The media product being created is a music video and accompanying album packaging for distribution on YouTube. YouTube was chosen as the distribution platform due to its popularity and recommendation system. The genre of pop was selected due to its conventional structure and abundance of examples to draw inspiration from. Technical, symbolic, and genre conventions of pop music videos were followed including camera angles focused on the artist, editing in time with the music, the artist's appearance matching their persona, and locations unrelated to the song lyrics. Some conventions were challenged such as varying makeup styles between band members and prioritizing aesthetic over lyrical connections to locations. Inspiration was drawn from pop artists like Little Mix, Ariana Grande, and Dua Lipa.

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

2. The media product my partner and I have chosen to create is a music video, along with matching digipak
(Including an album cover, the back of this cover, the inside, the CD and the spine of the full album) and this
will presented on the popular video sharing site YouTube, due to it being of easy access and the popularity of
the site.
The site YouTube is the main and most popular website for sharing video’s in the modern age. This is again due
to its easy access, but also due to its marketing scheme recommendation system. While watching a YouTube
video, other videos (Generally directed at the same audience) will be recommended at the side of this page,
and this is the same for listening habits of an individual also. This means that the video can be directly targeted
at its chosen target audience, allowing it to get seen by others, who eventually could send it to their friends
(Through You tube’s video sending system) and even through word of mouth.
Our work will be presented on separate blog platforms (Weebly) due to the aesthetic performing platform it
uses (Evident on my blog). We have chosen the genre of pop due to the static and trend following nature of its
conventions. The conventions are easy to follow, and due to the popular nature of the music and the videos,
there were a lot of examples to draw inspiration from.
During my preliminary research I found that the conventions are very focused on the artist themselves, for
example, the artist usually wears mainstream clothing styles (Bright colours; clothes that follow the modern
trends. For example, for my video, we drew inspiration from the pop singer Ariana Grande who constantly
wears oversized jackets in her videos).

3. The artist is also usually portrayed to be happy, or at least content with the situation they’re in (Unless the
song is slow paced or has perhaps sad lyrics, such as Little Mix’s ‘secret love song’). The makeup has to be
precise, unless the artist’s star persona calls for them to break this norm (Such as Lady Gaga in her early career)
and the hair has to match this also - due to the persona the artist has created, everything has to match this.
Not only is the physical appearance of the artist important to the pop genre, but the technical aspects are also.
While, arguably, the artist’s persona is the most important aspect in this genre, the song and its aspects also
hold some significance.
For example, the song is usually around three to five minutes and has to have a consistent beat; it follows a
simple verse chorus verse structure and usually the lyrics are surrounded around a relationship or a break-up.
The editing of the video also has to match the genre. For example, it must be cut on the beat and feature
smooth editing between each scenes. Camera angles are important - the artist must always be the main focus
of the shot.
For our video, we followed a lot of these trends. These can be seen in the technical, symbolic and genre aspects
of our video. For technical, the editing and camera angles or shots are very similar to that of a professional pop
music video, for example:
Ariana Grande’s ‘Dangerous Woman’ music video. A shot from our pop music video.

4. Here you can see that we followed a lot of technical patterns from pop videos, especially the editing (Following
a lip sync shot to a close up of the artist staring into the camera, as seen above). Another aspect we followed
comes in the form of genre. As I stated earlier, the conventions are quite static, with the clothing coming from
mainstream trends. This is the same for make-up and hair, and we chose to follow them so when a viewer sees
the video, they will know it originates from the pop genre. An example of clothing matches with professional
pop music videos:
Little Mix’s’ ‘Power’ music video. A shot from our pop music video.
Ariana Grande’s music video ‘Everyday’ a photograph from the set of our video

5. The make-up was also a very important aspect. Most, if not all pop stars wear
make-up, and a lot of it. For our video, we wanted to play with a natural look and
a more false look, as seen in the picture here. We found that having a different
mixture was significant as it allows each of the actors in the video to have their
own persona. Audiences will then attach themselves to the person they relate to
the most.
This difference is seen in many modern girl bands, as the different exchange of
looks allows the band to broaden their audience.
We also found that the location is important for the video, as this creates an aura
for the video – this usually has a link to the lyrics of the song. However, this is
totally up to the artist, as many popular music video locations have very loose
links to the lyrics of the song. We chose to follow this route, instead choosing
locations that would create the best aesthetic for the video and not the closest
link to the lyrics.
This is one of the things we challenged, as we thought was aesthetic was far more
important, as many audiences do not study the video in order to see the link. As
said before, while this is a challenge to the usual conventions (For example in the
‘Dangerous Woman’ music video shown above, Ariana Grande is singing about
being dangerous – sexually. This is depicted through the location and props as
she’s lounging on a bed in lingerie)
Hayley Kiyoko’s ‘Curious’ music video. a photograph from the set of our video.

6. I did find some examples that follow the same idea that we did. For example:
Dua Lipa’s ‘Be the One’ music video. A shot from our music video.
Here, the lyrics do not have any link to the location. Yet while this may be challenging the conventions, it’s
successful, as pop audiences to not find importance in the location, but rather in the artist’s clothing etc.
Through the editing process of both the music video and ancillary texts I was inspired by many modern pop
music artists. The band I most drew inspiration from however was little mix, and they were the band most like
the one I created. The members hold the most similarities to that of Eclipse, the band I created, including
make-up styles and just their general aesthetic, and seeing as they’re a successful band in the pop genre, it was
hard not to.
Oh, but when you're gone
When you're gone
When you're gone
Oh, baby, all the lights go out
- A snippet of lyrics from ‘Be the one’
Fed up of being the shoulder you cry on
I want to be the shoulder you lie on
every day, every night
- A snippet of lyrics from ‘If I get my
way’ the song chosen from our music
video.

7. With the technical aspects I found that the use of close up’s were very important, which is why the video is
riddled with them. Close up’s (Especially when the artist is staring into the lens) create a relationship with the
audience, which is certainly something that is necessary for pop music. I also found that the background of
shots were important, especially the symmetry of shots, so the video has a clean cut appearance. For example:
There’s an equal amount of gaps on either side of the shot.
The pictures that come with the video, digipak and poster I found were also very important, as many pop
artists release the photo-shoot pictures with the video. This is why I put emphasis on these shots, so the
audience get as much content as they can. I believe all of this led to a successful pop music creation, as while
we develop a few conventions, most of the work follows the general conventions of pop music – allowing
audiences to find the connection immediately.