The document discusses the conventions used in creating a music video for a drum and bass song. It examines how the creator analyzed drum and bass music videos to understand common conventions like dark atmospheres, fast pacing, and focus on visuals matching the music. Key aspects discussed include choosing a run-down location that fits genre conventions, using certain camera shots and lighting consistently seen in drum and bass videos, and editing the video rapidly to match the beat of the song. While aiming to be familiar to fans of the genre, the creator also wanted to add their own creative spin.

1. EVALUATION QUESTION ONE
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Mine and Jordan’s chosen artist was predominantly of the drum and bass
genre, and so I started to view, study and analyse music videos of a similar genre, so
that I could get a feel of what was included in the music videos of this particular
genre, as my knowledge before hand of the genre was somewhat limited. While
there were some new conventions that I managed to pick up, most conventions that
I noticed were also applicable in other music videos that I already knew about
through my previous experience from watching numerous music videos on YouTube.
This expanded my awareness of conventions within all genres, and particularly the
drum and bass genre.
Andrew Goodwin’s theory states that most music videos contain a series of certain
conventions within them. These are outlined below:
1) Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. In our music video we tried
to make it suitable for the genre, by matching up Drum and Bass conventions
into our video, such as having a dark atmosphere and feeling to the video,
with random shots of pyrotechnics. This meant that the target audience
would be familiar with the style of video, and not be alienated by it.
2) Relationship between music and visuals was crucial within our video as we
wanted to make our video so that it represented the music as closely as
possible. By this, we made sure that cuts were in time with the music and so
forth. This ensured a fast pace to the video, so as to demonstrate the
intensity of the story, and also to keep the viewer entertained. This was our
main focus from the start, and we thought it was important to follow the
genre’s convention of fast paced action, and this necessity was made even
more pertinent because of the absence of lyrics within our video.
3) Relationship between lyrics and visuals was a highly discussed factor within
our video as there were no lyrics within our video. We found the track
without lyrics, and me and Jordan made a conscious decision not to add lyrics
to the track, as we felt that the video would work better without lyrics and
would leave it even more open to interpretation (which was a key feature in
our plans). So, our narrative was influenced by other videos from the genre
and our own interpretation of this.
4) Close ups of the artist weren’t particularly necessary in our video, as there
are no lyrics so we could avoid this entirely, and bring in our own actors to be
focused upon. This meant that the focus was mainly on the story and the
music, and this benefits us in some ways as performance based videos can be
somewhat boring whereas concept based ones can involve the audience
more. Also, this would have been very
logistically difficult!
5) Voyeurism is a key aspect of our video,
with watching a key notion, mainly

2. watching of the main character (Nelson). This enabled us to do many shots
similar to the one above where Nelson is running away, and being watched
through a small window by a mystery individual. This adds to the mystery of
the music video, and adds to the openness of interpretation available.
However we somewhat challenged conventions as we had the male character
being stalked and not the female character as usually happens, however the
viewer experiences a power struggle towards the end in which the male
character emerges victorious.
6) Inter-textual references are present within our video, such as when we
reference ‘Invaders must die’ by ‘The Prodigy’ with our black and white
video, and with our pyrotechnic elements.
Music Video:
When choosing our music we also had to consider what type of video we wanted to
produce. We had to consider whether we wanted a performance based, narrative
based or concept based music video. We went for a concept video because we felt
that performance videos lacked excitement and that narrative based ones followed a
story too closely. Hence, we went for a concept based video as we wanted to create
a music video that was ambitious and challenged us immensely.
Location:
Choosing our location was a laborious and long task but eventually we settle on an
uninhabited house in Bintree, Norfolk. This house was an ideal location for our video,
because we had noticed in Drum and Bass videos that generally they were shot in
run down locations in grey conditions (hence the black and white). We investigated
this location first via Google maps and then decided to visit for a further look
because we liked what we had seen. This house was also very similar to one we had
seen in videos such as ‘Propane Nightmares’ by ‘Pendulum’ and also the ‘Invaders
must die’ video mentioned earlier on. Then we decided to make our music video
flicker between this run down location and a nice, modern house to emphasise the
difference we edited the modern one in colour and the run down one in black and
white to conform to the conventions of the genre. The link for mine and Jordan’s
video of the set is below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCMEHXLqrQo&feature=related
This location offered us a run down house with a barn adjacent where we could also
film, and just across the road was a field that looked remarkably similar to a
wasteland. Thus, this location
offered us everything we
needed, and was rural enough so
that our filming wouldn’t be
interrupted by pedestrians or
cars etc.

