Monday, 12 February 2018

1B - Genre Essay Question

Apply the concept of genre to one of your coursework productions

Within our course work we produced a music video, ‘Vanilla’ by the band Vanilla. It is a fun outdoorsy music video that promotes friendship and happiness, appealing to many people of all ages.
To make the music video understandable, we focused on including a clear recognisable genre of country pop. To bring the genre across we used a variety of country locations as well as wearing stereotypical country attires so that our brand image was clear to the audience. We also produced ancillary products such as a digipak and a website, to ensure or image was successful and professional and to guarantee all our products were synergised to create an overall brand image.
We looked at two media theorists Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin. Vernallis looks at four key concepts: narrative, editing, camera movement/ tracking and diegesis. All of these points highlighting what makes a successful music video. Andrew Goodwin looked at the recognisable features of a music video therefore we knew we had to include his points to make our product identifiable as a music video. Some of his ideas included thought beats, iconography, voyeurism and having a recognisable brand image.
Within our production of ‘Vanilla’ we applied these ideas to amplify the genre and its forms and conventions. We conformed to carol Vernallis’ and Goodwin’s theory of editing to match the music, thought beats. We cut a lot of our close ups in time with the music to amplify the upbeat pop song. We showcased the stars and this then drew attention to our outfits and locations. Subconsciously informing the audience that the music video had a country theme. This was as well as making each shot and camera movement aesthetically pleasing to that we appeared as fun and friendly girls. We used Andrew Goodwin’s idea of close ups to make sure our faces were recognisable to our band, linking our digipak and website together.
However, we subverted Andrew Goodwin’s view of iconography and voyeurism as we felt this concept was so overused within the music industry we wanted to challenge the idea that sex sells. We wanted to be role models for the young women in society therefore went for the English countryside and natural beauty to promote happiness over looks. We did this by wearing flattering clothes and being friendly.
When it came to getting our image out there and promoting our brand we made great use of our website and digipak. We knew from Goodwin that we had to sell our image as a whole and therefore echoes to use the same clothing used in our video within the pictures used for our digipak and website. This again then enforced the country look and meant our faces were relatable to the band. We included pastel colours to synergise all of the products and make sure all of our products stood out from the crowd. The country side also played a big part in informing our audience the type of band that we were, we made sure we included outside shots in our digipak to make sure the audience were aware of this. Dolly Parton had a great example of a country digipak for her album hungry again and we took inspiration from all of the shots she had on a simple bench as we felt it was effective and successful.

Conclusively, it is clear to see there are numerous forms and conventions that are used to create an overall image and portray a specific genre. Each review and survey that we performed we received information that expressed we had covered this area very well and it was clear to see how our products linked together with the country pop genre. We have produced a successful music video as well as useful amazing ancillary products giving a final brand image we are very proud of.

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