This document analyzes and discusses the creative choices made in developing a music video. It uses established conventions from real music videos to shape the concepts and techniques employed. Specific examples are referenced to establish shallow depth of field shots, mirror shots showing the singer, keeping the musical artist as the main focus, using consistent black costumes to portray emotion, including the piano as a prop to add a performance feel, incorporating photographs to tell a narrative, choosing a relaxed studio location, and using ambient lighting to achieve a natural purity. Real music videos from artists like Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Kesha, Christina Aguilera, Maroon 5, The Fray, and Scouting for Girls influenced the creative decisions.

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

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3. The opening to my music video
To start of my music video I decided to use a shallow depth of field
establishing shot of the piano. This instantly shows the viewers that
the video is likely to be a performance type of music video. We also
get emotional connotations instantly as the main colour that we can
see early in the video is black due to the black piano and the black
clothing worn by the singer. Something which we can refer to with
many other artists such as Bruno Mars ‘when I was your man’ and
Coldplay use this method in many of their music videos.

4. The mirror shot
• In my music videos I also use some mid shot’s of the singer
singing into the mirror. This is a effect which I have seen in
many different music videos which help to open up the shot
and is a different way of presenting the lad singer. This could
also be seen as the singer offering a personal perspective to
the song making it more relatable to the viewer and is a more
personal slant to the music video I have seen examples of this
in Kesha’s ‘Tik-Toc’ and Christina Aguilera’s ‘Beautiful’

5. Andrew Goodwin’s Star Theory
• Throughout my video I tried to constantly relate to
Andrew Goodwin’s theory that the star of the
music video should always be the main focus of the
music video. This is traditionally used in pop videos
with the focus on the main singer of a group or the
solo artist. I have stronger kept the focus on the
singer with the interjections of photographs to
create a story line along side the song. Used by
groups such as Maroon 5 and also The Fray

6. Costumes/Props
• Throughout my video we only see the singer wearing one costume
which consists of a black top and black jeans. The reasoning behind
this is because it is an emotional song and I wanted the emotional
feel to be portrayed through what the singer is wearing as well as
the lyrics he is singing. This is something used in a lot of emotional
music video’s and something I thought would help to continue the
emotional connotations with the song as black is a dark and
depressing colour.
• I also use the prop of the piano frequently throughout the music
video, this is because the piano is a key instrument in the song and
it creates more of a ‘performance’ feel to the music video as it looks
as if he is generally playing the song and the piano. This technique
is used in many music videos to make the video more watchable
and relate to a different type of viewer. A technique adopted by
Cold Play Frequently and also Scouting For Girls

7. Photograph/narrative part to the video
• Throughout the video there are many photo’s.
These photos help piece together a slight
narrative part of the music video. This makes
the video more watchable as the video is not
just someone sat around singing the song and
also you could argue it provides a more
personal insight into the singers life and
makes the video more personal

8. Location
• For my location I decided to use one of my
friends music studios. I thought this would give
the music video a more relaxed view which would
allow the viewer to relate more to the songs and
focus abit more on the lyrics and the meaning
behind this emotional song. I also thought the
use of a studio would help it look professional
and the video looks like it had been shot maybe
after a band practice which continuous the
relaxed and natural feel which is consistent
throughout the video.

9. Lighting
• The lighting throughout the video Is ambient
lighting. I believe this helps add to the natural
feel off the video and helps give it some
purity. The video is simple, a man in a room
singing. There is no flash about it which I think
helps to add to the purity and to show off how
the song is natural and can be personal to the
viewer.