Part 1

1. HOW DO YOUR PRODUCTS
USE OR CHALLENGE
CONVENTIONS AND HOW
DO THEY REPRESENT
SOCIAL GROUPS OR
ISSUES?
What are codes?
Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided
into two categories – technical and symbolic.
Technical codes are all the ways in which equipmentis used to tell the
story in a media text, for example the camera work the music video.
Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see.For
example, a character's actions show you how the character is feeling.
Some codes fit both categories – music for example, is both technical and
symbolic.
What are conventions?
Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something.
Our Genre
Every Genre follows a set of rules known as codes and conventions.
Without the use of codes and conventions the music video won’t have a
message and would not make any sense. The genre we chose was Adult
Contemporary Pop (AC). Following all the codes and conventions of my
genre, I constructed a Music Video, Digipak, a Website.

2. Now I will discuss which codes and conventions we followed and which
ones we went against.
Camerawork
The camera shots used are close and mid shots of the artist which is what
is seenin the rest of the music videos as well. We did this to build start
image and for the audience to able to connectbetter. We initially used the
close up of the Locationas the establishing shot.
For our Narrative we Used movements such as pan, tilt, etc. Close ups and
extreme close ups were taken to highlight the little details that give a big
message.

3. Costumes and Styling
As most of Adult Contemporary pop songs, latest fashion trends are
followed instead of creating your own. The costume and styling of my genre
demands a hint of voyeurism. We tried to achieve that by making our artist
wear an of shoulder dress and by making our character A wear fitted
clothes to capture every aspect of her body. Our Character B (boy) wore a
grey pajama with green shoes and our character C (hijabi) wore full
covered clothes with a scarf on her head. The latest fashion trends were
not followed,breaking the codes and conventions, so the audience could
easily guess the stereotypes.
The styling is very significant as compared to other genres,proper
hairstyles and a properstyled look is encouraged in Adult contemporary
pop.

4. Location and Setting
Almostall of the contemporaryadult pop music videos are located in
expensive luxurious locations such as clubs and big parties. Our locations
and settings were decidedaccording to every narrative. Our music video
consisted of a lot of locations. Our character A’s narrative was shot in the
school, character B’s on a street and character C’s in a disco set up in a
small room. Our lip synching also took place in two differentlocations, one
in a garden and the other one in a room.Our last and the mostimportant
scene was shot in an openground. We did not follow the codes and
conventions of keeping the location and setting very luxurious and upbeat,
however we still added a little touch of that by shooting character C’s scene
in a disco.

5. Lighting
Our genre follows an excessive use of bright lights. We went against this
and kept our lighting dull, however, we used both natural and artificial
lighting. Since our video focused on social aspects and the emotions and
sadness had to be shown, we kept the lighting dull in most of the video.
However, Natural lighting was used for two of our narratives only to capture
the scene showcasing the emotions in detail. Our colour theme consisted
of blacks, pink, purples,blues mainly to show how our characters felt at
that moment and to give our video a vibrant look. However, 3 point lighting
and the fairy lights were used to create a happy atmosphere and disco
lights were used for the character C’s scene.

6. Imagery
In the genre that we chose, Adult Contemporary Pop, there is sexualizing
of objects done attract the audience. There is always a voyeuristic
treatment in adult contemporary music video. Our artist wore an of
shoulder dress and our Character A wore very fitted clothes and is shown
fixing her shirt in one shot and in one shot, we have captured her style of
walking. She is wearing fitted jeans which makes her body parts even more
prominent and this has been done out of voyeurism. However, the idea of
male gaze is not entertained in our video. This was only done out of
following the codes and conventions.
Stereotypes
The main stereotype of pop genre is that it is based on partying, clubbing,
dancing and enjoying life. Done in this way so that the music appeals to the
target audience that is the teenagers. However, our characters are shown
breaking the stereotypes since there is no clubbing or partying shown in the
video even though one of the character is shown in the disco but our main

