The document discusses the conventions used in creating a music video for the dance genre. It begins by defining genre and explaining how genres have certain formulas and conventions that help audiences identify the genre. It then lists some key conventions of the dance genre, including fast cutting to the beat, colorful settings like clubs or parties, dancing, and minimal clothing. The document discusses how the student's music video conformed to these dance genre conventions and Goodwin's theories about music video conventions to appeal to the dance genre's target audience. Examples are provided comparing shots in the student's video to a professional dance video.

1. T H O M A S G I L B E R T
In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media texts

2. Genre
Genre comes from the French word meaning ‘type’ or ‘class’.
Genres appear in many mediums and the one I am studying is
music videos. For our music video we decided to go with the
dance genre as we all have an interest in that music and it is
quite popular at the moment. A theorist called Williams
defined genre as “formats and formulas” and these genres
have certain conventions or formulas that they follow in order
to ensure success and make a profit. This is because genres
have an audience and when they see these conventions used
people will automatically know if it is a genre they like or not.
When making our video we made sure we conformed to the
dance genres conventions so that we would have an audience.

3. Conventions of the dance genre
 Cutting in time to the beat of the
song which is generally fast.
 Lots of colours and variety…a lot
is generally going on.
 A setting like in a club, festival or
a party are quite common.
 Woman with minimal clothing.
 Dancing, this could be a choreographed dance or possibly just
out and about people having a good time.
 They also allow for a lot of freedom as the dance genre possibly
has the most varied music videos out there, but you can always
tell what genre it is.

4. Conventions of music videos
 Andrew Goodwin wrote a book called ‘Dancing in the Distraction
Factory (1992) and he identified key features of music videos in
relation to the songs:
 There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals on
screen.
 Also a relationship between the music and the visuals.
 Each different genre has its own video style and iconography.
 Close up shots of the artist/band
 Voyeurism, especially with females
 Intertextual references (could be
to other music videos, films or TV
texts)

5. Conventions we used
 We conformed to most of Goodwin’s key features of a
music video including things such as close ups of the
band and relationship between the lyrics and the
visuals. The dance genre was definitely shown with
its face paced shots and colourfulness.
 We conformed to these conventions to ensure we
had an audience. We knew that the dance genre has
a big audience already, mostly teenagers and young
adults and so we wanted to use these conventions to
make it noticeable that the genre was in fact dance.

6. Comparisons to real media texts
These are a couple screenshots from our video in comparison to Avicii – The Nights (music
video) and as you can see we included shots and conventions as seen in professional videos
that conformed to the dance genre and Goodwin's theory on music videos itself

7. Subverted to any conventions
 It is very common to see the notion of the male gaze on
woman in music videos nowadays but we challenged this
convention.
 Our video was only of our band which consists of 4 males
and there wasn’t any voyeuristic shots
 We did not intend to use any intertextual references but as
our video is shot in London and we have some shots with
famous landmarks like Big Ben
then it would have some link to
other music videos, TV or films set
in the same location.
Sigala – Sweet Lovin’

8. Mise-en-scene
The clothing in our video was just what we would wear
on a regular day, so people of our age could relate and
possibly wear some of the same clothes. This would
mean that people of similar age or taste in fashion
might be interested in the song more or possibly just
the music video.
We were riding round London using Boris Bikes which
for anyone who has never been to London or doesn’t
live there probably wouldn’t know what they are.
People who know about them could relate and
recognise some of the places we visited and where we
got the bikes from like Hyde Park.
Some of the places we visited on our journey are iconic
that most people would know even if they haven't
visited London before, these include; Big Ben and
Buckingham Palace. We chose London not only
because it is close to us but also because we wanted the
audience to know where we were and it is a lot more
exciting than riding round in a small town.

9. Mise-en-scene in real media texts
Boris Bike – David Vujanic
This song is conveniently
named Boris Bike because they
are quite literally just riding
Boris Bikes around the streets
of London. You can also see by
the clothing that they are
wearing that it isn’t much
different that what we wear in
ours, hoodies, jeans and a
snapback are just some of the
things that are similar.

