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Evaluation question one final
1. +
In what ways does your
Comparing my research findings
media product use,
and conventions with my group develop or challenge forms
production
and conventions of real
Hanan Mohamed
media products?
2. FOLK ROCK GENRE CHARACTERISTICS
+ -CONVENTIONS
The band/artist is usually shown performing within
the video, with shots of their instruments if they play
any or simply their face if they sing only. (Rambling
Man – Laura Marling).They are also usually
performing alone, or simply the band cut in with
scenes elsewhere e.g. a narrative cut in with the
performance. Their isolation is often to highlight their
USED - Our band is shown playing in front of trees
music’s importance rather than screaming fans, and
surrounded by fields and open space, which is in the theme of
to indicate the artist is introspective and mature. (See
nature. This is in keeping with the depiction of folk genre
Mumford & Sons: Little Lion Man, Iron & Wine: Boy
artists being in touch with nature as they are surrounded by it,
With A Coin, Laura Marling: Rambling Man). This is
in touch with earth, which assists their ruminations on life on
usually done in a location full of nature – somewhere
culture, history and protests, which are common themes in
rural, full of fields, by a river, on a beach by the sea
folk rock songs. Shots of the guitar are also used frequently to
(Laura Marling: Rambling Man), by a swamp, a forest
highlight the importance of the performance aspect of the
(Iron & Wine: Boy With A Coin) etc.
music video, as folk artists focus is their actual music rather
than glamour or their physical appearance. Our Digipak also
The Digipaks of folk rock artists also often include lots used the convention of having art full of nature on the front
of art, conceptual pieces for the front cover which cover, as we used a sea of thorns and a ship riding on them
may not always even include a photograph of the on the cover and this also worked to represent our band –
artist, the art being intended to represent the artist – indicating that the artists have natural talent. This was also
and the art is often full of nature, birds, bees etc as reflected by our poster which had a similar artsy theme but
seen in Laura Marling’s Album Alas, I Cannot Swim. this time including a photo of the actual band, the highly
(See Digipak research for more info). stylised cover reminiscent of more hand-drawn art pieces and
effects.
3. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS
+
The lyrics of folk rock songs tend to be fairly abstract most of the time,
however the visuals are usually illustrative for the chorus or a particular
verse, but most of the song will use the visuals to amplify the lyrics
meaning. Bon Iver: Calgary’s visuals are at first illustrative it says ‘don’t
you cherish me to sleep’ and it shows a woman on a bed sleeping who
defies being mollycoddled by being cherished and wakes up. ‘Hair, old,
long along/Your neck onto your shoulder blades’ is sung as we see her
lifting her head to show her hair is long, as the camera moves to show
her neck and then her shoulder. The visuals begin to amplify in the next
verse as ‘hip, under nothing’ is heard as she falls through the bed and
lands standing in a lake. This is amplifying because instead of merely
having her fall off of the bed, it shows her very foundations are not what
she thought they were so she must go and ‘hunt the cause’ which she
does getting up and finding a door out.
Amplifying meaning in addition to just illustrating it shows that the folk
rock artist thinks deeper about things, more creatively and conceptually
out of the box, and so markets the artist as being unusual and talented
which are features that would be attractive to a folk rock audience as well
as draw in new audiences.
In a few, rare places the meaning will be contradictory but instead of
confusing the viewer makes the artist seem like a storyteller.
Contradictory visuals can be seen in the first verse of Iron & Wine: Boy
With A Coin as the lyrics are: A boy with a coin he found in the
weeds/With bullets and pages of trade magazines/Close to a car that USED ILLUSTRATIVE The visuals are illustrative of the lyrics when the lyrics ‘my
flipped on the turn/When God left the ground to circle the world . This was friends and I wave goodbye as our ship left England home’ and we had a ship leaving
contradictory as all that could be seen on screen was a group of women
shore as the friends they were leaving back home waved goodbye to them.
dancing, no boy or weeds or a car to be seen. But in the following verse
the visuals take the other direction and actually amplify the lyrics ILLUSTRATIVE – when the chorus plays ‘they say I fight, for king and country’ footage of
meaning: A girl with a bird she found in the snow/Then flew up her gown soldiers play with their marching being in time to the beat of the song, showing that their
and that's how she knows/If God made her eyes for crying at birth/Then military march is done with precision, in time and with conviction of their morale that they
left the ground to circle the earth are fighting this war for their king and country.
