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

My music video uses many conventions and codes of a music video. Firstly my video is focused around the breaking down of a relationship of a boy and girl. These romantic but sad narratives of a couple’s journey together are used in many music videos and films of this genre. Examples of where this is in use is in films such as; `(500) days of summer` which is referenced within the music video, this narrative is also shown in many female folk artists music videos, such as Laura Marling. These videos also portray a sense of loneliness. In my initial research, I decided I would not use a performance element, however once I had finished shooting, I then decided to include a performance aspect, because like many other videos within the folk genre they focus on the storyline, and adding a performance aspect would add vairety.

In my research of performance aspects within music videos, I looked at performances by Laura Marling and Marina and the Diamonds, they were both fairly similar because they were filmed within a house, and neither of them had an audience present, making the performances relaxed and intimate, therefore allowing the audience watching to feel as if they are part of and involved within the video, having been invited into the home to her the artist rehearse. It also allows audience to relate to the artist, and become familiar with them, I applied this, to my own music video, because although I used a performance aspect, it was just showing the artist playing the piano and singing, in a room by herself, which creates an intimate feel with the audience. Although the audience are not within the performance, so you can not directly see who the audience are, you can identify who they are because of the location, costume and mood. The performance element to the video, creates more variety and adds diversity to the video, it changes the pace of the narrative in the video.

Below are screen captures from the music videos by; marina and the diamonds and laura marling, which i used as part of my research into performance aspects of music videos. These images demonstrate the intimacy the audience feel towards the artist, and the way that their surroundings represent who the audience are.

This image, above shows the performance aspect of the music video, and shows how the location, costume and mise-en-scene, represent the audience.

“The grand narrative structure”, is conventionally discarded within music videos, according to Goodwin’s theory. The music video may tell a story, but the problem will often remain unresolved. My music video complies with this convention, abandoning the grand narrative structure, because although it implies of story of heartbreak, there is no clear ending, where the problem has been visibly resolved. Goodwin’s theory the, abandonment of the grand narrative structure, suggests intertextuality within the video, because of the way that the codes and conventions relate to other media texts, the audience construct their own narrative.

The use of split screen is a vast part of the narrative structure, because although the narrative is focused around the boy and girl`s relationship, and how they are falling out of love, the narrative structure is also focused around the journey of the couple, both the literal journey on the train to the beach, and the metaphorical journey that their relationship has taken. The way the split screen has been constructed with the use of movement and varying sizes of frames within the split screen, creates a rhythm within the music video and adds a varying pace. It adds a musical feel, as well as just telling a story. The structure is reflected, through the movement of the frames and the pace of the music video, this makes the structure evident rather than telling a story. The shots that were used within the video; some were used to tell the story and others were used to show the structure. The structure was shown more through the construction, in the movement of the frames, however the shots that could be said as evidently showing the structure would be shots such as; the shots of the close ups of the girl with her hair blowing in the wind, and the movement shots of the sea and the birds, and also the shots of the sun through the train window.

Many of the codes and conventions that I have used within my own music video, comes from the genre of the music and the conventions that are used within the folk genre. I have used some of the codes and conventions within the folk, acoustic genre, as well as using these codes and conventions of this genre. I have also gained inspiration from art films, therefore using some codes and conventions from the artistic genre. The art genre, works well within the folk genre as a type of sub-genre because their target audiences have similar interests, although I may have challenged some of the conventions in genres, it has enabled me to create a production and ancillary texts that will appeal to more than one target audience.

Within the research stages, the various researches that I carried out identified the codes and conventions of the folk genre, in which I could apply to the music video. I have challenged some of the typical conventions that are used within this genre, as the artist is usually used throughout the whole video, in order to tell the story, however I wanted to use actors for the narrative of the music video so that the audience could relate to them being very ordinary, everyday people. I then used short clips of the artist throughout the video, so the audience could identify with her as a person, and become familiar with whom she is. It also allows the audience to understand the concept of the narrative through the artist’s viewpoint, and connect with the artist. I used some of the conventions that are typically used within this genre.