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

Goodwin’s conventions

• Throughout my research, I noticed traits of Goodwin’s music video conventions theory showing in the videos I analysed.

• These conventions appear to apply to the majority of music videos, regardless of genre.

1) Relationship between lyrics and visuals

• What we hear in the song’s lyrics is portrayed visually in the video.

• “There’s a party in your bedroom all

night long” – video is set in a partyenvironment.

• “Takin’ me down” – Johnny is lookingdown (which makes sense because Johnny

Gioeli is above everyone).

1) Relationship between lyrics and visuals

• This occurs during my video:

• “I am… I’m all of me” – performer isshown alone during most shots.

• “Black hearted evil, brave hearted hero”- contrast in lyrics represented bycontrast in level of light/colour.

2) Relationship between music and visuals

• The visuals on screen often match what we are hearing in one way or another.

• In Hardline’s Takin’ Me Down, we see a close-up shot of Neil’s guitar as his soloplays.

• In Evanescence’s Bring Me To Life (ugh)

the music in the opening is slow paced,so the video uses a single longestablishing shot instead of fast cuts.

2) Relationship between music and visuals

• In my video, I have used a lot of rapid cuts to match the fast pace of the song.

• I’ve also used a lot of dark greyscale shots to compliment the dark, ‘edgy’ tone of the music.

3) Genre characteristics

• Defined genres typically have various characteristics associated with them, which appear in many videos of the particular genre.

• From my research, I found rock videos tend to be performance heavy, and have emphasis placed on the guitarist.

3) Genre characteristics

• My video follows suit in that a significant amount of it is performance footage. It also shows me playing guitar during said performance footage.

4) Iconography/motifs

• This says that stars will have recurring motifs which are seen both inside and outside of their music videos.

• This can be seen in things such as band logos, as well as with stars who are famed for wearing specific costume or using a particular instrument e.g. Slash’s top hat, and Paul McCartney’s Hofner bass.

4) Iconography/motifs

• To keep with this idea, I have put a fair bit of emphasis on Dark Flame’s Black Knight guitar, in both the music video and the digipak.

5) Looking/voyeurism

• If women are present in a video, they will more than likely be portrayed in a sexualised manner, as to appeal to a heterosexual male audience.

• There will also be times when either the artist or someone else in the video looks directly at the viewer (the camera), as a way of engaging them.

5) Looking/voyeurism

• I have used this ‘looking’ concept to a degree in my video; there are a few close-up shots which consist of nothing other than my eyes looking at the camera.

6) Intertextual references

• Music videos often contain references to other productions.

• This could be other music videos, TV programmes, literature, films etc..

6) Intertextual references

• My video is based around a moral choice concept, with the lead character having to make a decision as to whether to commit an evil act or not.

• This was inspired by the 2005 videogame Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Team/SEGA) which involved a similar moral choice idea within the plot.