1. EVALUATION
Question One
Olivia Kelly

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

3. How did our media product use
forms and conventions?
It was crucial when planning our music video that we researched the
genre in which we were using within our media product, that being
the indie/alternative genre, to ensure our video was as realistic to
the genre as possible and it attracted the ideal target audience. One
convention was the clothing in which we chose for our main
character was very stereotypical to the indie genre with the use of a
snapback, a casual jacket, skinny jeans and trainers. The audience
are then able to both relate and establish the genre of our music
video. Another example of the conventions of the indie genre within
our video was the use of a narrative in which the video and lyrics
had no actual relation to one another, this is often seen within indie
music videos. Linking to Goodwin’s features, the music and visuals
also matched one another, in one scene for example, the character
is relaxing with the teddy bear on the sofa this then switches
between another scene in which the character is having a cup of tea
with the teddy bear; at this moment in the video the music has
slowed down dramatically in pace and there is no beat heard unlike
through the rest of the video where there is a continuous beat heard
throughout, this matches perfectly with this particular part of the
music video.

4. How did our music video develop
forms and conventions?
We developed the forms and conventions within our music video by researching
into a variety of other music videos in the indie genre. There appeared to be
different ways in which the videos were filmed, with a number of different
camera effects and narratives, in particular we noticed that the lyrics usually
contradicted the visuals of the videos. For this reason, we decided to make
our music video a contrast of these features and develop these ideas further
with the help of the HD quality camera in which we used to film our final
product. This allowed us to illustrate the characters journey throughout the
music video, this being in relation to Goodwin’s features as the music almost
reflects both the characters personality and activity at a specific moment
within the video. The evident deterioration of the character is made clear to
the audience by using a number of effects, from a reasonably happy and
cheerful beginning, with a blend of shots to show the characters love for the
teddy bear, then onto the close up shots within the garage scene in which
there is an obvious contrast of both happiness and distress within the
character, and eventually the last scene shows the collapse of the character
in which a distorted effect was used as the character ‘murders’ the teddy
bear; this is all reflected through the careful use of camerawork and editing.

5. How did your media product
challenge form and conventions?
We automatically challenged the forms and conventions of
our media product when deciding on the ideal song,
rather than going for a stereotypical indie song by an
indie band in which uses typical instruments throughout,
we decided to go for a song within the sub-genre of
indie, therefore we chose the indie/alternative genre.
Often within indie music videos there is expected to be
footage of the band itself performing the song, however
this was another way in which we challenged the forms
and conventions as we decided not to include this within
our own music video, we felt this would take the initial
focus off the narrative of the video and the target
audience would enjoy following the plot that is shown
throughout the duration of the video therefore making the
character and the unusual storyline the main focus.

6. How did your media product
challenge form and conventions?
We automatically challenged the forms and conventions of
our media product when deciding on the ideal song,
rather than going for a stereotypical indie song by an
indie band in which uses typical instruments throughout,
we decided to go for a song within the sub-genre of
indie, therefore we chose the indie/alternative genre.
Often within indie music videos there is expected to be
footage of the band itself performing the song, however
this was another way in which we challenged the forms
and conventions as we decided not to include this within
our own music video, we felt this would take the initial
focus off the narrative of the video and the target
audience would enjoy following the plot that is shown
throughout the duration of the video therefore making the
character and the unusual storyline the main focus.