Evaluation Question 1 - by Josh

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

When Luke, James and I got together as a group, we all decided we wanted to create a video that we would actually like, using music that appealed to use whilst creating something original and different from conventional music videos. This was when we decided upon using the song 'Finale' by Madeon. However, as you now know, we used a remix of this song since the original lacked a quick tempo for our idea of having a fast-paced chase scene as well as the song being too short for us to fit all our ideas in. This is when we chose Netsky's remix due to its length and the increase in tempo.
 We first started with research into existing music videos. 'Stan' by Eminem was the video our teacher chose for us to do, followed by my own choice of 'The City' by Madeon and 'Houdini' by Foster the People. I chose these two primarily because I enjoyed the videos and felt they were very good ones with interesting concepts as well as camera shots, the editing, narrative and performance. For more detail click on the links provided to see my analysis.

 

 As a group we all looked at dance/electronic genre music videos such as 'Sandstorm' by Darude, 'Chasin' by Sander Van Doorn, 'Toulouse' by Nicky Romero

 We wanted something rather iconic that singled out our video from others, such as a specific detail that would help our audience remember our video. Examples include Michael Jackson as a Zombie in his music video for 'Thriller', 'Weapon Of Choice' by Fatboy Slim

 'Here It Goes Again' by OK Go,

 
'The Scientist' by Coldplay,

 
'Islands' by The xx,

 
From synchronised treadmill dancing, a car crash in reverse and a video repeated over and over with ever so slight alterations make all of these videos very unique. The main thing that I believe people will remember from our video are the anonymous masks. These added a whole sense of mystery and a sinister feel to our video, as opposed to just having security guards without masks. Some of the shots and scenes in our video are also meant to intrigue the viewer, as well as make them think about the concepts and ideas, branching from the freerunning and parkour to how the viewer interprets the narrative and story of the video. 

 







 In addition to our research into existing music videos, we also looked at 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' by Andrew Goodwin. This detailed a number of key points that a music video should comprise of, which we all considered before creating our storyboard for our video. As the chase scene begins after the two masked men rise from their seats, the video shows a close up of the thief's face. This is due to there being a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist (pictures of close ups). 

 Research into the dance/electronic genre revealed that close ups are used regularly within videos, e.g. Calvin Harris in the video for 'Feel so Close'  and Example in 'Stay Awake' (images right and below).

This helps the audience recognise the artist as well as brand recognition. A good example of this is the House artist Deadmau5 (images below), who's iconic 'Mouse Head' give him a unique recognition across his genre. He always wears this for live performance and is also the key focus for his album covers.

 A difficult concept to have in our video was 'Star-image' and the iconography of the artist, since we did not have Madeon at hand to star in our video. However, we did incorporate some features of our chosen artist, such as how we chose a young-looking DJ for our video since Madeon is only 18, with casual clothing to replicate his performance costume.
 Despite having a video for his song 'The City', he does not feature within it, which is a fairly common theme within electronic/dance videos, e.g. Daft Punk had a whole album of music videos made up of 'manga' style videos without them featuring. When artists do appear in the videos it can sometimes be to illustrate a past life event, but even that is sometimes portrayed by another actor. An example of this is the video for 'Bounce' by Calvin Harris. Although Harris does appear in this, he acts as the DJ, much in the same way the DJ in our video does, as he is watching himself (the dream) whilst still doing some performance within the video.



 Another key feature within music videos is the link between the lyrics and the visuals. This however, was rather difficult for us to establish this due to the limited words within 'Finale'. This largely applies to a lot of electro/dance songs and music videos, since the emphasis on lyrics is less of a concern than the music. We did however place certain emphasis on the song title 'Finale', such as when the words 'brace yourself for the grand finale' are sung, what is seen in the video plays in with the meaning of 'Finale', as the audience will be wondering how the DJ will escape the two masked men, wondering if this is the end for him.

This occurs twice within the video, as the very quick cuts between the DJ escaping the studio and the two masked men getting up from their seats are repeated when the DJ and the masked men jump over the fence simultaneously. This directly plays in with the three actors leaping over the fence, where the over-cranking stops and the chase continues with no effects as the word 'finale' is heard. This however is not the case, as the long chase scene ensues, followed by the DJ being chased back to the studio, where the 'grand finale', as it were, is seen as the masked men close in on him and we see that it was all just a dream. This is where the plot twist occurs, with the two masked men appearing before the DJ, almost leaving a cliffhanger, something more for the audience to think about.
 

