EVALQ1a+b CONVENTIONS + REPRESENTATIONS

1a - CONVENTIONS

How do your products use and/or challenge conventions?

MUSIC VIDEO
In 1984 Baker defined two types of video, performance and narrative, known otherwise as narrative and anti-narrative. This was expanded into performance, concept and narrative.

Some videos decide to only focus on one of these three types.
In order to demonstrate the performance capability of the band, I decided to have several pure performance shots, however still have a strong narrative with quirky characters in homage to Suede's earlier videos.

However, I was always very determined not to follow a very common route taken with the narratives of music videos, that of a relationship.

In a band the lead singer will often be signified as the superior member of the band, for example in Suede's Beautiful Ones where we see the band members appearing one after another until the lead singer Brett Anderson appears, as if everything's building up to his entrance, or in Arcade Fire's Money + Love where when all the members are getting out of the car as part of the narrative, he is last to get out and the camera stays on him to see his reaction to the new environment, and later as the whole band is captured apart from him, we follow him on his journey of solitude (akin to Joseph Campbell's Monomyth, all narrative follows the hero's journey tracing all the way back to the myths)


ANDREW GOODWIN'S 6 CONVENTIONS
1. DEMONSTRATION OF GENRE CHARACTERISTICS
Rock overall: Showing the band performing
Focussing on lead singer and guitarist.
The black leather jacket (simulacrum of Marlon Brando in The Wild One, Bad Boy Archetype)

2. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS
My video pretty much ignores the meaning of the song. I had intended to do some puns on the song such as the lead singer holding sugar flowing through his hands, but I wasn't able to do that anymore in time.
There are some lyrics that are visually represented through the body language of the performer: "I feel schizo"

3. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS
The upbeat tone of the track contradicts with the darker tone of much of the video, and I had intended to end with a diegetic outro that would be a juxtaposition/a direct antithesis to the track. However, the performance segments share the, signified through the body language of the band and mostly by the lead singer, which I also occasionally sped up in editing to make it look more energetic and thus achieve verisimilitude.

4. A NUMBER OF CLOSE-UPS OF THE ARTIST
These are a number of close-ups due to the demands of the record label.
I have close-ups, focussed on the lead singer. This is also important for this video to introduce Suede to a new audience, my primary audience.

5. NOTION OF LOOKING
The artist/lead singer will often always look at the audience, the Direct Gaze. During my shoot with the whole band, I didn't follow this through at first, only having some shots where the lead singer gazes. 


6. INTERTEXTUALITY
LINK WITH KRISTEVA: (Source)
French semiotician Julie Kristeva developped and coined the term of intertextuality, a post-structuralist who challenged the objectivity. She made the point that:

signifiers are plural, full of historical meaning, directed not so much to stable signifiers as to a domain of other signifiers.

The music video is seen as one of the most postmodern mediums, drawing inspiration from 
My video makes references to many texts, including both Suede's music videos 
I would often use another video as a way to fill a gap when writing the plot for one scene. For example for the Clown-Master scene, I had figured out that the protagonist would have her hands. But I didn't know how to create some tension inbetween. So I had her drag the protagonist by the arm just like is done in the Metal Mickey video.

LIST OF INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES:
The narrative storyline started out as a transgender prostitute living homeless on the streets

• Performance of lyric "So pyscho" - Lady Gaga's Bad Romance
• Leather jacket's for the band - Marlon Brando In The Wild One
• The jump cuts of  the protagonist waiting - Little Shop Of Horrors
• The fade in and out of layering - Suede's So Young
• The protagonist lying on a mattress  - Dog Man Star album cover
• The clapping of hands - Brett Anderson's live performances
• Slo-Motion Biting - The Pixies's Magdalena
• Walking Under Bridge - The Pixies's Magdalena, Depeche Mode's Barrel Of A Gun
• Clown Make Up - Depeche Mode's Halo
• The Flower  On The Bench - Backing Performer in The Avalanche's Because I'm Me
• Black + White - Countless music videos, which in again are homaging the black and white film era
• The turn of black and white to colour - Rita Ora's I Will Ne. However, I changed it from being quick to slow. An example that intertextuality isn't just pure copying, you can be influenced but tweak it to make it your own.
• The relationship and interaction between the protagonist and the Clownmaster - Suede's Metal Mickey

I even have intertextual references to my AS coursework, the film opening of a teen romantic comedy CrossWord, as the costume is similar to the protagonist, as well as the close-ups of her putting it on, and how it gives her personality.


