K.H. - Question 1: Forms and Conventions

Our brief was to create a music video, digipak and magazine advert as part of a promotional campaign for a music artist.

1. Forms and Conventions

• The campaign conforms to the conventions of the electro-swing genre through visual motifs associated with the 1920s period setting, particularly the use of costume such as the feather boa and flapper dress that the star wears in the digipak and the props of the pearls.
• These period appropriate visual signifiers are clearly present in the video to Alice Francis' St. James Ballroom (2013), where the side characters wear black boas, and the black suspenders and ties the the male and female performers wear.
• The colour scheme of the campaign also feeds into the period and the more glamorous elements of the genre, as we primarily used reds, yellows and blacks.

• Using Goodwin's critical framework it is evident that our presentation of Emerald is quite conventional of the presentation of female stars in the electro-swing genre. The notion of looking is present and the fourth wall is broken at times by the protagonist looking down the lens of the camera, which is very typical of electro-swing as a genre as it relies on the attractive nature of some of the stars to build para-social intimacy and further commodify them.
• However, within the conventions of electro-swing these shots are often multi-purpose and also act as part of the narrative. As is evident from the clip of Emerald's Tangled Up (Videodrome, 2013) Emerald breaks the fourth wall by looking down the camera lens during her performance in the ballroom but this shot pans away to the other characters that hold precedence in the video, and in our video the protagonist subtly foreshadows what she is planning at the end of the video through facial expressions and sly gestures to the band.

Challenging conventions of the genre

• The conventions of electro-swing music videos are challenged in the use of side characters, such as Harry's character who gets bitten during the action line in the night before, and re-appears in the action line for the morning after,  where he is seen wearing the prop of the bandage.

• Additional characters are typically kept to a minimum in music videos that are designed to promote a single star as they detract from the focus on them, but we were careful to maintain Emerald's star status and her place as the focus of the video by limiting the screen time these characters received by rarely placing them alone in the frame, which is very conventional of electro-swing music videos as the star is generally is given prevalence by the editing.
• The use of more gothic motifs in our digipak also challenges the conventions of an electro-swing digipak. The panel which is a close-up of Eleanor's mouth uses teeth and blood prosthetics to create a more gory aesthetic, but to stop the image feeling too dark and tonally conflicted with the rest of the digipak, we applied curves in Photoshop that kept the colours saturated so that it still had a partly glamorous look to it and was fitting of the colour scheme in how it emphasised reds. As such it can be considered more of a twist on the genre conventions, rather than a total subversion or re-invention of them.

Use of Form

The form of a music video is particularly apparent in our video's fast cutting rate, the majority of our shots only last for 2 seconds, and we cut after every two lines. Additionally, we increase the cutting rate and cut between between different lines of action during the chorus to give it a stronger sense of pace, which is obviously conventional of the form as it gives the chorus a greater sense of importance.

Meat shots take priority during the performance line of action, which is highly conventional in presenting female stars in music videos as it is a way for the audience to more intimately view a star and build para-social intimacy, regardless of genre.

Narrative

• Our non-linear narrative is a key part of the video's form, which is split into three lines of action, one set during the night where the protagonist excessively drinks blood, one in the morning in which she is recovering and has to rush to get ready for her performance later in the day, and one set during the performance.
• We inter-cut between these lines of action to create narrative fuzz, which is highly conventional of the form of music videos, as it encourages repeatability. The narrative is structured between three lines of action, and while we cut between all three in the early part of the video, the closure to each is delivered through the last portion of the line of action playing out by each scene of it being placed consecutively in order.
• The protagonist's arc through each is evident through the use of misé-en-scene. During the line of action for the night before, her preparedness is shown through the use of costume as she wears a black robe with a hood to conceal her identity and help her blend in, and the point where she breaks and starts to drink excessively is shown by her facial expression which connotes that she knowingly gives in to her urges. The morning after shows the direct result of her actions where she is essentially hungover, and very worse-for-wear, which is symbolised by the iconic sign of the clock that shows she wakes up at one o'clock in the afternoon, and connotes she is late and unprepared. Her change in mind-set across the performance line of action may only be evident on repeat viewings, as the subtle details that demonstrate how the protagonist comes round to the idea of attacking the audience may not be immediately obvious, such as her singing the line "They think that it's a party to laugh at all my grief" to the band.

Post-modernism

• The video is postmodern in its form and style and uses a number of techniques that detract from the realism of the product, for example the stylised text that looks like blood shows an awareness of genre and the fact that it is integrated into the frame by placing them in empty space and animating them around the other text and parts of the location. This uses the text in a way that is more obvious than traditional text integration and acknowledges the medium in a way that makes it post-modern.

