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

Although the song and our music video are ‘alternative’, we used and developed conventions of real media products much more than challenging them. Most people who answered the questionnaire said that our video looks like a conventional music video and 100% said that it’s suitable for the song.

Inspiration From Films

Many music videos are inspired by films, therefore references are common. We started to think of ideas by finding out the meaning of the song. I watched interviews with the band on YouTube and read other explanations on the internet which said that the song is mainly about loss of innocence. We chose to base our music video on horror films because often there are characters, particularly children who initially seem innocent despite having a much darker side. This seemed to be an interesting way of demonstrating a contrast between of innocence and corruption. We made references to horror films such as The Shining and The Omen with camera shots, mise en scene, costume and editing.

The most obvious references were probably shots of the children holding hands and skipping. The composition was inspired by the shot of the twins standing in the centre of the hotel corridor in The Shining. We chose to reference this because it’s very well known. Another shot inspired by The Shining shows the children standing next to each other in the middle of a garden and staring directly at the camera. We filmed several shots like this but with the camera further away each time. First there is a long shot, then a mid shot and a close up; these shots are very short to make the audience feel on edge. This kind of editing (jump cuts) are often used in horror films including The Shining.

Some of my favourite shots are of ink dripping onto a rose and ink in water. Dripping blood is a common image in horror films. For example, the opening titles of American Psycho shows red sauces dripping which resembles blood. However, we used black, blue and green ink because it fitted in with the colour scheme. This was also inspired by horror films. We used cool and dark colours; the saturation and blacks are increased. There is also a blue/ green tint. This colouring is used in almost all horror films, for example The Ring, Shrooms and The Woman In Black.

The settings we chose are commonly used in horror films. The main setting is a play area, there are shots of swings and a roundabout moving without anyone on them at the beginning and end.  We also filmed a grandfather clock because this is an image typically associated with horror films. Other shots of the children are set in a garden. The costume, particularly the girl’s are inspired by horror films. She wears a white, lace dress, black, lace-up shoes, white ankle socks and a big, black bow in her hair. Similarly, the twins in The Shining wear girly dresses, white ankle socks, black shoes and hair clips.

Official music videos inspired by films

I concentrated on similarities between our music video and films because a lot of music videos can be linked to films. This isn’t surprising as originally music videos took the form of short films with clear narratives rather than images that compliment and advertise a song. The most obvious music video inspired by films is Michael Jackson‘s, ‘Thriller‘, directed by John Landis in 1983. This was the first time film and music video merged together. It begins with a conversation introducing Michael Jackson and explaining the narrative of the whole video. There are almost 5 minutes of film before the song begins. During the video there are interruptions to the song. The video ends as a film rather than a music video. It is clearly inspired by thrillers and direct references are made throughout.

The music video for ‘Linger‘ by The Cranberries is inspired by a French New Wave classic, Alphaville (1965) by Jean Luc Godard. Alphaville is an anti- cinema, science fiction film set in Paris. These are some of the similarities I noticed…                                                                                                                                            

• The set design is minimalistic. 
• Both are black and white.
• The shot of the light which is switched on at the beginning of ‘Linger’ is similar to the shot at the beginning of the Alphaville trailer.
• Dramatic, film noir style lighting. 
• References to cinema in the ‘Linger’ video.

Editing

Music videos often use special effects which wouldn’t be seen in television programmes or films. Before we began editing, we experimented with all the special effects on Final Cut. The effects we used are ‘Bad TV’, ‘Kaleidoscope’ and ‘Reflection’. These are seen in music videos quite a lot, especially kaleidoscope and reflection, for example in the video for ‘Vanessa’ by Grimes.

Unusual colouring is used in music videos more than it is in TV programmes and films which tend to have more natural colouring. Colours are often exaggerated; we used a blue/ green tint. There are some black and white shots as well, for example the last image of the girl smiling at the camera. Music videos usually have a more limited colour palette than TV programmes and films. We mostly used blues, greens and black, avoiding bright colours like yellow, orange, red and purple.

We edited so that the shots are cut on the beat of the song which is a main convention of music videos. There are small gaps in between shots during slower parts of the song to give the impression of blinking. Some shots are slowed down or sped up according to the pace of the song. Other shots are reversed, mainly because this is visually interesting and adds to the obsurity of the video. Repetition is common in music videos. We repeated a few shots, sometimes by showing the original, followed by the reversed one. I’ve seen this in many music videos including ‘Vanessa’  by Grimes and a music video for ‘Through the Hosiery’ by Crystal Castles.

There is often some symbolism in music videos. We included a white rose, to represent innocence and purity. The rose is splashed with ink, symbolizing destruction and loss of innocence. The rose can also be seen as a symbol of love or passion. This links to the song title, ‘Virgin’ more literally as the ink suggests the loss of virginity.