The document analyzes how the music video for Tom Wiles' project conforms and challenges conventions of real music videos based on theories by Andrew Goodwin. It uses narrative and repetition to engage audiences, and explores themes of grief and memory through locations and editing. While it does not feature the artist, it uses close-ups and flashbacks like other artists' videos. The print materials also conform to conventions through their design, themes, and references to the artist's style. Overall, the project both challenges conventions by being unconventional in parts, while conforming in other ways through its narrative focus and references to similar artists.

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

2. Andrew Goodwin’s Theory Related to our
Music Video
 When relating the music video to the
theories of Andrew Goodwin (Dancing In
the Distraction Factory- 1992), the video
can be seen as unconventional in many
ways, however conventional in some ways
due to the genre- alternative, incorporating
genres of POP and R&B. There is no
performance featured in the video, no lip
syncing or feature of the artist in the video,
instead being more narrative based,
opposing Goodwin’s theory that
performance in a video can keep the viewer
more engaged and helps to build upon the
image of the artist.
Above are some key frames from our music video

3.  We also used purely narrative to
incorporate factors of repeatability
throughout, which does conform to
Goodwin’s theories, in order to constantly
reinforce the fairly sad story the video
explores and again engage audiences.
Repeatability was achieved by
using the same locations on
two different lines of action in
the video, we did this through
editing to create juxtaposition
between these lines of actions
and the emotions that
surround them
This is evident from the images above, showing
the two characters when they were young
feeding the ducks on a bench, juxtaposed to the
next shot of just George looking very alone on
the same bench following his brothers death.

4.  When exploring the relationship
between the song and the visuals,
according to Goodwin, would be
seen as an amplifying relationship,
using this to illustrate the general
meaning behind the lyrics of the
song which can be based upon
mourning or missing somebody,
we edited the cutting rate to
relate to the song pace and beat
in order to do this, making the
video conventional in this way.
For example the second line of the song is
“And when my eyes are closed I can start to feel you staring at
me.” The visual we matched with this line is shown below
This cannot be described as illustrative as the character is not
closing his eyes, however through his facial expression and non-
verbal language we can tell that his brother is on his mind, looking
out the window to metaphorically connote that he misses him/
hopes he is staring down at him.

5.  There are some genre conventions
apparent in our music video according
to Goodwin, this includes being
narrative based which alternative artists
tend to focus on, such as artists like
Coldplay and Ed Sheeran, where
emphasis is placed on the lyrics and
meaning of the song which is
demonstrated through the music video,
opposed to using music videos to build
the star image or sell the artist as a
product.
The above image is a screenshot from
the Ed Sheeran song ‘Photograph’ which
follows the memories of the artist as he
grows up, focusing mainly upon two lines
of action of him being young and older-
similar to our video. We took some
inspiration from this style and form of
music video.

6.  The emotional narrative the video follows contributes to the authenticity of Jack
Garratt as a solo artist as it makes the audience more relatable to Jack Garratt as the
themes explored e.g. mourning and grief, take place in everyday life. It also conforms
to his meta-narrative through other videos such as ‘Weathered’ by Jack Garratt that
follows the outdoor activities of 3 brothers or friends, a similar narrative to our own.
These images are screenshots from
‘Weathered’ by Jack Garratt. As you can see
the video is purely narrative based and also
features brothers in predominantly exterior
locations like our own video. This shows
how our video can be seen as conventional
when related to the artist.

7.  Goodwin’s theories are also applied through camerawork, for example a
frequent use of meat shots or close-ups to maximise consumption of the
artist, as well as the ‘notion of looking’, most commonly through
intertextual reference.
Our video did not conform to this by using the artist directly, as
he is not featured in the music video. However we adopted these
features to be used in our own unconventional way. For example
frequent close-ups are used of the protagonist in our video, doing
this to emphasise the effect the loss of a brother has had on him,
this created parasocial intimacy between the viewer and
character. This contributed to viewers taking a more focused
viewing on the video which we had hoped for and ,through
research, is also intended for all of Jack Garratt’s music videos
which are similarly mostly narrative based.
An example of one of the close-ups used
This is a screenshot from
Jack Garratt’s video for
‘Chemical’ which is a purely
narrative based video
revolving around obsession
and missing someone.

