The document analyzes a music video created for an advanced portfolio project. It examines how the video supports and challenges conventions of the pop genre through aspects like color, costume, lighting, shot types, editing, narrative, and locations. Key conventions that were supported include bright colors, fashionable clothing, studio lighting, fast editing to match the beat. The video challenged conventions by having a narrative focused on bullying rather than romance and less revealing/natural costumes and makeup aimed at a younger audience.

2. Advanced portfolio task
For our advanced portfolio project we had to create a music video
and two ancillary tasks.
In this presentation I will analyse our music video which was from
the pop genre and explain how we used, challenged and
developed conventions of real media products. I think our music
video fits the conventions of pop really well and challenges them
in positive ways which will be explained through the power point.

3. Colour
We researched pop videos
and found that the majority of
them had very vibrant colours
and backdrops that stand out
and we wanted to incorporate
it in our video.
The Saturdays “If This Is Love”
Christina Aguilera “Candy Man”

4. Our music video also has
bright back drops and bright
costume.
Our music video supports
conventions that the pop
genre has bright and vibrant
clothing and bright colours
in general in the video.

5. Through research I have also
found that people in the pop
genre are always up to date
with fashion and are often
style icons.
Supporting conventions of costume

6. We included this in our video by
wearing clothes that are in fashion
at the moment. We wanted to
have a similar look because we
thought it would appeal more to
our target audience of young girls
who follow fashion.

7. I have also found that a lot of
other pop videos have very
revealing clothes in their
videos.
Challenging conventions of costume
We have aimed our video at
a younger audience of 11-16
year old girls therefore
costume that is revealing
would be inappropriate and a
bad influence on younger
girls.

8. We chose to wear more
appropriate outfits that are a
better influence and sends
across a better message.
This also challenges Laura
Mulvey’s theory of the male
gaze which states that in
every media product woman
are seen as sexual objects.

9. In the majority of videos I
looked at the artist was also
wearing a lot of make up.
We wanted a more
natural look to continue
the positive influence on
young girls and to tell
them they don’t need to
wear loads of make up.
Heavy eye make up
and heavy lipstick.
Very small amount of eye
make up and no lipstick.

10. Lighting
A lot of pop videos have
very high level lighting and
often use just a studio to
perform with studio lights
to make it brighter.
We also used the studio for
all of our performance shots
in our video and we used
studio lights and also made
it brighter during editing to
fit the conventions of the
pop videos.

11. Shot Types
When researching girl groups songs
I found that Little Mix (our chosen
band) had a very wide variety of
shot types in their video and so do
a lot of the other videos in our
genre that I looked at.

12. Shot types
We also did this in our video which gave it more variety and made it more interesting
to view. We used a range of extreme close ups to long shots. This fits the
conventions of pop because they are normally fast songs with very upbeat editing.

13. When watching Little Mix’s
video I also saw that they had
split the screen and made all 4
solo performances visible at the
same time.
We also did this in our video as
we thought it was really creative
and we had our individual
backgrounds behind us which
highlight our personalities. It
suits the conventions of pop as it
is bright and colourful.

14. Editing
Through researching videos I
have found that pop videos
always have very fast paced
editing which matches the
beat of the music.
0.26 seconds
0.27 seconds
There are rarely more
than two seconds in
between shots meaning it
is very fast paced editing.

15. Editing
We supported this in our
video by cutting a lot between
shots and not having more
than approximately 2 seconds
between shots. This helped
our video look more like a
pop video.
3 mins 21 seconds
3 mins 22 seconds

16. Narrative – challenging.
We challenged conventions of
narrative as a lot of the videos I
researched didn’t have narrative
at all and just performance shots
in studios including out chosen
song – Little Mix, Wings and
other pop videos.

17. We challenged this by using
narrative in our video. Because
our song didn’t have a narrative,
we were able to be creative and
choose what narrative we wanted
to use. We carefully looked at the
lyrics and decided what would be
suitable.

18. We also challenged conventions
by not having a story line of
romance like Rihanna, Taylor
Swift, Beyonce and a lot of other
pop artists. Romantic story lines
came up a lot in my research.

19. We chose a girl being bullied
because our target audience is
school girls of 11-16 years old
so it would appeal to them
more as romantic story lines
are very popular and they see
them a lot therefore is not very
interesting.

20. Supporting narrative
Andrew Goodwin
We supported his theory that videos are an extension of the lyrics. We
looked carefully at our lyrics and decided on a suitable narrative.
“Your words don’t mean a thing, I’m not listening, keep talking.”
The words in this song are motivational so the narrative fits in and makes the
audience support the girl who is being bullied.

21. Jessie J supports Andrew Goodwin in her video “Who’s Laughing Now”. Our
video and hers have quite similar narrative and is both based on the words of
the song.

22. Todorov’s theory of narrative
We also support Todorov’s theory as our video has a disruption (the girl
being bullied) and an equilibrium (they make up at the end).
Bullies send a nasty text to
the young girl.
The young girl then walks out
of the class upset.

23. The girls then get told off
and have their phones taken.
They feel guilty about
sending messages to the girl.

24. They then go and
apologise to the girl they
were bullying and the
problem is solved in the
end and they are all equal.

25. Locations
When researching locations in
pop videos I found that the
majority of them had
performance shots that were only
in a studio behind a back drop
and there was very minimal
performance shots outside.
Little mix “Wings”
Beyonce “Sweet Dreams” Jessie J “Domino”

26. I also found that the locations
chosen for narrative shots are
normally in public places such
as bars or outside in town
areas or in the country side.
Locations
Tulisa “Sight Of You”
Rihanna “Man Down” Beyonce “If I Were A Boy”

27. We supported these conventions
because we had all of our
performance shots behind a back
drop and in studios and our
narrative shots were in the school
as it was about a school student
being bullied.
Locations