In what ways does your media product develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products?

The music video our group created both develops and challenges certain forms and conventions that are used in the real life media market today. We researched conventions of other effective music videos with the same genre, Snow Patrol videos and several media theorists to see the techniques all the successful bands use. Adding to this we researched into target audiences for the indie genre of music and what they would expect and like to see in a video like ours, it was important that we used conventions of real products that would appeal to our target audience.

Goodwin's theory states that there are 6 key features when creating an effective music video and after analyzing Beyonce and Jay-z's Deja vu are real media product enabled me to spot these conventions and therefore apply them to our own video.

1 - There is a clear connection between the lyrics and the visuals in our music video as Goodwin's theory states there should be in real media products. For example we made a link connecting the dance moves to the words " in my head" as shown in the picture below. Adding to this, the mise-en-scene in the video portrays the link of the visuals and lyrics such as the clothes the actors wear. Both the females and male actor wear black outfits, the females represent the "male gaze" theory wearing lace, skirts and fairly bold make up which was inspired from real media products such as "hurts". Also the male clothing in black they both represent the meaning of the lyrics being unhappy as black portrays sad emotions. Adding to this, the background of the dancers is a dull grey setting which yet again these are representative of the emotions the lyrics imply. Furthermore the relationship between the specific lexis in the song and the main actor miming the words is a clear connection as whilst he is lip sinking you the audience can clearly see the emotions he is trying to portray of sadness which is what the words are about.

2 - There is a relationship between the music and the visuals as we have amplified this through the style of dance "contemporary" is symbolic of the the music as "you could be happy, i don't know" they are very sad and emotional words therefore are synonymous with the slow, flowing dance moves. In terms of the editing and cuts there is a connection with the visuals as the cuts are scenes are fairly long and the cuts are slow to go with the rhythm of the song, also there are several scenes in slow motion which when analysing the real product of the "baby bird" music video they used a lot of slow motion to create a dramatic tension and really portray the sadness of the song.

3 - Our music video also contained what Goodwin states at genre specific features, therefore when researching the indie genre we tried to pick certain factors that could be put in our video. For example in terms of indie music videos a common factor was that the main singer would perform and lip sing the words to the song in particular in the "Snow Patrol" videos. Therefore we decided to find a professional actor that could to do effectively and still portray the emotions of the song. Also, when researching the indie "style" there was a common theme of dark colours grey, black therefore in our video we made the outfits of the actor and dancers and the setting synonymous with this theme.

4 - Another feature that is common in real music video products is that there are several shots of the band that conform to the demands of the record label for example many close ups to present a certain image of the band. Therefore in our music video we added many close ups, extreme close ups and full body establishing shots so that the target audience could see the whole image of the actor and dancers in the video. Both of the dancers in our video are seen as "attractive" with the feminine outfits they wear and one stereotypically conforming to the rules of an "attractive female" with long blonde hair linked the "male gaze" theory which is a feature that may be appealing to a young target audience which is what we were aiming for. This also can be applied with the male actor we used stereotypically tall, dark and wearing a smart suit may be attractive to a female audience. These features I spotted in partiucular in the "JLS" and "Beyonce" video i anaylsed.

5 -Yet again a rule that Goodwin applies to music videos is the emphasis on "looking" for example the "male gaze" theory to attract a male audience and the "reverse male gaze" to attract a female audience. This most often means a voyeuristic view of, and an objectification, of women. The emphasis on looking also includes the artist looking directly into the camera. This helps the audience connect with the artist, we applied this with Ben the main actor and this was a feature i noticed in all the real products of music videos i analysed. Although we conformed to this feature we also went against it with the female actor, we wanted to try and convey the woman through the horse. A horse is known as a beautiful and gracious creature much like a woman Firstly we planned on showing the horse tethered, symbolising the restrictions the man has put on her. The horse running free symbolises her newfound freedom. Therefore the beauty was shown in a different way than being revealing and provocative.

6 - In our particular music video it does not conform to the feature in Goodwin's theory that says its common to reference other forms of media, for example if a music video contained a mobile phone, or newspaper. However when anaylsing the indie genre music videos this was not a feature that was applied often, in fact in none of the videos i researched into. Therefore as we could not create a link between this, the visuals or lyrics we didn't feel the need to involve this in our music video.