My music video for the Arctic Monkeys song "A Certain Romance" uses several conventions of the indie genre. It features a narrative about a romance, which is a common theme for indie songs. The main character wears skinny jeans and a knitted jumper, reflecting the typical "indie look." The video also has elements common to other music video genres, like cutting shots to the beat of the song and using black and white cinematography initially to set the mood. While most music videos feature the "female gaze," my video focuses more on the male protagonist, subverting this convention. Overall, the video represents the theme of the song and utilizes conventions of both the indie genre and other music video styles.

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

2. The genre of my music video ‘A Certain Romance’ is indie. There are
a variety of conventions that are associated with this genre. This
genre can relate to the clothing of the artist or the characters in the
narrative of the music as they have the indie look, wearing clothes
such as a skinny jeans and a checkered shirt. It is also associated
with love, as many song are about relationships, such as the Arctic
Monkeys song ‘A certain romance’.
As the Arctic Monkeys haven’t got a video for ‘A certain romance’ it
was more challenging to make my own music video, as there was
wasn’t an original video to get any ideas from, or to look at the
quality of the real product. This also means I cant compare and
contrast my product with the real product because it doesn’t exist.
The indie genre music video’s usually have a narrative, just like the
Arctic Moneys video ‘Why’d you only call me when you’re high’
which is a narrative to do with romance. In this video, the male
character, keeps is out but he keeps thinking about this girl, and
texts her, suggesting she important to him and there is a connection
between them. This video includes the artist from the band being in
the narrative but he doesn’t lip sync. Therefore, if some people are
unfamiliar with the band, then they might think he’s just an actor.

3. In relation to my music video ‘A certain romance’, it contains most of the music video
conventions to do with the indie genre. First of all, the music video is a narrative, just like
the other song ‘Why do you only call me when you’re high’ by the Arctic Monkeys.
My video is also about romance, as a boy starts of his day in a bad mood, then meets up
with a girl, enjoy spending time with her, and ends his day in a good mood. Therefore, my
video is associated with love, which links in with the indie genre. My video doesn’t point out
an artist as there is no lip syncing, although some indie genre music video include the artist
singing, not all do. For example the music video for ‘Why do you only call me when you’re
high doesn’t involve the artist and band singing or playing.
In my video the main character also wears indie type clothing, as he wears skinny jeans, and
a knitted jumper. Therefore this convention also associated with the indie genre as the
clothing create that type of style, which many people would recognise as the indie look.

4. According to Andrew Godwin, a media theorist, a music video should represent the song itself, as
both a form of advertisement and as a message within the song. In relation to my music video, the
music represents the songs name in general as its about a couple who have a small romance going
on, and the name of the song is ‘A certain romance’. Therefore, the music video overall gives a
message, representing it as ‘a certain romance’.

5. In my music video I have also used other conventions that some music videos have in general, not just the indie
genre ones. In my video there is cutting on the beat, as in the post-production of the video, I edited a shot of the
main character opening his curtains. In this shot the character opens his curtains and as he does this the sun shine
fills his room with bright light for a moment. As this was a good shot and it happened at the beginning of the song
where the instrumental introduction is about to finish, I edited the moment he opens the curtains to repeat quickly
several times so he opens the curtains with the beat. It seems as if the music, from the electric guitars in the songs,
make him opens the curtains with the repeated beat.
In terms of editing, the first half of the video is in black and white. This links well with what happens as it highlights
the narrative, where the protagonist is in a bad mood the video is in black and white to suggest his day isn’t going
well. Then the video colour changes to colour once the female character speaks to him and they go out. This effect
adds quality to the narrative of the video, which is an indie genre convention.

6. As in the indie genre there isn’t a specific male or
female gaze, this could mean I borrowed the
convention from another genre such as pop and
then subverted the convention by using a male
gaze instead of a female. For example, a pop song
such as ‘All that matters’ by Justin Bieber has a
music video where he as the artist is singing is
focusing and singing to a female character. In
relation to my video this is an example as I could
have borrowed the convention of the ‘female
gaze’ from the pop genre and then subverted it to
a ‘male gaze’.
In general, most music video have the ‘female gaze’ where the camera is focused on the female artist or
character. In a indie genre music video such as ‘Why’d you only call me when you’re high’ by Arctic
Monkeys, the focus is on a male character (artist) although he is thinking about a female even though she
isn’t shown as much. In my video, there is also more of a ‘male gaze’ as the camera focuses on the male
character, and then gets the female characters attention who then texts him in order to go out.