Evaluation for advanced production Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The brief for the advanced production was to create a music video for an unsigned artist/band. I chose to promote a Norwich band called Smaller than You. The genre of Smaller than You is ska/punk. This is a genre which has developed from the original Ska of the 70’s with artists such as Madness and The Specials. I chose Ska/Punk due to it being upbeat and challengingly fast pace to construct a lively and appealing promotion.

The music video is set in Norwich and focuses on a performance based narrative, utilising elements of slapstick comedy. The basic story revolves around a zany relay race as the drummer tries to get his stolen drumsticks back before his gig. The narrative indicates that either fellow band members or friends where involved int he prank. The dominant performers are skateboarders who steal the drumsticks at different iconic areas around Norwich, specifically around the postwar 1960’s brutal architecture which reflects the ska genre. This idea followed the convention of ska/punk as Skateboarders are associated with modern day ska as they represent a teenage subculture. The American ska/punk band Less Than Jake use the ‘skater’ image in their music video. I was able to understand the generic conventions of ska from the band Less Than Jake which inspired the mise-en-scene, specifically the narrative and costume of the skaters within the music video.

For example the circular narrative of their video ‘Does the Lion City Still Roar’ follows a young male in an urban area finding a pair of sunglasses which changes perspective of something negative into a positive and by the end of the video the glasses have been picked up by another male for the experience to start again. I thought this idea was interesting as the use of circulatory narrative, the playfulness and excitement of skateboarding would signify this popular past time for our band. Less Than Jake also allowed me to understand how male dominated modern day ska music is, as the only female seen in the video has been sexualised, and the male uses his sunglasses to see her pole dancing around a lamppost.

This idea links to Laura Mulveys ‘The gaze theory’. She states that ‘various features of cinema viewing conditions facilitate for the viewer both the voyeuristic process of objectification of female characters and also the narcissistic process of identification with an ‘ideal ego’ seen on the screen’, this idea links with the music video for ‘Does The Lion City Still Roar’ as the image shows a males idea of ‘idealised woman’ to which viewers can gain pleasure. I followed a similar idea within my music video by making the cast male dominant specifically because the genre and skateboarding appeals to the 16-25 male demographic. However I challenged the ‘gaze theory’ by showing a tomboy image of a female and allow my female performers to be part of the chase. This challenged the convention of music videos which according to Goodwins theory which see’s a ‘particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body’, like the woman seen in Less Than Jakes video ‘Does The Lion City Roar’.

By strongly representing British ska within my music video it allowed my music video to act as a tribute to the classic ska genre. One of the ways I did this was the use of setting. I chose to film parts of my music video in isolated and run down areas of the city. This was to act as a tribute to the music video ‘Ghost Town’ by the Specials. Within that video there are low angle shots of buildings which create a claustrophobic setting. The buildings in The Specials video are old and decrepit, therefore I chose Anglia Square as the buildings are run-down. This 60’s development is an eyesore and has become a slum. Anglia Square is associated with urban decay where once was a community.

The designs for my digi-pak are a reflection of the niche target audience for the band Smaller Than You which is young males aged around 16-25. The images used show a stereotype which is often depicted by the media of young males. The male within the front cover image shows a male wearing a hoody and the idea that he is thinking about or has just robbed someone’s house, due to the image of graffiti showing a figure climbing a wall. This image will therefore allow Smaller Than You’s fan base to relate to the image shown as it suggests that Smaller Than You recognise the negative impact the mass media has on young males.

This idea is influenced by American ska band Less Than Jake who also shows the rebellious nature of ska within the album artwork, such as the album ‘Absolution and Addicts’ which shows drugs, alcohol and razor blades, falling from a rain cloud. They are doing this to play up to the stereotype often given to those who listen to ska music and therefore giving the audience something to rebel against by listening to their music.

I also gained inspiration for my digi-pak from American Ska band ‘Sonic Boom Six’. The front cover of their album ‘The Concrete We’re Trapped Within’, shows a futuristic dytopian setting with a police officer as the focal point of the image. The images I used challenge the American ska convetion as I wanted it to distinctly represent ‘Britishness’.

My image does this by using less colour than the American ska digi-paks thus intertextually referencing the pallet of British Social Realist films such as ‘This is England’ and ‘Fish Tank’. This see’s characters such as Mia from ‘FishTank’ representing stereotypical youth culture of Britain in the way she dresses and talks which automatically makes her seem threatening to the general public. I wanted to reflect this stereotype within my digi-pak and therefore used the costume of the young male to reflect the British stereotype of youth culture which is the ‘hoody’.

The ‘hoody’ wearer is a sign that the youth wearing it is associated with anti social behaviour. The location I used is a run-down alleyway, which reinforces the urban nature of the music video whilst also signifying the subculture of ska.
Most of my designs are influenced by American ska, however I wanted to show an influence of the classic ska genre and did this through the use of the ‘hoodies’ costume. His clothes are black and white and are a tribute to Jerry Dammers record label ‘2 Tone’. The image often used to represent his record label is a man in a black suit, black tie, white shirt and sunglasses. Therefore the costume used for my digi-pak is a modern twist on this classic logo and image associated with ska of the 1980’s.