Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

‘’ With reference to the text you have examined discuss the conventions of the genre/style you are working in as well as

how you intend to use/subvert these convention in your own product’’

Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

Conventions

• Conventions allows audiences to understand and become familiar with a certain genre, it allows them to understand the text more.

• Conventions are specific aspects of a text, it ensures a text works well and fits with the specific genre.

Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

Music Video conventions

• Music videos have different styles for example– Narrative

• Tells a story, for example the music video we examined the girl was having a bad dream

– Performance • This commercially sells the artist, camera mainly focuses on the

main singer

– Animation • digitally edited, certain features are added to the video to give it

an effect. This is mostly popular for pop music videos

– Mixture • This is where the video shows the artist and also a story within

Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

Camera Styles • Close ups are used to show expression

on the artists face, as most music videos are made from a commercial point of view, the image of an artist is important and also direct mode off address is always important to show a connection with the audience.

Two shots are used when two characters are engaged in conversation or a there is a relationship between them

Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

• Point of view shots are used in music videos as well. Not as much as other shots, but they are used to create an atmosphere of realism and making the viewer feel a part of what is going on. • Long shots are another shot that is

scarce in certain music videos, but for videos that are shot in places that have a lot going on at once (for example, a night club) that needs to be caught on film, this shot is used. A similar shot, known as a establishing shot, isn’t used to great effect in music videos and is found more predominantly in films, usually in the very first scene.

Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

Mise en scene conventions

• Within a Pop/dance music video, mise en scene is everything in the scene.

– You need to examine the costumes, colours, facial expressions, props and the environment surrounding.

– The costumes in a dance video need to be glamorous this is because it reflects a real dance environment, this will be important for our music video as this is a typical convention.

– Facial expressions need to be happy and enjoyable to therefore keep the audience entertained. The picture shows how the artist is widely putting his heart into the performance he is giving.

Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

• Lighting- for pop/dance music videos it can be completely different varying from video to video. Pop music videos are traditionally bright colours where as dance music videos usually have the dark back ground but then contradict with bright flashing lights. Our own product needs to take this into consideration as it may be hard to reach different levels of lighting without professional lights, however light is a very significant aspect.

• Colours- Dance atmosphere are usually very vibrant and very energetic. For our own product, we will have to use many colours. However we could break this convention and use contradictive colours like black and white. You wouldn't expect black and white and dark blue to be used in a dance video however these stand out and work well together.

Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

• Props- This is a vital asset to anything shot on film, whether it is professional or not. In the sense of a music video, props make up a lot of the commercial selling points, besides from the protagonists. Props can vary from the simple things such as a cup or a vase to bigger things, for instance cardboard boxes or even cars. This allows for the video to have an even larger sense of realism. We will have to consider certain props for our music video.

An example of props.

E.g. The old radio and

stereo speakers

Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

Editing

• Can also be known as animation• The conventions of editing within a music video can vary

widely, they can range from fast cuts to slow motion. The use of fast cuts shows speed and the typical dance environment, it also shows that a lot is happening within a short period of time.– When we are making our product we need to really think about

this and the use fast cuts because they can be really effective• For our music video we could use slow motion, because fast

cuts is a typical convention of a music video, slow motion gives a sense of realisation which works contradicts the fast cuts

Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

Representation and style

• This is a representation of a glamorous life style, this representation is used widely in most pop and dance music videos as they are all about selling the artists image.

• This is a representation of gender, women are portrayed as sexy and beautiful in music videos. Women are portrayed as decorative objects that dance and pose, where as men are more likely to be playing instruments and represented as being more dominant. For our music video we need to take this into consideration , as our music video will be the style of glamour we need to take into consideration the glamorous life style.

Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

Our own product • The conventions of a typical music video are becoming clearer with more

research we do. We have to vigilantly take these into thought as to if we follow them or we break the principle.– Breaking the typical convention can be really successful in our product if done

precisely and can be achieved, for example using different types of shots apart from the typical close up, but also using the black and white contrasting theme instead of vibrant colours.

• Our music videos needs to include the following;– Close ups– Establishing shots– cheerful facial expressions– Bright colourful costumes– Props

• We also have to use some representation within our media product, so the alluring life style and image is very important. The use of animation and using digital technology will really make our product exciting and we can adapt it to how we want it and therefore fit it into the target audience

Melody Quincey and Alex Rodway

bibliography

• [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-So9lXFt5rM• [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saw1w-8ODKM• [3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO4msvIA7cw