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

1. Evaluation Question One
Q1: In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?
Bradley Stearn

2. Introduction
• Our music video follows the conventions of the
Indie Rock genre more than challenging them.
However there are a few aspects of the video
that challenge the genre and it’s conventions.
• In this slideshow presentation I am going to show
screenshots from our music video, and annotate
them explaining how they follow/ or challenge
the conventions of the genre.
• I will also be giving examples from existing indie
rock music videos that I have looked at during the
production of our video.

3. This screenshot shows the two guitarists in our music video performing in
a small music venue. The guitarist to the right hand side is also lip syncing
to the song, which follows the conventions of Indie Rock of having the
performance in the music video.
Our indie
Our music video rock band
follows the first consists of
point in Goodwins male band
Theory in that it has members.
the genre
characteristics of
indie rock.
The guitarists are both wearing casual costumes in Our music video challenges the
the screenshot above. They are both wearing conventions of the genre, as we do not
skinny or slim fit jeans, with shirts. One has his top have a typical band set up.
button undone on his shirt, making him look casual Conventionally you would expect to
and chilled out, the other guitarist has his shirt see a drummer, and maybe a
completely unbuttoned which shows his black t- keyboardist. In our video we only see
shirt. Both these costumes are conventional to the the lead singer with a guitar and a lead
genre, as they represent the musicians as every day guitarist. We only focus on the lead
people. musicians, with the drummer and
keyboardist not being shown.

4. Using a small music venue location within an indie rock music video is very
conventional to the genre. A music video that I came across during my research
that used small venues included ‘Na na na na na’ by the Kaiser Chiefs. The music
video contains multiple music venues, small and large. The screenshot below
shows a small venue used.
Similar to our own
music venue, the band
members in the
screenshot are wearing
casual costumes. Which
consist of skinny jeans
with a shirt or a t-shirt.
This is a
conventional band
setup, a lead
singer, guitarist,
bassist and a The Kaiser Chiefs consists of all male band members,
drummer. this is conventional to the indie rock genre, and is
something that we followed in our own music video.

5. Specific shot types and angles are conventional to the indie rock genre.
In most indie rock music videos there are close-ups of the lead singer.
There are also close-ups of the other band members, however the lead
singer will get the majority of the show time.
Andrew Goodwin’s fourth point is
about the ‘demands of the record
label’ that produced the song. This
means the artists must be shown
through close-up shots to sell their
star or band ‘star persona’. This
produces a visual ‘motif’ that can
be included in future music videos.
From this angle we get a glimpse of the stage lighting that the
band are seeing. With the spotlight creating a glare In the
bottom left corner, we get an insight into what the lead singer is
seeing, this is ‘notions of looking’.

6. The lead guitarist in our music The close-up and medium shots display his electric
video is also shown through guitar and the chords and strumming he is playing.
close-up and medium shots, This adds an illustrative connection between the music
however not as much as our and the visuals as we are able to see what he is
lead singer. playing. The electric guitar is also a conventional
instrument to use in a band.
The flashing lights in
our music venue scene The lighting techniques in the shot shown is conventional to a
are conventional to a gig scene in a music video. The screenshot from the video
rock music video. They used low key lighting with a slightly red coloured tint, which
add excitement to the gives off the effect of a live gig
scene

7. Below is a screenshot of the bands lead guitarist as The silhouette visual used in
a black silhouette figure. We used this shot for our music video is illustrative
around 3 seconds in our final music video, along to the music. The shot has a
with a photographed version on the back panel of build up before it, with two
our digipak. similar shots in different
locations. The sound of
drum symbols crashing act
as a transition into this
powerful shot. These shots
are cut to the beat.
We didn’t use the silhouette
shots much in our music
video. We used one for about
3 seconds at around 55
seconds into our video. The
shot is powerful when it first
appears, and adds variation.
An indie rock music video will contain various types of lighting styles
and methods. The majority of our music video consists of natural
lighting which came from the sun, with the added extra of small
portable lights that we used. The silhouette was achieved by
backlighting the subject in a dark location.

8. I found a similar shot in the music video for ‘Little Shocks’
by the Kaiser Chiefs. The guitarist is shown in a low lit
location, with a spot light back lighting him which creates
a black silhouette figure.

9. A convention of indie rock music videos that In our music video we included narrative in the
almost always used is the juxtaposition of same locations as the performance shots were
performance shots in various locations and at. The example shown below shows a shot of
cameo performed narrative. Harry performing the lip syncing of the song at
the rural location. The second screenshot
shows Jason and Stevie acting for the narrative
in the same location. Jason as performing a
cameo role in the narrative, as he is a band
member.
In these performance shots Harry has a
direct gaze to the spectators, which has a
notion of looking as the audience will
stare. back
We challenged the conventions of the music
genre by including a rural location. Usually you Within the narrative scenes
would expect to see an urban location. the spectators watch the
However I feel that this develops the genre, as relationships in a
it works well in our video. voyeuristic way.

