EPILOGUE

As with all media productions, when creating my pop video ‘Assassin’, we considered form and content. Content is the message given across by the video in terms of meaning and brand. In our case the meaning was one of anti-capitalism and anti-government attitude and the brand image of the bad was rebellious, anti-authority big city guys. The form of the video is how we put this message across, with a performance and narrative. Media languages, specifically the five main technical areas of production: Camera, Sound, Mise en Scene, Editing and Special Effects, were vital in creating and supporting our preferred meaning in the following ways:

Camera is perhaps the main media language as it ultimately produces the images we see on the screen, and as Khuleshov states: 70% of the meaning comes from the pictures. The pop video was made up predominantly of close up shots, these emphasise the star quality of the band members, especially the lead singer, and create intimacy to bring the video to life as well as highlight key moments. These are intercut with master shots, or wide shots, used to close gaps and establish the band as a team who work together. We used the camera at different heights to convey status, for example, the wide shot of the band and the mid shot of the guitarist as bassist are both at very low angles to connote dominance and power. In contrast, almost all the SWAT team shots are at a high angle to inferiority in relation to the band and to illustrate the difficult path they have embarked on. We used extreme close up shots of the SWAT team moving aggressively toward the camera in order to make the audience feel intimidated by them and stir up a dislike for them. We also used a pan and tilt in the section before the SWAT team burst into the apartment; this makes the audience feel involved, within the action and intimate.

Editing and Mise en Scene are the two other main technical areas because it is in these stages that the real meaning is put into the video; Eisenstein’s theory of montage states that it is not the individual shots that create meaning but instead the way they are put together. We subverted a major convention of pop videos by editing with continuity. We did this to establish as clear connection between the narrative and performance which intertwine at the end of the video. We cut to the beat at a very fast pace to increase the intensity of the video and match the urgency in the lyrics of the song. We used a blue screen (and after effects in the execution scene) in our video which added to the realism of the action. In terms of Mise en Scene, we used composition rules to get across a meaning. We used the rule of thirds in the shot where the SWAT team kill someone. We placed them on the second hot spot because, although we wanted the audience to see it quickly, we didn’t want them to feel too assaulted by it. We also utilised the x/y axis rule, the SWAT always moved from the right of the frame to the left, connoting them as the ‘bad guys’. In contrast to this the lead singer was always positioned dead centre or slightly to the left in all the static shots of the band. This made him come across as good and trustworthy. As far as costume is concerned, the SWAT team’s outfit cold have been much better. They should have been wearing standard issue black riot gear with Kevlar vests etc. also, they should have generally just been bigger and older. With respect to the setting, our blue screened city backdrop, which was loosely based on the opening shot of ‘Blade Runner’, was borderline realistic. This, however, added to the effect of creating a corrupt, unjust, warped view of the world. It wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if we’d used a real background.

Across all five technical areas, we looked at the final production and could evaluate. In terms of hold the audience, we succeeded in creating an interesting, energetic, pacing video which easy holds the audiences attention. In terms of getting our meaning across, Stuart Hall talks about an Encoding/ Decoding model, where a producing organisation makes a video with the intention of conveying a preferred meaning. The audience has three possible reactions: they can accept the preferred meaning; they can accept a negotiated meaning where they understand certain aspects of the video but not all; finally they can have an oppositional interpretation where the intended message does not come across at all. In this respect, we were not particularly successful as most of our audience took a negotiated meaning. They understood the core values of the video, of rebellion and anti-authoritarian attitude, but there were certain aspects of the narrative that confused them and they did not fully understand the connection between the SWAT team and the band.