INTENDED BUT NOT MANAGED
Finding the books in the forest - Fahrenheit 451
The diegetic outro - Halsey's Ghost


DIGIPAK
Just like with music video, album artwork either includes the act or not. 
When an artist is new, they will normally be featured on the front cover, often due to pressure from the record label to push forward their image. As their image becomes more grounded with the audience and their career spans on, their is less pressure to do so (examples: Queen, Rihanna)
With indie rock it is very common not to feature photographs of the band in the artwork. However, I decided to include the band in one of the inner panels, so as to have some exposition for fans newly introduced to Suede.
The barcode to the side, I was inspired by Yeah Yeah Yeah's Fever To Tell to do that.

WEBSITE
With websites it is quite important to follow a strict set of conventions so as to make your site user-friendly and easily accessible, especially for potential new audiences.

CONVENTIONS I FOLLOWED:

• Use of top links
• Merchandise Shop, also naming it Merch as I have seen with several bands. Suede did not do this with their website as their core audience is older, however I am attracting an younger one so it is fitting
• Tour Dates List
• Integration Of Social Media 
• A gallery

I didn't have quotes of press reviews because that is something mostly ownly newer artists include, such as I saw with Sly Antics and Francesca Belmonte


SOCIAL MEDIA
I created multiple trailers, which is done more and more nowadays to hype excitement for new content.

Instead of just posting about the artist themselves, I also did posts that were supposed to show Suede's wider artistic interests, such as a love for graffiti (which I also signified in the video)

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1b - REPRESENTATIONS

How do your products represent social groups and issues?

HAYDEN WHITE (Source, further reading)

Where, in any account of reality, narrativity is present, we can be sure that morality or a moralising impulse is present too

I would definitely say that throughout all my work in both my AS and A2 coursework, I felt a moral impulse

JAMES BAKER'S WAYS AT LOOKING AT REPRESENTATION (Source: MANGeR Pack)
James Baker says they are three forms of mediation:
1. SELECTION
What ends up on screen, much more will have been left out
This is so, I was not able to use all of my footage, and while I still have the overall narrative I can tease in the wider package
The digipak ´

2. ORGANISATION
The various elements will be organised carefully in ways that real life is not
- links well with Vernallis's point on the quick editing of music video, the use of ellipsis leads to absence of causality.
I first tried to have longer takes and more takes in general, however I realised that if I want to stay in the conventions of a performance/narrative mix video, I needed to shorten them. That has also lead to the narrative being sometimes more unclearer, as I discovered when gathering audience feedback. 

3. FOCUSING
Mediation always ends with us, the audience, being encouraged towards concentrating on one aspect of the text and ignoring others
We are following the protagonist.

Three ways at looking at representation:
1. REFLECTIVE VIEW
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When we represent something we are taking its true meaning and trying to create a replica of it in the mind of our audience, like a reflection.

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2. INTENTIONAL VIEW
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The opposite of Reflective, the most important person in the process is the author, and their intentions are key.

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3. CONSTRUCTIVE
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Individuals make up their own mind and are influenced by society in the way they do.

Any representation is a mixture of:

1. The thing itself: the music video
2. The opinions of the people doing the representation: the director, the band and often also the record label, however in my case there is not as much pressure to appeal towards a mass audience, with the director of Suede's recent feature-length music video saying
3. The reaction of the individual to the representation: 
4. The context of the society in which the representation is taking place: We live in a country where there is anti-discrimination law, and rights for women and LGBT+ people which is not the case in all countries. However, there is still a lack in diverse representation especially in mainstream music videos, so this is a counter-hegemonic challenge of the countless videos that never show non-heterosexual

This can be linked to Roland Barthes's Death of the Author theory, supported by Kristeva's concept of intertextuality, that there is no one fixed creator, and thereby as Stuart Hall would say there is not only one fixed reading.
And if we follow Vernallis's polyvalence of meaning, then the theory of representation applies the most to music video.


