Using conventions from real media texts: Evaluation 1

• In what ways have your productions used or developed conventions adopted from real media products?

As part of our research in the begining, i came across P.J Harvey and her music. I observed her videos and found that she dressed very feminine wearing floral patters, red satin dresses and leopard print which most express sexual desire. However, her music and the lyrics were very masculine and harsh which contradicted her image. Also, her video's are very busy but simple but more performance based rather than narrative based. She involves lots of movement and lip sinking as well as only involving one setting for the video. They all feature just her in one room where as other artists video's include various places to convey their narrative or message. Our video shows a mixture of performance and narrative based work as we show the story of the characters through the music. We tried to incorporate as many shots and angles as possible, especially close ups to convey facial expressions. We used extreme close ups for 'the eye' shots which linked with the lyrics 'girl with one eye' and the shot showed the eye open suddenly which added edge to the video. The representation of the video shows the stereotypical female- weak and powerless, but also challenges the stereotype by showing the other protagonist to be the one holding the power and authority.




• In what ways have your productions challenged or played with conventions adopted from real media products?

We've contrasted femanine and masculine products by having a violent and very cruel song choice but including femanine aspects such as the protagonists and the mise-en-scene. P.J Harvey was a huge inspiration as her lyrics link with Florence's and they have meaning and a narrative unlike some popular music today. Secondly, another influence of mine was Lady Gaga as she challenges coventions by being outrageous as well as have lots of meaning to her music. However, some may say she is seen to be following the footsteps of Madonna. All of her songs and music videos have a clear narrative and can easily be followed. 'Telephone' has strong links with our own music video as there is violence as well as challenging conventions of the female stereotype.



• In other words, is your work generic, or postmodern – or both?

In my opinion, I believe our music video to be a postmodern product as it challenges stereotypes which most of the 21st century music videos all have a similar story. Ours uses two female protagonists, showing one to be more violent and agressive as one would expect a male character to act.