forms and conventions

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE,
DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
Sophie Blank

2. What are forms and conventions
What is a media form: A form is the overall shape of a media product for example a music video. Any media
form will determine the medium used, the length (time or space) of the product and the content.
For a music video:
◦ Medium that is used- a music video is made in video or film format
◦ Length- 3-5 minutes
◦ Content- either a performance, narrative, lip sync, stylistic elements
What is a media convention:
Conventions are the established features and style of a media form e.g the conventions of a pop video- high
key lighting, bright colors, lots of close ups of artist. There are two types of conventions: symbolic and technical
◦ Symbolic: relate to mise en scene, costume, props, location/setting, color, make up
◦ Technical: styles of camera, editing, lighting, sound

3. TECHNICAL
CONVENTIONS

4. Editing
Here are some of the e
◦ slow motion
◦ slow editing pace
◦ discontinuity
◦ slow motion
◦ smooth camera movement
◦ natural colors/lighting
◦ artistic shots
◦ low saturation used and then color grading to bring out the gold (dress, fabric, makeup on face)
◦ contrast between high/low saturation
◦ shows inspiration of beautiful things such as water
◦

5. 4 real media products
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8yix8PZKlw - FKA Twigs
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndBeURa_P4o - Brika
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WewK7ubydKQ - Flo Morrisey
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvSXQo8040c - Robyn Sherwell

6. Slow motion and smooth
camera movement
◦ Slow motion and the use of the dolly track is used at the beginning.
◦ close-up- we used a long duration close-up in the middle of our video to show
the details and
◦ 84 mm and lighting work together- lips and eye makeup, shows details on her
face, soft texture, supports the star image. Flo Morissey is wearing very little
makeup (very natural) but our music video and the other two have very defined
makeup and that is because they used the 84 mm or something similar to get
that detail in the shot.
◦ the shots melt about- especially in Flo Morrisey’s video dreamy, aesthetic,
floating feeling
What do these videos have in common:
◦ All the videos show a slow and smooth camera movement and use of slow
motion to support the pace and rhythm of the song.

7. • Here is a shot where we used low
saturation and color grading to bring
out the gold because we wanted to
see the details on the dress, fabric,
makeup on face. We thought it was
very important for the close up shots
to be visually clear and aesthetically
pleasing for the audience because the
purpose of the video is to show the
fluidity of the image through out the
song. (closely synched with the song)
• The editing matched the pace of the
sing to emphasize the tempo and
emotion of the music.
• contrast between high/low saturation
• This shot is similar to the some of the
closeup shots of the three different
music video that we have researched
but similar genre of music.

8. Light
◦ artificial lighting on the sides of the set
◦ diva light (triangle), soft lighting
◦ the light catches the details of the set to fit
the track
◦ You can see the similarity in our music video
and FKA twigs’s music video, the artificial
lighting is used effectively to make it natural
as possible although it is shot in a studio. We
are able to see natural shots where the
lighting really helps the audience determine
what kind of music video genre we are trying
to portray.
◦ On the other hand, if you compare our music
video to Flo Morrisey’s video which is shot in
the nature and there is no artificial lighting,
still shows
◦ We wanted the studio to be quite dark but
gently lit to connote the softness of the song
and also for the light to catch the details on
Simy’s face (make up) and dress.
◦ Although, some of them are shot outside and
others in a studio,all of them show very soft
lighting.
◦ You could argue that all the videos have an
element of natural light and a natural setting
surrounding them

9. Colors
◦ We specifically chose to use dark colors (black and gold)
because we thought it was quite a truthful song and
had a strong meaning and therefore this juxtaposes
most pop songs as they use a lot of bright colors and
there isn’t a lot of meaning behind the music video. Our
music video is moody and elegantly dramatic and the
color that we used for the chiffon (gold and black) and
for the dress (gold) really fit in with the song and
movement.
◦ In our music video and the other music videos we
analyzed, the colors used are very simple and natural or
even black and white. Because we only chose one
location in our music video, the color scheme doesn’t
vary compared to Brika’s video for example. We
originally had different sets so the colors scheme would
have been different through out the video because we
wanted to use a ink drops in water as background and
edit Simy lip synching on top of the ink.
◦ Brika’s video- different elements (different color themes)


10. SYMBOLIC
CONVENTIONS

11. Set
◦ We wanted to set our music video in a studio
because we believed that if we used a black backdrop
with some fabric hanged across the set would focus
more on the artist instead of using actual locations
like the two music videos that we saw above. We
thought shooting in the nature like Flo Morrisey’s
video would look aesthetically beautiful and would
support our theme but then the audience could
temporarily focus on the background and not the
artist. We analyzed: 2 naturalistic videos set outside, 2
shot in a studio to decide which one would be mos
suitable for our genre. fake location, stylized-
luxurious and elegant
◦ We made some research of magazine shots and
fashion shoots that inspired us to magazine photo-
shoots, linked to fashion images
◦ fabric- surreal

12. Costumes
We decided to use this gold
chiffon pieces along with a flowy
dresss made out of the same
material to suggest elegance and
supports the indie/pop genre
that we were trying to convey. If
we compare it to Brika’s video,
although she has 3 different
elements in her music video, we
were inspired by the fabric
moving swiftly and how it really
supports the pace of the song
that we chose.

13. DIGIPACK

14. Lana del Rey was an artist who inspired us for the digipak as
you can see the image used for the front cover is quite striking
and this is what we tried to aim for. However, the pictures shot
outside in a garden do not fit with our style because we want
the audience to focus on her image and not be distracted by
the background.
We really liked FKA twigs Digi pack because it was really simple and that
was our aim in the video to make it simple and beautiful to watch. You ca
see the similarities of her digipack and our where we didn’t want to use a
font that was too different. The only thing that was very different from th
image used for the front cover was very different from the one we used
and we decided to change the image completely as we thought FKA Twig
was a it too abstract and edgy and it would not support our idea.
We really liked Ellie Goulding's digipack especially the font and
layout of the product. The image then again is very striking and
would be the kind of image we wanted to use.

15. WEBSITE

16. • I was inspired by the Yuna website
because I thought the simplicity of it
was what we were aiming for for our
video and our website. The Pastel
colors are a bit too colorful but calm.
• I liked the fact that when you open the
website the first thing that comes up is
the most recent music video and we
wanted to do that for our website as
well. The gallery is quite varied but still
portrays the same style of artist
through out.
• I also liked the FKA Twigs website.
Although they changed the layout
recently, we used their old layout at
first where you have a button for the
menu bar in each corner of the page
and then a striking image of the artist
in the middle.