The lyrics ‘cackling guns against boys so fine’ are heard and footage of a soldier firing is
seen on screen; in tandem a few moments later when the lyrics ‘over the top the
There is one woman singled out for dancing and we can see no bird, but sergeant cries/and into no man’s land’ footage of soldiers crawling over the top of the
feathers are falling from her dress and her dress is moving like a living
trenches play, the lyrics illustrative of the visuals.
bird – her expression is also quite sad. This amplifies because instead of
simply showing a girl in the snow finding a bird that flies up her dress, the
bird is metaphorical and the repeated line of God having ‘left the ground AMPLIFYING – when the song plays ‘when she’s in need, when she’s in danger’ the
to circle the earth’ reflects the women dancing endlessly in circles in the screen shows a young woman crying into her handkerchief, and amplifies the typical
same path as people are left on the path of fate, referencing religious understanding of the lyrics of the ‘she’ referring to our country England, taking it to mean
messages. fighting both for our country as well as ‘she’, the safety of the soldiers’ sweethearts who
have been left behind and are waiting for them to come back home.
4. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS
+
The music is mostly illustrative of the visuals. In Iron &
Wine: Boy With A Coin the style of the dancing matches
the style of the music that is being played, both old
fashioned and classy. The movements of the dancers
hands are very smooth as are the notes of the piano being
played. At the same time their dancing is still very
obviously choreographed, hips and legs sharply in time to
DEVELOPED
the guitar strings being plucked in clearly defined
movements. ILLUSTRATIVE – the interval between the first verse and the
chorus, the visuals are in time with the music as the screen
shows the guitarist from a low angle, focusing on his no-
In Laura Marling: Rambling Man the music has a fairly
steady ‘one-two’ beat which is in time with the visuals, to nonsense converse shoes amongst autumn leaves and the
the point where even the birds flying and the sea waves gradual tilting over him till settling on his somber face in a close
lapping have been edited so their speed is in time with the up. The movement of the camera tilting and gradually getting
song. The music being in time with the visuals actually faster in time with the music, emphasizing that the most
amplified meaning at some points e.g. near the middle of important message of the song within the chorus is coming up.
the song and near the end the music sped as the man In the return to the narrative nearer the latter part of the song,
leaped into the sea for his freedom, emphasizing the there are jump cuts of the soldier doing up his coat in time to
weight of his action and its symbolism. This reflects the
common themes of folk genre music where artists the music; the harsh plucking of the guitar strings along with
normally perform in settings full of nature where it’s the jump cuts reflect his disjointed sense of time as he is still
peaceful which helps their ability to be introspective and immersed in memories of fighting in wartime.
reflective on life and its meaning.
5. DEMANDS OF THE RECORD LABEL
+
A large number of close ups of the artists are used in all of the videos, even in the ones where
there is a large narrative taking place in order to keep the viewers back to focusing on and
reminding them of the artist/band (Laura Marling: Rambling Man). By constantly focusing on the
face of the artist, especially if they’re new, makes them more memorable and a brand in
themselves.
Conventions of the artists appearance if men, tends to mean fairly long hair to the shoulders or at
least floppy around the ears or chin. This emphasizes their masculinity (also with suits in Mumford
& Sons: Little Lion Man), maturity and life experience, which in turn imply authenticity that the
artist knows the life issues that they’re singing about in their song. (Iron & Wine: Boy With A Coin,
Mumford & Sons: Little Lion Man). Costume tends to be very minimalist, simple colours and
traditional cuts which lets the viewer focus on the actual performing of the artist and narrative
actions of any actors if present. This makes sure to draw more attention to the actual music itself, USED – We decided to use the convention of
instead of being distracted by minor details like overly extravagant clothing with bright colours and the artist having longer hair than usual with the lead
patterns. singer, but kept it a little more contemporary by
instead of him having shoulder length hair it was
merely grown out a little to around his ears, and a
Make up if used for the women is usually naturalistic so subtle, which also lessens distraction by
beauty/appearance and gives off along with the simple clothing an impression of humility. (Bon little height in the hair of the guitarist was left instead
Iver: Calgary) This was turned on its head for Laura Marling: Rambling Man but still had the same of him having e.g. a shaved head. Close ups were
intended effect as its extravagance of make up only served to highlight the humbleness of the used in our video at the appropriate moments where
rambling man’s lifestyle and dourness of his clothes. the most emotional lines were sung in order to
achieve a greater feeling of intimacy between the
viewer and the artists. Their clothes were kept very
The only video I found which defied convention was Bon Iver: Calgary in that the artist did not basic without detail or diverting designs, in simple
appear at all, which defies the convention of showing and focusing on the artists’ face within
leather jacket, hoodie, jeans and converse.
videos to sell them as an artist.
6. NOTIONS OF
+
LOOKING
& VOYEURISM
OF THE
FEMALE BODY
NOTIONS OF LOOKING: The notions of looking are
effectively referenced in Iron & Wine: Boy With A Coin
where the use of the dancers watching their own
performance within the video – hinting that they are aware
of the audience, and they are performing for them.