GENDER
The narrative of the music video follows a female character.The total number of females in the narrative outnumber the males, although overall with the band there are more males. While their is no conversation, their are two female characters engaging with each other and communicating through body language where there is no male character involved, so it could be said it passes the Bechdel Test.
On the digipak I colour-corrected the red lipstick, though this could be seen as glamorization of the female body pandering to the Male Gaze. However the Direct Gaze from the Female is missing, and it's meant to be clown-like not typically feminine.
I recently realised the image of the band alone could be read as somewhat macho, however their body language is not strongly signifying this.
If I had had time I would have liked to have used make-up to deconstruct the gender representation of the band

SEXUALITY
This video is very heteronormative in its representations
BISEXUALITY: Character of the Flower Maker, and also his interaction with a different gender doesn't go as well as with someone from the same sex
HOMOSEXUALITY: with the lead singer only shown to be interested in a male character, and is not engaging with the protagonist
Also the sexual relationship between two men of that age gap can be quite controversial.

CLASS
The video brings some insight into the deprivileged who live on the street, although it is not a very realistic portrayal of real homelessness.

DISABILITY
Are not at all represented in this video. When the character of the Flower Maker was first being conceived, I had the idea that he would be a blind man, and there is still the possibility that he is, as he may sense other people around him in some other way.

ETHNICITY
My actor for the protagonist was originally Asian, so that could have been more challenging to the Caucasian dominance that seems to exist in narrative characters in music videos, but in the case of student coursework you do not have the luxury of cherry-picking the finer details of your cast, and as happened with me I had to make a last-minute change, so it's not as easy as with sexuality and gender (the former you can always construct).
Most of the cast is white, that does reflect that the majority of the people I know are of that ethnicity, and to an extent that I have a more Caucasian surrounding in my hometown Trier, than say if I lived in London.

REGIONAL IDENTITY
Not applicable as no audio is heard. Some videos will have some moments of audio. The actual regional identities are from Northern Germany, where as the band come from the region and have more rural and local accents.

AGE
I chose to focus on someone in their 20s, this gives my target audience someone to identify with, and particular the teen segment someone to aspire to as they are slightly older
I represented the band as in their 20s. Having them in that age instead of teens also gave them a slightly more credible mature look and appeal for, including sex appeal.
The oldest character is represented as the most dangerous, could be seen to be applying the Old Man Perv stereotype. However the post-track scene hints that there might be more to the character, the moral judgement of the age gap between the two characters is left ambivalent.

DISTRIBUTION: Music Video Age Ratings

WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING:

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POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE:

• Due to the school context of my production I would never include extreme violence or sexuality (limit of creativity), however there are some hints of it, very subtle.
• I had hoped to include some Heterosexual Female Gaze/Homosexual Male Gaze with ripped shirts, however only my original performer for Brett Anderson was alright with this, my replacement wasn't, plus the weather would have made it very difficult to film.

EXAMPLES FROM MY ARTIST
ANIMAL NITRATE
Was apparently banned for depicting two men kissing, however that didn't let its stop becoming the first winner of the Euro Video Song Contest.
From the wiki:

The band caused some controversy with the video when it was banned for its depiction of two men engaging in a kiss.^{[citation needed]}

WE ARE THE PIGS
Featuring Dystopian themes, following a loose narrative of violent anarchy, with the artists also framed and edited in a horror-like manner, and including a baby left in distress on a rubbish dump.



From the wiki entry:

The video, directed by David and Raphael Vital-Durand, features a grim, Nineteen Eighty-Four-like setting. It was initially banned by some TV stations including MTV for being too violent. The video features car burnings, cross burnings, and various violence to humans.

The banning of MTV affects the promotion of the artist. So just like the darker theme of the music saw them pushed down the charts, the visual imagery of this video also meant they were prevented from further coverage, especially in the USA (where a legal dispute with an artist of the same name hadn't helped either)


NIGHT THOUGHTS
Instead of a few music videos, a filmic representation of the whole album.



