1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
(PART 2)
2. My media product uses typical forms and
conventions from real media products.
Genre: "patterns/styles/structures which transcend individual films, and which
supervise both their construction by the film-maker and their reading by an
audience" - (Tom Ryall, 1998)
Steve Neale (1990) argues that Hollywood's generic regime guarantees
meanings and pleasures for audiences meaning that people have
expectations for each genre. For example, people can normally predict the
sorts of conventions that will be in a rom-com and a horror. Neale (1980) also
adds onto this by saying that much of the pleasure of popular cinema lies in
the process of "difference in repetition" - i.e. the recognition of familiar
elements in film and the way these elements may be presented. This shows
that people are entertained by the difference in repetition, where the same
generic storyline and conventions can show up over and over again but
people will still go and see it because it is presented differently each time. It's
like with sequels, certain elements are similar in all films but new ideas and
material are incorporated into each sequel which is what makes people want
to go see them.The viewers will have certain theories and expectations that
they take with them into the cinema due to knowing all the
typical conventions of each genre.
3. The genre of my music video is Comedy
Some general conventions of comedy you
usually see in a comedic narrative:
iconography
-Bright mise-en-scène
- bright and happy colours
- props
technical code
-natural camera, goes along with
characters
-editing sounds to add humour
-funny props
character types:
- idiotic, accident prone people
- smart people, socially awkward
- regular, sarcastic people, accidents occur
around them
Themes:
- parody
- anarchic comedy
-romantic-comedy
-gross-out
4. The genre of my music video is Comedy and it is a parody/spoof of
things like batman (1966).
Comedy is a popular genre that can reach out to many people, the
music video may reach out to comic-book fans in particular as
they'll understand the humour of the parody more than people who
aren't. However, I feel like anyone would be able to watch it, comic-
fan or not, and still enjoy and find the video quite humorous.
5. Alongside this, there is a narrative to the video like lots of music
videos have, it is a typical storyline about bullying in school and
then fighting against it. It is about Rebecca being a stereotypical
'nerd' and getting bullied in a high school, but uses her love of
comics to imagine a scenario where she can fight these bullies.
Also, since the video is comical, it adds light to the usual sad story
about bullying.
We have a female protagonist too who is able to fight back against
these bullies/villains, going against the usual gender roles as there
is no male there to save her. This can be inspiring to young females
and makes them want to be just like her.
6.
7. There is also conventions I have
used from Batman (1966) which
makes it like a parody of it, such
as the use of onomatopoeia on
the fight scenes and the tilted
camera angles.
8. I think the main thing I have developed is the fact that this is a
comical parody with a narrative within a music video. It is not a
very common type of music video to see these days, most have
very serious storylines and things that attract people such as
women and men being sexualised so I have challenged
mainstream music videos by creating one that has a narrative of
a short, comical parody film.
