Flashback music video in a sense, going to a party/club and waking up alone and disappointed as Calvin Harris was on a sailing boat and I was in the heart of Barbican looking very vulnerable. This also suggests why my hand is occasionally on my face. The final bullet point, states that our video will have its similarities, but will not be identical as we as a group listen to different genre music so there will be a lot of intertextual references from different music videos in a variety of different genres, just as Electro Pop is...

One of the main intertextual features and just notable traits to our party is the conventional red party cups. These are usually associated with all American teenage parties, like ones in American pie for example. We looked at a wide range of media texts to get examples and inspiration for the use of the red party cups diverting into many different genres. Also making reference to the fact that Electro Pop over the years has had many different influences from different genres.

Here we see two screen shots from Lil Twist - New Money and two from Nathan Miller - Flashback. The pictures speak for themselves showing clear relation to each other as we see a female in Lil twist's music video and one in flashback drinking from the red party cups. The other two screen shots are to illustrate the number of red party cups in place at both parties. We had a huge number of clips with the party cups but the issue of the lighting rendered a lot of them useless but we can still see a clear relation none the less.

'On Thirsty Thursday and Tuesday Night Ice
And I can get pizza a dollar a slice' - quote from Asher Roth - I Love College

Sticking to the US party style music video, we incorporated another expected feature: pizza. During the week, I had collected a few pizza boxes to use in our music video keeping Asher Roth's I Love College music video in mind. Ordering pizza for the night was very unnecessary as our version of flashback is to dawn on the after effects of the party as well as the guys night out. Which is why, a member of the party was laying on top of the boxes, ironic as he almost fell asleep so it created a very authentic drunk feel.

In the following screen shots above, you see the Ciroc Vodka, P.Diddy's vodka. In his video Ciroc Star we can see a lower scale approach as I am holding the exact same Ciroc flavours as P.Diddy was in his Ciroc Star music video. During the beginning of both music videos the audience receive a lengthy view of the premium vodkas to establish a theme of partying. This is the main reason why we stressed on all of the bottles in our own party, I wanted the viewers to view Flashback and wish they were there.

The camera work in Calvin Harris Flashback acted as an inspiration for our climax to the music video. We can note the mid shots displaying both artists at the peak moment of the night as they are both smiling. We can also, see that they are engulfed by darkness but we can at least notice their facial expressions. The following below them are literally straight after the shots, showing a huge contrast from the climax of their wild nights concluding back to reality with straight faces, a sense of being lost.

In reference to the isolation and regret that I wished to be perceived from our music video I automatically thought of Barbican as it is just very vast and quite isolated when in the evening. I knew that Eliza Doolittle's Mr Medicine music video also shot in Barbican and I knew the location of the escalators so I aimed to get an identical or similar shot of me walking down the same escalators as she did. My two friends were trailing behind me as the Mr Medicine music video. The other screen shot shows the level of isolation as we are both wondering empty streets, I hope the audience picked up on the absence of pedestrians to reflect Nathan Miller's emotions.

The waking up scene was initially supposed to commence at the beginning of the music video, relating more heavily to Calvin Harris's Flashback video. However due to the quality of the recorded clips we had to scrap this idea and we placed it in a unusual way by reversing the clip to make it conclude with a level of serenity. A good example of the waking up scene we wished to achieve was with Asher Roth's I love College as he wakes up in the morning with females.

The quote at the beginning of our music video was essentially inspired by Wretch 32's Unorthodox, where we can see the video commencing with a similar style. This was due to the fact that Calvin Harris Flashback took very long before the song actually dropped. The quote we used derived from playing Call Of Duty the week before. All Call Of Duty games have a series of quotes that show when the player is killed in story mode.I screen shotted one for an example as to where our derived from with me changing the words slightly.

