In what ways does your media product follow, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
FOLLOW, DEVELOP OF CHALLENGE FORMS
AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?
Question 1

2. RE-CAP OF POP GENRE RESEARCH
During the research and planning process, I had to
complete research into the forms and conventions of the
pop genre. Through this, we found the following typical
conventions:
 Links between lyrics and visuals
 Links between music and visuals (e.g. Fast paced)
 Bright costumes
 High key lighting
 Narratives
 Synchronised dance routines
 Close ups
 Reoccurring/recognisable motifs (artist style)
 Voyeurism of the female body

3. FURTHER RESEARCH
 I then analysed 4 music videos from different artists
to highlight any reoccurring trends, themes and
techniques that artists within the pop genre use.
 Through this, I found that most pop artists followed
the stereotypical conventions of the genre, using
some developments. Depending on whether the
artist was solely pop or whether they fell into hybrid
genres determined which conventions they followed,
developed and challenged. As we discovered Sam
Smith is an alternative pop artist, we felt that we had
to make our product unique by following, developing
and challenging certain conventions.

4. ANDREW GOODWIN'S THEORY
I looked into Andrew Goodwin’s theory of generic pop
conventions and he stated:
 Music videos demonstrate characteristics such as
live performance and dance routines
 Lots of close ups of the artist (who may have an
artist style)
 Voyeuristic treatment of the female body
 Intertextual referenced (to film/TV)
 References to looking (self reflection e.g. Mirrors)
 Lyric and visuals match

5. RE-CAP OF SAM SMITH’S EXISTING VIDEOS
Sam Smith – Stay With Me Sam Smith – I’m Not The Only One
• Live performance – choir
• Lip syncing
• No narrative structure
• Sam Smith features throughout
• Mise-en-scene - Dark clothing
• Strong narrative
•Lyric and visuals match (link between
the narrative and lyrics/message within
the song)
• Performance elements which breaks
the narrative
This showed us that Sam Smith is a very diverse artist
as he has taken two different approaches (like in his
single and album covers) to the stereotypical
conventions of the pop genre. From both of these
videos the themes of isolation and emotion are shown
which we followed in our music video.

6. CONVENTIONS WE FOLLOWED...
Narrative – narratives within a music video allow an
audience to connect and relate to the artist,
conveying the message of the song. We chose to
follow this convention within the pop genre because
the lyrics were appropriate and clear to create a
story around that our audience could connect with.
We found that in our initial ideas audience research
that people were most happy when a music video
followed some kind of narrative, which was good for
us as our song choice had an obvious narrative.
Close-up shots – we used close up to capture the
emotion of our protagonist which was key to the
narrative and theme of the song and video. This also
allowed the audience to connect with the character.

7. CONVENTIONS WE FOLLOWED...
Lyric and visual match – having a strong
narrative structure meant that is was important
that the lyrics matched our visuals. An example
of this match is when our male protagonist
character is in the shower, and the lyrics are
“why am I so emotional?”. Another example is
when Sam Smith sings “stay with me” and Jeff
and Zoe are lying next to each other and Zoe
fades away.
Editing – we made sure that the pace of the song
matched the pace of our editing. We used long
takes and a fade in and out to reflect the
emotional state of mind of our protagonist.

8. CONVENTIONS WE FOLLOWED...
Mise-en-scene – one prop used in our music
video was the female characters lipstick – this
was used to represent her vanity and contrast
to the male character in the shower (as if she
was putting someone on and he was washing
away – binary oppositions). Another prop we
used was the car. We used this to create a
sense of escapism of the male character. The
locations we used are quite conventional to the
pop genre and their music videos which
contained a narrative – a house (bedroom) and
street.

9. CONVENTIONS WE DEVELOPED...
Classical structure of equilibrium, disequilibrium and
return of the equilibrium – conventionally narratives
tend to follow this structure, however throughout of
video we dip in and out of the equilibrium with
flashbacks. The video begins with a disequilibrium
which matches the lyrics, and also ends on the
disequilibrium when both characters walk past each
other and the girl turns around – however there is
uncertainty to the ending as the audience are left to
wonder what will happen with their relationship.
Gender roles – we reversed the stereotypical gender
roles of females being the victims and emotional and
the males seeming unaffected by a breakup. This was
mainly because the song is by a male artist, and also
creates something unique about the video – as Sam
Smith’s ‘I’m not the only one’ video is a narrative about
a female victim.

