The document discusses and evaluates a student's media coursework project which included a music video, poster, and album cover. The student analyzes how their project relates to conventions of the indie music genre, including focusing on deeper themes rather than sexual imagery. They also discuss how their ancillary materials like the poster complement the overall theme of the video and album, and how feedback taught them that videos telling stories are more engaging than abstract dance videos.

1. Media Coursework Evaluation By Sam Nellist

2. Does my video use, Challenge, develop media conventions? My product does not directly follow any genre conventions as the actual genre of the song featured in my music video is Indie. In videos from the Indie band genre there is no particular guide lines and the videos tend to be very abstract and random. One of the ways my video may challenge convention is because the video I have made focuses mainly on friendship or even gay relationships, however the audience wants to perceive it. The basic story of my video is as following. Two men have shared a house for years and one of them is leaving to attend his new job which is located in a new town, as the young man leaves he is haunted by visions of his friend and ultimately decides that being with his friend means more to him than a larger salary.

3. Examples of Goodwin's theories My video does follow the guidelines of Goodwin's Analysis, for example the lyrics are linked to the video visually. In one part of my video the lyrics “Keep on running, keep, keep on running there's no place like home, there’s no place like home” are visually followed by the protagonist sprinting home.

4. The genre must follow genre characteristics Indie videos tend to have a very happy and positive theme, and the characters in the videos tend to fit into the genre’s dress style and happy, eccentric stereotype. My video relates allot to the song i have chosen as it deals with deeper issues as opposed to allot of other music videos as they tend to concentrate on sexual imagery.

5. Genre follows record label style After doing a little research into the white lies record label GEFFEN I have discovered that they mainly target rock bands and since the song I am including in my video is technically indie rock it fits into the style of the label in many ways. For example the shots used in the videos target the band as a whole and usually have a story unfolding visually.

6. Another one of Goodwin's rules is that there is usually intertextuality between videos, music and other aspects.

7. How effective is the combination of my main product and ancillary texts? All of my products in truth touch upon a fantasy like theme, and like the saying are a little outside the box. For example the colours used in my poster and album cover are very dark yet have a look of serenity and relaxation about them. My whole video is shot in black and white to show the simplicity of human morals, the general message being simple, we always know wrong from right, Being that the right option is always the hardest. I would say that personally my products gel together quite well, but in honesty if I understood the Indie genre better I'm sure I could improve further.

8. My Album cover My poster uses dark colours to add a more mysterious, meaningful and deeper feel to my Digipac. The use if random and abstract images highlights the image that the video is trying to put forward.

9. My Poster My poster yet again explores the mysterious and fantasy inspired themes of my Digipack a s a whole. The album “a place to hide” is quite blatantly portrayed through this use of dark imagery

10. What have you learnt from your media feedback? I have learnt through feedback that the most popular music video genre is rock, as rock videos tend to relate to struggles and hardships as opposed to dance videos that tend to be surreal and very abstract. My video is based around a story, the overall point being that people are more interested in videos that they can relate to. I have also learnt that you must keep the stream of images continuous and ever changing to really catch the attention of the audience, Although many Dance genre videos do do this they do not quite capture the emotion and power of the Rock videos of today. Realizing this myself was crucial to me as i wanted to try

11. How did I use media technology? The media technologies I used along side a video camera include Macromedia fireworks MX 2004, this enabled me to develop a poster and album cover using various images and fireworks tools. Another Is Studio 10, a programme that enables you to capture and edit footage on your Pc. Each were crucial for my project, and so I have developed my skills in both to reach a satisfactory standard with my course work.