The overall brief given to me and my group in relation to our media products was to create a music video for a chosen genre, artist and song. Together we come the dance genre with the artist Shift K3Y and his song 'I Know'. The artist himself is a highly conventional dance artist; however, the song had a narrative within the lyrics. This allowed us to build upon a narrative style within the video. We also had to create ancillary products alongside this. They consisted of a magazine advert and a digipak. The ancillaries were used to market a fabricated album that coincided with the artist and the music video.
The basic purpose of a music video is to advertise a artist or a brand associated with the artist, to present the artist in a way that would appeal to their fanbase and to develop a plot or narrative to run alongside the song itself. A perfect example example of these purposes was shown through David Guetta and his song 'Without You' featuring Usher. This is a conventional dance video that I used as inspiration for my own work.
One example of advertisements seen within the video is shown through the constant reference to 'Beats' headphones that are seen to be used by David throughout. David Guetta is closely related to this branded it helps him to create further links within the media spectrum. Headphones are highly conventional to the dance genre with them often being used by DJs in clubs. This advertisement also links towards the target audience of 15-25 year olds as young adults and teenagers often buy the stylish headphones.
Artist presentation is conveyed within the video through constant low angles and close ups of the artist, showing him to be having a good time whilst mixing music for the crowd. This portrays fun and feel good feelings within the video, exaggerated through his happy facial expressions. It is conventional to the dance genre as it shows the artist to be highly involved in the party atmosphere of which the music is generally based around. It would also appeal to the target audience of the genre as they may aspire towards the artist party lifestyle that is shown.
Additionally to this, evidence of developing narrative is shown to run alongside the song within the video. The narrative shows the people of different countries coming together for one large beach party. This again adds to the conventions within the video as it means that the video is focusing solely around the party atmosphere that the music aims to create. It would further appeal to the young target audience as they are often seen to enjoy this environment.
After analysing this video and many others, my group and I were able to build upon conventions of our own. One conventional aspect was created through the use of fast paced editing. This was developed in the bar scene with quick successions of jump cuts and close ups used to make a montage. The pace of the video matched the pace of the song; it built upon emotions of excitement. This is very conventional to the dance genre as artists constantly aim to convey these emotions of excitement and happiness within a party atmosphere. This excitement that is portrayed would further appeal to the target audience as it may pursue them to want to enjoy themselves.
Another convention that is evident is seen through the use of colour and lighting. These forms colour and lighting consist of flashing effects that are made to resemble strobe lighting and added colour tints that should develop links towards neon lighting. These colours mostly consisted of blue with flashes of red, green and purple; alongside the use of strobe they were made to connote towards a club setting. This is highly conventional towards the dance genre as dance music is constantly played in this environment. It would further appeal to the target audience as they often attend these venues; meaning they can relate to the references.
On top of this, the use of strobe lighting was also seen to be highly conventional. I gained inspiration for this from the video 'Club Can't handle me' by Flo Rider and it was evident in two of club scenes within my video; both of which showing red and green strobe lighting. It was developed through both long shots of numerous club settings and added flashing effects used to highlight the lighting. It is certainly conventional to the dance genre as the lighting is distinct to a club setting; the venue in which dance music is mostly played. Additionally, the connotations towards these venues would appeal to the younger target audience as they are the predominant age groups that attend and enjoy the clubs.
Finally, my group and I were also seen to develop and challenge conventions. This is shown through the use of a narrative that shows the artist to choose a party lifestyle over the life with his girlfriend. A use of narrative is often unconventional to the dance genre as dance music videos are often performance or concept based. However, the narrative itself is used to develop upon the presentation of the artists party lifestyle by showing him to be out with his friends. This developing of the conventional party lifestyle was particularly used in order to appeal to the target audience of young adults and teenagers as they may aspire to live their life like him. We decided upon developing and challenging the conventions in order to a make the video more unique and have a lasting effect upon the audience by making him both relatable with his stereotypical relationship and extraordinary with his extravagant party lifestyle; this complies to Dyer's star theory showing him to be ordinary yet extraordinary, in order to increase his popularity.
Your analysis of question one, demonstrates a basic understanding of how your music video follows and develops the dance genre. You have made a start with explaining what some of the conventions are and how you were inspired to use these within your work. However, the points that you have referenced in your own video are basic and this is because you have not explored your points in enough detail.
ReplyDelete1) Be specific with how how your conventions are conventional to the dance genre. Ensure that you have included 5 points in detail
2) Discuss how and why you decided to develop the dance conventions
3) Include screenshots to support the points that you have included
Your analysis of this question now demonstrates some proficient understanding of how you followed and developed the conventions of dance. You have explored and identified further questions, which helps to express your understanding of this question further.
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