In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Digi Pack
Applying Theories to our Music Video:
Barthes - Engima Code:
There is enigma consistently being built up within our music video which is conventional in our genre. Throughout our music video there are no real answers given and the audience are constantly kept hooked on why the couple broke up and why the broke up. Because there is no dialogue the audience can only take answers from the visuals which was a lot of arguments and using the character of Amelia, who as a character was an enigma as it is never said/concluded as to what her role was. This is conventional as in Kodaline - High Hopes music video, it is not clearly said as to why the wedding broke off and why the man in the car was going to commit suicide. All that can be taken to why the wedding broke off was through the visuals of the bruises on the female protagonists back. Also, at the end of our music video Alice is involved in a car accident but it has an ambiguous ending as to whether she is dead or not as the audience are left with the visual of Alice and Luke standing by a pond in high key lighting and as an interpreted reading, it can be interpreted that Alice died and is now in the place that she wanted to be. Or an alternative reading (Stuart Hall) could be that it is something that she wanted and concludes why she did what she did.
Strauss - Binary Opposites:
The binary opposites within our music video can be interpreted as male vs. female, and that there is this constant feud between the two genders and one was stronger than the other. This links the binary opposite of good vs. bad and depending on the viewer it can be interpreted in different ways who was good and who was bad. The good vs. bad doesn't just have to apply to the characters but can also apply to the theme of the good times Luke and Alice had and the bad times they had. There is also death vs. life where Alice is struggling between life and death and doesn't know which one she wants to be part of, connoted by her reckless behaviour. These are all conventional binary opposites as shown in Kodaline - High Hopes, The Neighbourhood - Let it Go and The 1975 - Robbers. This is because they all have an element of the male vs. female, for instance in The Neighbourhood music video, the woman is sad and angry because of how much stronger the male is and the stronger dominance he holds, connoting a patriarchal society that we live in. Then, Kodaline has elements of death vs. life as at the start of the music video, the man is going to kill himself but he finds something worth living for but then at the end the woman dies and she is in some form still living in his heart/imagination, so there is a cross over between life and death. Then, The 1975 has the element of good vs. bad because the male protagonist wants to rob a store and does making him the bad person, but the people in the van or his girlfriend could be seen as good as they save his life and also they did not take much part in the robbery.
Propp - Character Types:
Within out music video it can be interpreted that Luke is the villain, this is because he is the cause of Alice's downward spiral. It can also be connoted that he is the villain due to his costume as he wears a white T-Shirt which could be seen as hiding his villainous side. But, it could also be argued that Amelia is the villain as she can be associated with the break up in an interpreted reading. Alice can be seen as the princess as she cannot seem to live without a male in her life and needs saving from this dark side she has gone into, connoted by the iconography and costume associated with Alice. We have followed conventional character types as the woman tends to be the princess within the genre of music videos, like Kodaline - High Hopes, the female needed to be saved from a bad marriage and bad relationship also making the male she is running away from seem like the villain. This also applies to Alt-J - Breezeblocks music video because the male is harming the female and ends up killing someone.
Todrov:
Equilibrium: Alice, Luke and Amelia are walking in a group
Disruption: Luke and Amelia laughing and enjoying each others company so Alice runs away from the group.
Recognition: When she is in the living room she realises that she was in a bad relationship
Attempt to repair: She picks up an alcohol bottle and drinks, producing a downward spiral
New equilibrium:She returns to a peaceful world with Luke in death
Like most videos in our genre, there isn't a real equilibrium to start with as most characters seem somewhat sad or angry at the start, meaning that we have conformed to conventions of the genre. For instance, in Kodaline, it starts with a disruption and has some form of equilibrium at the end. But, most music videos within our genre start with a disruption and throughout the disruption continues and there is some attempt to repair. This is because within this genre, it is mainly non-chronological narratives to create enigma and an interesting music video.
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