The genre of our chosen track was always ambiguous as it doesn't truly fit into a single genre but instead merges two; we identified it as alternative/indie with an aspect of pop. A music video cannot be made without using genre conventions, each genre has many conventions these can then cross over into others and therefore when making a music video, you may or may not intentionally add these conventions.
I had to research into these two genres separately to take into account what the main conventions of each one is. Once this was done I could conform to both genre to produce the piece I now have. Alternative and Pop are two very mainstream genres in today's industry.
When it comes to music videos, pop and alternative genres generate two different products; pop will usually introduce a dance piece and is theatrical rather than a straightforward storyline, although the beat of the song is something that would be heard in a pop song.
Lady Gaga always includes numerous dance numbers into her music videos and one of her biggest themes will be theatricality. As seen in the music video above there is no distinct storyline but instead a great number of costume changes, dance and green screen/effects used, no natural setting was used. Comparing this to our music video which uses the same music genre, it is clear we have challenged this convention. We have produced something entirely different, something raw and real which viewers can relate to, instead of a music video which sole purpose is to entertain and used for escapism.
However, after watching Lady Gaga's 'Alejandro' music video, we applied some of the editing techniques to our own music video. For example at 5:38 seconds a fade to black is used repetitively on the scene, it makes the scene unusual and adds something to it. We incorporated this idea onto our music video on the scenes of our main character outside, as this scene was very simple just showing her exploring her environment, this changed it to provide more interest. This also helps to add something quite fast paced and like the pop genre, which central point is the beat and producing visuals to mimic this beat. By adding the effect we have provided something which would have originally been slow paced to speed up to correspond to the music.
Very early we decided to use Black and white. Bright colours are conventionally used in the Pop genre such as 'Katy Perry', black and white is a form used more in the Alternative genre, this is because it can connote a number of things; class such as used in film noir, it can also portray the good and the bad which is a heavy theme in our music video.The costumes used in our piece are very much of the Alternative genre, they are every day wear, our main character can be seen wearing three outfits throughout the video; a white dress, a black dress with a fur coat and casual black leggings and t shirt, the father and mother who are viewed briefly can also be seen wearing jeans and tshirt/jumper, thus sticking to the conventions of the Alternative genre that individuals in the video should be wearing everyday wear. By doing this we have broken the conventions of Pop genre, which like the rest of the video, proposes that characters should be dressed in either a theatrical manner or in fashionable clothing, in most this will usually be bright clothing. Examples of these can be seen on the right, Katy Perry and Ke$ha can both be seen in theatrical outfits for their music videos.
One of the first ideas we both came up with was this idea of flashing lights and how we could incorporate them into the video, originally we wanted lamps to spread amongst the forest floor flashing on and off, after we realised this would be difficult to do we arrived at the conclusion of having them spread amongst an almost empty room. This idea was taken from Adele "Rolling in the Deep" of using a room which looks as if it may be abandoned, with the use of carefully positioned lighting, see below.
A music video in which the key element is lighting is Katy B "Crying For No Reason" see below.
Both of these music videos are of the Pop genre and therefore we conform to this particular convention of lighting, bright lighting moulded to create something bright and unusual, rather than standard lighting. The natural lighting in the outside shots are something that is seen in Alternative genre, this genre likes to keep things natural and unchanged.
Goodwin states that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. This idea was strongly presented at times, however in some cases it was difficult to use the lyrics such as; "maybe cut me on the back with your rainbow". It was difficult to interpret what these lyrics truly meant and therefore to visually interpret, also to provide a representation of those words would have steered towards theatricality. In other places we did provide visuals for the lyrics, "And use it as a mask, keep it in the dark" at this point the leading character moved their hand over the camera to produce darkness. The main element we took from the lyrics was pain. The title itself is 'Hurt Me' and this is repeated throughout, we incorporated this into our own interpretation.
The original idea we had was of domestic violence being the pain presented between a couple however, after some research we decided against this. A clear example of domestic violence between a couple can be represented in 'Love The Way You Lie' the music video is also an example of Goodwin's "relationship between lyrics and visuals", although the song is from a genre which is considered both Pop and Hip Hop the key theme is still similar.
Goodwin also states that the music video should have a Narrative and Performance, our piece is solidly Narrative, from the beginning of our planning we believed a Performance piece would not work well. Narrative also follows on to use one of the main conventions of the Alternative genre, the performance element is rarely used, this is because it makes the video less intimate and viewers can't as easily relate and like the Alternative genre we wished for viewers to relate to our music video. However, some may consider our leading characters performance is her inability to talk because she's been abused and therefore the music talks for her, she's aware that she's in this performance, this is seen from the opening clip which shows her staring down the camera, when she covers the camera and then reveals herself in a different surrounding and then at the end when she laughs. This could also be seen as her 'breaking the fourth wall' although she isn't directly addressing the audience she is still acknowledging that the camera/audience are there. We have used this convention in our music video. Few characters are in our video; the protagonist who was a young girl, the mother and father, the first shot the viewer sees is of the protagonist, this as well as the setting intrigues the audience into watching on.
