Exam Practice - Question 1B

Analyse genre in one piece of work you have produced.
Genre is the specific style of any sort of media, whether it is printed media or moving image. This makes it easier to group different media together and lets the audience choose what they view in a simple easy way. For this question I will be analysing the genre used in my A2 Media portfolio music video – which happened to be acoustic music. To start my project I looked at existing acoustic videos to explore the conventions and analyse how different components of production were used in them. From carrying out this research I was able to see that nature and natural scenes were a very common setting and therefore a convention belonging to the acoustic genre. I also found that acoustic music covers a wide scale when it comes to what the song is about and therefore the visuals that run alongside the audio. I found that there was a recurring theme of love throughout the acoustic genre. Editing techniques were often quite slow cuts and fades in the love-themed videos. All of these findings helped with the creation of my work and were found in videos by performers such as Paolo Nutini, Newton Faulkner and Rusted Root.
My music video’s narrative ran a love story theme through its entirety and the visuals represented this with the lead character singing the lyrics and acting out her story of love. The lead female began as a weak character then moved on to develop a stronger personality as she becomes more in love with the lead male, then stays strong and continues to tell her story after rejection. This represents the convention of a strong character that develops throughout the video. The decision was made to contain this convention in the video because I felt that it had worked so well with other videos before in the genre and it felt safe to stay within the pre-written home of the acoustic genre. The inclusion of conventions of the chosen genre was also important to make the video appealing to my psychographic target audience (aged 13-20) who were people who were categorized into ‘puritans’ and ‘utopians’. These people wish to feel virtuous and want the world to be a better place. To make them want to watch my video, I included the conventions of natural settings and wanting to be with someone so that life would be improved and more enjoyable. I also used a young female as the main lead in the video, as the target audience would be able to directly relate to her. This is just another way in which genre was used in my video.

Exam Practice - Question1B

Analyse Narrative in one of your coursework productions.

The music video that I produced for my A2 Media coursework followed ‘The Narrative Circle’ theory devised by Torodov. His theory consists of the idea that every story must have a beginning, middle and an end. The cycle starts with an equilibrium where everything is in a ‘state of calm’ and things in the story are normal and equal (this stage acts as the beginning). This moves on with an unsettling event taking place in the narrative – known as disequilibrium (this stage acting as the middle). To end the cycle, a ‘new-equilibrium’ is formed (acting as the end of the story). My video conformed to this as the video opens with a sequence of shots showing the lead female character telling of her love and that she wants to tell the lucky man. Later on in the video disequilibrium breaks out as the characters man is taken from beneath her feet by another woman. The video ends with the lead character accepting this and is still on her own, this effectively is another equilibrium in the story, completing Torodov’ narrative circle.
There are certain elements taken from Prop’s theory based around folk tales and the idea that every narrative contains certain stock characters. This could also be described as the ‘fairy tale theory’. My music video contained few characters however it could be interpreted as the main male being the ‘hero’ who is wanted by the ‘princess’ (the lead female) and the woman who takes the lead male for her own as the ‘villain’ of the story.
Strauss’ theory of binary opposition consists of the idea that within a narrative, there is always an opposition to it somewhere, for example, there could be the opposition of rich and poor, good and bad or young and old. This theory is not implanted directly into the music video I produced however minute details and elements may be found if looked into in greater detail, i.e. the second female getting the man, opposing the lead female not getting the man. This could be seen as a binary opposition of successful against unsuccessful. Though this is the case, this link to Strauss’ theory is linked and not backed up with any other concrete evidence.
Overall, Torodov’ theory of the narrative circle is the most directly applied theory for the produced music video. There are various points throughout which fit in with the idea’s Torodov had and follow the cycle closely. Propp’s and Strauss’ theories can be applied to small sections and details of the video; however do not form a strong bond between themselves and the contents, or production of the video.

Magazine Advert

This is a magazine advert that the group created to advertise the album cover we created.