As a full feature film, it has its own BBFC entry:
The issues raised were moderate violence and sex references, no swearing as the whole film is dubbed with the music.



EXAMPLES OF CENCORSHIP

CLEAN VERSIONS
ROBIN THICKE BLURRED LINES 
PLEASE NOTE: Highly sexually graphic content



They filmed two different versions, this being one where Male Gaze



Here are some examples where censorship has been turned into satire.

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The German indie band Kraftklub did something similar with their zombie-insipired video Fenster.

Here also there were performance elements of the rest of the band added.

VIOLENCE

MAROON 5 - ANIMALS
From the boyband Maroon 5, their lead singer Adam Levine was a huge sex symbol (Sexiest Man Alive Award). With this video, he is portrayed as a stalker of a typical American blonde woman (played by his girlfriend). This was supposed to give the band a darker edge, however caused huge controvery and the band received flak.

In this article, Guardian columnist Jessica Valenti slammed the video for trivialising the issue of stalking

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I’m sure Levine and his bandmates think they’ve done something edgy here – ooh, so dark! – but there is nothing “alternative” about showing women being stalked, hunted, raped or killed because it’s something that happens every damn day.What’s particularly disturbing about Animals is that the song’s message – that men are “animals” with no self control – implies there is nothing we can do about issues of sexual violence. If sexual predators are “animals”, or “crazy”, than it absolves us of social responsibility ... because you can’t control an animal, amiright? It’s just in their nature. (A fairly insulting vision of male sexuality, I must say.) Maroon 5’s Animals also comes on the heels of a Time article from professional provocateur Camille Paglia, who argued, apparently in all seriousness, that a culture that condones and glamorizes violence against women isn’t the problem - “evil” is. “Young women do not see the animal eyes glowing at them in the dark,” she wrote.

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DAVID BOWIE - THE NEXT DAY
An interesting comparison case study with the Maroon 5 example. Bowie ever since his landmark Ziggy Stardust persona was known for sexuality in the visualisation of music (using guitars as phallic symbols), however this video is more or less void of sexual content.
It however has similar use of gore as in Maroon 5's video.
It is an critical attack on the Catholic Church, amplifying the anti lyrics (one of Goodwin's six music video conventions) . and representing the priests as a Mafiaso-type organisation in a bar, deconstructing various themes and motifs.

Receiving flak from the Catholic Church (NME report):

Writing in The Telegraph, former Archbishop of Cantebury Lord Carey states that the video is “juvenile” and criticises Bowie for “upsetting people”. “If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery perhaps Christians should not worry too much at such an exploitation of religious imagery,” Carey writes. “I doubt that Bowie would have the courage to use Islamic imagery – I very much doubt it. Frankly, I don’t get offended by such juvenilia – Christians should have the courage to rise above offensive language, although I hope Bowie will recognise that he may be upsetting some people.”
Additionally, the Catholic League, which bills itself as America’s “largest Catholic civil rights organisation”, has taken issue with the video’s overtly religious subject matter – posting a scathing blog post on its website titled “BOWIE’S ‘JESUS’ VIDEO IS A MESS”.
The group’s President Bill Donohue writes: “David Bowie is back, but hopefully not for long. The switch-hitting, bisexual, senior citizen from London has resurfaced, this time playing a Jesus-like character who hangs out in a nightclub dump frequented by priests, cardinals and half-naked women.”
Continuing, Donohue claims that the video is”strewn with characteristic excess” and Bowie himself is described as “nothing if not confused about religion”. Donohue concludes: “In short, the video reflects the artist – it is a mess.”

BAN FROM YOUTUBE:
In a matter of only two hours the video was taken off YouTube and banned. Does this prove that despite freedom of speech, there is still a Christian hegemony in our culture, like in Ireland when Stephen Fry was nearly jailed for comments.
From the wiki:

The video gained wide attention and caused a controversy. It was banned from YouTube just two hours after its release due to "violation of YouTube's Terms of Service."^[4][12][13] However, the video returned on the website shortly after its removal, with an age restriction. A YouTube spokeswoman stated: "With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it's brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it."^[3][13][14]

Reinstated with an adult-only version:

Reuters News

The video was soon reported and taken off by YouTube, and then later marked Explicit when put back. Why was not similar action undertaken with the outcry reaction to Animals?