7. theme isn’t about partying. Instead our Victims are shown breaking through
their struggles.
Editing
We chose a slow paced song as compared to other songs.
Being the editor, I ensured that the beats and up notes of the track are kept
in mind while making cuts because our video was both a performance
based and narrative based video so it was important to maintain a link
between the whole video. However, dissolve was used at many points to
make the cuts look a little abrupt. We even added slow motion effects In
many places to show how the character is feeling.However, the title of of
the song ‘Fight Song’ explains what the lyrics and the song will be about.
However, together we came up with the idea of showcasing the struggles
of the people in our society. Being the directorof the video, I didn’t want
any typical heart breaks to be shown in our video. We created a balance
between following the convention and as well as breaking few.
Theories Included in my Video
Theories are there to develop some codes and conventions about music
videos.I had previously analysed 6 music videos for my research phase

8. but this I will be analysing my own product in accordance to the various
theorists namely:
 Andrew Goodwin
 Sven e Carlsson
 Micheal Shore
 Steve Archer
 John Stewart
 Laura Mulvey
Andrew Goodwin
According to Andrew Goodwin there are 6 steps that make a music video
the perfect one.
 Music videos have genre characteristics
Since every music video follows a set of conventions
that they apply to set their genre apart our video also follows the genre
characteristics as mentioned before.
 There is a relation between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics
are represented with images.
We have followed this convention throughout the video since the lyrics
and the visuals are linked. Moreover, he suggests that when you hear a
song you are able to feel the emotion that is being put across.
 Relationship between music and visuals.
This is what we talked about above when analyzing our editing. We
made sure the cuts and pace was according to the rhythm of the song

9.  Notion on Looking
Although this includes male gaze and looking at an objectfrom the
viewpoint of the artist, we didn't not use this in our product.However,
we included notion of looking by making the artist look directly in to
the camera to help the artist connectbetter with the audience. Not
only the artist but also the characters looked directly into the camera
while holding the placards breaking the fourth wall.
 Close ups of Artist

10. Sven E Carlsson
He believes that there are two categories of music
videos:
 Performance
 Narrative
The performance is categorized in three ways:
 CommercialExhibitionist
 Televised Bard
 Electronic Shaman
My music video puts more focus on to the narrative rather than
performance.However, the performance in my music video is all television
bard since the artist sings about a story and uses other images and scenes
around her.
Steve Archer
He suggests that there needs to be a strong relationship between narrative
and performance.Music videos will cut between narratives and the song of
the band. These two aspects have beenapplied to my music video. There
is a coherent relationship between the performance and the narrative, and
there are various cuts showing both simultaneously.
John Stewart
He states that music videos have aesthetics of a TV commercialwith loads
of close ups and lighting being used to develop star image. To ensure this
we have used close ups and various shots like pan shot, tilt shot, to show
our artist performing.
Laura Mulvey

11. Laura is feministtheorist who believes that this society has objectified
women and they are presented in a voyeuristic way for male pleasure. We
have not used this in a negative way but we have given a voyeuristic
treatment to our video for our first narrative when the legs are shown, and
the camera zooms when she is fixing her bra strap. Another shot is when
she is walking in the schooland all the focus is on her ass.
Representation of Social Groups
Demographics
Age
Our video targets teenagers ranging between 16-22 since they are the
ones who struggle the most because of the society. Even our cast
members come in the age group of 17-21.This has beendone so that our
target audience can relate even more to the video and the struggles that
people are facing.
Gender
Our video is targeting both the male and females since in our societythey
both are equally struggling because of the judgmental society.
Class

12. Our video represents the middle and upper class. There are no luxurious
items in our video but still the theme and the storyline is relatable.
Representation of the Social Issue
The social issue addressedin this video is the how judgmental the society
is and how people are struggling because of that.
Everyone is fighting a silent battle on our own which no one knows about.
Our video has an important message that asks people to buck up and
everyone needs to ignore these little things and move on. People will never
stop judging and will keep on destroying your life but all you have to do is
act like you don’t care and start living like there’s no tomorrow. And the
judgmental societyneeds to back off since everyone has a right to live the
way they want to irrespective of the fact that they are obese,very skinny,
black, disable etc. Everyone deserves to be themselves.