The meaning of the text

The meaning of the video can be considered polysemic in regards to the protagonist's morality.

• She could be considered corrupt as she attacks without impunity and relentlessly, even trivialising her actions through NVC with her sly and playful facial expression before she bites the female character. In fact, in the end, she decides to impulsively give into her hunger for blood at the end of the video.
• However, she could be interpreted more sympathetically. Aside from the fact she does not actually kill any of the people she bites, she also pays them for their trouble using the prop of the dollars, which could be seen to connote that she feels guilty for her actions. Indeed she does suffer for her actions as shown by the hangover. By extension she could be seen as being punished for her natural urges, and is at least reluctant to embrace them.

Audience readings

• The preferred audience reading is that Emerald's actions as a vampire are darkly stylish and she is a dominant and respectable figure.
• Her suffering for her natural urges gives her an undercurrent of vulnerability that only makes her more sympathetic and builds para-social intimacy.
• These preferred reading could be aided by the conventions of more recent vampire cinema which strips away some of the more gothic, antagonistic elements that took precedent in more traditional horror representations of vampires such as in  Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922). In its place we drew more from the popular mystical, sympathetic and dramatic depictions such as in the Twilight franchise (2009-2012) which supports our production, as we suggest Eleanor has mystical powers by editing her behind Freya, and another line of action partly dedicated to how much the protagonist suffers for her actions. Our video even conforms to comedic, satirical depictions of vampires such as What We Do in the Shadows (Clement/Waititi, 2014) through the use of slapstick comedy, as shown when the protagonist falls off the bed and clumsily runs away from Harry in the field.

• An oppositional reading could be that she is actually a horror antagonist, who deserves to suffer for her actions. She could be seen as characterised by her intimidating demeanour, and aggressive in how she leads the group of vampires in the attack. 

Binaries

Binary oppositions are set up between the protagonist and those she bites, or more specifically vampires and non-vampires as our protagonist attacks normal people, and the band are planning to attack their audience members. The protagonist's power is shown on a narrative level through her skill in hounding those she plans to attack and through technical codes such as prosthetics that serve as obvious visual signifiers through the use of red that connote danger and dominance like the blood and fangs, which frame Emerald as something literally more than human.

Semiotics

Using semiotics to deconstruct the digipak, it is clear meaning is created through visual signifiers such as Emerald's pearls and expensive jewellery such as her rings, which connotes that she is successful and upper-class, both of which can be seen as star qualities. There is a paradigmatic relationship between the fangs and blood on one panel and the symbolic sign of the title, “The Shocking Miss Emerald”, the fangs and blood obviously connoting danger that feeds into the shocking nature of Emerald's character.

Presenting a more vulnerable side to the star in the video is achieved through the use of indexical signs to show how worse for wear she becomes after drinking so much blood. For example in make-up such as her messy hair, and the camera tracking her as it tilts from a Dutch angle that leans to the left and then the right, and her sleeping in her bath tub which connotes weakness and a lack of self-control.

Representation

There is a discourse on gender evident in the all three texts we produced. In each Emerald is framed as a “femme fatale” figure right down to the iconic costume and make-up she wears particularly the intense red or black dress and lipstick. A feminist interpretation of the texts would reflect well on the representation of her character:

• She is empowered, as shown by her leading the group of vampires in the band in the attack and her being the first to bite, and in the print advert where she is the only person in focus, and the band are behind the text in the background

• The sex-positive feminist interpretation would be unlikely to criticise the way she dresses, while her costume is in some ways sexually provocative as she wears a bright red low-cut dress, she is not actively sexualised by the any of the three texts, which goes against the concept of the male gaze in regards to the character's body
• The male gaze is not entirely subverted in regards to character's face as the meat shots in the video, 2 panels in the digipak, and the focus of the print advert all rely on the attractive facial appearance of the character, and force the audience to partake in the male gaze in a sense
• For example the meat shot below does not show the character's body at all and firmly places the focus on her face, but it still relies on her appearance in doing this

In terms of discourse on sexuality the video does not abide by typical hetro-normative discourse as Emerald bites both male and female character (a negotiated reading could see biting as a sexual act) and this sense the video can be considered to reinforce emergent ideology. However it cannot be considered ideologically destabilising as the female character is bitten off screen.

Star quality

Emerald is closely associated with the band, particularly them waiting expectantly for her, as shown by intercutting her running to get to the performance, with the band setting up and looking uneasily at the unattended microphone. Emerald is therefore imbued with the myth and star quality of talent as she is presented as being vital to the performance, and the high number of people in the audience expecting to see her suggests that she is popular because of this talent.