This document analyzes how the author's media portfolio tasks for a music video and two ancillary pieces support and challenge conventions of the ska-pop genre. The music video aimed to use vibrant colors, smart costumes, bright lighting, and quick cuts like real ska-pop videos. However, some shots had dull lighting and one scene lasted 7 seconds, challenging conventions. Ancillary tasks also aimed to portray a fun image through bright colors and lighting, supporting genre conventions. The school location both supported and challenged location conventions of ska-pop videos.

1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or
challenge former terms and
conventions of real media
products?

2. Portfolio task.
There were two tasks that we had to complete for this advanced portfolio, these are
a music video and two ancillary tasks that relate to the music video.
The purpose of this assignment is to analyse the portfolio tasks that we have created
and to compare them to real media products to look at whether they have supported
or challenged the conventions of the genre. The genre that our video comes under is
ska-pop.

3. Colour - Video.
The Madness ‘Baggy Trousers’ video
is rather colourful, I believe that it
was held back by the technology of
its time. Given that the video was
created in 1980 the camera quality is
not very good compared to the
camera we had available which
means we could do more with the
colour.
In our music video I applied a colour
correction which made the colours
more vibrant, I feel that this helped
to represent the genre because if
the video was full of dull colours
throughout it would not suit the
genre because the genre is
supposed to be fun as appose to
mundane .

4. Colour – Ancillary tasks.
We decided to keep the same idea of using bright colours for both of the ancillary tasks. I
feel that Having a black background for the digipak and magazine advert is good because it
helps to emphasise the colours that are in use. Also I applied a colour correction to some of
the pictures such as the lockers are brighter because I put a colour correction on that
emphasises yellow to make the picture seem more vibrant and attractive to people that
look at the digpak and advert.

5. Costume - Video.
The costume for our video was simple to decide. We decided to support the
conventions of the genre and to follow the general costume that Madness
The costume in the ‘Madness – Baggy
Trousers’ video has them all dressed very
smart.
We decided to imitate the type of costume
that Madness wore during their video.
Generally, for the ska pop genre the costume is very smart looking and we decided to
support the conventions of the genre by following the same type of costume for our video.

6. Costume – Ancillary tasks.
For the ska pop genre the album covers are generally quite relaxed and
informal looking, we decided again to support the conventions of the genre
when creating our album cover because we feel that having a relaxed and
laid back look for the album cover helps to support the conventions.

7. Lighting - Good.
The lighting in the majority of ska pop videos is very bright and vibrant, we tried to
recreate this in our music video because we felt that having bright colours will
emphasise the fact that the video is supposed to be fun as appose to being dull.
Screenshot from ‘Blur – Park Life’ Screenshot from our music video.

8. Lighting - Bad.
There were certain points in our video where the lighting could come across as bad,
this was unintentional however. Given at some points the lighting may come across
as being too dark or too dull this would challenge the conventions of the genre
because it is expected that videos of the ska pop genre are bright and colourful to
reflect the fun nature of the genre.
A point in our music
video where the
lighting could be
considered to be too
dark.

9. Lighting – Ancillary Tasks.
We made sure to keep the
lighting for the ancillary tasks
very bright and colourful to
ensure that the right image
comes across. The image that
we were trying to get across
with the ancillary tasks is that
we are a band who like to
have fun and do not take
ourselves too
seriously, having pictures with
dull lighting and colour is not
that way to do this so I
applied a colour correction to
the pictures to make the
colours stand out more and
look more vibrant because I
feel that brighter colours help
to get across the image that
we want to portray.
Magzine advert.
Pages 3&4 from the digipak.

10. Shot Types - Support.
In the ska pop genre there is often a good mixture of close up shots and groups shots
which allows for the main singer to be seen singing/dancing and then for the whole
band to be seen having a good time and messing around. In our music video the
majority of the shot types are group shots to show that we are all having a good time,
we have supported the conventions of the genre with this aspect of the shot types in
our music video.
Group shots from
our music video.
Group shots from
other music videos.

11. Editing - Support.
In the majority of ska pop videos the are edited using quick cuts with no transitions,
we have supported the conventions of the genre by having the music video only
include cuts from scene to scene and there are no transitions throughout the video.
The pace of the cuts is also important because we have made sure that the cuts
remain quick where possible to support the conventions of the genre.

12. Editing - Challenge.
This scene lasts for around 7 seconds.
There are some points in the video where the editing could be considered to
challenge the conventions of the genre. For example, in the majority of ska pop music
videos the cuts are very quick with most shots lasting for a maximum of 3-4 seconds.
An example of where we have challenged this convention is in the picture below
where the clip lasts for 7 seconds. It is not too much longer than expected but it is still
a longer shot than normally seen in ska pop music videos.
Scenes in this video last up to 3 seconds.

13. Narrative.
Looking at Andrew Goodwin’s theory that “Narrative is simply an extension of the
lyrics.” we have agreed with this theory and decided to support it because where
possible in our video we have used the narrative to extend the lyrics, an example of
where we have done this in our video is when the lyrics are “The lunchtime bell will
ring again” the video cuts to a shot of a school bell. Also, when the lyrics are “Back of
the head with a plastic cup” the scene is one of the people in the video getting hit
round the back of the head. There are points where we have challenged Goodwin’s
theory in the fact that we have decided not to put in scenes that do exactly what the
lyrics say.
“Back of the head with a plastic cup”“The lunchtime bell will ring again”

14. Location.
The convention for location in the majority of ska pop music videos would be
suburban, the Madness – Baggy Trousers video is set in a school and we have
imitated that with our video. I do not think that a school is a ‘typical’ location for a
ska pop music video however it is what was used in the Madness video so in a way
we have supported the convention and in a way we have challenged the convention.
The location used for our music video.
The location used by Madness.