1 . I N W H A T W A Y S D O E S Y O U R M E D I A P R O D U C T U S E , D E V E L O P O R C H A L L E N G E F O R M S A N D C O N V E N T I O N S

O F R E A L M E D I A P R O D U C T S ?

Question 1:

Before the title we included a quote by the artist- “we did this so that it would give context to the video and explain the reason behind the song called “hold me down”. This challenges the typical conventions of a music video because It is very rare that an audience would see this type of thing in a music video- for example, Tori Kelly- Should Have Been Us. We also felt that by doing this it would also help the video seem as though it is a real music video as it was actually said by the artist. Soon after the quote the music begins and the title crossfades into the shot which overlays a shot of the bath. We named the song ‘Hold You Down’ instead of Hold Me Down so that when we upload the song we don’t have any copyright issues with the artist.

The title of the music video

Pays homage to Tori Kelly’s music video- Should have been us

For the music video we used various different locations, such as Manchester in Afflecks, on the Bus, in a club and also in a corner shop and in a smoking shelter. We also had one main location which was a house set in the bathroom. The reason we had several different locations was so that we could show continuity throughout the video to establish a narrative. The bathroom setting was the most important as this shows character 1 reflecting on her past. Within the song it states that “my demons are begging me to open up my mouth”, therefore we used water due to its biblical significance of cleansing bad objects/thoughts. This was so that we could represent the fact that the subject in the bath is trying to cleanse herself of the bad things she has done, which is shown through flashbacks throughout the video. We chose to shoot in town because other pop music videos show clips of the artist on the streets with clips of street lights and cars and so we wanted to capture the same conventions used in other pop music videos such as ….. However, our videos challenges some typical conventions of an alternative music video because it doesn’t have any shots of the artist featured in the video. This was because we wanted to focus It solely on the narrative. Although, we did include footage of the actual artist on stage but integrated it into the narrative as though they went to see her on a night out.

Setting/location

We shot shots in the bath to represent the fact that she is trying to cleanse herself of the bad things she has done

For the costume of character 1 we made sure that she wore causal clothes with natural make-up to represent her innocence and vulnerability, as she is being influenced by character 2. For character two’s make-up, we made sure she wore dark clothes and dramatic make-up such as the blood red lipstick which connotes evil, to represent her rebelliousness. Near the beginning of the video there is a short crosscut to character 2 pointing an arcade gun at character one, which she pretends to shoot in time with the drum beat of the song. This connotes violence and the fact that character two is the villain and character one is hero, which adheres to Propp’s theory of character types within a narrative. The video challenges stereotypical representation of women through character two, as she is being represented as superior and rebellious which we would see of a male character. In comparison, character two juxtaposes with character one because she is represented as vulnerable and inferior which is a typical representation of the female gender and therefore adheres to this stereotype. However, our video also challenges Propp’s theory of character types because there is no heroine, donor or father figure within the video. Although, there is a mid-shot of the subject who is made to look as though she is forcing character one to smoke which therefore could be considered that this subject is the helper within the video. We also use fire to burn paper in the bath which also signifies cleansing. The paper has words written on them such as regret, friendship and hate which all reflect the feelings of character one to the audience to help establish the narrative further. This was inspired by Skrillex and Diplo - "Where Are Ü Now" with Justin Bieber where all the words are written around Beiber. However, we wanted to take the idea of writing words and burning them to make it as if It is a reflection of character one’s feelings.

Costume/propps

We used cards with different words written on them to reflect the different emotions and thoughts going on in the music video

We used cigarettes to represent the rebellious attitude of the characters, which is stereotypical of this age group- 14-18 year olds.

The gun is a representative of a phallic symbol which is used to indicate that character 2 is dominant and is a bad influence on character one.

The jewellery indicates the bad behaviour, which the audience see her spiral out of control.

We included red lipstick as this has connotations of evil and also promiscuity, which reflects the behaviour of the two characters later in the video where it is suggested they go home with the boys.

The alcohol reflects the rebellious attitude of the characters and is stereotypical of their age group.

The cigarette is used to show that character one is being pressured into smoking and also acts as a phallic symbol, showing that character 3 has a bad influence on her too. We used a phone as a way of showing that character 3 is a bad influence on both character 1 and 2

At the beginning of the video there is a direct-address close-up of character two, which crossfades into a long shot of red bokeh lights that gradually focus’ into iconography of the Arndale building. We introduced character two this way for the fact that it establishes a relationship between them, revealing that it could be a bad relationship from the fact that red from the lights connotes danger, which later reveals in the video that it is destructive.

How characters are introduced in the film/video

Character one is introduced as innocent and seen with character two which establishes a friendship between the characters. However, during the course of the beginning character two is seen to bully character one and indicates that she is a bad influence on her. Also, there is quick cutaway from the bath to character one, which indicates the fact that she is trying to cleanse herself of the bad things she has done.