'Your last chance' also implies there is a certain threat within the video; as the DJ is trapped, these lyrics apply almost directly as it is 'his last chance' to hand over the disc. 'Go out fighting' also applies here, as a possible interpretation of the video could be that the DJ is fighting against 'the system' or the two masked men. This happens both when the DJ is leaving the studio and when he escapes the two masked men at the gate.

 A key aspect of our video includes the music driving the video, as with many videos, a fast-paced song with accompany a quick, high tempo video. This also includes matching the video cuts to the beat of the music, e.g. using quick cuts when the tempo is high and using longer ones when the music slows. This is seen at the start of the video until the chorus builds up, which is when the chase begins due to the high tempo and quick pace.

 This also comes down to actions within the video relating to the music, for example, the song starts when the DJ/thief presses REC on the soundboard, hence starting/recording the song and providing a clear link between the music and visuals. 

As the chorus dies down when the thief reaches the gate, the cuts are much slower than in the chorus as they are being driven by the music. This is also exemplified by the masked men slowing their speed greatly, knowing that the thief is cornered. The use of over-cranking is also heavily implied here, which slightly contrasts with the the tempo of the song gradually increasing. However, the cuts become much quicker as the drums kick in and the tempo rises right up, bearing resemblence to earlier in the video when the masked men leave the security room. The next shot is a rather long one, but does still retain a certain pace to it, as the viewer is kept up with the action in the long running shot with the actors. 

The notion of music driving the visuals is very important within all music video, as also evidenced in ours. We learnt about timing visuals with the music after watching the video for the song 'Language' by Porter Robinson. The piano notes in the song directly correlate with the light beams appearing, similar to our video with the cuts at the start being cued by the single piano notes. We used beat-dropping and changes in music to synchronize with what was being seen on screen, such as the two jump scenes (images below). Since the bass, drums and beats are a very important element of electronic/dance songs and their videos, we thought this would be vital for shaping our video around.

Despite the amount of long-duration shots, the audience are still meant to feel excited from the speed at which the actors run as well as the stunts including the jumps and freerunning. The sudden drop in pace as the song starts the outro drastically reduces the speed at which the cuts are made in the visuals. An interesting element to the ending of the video is an effect use in the video for 'Chasin' by Sander Van Doorn, involving cutting sections out of the middle of the footage to give the impression of time jumping. 

 The more observant viewer may see a hint that this is somewhat ethereal and un-lifelike, as the masked men go extremely close to the camera (the DJ), which is further emphasised by the slight over-cranking and fade out. The fade in/out is also used as a 'blinking effect' when the DJ falls back onto the sofa and begins to close his eyes again. These are synchronised with the piano chords played, thus being the last link between the music and visuals in the video.

 A somewhat simple element to our video is the clothing used by our actors in the video. We already knew we wanted the masked men in suits to give a formal look to them, but we had to consider what the DJ would wear, and after the rough cut, what the singer would wear. After some research and discussion, we decided upon a simple, casual dress code for the DJ; since he is at a recording creating his song, we thought it appropriate that he would be dressed in casual clothing. The same applied for the singer.

The masks the masked men wear are 'Anonymous' masks, as used in the video for 'Toulouse' as well as the film 'V for Vendetta'. Connotations of the masks lie with the 'Anonymous' group, who want a free media landscape and to escape the grip of the music industry. However, as seen in our video, the masked men play opposite to this, seeking to control the DJ and take away his music for the industry. As a form of control, the masks are also very important, seen in the video for 'Toulouse', wear the masks control people's actions. The masks also look somewhat sinister, with the arched eyebrows and the humanoid face that almost looks alien. This compliments the role of the masked men, who are made to seem evil and wanting control.

 Our location choices were critical in our shooting, as we wanted the environment to have an urban look to it (playing in with out album title: 'The City') but to also look good and  contrast at times, such as our shots in the parks and Soho Square. As we spent 8 days filming using many locations, our video is very varied with the settings whilst retaining a city/urban look to it, which is evidenced in 'Chasin':

'Toulouse' by Nicky Romero:

'The City' by Madeon

and 'Sandstorm' by Darude