The document discusses a music video production that aimed to challenge conventions of both the indie music genre and mainstream media more broadly. The video used a narrative style common to indie music videos but incorporated some unconventional elements like non-linear storytelling. It also featured a homosexual couple, seeking to represent relationships typically left out of media. While audience feedback confirmed the intended messages were understood, some aspects like the ending's clarity or connotations of femininity from rose imagery could have been improved by considering alternative interpretations of the conventions used.

2. Our music video is of a narrative style, this being immediately conventional of the indie genre. A vast majority of indie music intends to tell
a story through lyrics, hence narrative-style music videos are best suited to convey this message. Within our own production, we identified
the song ‘Not Enough’ to depict a sad, nostalgic tone surrounding lost love, and thus selected a narrative which was conventional to the
genre. This can be deemed successful on account of audience feedback, wherein participants stated that they were able to identify the
genre due to the ‘deep meanings’ within the video, as well as the ‘heartfelt’ storyline. The clarity of this preferred reading (Hall) was
supported by their ability to understand the narrative, identifying it to follow the story of a character ‘angry that they’re broken up but
remembering all the past memories’. In spite of this, we were able to develop aspects of conventional indie music videos by using a non-
linear time frame. Though lack of chronology is often featured in performance-style videos, this is atypical of narrative-based videos.
Neale’s theory of ‘repetition and difference’ can thus be applied to our video, on the basis that we reinforced some aspects of
conventionality whilst simultaneously altering others in order to suit the needs of our narrative, as well as to construct a unique selling
point. In order to improve, however, we could have ensured greater clarity with regard to the story told through ‘memories’. Audience
feedback informed me that within ‘the ending on the bus’ it was difficult to ‘tell what that was trying to show’. As a result, the narrative of
the production would have benefitted from more careful consideration of the message conveyed by flashback scenes. This links to the
fact that, within conventional narrative styles, the audience expect a sense of solution which makes them feel more hopeful about their
own lives. Though we intended construct this through the scenes in which the protagonist packed all his ‘memories’ into a box, this would
have arguably been more successful had we communicated the ending of their relationship with more clarity.

3. In terms of character, we intended for our production to oppose stereotypes and conventions. We aimed to achieve this through
the inclusion and representation of a homosexual couple, which is atypical of the heterosexual relationships conventionally
displayed in mainstream media. This therefore challenged conventions not only of indie music videos, however further of the
romance genre within the music video industry. Within research, I discovered that although music videos are typically used as
marketing devices, they are increasingly considered to be an art form. Through the use of character, we intended not only to
challenge the former convention, but rather to tap into the second and create an artistic product which challenges societal
conventions. By taking Dyer’s theory that stereotypes legitimise inequality, our hope was to construct characters who bridged
rather than widened the gap between social groups (in this case, between heterosexuality and homosexuality). We therefore
opposed excessively effeminate stereotypes of homosexuality in order to create characters whose defining feature was not their
sexuality, but instead whose relationship was interchangeable with that of a man and woman. This challenges hyperreal
constructions (Gramsci) that those in homosexual relationships are an inevitable ‘other’, and aims to normalise them through their
representation within the media. Evidence of our success can be seen through audience feedback, wherein respondents
accepted our preferred reading (Hall) and identified the overall message to be that ‘it doesn’t matter who you love’ or that they’re
‘just as good as any other relationship’. It was, however, mentioned that the inclusion of roses made the representation of young
men appear ‘feminine’. Though our preferred reading here was to reinforce the normality of homosexual relationships by featuring
conventionally heterosexual behaviour, the fact that some viewers formed a negotiated reading of femininity suggests that we did
not sufficiently consider the variety of connotations different aspects of character could have.

7. To conclude, I am confident that we were able to successfully utilise, develop and challenge
conventions within our music video production. Though I feel as though this was more
effective in certain areas that others – i.e the unconventionality of character served a
stronger purpose than the conventionality of our editing – I am pleased with the
connotations and readings that have arisen from our video. In order to improve, I would
have considered in more depth the various interpretations which a convention can have (i.e
the use of roses is conventionally romantic, however we overlooked the fact that it can
further communicate femininity), whilst simultaneously taking into account a wider variety of
conventional technical techniques (i.e camerawork and editing).