1. In which ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
By Matt Davis

2.  To begin drawing out our ideas for the music
video, we used a concept called synaesthesia.
This is listening to the music and jotting
down any ideas you think of when you hear it,
and also what you imagine. From this, we
decided on a love story as the passion and
key changes was something which we felt we
could capitalise on.

3.  By using clear signs in our video, such as a heart
table mat and a candle, we used Barthes (1973)
ideas regarding ‘mythologies’. He talks about the
signifier, the signified and the sign, all which are
different. Even though the heart and candle are
both different objects, they both have the
signification of love. This is similar to the idea of
denotation and connotation, where both objects
have the initial purpose of performing their
function, such as omitting light or protection on
the table, but connote love and passion. Because
of this, it is clear we use the ‘symbolic’ type of
sign to help show passion and romance.

4.  The video also highlights a male challenging
the conventions of females as the
homemaker. Unlike in other media
products, such as Desperate Housewives, it is
evident that the boy is cooking and laying the
table, domestic chores that are normally seen
as stereotypically female. Additionally the use
of the apron and trying on different clothes
shows the effort the boy has put into the
date, which is normally an aspect of romance
which is neglected in the media.

5.  In our video, it is clear that the boy and girl
have an arrangement already planned, as it
shows the male asking her where she is,
implying they had already set a date for her
to come round to his home. This contrasts to
other videos of the similar genre, where a
stalker normally knows a lot about someone
and has a relationship with them from a far.
This means we are challenging the
stereotypical relationship of someone
stalking another.

6.  Our video also includes the theory of Eisenstein,
who developed the quick paced edits which we
consider to be montage. Because we did this, it
meant that we did not have to conform to a
narrative structure as we could have jump cuts
which appear to be out of order, yet still
amplifies the lyrics of the song in the overall
video. As we utilised the montage theory, we
decided to go against the norm of music videos
and did not include the main artist lip-syncing
the song. This therefore goes against E.A
Kaplan’s theory of using the artist to hook in the
audience, although we did use an actor to fulfil
this role.

7.  Our video also includes the use of the male and
female gaze, with the video ‘gazing’ on both sexes.
For example, the girl in the picture is in her bikini
and creates a sense of intimacy. The male character is
also exposed throughout as there are clear visuals of
him getting ready. For example, when he is shaving
and also when he is getting changed. This is the idea
of Laura Mulvey, who believes that the viewpoint of
the male directors are influencing the ways in which
women are represented in media texts. But as we had
two female directors too, it is obvious that the ‘gaze’
is balanced in the text. This means we challenged the
stereotype of the male and female gaze in our music
video.

8.  Because we did not use our artist in the video
as we did not use lip-syncing, we challenge
Richard Dyer’s theory of star power, where
the video acts as an ego-boost for the artist,
whether it could be financially, for image and
also power. He argues that this can be said
for the digipak and website too, but just like
the music video, the identity of the singer is
not revealed to the audience. As a result of
this, we challenge the theory of star power.

9.  Our video also sees us create a sense of
simulacrum. This is because we integrate the
clear images of reality, such as making a
cake, and also embed the visuals of a doll
being snapped. This contrast helps to show a
sense of reality mixed with hyper-reality. This
was used for the desired effect of mimicking
the emotion which is shown through the main
character in the video.

10.  Even though we did not use our artist in the
video, we still conform to a few of Andrew
Goodwin’s ‘key features of a music video’. The
first one is the amplification of the lyrics by the
video, where the audience reinforces their
understanding. We also used other videos for
inspiration, such as: When You’re Gone by Avril
Lavigne, Real Late Starter by NarinaPallot, Ellie
Goulding’s song Figure 8, and Watchtower by Ed
Sheeran featuring Devlin. This means that we
conformed to Goodwin’s theory.

11.  A final theory we incorporated into our media
video was the use of AvantGarde. We used a
type of this called Surrealism, which is
combining realistic and unrealistic images to
create a new reality – this is known as
surreality. This is also known as the strand of
AvantGarde which was used in the 1928 film,
Un ChienAndalou.


12.  My website and digipak however conform to
website conventions. For example, my website
fulfills the purpose of a site which is to maintain
communication between the artist and the fans.
This can be shown by the website having a
contact us section, Twitter and Facebook links
and also latest news. From my research on
website pages, such as Bruno Mars, Will.I.Am and
Taylor Swift, I found that my website had many
similarities to those artist sites.


13.  But our site also goes against conventions of
the media products, as we did not use a band
or show the performer. Because of this, the
artist is not shown on the website or the
digipak, which is very uncommon. As
mentioned earlier, this flouts the theory of
star power and appeal.