The document discusses how the media product uses conventions of real music videos and products within the indie genre. It summarizes that the music video uses typical conventions like starting with a close-up of the lead singer, using long shots of the full band, and close-ups of instruments to give the impression of a live performance. Outfits, album art, and layout are also typical conventions used across indie albums and videos to establish the band within the genre.

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

2. My music video was intended to use conventions from current and previous media in order
to establish a recognisable image that would involve my intended audience instantly. For
instance, from my research of inspiration for video, I noticed that artists' music videos were
either narrative or performance based, which were a similar genre to my artist. I chose to use
a performance based video as it complemented my artist and his style of music. A narrative
based video would contradict with my artist as they are more of live performers who do
tours instead of performing on chart shows and programmes. The song is fast paced
therefore the cuts between camera angles are fast, emphasising the feeling that we are
performing live.

3. Foo Fighters – The Pretender
Our Video
We used this shot to start our video as
it is a typical convention used by many
bands across the indie music genre.
Starting the video with this shot
establishes the lead singer straight
away and allows the audience to see
emotion and establish who the lead
singer is, who is normally the most well
known member of the band therefore
they know which band it is as soon as
the video begins. We found that this is
a typical convention used in the indie
genre as you can see our video and the
‘Foo Fighters’ video for ‘The Pretender’
are very similar.

4. Our Video
The Strokes – Last Nite
Another camera angle used
throughout the indie genre are
longshots showing the band.
Longshots are used to show the
whole band and the setting of where
they are. This is a typical convention
of any music video but particularly
that of a performance kind, it allows
the scene the band are playing in to
be set and viewed by the audience
as well as allowing the audience to
establish themselves with all
members of the band. The Strokes
who have been a very successful
indie band for a long time and are a
band that inspired us to make a
video of the indie music genre. Their
music video to ‘Last Nite’ shows the
conventional long shot showing the
full band and setting and is very
similar to the one used in ours.

5. Our Video
The Crookes - Afterglow
Another camera shot we used
whilst filming our music video
was an extreme close up on
the instruments. When the
guitar solo begins you can see
we zoomed right into Zak
playing the guitar giving the
impression that he is playing
the music live and gives the
impression that he is very
talented playing the guitar.
The Crookes also used this
convention proving it to be a
successful one, this is
because in a typical
performance video the band
feel they need to have proof
that they are actually playing
their instruments.

6. Our Video
Foo Fighters – The Pretender
Another camera angle used
frequently throughout the
indie genre is the extreme
long shot used. This is used to
show the setting of where
the band are performing, set
the scene and also allow the
audience to feel as if they are
actually part of the video to
get that life performance feel
is another conventional
camera angle used through
indie rock performance
videos. We found this
convention when researching
existing music videos and
instantly decided it would be
part of our final product.

7. Our Video
Green Day – Wake Me Up When September Ends
The use of our mise-en-scene in our
video followed the typical conventions
of an indie genre music video. Firstly,
our outfits matched the conventions of
indie bands, for example as you can see
all three members especially our lead
singer are dressed in simple everyday
clothing, black jeans and a white t-shirt.
We found this to be a convention used
often throughout our chosen genre, we
chose to follow this convention as we
felt it would create the urban/working
class feel nearly all indie rock bands do
within their music videos, as they are
not trying to dress smart or show off
but simply just impress with their
music. This would allows the audience
to connect and relate to the band more
as they are seen as more normal and
down to earth therefore making our
final product even more successful.

8. We used the same image from
our album front cover on our final
promotional poster, we found this
to be a typical convention of
many digipaks we researched as
you can see with the Arctic
Monkeys album cover and poster
for their second album ‘Whatever
People Say I Am, That's What I'm
Not’. We felt that it would be
successful as it would allow the
audience to make the connection
between the two. Also the idea is
very simple but effective for
promoting our digipak as it only
contains the main image from the
front cover, the release date of
the album and the band name but
at the same time our intended
audience will also be able to
establish that the poster is
promoting our album.
Our album cover and poster
Arctic Monkeys ‘Whatever People Say
I Am, That's What I'm Not’ album
cover and poster

9. The layout of the back cover of our Digipak, is very conventional using things such as the
songs being placed in the middle of the cover, as well as the barcode being placed at the
bottom left as people read from top left to bottom right . Also we included a record label
name as well as our copyright label , these combined make our final product seem that
more authentic. Also the house style is also the same all the way throughout our digipak
allowing the audience to instantly recognise it. This is the same with the albums backs that
we researched for example the Arctic Monkeys album back for ‘Whatever People Say I Am,
That's What I'm Not’ used the same house style throughout the digipak.
Our album back Arctic Monkeys ‘Whatever People Say I Am,
That's What I'm Not’ album back

10. A particular music genre may have their own music video style and iconography
(such as a pop video’s having storyline narratives). After researching I noticed that
the Indie genre, typically used live performance video’s to give the feeling that the
band are performing the song live and showing their musical talent. So I used this
convention so that my target audience could easily relate to the images being
shown, as they have seen this style of effect before.
Features of Goodwin's Theory - applied to my music video