Media Language Essay

In media this year we created a music video. We had to choose our own song within our groups and create a music video that will attract and engage our target audience. We had to engage our audience through our camera work, sound, editing and mise en scene.

Camera angles and shots are very important within a music production because it can convey multiple messages, and really highlight the artist in different ways. A theorist called Andrew Goodwin states that a convention of a music video is close up camera angles to create a star profile around the main artist. We used this convention within our music video for two reasons. Conforming to Goodwin’s convention we used close up shots of our main artist to make it clear to the audience who our star artist is. These close up allows the audience to see and connect with the main artist, therefore making the music video more attractive. We also used close up shots to fulfil the conventions of a stereotypical Indie Rock video. The main themes of an Indie Rock video are: psycadellic, chaotic with a confrontational attitude. We achieved these themes through the use of camera angles such as close ups and tracking shots. The close up shots allow the characters within the video to portray their confrontational attitude to the audiences, while the tracking shots create a chaotic and ‘trippy’ feel to the video, which conforms with the conventions of an Indie Rock video.

Mise-En-Scene also played a vital part in our music video. The costumes that the characters in the music video wore are funky and different to today’s fashion. The main artist is wearing a faux fur coat with heart shaped, blue sunglasses, whilst the other character is wearing ripped jeans with fishnets, and an extremely oversized denim jacket with embroidery on the back. These clothes further highlight and cement the theme of chaos within our music video. The outfits make the characters stand out but it also makes them relatable to the audience because they are still portrayed as ‘normal’ women. The brazen fashion choices can possibly influence the target audience and give them fashion ideas – this idea will boost our band’s popularity because just through their fashion they are able to connect and inspire teenage girls. One of the settings used within the video is a very messy living room. Within the set there are clothes, food, lighters, shoes, alcohol bottles strewn about across the room. The stereotypical teenage messy room, again makes the band more relatable to the audience and allows the audience to connect with the characters because the video reflects their lives and situations but in a more exaggerated, chaotic way.

Once we had finished creating and filming our video, we moved onto editing. Using Adobe Premier Pro CS6, we were able to add a vintage effect over the footage we had. We liked this vintage look because it made the video stand out as different. It also made the colours more vibrant, which confirms with the convention of the use of bright colours in Indie Rock videos.  We also applied Goodwin’s theory about the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals of the music video. In the song there is a verse which sings “Television won’t you say my name”. On this part of the song, we had the main artist shown on a TV screen. This link amplifies the lyrics and allows the audience to have a greater understanding of what is happening in the video.

Sound obviously plays a key part in the music video. The song we choose was chaotic, psycadellic and aggressive. Within the song there was a lot of screaming which we amplified in our video by having the main artist scream dramatically with the song. The craziness of the song was clearly reflected in our set (Messy living room, bright crazy pink sequined set with cut out magazine heads), our character’s funky outfits, and the character’s actions within the video. The characters are constantly either dancing or interacting with the camera (singing into the camera lens). These action reflect the chaotic beat to the song well.

Overall the use of these four media language techniques – Camera, Mise-En-Scene, Editing and Sound – alongside the use of Goodwin’s conventions, really benefitted the music video and allowed us to create a high standard finish and create a product that will attract and interest our target audience.