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

2. Over the last few months for Media A2 we produced a
music video, digipack and advert. We linked all of them
together with the theme “multiple personality”. This is the
name of the album, and also is related to the video Make
Me Smile. They suit the genre and a similar to other
music videos, however they also challenge certain
conventions.
Media theorist Andrew Goodwin suggest “music videos are
simply an extension of the lyrics” and we have used the
narrative to match the lyrics. However the performance
element is not an extension of the lyrics, and is used for
humour and to match the conventions of the genre.
The two characters, performer and spoof character, are
played by the same person however by using costumes
and split screens we effectively shown that they are not
the same character. This is why we called the album
multiple personality.

3. The original video for this song was a performance by the
band in the studio, similar to a top of the pops video.
Because of this we had to look at other video’s in the
pop rock genre.
Instead of a solely performance heavy video we added in
narrative. The song itself, Make Me Smile (come up and
see me) is mistakenly known as a happy upbeat song,
but the lyrics are about somebody leaving. Because of
this we kept to the lyrics but combined humour so it
matched the tune.
We looked at a lot of video’s which use humour, and
decided spoofing famous video’s would be the most
effective. This is because it makes people more
interested in the video, as they know the original.
However we did use an original idea for the narrative
part.

4. We challenged conventions by using the same
person doing both narrative and performance,
but putting them in the same scene. In other
comedic music video’s they keep the two roles
apart, however we felt by combining the two it
would show that they aren’t related. Otherwise
people may think the narrative character is
happy that the bear has gone. I believe it works
very well for our video.
Because we were spoofing famous video’s,
Amarillo, Here It Goes Again and Bohemian
Rhapsody we had to stay very similar to the
conventions of them.

5. Costumes
I tried to get as similar costume as
possible. As you can see in the
OK Go video, they wear ties,
waistcoats and bright colour
clothing. I wore a blue sparkly
tie, flowery waistcoat and a
white shirt.
In the bohemian rhapsody spoof I
wore a black shirt, this is so only
my face way shown.
In the amarillo spoof I wore a
similar suit, however a black suit
because I couldn’t get a purple
one.
I believe the costumes play a vital
part in making a connection
between the spoof and the
original video, however this was
part of a group of reasons.

6. For the narrative I
wore the Bristol
Rovers shirt and
scarf and
Paddington wore an
Arsenal scarf. The
was to make a
connection between
the score on FIFA
and the players, it
showed Paddington
beat me by 28-0.
This was for
humour as it is just
a stuffed bear,
which you do not
see move.

7. Location
Similar to costumes, location
was also key. As you can see
in the OK Go video, they are
on treadmills. We also placed
me on the school gym
treadmill.
In the narrative we used my
living room to give the scene
a homely real feel. Pictures
on the mantle piece normally
connote they are special and
have meaning. Living rooms
are normally the hub of home
life and are often used in
music videos if they want to
do a scene at home.

8. For the Amarillo spoof,
location was key. To match
the conventions of Kay’s
video we needed to have it
as similar as possible. We
copied the opening scene
with the door, and used
long corridors to have
people behind singing.

9. Shots
In Amarillo and Bohemian
Rhapsody the shots are mainly
the same throughout. Bohmian
rhapsody use’s a mid shot to
contain all the four members of
Queen, however I used a close
up then put the shot in 4 times,
cropping each picture.
Amarillo uses a lot of
long/midshots, however it does
use some close ups, like I did
too.

10. In OK Go’s Here it goes
again the camera is kept
the same and is
constantly in a long shot.
This is because the video
is mainly about the song
and dancing. For comedic
value I used various
shots, although it was
different to the original
video, it does suit the
conventions of other
comedic music videos.

11. Choreography
Similar to the shots, there wasn’t
much leeway to edit the
choreography of Here it goes
again. Both are very iconic. I
used similar choreography of the
ok go video, I researched what
was possible to do with the
resources, however again I had
to edit it for comedic value.

12. Props
Props were vital, I used things like the
fifa advert on the iPad and my frisbee
to connect the performance and
narrative and give the video a flow. I
very much stuck to conventions for
the narrative. I used a suitcase for
comedic value, however it is often
used to show someone is back for
good. I used tissues and chocolate to
show I was upset, it is what
stereotypical sad woman always use
in movies after a break up.

13. At the start of the video I use my
mobile to connote the story
that Paddington has gone
away. In many narrative music
videos they normally start off
without the music so viewers
understand what is happening
first.
I also use the picture on the
mantle piece at the start and
end of the video, this is too
show a full circle of the story.