Media Language Essay

For my A2 coursework I had to create a music video, as well as a promotional package around that, including a digipak, website and posters. I chose to do a pop song, as well as fun advertisement, fitting with that category to the song ‘Seventeen’ and wanted it to be fun and young. I wanted to create the feeling of youthfulness throughout my media products by using the camera, editing, mise en scene and sound to my advantage. By continuing similar patterns from these things in all of my products it enabled me to create cross media synergy, creating a brand and an image for my artist named Ava.

Mise en scene was an extremely important part to our music video, this is because it created meaning and a style for Ava, which enabled our audience to feel more engaged. The outfits which are worn throughout the music video are bright and patterned which stands out and creates an image. Our character repeatedly wore a bright yellow coat which was very iconic for our artist. Within the media products such as the website, music video and digipak, our artist is wearing this coat which creates synergy. Her outfits being bright in all the products also shows youthfulness, which I was keen to show throughout the different media products. As well as this none of the outfits are revealing, this is because we didn’t want our artist to be sexualised and instead we wanted her to be a role model and a true representation of a teen, in our opinions.

Within the music video we had similar lighting, which was bright and colourful. Bright lighting can make a music video feel a lot more happy and jolly, therefore I felt it was an important feature for our music video to make the viewer clear that it a joyful music video about being young. Even though there are some parts set in the evening we made sure to use well-lit areas, which were very colourful, for example we filmed in Winter Wonderland in London with the bright lights around us. The well lit areas really set the mood of youthfulness, rather than being dark and possibly more mysterious.

Body Language was an important piece of mise en scene in our music video, this is because I feel as though it engages the audience well and makes them feel part of the experience. Within the video we made sure to have the artist have a smile on their face, this was very important because it showed the viewer that they were having fun and enjoying themselves, which is an important message which we wanted to put across.

As this is a modern music video, showing the youthfulness, we thought it was key to include current trends within our video. In the camera we wanted to represent a ‘selfie’ type shot but in a video style. We did this by getting the artist herself to hold the camera rather than being filmed. This looked brilliant when spinning round 180 degrees. I thought this was so good because the spinning around looked really fun. As well as this using a modern way of filming would have made the viewers, who are quite young feel as though they would be able to relate to Ava.

As well as this looking at the camera was key, this is because it enabled the viewer to feel as though the artist was being personal and speaking to them. When we were doing a lot of the lip syncing we really wanted the artist to engage with the audience and therefore look into the lense, rather than not having much connection. This definitely created a personal video which would make the viewer feel as though they could engage with Ava.

There is a camera shot which is a mid/long shot, whilst Ava is in the changing rooms. She is trying on a large amount of different clothing and messing about with her friends and dancing around. This was definitely a really important part of the video because Ava was seen as a strong female who does not have to be sexualised like other modern singers. The camera shot enables the viewer to see a full body view of Ava, she is wearing bright, baggy clothing which does not reveal anything which you might expect to see in a music video. The shot helps to reveal Ava’s innocence and show her as young girl just wanting to enjoy herself. The lyrics in the song are also fun and youthfulness, about the artist talking about how she does not want to grow up, this fits with Andrew Goodwin’s theory as he stated that the music video should have a connection between the lyrics and the video, therefore we did this well.

A lot of the editing has been left quite basic within the video, this is because we wanted Ava to be quite natural and youthful, however we did add a small amount just to enhance this. For example, in many different sections of the music video we decided to add in the reverse effect, this was a good way to interest the audience and catch their attention. The effect is fun and looks almost amateur like which is great when you want to highlight a characters youth, and make them seem playful. We did this effect whilst running up an escalator, when rewound it looked really upbeat and great to watch.

We also put a brightening effect onto most of our music video, this was to enhance the bright colours and lights which we had already filmed to make them pop out even more. The yellow coat stood out a lot more after playing about with the brightening than without it. This just made everything a lot more colourful and jolly.

Speeding up parts of the video was also done, this is because we wanted the video to match up with the lyrics so that it would make sense. As well as this speeding up some parts actually made the filming feel more up beat and fun, especially on parts when the character was spinning around and laughing, the speeding up just added to the effect and made it feel more youthful, how we wanted it to appear.

Finally sound is the last category which also affected our music video was media language. Within the video, we have made sure to use thought beats, we did this when the music changed the shot or location would also change. We followed Andrew Goodwin to do so as he said that seeing the sounds in the visuals would create a good connection between the video and the sounds.

We reflected the music, meaning we tried to use appropriate clips within our music video to fit along with the lyrics which you could hear so a relationship would be formed and the listener could relate to the lyrics. By doing this we once again did well in using Goodwin’s theory. When the song mentioned about being young and having fun we made sure to show that on the screen.

An excellent use of the media language within a music video is important if you want to communicate the intended meaning to the target audience successfully.