10. CONVENTIONS WE DEVELOPED...
The male gaze – in our video, the male
protagonist (Jeff) focuses on the female (Zoe)
– this is shown clearly in our over the
shoulder shot of Jeff gazing at Zoe leaving
his house from the window. However, we
have developed the idea of the male gaze as
this idea is of the audience gazing at the
female characters, but Zoe does not appear
much in our music video which leads the
audience to focus further on our male
character. We also casted Jeff as he is
attractive therefore appeals to our audience.

11. CONVENTIONS WE CHALLENGED...
Voyeuristic treatment of the female body – we avoided
using this convention as we wanted the audience to
focus more on the male protagonist and the narrative of
our music video, whereby he is focused on her love
rather than appearance. However, in the internal shots
Jeff is topless, so he is subtly sexualised, reversing the
stereotypical role of the female body being sexualised in
most pop videos. Our video did not allow much room for
voyeurism of the female body and would not necessarily
be appropriate to our song choice as it is focused on
emotion and loss of her love rather than the character
being sexualised.
Lip syncing – this was in our original idea, however we
decided against it as we thought it may distract the
audience from the narrative which we wanted the video
to be entirely focused on.

12. CONVENTIONS WE CHALLENGED...
Live performance elements and dance
routines – again, these were not appropriate
for our music video as it did not help form the
narrative structure.
Up-beat/energetic – our editing would not have
been relevant or fit with the song choice if we
decided to use short takes and fast paced
editing because the pace is slow and we
wanted to create isolation and negative
emotions in our narrative, and this would have
done the complete opposite and not fitted our
song choice.

13. RE-CAP OF ANCILLARY CONVENTIONS
When we had to research the conventions of magazine
adverts and an artist Digi-pak, I found the following
conventions:
It is important to make a link between the themes and style of
both ancillaries and the music video to create a
Magazine Advert Artist Digi-pak
• artist name
• album name
• release date
• social media (connect artist to fans)
• images
• not much information, only what is
required (record label etc.)
• eye catching (following the line of
sight, bright colours)
• QR code
• Colour scheme
• visually interesting
• images
• album name
• artist name
• track list
• lyric booklet
• barcode
• record label
• bright colours

14. SAM SMITH’S COVERS
SINGLE COVER ALBUM COVER
His single cover is colourful reflecting his creativity whereas his album cover is
more simple to reflect his emotion in his songs. We decided to follow more work
like his album cover as it links to our music video, so the style is consistent in
our products however challenges the conventions of the pop genre.

15. CONVENTIONS WE FOLLOWED...
Relevant information – we included the artist name, album name
and key information of both the magazine advert and Digi-pak but
did not over clutter the products with text. This is to make the
products appear more sophisticated and eye catching. All of the
key information is clear on our products for the audience to see,
following the line of sight rules.
Images of the artist – the images on both of our products are the
central focus to promote the artist and show off his artist style. We
chose to include existing images of Sam Smith rather than still-
shots from our music video as we believed it would appear more
sophisticated, and we wanted it to be quite simplistic. The images
we chose show his self-reflection and covey his emotion and
isolation which is evident in his songs. We manipulated the
images to add visual interest which is a development on Sam
Smith’s single covers.
QR code – we included a bar code on our product as we felt it is
essential on modern day products. It can be used as a
promotional tool for audiences and readers to watch our music
video and promote the album and artist.

16. CONVENTIONS WE DEVELOPED...
Bright colours – we did not include bright
colours in our ancillaries as we wanted to
make a clear link between all three of our
products to create an artist style. Bright
colours would not be appropriate for our
products as they do not connote the negative
emotions and loneliness of the songs within
the album, or the video we had created.
However we did manipulate the images we
were using in our Digi-pak to develop the idea
of creativity by creating a yellow glow and
sketched effect around the edges of Sam
Smith’s face.

17. CONVENTIONS WE CHALLENGED...
Lyric booklet – we did not include a lyric booklet in
our Digi-pak as we wanted it to be quite simplistic.
Also, it is not necessary for this album as the lyrics
are quite conventionally pop (limited lyrics and
repetition) so the songs are not complex.
Reviews – we also didn’t include any reviews on our
magazine advert as we wanted to keep it looking
simplistic and sophisticated with only the key
relevant information such as the release date and
artist/album names. Also, it was not necessarily the
most effective way of marketing him as an artist, so
no benefits would be made by them being included
on our products.