10. Camerawork
Throughout the whole filming process we only used one camera
and this camera has a fish eye lens so all of our shots are wide,
this helped getting shots like this to show the scenery and
someone else so we could see what they are seeing.
This is a point of view (POV) shot and it gives the audience a
closer look into what the person it seeing in real life and what
they are looking at, the wide angle also helped this be a good
establishing shot as we can see the majority of the building.
Low angle shots are generally used to show power as the
audience is looking up at the person but here we used it to
capture the scenery above as in china town there are many of
these lights hanging from building to building and it makes for
a cool looking shot.
We used the close up shot many times during our video. This
makes the audience get a better view of the actual person and
for that short time everything is focused on them. Most of the
times the camera was close up we were smiling as well to
portray a positive vibe

11. Camerawork in real media texts
Avicii – Waiting for love
There were many different
shots and angles used in this
music video similar to ours, as
you can see the close ups,
establishing/wide shot and the
low angle shot. These all have
their own effects to make the
audience look or feel a certain
way, for example the low angle
shot in this video gives the
bikers power as they are in a
group and we are looking up at
them.

12. Sound and Real media text comparison
 The only sound we had in the whole video was the music itself as we didn’t
want the noises of the cars and people talking in London to interrupt the song.
We had to mute each individual clip to ensure there were no noises in the
background.
 We downloaded the song off Goldstar’s SoundCloud as an mp3 file so that we
could just import it into the editing software and produce the music video.
 It is usually the case that in most music videos they only play the song and have
no background noise but in some they like to have some to create a sense of
realism. For example in Eminem’s song ‘Stan’ the sound of rain is played lightly
in the background the whole way through. On the other hand, Avicii’s song
‘Hey Brother’ plays only the music

13. Editing
 The editing process for this music video was quite long as we had hours of
footage that we had to shorten down to just 3 minutes.
 Not only this but because the song is so fast paced it makes for very short clips
so there had to be sometimes 5 shots per second.
 We used the slow-motion effect when the music calmed down a bit just before
it picked up the pace again. This made for a good contrast and looked well.
 We also done the complete opposite and sped up certain clips to create a sort of
time lapse and this effect went well with when the music was fast as everything
was moving fast on screen.

14. Editing in real media texts
Avicii – The Nights
Editing is the key part of most music
videos or any production. It’s the
stage where all the pieces fit together.
In this video for the song ‘The Nights’
there were many techniques used
such as the slow-mo, fast paced shots
and time lapses. This are used in
different areas of the song usually
indicating the speed of the song
currently to fit in.

15. Conventions of Magazine Posters
Colour theme, black white and
gold for this advert and they
possibly made her look more white
to contrast with the black.
The artists name is big and
bold so it is the most dominant
thing on the advert and
therefore stands out to the
audience.
An orange
block to put the
writing on as it
stands out
more than if it
was on an
image.
Date of when the album is
released, second biggest text
on the advert.
The name of the album is also
in big text so that it catches
the audience attention.
One big image on the poster
and everything else is just text,
unlike the other two.
Advertising the
artists official
website but in small
print because its
not the most
important thing
Distribution/
production
company logo
in the bottom
corners
The artist
covers most of
the advert so
the audience
knows right
away who it is.

16. Conventions we used
The name of the album
at the top in big writing
Black banner
to separate
writing from
the image
Main image of
the whole
poster takes up
80%. The band
themselves so
people know
who it is
The production
company for the
group
The artists name at the
top in biggest writing
Information that
this is their debut
album and the date
it is out. Also where
you can buy the
album from
All the artists
social media, so
that the audience
can keep up with
information and
contact them
The artists website

17. Conventions of Digipak’s
Where
the disk
would be
Track list
numbered
Front cover of the digipak
including artist name and
album name
Terms and conditions,
legal information
The whole digipak
follows a theme
One picture going onto
2 different sections
Barcode and
production
company
Spine containing
album name

18. Conventions we used
The theme of our
digipak is mainly from
the music video of
darken day
Net of where the CD would be
Front cover of
the digipak
including
image of the
group, also
album and
artists name
Spine, with
the artists
name and the
name of the
albumTrack list
numbered
Production
company logo
and barcode
Extra information like terms
and conditions and legal info
Front and back image link as they are the
same place taken in the light and dark