The document discusses conventions of genres in media such as films, television, and music videos. It provides definitions and perspectives from scholars on genres and how they structure audience expectations. For music videos specifically, it notes conventions like performance elements where the artist mimes the song, relationships between the music and visuals, and references to voyeurism. The document then discusses the genre and conventions used in the student's own music video, which parodies Batman through comedy, challenging typical gender roles and styles of more serious mainstream music videos.

1. In what was does your
media product use,
develop or challenge
forms and conventions
of real media products?

2. Genre Quotes:
(Tom Ryall, 1998) “patterns/styles/structures which transcend individual films,
and which supervise both their construction by the film-maker and their reading
by an audience.
(Steve Neale, 1990) argues that Hollywood’s generic regime guarantees meanings
and pleasures for audiences.
(Steve Neale, 1980) – much of the pleasure of popular cinema lies in the process
of “difference in repetition” – i.e. recognition of familiar elements and in the
way those elements might be orchestrated in an unfamiliar fashion or in the way
that unfamiliar elements might be introduced e.g. ‘Scream’ and its sequels:
certain elements are similar in all three films, yet new ideas and material are
incorporated into each sequel.

3. Genre Quotes:
(Steve Neale, 1990) – Genre is constituted by “specific systems of expectations
and hypothesis which spectators bring with them to the cinema and which
interact with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process.”
(Jonathan Culler, 1978) – generic conventions exist to establish a contract
between the deviation from the accepted modes of intelligibility. Acts of
communication are rendered intelligible only within the context of a shared
conventional framework of expression.
(Ryall, 1998) sees this framework provided by the generic system; therefore,
genre becomes a cognitive repository of images, sounds, stories, characters, and
expectations.
Genre has come to represent, as John Fiske (1988) has said, “attempts to
structure some order into the wide range of texts and meanings that circulate in
our culture for the convenience of both producers and audiences.”

4. Music Video Quotes:
(Joe Salzman, 2000) “They now provide pictures for the songs in our heads.
Goodbye, imagination… No need to think, to embellish, to create, to imagine.”
(Steve Archer, 2004) “Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and a
performance of the song by the band… Sometimes, the artist… will be a part of
the story, acting as a narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip-
synh close-up and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of
music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can kick it.”
(Laura Mulvey, 1975) “The presence of women is often soley for the purposes of
display and purpose of display is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in the
spectators, which presumes a male gaze, regardless of the actual gender of the
spectator i.e. a powerful and controlling gaze at the female, who is on display
and is, therefore, objectified and passive.”
(Pete Fraser, 2005) “Is the female flesh on display simply cynical; exploitation of
the female body to increase (predominantly) male profit margins, or a life-
enhancing assertion of female self-confidence and sexual independence?”

5. Music Video Quotes:
There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals (with visuals either
illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music).
There is a relationship between the music and the visuals (again with visuals either
illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music).
Particular music genres may have their own music style and iconography (such as live
stage performance in heavy rock).
There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close-ups of the main
artist/vocalist.
The artist may develop their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which,
over time, becomes part of their star image.
There is likely to be reference to voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women,
but also in terms of looking (screens within screens, binoculars, cameras, etc).
There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films
and TV texts.
(Andrew Goodwin, 1992)

6. The Genre of our music video is Comedy
Some General conventions of comedy you usually see in a comedic narrative:
Iconography:
Bright mise-en-scene
Bright and happy colours
Props
Character Types:
Idiotic, accident prone people
Smart people, socially awkward
Regular, sarcastic people,
accidents occur around them
Technical Code:
Natural camera, goes along with
characters
Editing sounds to add humour
Funny props
Themes:
Parody
Anarchic comedy
Romantic-come
Gross-out

7. The genre of our music video is Comedy and can be classed as a
parody/spoof of shows like batman (1966).
Comedy itself is a popular genre that can reach out to many ranges of
people (different age ranges, etc) but more particularly it may appeal to
comic book fans/superhero fans. They may be more understanding of the
parody and find it even more enjoyable. Overall, almost anyone would be
able to watch it and fine it some what humorous, comic fan or not.

8. We have included conventions from Batman (1966) such as the use of
anomatopeia (the same as the actual show itself) and tilted camera angle during
fight scenes. This also adds to the parody element of our video compared to
Batman.

9. Like many other music videos, ours contains a narrative. Ours being a typical
bullying situation where the victim rises above (in this case, striving to become a
super hero and fight their own battles). Our main character is a stereotypical
nerd who has an interest in comic books and super heros. As we are introduced to
her weakness against bullies she then creates a fantasy scenario where she is a
super hero and they are the villains. This all done however in a comical manner,
rather than taking the story seriously.
We go against stereotypical gender roles as our main character was cast female,
where we see her fight back without the help of a male character. Even though
this is a comedy, this factor could still possibly inspire young females.

10. Another typical convention we have used for our music
video is a performance element. We have added clips
of Adam miming to the lyrics of the song (to show it is
really him singing it), however he does not take part in
the narrative of our video. Both performance and
narrative switch constantly throughout the music
video.

11. The main thing we have developed is the style of our music video. We decided to
go for a comedic parody style narrative whereas many music videos stick to more
serious ones (like a lot of the music videos I analysed beforehand – they were all
serious and had deep meaning). We also have not used the typical sexualisation
of men or women in our video, we have challenged the mainstream music videos
and created one that has a narrative of a short, comical parody film.