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

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

1. Similar to many other music videos in this genre of dance-pop music, the video starts by introducing the artist and song name. From looking at a top 100 dance music videos of week website, it seems that most dance videos have a very varied and bright colour palette. I have chosen not to follow this theme and have stuck to a more muted colour palette of black and gold, in concordance with the title of the song.

2. This shot establishes the two main performers in an intimate way. A common theme in dance videos is that the dancing is often very sexual and bordering on vulgar. This dance however, contrasts with this as it is more styled around ballroom dance.

3. This shot and the entire section set in black and white take inspiration from Madonna's vogue dancing. The quick movements and emphasis on hands and arms as well as the black and white colour filter really link the two music videos. 

4. The use of light behind Niya adds a mysterious and edgy effect that creates shadows and looks like a golden profile of his face. This mimics the sultry and shady look of singers in dark clubs etc. 

5. As well as the previous style with the singer, there are also the shots where the singer's face is more visible, getting them the publicity and 'face-time' they need to sell their image.

6. Music videos often hold a new section/scene for later on in the video to keep the audience hooked. I have chosen to put in three sections of written lyrics to add something new about half way through the music video. 

7. I chose this shot as an example of the way I put an emphasis on editing to the beat. In this shot, the movement of her eyes is in time with the beat.

8. Another feature that I saved for later was when two of the sections, the black and gold dancers and the black and white dancer, merged together into the same scene. As well as what I mentioned before about how music videos often do this, it is also a feature of this genre to mix scenes and change the set up during the video. 

9. Few music videos in the genre of dance-pop contain a storyline but I felt that one was necessary to relay the relationships of the dancers and also create a visual that went with the lyrics, The story really comes into play at the end of the video, making the audience think back through the rest of the song for other moments that expressed the bitter-sweet nature of the song.

7. Ancillary Task 7- Digipak Flat Plan

26. Filming

Here are some pictures I took during the filming process. I now have all my footage.

25. Props and Costumes

I have collected costuming for most of my crew already. For Niya, I have chosen for him to wear a suit and black fedora hat. He will also be using a retro style microphone.

For the dream dancers, they will be wearing black leggings with black leotards and pin stripe waistcoats. They will have bear feet, their hair will be pulled back in a tight bun at the napes of their necks and they too will wear fedora hats. I also want to have them in contrasting black and white make-up. I have selected some examples that I will use as a guide.

And last but not least the costumes for Aaron and Kelly. Kelly is wearing a gold fringe dress and gold dance shoes. Aaron is wearing black trousers and a black shirt, smart and classy but simple too.

I chose a mostly black costume for the majority of the dancers etc because, apart from the Black and Gold section, the rest will be in black and white. Therefore, I needed costumes that would exaggerate this and produce bold and contrasting images. It also makes the gold seem more magical and brighter too.

19. Story Plan

I listened to the lyrics of the song to determine their different potential meanings. I discovered a lot of the words linked back to evolution but the I have chosen to follow the dream-like element of the song. In particular reference to the lines 'if you're not really here, then I don't wanna be either. I wanna be next to you'. I am going to tell the story of two opposites using a pair of dancers. The girl will be 'Gold' and the boy will be 'Black' and they will tell their story through their dance. It will be a representation of the theme 'opposites attract' with the dance showing their attraction and how they long to be together but they keep being split. It will show their struggle to stay together while also cross-cutting with another group of dancers, this time a group of four girls. They will be dressed in monochrome colours but have abstract face make-up as they are supposed to have a surreal and dreamlike quality. Their dance is going to be more contemporary with a main focus on their hands and twisting their bodies to look 'whispish' and fluid. Towards the end of the song, the two groups of dancers will merge with the group of four girls travelling to the edge of their original set and then cutting to them appearing on the dancing pair's set, as if they have travelled through. They will then proceed to split the two dancers up, with two girls taking 'Black' to one side and the other two girls taking 'Gold' to the other side, their arms reaching out to each other. The final image will be a split screen of their eyes opening. During the video, there will be a third scene with a boy lip syncing into an old fashioned free-standing microphone. There will be a profile spotting him but this scene and the scene with the four girls will be in black and white. This is to make the scene with the dancing pair that much more alluring and dreamy.

10. Textual Analysis of Vogue By Madonna

The music video for Madonna’s song Vogue was directed by David flincher in 1990 and was shot entirely in black and white. To accommodate this, the dancers and Madonna wear monochrome clothing, especially black and white so that the colours are bolder and contrast each other more. Similarly, the majority of shots are taken in front of a black backdrop with low and soft lighting.

The main focus of the video is on the dancers and Madonna although there is also a maid and a butler cleaning a grand house, giving the impression of luxury. This idea of grandeur is strengthened through the costume style, with the mean wearing sharp suits and Madonna wearing fancy and stylish dresses and a suit too. Madonna is the main focus and she is a sexualised woman, wearing clothes like the iconic sheer lace blouse and cone bra. The dancers are all male and their dancing puts particular emphasis on their hands. This is known as voguing and is a style of dance that ‘is a highly stylized, modern house dance that evolved out of the Harlem ballroom scene in the 1980s and was invented by gay black and Latino Americans’. Madonna came across this dance and felt that it needed mainstream exposure and from that decision, ‘Vogue’ was born. Voguing takes the model’s poses from the magazine Vogue and puts them into this stylised dance as shown in the first scene of the music video where the male dancers strike poses in time with the beat of the song. This theme runs through the whole video, along with artwork and statues that put emphasis on holding rigid poses. During the song, Madonna is lip synching while she dances and while she walks and poses around different sets. There are about five different locations in the video but the watcher gets the impression that they are all in a grand house, furthering the idea of luxury. Madonna’s style changes throughout the video too, as she does impressions and mentions different celebrities (eg. Marilyn Monroe)

The opening cross-cuts between the men voguing and a shot of Madonna from the back dancing sultrily in a glamourous and bejewelled dress using a cross-fading effect. The shots of Madonna are stationary but the shot of the men is following along the line in a tracking arc shot. The editing varies between fast and slow edits, often being edited to the beat in a way that draws attention to the beat of the song. Towards the end of the music video, there is a shot of a man dancing that has a fast fade in/out to give the impression of strobe lighting and this may also have jump cuts.

The cinematography puts a lot of focus on the hand poses and Madonna’s face as she lip-syncs. To keep the shots dynamic and interesting, the camera zooms slowly and there is a variety of close ups and mid shots as well as different camera angles between shots. 

9. Sophie Muller

7. Things To Consider- Black and White vs. Colour

Because the song itself references the colour gold, I feel that colour is a necessary thing to include however, the rest of the video will stick to monochrome colours. I think this will make it look jazzy and classy. Therefore, a black background/black, white and gold costumes etc. Colour is good in music videos with continuity, eg. Meghan Trainer's video for All About That Bass and the use of pastel colours (ie. baby blue, pastel pink, soft yellow etc.)