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

When planning my music video, I had no idea what a progressive rock (prog/prog-rock) music video would look like as I had no prior knowledge to the genre. However a group member showed me a band, Animals as Leaders who play progressive metal, which is a sub-genre of prog and so it incorporates the conventions of both metal and prog making it ideal as prog band music videos are proving to be elusive. When looking at Animals As Leaders - "CAFO" I realised that its conventions dont deviate greatly from stereotypical rock as much as I thought and because Im familiar with the rock genre conventions it made it easier to conform to it. However it is arguable that we may have possibly challenged some conventions. I will be looking at how my music video The Rubber Tramp by VisionedKarma (left) has conformed,challenged or developed conventions of the progressive rock/rock genre what will also be looked at is the similarities and differences between my music video and Animals as Leaders - CAFO amongst other bands (right) through the use of 9 key frames. When comparing with other bands I will also make comparisons with music videos in general as my product challenges and conforms to them while challenging and conforming to the genre. Frame 1:

The a focal point of these two images the mise-en-scene specifically the clothing. When looking at clothing as a part of the mise-en-scene, it seems to be quite modest. What is meant by this is that the artists are not wearing flashy clothing or shiny jewelry. I chose to conform to this because I believe that it is a way for artists to prevent themselves from drawing the audience's attention away from what really matters within a progressive rock music video, the instruments. Often meaningful songs can be overshadowed by the visuals specifically when provocative clothing or nudity is involved such as Miley Cyrus - Wrecking ball when she appears naked upon the wrecking ball which blew the song out of proportion despite the story she was trying to tell. What conforming to this genre convention does for us is that it allows the audience to potentially recognise the genre before the music starts playing as different clothing styles are commonly associated with different genres such as tracksuits/hoodies are associated with R&B and Hip-Hop while faded jeans and worn shoes are associated with the rock genre. Due to this association it allows us to capture the target audience as theyll know what's coming up and will want to stay whereas if the clothing was not how it was it may deter them from the video.

Alongside this the simplicity of the clothing connotes that in terms of music its the sound that matters more than the image. Frame 2:

(Animals as Leaders - CAFO)

Another convention that my groups media product conformed to is the use of extreme close-ups (ecu) of instruments, more notably the hands that are on them. We opted to recreate this shot on the right because it depicts the skill level of the artist however we wanted to make it our own instead of copying it directly. The shot shows the artist strumming the guitar which is a skill that requires a lot of hard work and dedication and the ecu makes it the focal point as a way to get the audience to recognise the skill level of the artist/artists that are on screen. This is similar in the way that R&B/Hip-Hop music videos do close-ups of the artists face to assert their power and authority. The part in which the still was taken from our song is when the song becomes more complex instrument wise and would require skill in order to do it properly and so we found the shot to be appropriate as it conveys the complexity and the skill level required. As mentioned previously this is similar to close-ups of artists faces, we also chose to conform to this because the rock genre is not as prevalent as it used to be and so rock artists have to fight harder to gain recognition so as a result they have to showcase their skill level constantly. This is a common theme throughout the later half of the music video as it is the more complex part of the product and when done correctly, it is successful in promoting the artists skill.

Frame 3:

Mid-shots are another convention of the rock genre and on a larger scale music videos in general because they are in between two extremes. One being the close-up the other being a long shot. We chose to conform to this because in a rock video the focal point is the artists use of the instruments which in this case is kept by the waist and above. A close-up would show too much detail and focus of the artists skillfulness whereas a long shot would include the legs which the majority of the time wouldnt be doing anything that greatly affects the video and the audience. So the mid-shot captures the right amount to showcase the actual performance as it incorporates the artists head and hands without too much detail and gets rid of anything that could be deemed unnecessary. As this focuses on the general performance it makes it seem more realistic in the sense that the audience ideally isnt going to be so close they cant see or so far they can see too much. So it gives the audience what they want and need without jeopardising anything as it still shows the audience how skillful albeit on a lesser scale the artist is but it can also include the artists face and this overall shot connotes that the artist is there to actually entertain the audience first and make money second. (This is more noticeable in my media product) Frame 4:

Progressive rock focuses on the instruments and the sounds they make hence why there are little or no lyrics. So the artists main focus is to make the best sound possible and in order to do that they may need to form bands and as a result they make each other sound better. Why we conformed to this is because in the later part of the music video the audience are able to differentiate between two guitars and so having only one artist within the whole of the video would not of created verisimilitude but rather prevented it as this is the detail that would create it. Having two artists within the scene rather than one could potentially connote the bringing together of two audiences due to a possible collaboration. This is because the song could be interpreted as various sounds coming together as the guitarist on the left plays the light notes

initially while the guitarist on the right comes in with the heavy base thus creating a greater sound and if these two were separated before it brings together two audiences which our music video could potentially do due to the contrasting sounds. Frame 5:

(The Rolling Stones - Start Me Up)

In my music video image the artists head is lowered and his hair obscures his face which weve used as an indicator that there will be no lyrics which challenges and conforms as in terms of the rock genre it challenges it but conforms to the progressive rock sub-genre. In rock its often seen that the artist or band is singing which can be a way for them to connect to the audience. e.g The Rolling Stones - Start Me Up is a way for the female audience to connect to them because it has an underlying sexual meaning through the use of metaphors that can be interpreted sexually. I found that our song doesnt require lyrics as we believe it to be a good composition that can use its visuals to attract an audience. What also influenced us to challenge this is that it conforms to the progressive rock sub-genre which focuses primarily on the instruments and this we thought we shouldnt deviate from as it works quite well if the visuals are good.

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In music videos, they stereotypically revolve around the artist or band and so they will be seen frequently. This is evident in our music video because there is a hint of a narrative which is tow guitarist meeting up to practice. Since thats was our narrative, the artists had to be in the video the whole time which relates to verisimilitude as it makes the whole scenario seem more realistic. Due to the artists talking over the phone about meeting up, the video follows them up to that point and when they play and this alongside them being the only two characters in the product makes it clear that they are the main characters however the fact that the right guitarist comes in halfway shows that the left guitarist is the main character hinting that he is the primary focus and could connote that he composed the song which he actually did. This helps to conform to how in most music videos most artists who wrote their own songs are the main character within their product such as Jessie J - Do it Like a Dude where the whole video revolved around her. Another reason as to why this was something we chose to conform is that is helps to put a face to music and allows the artist to gain fame as they will be seen performing this piece and if the audience likes it they will be able to identify the artist easier. Frame 7:

Our music video doesnt conform to the stereotypical location that is often scene in rock videos. We decided to challenge the indoor, garage type location because we thought that it was too generic and while it would be easier to manage it was too simplistic. On the other hand Animals as Leaders location could be considered to be indoors possibly garage like as it is essentially a dark room with loads of special effects and it is very effective with the tempo of the song. This isnt very realistic though as garage bands tend to have little or no special effects and that didnt conform to what we wanted to do with out product as we added a solarized filter to parts of our production which related to how one of the characters had a dream which involved parts of the performance. So we set our production predominantly outside to make it as realistic as possible. The connotation of the park location is that our artists lack fame and fortune and so have to perform in places where it is free, accessible and won't disturb others. While a garage is practical, it wouldnt have the same desired effect so we had to challenge it.

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A common convention of the rock genre is low key lighting which is used to create a mysterious effect because rock is considered to be somewhat dark and this is heavily reflected by Animals of Leaders. The low key lighting for us didnt seem very progressive but could be interpreted as a step back as it is regressing back to the rock genre stereotype so we challenged it. We opted to use high key lighting because the music isnt too mysterious and we want our artists to be completely visible by the audience as we wanted their skill to be seen clearly and in low key lighting it would make that more difficult to accomplish. The high key lighting also represents how the artists are feeling and how the audience should feel while listening. The lighting indicates happiness which makes sense as both the artists are making the music that they love and we want the audience to feel that which I think comes across with the way they are performing and the effort they are putting into it. Frame 9:

The color of the clothing and location challenge the conventions of the rock genre greatly because like the lighting its meant to create mystery which is not the aim of our music video. Why we challenged is because usually dark clothing insinuates pain/torment which is not eh vibe the song we chose and so having a dark music video would not suit it completely and ruin the verisimilitude created by the other aspects of the video. Additionally the solarization was to add a trippy effect to the video to indicate the dream faze which we implemented.