A2 Level Media Studies Evaluation, Question 1

1. A2 MEDIA
STUDIES
Michelle Jackson
a2michellejackson.blogspot.co.uk

2. does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media
• The genre that we chose for our music video was Indie
Rock. The originalproducts? by Smith
video to „Weekend‟
Westerns features a lot of footage which makes the
band appear carefree, youthful and extremely rebellious
– something that is a convention of the Indie genre to
„stand out‟ and be different by simply being themselves.
• The video features a lot of scenes which appear very
unforced and natural to teens and young people, such
as shopping, smoking and having a good time. In
addition, this video features other scenes that would be
considered to some as very “daring” – such as carrying
an axe in public and cutting down trees (illegally).

3. MISE-EN-SCENE
Mise-en-scene is extremely important in terms of understanding the
conventions of the genre by analysing areas such as costume, setting
and composition.
These two images, the first being the Smith Westerns and the second
being our actors, are similar in that they both make use of the outdoors –
the Smith Westerns and Indie bands in general are very easy-going and
prefer to be out in the open, which is shown in the image. However, for
our own photos we also included man-made objects for an edgy feel
which challenged the genre slightly but overall enhanced the Smith
Westerns‟ rebellious personality. In terms of composition these shots
both have a hierarchical structure in that the lead member is placed more
towards the front of the frame, meaning the audiences‟ eye is drawn to
them first.

4. 2. 3.
1.
COSTUME
We choose the actors that
we used in our music video
for „Weekend‟ carefully so
they could closely resemble
the Smith Westerns band
members. We researched
thoroughly into the clothing of
Indie Rock bands beforehand
1. 2.
so we could interpret this 3.
The images that we convention into our music
used for the „Smith video.
Westerns + Friends‟
digipak support the
codes and
conventions that are
associated with Indie
Rock music. This

5. The costumes our actors wore within both the digipak COSTU
images and the music video included typical „Indie‟ style
clothing, which contained no overly-bright colours and a ME
conventional laid-back design.
Our digipak image particularly reflects
that of conventional Indie Rock CD
covers by following the dress code of
parka coats, denim jackets, checked
shirts and dark clothing, topped off with
casual jeans. These all lend
themselves to the „Alternative‟ style of
clothing – often fans of thesymbolRock
Indie of
genre recreate this relaxed this as it is
look genre
incredibly recognisable. which Converse
shoes are also a connote
youth as
these
shoes
attract a
younger

6. As well as dressing our actors in
clothing which fit well with the
COSTU
conventions of the Indie Rock
videos we researched, such as ME
laid-back jeans to connote
adolescence and combat jackets
to insert a sense of
danger/mischief, we also styled
our actors according to our
archetypal fan profile that we
created during our research. This
is because The costumes that
fans of the genre
the band are
often style themselves after their
idols. wearing are used to
establish character
by signifying that „stamp‟ that is easily
own unique style and
recognisable –
they have their this also means that the
costumes are used for the audience to
determine the genre of the music video.
Character establishment needs to happen
within the first few seconds of the music
video because songs often last 3-4 minutes
on average and the audience want to have
a fixed genre in mind. Also, the costumes

7. In terms of the setting for our music video, we chose SETTIN
areas in which we felt would be most suited for the
audience of the Indie genre. In this case, our two G
main locations were: in a busy city centre and in a
recording studio.
•We chose the city centre as our main filming
location because it ties in well with the youthful
atmosphere that we wanted to create in the video.
City centres are often popular choices for young
people to hang out, shop and chill out with their
friends, meaning this was a perfect choice as it gave
a more authentic feel. We chose specific side streets
so that the amount of bystanders wouldn‟t
overwhelm our three band members that audience
would want to focus on the most. However, because
the Indie genre isn‟t as obsessed with body image
as much as other genres (for example: pop and
R&B) it wasn‟t a big issue and we created a
permission slip for the people included in the video
to sign.

