Question 1: In what ways does your media product

use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

A large focus when creating my final product was researching existing music videos in order to gain an understanding of the different forms and conventions of different genres. Many conventions from existing music videos are considered within my media product, in terms of locations and camera techniques.

However, certain parts of my video would possibly challenge the common conventions of existing products, as I didn’t want it too predictable and stereotypical.

This would support Steve Neales genre theory, as he states that audiences are satisfied by products that are innovative and different. My media product relates to this theory in terms of having the repeated elements of the indie/pop genre, in terms of the clothing and makeup used. However, I have made it different and unique in terms of camera shots; as some shots would be an external view from the main protagonist and some point of view. The narrative is also different to common conventions, due to the themes about youth and fun being featured, but contrasting with the theme of sadness and regret.

When considering the narrative for our music video, we noticed how majority of existing products’ narratives would follow just one person, or a group of people. Therefore, we opened our music video by centring the narrative towards the main protagonist in the location of a bathtub. This automatically would explain to the audience that the narrative will be about this character, which is further explained in terms of point of view shots, as well as external camera shots of this protagonist, to explain her story.

The characters that were chosen were teenage girls, which we thought would be relevant in terms of looking into our target audience due to my market research consisting mainly of females aged 17-25. Also, with our music being within the pop/alternative genre, we found that female characters being represented would be a common convention for music videos of this genre.

We’ve attempted to punctuate different ideologies and conventions from the genres which our music video fits into within the narrative. Due to the artist of our video belonging to a wide genre, being alternative and indie, but also pop; we have inflicted many themes and events within the narrative of our video, which would be categorised into the idea of ‘rebellion’ as well as the themes of ‘depression’ and ‘regret.’ All of these themes are popular within these genres, with examples of the depressing side of pop music such as ‘Rihanna – Stay,’ or ‘Selena Gomez – The heart wants what it wants,’ along with more fun and rebellious themes within the genres such as ‘Miley Cyrus – Can’t Stop.’

Rebellious/Fun Pop Video:

Depressing/Sad Video:

We have successfully portrayed these themes and ideologies in terms of genre within props and narrative, such as using a bath tub with the idea of regret within the narrative which is explained with the editing techniques of ‘flashback’ scenes, using overlaying and fading into different clips, changing location and showing the theme of rebellion, youth and peer pressure within scenes inside a club, or in a shop in Manchester.

Our narrative structure is clear, but still fits into the alternative genre in the way in which we have edited it together. Due to the clips not being in chronological order, the audience is left engaged and captivating in the music video, as the narrative is explained in a unique but interesting way. Many features within the music video relate back to the song lyrics, with words such as ‘watch me drown,’ and the main setting being in a bath tub. This is common for a music video to link their narrative towards the lyrics.

Clothing which we have used tend to fit within the genre, with the second main character being in darker clothing, with darker hair and makeup, helps to establish the indie genre within the artist and the genre of video; along with the clothing of the main protagonist being of a similar style, however more colour is used in comparison to the darker clothing of the second character, representing the character’s personalities within the video.

Although the clothing represents more of the indie genre, we have represented the pop genre in terms of location and city shots, establishing settings being in Manchester, along with inside of concerts and clubs with point of view shots, showing the consumption of alcohol, which is featured within many pop music videos.