1. In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
From the beginning of this project we wanted to create a female band that had the genre of
indie/folk/ as this is usually a combined genre and as this is a popular type of artist nowadays. There
are clear characteristics of the genre of indie folk and rock however this is usually associated with
males and male dominated bands. We wanted to take on the challenge of taking on this genre but
subverting it for a female based audience to make it more unique. We felt that this would be a
challenging task however from looking at a variety of different artists and bands we have found that
there are certain characteristics and conventions which we have applied to the presentation of our
band.
We researched into a variety of different artists that had the indie, folk genre for example: Florence
and the Machine, Kings of Leon, The Yeah yeah yeah’s, Lana Del Rey and our main influence was the
girl band Haim. We wanted our band to present all genres of indie folk however we feel that our
band is more heavily weighted to the indie genre as it is easier to represent the genre for a girl band.
From researching into these different types of artists we found that a lot of them were quite
naturalistic and they heavily portrayed ‘indie’ vibes throughout their music videos. This was through
their actual music and often by their image too. The band ‘Haim’ were presented as really energetic
and carefree in many of their images and also their music videos which was something that we
initially wanted to portray in our music video and also in our individual digipaks and posters. They
were often photographed or featured outside too which was also another element we wanted to
adapt as this portrayed their indie genre. Adding to this, Florence and the machine is also another
artist that used the outdoors to present her genre through naturalistic imagery, and the main singer
is also very unique and quirky with her clothing and makeup, also another element that we wanted
to use for our bands image. From looking into these conventions from other artists similar to the
genre we wanted, we began to adopt them to our own band too. A lot of the artists we looked at
were seen as being quite carefree and less staged compared to more mainstream artists.
We decided on the name ‘after midnight’ as we felt that this held connotations of staying up all night
and overall indicating that they’re exciting and lively, again adhering to the conventions of the indie
genre. From this we then decided that our audience would be from ages 17-25 as they would be
able to relate more to the ages of the band members relating to fashion, creativity and overall
having a good time and staying out with friends, also making the target audience dominated by
females.
Generally throughout our music video we wanted to portray the bands genre to the audience
through the use of locations, colouring of shots, the pace of the shots and the overall vibes of the
music video itself and also by adhering to the conventions of Goodwin. We firstly used this in the
beginning of the music video by using images which go in time with the music, which the audience
would be able to relate to as typically on a day out teenagers would generally photograph it making
this suit to our target audience. It also indicates the locations of where the band are going which
makes them seem like normal teens and do not make themselves look like they are superior which is

2. something that many indie artists stick to and also allows the target audience to relate with the
band. There are different locations used throughout the music video, which adopts the conventions,
by locations such as London and in outdoors locations to portray the indie genre. We try to use a
variety of different shots throughout the music video, which is something that we had to add on to.
We included more singing shots as this is something that we had to apply to stick to the conventions
of the music videos, also by having a main singer too and showing a relationship between the lyrics
and visuals. There are many different shots of the singing parts as this is a convention and the use of
close ups relates to Goodwin’s theory. Also, it makes the music video seem less repetitive and more
exciting to watch. We also include close up shots throughout of the guitar being played as this is
something that is featured in many of the music videos we looked into, and by doing so it sticks to
the conventions of music videos and also subtly portrays the genre of our band. To make our band
seem more unique and ‘indie’ we took on the style of a homemade video which is somewhat
challenging the conventions of music videos. We do this by including handheld footage and images
that we took, we also include shots of us taking videos/pictures of ourselves, and showing use of the
notion of looking. By doing this we felt that it portrayed our genre and also our image better as they
appear to be very carefree and fun which is what we initially wanted the music video to be like. We
also felt like it makes the band seem a lot more organic and natural compared to mainstream music
videos which are more staged. Adding to this, the arcade seen is all very ordinary and fun as you see
the band in a natural environment that teenagers are usually associated with and again remains with
the conventions of the indie genre and again relating back to the target audience. Also, during this
section the pace of the shots are a lot more frequent to build pace and make it more enjoyable to
watch, adopted from conventions of music videos we have looked at, and also relating to Goodwin’s
theory of music and visuals. We use a montage of images too which builds pace but adds to the
ordinary aspect of the band and again reinforcing them to be very relaxed and cheerful and sticking
to the genre of our band.