At the beginning of the video there is a crossfade of the title that overlays a high angle shot of the tap running through the door frame in the bathroom, which was to act as a frame for the subject. This gives it the sense that the audience is looking into the room as though they are looking into character one’s life, which is emphasized by the crosscuts to and from the bathroom and her flashbacks. We challenged the conventions of a music video as some shots are filmed in first person- for example, the shots in town where character two is running and dragging character one and also when they are in the concert.

Camerawork and editing

First person view when character two grabs hold of character one.

Title crossfades over the shot of the bath, using framing and tilt shift to create this effect

Overlaid the same video playing backwards to give the effect that she is having a flash back.

Used focus shift to create bokeh which focuses on a establishing shot of the Arendale building which acts as iconography for the setting.

Birds-eye-view shot of character one in the bath, which pays homage to novo amour music videos for boats.

We used reverse speed on the shot of character 4 smoking and on character 2 in the bath to show the disorientation to indicate that it is a flashback.

We overlaid the diegetic sound at the beginning of the video and during the video of the bath running to indicate that it is the present and the shots of the narrative are flashbacks in the past. We drew this idea from videos such as Bruno Mars- The lazy Song which includes diegetic sound of the toilet and the car horn in the video.

On most crosscuts/cutaways to settings/subjects we timed it so that the drum beat is in time with each change. This helps the video fit with the music and build tension within the audience, especially near the end where there is a series of quick cutaways in the bathroom during the chorus to exaggerate the fast pace music. The tension is stopped when there is a long shot of character one in the bath and fades to black indicating the end of the song. We purposely included the same shot type at the beginning so that is looks as though character one is going to re-live the story again- this is because at the beginning we had a high angle shot of the tap running shot through the door and at the end there is the same high angle-shot shot through the door of character one leaning back into the bath out of shot. We drew inspiration from music videos such as Novo Amor- Anchor.for birds eye view shot of the subject in the bath and mid shots of the subject in the bath. Within the video we indicated a flashback by using fast forward and reverse to indicate to the audience this is a flashback and is the reflection of what the girl is looking back on.

Novo Amor- Boats

Intertextuality with the bath scenes in the video

Our video

Pays homage to the video

For our music video we came up with the narrative that there would be two girl characters who are friends and one leads the other girl (character one) into trouble and the whole video is character one reflecting on her actions that she regrets. It is filmed in a bath which we use to represent the fact that she is trying to wash away her sin and cleanse herself. The reason why we used water as there is a lot biblical references In the lyrics of the song ‘Hold Me Down’ by Halsey such as “they told me I was holy’. Therefore the song in the music video is the voice of character one who gets dragged into all the bad things and let’s character two ‘hold [her] down’. We have challenged the typical conventions of an alternative music video by not including performance shots of the artist but instead ingraining shots of the characters at the artist concert so that the audience can make sense of the narrative easier. To set the narrative up it opens with a high angle shot of the bath running and cutaways to character one in the bath and then crosscuts to a direct address close-up shot of character two which then fades to indicate a flashback. We did this so that it establishes to the audience a relationship and to help indicate that the narrative is a reflection of character ones past. We challenge the typical conventions of a flashback as instead of making the video overexposed as though it is dreamlike, we indicate it by reversing the video.

Narrative and how the opening sets it up (conventional/fragmented/elliptical)

The genre of the music video is alternative/pop and which is encoded through the use of typical conventions such as coloured lights through bokeh of the street lights and cars and also slight performance based shots. However, this challenges the conventions as It is filmed in first person view as though character one is watching the artist perform. Stuart Hall theory of encoding a message to an audience and they decode in different ways based on their individual background and life experiences. Therefore with our music video we included the quote at the beginning of the music video to tell the audience that they shouldn’t let anyone hold them down. However the audience will decode this based on their background and life experiences- for example this video will be most significant to people who have been in similar situations as character one. I believe that people who would have been in a similar situation would be teenagers as they are most influential with them being young and the stress of peer pressure in their friendship groups.

Genre and how it is encoded (Hall)

We overlaid an establishing shot of town over the face of character two to suggest they are in town.

For the title we used a sans serif font that is bold, which overlays the shot of the tap. This type of font is informal and therefore attracts a younger audience of 16-25 year olds. Whereas if we used a serif font in a calligraphy style it wouldn’t suit the genre of the music and also the target audience as this font is more formal and used to attract an older audience- such as The Times newspaper uses serif font because it targets an older audience of 30+. We also used the same font for the quote at the beginning of the video in white as this helps it stand out to the audience when it is placed on the black background and shot of the sink.

Title font and style