8. RY In many ways we used
several conventions of
In the original poster
by TEXTS
the Indie genre to create
the Smith our advert. However, I
Westerns, a colour feel that during this
scheme of yellows, process we also
oranges and reds is developed these existing
used to create a conventions and put our
simple yet effective own ideas on top,
image – one that creating something
isn‟t apparent to the unique and which links in
audience and to our other ancillary
doesn‟t seem to link texts.
in directly to the
album/artist that it is
We created a similar colour scheme for our own
advertising. I‟ve
poster by incorporating pastel shades such as
noticed that Indie
orange and light blue . The orange colour
bands often use this
connotes the quirky nature of the Smith
ambiguity to hook
Westerns as you wouldn‟t normally associate
the audience in.
male bands with this colour. We also used an
„ambiguous‟ image in the middle of the poster to

9. RY
an album TEXTSthat it
A main media convention of
poster is
includes a release date so that fans
know when the new material is
going to be available. We made this a priority on our
own poster and made the date of release large so that
it would stand out for the audience. Also, we decided
that although Indie bands prefer to stick to traditional
methods of acquiring a song – such as buying singles,
albums or records – we instead agreed that we would
challenge this convention by including an „iTunes‟ logo
that informs the audience that the mixtape will be
available for digital download. This is because it would
reach a much larger fan-base because older
established methods are now being replaced by the
We included the record label on our album
digital and online industry so that stores which sell
poster because this would help to promote
albums such as HMV are fan of Indieof business. Selling
the band if a
going out music recognised
the mixtape on iTuneslabel and therefore bought or
the record would help to keep the Indie
Rock genre alive and recognisable.
previewed the album. Also, the same thing
applies to the reviews from popular Indie

10. RY
TEXTS
Our digipak features typical album conventions such as
the band‟s name, the album name, the barcode and the
track list. When researching the Indie genre we noticed
that many bands‟ albums (such as Wavves) had a
childish or „tacky‟ effect that deliberately made the
albums look slightly unfinished and more authentic to
the audience as they were not as perfected and
flawless as that of albums from other genres such as
Pop. This helps the audience identity with the band and
better understand their carefree personas and so
followed these conventions and recreated this in our Wavves Album

11. Certain camera angles were used in
CAMER
our „Weekend‟ video to portray a
particular mood to the audience.
AWORK
For example, close-ups of the guitars
and instruments were used within the
live performance shots to make the
audience feel closer and more
involved with the band, as this
produces a more personal aspect to
the video. This is a convention of
most music videos so the audience
gather a sense of realism which
helps them better identify with the
artist and make them want to carry
on watching.
Extreme long shots were also used
to set the scene and help the

12. A cut from the beginning EDITI Techniques used:
scene straight to a live
performance is made within
the same second, making it NG cross-cutting, rhythmic
editing & fade outs
appear very natural and
almost unnoticeable to the
audience‟s eye.
We used cross-cutting during our music video because it is popular
within the Indie genre to insert a live performance in-between the
narrative aspect of the video. We aimed for a seamless edit from
one scene to the live performance shot as it was made to look quite
effortless and almost natural for the video to switch shots in Yuck‟s
“Get Away” which we thought was a nice touch. I think we achieved
this especially towards the beginning of our video when the band

13. EDITI From researching other
Indie Rock music
NG videos before
created our own, we
found that many used
we
fast-paced „rhythmic‟
editing to convey a
sense of excitement
Many music videos, including those in the Indie and energy into the
genre, use fade outs at the end of their video to video, especially if the
give a smooth transitional ending which gives song was upbeat with a
the audience time to absorb the video‟s very pronounced bass.
contents. We took this into consideration when As our own song was
we edited our own video, as the shot of the TV fairly upbeat we tried to
static at the end slowly fades out to black in recreate this in the
time with the music. This is reminiscent of editing process. We
We deliberately changed the speed the some of
“Bug” by Wavves and indeed of Smith used Final Cut Pro to
the clips original video for theof our„Weekend‟
Westerns at the beginning song video by cut the video every 2-4
changing the „Rate‟ in Final Cut Pro so that they
where the video fades to black. seconds in the chorus
were slowed down. We felt that this enhanced which is the quickest
the video by having lots of short, slowed down and most upbeat part of

