Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

When beginning the project I conducted research in to existing products such as ‘Aluna George’ amd ‘The 1975’ to understand specific codes and conventions of different genres. Part of my research included the indie-rock genre and the pop genre. Our product is a mixture of both of these styles creating indie-pop. Therefore when creating our product I could apply these conventions of real media products.

In terms of camera, we used conventions of the indie genre throughout our video. For example, establishing shots were used at the beginning of the video to distinguish the setting and location which are both poignant features of our ‘Romeo and Juliet’ themed narrative. How ever, this slightly contrasts the ‘rock’ part of the genre as in our video’s establishing shots show the setting and surrounding rather than band performance which is typical in a rock video. Although, throughout the video shots are shown of the artist playing the guitar which connotes the indie genre.

Mise-en-scene was a key feature of representing the indie-pop genre and narrative. Key props were used such as the guitar and peacocks. These were used throughout to link to the song lyrics and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ themed narrative. The peacock created a symbolism of love and freedom, this emotional and sensitive narrative is often a typical feature of an indie narrative, similar to Ed Sheeran’s ‘The A Team’. The appearance of the artist in terms of costume was also adapted to fit into our genre. We dressed the protagonist in basic style indie clothing such as black skinny jeans, a white tshirt and vans shoes. For the audience, this allows them to recognise the costume of the protagonist and link this to stereotypes that they recognise such as the indie genre. The appearance of the artist was significant in genre representation as if we had dressed the protagonist differently, perhaps in all black and red, a different genre would be deciphered such as punk or rock. The appearance of the male protagonist in comparison to thee female protagonist was also a significant feature to represent differences in class which links to our ‘Romeo and Juliet’ themed narrative.

Indie artists tend to make music for themselves rather than the industry; therefore large-scale production videos are unnecessary. In relation to our product we applied this in several ways, for example in the album digipack and album poster. When selecting images to use we decided to use images that didn’t contain the artists face, instead we created icons through the scenery and props such as the guitar. However, as our artist is new and upcoming it is important to present the image of the artist in order to create a brand image for themselves. Therefore, we also included medium-long portrait shots of the artist in natural, spontaneous poses which would be used in the CD cover to allow the audience to recognise the artist as a brand. This differs from the ‘pop’ genre which would commonly include glamorised, close-up headshots of the artist, often portraying them as a figure or icon.

The narrative in our production both challenges and develops real conventions. In any music video the narrative is key to representing and explaining the song in a visual way to attract the audience. However, in an indie music video the narrative commonly takes focus on the band/artist musical performance such as playing the guitar. Large scale productions are unnecessary for this genre as the key focus and intention of the artist is to promote their music rather than their own image/identity. As we mixed genres with indie-pop our production contains features of this and develops the real conventions. Many parts of our video show the protagonist singing/playing guitar, however it doesn’t glamourize his image which would likely to be seen in pop videos. In terms of narrative in the indie genre it is usually deeper than those in pop music due to the more sensitive writing of the song. The narrative of the song is based around love and romance which mirrors a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ forbidden love style. Therefore the lyrics are deep and meaningful and this is echoed in the cinematography through long distance shots of the protagonist walking into the distance and medium-long shots of the ‘forbidden’ female waiting anxiously for the male to save her.