Question 1

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

Introduction

There are many real media products that have influenced our band in making the track and myself in the making of the music video.

Bands like Nirvana, Manic Street Preachers, Sex Pistols, The Clash and the Arctic Monkeys have a similar genre of music as The Upgrade and therefore have been a big influence in the process of making this Album and music video. 

Locations

In my music video, I used the generic locations for metal, punk and rock videos by filming around the Norwich city centre.

A generic convention for rock locations are run-down urban locations, such as car parks, abandoned offices or closed factories. The reason for this is due to the origins of the genre and similar genres like punk, metal and grunge that originated mainly from angry young unemployed working-class boys who didn't have anywhere else to go to and 'hang out' in other than what their part of the city had to offer. It is also said that the thick bass lines, thundering guitars and loud drums were inspired by noises coming from the machines in the surrounding factories.

It was important to me to use this convention and make sure it links to the origins of rock. I decided that the best location reflecting this which was situated in the band's hometown of Norwich, so the bad members could still properly relate to the area, was Anglia Square as it offers a run-down atmosphere (surrounded by britain's cheapest shops, which would have been all the creators of the genre would have been able to afford), a car park and abandoned offices who the government and the council have not yet taken care of. This is why some of the walls are covered in graffitti.

Another location we used to shoot in however heavily challenged this convention.

The location outside the Playhouse Bar in Norwich is very much loved by it's middle class white british citizens. The city council take good care of it and its surroundings, which include a riverside and a playground and it is very family friendly. However we felt it was a good area to shoot the funny outtakes in, as filming a heavy rock music video with rock musicians in this area would be rather cheeky and this perfectly reflected the boys' characters.

For the performance part of my music video I challenged the urban, run-down generic locations and used an auditorium in our school. The reason for this was because this was a place where the Upgrade band in specific originated from and had used a lot of times to play and rehearse in one of which times lead to writing the song. 

Costume

I used the generic form of costume in the metal, grunge or rock area in my music video. 

A common conception for clothes in the rock and alternative genre is the stereotypical leather jacket worn by so many great rock stars over the decades.

(mick jagger, keith richards, joe strummer, kurt cobain, alex turner)

Obviously we felt it was necessary for us to use this convention and so I asked the lead singer and the bassist to wear these for the filming of the music video.

For the photoshoot I asked only the lead singer Solay to wear the jacket, so as to emphasise his importance more.

Another common association with costume in the rock and alternative music genre is denim, sometimes ripped. Once again, a very commonly used convention of style. 

(denim artists)

(kurt ripped jeans)

I used this convention in my music video as well. Nick, the drummer, was asked to wear baggy blue denim jeans.

       

Black is a colour commonly related to this genre as well reflecting its harshness and roughness. This is why I asked Sam, the bassist, to wear black jeans.   

However I challenged this convention by asking Solay to wear his bright red jeans to the video shoot in the city. Red is a colour associated with anger and blood, so this was appropriate for the angry anti-american hymn 'USA' the band play. 

Use of Performance

For the performance part of the music video, I researched the best filming techniques.

I used generic conventions in the filming, for example the use of low angle shots and close up shots (of the guitars as well as the performers).

These shots are often used in performance music videos such as the Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen and Anarchy in the UK.

I also researched more recent performance videos like Six Boom Six's The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions which is a full performance music video.

Intertextuality

Here are a few shots that were inspired by the Manic Street Preacher's similar shots in their "Motorcycle Emptiness" video

Here a few shots from Sex Pistols videos for God Save the Queen and Anarchy in the UK and how my music video is paying hommage to them:

Close up shot of the speaker

Here is an iconic scene in the film Control, which is a biopic about Joy Division's Ian Curtis when he is walking down a city street angrily wearing a leather jacket. I felt this scene was so powerful that I just needed to pay homage to it in my music video, with Solay walking down Anglia Square:

 

Another video which this shot of Solay walking references is the Rumble Strips "Not The Only Person". However this video is not available on Youtube and i could therefore not embed it on this blog.

Narrative Structure

I have challenges a lot of music video conventions by not following a specific narrative structure.

However my use of performance has conformed to the generic convention of rock bands.

My main influence in terms of unspecific narrative structure are the music video for A Hard Day's Night.

The editing of the video cutting between scenes filmed on the streets and performance is also very similar to The Doors' video to People Are Strange, although on difference is that The Doors are using Goodwin's theory of the video amplifying the lyrics and the music, which is something my music video challenges.

Digipack

I challenged the typical 3-Panel layout of a CD and added an extra 5 Panels, making my Digipack an 8-Panel CD case.