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Evaluation Question 1
Whilst the use of a linear narrative was previously much more of a convention than other structures of narrative, we now more commonly see non-linear narratives in media, with inspiration from films such as Rashamon (which we ourselves were influenced by) and a need for more originality in a time where unused storylines are few and far between. We used the non-linear structure to give more depth to our characters and plot as, by allowing us to skip to different periods of time in their story, we were able to cover all aspects we wanted to cover within the timeframe of the song. We were also able to fit the different elements of the narrative to the different sections of the song.
Dystopias are defined as futuristic, imagined universes in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. We decided to develop on the conventions of the dystopian genre by taking the commonly broken down and advanced nature of dystopian societies and conveying it literally in the glitches we used. The glitches get increasingly noticeable as the story deteriorates, acting demonstratively of their degenerating situation. They provide a building of tension and make the pauses in such much more poignant and impactful. This develops on the dystopian convention of the general population being powerless against whatever the oppressing force may be, as it highlights a time in our characters' lives that shows them as being quite innocent and naïve, therefore implying their vulnerability.
A convention of media we challenged in our music video was that of gender stereotypes, and we did so through our casting and characterisation. It is all too common in media for there to be a gender divide whereby men play the stronger and higher status characters, whereas women play the less influential or independent characters. We decided very early on we wanted to challenge this. We decided there should be three characters: a leader, an intelligent character, and a strong willed character. We wanted the intelligent character to be a male role, as we wanted to construct a character valued for something other than hierarchy, which greatly influenced our casting of Charlie as we wanted to demonstrate that having physical strength does not correlate with lacking a multi-faceted personality, an unrealistic character type that we unfortunately see regularly in the media. We then wanted the leader and strong willed characters to be female roles as we wanted to show women in a position of power, and have the roles so well adopted it would be unquestioned and unthought of.
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