The reason for choosing violence between a youth and her family was that it wasn't the most conventional theme, and we aimed to break some conventions and make something new, younger adolescents will be able to relate to the feel of the video when they watch our finished piece. This therefore resulted in the male gaze not being used, this is a conventional aspect in many Pop genre music videos however, in recent years the artist has decided themselves to dress in a provocative manner to attract the audience, the male gaze is not used as much in the Alternative genre.
"To gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze" Jonathan Schroeder. Our leading character is one which is inferior, this does apply however, the audience does not wish to feel superior to the character, they pity her.
Domestic violence in the media is most commonly presented on TV adverts or as pamphlets. They don't glamorise it but instead show it for what it is and use it as a way for viewers to reach out for help if need be via contact numbers etc.. This is more of the view point we wished to take and took one main convention from this, that domestic violence needed to be seen for what it is. However, we only showed one type, we didn't wish to show physical violence because as well as being difficult to shoot, it could have come across as too far. Some portray it in such a harsh manner that they do not wish to view it and through word of mouth more and more individuals hear about it and hear negative comments, this results in few viewers. Following on from this consumers may find it insensitive if they are currently going through that situation.
A continuing theme appearing in our music video is the elements, we use wind, fire, water and earth throughout the video. While planning we hadn't intentionally planned to have these elements but as filming went on they were incorporated into it, they help to break up the main storyline and provide something interesting to the video. A lot of music videos will feature the elements but not necessarily all of them, this is because they are naturally occurring and therefore easy to add, fire is however the hardest to include as it doesn't occur in everyday settings.
As the Pop genre is theatrical, one of the elements which is likely to occur is fire, this is because it is viewed as the most dramatic and feared and therefore used increasingly to add effect. Where as the Alternative genre takes on a more natural feel and therefore elements such as water and earth are used more commonly.
Fire - The element is one that is viewed in two contradicting aspects, it is seen as bringing destruction, the pure symbol of chaos and war, individuals should fear it, on the other hand it can also be presented as a symbol of "banishing the darkness" and of an eternal love, burning away at the individual. Fire was portrayed in multiple ways in it's single shot, the individual could be seen staring into the coals trying to gain power, while also using it as a way to present the fear and threat that is faced by this young girl, she could be interpreted as staring into hell. Fire is the only element which can be made my man kind and therefore can be seen as a weapon. Fire is not likely to occur in the Alternative genre purely because of this, it does not occur in natural day to day life and therefore would be out of place.Although mentioned earlier Eminem ft Rihanna "Love the Way You Lie" uses fire throughout the entirety, the first shot of Rihanna features a blurred image of flames in the background, that can be presented as a man made fire burning a building. This leads onto a shot of a woman, Megan Fox, with her hands cupped with a flame emerging and flickering, this causes the audience to associate her as the one that burnt the house down. In this video fire is presented as a weapon and something that will cause harm, a retaliation to the broken love the individuals have, this can in some ways therefore be related to our music video.
Water - The element is most commonly interpreted as purity, it washes away the sins of an individual, however with a lot of media these days water can be seen as something which kills an individual, suffocating them, this can seen as a metaphor for how alone the young girl feel and constantly surrounded by pain and abuse from her family. This appeals to the Alternative genre audience because they like to relate to something that they are going through to feel that they are not alone.
An example of water heavily being used is in Lana Del Rey 'Blue Jeans' she is indie pop and therefore a mixture of both genres of which my music video presents, there are similar conventions between both this and our own music video. The first shot presents an image of water rippling, the artist's face then appears in the water rippling along with the water, this Pop convention continues throughout the video of the main artist being the main visual point. However, instead of giving a singular performance she is supplying a hint of narrative through the use of the swimming pool and the male. Water is used in every shot in different varying effects, whether she is in the pool or the reflection of the pool is emitted on to her, the male gaze is used continuously throughout the piece comparing this to ours in which we have challenged this main convention to use no male gaze. The main similarity between this and our music video is the use of black and white, in this music video it has made the video glamorise and therefore more appealing to audiences, I believe if this video would have been in colour it may have come across as cheesy.
Earth - Alternative videos do not commonly occur without the use of earth/naturally occurring settings however, Pop genre music videos will largely use green screens located in studios and therefore what the audience sees is not naturally occurring. We therefore used the conventions of the Alternative genre, included in the video; trees, fields, hills etc, a big part of the video is how she feels trapped within the confides of her house and feels freedom when she escapes the outside world, the natural world provides her with his freedom. Audience individuals will be able to relate to this due to the fact that although individuals may feel in pain they have somewhere they can escape to, their own piece of paradise, they can relate to that feeling they see portrayed on the young girls face.
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