This document compares the conventions of folk rock music videos to the student's own music video production. It finds that the student's video used many typical conventions, such as showing the band performing in a natural rural setting surrounded by trees and fields. It also finds that the student's video developed some conventions by having the music and visuals amplify each other rather than just illustrating the lyrics, such as when the music sped up as the man leapt into the sea. The document analyzes several examples of professional folk rock music videos and identifies their conventions around performance style, nature settings, relationships between music, lyrics and visuals, close-ups of artists, and notions of voyeurism.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products? –
This task requires you to compare the outcomes of your research of similar media products with the
outcome of your group’s finished production.
Hanan Mohamed
Goodwin key music Using Your Research Your Production – Use, Develop or
video conventions Findings – note/ bullet Challenge
FOLK ROCK point typical generic
conventions
Genre The band/artist is usually USED - Our band is shown playing in front of trees
characteristics shown performing within the surrounded by fields and open space, which is in
(e.g. stage video, with shots of their the theme of nature.
performance in instruments if they play any or SCREENSHOT
metal video, dance simply their face if they sing
routine for boy/girl only. They are also usually
band)- performing alone, or simply
the band cut in with scenes
elsewhere e.g. a narrative cut
in with the performance. Their
isolation is often to highlight
their music’s importance
rather than screaming fans,
and to indicate the artist is
introspective and mature.
(See Mumford & Sons: Little
Lion Man, Iron & Wine: Boy
With A Coin, Laura Marling:
Rambling Man).
This is usually done in a
location full of nature –
somewhere rural, full of fields,
by a river, on a beach by the

2. sea (Laura Marling: Rambling
Man), by a swamp, a forest
(Iron & Wine: Boy With A Coin)
etc.
Relationship between The lyrics of folk rock songs USED - ILLUSTRATIVE
lyrics and visuals tend to be fairly abstract most
(either illustrative, of the time, however the
amplifying, visuals are usually illustrative
contradicting for the chorus or a particular
verse, but most of the song will
use the visuals to amplify the
lyrics meaning.
Bon Iver: Calgary’s visuals are
at first illustrative it says ‘don’t
you cherish me to sleep’ and
it shows a woman on a bed
sleeping who defies being
mollycoddled by being
cherished and wakes up.
‘Hair, old, long along/Your
neck onto your shoulder
blades’ is sung as we see her
lifting her head to show her
hair is long, as the camera
moves to show her neck and
then her shoulder.
The visuals begin to amplify in
the next verse as ‘hip, under
nothing’ is heard as she falls
through the bed and lands
standing in a lake. This is
amplifying because instead of
merely having her fall off of

3. the bed, it shows her very
foundations are not what she
thought they were so she must
go and ‘hunt the cause’
which she does getting up
and finding a door out.
In a few, rare places the
meaning will be contradictory
but instead of confusing the
viewer makes the artist seem
like a storyteller. Contradictory
visuals can be seen in the first
verse of Iron & Wine: Boy With
A Coin as the lyrics are:
SCREENSHOT
A boy with a coin he found in
the weeds
With bullets and pages of
trade magazines
Close to a car that flipped on
the turn
When God left the ground to
circle the world
This was contradictory as all
that could be seen on screen
was a group of women
dancing, no boy or weeds or

4. a car to be seen. But in the
following verse the visuals take
the other direction and
actually amplify the lyrics
meaning:
SCREENSHOT
A girl with a bird she found in
the snow
Then flew up her gown and
that's how she knows
If God made her eyes for
crying at birth
Then left the ground to circle
the earth
There is one woman singled
out for dancing and we can
see no bird, but feathers are
falling from her dress and her
dress is moving like a living
bird – her expression is also
quite sad. This amplifies
because instead of simply
showing a girl in the snow
finding a bird that flies up her
dress, the bird is metaphorical
and the repeated line of God
having ‘left the ground to
circle the earth’ reflects the
women dancing endlessly in
circles in the same path as
people are left on the path of

5. fate, referencing religious
messages.
Relationship between The music is mostly illustrative DEVELOPED - AMPLIFYING
music and visuals of the visuals. In Iron & Wine:
(either illustrative, Boy With A Coin the style of
amplifying, the dancing matches the style
contradicting). of the music that is being
played, both old fashioned
and classy. The movements of
the dancers hands are very
smooth as are the notes of the
piano being played. At the
same time their dancing is still
very obviously
choreographed, hips and legs
sharply in time to the guitar
strings being plucked in clearly
defined movements.
SCREENSHOT
In Laura Marling: Rambling
Man the music has a fairly
steady ‘one-two’ beat which
is in time with the visuals, to
the point where even the birds
flying and the sea waves
lapping have been edited so
their speed is in time with the
song. The music being in time
with the visuals actually
amplified meaning at some