8.  Again unconventionally our video did not feature
intertextual reference, however the use of two different
timelines in the video allowed us to explore the use of
‘flashbacks’, this again emphasises the construction of
parasocial intimacy between viewers and characters and
also constructs the representation that these scenes are
like memories. These memory narratives are frequently
made use by alternative artists similar to Jack Garratt, for
example Ed Sheeran- Photograph and Adele- Hello,
which could therefore be seen as conventional when
considering genre.
Instead of intertextual references, we tried using
intertextual relay, where we took ideas from the videos we
had analysed in the planning stage of the project, for
example the use of fading out characters, used as visual
signifiers to represent the brothers death, were taken
from ‘Pull Me down’, a song by Mikky Ekko, as well as
featuring a heartfelt, relatable narrative, taken from ‘Time’
by Chase and Status ft Delilah.
An example of the ‘flashback’ scenes
throughout the video of the two brothers
when young. The images above show an example of the ‘fades’ in both
our video and the Mikky Ekko video.

9. Audience Readings
 When relating our video to Stuart Hall’s audience
positioning theory, there are few audience
readings to be explored.
 The preferred reading of our video is fairly
obvious, that the narrative follows two brothers,
one of whom has died (shown predominantly by
the gravestone as a visual signifier), following the
effect this has had on his older brother and the
memories they had together. This was achieved by
the repeatability of the locations used in two of
the three different timelines, one of George alone
and the other of the two brothers together when
younger as well as mise-en-scene such as facial
expression to show the emotional distress of the
character.
 When considering negotiated readings of the video, the
most prominent would be that instead of the two
characters being brothers, they are very good friends or
even in a relationship. This may happen when a viewer is
watching the video in an ambient way, not fully paying
attention to the narrative, constructing narrative fuzz.
All three timelines, in order of most recent first.
1 2
3

10. The Print Campaign
 When looking at the magazine advertisement, it’s form is
relatively conventional. This is apparent as there is a high
image to text ratio, this is necessary for advertisements as
they must boldly represent the message of the artist and
his new work, this is most evident from the artists name
on the advert which is shown in bold, block capital letters
in colours that stand out from the image (black and
white)
Further information also shown in the
advert is also conventional, including the
album name, its release date and where
the album will be available in an attempt
to sell the artist as a marketing
technique, often called a call to action,
used on nearly all artists print work.
This information is shown in the images
below which are pieces taken from the
advertisement.

11. Typography
 One of the key visual signifiers used on our print work
was the font used and its style, we used a font called
‘Typographica’.
 We chose this font as it’s style was very similar to fonts
used on Jack Garratt’s previous EP’s and
advertisements as you can see from the image.
 We further took this style by removing parts of the A’s
in the name, doing this made our print work look more
iconic of the artist as well as helping the artists name,
encoded to be the first point of the reading path of
the digipak and advertisement, further enforced on the
advert by shadowing letters to give them a bolder
look.
Above images are from the
advertisement and front
digipak pane.
These above images are taken from real Jack
Garratt EP’s: ‘Remnants’ and ‘Weathered’ and
from album cover ‘Phase’. Illustrating the
various similarities

12. Semiotics
 There are various signifiers displayed on
the digipak panes. The front pane solely
displays the artist but through the use of
costume, in particular the hat, beard and
stylish jacket.
 As you can see from the image of the
real Jack Garratt, his style is similar in
these ways as well as the iconic font
used, showing how we used iconic
signifiers of the artist to construct his
image and form this pane of the digipak
and make it conventional to this artist.

