The document discusses the conventions of music videos and how the media product challenges some conventions while adhering to others. It outlines conventions for different music genres and analyzes how the media product incorporates conventions for alternative/acoustic genres, such as a metaphorical match between lyrics and visuals and dull colors. However, it also challenges some conventions, such as having no clear relationship between lyrics and visuals or close-ups of the artist. The document evaluates how the media product meets music video theorist Stephen Goodwin's criteria for a good music video.

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

2. Music Video’s
• All music videos are created for a similar reason, to promote
the artist and their music. To successfully market the product,
certain conventions are followed or purposely ignored to
create the best campaign possible for a particular music
genre. Though as a general rule of thumb, the key conventions
of a music video are these:
• To ensure that the song is memorable for viewers
• To positively represent the artist and their music
• To clearly define the genre of the music
• To show the personality of the artist

3. Genres
• Forms and conventions are usually dependent on the genre of the
music. For example, a video for a pop song will contain many close-
ups of the artist, a typical teenage story line (boy meets girl etc) and
bright/bold colours to ease the mood of the film. A great example of
this is Katy Perry’s song, teenage dream. This is also a great example
Of Laura Mulvey’s theory of ‘The
Male Gaze’.
• However, these conventions are
Obviously inappropriate for a song of say, the rock genre.
• These conventions are all taken from Stephen Goodwin’s seven key
conventions to a good music video.

4. Genre
• As my music video is to a song in an alternative/acoustic genre,
there are of course typical conventions that would be used in this
scenario. These conventions have been observed in similarly
characteristic music videos, such as Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’ and
Passenger’s ‘Wrong Direction’ video. These conventions would be:
• A metaphorical match between the lyrics and visuals
• A match between the music and visuals
• Dull colours between scenes
• Moments of bright colour and contrast
• Elements of voyeurism (looking through CCTV/camcorder) through
others perspectives
• Mostly natural lighting
• No particularly clear narrative – video doesn’t directly link to the
song
• Lack of artist within the video (puts more focus on the music)

5. Goodwin’s Seven
• To evaluate my music video and how we accepted and rejected the
forms and conventions of real media products, I looked at how
theorists such as Goodwin defined a good music video. This is how
he did it:
• 1 - music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
• 2 – there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
• 3 – there is a relationship between music and visuals
• 4 – The demands of the record labels include the need for close ups
of the artist
• 5 – The artist may develop iconography that recurs across their
work
• 6 – There is frequent reference to the notion of ‘looking’.
• 7 – there is often intertextual references

6. 1 - music videos demonstrate
genre characteristics
• A convention of this genre is that the narrative is quite
obscure and confusing, therefore making the video feel quite
abstract. I achieved this by making a concept video based
around an unknown character, played by an unassuming
young lead role who appears to be wandering aimlessly
around a location whilst is assumingly being watched.

7. 1 - music videos demonstrate
genre characteristics
• Also, I ensured that the editing of the film was in time to the
beat of the music. I found this especially hard as the song has
a slight rubato feel (not in time) – Though it does create an
effect that is widely used across alternative and acoustic
music and is aesthetically pleasing.
• Throughout the video there is a lot of slow motion effect. I
chose to use this as it is a convention widely used across this
genre, but also it creates a lethargic and uneasy tension
throughout the video, which adheres with the conceptual feel
I was going for when plotting the videos narrative.

8. 1 - music videos demonstrate
genre characteristics
• Lots of dull colours were used throughout the editing stage of
the video. This is to keep the continuity between shots, but
also it creates an atmosphere that is typical of ‘moody’
acoustic music.

9. 2 – there is a relationship
between lyrics and visuals
• This is an example of an instance in which I chose to challenge the
conventions of a typical music video (in Goodwin’s eyes).
• As a result of audience research, I decided to plan a conceptual
narrative in which the the songs lyrics and meanings are completely
seemingly unrelated from the music video.
• However, the idea of the child being isolated and alone in my video
has reference to the lyric’s “I left my mothers arms, I left my fathers
arms”.
• So although unapparent, there is a slight metaphorical meaning to
the video in the sense that it is related to the songs lyrics.

10. 3 – there is a relationship
between music and visuals
• As I have mentioned as part of the ‘genre’ section, I have
ensured that the editing of the visuals is in time to the music.
This is typical of almost every music video and helps
emphasize the progression of the narrative and is aesthetically
pleasing, especially after putting in a great deal of work to
make sure that this convention is included.
• However, due to the fact that I am choosing to stick to genre
conventions, there are minor instances within the video
where I have chosen not to use this technique. These are due
to the fact that I am using a slow-motion effect to create the
feel of flexible time and therefore the un-synchronizing of the
visuals and audio help create this effect.

11. 4 – The demands of the
record labels include the
need for close ups of the
artist• This is another instance in which I chose to stray from the
existing forms and conventions of a music video. This is largely
due to the fact that the artist does not appear in the music
video or in any of the accompanying products such as the
poster or the digi-pak.
• Though there are close ups of the young leading role in the
video, these are just to emphasize the emotion of the
character and do not in anyway show a close up of the artist,
which is unusual for a music promotional video, yet is
characteristic of a conceptual film.

12. 5 – The artist may develop
iconography that recurs
across their work
• Though this is a technique that is explored across my media
products, the iconography does not link directly to the artist,
but more to the music video and its contents.
• I aimed to create a kind of synergy by merging the iconic
attributes of the music video with the rest of my media
products. For example, the main images for both ancillary
tasks are screenshots from the music video:

13. 5 – The artist may develop
iconography that recurs
across their work
• The second way in which I did this was to ensure that the
typography used on all of the products was the same and that
it was a large factor of the composed images.

14. 6 – There is frequent
reference to the notion of
‘looking’.• As I decided to create a conceptual music video, I was
fascinated by this theory of the notion of ‘looking’ and
explored it in some detail. This began by studying the way
Hard-Fi used a CCTV/camcorder effect in their video ‘Stars of
CCTV’. I became interested in how it creates a sense of
‘watching’ and decided to add this element to my own video.

15. 7 – there is often intertextual
references
• I chose to ignore this convention of Goodwin’s. As I composed
this video with the image of a conceptual and slightly abstract
video in mind, I decided that by influencing the video in some
way by connecting it with a previous text would make the
video appear less separated from reality.
• I think that the fact that there are no connections with reality
or previous texts make the video seem less like reality, which
is exactly how I wanted the video feel.