CARAVAN PALACE - LONE DIGGER
A video which looks like an innocent animation, but turns very gory, and also has blood splattered on sexualised female bodies. The location is a stripclub, so it is anchored very quickly this is not a child-friendly narrative, however that is something that would quite likely not be noticed by children before the violence starts.



SEXUALITY (+links with gender)
GECKO DRIVE

This video has sex scenes, and in the context of the inhuman characters, bodily fluids, which is something very controversial to show (less so for Sex in the City)

This starts off having this warning, however has not been marked explicit

 

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MYKKI BLANCO
Guardian article:, where comparisons to several controversies with sexuality including, as well as another landmark drag video, Queen's I Want To Break Free.

Madonna’s BDSM bedroom antics in Justify My Love. Freddie Mercury in drag as a housewife for I Want To Break Free. Too-hot-for-BBC leather daddies in Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax. Pop music has long been a place for subverting sexual norms, not least in videos. But for queer artists in 2016, it feels as if this medium of expression could be under threat.

This rapper argues (with strong language), that LGBT+ videos and art in general is attempting to be silenced through these new age restrictions.

The fact that we’re having such a political conversation over a campy video like Loner, which is as sexual as an evening at a Ringling Brothers Circus, is sad,” Blanco says. “That video is a celebration of kitsch, in many ways turning the pop aesthetic on its head, empowering the LGBTQ [community] through its flamboyance.”
Streaming sites might think that age restrictions are helpful, but acceptance won’t change if some queer art is deemed illicit. Blanco himself vows to make bulgier, queerer visuals in future. “We combat this by saying: ‘F*** you, we will not be silenced,’” he says, “[and] demanding our art not be treated as ‘less than’. We will get there.”

AGE RATING FOR MY VIDEO
My video does not include any extreme levels of sexuality and violence (the former unlike the video of my course mate Evie Gibbons)

There are some small hints of sensuality

The smoking in the video, along with the use of an image on digipak and website and social media would be read as glamorising this lifestyle.

WEBSITE - Indie Rock Merchandise Examples

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE:

• 
  

ARCADE FIRE

Separation in to eight different sections, but not including gender like with Bring Me The Horizon. Final one not an option for me, due to there only being one album.

To see the back side:

WARPAINT

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YEAH YEAH YEAHS

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ARCTIC MONKEYS

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WEBSITE - General Merchandise Examples

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE:

• The lyrics on both sides of the hoodie like with Kendrick Lamar

HALSEY

Unboxing video by a typical female teen fan of Halsey:



From the video:

• Postcards
• Rubberband/Bracelets
• Buttons 

From the store 

KENDRICK LAMAR

Titles and lyrics from multiple tracks on the newest album:

This merchandise goes on to the record label
A newsletter on the store 

Multiple lyrics from different songs

Hoodie:

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BRING ME THE HORIZON

Having photos of people wearing the clothes, not on option for me:

They divide into four sections:
Male
Female
Accessories 
Sale. (socks)
Just like "Merch" the colloquial informal wording of "Girls and Guys"

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MV PLANNING - The protagonist's quirks

Dancing (like Buddha) but mainly like Dave Gahan in Barrel of a Gun

Water bubbles

Dancing at the stones at night (test if night footage is effective, tomorrow), has the same functions as Stone Henge and the Ziggurat. Dance almost in a spiritual way, like summoning this alien invasion (research spiritual dancing).

Notices she is being followed, but takes control of it and lets herself be photographed.

Goes to the campfire and spreads pamphlets (something you could connect with social media). Have simple word or emblem on them. Like: "Rebel" or the name of one of the songs, can then be spread like the 500k bills at the Kraftklub concert.

The normal people behind her bow and sing to lyrics, she is freaked out by them. 

Playing with colourful leaves

Might dream of vandalising art like in Suede's Hit Me video.(in this case just the buckets of paint)