How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
For our Advanced portfolio we had to create a music album promotion package which included creating a music video either following or breaking the general conventions of the existing real media texts, which allowed us to explore and produce what would interest our target audience.
In my opinion, our product uses most of the conventions of a typical music video but also, in a few parts of the performance the rules are also challenged.
Our music video is on the song “Duaa” which means “Prayer”, the overall feel of the song is about yearning and distress to achieve something; the video is performance and narrative based. and so we had to look into various representatios of Indie bands to research and find out how they are represented.
For the performance of the music video our major references included Chris Daughtry and especially Boyce Avenue videos because they are mostly indoor and studio set which is the way we wanted to represent our band as well..
In my opinion, our product uses most of the conventions of a typical music video but also, in a few parts of the performance the rules are also challenged.
Our music video is on the song “Duaa” which means “Prayer”, the overall feel of the song is about yearning and distress to achieve something; the video is performance and narrative based. and so we had to look into various representatios of Indie bands to research and find out how they are represented.
For the performance of the music video our major references included Chris Daughtry and especially Boyce Avenue videos because they are mostly indoor and studio set which is the way we wanted to represent our band as well..
Certain features we noticed and found similar were Low budget, low lighting, small studio, acoustic instruments, as this was our situation as well. Hence, we followed their example and decided to go with something that would be somewhat similar to their mise- en- scene especially since it would be easier for us to pull of as well. The final cut of our music video shows how our location has warm, soft lighting with maximum consumption of natural lights, it definitely gave an amateur studio- like feel to it we also used reflectors to make the lighting slightly better as well, It also complimented with the narrative of the video and the lyrics of the song giving it a deeper understanding and emotion to it which happens to be the convention of indie music videos.
In our music video, one way in which we challenged the conventions was that usually, in all sorts of music videos the artist's mode of address is direct especially when the entire band is shown; In our music video, we made sure that none of the band members made direct contact with the camera which gave the feel that the song “Duaa” was on a much more spiritual and emotional level rather than just another ordinary line directed towards the audience. The essence of yearning and the attachment to the song could evidently be seen with the way the expressions of the members were and how they went on to take meaning from the song and act accordingly.
The narrative of our music video was quite direct and simple but had to be understood on a deeper level relating to the social reality. The conventions for the narrative were followed and referenced from our research into music videos with similar meaning which included a popular Pakistani music video, “Ankahi by Overload”. There are various concept based videos but those are difficult to understand by the audiences.
Since we followed the concept of hopelessness so in our narrative we could play around with the conventions of the music video and with what kind of visuals we wanted to show and encode into our production.
Since we followed the concept of hopelessness so in our narrative we could play around with the conventions of the music video and with what kind of visuals we wanted to show and encode into our production.
For the second part of this question regarding the representation of social groups and issues, the narrative featured a young girl who we represented as a teenager from a well to do family which is denoted by her clothes and her room in which he wakes up for a scene.
We started off dressing her up in traditional clothing which is a Shalwar kameez which she wears for the scene where she first sows the seed which is a sign of hope.
We started off dressing her up in traditional clothing which is a Shalwar kameez which she wears for the scene where she first sows the seed which is a sign of hope.
The Shalwar kameez is a cultural representation of the sub-continent and especially Muslims, it is also the national dress of our nation Pakistan and therefore we wanted to add a cultural code and show a representation of our culture.
The second time she visits the place where she sowed the seed, She is wearing more modern and western clothes i.e a trouser and a shirt, more like a top. Through this we wanted to challenge the hegemonic representation of the people of subcontinent as backward and cultural where wearing modern or western clothes is considered bad, where as in actual this is not the case so to remove this idea we represented hear wearing a jean and a shirt.
The second time she visits the place where she sowed the seed, She is wearing more modern and western clothes i.e a trouser and a shirt, more like a top. Through this we wanted to challenge the hegemonic representation of the people of subcontinent as backward and cultural where wearing modern or western clothes is considered bad, where as in actual this is not the case so to remove this idea we represented hear wearing a jean and a shirt.
Furthermore another idea on which the music video was based on and the idea that was encoded into our production was to show different groups in the society from rich to poor and the homeless and to help the audience relate from whichever group they belonged to because everybody has struggles, and anybody can be hopeless since "Money doesn't buy happiness". So for this we showed an old poor guy who was poorly dressed and also two guys on a road side warming their hands on a tin bucket of fire which also showed their struggle and the girl in our narrative who belonged to a well off family but still she was struggling as well although she did not lose her hope and continued to believe
compared to these two group of people the girl is represented as well off through her clothing and well organised room and her night suit, so we showed a variety of social groups to make it easier for the audience to understand the message and for them to be able to relate to the narrative from whichever group they belonged to.
Finally the social issue that we were shedding light on and the one that we wanted to highlight was that of hopelessness and how people going through struggles end up giving up on things where as if one stays dedicated he bears the fruit in the end.
To show this we used the Seed as a sign of hope and the Barren land as a signifier of Hopelessness and harsh conditions and the girl and her dedication as a connotation of not giving up and staying dedicated and finally the plant that grows as a sign of Hope and fruit for the dedication and hardwork.
To show this we used the Seed as a sign of hope and the Barren land as a signifier of Hopelessness and harsh conditions and the girl and her dedication as a connotation of not giving up and staying dedicated and finally the plant that grows as a sign of Hope and fruit for the dedication and hardwork.