6. points e.g. near the middle of
the song and near the end
the music sped as the man
leaped into the sea for his
freedom, emphasizing the
weight of his action and its
symbolism.
Demands of the record A large number of close ups USED – close ups
label will include the of the artists are used in all of
need for lots of close the videos, even in the ones
ups of the artist and where there is a large
the artist may develop narrative taking place in order
motifs which recur to keep the viewers back to
across their work. (a focusing on and reminding
visual style). them of the artist/band (Laura
Marling: Rambling Man). By
constantly focusing on the
face of the artist, especially if
they’re new, makes them
more memorable and a
brand in themselves.
SCREENSHOT
Conventions of the artists
appearance if men, tends to
mean fairly long hair to the
shoulders or at least floppy
around the ears or chin. This
emphasizes their masculinity
(also with suits in Mumford &
Sons: Little Lion Man), maturity

7. and life experience, which in
turn imply authenticity that
the artist knows the life issues
that they’re singing about in
their song. (Iron & Wine: Boy
With A Coin, Mumford & Sons:
Little Lion Man). Costume
tends to be very minimalist,
simple colours and traditional
cuts which lets the viewer
focus on the actual
performing of the artist and
narrative actions of any actors
if present. This makes sure to
draw more attention to the
actual music itself, instead of
being distracted by minor
details like overly extravagant
clothing with bright colours
and patterns.
SCREENSHOT
Make up if used for the
women is usually naturalistic
so subtle, which also lessens
distraction by
beauty/appearance and
gives off along with the simple
clothing an impression of
humility. (Bon Iver: Calgary)
This was turned on its head for
Laura Marling: Rambling Man
but still had the same

8. intended effect as its
extravagance of make up
only served to highlight the
humbleness of the rambling
man’s lifestyle and dourness of
his clothes.
The only video I found which
defied convention was Bon
Iver: Calgary in that the artist
did not appear at all, which
defies the convention of
showing and focusing on the
artists’ face within videos to
sell them as an artist.

9. Notions of looking (screens NOTIONS OF LOOKING
within screens, telescopes,
etc) and particularly SCREENSHOT
voyeuristic treatment of
the female body. The notions of looking are
effectively referenced in
Iron & Wine: Boy With A
Coin where the use of the
dancers watching their
own performance within
the video – hinting that
they are aware of the
audience, and they are
performing for them.
SCREENSHOT
In Laura Marling: Rambling
Man there’s a reference in
the beginning of the video
where the man looks at
himself in the mirror. This
shows his self-awareness,
and the camera shoots it
from the same angle
where he must be able to
see it and be aware of his
audience although he
does not directly look in
that direction at the
viewer.
VOYEURISTIC TREATMENT

10. OF THE FEMALE BODY
SCREENSHOT
Iron & Wine: Boy With A
Coin has chosen a slightly
more subtle way of
viewing the female body
voyeuristically. In the
medium close up shots of
the singer’s face we can
see the main dancer’s
bust behind him
emphasised further by
how her head has been
cut out of the shot.
SCREENSHOT
In Bon Iver: Calgary the
female is treated
voyeuristically as the
viewer sees her half
dressed in a sheer
nightgown tossing and
turning in her bed which is
an intimate location, and
the feeling of voyeurism
intensifies as the camera
lingers on her neck, legs
and bare skin.

11. intertextual reference (to Intertextuality was found DID NOT USE
films, TV programmes, to be rare within the music
other music videos etc.). videos that I researched,
present in only one:
Calgary – Bon Iver.
In this video, the woman
rises up out of the ground
coming up from a whole
hidden world beneath the
earth up to ground level –
this is a direct reference to
the film Pan’s Labyrinth.
As a folk rock band, part
of the genre is being very
true to the music and the
integrity of the artist – Bon
Iver’s Justin Vernon writes
his own songs and
produced the album For
Emma forever ago
independently. This is
reflected in the production
of the video. Instead of
taking clips from actual
films and embedding
them in the video, the
label has chosen to
recreate the concept of
coming from a world
underground and filmed it
themselves with their own

12. actors and extras for the
video.
This was appropriate as
the film is about a girl in
fascist spain who escapes
into a fantasy world
Technical Directions
Artist/bands / actor’s
positioning, movements,
gestures, pose and mode
of address etc.
Editing directions USE
(Match cuts, jump cut, Jump cuts
reverse shots – cutting Matched cuts
rhythm etc.) Rhythm according to pace of the song (as Rambling Man)
Selection of mise-en-scène CHALLENGE – highly stylized colour sheme, monochrome band
including colour, figure, footage to highlight guitar in red, blood of lost soldiers and a sepia
pops, lighting, objects, tone throughout footage of the soldier living in the current day who is
costume, location and still lost in thoughts of the past
setting and use of
crowds/dancers etc.
Framing of Shot
CU, MLS, ELS etc.)