10. Another media product that follows the similar This video is similar to our own
conventions that are used In our own product is as it includes small amounts of
‘Always where I need to be’ by The Kooks. narrative between
performance scenes. The
The music video consists of mainly narrative scenes are in the
performance shots in various locations same locations as the
around the city. An example performance performance. The cityscape
scene is on the rooftop which shows the shots shown below show a
cityscape in the background. performance and narrative
both on a rooftop in the city.
The conventional lead singer with a microphone and instruments of a drum kit and
guitar are shown in this music video.

11. The motion tracked visuals on the garage door that we use
in our music video give us an insight into our lead singers
mind. He thinks about his ex girlfriend and her new
boyfriend, we then see a flashback image on the garage of
when they used to be together.
In this scene the lead
singer wears a comical t-
shirt with a joke which is
an intertextual reference
to the Star War’s films.
This costume creates a
sense of humour with the
lead singer, which may
make him appeal more to This could be ‘notions of looking’ as we
different audiences. are able to ‘watch’ and get an insight
through the visuals, which show what
the lead singer in the music video is
thinking about.

12. There is a contrast between the clean wall and the graffiti on it, which makes it
stand out to the spectators. One of the pieces of graffiti art shows guitar legend
Jimi Hendrix playing a guitar. This is an intertextual reference to classic rock
music videos, which links our genre of indie rock to the original rock genre.
Rock music videos
conventionally include
multiple locations for
the narrative and
performance scenes.
In our video this
location appears as
the third scene, with
the pan shot of Harry
strumming his guitar
as he walks from
under the bridge. In
total there are ten
different locations
used in our music
The lead singer has a direct gaze to the spectators video.
in this scene.

13. Locations/Scenes
• As stated on the previous slide, indie rock music videos
conventionally include many different locations and scenes.
• Our different locations/Scenes in the order of appearance
are Jesus Green, Castle Mound, Bridge, Wooden Walkway,
Garages, Shopping street, Man on the Moon music venue,
Shopping centre, Coffee shop and the Council estate.
• Having so many different locations keeps the music video
entertaining to watch, as it doesn't become too repetitive
as it would if it had less locations.
• In a music video that I analysed technically for the research
of our own music video, ‘Kings for the Weekend’ by Missing
Andy, I found that it had 5 different scenes throughout the
video.
• Click here to see the analysis http://slidesha.re/S505OF

14. Our magazine advert is fairly The two guitarists from
conventional in the way we our music video are
formatted the information on shown wearing casual
it. The band name is clearly clothes which include
shown at the top of the advert, skinny jeans with
with the album title shown in a hoody’s.
smaller font just below it.
We edited the photo to be
black and white, along with Institutional
the sky replacement with information is shown
stars that we did. The small on the bottom right of
amount of colours such as the advert. This
the red and blue that are includes a strap line
visible stand out. review by ‘The Fly’, a
very popular indie rock
The story that this advert tells is magazine in the UK. It
that there may be relationship also includes logos
problems between the three from the record label
characters, the rip down the Links to social networking ‘Aware Records’, and
middle implies this. websites Facebook and Twitter the production and
Conventionally indie rock will be were the fans will go to distribution company
albums have a story behind find more information about the ‘Sony BMG’.
them. album.

15. Shown on this slide is a
conventional magazine The album name is
advert for an indie rock shown below the
band album. band name just like
it is on our magazine
advert.
The band name
‘STEREOPHONICS’ is clearly Institutional
shown with a large bold and information or
capital font at the top of the logos are not
advert. These words are the shown on this
first to be read on this magazine
advert. advert, this
Band members are shown challenges the
wearing casual costumes conventions.
This challenges
the
Minimal colour is used conventions.
just like in our advert.
The layout of this
Different versions of the album are available to purchase, including
advert is similar to
digital downloads and a DVD version. A link to the official band
ours
website is at the bottom of the advert, more information on the
album would be on the website.

16. The close-up of our bands lead singer on the front cover of the
digipak follows the demands of the record label that our
promotional package has.
The front cover of the
The band name is
digipak doesn't give
clearly shown along
too much away, it is
with the album name in
simple but effective
a smaller font below it.
with it’s style.
The white glow helps
the text stand out more
from the starry
Institutional background.
information
includes the two
strap line reviews
that we added,
from NME and Q
which are leading
music magazines.

17. The simplistic style of this Kasabian digipak is similar to ours. The band
name is shown with a bold font, there is no album name on this digipak
because it is the same as the band name.
The physical
version of this
The graphic on digipak that I own
this front cover has a sticker on
shows a the top left. On
mysterious this sticker is
person with information
what looks like a including the
mask on which singles included in
covers their face. the album, and a
This doesn't give selection of top
anything away strap line reviews
about the album, from music
similar to our intuitions.
front cover does.