Media, A2
Evaluation
The common convention of Indie/alternate narrative is either a narrative that doesn't make much sense, or it is very somber and follows sad or dark themes. Our narrative, while challenging narrative theory, it somewhat still fit the theory. For example, our narrative follows a dark theme with a sad ending. Our inspiration for our narrative was mainly taken from bands such as Coldplay and heir song "The Scientist". I liked the idea of telling a story in a mixed order - therefore leading the viewer to continue watching. This is why we left our reveal to the end of the video - so we would be able to have plenty of enigma codes running through the whole video. By using this theory, our video does conform to what is expected from a narrative. Our narrative has some select bits of the narrative theory. For example, our video has a equilibrium - the point at which all is well and we see the happy relationship between the characters, a disruption is introduced through the form of the lion becoming more withdrawn, and finally we end on a conflict where the bear gets angry and abusive. These may not appear in chronological order, but it still has the generic steps of Todorov's narrative theory. We also use Propp's theory of character types. For example, we have a Victim, a false Hero and, from the eyes of the bear character, a villain who disrupted his relationship. By having these characters combined with the narrative, our video has a smooth story to it.
Conventions Used: Video
Colour
Narrative
Mise En
Scene
One of our biggest and most obvious conventions that we followed is the Alternative/indie's use of unusual things to symbolise, portray or just for show. In our video, we decided to use Animal heads for symbolism, as well as keeping to this convention. This was inspired by yet again Coldplay and their song "Paradise". We instantly fell in love with the idea of using animal masks with human like features as this is something that is different from the ideas that our other class mates had. We also wanted to leave people wondering why our characters were the only people with masks in a world full of "normal" people (Reality vs fantasy). This creates a sense of mystery and engages the viewer. My favourite thing about this enigma code is the fact that it is never answered. This leaves the end product open to interpretation, and could party be labelled as a hermeneutic enigma code. It also allows the audience to explore and read into things e.g the symbolism of the masks.
Throughout our video (our performance sections) we use plenty of colours and "psychedelic" effects. This was inspired by the alternative genre as it is somewhat abstract. By using these colours, our performance became so much more interesting and fun to watch. It brought the setting used for the performance to life and made it more interesting to watch as the moving shapes and colours are some sort mesmerising and really catch the eye. However, we still wanted to reflect our indie genre too, so we tried using bleak surroundings with hints of colour. For example, the bear's prison suit stands out against the dull prison. This creates the contrast of Colour Vs Dull, which ends up complimenting the surrounding/setting of the video. Through out the video, we try to use colour as psychological symbolism - for example, different colours trigger different emotional responses. In our video we used red in our Lion's costume to foreshadow danger, we used a orange outfit in the prison scenes to convey fiery aggression.
Ancillary Tasks:
Scratches:
In my poster and my digipak, I use a lot of scratch like effects in order to add to the distorted look. By adding scratches, the whole poster looks older and dirtier. This is a common convention as indie comes across as slightly "damaged" as it usually follows the themes of the artist being hurt or damaged for an event that is shown in the video.
Other conventions:
In my digipak, I used plenty of conventions. I used conventions from what is expected of a digipak, and conventions of what is expected from the indie/alternative genre. For conventions that is expected of a digipak, I used the expected size, bar codes and institutional information. This is so the digipak represent the artist and can legally be purchased (no illegal downloads e.c.t) For conventions of my genre, I've used slightly dull colours on the front and back covers, then bright colours with abstract overlays on the inside of the digipak. This appeals to the abstract side of my genre as the abstract layers are decorative and slightly change th look of the original photo.