3. It replicates Nelsons feelings throughout the music video, thus meaning that the
audience can get a visual representation of his emotions which allows them to
connect more as they can physically see it and become more emotionally involved
with the character.
Throughout this process of selecting an appropriate location I learnt that this
thorough investigative process is crucial to the success or failure of the music video,
because without finding the perfect location, it can be difficult to assess the
emotions or general feeling of the video from the viewer’s perspective. As
mentioned before, me and Jordan spent a couple of hours on set planning what
shots we could use, and how the general video was going to work. We fitted our
video very much to the location, to ensure that it went as seamlessly as possible.
This adaptability worked in our favour, as we could then change our video based on
any changes we may encounter. This meant that when the day of the shoot came
along we were well prepared and efficient and managed to capture all of the
necessary footage in a single outing.
Camera Shots:
Looking and analysing music videos from
the Drum and Bass genre, I realised that
there are certain shots that appear to be
present within a lot of them. This particular
mid shot is used in a video I analysed by
‘The Prodigy’ called ‘Invaders must die’
which shows the main character standing in
the sea motionless, watching something.
This shot is replicated to an extent in our
video, and gives an eerie feel to the shot.
This video was part of our inspiration and
was a video that particularly impressed us,
and so we naturally wanted to bring in
themes from this video into ours. This
meant that we had decided to tap into the
Drum and Bass conventions, and we
wanted to produce something that linked into what the audience were expecting
from a Drum and Bass genre music video; however we also wanted to add our own
original spin onto it. This hopefully means that the target audience can identify with
the video whilst also appreciating some original input that isn’t typified in the genre.
We could also establish the sense of isolation and the bleakness/ desolation of the
landscape, which could be used to reflect our protagonist’s mindset.
We also identified that tracking shots were important within the genre to build up a
background picture and to build up some tension within the video, thus meaning
that we decided to include a couple of these shots at the start of the video or when
new characters were introduced, thus meaning that we could give the audience a
picture of our characters, however we only employed this shots when the music

4. permitted, as for the most part we wanted to enable the video was of a fast tempo,
and thus entertaining the viewer. Hence why we used these shots sparingly, to try
and keep our audience entertained. We used point of view shots quite a bit to show
the voyeur’s point of view, and this added to the feeling of watching and gave the
video a sense of mystery.
We also felt it was important to convey the sense of voyeurism within our video and
this meant that we had to employ certain shots of the main character either being
followed or watched. This meant that we could show the viewer that this character
was being followed, and thus adding to the intrigue of the video. This can be linked
into Goodwin’s theory of voyeurism.
However, for the most part we utilised shots where the camera was relatively static,
meaning that we could focus on getting a good quality shot. This would normally be
an issue in most music videos because static shots can lead to a boring video,
however because of the amount of cuts that we would be using; we felt that static
shots were necessary. We cut the camera shots so regularly, that we aimed to really
get the viewer engaged and focused on our video, and watching it back afterwards it
certainly seemed that we had achieved this. We also used framing to bring focus to
the subject, and this was an important shot for us.
Overall, we wanted to fit into the camera shots convention from the genre to make
sure the viewer felt accustomed and familiar when watching the video, however
because of our unique spin of cutting very quickly and adding effects we felt that we
hadn’t conformed entirely to the conventions and this, we felt, gave the video a
good, interesting feel to it.
Mise en scene:
Lighting:
Lighting was important for us, because the lighting somewhat determines how the
viewer perceives the mood of the video. The general convention within Drum and
Bass is to film it in dark, grey conditions and to add effects that create a similar
effect. Hence, we decided to follow this closely, and hope that the outcome would
be that the viewer took in the lighting and realised that the video was a confusing
video with a main character who was struggling with issues. However, we were
presented with an issue when going back through footage, as some of our shots
were far too bright for our liking and so we decided on a black and white setting.
Costumes:
Studying Drum and Bass music videos I noticed
that mostly the characters wear functional, rough
clothing that is less about fashion and more
about practicality. Previous to this knowledge, we
had been struggling to find appropriate costumes