In Laura Marling: Rambling Man there’s a reference in the
beginning of the video where the man looks at himself in
the mirror. This shows his self-awareness, and the camera
shoots it from the same angle where he must be able to
see it and be aware of his audience although he does not
directly look in that direction at the viewer.
CHALLENGE - There were hardly any females within our video
VOYEURISTIC TREATMENT OF THE FEMALE BODY: and the only one we used was stock footage, in a close up of a
Iron & Wine: Boy With A Coin has chosen a slightly more young woman in a dress crying into her handkerchief. We
subtle way of viewing the female body voyeuristically. In the challenged the convention of treating the female body
medium close up shots of the singer’s face we can see the voyeuristically as in the particular clip we chose, the camera did
main dancer’s bust behind him emphasised further by how not focus on her in a physically intimate way and therefore it did
her head has been cut out of the shot. not objectify her. We believed that this would further emphasize
the convention of folk rock artists having integrity, not needing to
In Bon Iver: Calgary the female is treated voyeuristically as lower themselves to objectifying another human being and would
the viewer sees her half dressed in a sheer nightgown further help market the artist as in it for the music in the true
tossing and turning in her bed which is an intimate location, interpretation of the human emotional state.
and the feeling of voyeurism intensifies as the camera
lingers on her neck, legs and bare skin.
7. INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCE
+
Intertextuality was found to be rare within the music videos that I
researched, present in only one: Calgary – Bon Iver. This may be due to
the folk rock genre’s strong focus on the artist being involved with creating
their own music and song writing as opposed to using industry songwriters.
In Bon Iver’s video of Calgary, the woman rises up out of the ground
coming up from a whole hidden world beneath the earth up to ground level
– this is a direct reference to the film Pan’s Labyrinth.
As a folk rock band, part of the genre is being very true to the music and
the integrity of the artist – Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon writes his own songs
and produced the album For Emma forever ago independently. This is
reflected in the production of the video. Instead of taking clips from actual
films and embedding them in the video, the label has chosen to recreate
the concept of coming from a world underground and filmed it themselves
with their own actors and extras for the video.
This was appropriate as the film is about a young stepdaughter of a cruel
army officer in fascist Spain who escapes her reality into a fantasy world.
As the film itself draws much on old myths and legends of Pan and
Dionysus as well as other fairytales, upon drawing upon this film to allude DID NOT USE - However this is not applicable to our
to this made the music video unusual to other videos and highly music video as we did not use any intertexuality. We
conceptual – a success in terms of a folk rock video being original in its decided upon this as we found intertexuality to be
approach even amongst others in its genre.
rare so much that it was a norm for it to be present
within the video, and so as a result followed the norm
of not having included it within the video.
8. TECHNICAL DIRECTIONS – ARTIST/ACTOR MOVEMENTS ETC
+
For the most part the artists within folk rock tend to remain still in one place as
they perform, playing their guitar and if singing choosing to emote with their
facial expressions in time with their sung lyrics rather than moving about USE – the members of the band are positioned as
melodramatically as a pop singer might do. Their movements, when markedly standing by one another equally without one being
different, are often simply almost a part of the music e.g. a band member further forward or backwards. They remain mostly still,
stamping his foot on the floor in time with the bass (Little Lion Man – Mumford & not making any overly dramatic gestures and focus on
Sons). Actors movements tend to be fairly slow, leisured, languid and never playing their music and singing in heartfelt tones,
hurried. The drowsy girl in Bon Iver’s Calgary moves slowly in her bed and even which fits the convention as Samuel Beam and Laura
when fully awake travelling the swamp and finding her way out does not move
Marling do the same in their music videos. When they
fast – nor do any of the people over ground.
do move, their movements are calm and in time to the
music e.g. bobbing head in time to the guitar or turning
The band are positioned in an equal manner across wherever they are their head to gaze into the distance of old memories.
performing and if a sole artist then off centre or near the back of the room; their
The actor of the veteran soldier moves slowly,
position suggesting they are not here for glamorous reasons of fame or wanting
to be the centre of attention. The band/artist does not usually put on a pose of absorbed in memories, doing his coat buttons and
one kind or another, and merely performs – the lack of an obvious pose or walking across the park also at a leisurely pace.
adoption of a persona, or a characterization which is usually done in other
genres e.g. RnB singers with bling and aggressive gestures, adds to the
impression of integrity of the artist in not attempting to fool the audience that they
are someone they’re not but rather letting the music speak for them.
