Evaluation Question 2 Draft - Nat

EVALUATION 2
How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

Pop which is defined as the 'popular' style of music from both past and current, is the genre I researched into, and created products for. However I have both followed and challenged conventions with regards to my music video in relation to the construction, narrative and overall aesthetic of my product. 

Firstly, my music video follows particular conventions in relation to narrative. Videos like Pink 'Try' and Gabrielle Aplin 'Panic Cord' gave myself inspiration regarding structure from shot to shot, and the ratio of narrative to performance of the artist. The common norm of a narrative which if used in pop videos tends, more than not, to be of the romance genre. Therefore, due to our song having a pragmatic meaning of a love narrative, as opposed to just a performance video, was the concept we decided to emerge with in our video. 
I believe however, I have challenged pop conventions with regards to the contemporary dance aspect. Due to our artist being of more an indie-pop alternative style, in my opinion I felt challenging conventions at this stage would be acceptable, to create the best aesthetic for our video. With examples of indie-pop videos incorporating dance such as Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud we felt that the more ballroom, classic style of dance was something we wanted to steer away from. This was because it was entirely a performance video, including the artist himself, which was something we wished to change. Therefore, our main inspiration of Dance from a music video came from Pink's 'Try', in which the style of dance was more contemporary. We believe by following conventions of this video, we have challenged the convention of indie-pop videos which include dance. On the other hand, we believed this was a risk, but one which has paid off, as the style of dance suits the chosen song, and relates to the lyrics. 

Furthermore, we both challenged and followed conventions with regards to the styling of our artists and dancers. The red lipstick worn by both females and the suit that Michael our male dancer wore followed typical pop conventions of smart but bright (in some cases - lipstick). The artists outfit however, after much research we decided to challenge the convention of the 'male gaze' theory by Laura Mulvey. This was because, for this particular video, the Beyonce and Rihanna style of 'no clothes' wasn't classy and sophisticated enough for the aesthetic we wanted to produce. 

Also, like many pop ballad videos such as California King Bed by Rihanna and Adele's Hometown Glory video, they both feature colour, Rihanna's video in particular. I challenged the norm by putting our video in black and white, because I believe that the emotion we wished to created through the narrative would have been easier to produce in a video with limited aspects to focus on. 

With regards to my ancillary texts, I followed many conventions of a pop digipak and advert. Evidence from my research and planning shows I took inspiration from Gabrielle Aplin's debut album English Rain, and Taylor Swifts newest album 1989. I followed the rule of thirds across both my pieces of work, as well as taking into account star image, font type, and colour. I believe I challenged the convention of colour for a 'normal' pop digipak. With a house style of orange and brown, it sits on its own in the industry against digipaks with more vibrant colours, such as Rihanna's Loud and Lana Del Ray's Born To Die. I decided to do this however, to fit with the theme of the album 'Autumn Leaves' just like Gabrielle Aplin incorporated a theme of the English countryside and umbrellas in her English Rain album. 

The male gaze is an element of pop which many artists in the industry aspire for, to ensure they sell the most albums. However, I found evidence from Adele, Gabrielle Aplin, Jessie Ware and Birdy to suggest that I didn't need to follow the convention of the male gaze. I did however decide to style my model with voluminous hair, red lipstick and defined cheek bones to ensure she wasn't washed out on a white back drop. This method of styling was used across all three of my products, to make our artist Katie Jones look as professionally styled as possible. 

The photography that took place during production of my ancillary texts were, apart from the outside scenery images, all focused entirely on our star image. We attempted to re-create many photographs, with inspiration from previous digipaks and adverts created for Birdy, Taylor Swift and Rihanna. With past experience using the Nikon HD Camera, we were able to produce high quality images, which would replicate those used in the industry today. The photographs gave my ancillary texts a higher professional aesthetic, which in turn make them both look as if they belong within the industry, and that a student hasn't made it. 


We decided also to ensure that the our artist Katie Jones was styled the same in the photoshoots as the video to have a correlation between all three products. This would challenge a convention of the pop genre, as artists tend to wear different outfits in their videos to what is on their album covers and adverts. 

To conclude, I believe that my video and two ancillary texts are effective because I have followed mainstream conventions to ensure that my products looks as professional and as in date with regards to the pop genre as possible. I have provided evidence to exhibit my reasons for challenging conventions, and shown examples of those products I have copied, to justify each element of my video, digipak and advert.