How we developed conventions of real media products

Throughout our video the artist played by Annalise is shown lip synching. One pop video convention is that the artist is given a large amount of time on the screen themselves as they are trying to promote themselves as well as there music to the audience. We used different angles of her when filming her lip sync and when she’s on the screen lip syncing it is solely just her, indicating she is important. Lip syncing is supposed to tell a story and create emotion and that is what we tried to create through Annalise’s lip syncing. The video interchanges between Annalise lip syncing and the actual narrative.

A real media product which is similar to our product in terms of lip syncing camera use, is Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball. This video was a huge hit around the world when it was released. In terms of the lip syncing as you can see it is a close up of the artists face, trying to express emotion and connect with the audience similar to what we tried to do. A large amount of the song is just the artists face, singing and this can be very effective. Furthermore, there is a blank white background, showing she is the star, and in our video we show Annalise is the star.

Another convention and key component within pop videos is a clear and intriguing narrative. In relation to our video, it was heavily narrative driven. The narrative is a very important component in a music video along with the music itself. Most of the screen time in our video is revolved around the narrative. We also followed Goodwin’s music video convention of linking the visuals with the lyrics. Another convention we followed was making cuts in the beat of the song. One prime example of this is when Annalise sings ‘I.. I.. I.. I.. I.. I.. I.. I..’ the footage cuts every time she says I and shows flashbacks of all the good times in her relationship with Callum.

These are some stills from the song ‘ Money on my mind’ by the new artist Sam Smith showing how it is clever to link the lyrics and the visuals. The stills show a prostitute with money in her hands, and a gorgeous young woman with an old man, showing she is after his money, which links to the song title of ‘Money on my mind’. This is another way we followed pop video conventions.

Relationships and love is very common within pop videos. Our song ‘New York’ is about the end of a relationship and loss of love, and how the male partner (Callum) has fallen in love with another woman. In the video you mainly see Callum and Annalise unhappy and you get the vibe the relationship is on the rocks. However, with the new relationship between Callum and Vanessa it shows the blossoming part of there relationship, and tried to put a romantic element in the scenes the figured in.

An example of a real media product which shows a couple in love is the song ‘Hero’ by Enrique Iglesias. This is a very well known video still today, and through the visuals shows the love they have for each other. Through the emotion and acting it is very convincing that they are in love, we tried to replicate this with Callum and Vanessa.

Within many videos including pop videos there is one shot that stands out, or one part of the song which you remember. I feel these 2 shots stand out in our video and are iconic, and if you saw these images you would instantly think of out music video. The opening of our video consisted of a number of blurred candles which on the screen looks very good and it is unusual as many people have not seen anything like this before. I think this shot grabs the audiences attention and makes them want to see more. The second image of the ink dispersing into the water is also eye catching, and goes with the lyric ‘she poisoned his sweet mind’.

This shot from the song ‘Midnight Memories’ stands out to me, as the One direction lads are on the middle of the bridge together, maybe trying to show they are stars, and have achieved highly and are the biggest boy band in the world. Shots like this and shots within our video are the things that can make an amazing music video.

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

One way we subverted pop video conventions is by not showing the artists wealth and expensive lifestyle and glamourized house and belongings. In our video as you can see in the picture to the left, you see the couple in bed, which the audience can probably relate to.

On the right is an example of how artists do portray there wealthy lifestyle. This is a shot from the song ‘Holiday’ by Dizzee Rascal. In the image you can see a pool party occurring at the back of the artists house.

Another way we challenged the conventions of pop videos is by not having the artist in minimal clothing at any point in the video. We didn’t think it would go and wasn’t appropriate with the tone of our video. One scene where the females in our video did wear tight dresses was the dinner scene, which may bring about the male gaze but this wasn’t our intention.

This is a image from Beyonce’s music video ‘single ladies’ as you can see the artist along with two other dancers are wearing revealing clothing which would invite the notion male gaze of women. Half naked females and dancers are extremely common in pop videos however, we tried to steer away from this as we feel it wasn’t a theme needed in our video.