Evaluation question 1: Directors cut

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

Media script for directors cut

Morgan- 0:03 The first shot reveals the star name shortly followed by the star herself.

0.06 The conventional establishing shot-immediately sets the scene where Sophia is in the shower looking vulnerable and upset. She is also positioned in a way that shows the bruises on her body and face, which automatically shows the audience that the video is about abuse. We used Ken Burns to do this as we zoomed in to capture the upset in her face and so the audience clearly notices the bruises. This scene creates disequilibrium which follows Todorov’s theory that all narrative music video’s reach disequilibrium at some point and are usually resolved at the end.

0.18 The cut is on the beat which is another convention of music video and doesn’t use a fade which makes a bigger impact on the audience before she starts singing, the bruise is more prominent due to the camera angle. She is centre frame here and keeps direct eye contact with the camera, at this point she directly addressed the audience.

Amy- 0.23 She is now in the shower which symbolizes that she is trying to wash away her past of domestic abuse, she strokes her heard to resemble her emotional pain, this also reveals more of the bruise on her face. She then slowly looks back up to the camera and then reconnects with the audience with sadness and pain in her eyes after reflecting on her past. This applies to one of Goodwin’s 5 key aspects that make a music video successful… looking into camera.

0.27 We then see a gradual fade from a coloured image to a black and white image which symbolizes the audience looking back into Sophia’s past.

Indya-  0.28 We are then introduced to the male character Jason who is wearing a white dress shirt, opposing Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions since Jason was wearing a white shirt even though he is a cruel and abusive guy. This challenges the conventions of what represents a villain as a villain since in the world of media white normally represents purity and goodness. We positioned a lamp near Sophia so she appeared brighter juxtaposing the evilness of Jason symbolized by his side of the room being dark. Sophia is applying makeup with is a representation of the traditional woman trying to look good for her boyfriend. Both of them are on their phones which portrays the intertextuality of a modern relationship. Upon reflection we think this worked really well and showed that in the modern world although people use their phones to stay connected to people far away it may be tearing apart relationships closer to them.

Morgan- 0.32 The camera cuts to a high angle to show power and that Sophia is inferior to Jason. As he is male this angle reflects the representation of a male dominated society. The audience is now seeing through Sophia’s point of view as it is her memory since it is at a high angle it’s showing her in a vulnerable state.

0.30 During the lyrics “No matter what I say or do” the couple is shown arguing which results in Sophia getting hit. This visually shows that no matter what she says or does she will get abused. This adheres to another one of Goodwin’s music video conventions as he states that music video’s must link lyrics to visuals.

Amy- 0.35 The camera pans up as Jason grabs Sophia’s arm, his abrupt movement suggests his control of not only Sophia but of the camera itself.

0.37 There is a fade into the next shot as well as another high angle this time of Sophia showing her vulnerability and how she has lost all power. The way she is holding her face gives the suggestion that she has been hit and is shocked with the use of a highly dramatic reaction shot. She is centre frame again and she looks directly into camera to reconnect to the audience as a cry for help. During this scene we adhered to Propp’s theory as Jason is seen as the villain for abusing Sophia and Sophia is seen as the Villain. By allocating the actors certain roles and beheviors it makes it easier for the audience to distinguish between good and bad. For example the action of Jason hitting the singer instantly tells the audience that he is the villain.

Indya- 0.41 It then fades back to the present narrative, returning to the shower. When she sings “keep me without chains” Sophia looks down at her bruise and it reveals a clearer view of the bruise on her cheek.

0.59 As she sings the lyrics “to drown in your love and not feel your reign” we made this shot intentionally longer in order to relate the lyrics to the mise-en-scene of the shower, following Goodwins idea which matches the lyrics to visuals at the word “drown”.

Morgan- 1.05 We challenged music video conventions by using a cross dissolve into the next day shown through a change to natural lighting, and a new location is introduced. When choosing the location of this shot we wanted to use a red door because we thought it could symbolize the love and passion that was once there which she is now walking through and leaving behind.

Amy- 1.09 Adhering to conventions, the lyrics match visuals when Sophia sings “set me free, leave me be”. Sophia is seen walking out of the house as though being set free from her past.

1.14 We used continuity editing here showing her from a side angle and then changing to a front angle. We were very impressed that we go this to work as it took a lot of editing on Final Cut Pro. She walks away staring at the ground trying to compose herself while holding in her emotions.

Indya- 1.16 We used over cranking in this scene to adhere to conventions of a dramatic narrative, however this technique challenges the genre conventions of an indie/pop music video but works particularly well at showing her loss of hope and sadness as she walks away with her head down.

1.19 We use a cut here which is dramatic following into the next lines “here I am, and I stand, so tall” as she walks into camera. We used a long shot here because the location of the quiet forest helped us show Sophia’s solidarity and loneliness. This is the turning point in the song and it contrasts to the previous scene as she is now conventionally looking into camera and looks quite determined.

Morgan- 1.28 Here we cut the shot to the same shat but just zoomed in on her face. In our opinions this was a successful attempt at showing the seriousness in her face and by being so close to her it shows her gradual build up of power. We decided to do this on the line “supposed to be” because it shows a change of personality and emotion from the artist.

1.30 Another cut is used here and we see another black and white memory again. As we found out from our focus group they wanted to see some positive connotations of the male lead. This is why we showed a happy memory. Allan Cameron can be applied here through his idea of anachronic narrative, which in this case is shown as flashbacks. We also zoomed closer into the shot when Sophia started laughing to show that the couple were happy together at one point and their relationship wasn’t always that bad. This gives the audience another view of the situation and leaves them wondering what made Jason into the controlling, manipulative boyfriend he is in the present narrative.

