The document analyzes how the media product deconstructed existing music videos to understand conventions of the genre. It summarizes that the media product followed conventions like using romantic locations and showing intimacy between couples, but also subverted some expectations. Specifically, it portrayed the male protagonist atypically and gave the relationship a less idealized ending to provide a realistic perspective.

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

2. Initial Research
By deconstructing existing music videos, we were able to
analyse what conventions worked and what didn’t. It made
me realise that in order to create a successful media
product, I needed to follow the essential conventions that
people recognise.
In our research, we found that music videos can be
categorized in terms of style:
• Performance – Band/ artist playing.
• Narrative – Includes story.
• Mixture – Both performance and narrative based.
• Cameo – Band/ artist features in the narrative but doesn’t
perform.
After watching and deconstructing Taylor Swift’s
video ,‘Mine’ (mixture), Rihanna’s video, ‘We found love’
(mixture), and Benjamin Francis Leftwich’s video, ‘Atlas

3. Deconstructing existing media products
After deciding that we wanted to create a music video in the ‘romance’ genre, we looked at various real music
videos within the same genre to gain an understanding of the codes and conventions used. Taylor Swift’s
‘Mine’ and Rihanna’s ‘We found love’ present two very different relationships; one is more innocent and sweet,
whilst the other is very destructive and dangerous. This is because they both target different audiences.
Taylor Swift conveys
Beach location Couple are shown to be in love a ‘girl next door’
connotes through the proxemics: kissing, stereotype whereas
Girl – wearing romance dancing, hugging, holding hands etc. Rihanna’s character is
Happy ending – more bold and adventurous.
white to connote and nature.
Natural sunlight connotes Mise-en- couple
purity and
happiness and love. get married.
innocence scene Characters
(Taylor Swift), or
stockings and Male protagonist is
crop top presented as an
(Rihanna) alpha-male – good
suggesting a looking, confident, charming.
more bold/
daring
Costume
personality. Blue tones are cold
s and and harsh, connoting
props sadness.
Jewellery (ring) Close up of hands Editing
symbolizes the with focus on the
Camera work Darkened
unity of the ring and touching of haze framing
shot creates a Sepia tones connoting
couple. hands connotes love. warmth and love,
Two shot of dreamy effect.
creating
Neutral make up Close ups of main couple a sense of nostalgia.
and clothing is protagonists to establishingJump cuts create
the
simple and natural. highlight excitement reflecting the feeling of being in love.
relationship.
mutual attraction.

4. Codes and Conventions used in our video
Taylor Swift – ‘Mine’ Our video Codes and conventions
We used a close up of our female protagonist looking u
the male protagonist, showing an instant attraction. The
of the romantic novel, ‘Birdsong’ connotes that the fema
character is an intelligent, hopeless romantic, foreshado
the love that unfolds in the video’s narrative.
This two shot is conventional of the romance genre beca
it clearly establishes the relationship between the two
characters. We’ve included many two shots throughout t
video for this reason. The proxemics of this shot also co
that the couple are in love because they are holding han
and smiling.
Many scenes of our video are filmed at the beach, as w
understood that this was a romantic location. When foc
on the mise-en-scene, we filmed many shots with the se
view, as it connotes peace and nature, reflecting the lo
the relationship. The natural lighting creates a sense of
and happiness.
The proxemics we used throughout the video clearly foll
the conventions of a romance genre, with the couple kis
hugging, holding hands, smiling, laughing etc.
See more

5. Taylor Swift – ‘Mine’ Our video Codes and conventions
In Taylor Swift’s video, a wedding ring is used to symbolis
the unity of the couple. Similarly, we used the prop of a s
heart necklace to represent the love within the relationship
When the love deteriorates and comes to an end, the neck
is taken off symbolising that the love is over. To highlight
significance of this prop, we used extreme close ups.
In the post-production stages of our project, we edited the
video to have tones of blue and sepia towards the end of
narrative, when the couple are fighting. This connotes the
sadness felt by the characters and ultimately the audience
empathises with them further because of the colder, darke
atmosphere.
We’ve used POV shots to make the video more personal, a
make the audience empathise more with the characters.
These shots are used particularly in the montage sequence
create the impression that the couple are using a hand hel
camera, making memories, eg. on the beach the female
protagonist is playfully running away from the camera and
looking directly into it as if the male protagonist is filming
In the same way Taylor Swift’s video uses photographs as
visual motif symbolising a collection of memories, we’ve us
photographs in our video of the couple and have presented
them in a scrapbook, creating a sense of nostalgia. These
photos are included in the girl’s bedroom and at the end o
video when she puts them into a scrapbook.

6. Subverted codes and conventions
Male Protagonist
We challenged the ‘alpha-male’ stereotype that’s often presented in romantic media te
decided to make our male protagonist a quirky, intellectual, indie character; perhaps
a more realistic portrayal of a modern teenager, as opposed to the typically good
looking, over confident ‘alpha-male’ stereotype. We chose to do this because we want
make our male protagonist relatable to our target audience and provide a different ta
romantic genre. However, we decided to make our
female protagonist fit into the ‘girl next door’ stereo-
type, following a convention of the romance genre.
Ending
One of the main criticisms of the romance genre is that it sets up unrealistic expectations
for what life is really like. Taking this into account, Rachel and I wanted to subvert the
traditional ‘happily ever after’ ending and create a narrative that gives a realistic portrayal
of young love. We wanted to make comparisons between the idealistic and modern-day
perceptions of love and relationships by portraying a couple who appear to be happily in love,
however it's not the perfect fairytale ending and the love fades. We showed this through the
use of editing, camera work and props. The blue tones connote sadness as and a sense of loss
as the relationship deteriorates, the close up of the girl crying shows her heartbreak and the
necklace being taken off symbolises that the love is over. The scrapbook was a key prop, as it
holds a collection of memories, representing the couple’s relationship. Our video ends with the
girl placing the necklace into the scrapbook, as that’s the last piece left of their relationship.
She then closes the book, signifying that the love is over and she’s accepted it’s time to move
on. The front cover of the scrapbook is our album cover ancillary, linking the products together,
however we decided to make the title word “forever” creating a sense of irony. This challenges