The attire worn in Nathan Miller Flashback has derived from the traditional electro pop attire. Despite swaying in the future to a more informal manner, I chose to keep it very original and precise to how it electro pop was perceived before the 21st century revival. This includes modern up to date formal attire. In addition to the music videos, a sway in the right direction came from the modern GQ magazine which did a section on weekend wear at the high end designer spectrum. This being a magazine many classy people would read I took their advice as to 'not wear brown in town' despite having the notion of artists having a switch in clothes (which was resolved by simply taking off my blazer and revealing my shirt) and not to wear anything but dark colours with the typical blazer and jeans outfit for a night out. So despite having inspiration from the originators, this form of dress is forever in fashion, only getting more slim as time progresses. This conforms heavily to the genre.

I created this video to illustrate the inspiration for the rhythmic editing , which is the editing on the beat. As the song commences, we hear the beat sharply strike three times. Upon hearing the song I automatically thought to have the visuals of the video hit the beat creating a funky rhythmic structure. This short video has demonstrated how both are very similar hitting the beat with a slightly relevant clip and eventually coming around to the artist as the lyrics approach. This conforms to Carol Vernallis's observation that : 'edits may be really obvious to draw attention to themselves.' This was noted by students and peers, most saying they particularly liked the way everything went to the beat.

Comedian Dave Chappelle's sketch of slow motion making everything a lot "cooler" relates to the music industry. He smartly states that any bad situation can be improved and made a lot more effective by adding slow motion, it makes the artist look important. I have included the only clip of this sketch so apologies for the poor quality but my point is clear. The video I have created illustrates some of the slow motion clips used. Notably the one in the party, because the full clip was less than useless as it was just too dark with only like three seconds of actually seeing the party with a bit of light.I had to slow this clip down to extend the time of it and this is my personal favorite part of the video because the clip was so bad before and it flowed well with the beat of the song. This conforms not only to Vernallis's theory but to Dave Chappelle's comedy sketch. Slow motion acted as a catalyst in successfully executing the jump cuts...

I quickly made this video to illustrate how the slow motion compliments the jump cuts in Nathan Miller Flashback. The number of dark clips led to most of the party shots being useless, only frequently when the lights decided to flicker on. This resulted on the vast majority of the clips being slowed down capture the moment but keep up to beat with the fast paced song, I dissected the clips into smaller segments then deleted the clips in between to make the clips seem as they are playing at a normal pace. This would be marked with the markings on the song making every sequence rhythmic. The most notable jump cut and slow motion combination was when group member Asilhan had his eyes shut at the kitchen with all of the drinks on display. Not only was the lighting perfect but we can highlight the fact that these two editing techniques were implicated together speeding up the process but looking "cool" at the same time relating further to Vernallis's observation that : 'Jump cuts are often used.'

To conclude, Nathan Miller - Flashback had a huge amount of inspiration from its stimulus music video Calvin Harris - Flashback. The structure of the music video, followed its steps by performing as an amplification style music video. With the lyrics having some relation to the visuals and editing in the music video, there is no strict narrative but there is a story to follow for the sharp viewer.Ethel (female singer) challenges Laura Mulvey's observations similar to Niki Minaj in super bass as she is also surrounded by males. We took a more down to earth approach, allowing for Ethel to have a roll on screen because in Calvin Harris's Flashback video the female singer was not endorsed in the video apart from the models slightly singing it. This gives the female a formal role disagreeing with Laura Mulvey's theories. The use of basetracks was mandatory for most music videos in particular ours, especially as our artist is relatively new. The superimposotion was used to compensate for the low lighted clips but to also accentuate a drunk feel to the music video, which was one of the main aims. Finally, referring back to Andrew Goodwin and his notion of different styles of music videos. We can see that Nathan Miller Flashback is a amplification style, not only as to the relevant props on screen (alcohol, girls etc.) but also in relation to the editing. The superimposition illustrated very well as to the reminiscent feel of the party. The slow motion visually informed the reader to make them feel and see how the artist is viewing things, with and impaired vision. This was executed well as most of the positive feedback remembered our music video as the "one that had the drunk effect."

The ancillary work derived heavily from the work of Calvin Harris as did the video, here is are the two pieces of album artwork exhibiting very close similarities in the leveling of the image and a similarity in the colour scheme;