13.  The back pane of the digipak also displays
signifiers. The main focus point of the image
is the headphones. The headphones were
used as an indexical signifier in order to
represent the artists credibility as an artist, to
highlight his authenticity and enforce the
fact that he is responsible for all of his work.
This in turn constructs the image that this
artist has talent and is creative.
 I took inspiration from digipaks from DJ’s
like Paul Kalkbrenner, who are seen using
headphones on digipak panes. We did this
to reflect the electronica genre Jack Garratt
frequently incorporates into his music. One of Paul
Kalkbrenner’s
digipak covers,
featuring similar
headphones.

14.  It is seen as conventional to display
the artist on the front cover of a
digipak, especially in the indie pop
and R&B genres that Jack Garratt
incorporates into his music. We did
this to follow conventions used by
so many alternative solo artists for
example Ellie Golding or Florence
and The Machine, hoping to
maximise audience consumption of
Jack Garratt through this digipak.
 The images show just some of the
digipaks that we adopted this idea
from

15.  The middle panes of the digipak paid homage to our
music video as it is one of the woodland locations used,
making these panes a visual signifier from the video. We
did this primarily to represent links between both the
print work and music video, as the advert features the
children used in the video- to construct a cohesive image
of Jack Garratt across all platforms.
 This woodland location signifies a tunnel, this can be
analysed in many ways, our preferred reading of this is to
reflect the tunnel of light when referenced to life and
death, exploring these themes reflects those used in Jack
Garratt’s songs, often of everyday problems of heartbreak.
 This can be seen as conventional as these themes are
often explored by alternative artists who carry a similar
image.
Use on digipak
Use in music video

16. Jacques Derrida Binary Oppositions
 The green and red effect added to the black and white edited images on both the
digipak and the advertisement were used to connote themes explored in the video
and catch the eye of viewers, mainly highlighting the binary opposite between light
and dark, being metaphors for happiness and sadness, themes often explored by Jack
Garratt in songs such as ‘Weathered’ and ‘Chemical’.
According to Jacques Derrida,
conventional media texts
contain binary opposites. One
binary opposite apparent in our
music video is the binary
between having family and
being alone, evident from the
images to the right. In the video
we explore being alone as the
worse of the two by showing
emotional distress, this can be
seen as conventional as an
isolated individual is culturally
marked as being a lower social
value.
This idea of using colours to create
binary opposites was continued in
the video, with the dark shots
connoting the sadness and shots in
colour connoting happiness, when
the two brothers were together as
shown in the images to the left.

17. Music Video Style
 The style of the music video can be seen as
postmodern in some ways. The first way this is
apparent is through editing techniques such as the
time lapse used which detracts from the realism of the
video, this is also apparent during the ‘fades’
throughout the video as well as some of the dream like
locations such as the path through trees.
 However, we wanted to keep the style of the video
fairly realistic in order to enforce the sad narrative that
occurs in everyday life around the world, as well as the
themes stemmed from this like sadness and mourning.
Time lapse shot
Shot of one of the ‘fades’

18.  We believed keeping this verisimilitude style would represent
the artist as relatable and authentic, which Jack Garratt’s
public image is most commonly represented as in his videos,
for example ‘Chemical’. This challenges conventions in some
more mainstream, worldwide artists but conforms to the
conventions of other similar artists like Adele, who has no
apparent post modern styles in her videos.
Adele’s video for ‘Hello’ follows the
narrative of her visiting all the
places she used to go with her ex
boyfriend who she now misses,
including memories of the two
together in different locations and
all shots connote realism to enforce
this. This narrative is very similar to
our own, highlighting its
conventionally of the alternative
genre.

19. Narrative Closure
 The video does not have a structured closure,
however it does confirm the dominant
ideology of the video that one of the brothers
is dead, rather than just not around.
 To enforce this we used the gravestone as a
visual signifier. The ending can be seen as
unconventional when related to mainstream
narrative structures, for example when
relating the video to the theories of Todorov,
who believes the story will end with a new
equilibrium.
 This is not apparent in our video as there is no narrative
resolution, therefore showing the narrative structure is
unconventional in some ways.
 However the video does revolve around the disruption of the
past equilibrium, which is a factor in Todorov’s theory, so can
be seen as conventional in this way.