The document discusses the conventions used and challenged in the author's music video media product. It uses common conventions like focusing on a specific city location to connect the artist and audience. However, it challenges conventions by changing locations frequently rather than having one continuous setting. Costumes are both similar and different to pop music video norms by using everyday clothes. Special effects and black and white footage are used in unconventional ways. The genre of indie is followed by having an abstract theme without a clear storyline. Encoding and decoding theory is referenced to explain how audiences will interpret elements.

1. Media Evaluation
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
My media product, which is a music video, uses a lot of regular conventions of a real media
product. However it does also challenge, and have some alternate conventions as well.
When I was looking into my research of my desired media product that I was going to
produce I noticed a lot of things I would like to have to include within my own product, as
well as things I didn’t think would fit with my chosen genre/video type.
For example, the settings I have chosenfor my music video have some generic conventions
to other media products. I have used a great amount of footage that focuses directly on a
certain city. My particular city is Manchester. I have used and made this location in my video
very obvious so that audiences are aware that this is a city that the artist has a direct link
too, perhaps where they live or where they have a lot of memories. This is to make the
audience feel more intimate with the artist which can make my media product a lot more
personal. I have seen this feature used in quite a few music videos where iconic cities such
as New York and London are used, familiar locations such as these can make audiences feel
more comfortable with products such as a music video which was the aim for mine.
A way I have challenged a media convention of location and setting is by having lots of
different settings and scenes rather than a more continuous setting. Many real media
products will have a limit of maybe one or two locations in a music video where as we see
the artist I have used in around 4-5 different locations with very different settings. The
reason I have challenged this certain convention is due to looking into my research and
finding that it is usually videos with a very strong narrative story that have very limited
locations. This is so that the audience can concentrate more on the story rather than have
to keep up with the change in settings and wondering where the artist/actor in the video is
and why. However my video belongs to the abstract genre, which proved most popular in
my music video questionnaire results, so it does not have a properly structured story more
of a loosely structured sequence of events that relate slightly to the song. By not having a
completely structured story my audiences will be able to focus more into the actual footage
and what it represents. This is relevant to Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding and decoding,
where the producer never fully knows how the media product is going to be interpreted by
audiences, and that each individual will have a different view on what the text means.
The costumes and props I have used have some similarities and differences to regular
conventions. In a lot of videos, mostly of the pop genre, costumes can be very lavish and
revealing. In my video I have my characters in regular day to day clothes. I chose to make my

2. video with aspects from the indie genre so this why costumes appear to be more irregular
and change quite frequently throughout the video. Therefore my costumes are both similar
and different to regular music video conventions. The props used within my music video are
not always entirely relevant towards song lyrics or meanings, but again with Halls encoding
and decoding theory the audience are free to individually interpret the meaning of the
specific props chosen and apply their own specific meanings.
My music video contains special effects and some video footage has also been manipulated
to appear differently. This is quite common in music videos to make things appear more
surreal and perfect. In certain parts of my music video I have applied a Black and White
effect to my footage. This has been done to make these certain scenes stand out to
audiences against the regular colours of other scenes. This is quite a rare thing to be seen in
most real music video products, some are entirely in Black and White however for just
certain scenes to be changed with this effect is quite an unusual convention that my music
video has.
The camera work in my video has some different conventions not seen regularly in most
music videos. Due to my video being from the indie genre and having quite an abstract
theme throughout some parts of my video have a “home video” effect where the camera is
clearly handheld and the filming is purposefully made to look unprofessional. By using a
hand held effect it can make the video seem more personal and laidback to audiences.
I have a wide range of shots of my artist in my video but I have used a lot of close up shots
to target and capture certain facial expressions. This is quite a common convention of real
music video products, very often specific shots are used to emphasise feelings and emotions
so that audiences can get a more in depth view into how the producer wants them to feel.
This is similar to the hypodermic needle theory whereaudiences passively receive the
information transmitted via a media text, sometimes information that a producer has
purposefully placed in the text.
The genre of my music video is the “indie” genre. It is very abstract similar to my video and
most of the time there isn’t a properly structured story, or it usually has a slight twist from
the generic focus on relationships seen in most music videos. My music video follows these
conventions quite closely. There is no real storyline and the props and locations used are
not usually seen within music videos. My target audience who want the indie genre to be
prominent in my video will pick up on these conventions without realizing when watching.
This is part of Stuart Halls encoding and decoding theory where a producer encodes certain
things into a media text that the audience will decode automatically. One of the things I
have encoded into the video is the black and white effect on some scenes. This is used for
dramatic effect and to make certain scenes stand out but it also makes the video appear
more vintage, which is a common convention of the indie genre, but not an obvious one.