5. for our actors, but this knowledge gave us a focus as to what our costumes should
be. We decided on a hooded sweater for Nelson (main character) and jeans and
some boots, thus giving him a sense of practicality but also the hood gave him the
slightly stereotypical sense of mystery and intrigue that was required (also danger),
as our video is quite mysterious in that the viewer has little idea of what is going on
and has to almost reach conclusions for themselves.
Becky’s costume was harder to decide upon, as were unsure of what we wanted to
represent her as initially. However, her role became clearer later on as a stalker /
killer, and we tried to bring this across in her costume by making her look a bit
ragged, and dangerous. However, this was brought across more in her actual actions
than her costume.
Props:
We decided that for the most part, the
story was going to be about Nelson and
Becky, henceforth meaning our props
would be limited as the story would be
driven by the actions of the characters.
However, there were essential props
necessary, as in conventional Drum and
Bass videos there appeared to be
extensive use of fire, and things being
burnt / broken. This fitted in well with the
nature of our video as we wanted to show that our characters were violent and
volatile. Hence, we used a lot of pyrotechnics within our video. However much of
this wasn’t particularly to add to the video, it was mainly employed to add an
exciting element to the video, and also to signify to the viewer the danger element
of the music video. Also, another essential prop was the knife that we used at the
end of the video, which we hoped would really bring some tension into the fight
scene at the end, and unusually for music videos it was wielded by the woman and
not the man, and this was designed to challenge conventions before they were
developed when Nelson overcomes her. All other props were mostly found on site,
such as the brick that nelson smashes against the wall, and this really added an
authentic edge to the music video.
Editing:
When editing our music video, we faced an enormous challenge because of our
decision to match the cuts to the beat, and the sheer amount of cuts that this would
involve. We felt that this was the best option when editing because we really wanted
a fast pace to our video, both to fit in with genre conventions and also to ensure that
our audience enjoyed the video and remained entertained throughout. We decided
to edit our footage very much to the music, and this took a great deal of time that
we hoped the viewer would be able to see.

6. The general convention within Drum and Bass is to ensure the video is cut to the
beat of the music, and we felt that we achieved this. We were worried that it would
be hard for the viewer to follow the storyline, but the video was intended to be
confusing to a degree and so this worked in our favour. We also included a couple of
rewinding sequences where we went through key parts again. The main reason for
doing this was to make the viewer question the video, and whether it was actually
happening or whether Nelson was delusional. This was heavily influenced by
‘Invaders must die’ because in this video the protagonist is unsure whether he is
dreaming or is in reality.
Also, we wanted to make sure that we highlighted the difference between reality
and dream, and this was achieved by making sure the footage was black and white
within the dream (which is a favourite convention of drum and bass), and switching
with colourful, bright footage from reality.
Conclusion:
To conclude; I feel that our music video challenged, developed and used conventions
of real music videos, and we used all three above conventions to try to both
familiarise the audience and to add our own original twist to the genre. This was very
challenging, and taught me much about conventions and processes of music videos.
ANCILLARY PRODUCTS
Digipak:
When producing my digipak I looked very closely at other digipaks from artists
similar to my one (Mirrored Theory), and examined how they had laid theirs out, and
what content they had included. But most importantly, I noted what conventions
they had mostly followed. I considered their digipaks, mostly ones by the most
popular of Drum and Bass artists, such as ‘The Prodigy’ and ‘Pendulum’, and
discovered that they usually included a key image on the front, and were fairly basic
in their layout.
Mostly, they refused to show the artist on the front, instead preferring to show
either an original image or an image from one of their videos. This was important
because in other genres, usually the artist features on the front and takes priority
over everything. However this was not the case in my genre, and generally images on
the cover represented the type of music. This is also brought across in the music
videos, as typically in this genre music videos aren’t performance based and are
instead narrative or concept based. When producing my magazine advertisement, I
looked at similar advertisements in magazines such as Kmag and saw that most
magazine adverts included a background that was mostly dark colours and had
certain features standing out. These features were brightly coloured to highlight
their significance, and in my magazine advert I decided to highlight I dare you

7. because I felt this would really draw people in and attract them. I used basic colour
differentiation to make things stand out, and to make the poster attractive, and this
is a general convention of all music adverts, not only Drum and Bass. Other general
conventions I included were ones such as track listing and barcodes on my digipak.