Q1 NICOLAS RODRIGUEZ

My music video is categorised under the genre of pop. The purpose to why I say this is because there are certain conventions associated in my production which are usually allied with a typical pop music video. To begin with most pop videos have their artist dressed up in fashionable, stylish and mainstream clothes, for instance, in my music video we can see that the artist is wearing a denim jacket which is very typical for a female teenager to be wearing in this period of time, examples of others that do this are Rihanna and Taylor Swift. 

Another aspect that is associated with the common conventions of the pop genre is how I have portrayed the artist. Her mood and facial expressions are vital to get correct if you want to follow the codes and conventions of a pop video. We tried to portray our artist as ‘happy’, ‘enjoying and content with life’. I showed this specifically when shooting our artist run around the field with the smoke grenade. This shot allows the audience to interpret our artist as being free and certainly appreciating life. When creating a music video, no matter what genre they each have to follow conventions. For example, the use of cutting on the beat to create further effect is commonly used by editors to allow the audience to keep track with the music and the tempo of the song. The camera work in music videos usually follow the same pattern of including many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotion.

Close up

Medium close up

Long shot

When creating my music video, I found it easier to stick to the pop conventions of the music video because challenging these conventions proved to be hard, as trying to be different meant risking drifting into another genre, which I did not want. The production of the music video was inspired by Rihanna’s song ‘We Found Love’ which is set on a field. So I decided to replicate this in Richmond Park, where I could find fields of empty space to shoot. It was important to shoot when we was alone as I didn’t want to film anyone irrelevant that shouldn’t of been in the film, so using the correct camera angles like the bird eye view shot I had in my video proved to be effective as it isolated the world of the music video and the surroundings of the artist too.

Birds eye shot

        Similarity of Field setting

Moreover, the use of editing was imperative as presented in certain parts of my video, for example right before the chorus instigated there was a drum solo which introduced the chorus, I decided to connect together a number of shots to cut on the beat which supplemented to the excitement and flow of the video. In the video I did not use any SFX as I wanted to leave it natural to capture the essence of the environment and the artist.

Conventions from other genres like Hip Hop and Indie never really came into my mind when producing my music video as I wanted to strictly follow the conventions of Pop. Most Indie music videos use dark locations and most of the time the band is shown throughout. One aspect where I would say I copied from this genre is the use of black and white clothing, on some shots of my music video the artist is seen to be wearing a black and white jumper but other than that nothing else relates directly to the Indie genre. On the other hand Hip Hop videos usually try to represent the lives of the rich, by using settings like big houses and props of expensive cars which my music video did not represent.

Black and White clothing

Hip Hop representation 

Finally, in the current day hair and makeup is used to commutate the artist feeling, views and express a message; it plays a major role in pop music videos. But I used the concept that was used 10 years ago. The make-up and hair wasn’t as extreme as you see in current pop artist like Lady Gaga but it was more but the make-up and hair was used to compliment the natural and pretty ambience of the artist.

Extreme make up and hair-do.

Natural make up.

                                                                 

In conclusion, when using, developing or challenging the conventions of a certain type of genre it is important to have a clear visual image in how you want to do this. For myself, when producing my video I didn’t want to risk losing the ethnicity of what creates a Pop music video. 

In conclusion, when using, developing or challenging the conventions of a certain type of genre it is important to have a clear visual image in how you want to do this. For myself, when producing my video I didn’t want to risk losing the authenticity of what creates a Pop music video.