14. At the very beginning stages of our music LE
video planning, we had the idea to
includes lots of scenes of our actors MESSAGE
drinking alcohol and smoking. This was
because of the research we made into S
Indie music videos which showed the
rebellious, wayward temperament of the
bands. However, after careful
consideration we chose not to include
these scenes in our music video because The Smith Westerns
of the impact this could have on a younger „Weekend‟ video includes bad
teen audience – the Smith Westerns are messages vs. our „Weekend‟
aimed at teenagers and young people and video which includes safe
recreational activities.
this would give out the wrong message
and promote the band as bad role models.
We challenged the conventions of the
genre by not including these aspects but
feel this was a good choice because we
could instead focus the video on safer and

15. ANDREW GOODWIN
In Andrew Goodwin‟s book “Dancing in the Distraction Factory”
(1992), Goodwin identifies key elements of music videos.
These include:
 Demonstrating genre characteristics in music
videos – these could include live performances in rock
music videos or dance routines for a girl band.
 Showing there is a relationship between lyrics and
visuals – they could either be illustrative (so the lyrics and
the video match exactly), amplifying (where the visuals are
often blown out of proportion) or contradictive (where the
lyrics and visuals do not match but still relate).
 Close ups of the artist in regard to the demands of
the record label – as well as this, music videos often show
the artist developing motifs and a visual style.

16. THE
Goodwin identifies that one of the key
elements of a music video is the frequent NOTION OF
notion of „looking‟. In our Indie video for
„Weekend‟ we inserted a clip at the end
„LOOKING‟
that included a TV screen going static as
a way to remind the audience that they
are watching a music video. This
celebrates audience engagement and
visual storytelling – it also foregrounds the
video and once again reminds the Perhaps
audience they are watching a „filmed‟ film. not as
noticeable to
Also, due to the non-linear narrative of the
some of the
music video (something which is a
audience, but the TV at the
convention of the Indie Rock genre) this end is in fact in rewind, as
helps to reinforce the idea of rebellion and though to suggest rewinding
youth as many other classic music videos our lives back to when we
use a traditional narrative structure, but were children because
here we „break the rules‟ to fit in with the everything was simpler and
Indie style. The meaning behind this is much more exciting. This
links into the youthful

17. GENRE
In relation to
Andrew
Goodwin‟s
identification of
As you can see, a genre characteristic of Indie Rock
the key
music is that the music videos feature a live band
performance. This is a convention of the genre and we elements of a
included similar shots in our own music video that music video,
closely resembled that of „Weekend‟ by Smith Westerns we included
and „Get Away‟ by Yuck (which were included in our many
research). This close-up shot in the second image from
conventions of
our own music video gives the audience a feeling of
being closer to the band as it is more personal and gives both the genre
more of an impression that they arein terms of
Also, actually seeing and music
band hierarchy, the
them live at a concert – something which the young videos as a
lead member is
audience these Indie Rock bands are aimed at would whole within
always placed the
wish to strive for.
furthest towards our own music
the camera, video.

18. We chose a more thematic approach to filming in that
CONVE
we didn‟t specifically match the video to the lyrics,
although the video was inspired by them. Instead we
NTION
took the meaning and connotations behind the song
itself and redesigned them into something which the
S
audience of the genre would find appealing. We felt that
the meaning behind the song was enjoying spending
time with friends and loved ones and having fun in the
process. This was evidenced by the lyrics “Weekends
are never fun unless you‟re around here too”. This was
the basis for our music video, and having researched
into other Indie Rock music videos we found that a
convention of the genre was that the music videos
featured the band or other actors having a good time,
relaxing and generally doing “everyday” things, while
sporadically inserting a live performance shot into the
video.
Our „Weekend‟ video merges narrative, performance Everyday activities
and concept elements. Although it doesn‟t expressively are shown such as
tell a story, the audience do follow what is deliberately driving and
skateboarding
perceived as the everyday lives of the band members –