A2 Media Coursework Q1

1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?
Andrew Goodwin had seven different conventions that
which was what we used as a guide for our music video.
The seven conventions were, Intertextuality, Star
Iconography, Star Identification, Voyeurism, Genre, Music
and Visuals and Lyrics and Visuals.
We looked at different Indie Pop music videos to see
which of Andrew Goodwin's conventions that they mostly
used. We tried to use as many of the conventions in our
music video and felt as if we used, star iconography, star
identification, genre and music and visuals.

2. Genre
Throughout our video we tried to show the genre of indie pop through
the fashion of what our characters were wearing and the special effects
on the video. I feel as if the special effects on the video was the most
important aspect of making the video stand out to be Indie-Pop. We
used a filter throughout our entire video that gave the clips purple
undertones, I feel as if this made the genre stand out as indie pop as it
gave a calming effect to the video, which you usually associate with
Indie. We also used another filter to express the flashbacks in the video.
The filter expressed the loss and gave a dull effect to the clips which
also made it stand out as indie pop. We were inspired to use cool
undertones in the video by Lana Del Rey’s music videos, I feel as if it
gives the video the feel of being indie and dark.

3. Star Identification
Throughout the majority of music videos in general (especially Indie) we found
that they used a lot f close up shots of the artists so that there is instant star
identification. The close ups allow a more intimate and personal for the artist
which allows the audience to connect with the artist. We noticed that the song by
Florence and the Machine- Spectrum, which is the indie genre of music used a lot
of close ups in the video as this allowed star identification and you instantly know
that she is the artist. We found that most videos used close ups for star
identification so we decided to use close ups in our video for this reason.

4. Voyeurism
We feel as if we used voyeurism a little bit throughout the
video, as we use a lot of close ups of the girls bodies and
concentrate on the female form. We feel as this is voyeurism
as we wanted the girls to look as if they were naked and pure
in the video. We found that by doing this it brought out the sex
appeal in the video.

5. Location
We felt as if we used a lot of different locations throughout the
production of our music video, being in the studio with a black
back drop, and shoots in the Forest of Dean, shoots in the street
etc. We felt that if we used different locations then it may
emphasize the fact that she is travelling through a period in her
life where she has lost someone. We feel as if our locations are
suited to our genre of indie/pop, because we tried to use unique
shots of the forest and tried to make it dark. Our locations that we
used, helped to create narrative throughout the video, of the 2
girls that had fallen in love and how many memories that they had
shared.

6. Lyrics and visuals
In our video we included the convention of the relationship between the lyrics
and visuals. We have done this in our music video and took the convention
and developed it into our music video. For example the lyrics “Dancing in the
dark in the pale moonlight”, we decided to develop the lyrics and make it
match with the visuals by taking a video of the moon and over lap the 2 video
clips of the girl dancing so that the lyrics matched with the visuals. The moon
moves across the screen so that it looked as if she had been dancing in the
moonlight until the morning.
Another example of this would be from the lyrics being “Telephone wires
above, a sizzling like a snare, honey, I’m on fire I feel it everywhere nothing
scares me anymore” We decided to also overlap 2 clips into 1 again for this
lyrics so that the visuals matched the lyrics. The telephone wires were taking
from a moving vehicle so that when the video plays it is like they are on a
journey, with the girl who passed away signing in the background.

7. Inter-textual references and Star
Iconography
We haven’t used these conventions in our music video.
We chose to not use star iconography because we
wanted out music video to seem as if it were 2 normal
girls that were in love, and a video of their past memories.
We didn’t want our main character to stand out and have
their own iconography.
We also didn’t use inter-textual references in our music
video, as we felt as this a necessity to help tell the story in
the song. We also felt this convention wasn’t necessary
because we felt that we couldn’t include it so therefore
wouldn’t match the genre.

8. Promotional Package
We feel as if our digi pak followed the average conventions of
usual digi paks. On the front cover we used a main image that
related to the genre of the music video, being Indie/Pop, the name
of the artist being ‘Aviana’ and the name of the album being ‘Pretty
Demons’. On the back we included the track list of the album, and
our record label, logo and barcode.

9. Promotional Package
The advert related to our digi pak, because
we decided that we would use the same
colour scheme throughout the whole of the
promotional package, being blue, black and
white. We decided to use these colours
because we wanted to use landscapes for
our backgrounds for the promotional
package. We included the artists name, the
album name, and the name of our song
from our music video at the bottom, which
created synergy between both the digi pak
and the music video.