1. Question 1
In what way does your media product use, develop challenge form and conventions of
real media products?
Typically a music video consists of a character adapting a star persona in order to
either tell a story or sing the lyrics of the song. According to notes in ‘Dancing in the
distraction’, Andrew Goodwin, deconstructs the key components of a typical music
video identifying that a music video should include a relationship between lyrics and
visuals (telling the story of the song), a relationship between the music and the
visuals, the demands for star persona displayed in a variety of close ups and motifs, a
hint of voyeurism and exploring the female form and sexuality and intertextuality.
In regards to making our own music video, we have focused on the idea of voyeurism
whilst exploring and challenging the conventions of gender roles and sexuality.
(Fig.1 Stereotypical view of women in videos)
Rather then viewing a powerful and dominant male character in a music video
surrounded by a pool of scantily dressed women typically seen in hip-hop videos
(Fig.1), we have a powerful woman, using and embracing her sexuality and being the
more dominant force over the two sexes. This is achieved through the idea of
subservient men blindfolded and bound by the female (as if he is trapped(Fig.2)).
(Fig.2 oppressed male character)

2. As well as this, the idea of having two female characters embodied playing one entity,
we view a power struggle between the two characters, one the good and one the bad,
conforming to the idea of women having a caring and conscious nature. This however
challenges this idea by the sexual female character dominating and eventually
overthrowing the other. Throughout the video we witness a struggle of power between
the characters and their wills; one for lust and one for restraint (Fig.3). This centres
around a recurring game of chess and eliminating the queen. (Intertextuality
represented – The queens on the chessboard)
(Fig.3)
From doing lyrical analysis and deconstructed the lyrics, we found a deeper meaning
to the song and identified the song to bear a lot about pain and the pain of lust. This is
evident from the chorus ‘nobody loves me, its true, not like you do…’
Instantaneously, we imagined a sordid affair in saturated and contrasted frames
(similar to the white stripes ‘blue orchid’) to highlight the ‘smuttiness’ of the situation
our main character was in and attempted to portray a vixen no longer caring about her
lifestyle and is on the verge of self destruction.
In reference to Goodwin’s theory on voyeurism, there is a large portion found in our
music video, deconstructing the power of obsession met by our female characters,
contradicting the point of empowered women. This is found is the lifestyle which
revolves around men and her tormenting her own status and power.
(Fig.4)

3. We have also attempted to create enigmas by using unusual locations found in the
outdoor scenes with Seonad surrounded by decorative chairs and instruments found in
a junglistic location (Fig.4). The juxtaposed items create a sense of confusion yet fits
with the type of song. We have also used time changes for some scenes we have
chosen to speed up and slow down certain clips to emphasis time elapsing or slowing
down.
From watching Portishead’s music videos we were able to gain some stimulus by
identifying a strong dominant female character in their videos generally dominating
the man.
We have chosen something similar in the sense that we have a strong female ruler
over the male characters. Similar by researching such videos as The White Stripes
‘Blue Orchid’, we were able to explore the female sexuality as well as unusual ways
to express sexual dominance.
(Fig.5) (Fig.6)
Such scenes in ‘Blue Orchid’ by The White stripes, display a range of shots which
express sexual connotations in a subtle yet recognisable way, This is achieve by
framing the scene in a way where there is a close up on facial expression (Fig.5)
(orgasmic) or a close up on exposed skin as seen in the picture above (Fig.6). In this
way we have attempted and used ‘Blue Orchid’ as a stimulus for our music video as it
provides clear representation of female dominance and powerful in a provocative
way.
In keeping with the theme of lust we have found that by having sexual connotations in
our music video, it could limit our audience and make the video look more raunchy
then subtle. To ensure this we have opted to show minimal bare skin and minimal
interaction with a member of the opposite sex.
By deconstructing the lyrics we were also able to frame each scene in relation to the
lyrics and find a deeper meaning to fit in with the ideologies of the song.
From having made previous productions, I have found the hardest part of making a
production is sticking to the storyboard to the precise scene. In order to achieve this
all locations, props, actors etc must be fully prepared and committed. When planning
the days to film many things can go wrong which can lead to many scenes being
removed. In this case many scenes where erased from our music video due to bad
timing, for instance we had intending to shoot footage in Nunhead graveyard but

4. failed to due to insufficient time. This was due to our actor’s last minute
unavailability causing us major set backs in our filming days.
From having fewer scenes filmed, inevitable we would have less footage to include in
our music video. At time in our music video we found that there was not enough clips
to use and often found ourselves using similar clips to fill spaces where no clips had
been entered so at time the clips used would seem random and arbitrary, especially
found in the middle clips. This in turn had made our music video harder to follower
(from a viewer’s perspective). From this we have learnt that all actors must be fully
committed and informed of their directions and would have had back up actor if
known the consequences. In addition we have found that selecting clips was a difficult
process as we had excessively filmed unnecessary part and did not consider the
background objects which hinder the performer and the scene, this would have been
considered and made sure it would have been perfect.