A2 media coursework question 1

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.
Inspirations and influences- 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. In the middle picture below you can see we have screen-
shotted an overlay of 2clips, and either side of the video you can see our
recreation of this.

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.
Inspirations and influences- 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. We took a
lot of inspiration from the spectrum video and used it in our music video.

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.
Inspirations and influences- In the screen captures below you can see that the top 3
images are captures from the music videos, Rihanna- Stay, Lana Del Rey- National
Anthem and Beyoncé- Best thing I never had. In these videos you can see the aspects
of voyeurism as they are all partially naked in the videos. We tried to incorporate our
inspirations into our music video by also giving the aspect of voyeurism.

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.

10. Challenging Conventions
In our music video we did challenge some conventions by not
including all of Andrew Goodwin's conventions in our video.
We decided not to use Inter-textual references in our video as we felt
that our video focused on being individual and the focus of the 2
lovers. There weren't any films, books or games that we could think
of that related to our story to incorporate in the video. This is how we
challenged this convention.
There are certain ways in which music videos can challenge Andrew
Goodwin's conventions, such as by not following the conventions. An
example of this would be challenging the convention of, voyeurism,
lyrics and visuals and genre. This is all done in the music video by
Ed Sheeran- Photograph, as the whole of the video is based on his
memories and past photographs and videos of him in his life. This
video was also inspirational to us because it showed videos that
were part of his memories, just like the flashback videos of the 2
lovers in our video.