Question 1 of my A2 Media Studies Evaluation

1. EVALUATION
QUESTION 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
By Hayley Millross

2. Andrew Goodwin’s Music Video Conventions
Media theorist Andrew Goodwin devised 6 conventions
which can be commonly found in modern day music
videos. These include:
1. The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals
2. The relationship between the music and the visuals
3. Particular music genres may have their own music video
style and iconography
4. The artist may develop their own star iconography in
and out of their videos
5. Likely to be reference to voyeurism (the act of sexual
looking)
6. Intertexual reference, either to other music videos, TV
texts or films.

3. Titles
At the beginning of our video, we used a title
sequence to state the name of the song. We
specifically picked a font that fits in with the
genre. Therefore, the font is bold white bubble
writing dominating the frame. We gained
inspiration from Skepta’s So Alive music video. The
video features a title sequence stating the artist
and the feature N-Dubz, another well known
grime/rap trio which fans of Skepta may
recognise from other projects. Grime artists may
decide to add this effect into their video as it
clearly marks that it is their work and the audience
are still able to see the footage from the video
behind it. The Skepta title uses a zoom in transition
whereas our In The Bag title uses no specific
transitional effect. The frame also happens
around the title in our video whereas in Skepta’s,
the way to view the frame is through the titles.
Screenshot 1
So Alive by Skepta ft N-Dubz

4. Location & Setting
Our location of the music video was a house
party. We took inspiration from the self produced
music video for Selena Gomez’s Birthday. This
video was actually taken from her 21st birthday
party so it added authenticity to the piece
whereas our party was made for the soul purpose
of being for the video. This of course came with
some faults. It was hard to invite people on such
short notice so the number of people there for
filming made it feel like less of a party than first
anticipated or hoped. Also, due to the time of
year we were filming in and the weather on the
day of shooting, we had significant problems with
the lighting which is an essential element of a
party themed video as low lighting fully captures
the bright coloured lights, glow sticks, balloons
etc. Our video was filmed in a sun room so that
allowed reflections to be visible and the late
afternoon light to come through whilst filming.
Screenshot 2
Birthday by Selena Gomez

5. The Scenario Scenes
To add a comedic element to our video, we decided to
incorporate three scenarios with three of the girls from the
party with “The Womanizer”. We took inspiration for
human interaction scenes on a sofa from JLS’ Do You Feel
What I Feel video. However, in this video, it is not done in
the same context or manner as in our video. Our video
therefore contradicts Andrew Goodwin’s convention of
the lyrics matching with the visuals as we can see through
the scenarios that the womanizer doesn’t in fact “have it
in the bag” as the song states. In contrast, the human
interaction scenes in JLS’ video do fit in with the lyrics and
meaning of the song.
Screenshot 3
Do You Feel What I Feel by JLS

6. Lighting
As stated in a previous slide, our biggest fault was the
lighting. Circled in the screenshot in red are the areas
in which our lighting faulted us. As you can see, the
video commenced shooting in the late afternoon and
due to the weather, it made it a grey/blue sky clearly
visible through the large window in the sun room. The
second lighting fault could have been the lamp
circled in the right hand side of the screenshot.
Although not a massive bother, it did hinder the
lighting and made it seem more yellow in some shots.
Lighting is key to a party themed media piece as it
has to portray the potential craziness of the situation.
Screenshot 4 (with annotations)

7. Style
Artists of the grime genre have a specific style that
music fans can easily determine. We used this particular
style in our video with our performer. Our main motif and
the item that makes our artist recognisable to the public
is the snapback as it clearly portrays the genre of music
our artist is emanating. It is the common item of clothing
that people see on an artist within this genre. In Wretch
32’s Don’t Go video, the first we see of him is with a
profile shot of him looking away from the camera. This is
common within the grime and also in some hip-hop and
R’n’B videos. It is to show off their profile to the audience
and also capture their style and possibly their motif.
Screenshot 5
Don’t Go by Wretch 32

8. The Use of Ambient Sound
Screenshot 6
We used ambient sound at the beginning of our music video. This was to add an
atmosphere to the party and to also greet “The Womanizer” as he entered the room. It
uses the conventions of a grime/rap music video particularly videos with a party/rave
scenario because it amplifies the party feeling and sets the scene further past the general
setting and location of the video.

9. Dancing Scenes
Screenshot 7
It is conventional of the grime genre to have the main artist in the centre of the frame with
backing dancers or extras from the video filling the scene behind them. This is to highlight the
egotistic popularity of the singer and make the artist seem like the biggest part of the party.
However, the artist in our video is more of an onlooker into the overall concept of the video.

10. Pool Table Scenes
Screenshot 8
Many artists like to show off their extra skills within their music videos. This is more common in
videos which portray a more relaxed atmosphere to show that the celebrity in question does
have downtime to themselves and shows that they are still humble. In our video, we show
our artist playing pool as fillers from the lip synching and the scenario shots.

11. Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol used within a scenario
Still image of shot glasses
Screenshots 9 and 10
To emphasise the party further, we decided to use fake alcohol in the form of both cups and shot
glasses. There are also two more shots of two of the party guests consuming the shots. The still
image of the shot glasses shown over the introduction of the song show an element of the party
before the audience view it for themselves.

12. OUR ANCILLARY TASKS

13. Magazine Advert
The magazine advert for our music video project uses an
Intertexual reference. We took inspiration for the colour
scheme, photo effect and title of the album from the film
“The Godfather”. Our motif which is the snapback hat is
featured in the advert. This links in with Andrew Goodwin’s
convention of star iconography as it clearly displays the
genre of the album through a simple item of clothing and
is something people can recognise no matter what media
form they are using to view the artist. Magazine adverts
promoting music of the grime/rap genre typically display
the feature tracks on their album. More predominately,
they display the collaborations with other artists. This
method of promotion then grabs the attention of not only
fans of the album’s artist but also the fans of artists in which
they collaborate with.

14. Digipack
We decided to make the Digipack similar to
the magazine advert to create an image easily
associated with our star persona. The series of
photos used on the Digipack feature our
motif, the snapback hat, and hand poses that
fit within our genre and are typical poses used
on other grime artist’s album covers. It again
involves the same intertextuality seen in the
magazine advert with reference to the
Godfather film as inspiration for both the title
and the front cover photo. We thought that
the term “The Godfather” showed our artist to
be self confident in their image and feel like
their creations can inspire their fans.