1.38 A fade is used in the next shot which then zooms out using Ken Burns which not only reveals more of the mise-en-scene but also more of the star which draws the audience back to her facial expressions. This was also successful in showing that she was reminiscing due to her slight smirk.

Amy- 1.50 The next shot cuts to another memory. It’s a high angle shot to show the positioning and to represent them as a couple being in bed together. Jason is shown as being immersed in his phone again which we used to show how controlling technology is in a modern society. The audience is originally given the impression that this is happy memory until later it is revealed that through the use of over cranking that he is being abusive again. At the lyric “all my fragile strength is gone” she throws him off of her showing that she is actually standing up for herself, which is the only time this is shown in the music video. Jason is then seen falling to the pillow after letting Sophia go. He looks angry but he doesn’t care enough to go after her.

Morgan- 2.02 This scene continues from the memory however this is the part in the narrative where she realizes her strength, we are showed her change by having it in colour however this is another memory. She looks at her bruises again showing the realization that she is done with the relationship as she looks up on the like “I don’t want to fall another moment into your gravity” as if she is speaking to herself as she is talking into the mirror.

Indya- 2.15 During this section of the narrative Sophia is taking a reflective walk in the forest debating whether or not she should leave her toxic relationship. Following this she leans against a tree left of frame. When she sings “so tall, just the way I’m supposed to be” it relates to the trees, being so tall and strong.  During selection and rejection we chose this shot in particular because of the way the wind blows through her hair giving her a naturally powerful look. Upon reflection, having Sophia in this location highlighted the fact that although she is alone and in a quiet forest she is still gaining the strength to break up with Jason.

Morgan- 2.16 Ken Burns successfully enabled us to meet a key convention of a music video for a new artist- the camera zooms steadily into a close up enabling the audience to connect with Sophia as an artist and a person.

2.32 We fade to another shot during the long note to a new location. We thought this location was a prime location due to the large amounts of natural light although looking like an indoor setting. Here it is a short shot giving the audience a glance of present time, so it is clear that this is where the narrative is continuing from.

Amy- 2.36 The song now gets more intense which is show through the lyrics and speed of the song. We thought it would make a big impact if we added a new location at the climax of the song. At “everything I think I need” she looks at the graffiti of the couple’s names. “Here on the ground” when she is sat on the ground with the couples names on the wall above her and behind her symbolizing that it had a big impact on her life and was now in the past.

2.47 It then cuts back to the location where she is observing the photo of her and Jason with an over he shoulder shot. The lyrics “” you’re neither friend or foe’ relating to Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions, as shown by the picture being torn in half. This also shows her frustration as she is alone and rips up her photo, her actions contrast to the lyrics since although she sings, “can’t seem to let you go” and lets go of the picture, she still can’t let him go emotionally.

Indya- 2.52 The camera then cuts back to the previous location where we used Ken Burns to zoom out and capture the broken and vandalized wall behind her. Conventionally, she is centre frame again in the middle of a derelict wall which is a representation of how she is feeling in the relationship with Jason and how it has been ruined by his cruel and destructive behaviour.

Morgan- 3.10 This scene shows Sophia reflection upon when Jason abused Sophia and here it all started going wrong. Upon reflection I wish that we showed more of Jason’s side of the story and why he acted the way he did. This scene reinforced the importance of why Sophia needs to leave the relationship due to her reflecting on past memories of abuse. We broke the standard conventions of a music video  when we applied Cameron’s “forking path’s” theory here as this scene suggests that Sophia is undecided on what she should do with the relationship but could suggest that she is thinking more about leaving him.

Amy- 3.19 For this shot we used a close up, side angle shot of Sophia to capture the emotion in her face. We also wanted to capture the tear going down her face to represent the upset and struggle. This shows that we followed Barthes theory of signs and signifiers as the tear is used as a symbolic sign to represent sadness as this works in cohesion with her facial expression to tell the audience that she is obviously upset that she has to leave all of her positive memories behind.

3.30 This shot now fades into ken burns straight away as the shot was not very long compared to the other shots in this video as we wanted to show her looking on her phone as well as making the audience notice the expression on her face. We wanted her face to be the feature of this shot as this was the last shot of her in he video so we wanted it to be important and show her final emotion towards the outcome of the situation of her looking vulnerable and hurt.

Indya- 3.38 We then used a fade transition to move onto the next shot as we wanted to keep the audience focused onto her phone. We leave the phone in the centre of the frame for a few seconds to give the viewer time to read the text message and see why her emotion changed for the last shot. We used Facebook Messenger to represent a modern relationship as the final shot showed a screenshot of Jason’s Facebook relationship status showing him as being single, using intertextuality. If I were to change one thing about the music video it would be the clarity of this text. In my opinion the relationship status doesn’t stand out as much as we wanted it to so to fix this, next time we could use an extreme close up of the word “single”.

Morgan- 3.48 We manually zoomed the camera out to reveal the photo that had been torn in half earlier in the video either side of the phone with Jason and Sophia either side of it. This was another representation that technology has come between them and torn them apart in real life.

3.50 for the final shot in our video we use a fade transition so the shot changes to a helpline message for people who have been affected by domestic abuse or suspect it.  We thought that this would be a good idea to incorporate into the end of our music video as one of the actual music video’s we researched during the research phase had this. It is a convention of an informative/promotional music video to have text at the end to clearly tell the audience what they watched and how they can get more information.

Conventions of Ancillaries 

Architectural Drawing by morgan bullock