From the beginning of the project it was clear that the products that we were going to make had to in some way use, develop or/and challenge the conventions of similar products that already exist. Before even starting our work on this project the work we did for our AS grade showed how important it is to make a product that would fit in with existing products.
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| The cello plays an important role in the song so it is showcased. |
However, there are many conventions that are common among them. Performance videos (or semi-performance videos,) for example are quite common among alternative rock music videos. This could be partly due to the fact that alternative rock bands often have diverse and interesting instruments, not generally found in regular pop or rock bands. For example both a violin and a cello are used in 'Secrets' by One Republic and 'Bittersweet Symphony' by the Verve. These instruments define these songs and make them unique and so we decided to showcase them in our video. This also occurs in the official video for 'Secrets' with many close-ups and medium shots.
More so than the violin, cello or any other instrument, the singer has to be showcased. This is a broad convention that is important throughout any genre of music. The singer has the most attention of all of the band members and usually is the star of the video even if it is narrative based. This is because the lead singer acts as the 'face' of the band. A band's image is formed through the energy and appearance of the singer in videos and at concerts as well as through the music itself. Another common theme is to have the singer look directly at the camera for much of the video. This creates a connection between the song and the audience and makes the video more enjoyable to watch. We included this aspect in our video (shown above) to great effect.
The other band members that were shown in our video did not look into the camera like the lead singer as this was also common throughout alternative rock videos. They are depicted focusing on their instrument, moving their head to the music and sometimes closing their eyes. Instead of focusing on their gaze, the instruments and the manual dexterity of the musicians were outlined with close ups on their fingers whilst playing or shots of the drums being hit etc. This is another common convention among performance videos as it shows of the musicians' skill and has potential to emphasise each instrument's key moments. This is where the pace of the music drives the editing as the length of shots for each instrument at any time is echoed by the speed or tone of the music itself. An example of this is at the beginning of our video when only the cello can be heard. We used longer pauses between cuts and the use of dissolve transitions to create a feel for the long notes being played.
Setting was another key choice in the making of our music video. Many performance music videos are set in wide open places with the band in the center. This creates a cool effect and we wanted to do something similar. Early in the development stage we created a mind map linking words from the song to other things that we could use throughout the project. 
One of these themes was the idea of 'confessions' developed from the title, 'Secrets'. This word gave birth to the church setting idea that went on to become the final location of the video. The church we eventually did the filming in had a wide area to work with similar to the open areas in existing music videos such as Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Fortune Faded' and the Kaiser Chiefs' 'Never Miss a Beat'. Open spaces give the band center view and do not distract the watcher from them (when it isn't supposed to) but also can provide an appropriate atmosphere that amplifies the performance.What the band members are wearing is also an important issue when creating a music video.
What an artist or band wears can have an impact on their iconography as a whole and many artists wear the same kind of clothing across many or all of their videos. For our own video we chose the dress code to be suits and ties. This was because although One Republic's songs are emotional, they also have formal tones to them so their dress code should represent that. This was also appropriate as we had already chosen the location as a church where formal wear is normal.Another typical thing to include in music videos is using visual effects to amplify the music. This can range from over-cranking the footage to altering the lighting or to transition effects.
An example of a major effect used for a music video is in Coldplay's 'The Scientist' in which the entire video was played backwards. In our video we used a range of transition effects including; dissolves, additive dissolves and a fade in and fade out. We also used footage that we took of a lightbulb and used that as a transitional effect between two other clips (right). Other than these however, we didn't use any effects on the footage for our video. This was because we were making a performance style video and so we wanted to keep it as real and natural as possible.A common trait in alternative rock music videos is lots of camera movement.
An example of this is shown in the Script's 'For the First Time' (right image, the picture is blurry because the camera is moving around). We made lots of effective use of this that is clear throughout our video. The camera movement creates an energetic atmosphere that emphasises the music. We used it lightly during the slow parts and more heavily during other, faster parts of the song for the greatest effect.
After finishing the video we added the MTV Rocks logo and the video description appearing at the beginning and the end of the video as if it were actually appearing on the TV channel. This is added to every video that appears on the MTV Rocks channel and so is a convention for that purpose.Ancillary Tasks
For the magazine advert, we looked into some existing adverts and took guidelines and tips from how they were done. The print work was much easier to achieve a good standard with as we had already done similar work before as part of our AS level.
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