• In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. Evaluation
Question 1In What Ways do Your Media Products use,
Develop or Challenge Forms and
Conventions of Real Media Products?

2. Andrew Goodwin in his book
(Dancing in the distraction
factory, 1992) presented his
research of conventions and
classifications of music videos.
When applying this framework to
our music video, digipak, and
advert, there are clear
characteristics to be explored.
Andrew Goodwin

3. Our piece has amplifying lyrics, for example the line
“what happened to your band” relating to the
narrative of a band that has split up, the performance
of these lyrics and also the use of the written lyrics
later in the film.
Form

4. It also has amplifying music, the film cuts on
the beat throughout, especially later on with
the lines “Time moves slow, I ain’t seen you
on the TV lately”.

5. The video is primarily
performance based, with areas
of narrative as is conventional of
most music videos.
On the timeline red represents
performance, and yellow represents the
narrative and `behind the scenes` footage.
Structure

6. Another identifying feature is
the `notion of looking` shown
through the use of the
photographs and the camera
viewfinder at the end. The film
has voyeuristic treatment of
the lead singer to this extent,
focusing on the main
character, observing their
actions in private.
However it lacks the
stereotypical sexual focus on
the female body that is often
featured in music videos, such
as in `What do you Mean` by
Justin Bieber.
Music Video Conventions

7. As with many music videos we
used lots of close-ups, this
leads to parasocial intimacy
and easier empathy between
the audience and the lead
singer.

8. The video is postmodern in its style, the
narrative fuzz allowing for repeat viewing,
the use of slow-motion, and also the colour
grading are all stylised features that detract
from the realism.
Realism

9. Narrative is often featured in this genre to
some extent, ours is ambiguous, using
narrative fuzz to create potential for repeat
viewing.
The text is polysemic
meaning it has multiple
interpretations, for
example that the band
broke up but got back
together (preferred
reading), that they will
soon break apart, or
even that nobody is
interested in the band
(negotiated readings).
Narrative

10. back covers, and in the advert. The video has a strong performance aspect highlighting the artists, and
similar to many of McBusted’s music videos and others of the genre the fourth wall is broken towards the
end with the `behind the scenes` footage. This all helps build up presence in the eyes of the audience.
Our music video and digipak have some generic
features for the pop/rock genre featuring a male group
in the video, appearing on the front and
Album Art

11. However we have made the album
more of a product having six panes
and using more artistic macro images
of their instruments, the video also
lacks the common feature of a
romantic or fetishistic aspect since
there is no reference to love in the
pieces, unusual for the pop/rock
genre, however this was mainly due
to the song content.

12. The album art is conventional for the genre featuring the whole band on multiple panes
much like McBusted’s self-titled album, and its predecessor McFly’s album `Radio:
ACTIVE`. Although it has more real world images rather than clear sets or graphics.
McBusted
(Back Cover)
Radio: ACTIVE
(Front Cover)

13. Therefore we have created for the most part a conventional
pop/rock campaign, the heavy usage of the band performing.
Videos such as `Air Guitar` (McBusted) and `Someone New`
(Hozier) show similar focus on performance.
The advert’s focus is on the artists just as in Paolo Nutini’s
`Caustic love` advert, although the genre is slightly
different the principle is still the same, promoting the artist
as much as the album, although unlike this advert it lacks
any reviews.
Finally the digipak is fairly
conventional since as stated it
features the band, it also has
close-ups of instruments with
effects applied rather than
stereotypical graphics or
abstract images.
Someone New (Hozier)

14. Although they argue when
all together in one scene,
for the most part they are
all happy when around one
another especially towards
the end when the `behind
the scenes` footage is
shown. On the digipak and
advert the band are always
shown together, giving this
positive emphasis
Binary Oppositions
A binary opposition is
created between
loneliness and
friendship, the lead
singer is depressed
throughout the
narrative until he calls
his friends.

15. Evaluation
Question 1