This document summarizes how the media producer's products used and developed conventions of real media forms within the indie genre. Through research of music videos, albums, and websites, conventions were identified around editing style, narrative/performance integration, band styling, album covers, and title themes. The music video incorporated conventions like shot length and cuts. It developed conventions by basing the narrative on song lyrics rather than just performance. Band styling and positioning drew from indie influences. The album cover and title developed conventions of mystery and rebellion themes common to indie artists. Overall, the products aimed to appear professional by strategically using and developing conventions of real indie media forms.

1. Evaluation
question
#1
in
what ways does your m
edia
product use,
develop
or challenge
form
s and
conventions of
real m
edia
products?
B
y
j a
c
k
t o
p
p
i n
g

2. Throughout the conception and production of my media products in this year’s
course, I have researched several different music videos, albums and
websites within my chosen genre for inspiration in order to make my products
as close to real and professional media products as possible. Throughout the
research period, I analysed all of these real-life media texts in order to identify
the main conventions of products within my genre and what stood out within
each product to establish the highest amount of realism that I could afford in
the creation of my own. In this response to Evaluation Question #1, I will
detail how my media products use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products, using examples of my own research in
the process.

3. One of the music videos that I analysed for my coursework during my research
was the music video for “NOT DROWNING BUT WAVING” by Spring Offensive. I
feel that this video was incredibly instrumental throughout the production of
my music video as it enabled me to identify many conventions within my
genre that I could use within my video. For example, in analysing video, I
counted the number of cuts and the average shot length to determine the
editing style that I could use to put the video together. In doing so, I identified
that my average shot length should be no more than 3-4 seconds, with a big
amount of cuts as it would make my video have a major convention that could
make it comparable to a real media product.
Additionally, this video converges narrative and performance, as well as
containing a similar theme to our video. As a result, we also featured both
narrative and performance within our video and referenced a number of shots
within our video. This both fit extremely well with our video’s narrative and
helped to make it more comparable to a real life product.

4. SHOTS REFERENCING THE SPRING OFFENSIVE
VIDEOSPRING OFFENSIVE’S VIDEO OUR VIDEO

5. However, whilst we wanted to reference the original music video for our chosen song “HEART
OUT”, we felt that the video did not reflect the lyrics at all. We believed that the lyrics told the
story of a boy who is in love with a girl who has various problems, but nothing can stop his
love for her. We felt that if our video reflected the lyrics, it would make a much more
emotional connection with the audience and visually show them the points that the song was
trying to make in a more complex way. That is why, for our performance part of our video, we
reference the original music video by having our band play on a stage. However, for our
narrative section, we had the based our video around the lyrics by showing our male
protagonist chasing after our female protagonist, whilst also showing their relationship up
until that point.
One video that I researched to help influence the reflection of lyrics in the video was the
video for “AVOCADO, BABY” by Los Campesinos! The video reflects the lines in the song “AND
I FEEL LIKE I’M THE HOST OF A TERRIBLE GAME SHOW, AND THE GUESTS ON TODAY’S QUIZ
ARE CELEBRITIES. WON’T RESPOND TO ANY CLUES, THEY’RE JUST CRACKING JOKES FOR
VIEWS AND THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS MEAN EVERYTHING”, by having the plot of
the video show a game show host who is constantly made fun of and decides to get revenge
on all who have wronged him. I thought this was a genius idea and so wanted to try and
incorporate part of that into our video.

6. A few Examples of video reflecting lyrics
“Rushing in a small town”
“Push your lack of chest out”
“…is a reflection on your mental
health”

7. Additionally, we thought that the look and placement of the band members within our video and
photos used for the digipak and website was key to making our media products look as
professional and real as possible. We looked at indie bands such as The 1975 and The
Wombats for styling inspirations – finding that many indie bands have a unique and quirky
dress sense as a convention, making them stand out against music artists of other genres.
We reflected this well in our video, with examples including the lead singer (Dean) wearing an
unbuttoned wavy shirt, and our lead guitarist (James) wearing a large hat, as well as our
digipak photos – with the band wearing shirts with different yet eye-catching patterns on
them. This makes the band appear closer to a real-life indie band.
As well as this, in looking at different indie videos and photoshoots (i.e. Los Campesinos!,
Vampire Weekend), a link was established that featured the lead singer as centred when the
band were all in shot together. As a result, we followed this convention – drawing on Richard
Dyer’s ‘Star’ theory to show our lead singer as the most memorable member of the band to
audiences, using Dean to represent that in our video by keeping him centred and having
close-ups of him frequently within the performance shots. This stops the band from getting
forgotten within the narrative and capitalises on common conventions within the indie genre
to make our music video reflect a professional media text.

8. For my album cover, I decided not to use a picture of the band on the front as my research
had shown that several indie artists decide to use symbols, objects or locations as their
front cover to appear more mysterious and enigmatic. Examples include Vampire
Weekend (Modern Vampires of the City), The Wombats (Glitterbug), The 1975 (The
1975), and Ed Sheeran (X). As a result, I decided to use a picture that I had taken of the
architecture of St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, Ireland as my front cover. The reasoning
for this was this it backed up the convention of mystery and enigma for my front cover,
but also made the band appear well-cultured and respected as the building is acclaimed
globally for it’s beautiful and unique architecture. I was also inspired to follow the
convention of having a rebellion-themed title for the album – examples being Green Day
(21st Century Breakdown) and Paramore (Riot!). As rebellion is a common theme that
identifies well with young audiences, I decided to use this theme to establish a clear
bond between our band, The Secret Nothings, and our target audience. As a result, I
used the title ‘YOUTH IN REVOLT’. I believe that this title makes the band further appeal
to a young target audience, whilst also carrying on the indie genre convention of the
band appearing respected and mysterious.