9. TECHNICAL DIRECTIONS
–+
EDITING DIRECTIONS
The cutting rhythm is fairly even and tends to move in time to the
music in most folk rock videos. The cutting rate tends to vary, DEVELOPED – we used jump cuts where the soldier dwelling on
speeding up when the music does to various shots and slowing thoughts of his war experiences in the trenches is doing up his coat,
down as the music does. (Rambling Man – Laura Marling). jutting from him doing one button to another in time to the music. This
was to reflect the disjointed memories and mental state of the soldier by
Match cuts are used to enforce continuity of the action in the
the disjointed feel of the editing, jarring to the visual eye.
music video, to make it seem more seamless. In narrative We also used matched cuts where the band would be playing and we’d
scenes of folk rock music videos reverse shots and matched cuts repeat the same shot but from a different angle or position in order to
are used, such as in Bon Iver’s Calgary when the girl who vary shot for the viewer.
climbed up onto the earth from underground shared looks with We kept the cutting rhythm in time to the music, for example different
the boy across from her who had just done the same thing, to shots of the guitarist being cut at a faster pace when the music speeded
show continuity and that they were looking at each other. up in a build up to the chorus after a long tilt up.
10. TECHNICAL DIRECTIONS
+
– MISE EN SCENE
Locations full of nature are often used, fields, beaches, lakes,
forests, swamps and so on to highlight the artists connection
to nature (Sea in Rambling Man: Laura Marling). Usually as
music videos are shot in natural settings, natural lightings are
used although this may occasionally vary. The mise en scene
tends to reflect this emphasis on the music, focusing on their
respective talents in the band, on their instruments or the
singer’s face/mouth rather than the camera focusing them in a
voyeuristic manner. In Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons,
the singer’s face is frequently backlit, his face in shadow with
his open mouth singing highlighted under the spotlight. The
flashbulbs on the empty stage are what’s used mostly to light
the scene. Props are used occasionally, if in a fantastical
conceptual setting e.g. Bon Iver’s Calgary where the bed is
lying in the middle of a swamp, but are usually unnecessary as
videos tend to be performance based. Artist outfits tend to be
in simple colours without any particularly bright colours or
intricate patterns, and kept sombre – this allows the listener to
focus on the music rather than outer effects, and the simplicity
of clothing shows the humbleness and introspection, the focus
of the artist.
CHALLENGE – rather than having a naturally lit setting or a mildly theatrical lighting of
the setting we chose in editing to give our music video a highly stylized colour scheme.
The band footage was made mostly monochrome in order to highlight the guitar and
some autumn leaves in red, to signify the blood of all the lost soldiers. A sepia tone
throughout the narrative footage of the soldier living in the current day is used in order to
reinforce the impression that he is still stuck in the war, lost in thoughts of the past. No
props were used, and the soldier actor was dressed in simple black military style coat
and boots with trousers and a grey t-shirt. The simplicity of his clothes was in keeping
with the simplicity of the artists clothes but had a more formal bearing to them. Locations
used were fields and the bedroom in a house, as explained in slide one the field location
was used to use the convention of the band performing in a natural setting. No crowds or
dancers were used as we wanted to emphasise the solitariness of our lone soldier.
11. TECHNICAL DIRECTIONS – FRAMING OF
+
SHOT
In Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons, the singer’s face is
frequently backlit, his face in shadow with his open mouth
singing highlighted under the spotlight – in the rule of thirds,
his mouth crosses one of the lines and is in perfect alignment
to naturally catch the viewer’s eye, to his music. His USE – we used close ups of instruments, mid level shots of
silhouetted face is framed in the far left of the shot, leaving instruments across the video of the guitarist and a medium
two thirds of it free and full of light seemingly emanating from
him – the music that comes out of his singing mouth is close up of the singer to emphasise the importance of the
symbolized in the light. Music, is light, is life. instruments and performance over all. The band is often in the
centre of the shot, or in line with the rule of thirds in a place
Mid level shots of instruments as well as close ups of them where they would be across one of the lines, drawing
help to signify their importance, of the music over and above
all, particularly as they tend to take up nearly the entirety of attention to heir place in the shot. In our narrative part of the
shots. This is seen across folk rock music videos. video we also framed the soldier often in only about a third of
the shot, leaving a lot of space all around him to give the
Voyeurism of the female body is achieved by framing the impression that he was small, of no significance – despite the
female body in parts, in intimate close up shots as seen of the
drowsy girl in Bon Iver’s Calgary and mid level shots of the great sacrifice he has made to his country and how important
dancers in Iron and Wine’s Boy With A Coin that cut off their that should make him, his personal feelings of being
faces to identify and individualize them and instead make it
feel as if they are just one of many commonplace female depressed after the war, alone and lost are reflected by his
parts, further objectifying the female body. position and where we’ve framed him in many shots.