The document summarizes how the media product uses, develops, and challenges conventions of real music videos. It uses the conventions of telling a story or journey shown in other artists' music videos. It challenges conventions by adding flashback scenes shown in black and white to provide insight into the artist's thoughts. It also challenges conventions through the portrayal of the artist as innocent and vulnerable rather than strong and sexy, as is common in other music videos. The length is kept shorter to fit the song length and not appear strange.

1. In what way does your
media product use,
develop and challenge
forms and conventions of
real media products?

2. My media product uses the forms and conventions of real media products in various
ways. I was inspired by music videos by Gabrielle Alpin, Lauren Aquilina and
Becky CJ, all of which are of the same genre and style singing as Hannah MacLeod
(my artist). In my music promotional video I have used Hannah’s own original
music as a narrative throughout the video. I have challenged normal conventions of
music videos by creating a visual understanding of the storyline, which is shown
through Hannah’s acting. I have challenged the convention in Becky CJ – Easy For
You and Delilah – Go’s videos because neither of them tells a story; they simply
follow the artist as she sings.
Delilah - Go Becky CJ – Easy For You

3. In contrast, I have used the convention that
is used in ‘Lauren Aquilina – Fools’ and
‘Gabrielle Alpin – Home’ because they
follow the singers on a ‘journey’. In my
promotional video I also follow Hannah on
a journey, however I have further
developed this convention by adding
‘flashback’s to the narrative, something
which they haven’t got.

4. Adding ‘flashback’ scenes to my video,
which are distinguished by using black
and white film, challenges the normal
conventions of a music video. I did not see
these any other music videos featuring
flashbacks whilst researching. By using
flashbacks I have allowed the audience to
see into Hannah’s thoughts, allowing them
to feel like they are connecting with her
and to understand why she is feeling the
way she is.

5. I have followed the convention that Delilah used in her video for ‘Go’ and Gabrielle
Alpin’s ‘Home’ by using the camera freehandedly and without a tripod. I did this
because it gives the audience a sense of ‘following’ Hannah and makes them feel like
they are watching a live performance of her, which gives another source of
interactivity between her and her audience. This also may tempt the audience to go
and see Hannah perform live, which would prove that my music promo video has
actually promoted Hannah.

6. I looked at the length of their music videos 3:47, 4:09, 3:40 and 4:38. Because
Hannah’s song, ‘Bigger Than Me’, only lasts 3:10, I had to challenge this convention
of having a longer music video because I thought it may look strange to have silent
movie at the beginning or end of the video. Thinking about it now, having silence
at the end of the video (with it still being in flashback mode) would have fitted in
with the storyline (child abuse) because the silence could have represented how
scared Hannah was when she was hiding from her Dad as a young girl. However, I
didn’t want to make the video too long as this is Hannah’s debut music video and
viewers may not have been prepared to watch a longer clip.

7. I have challenged the conventions of all
four of these music promo videos because I
have decided to use black and white film
for parts of my video. My inspiration for
black and white film came from watching
‘Adele – Someone Like You’ because I
thought it captured the sad emotions really
well. However, I have developed from the
style of Adele’s video – I only used black
and white film for the ‘flashback’ scenes,
then colour for the rest.
Adele – Someone Like You
Hannah MacLeod – Bigger Than Me

8. At the beginning of my advanced portfolio I
looked at Rihanna, Katy Perry and Jessie J’s
music videos. These, and most other music
videos in the charts by female singers, all
have a sense of voyeurism and portray the
women to be strong, outgoing lively and
sexy. I have challenged this convention by
representing Hannah as innocent and
vulnerable through body language (e.g.
putting her head into her hands whilst
curled up in the corner of a room) and facial
expressions (e.g. extreme close up of her big
watery eyes). However, I also represented
Hannah as being strong at times, which
develops the convention of Jessie J’s video
for ‘Price Tag’. An example of when I
portrayed Hannah as being strong in my
video is when she is makes eye contact with
the camera and sings as though it comes
from her heart. I didn’t think it was at all
appropriate to make Hannah look sexy, as
this would have completely contrasted with
the theme of the song.

9. The digipaks that I researched often featured
black and white photographs and images. I
decided to go with this convention because I
thought that using black and white images
would capture more emotion and would
link well with the ‘flashback’ scenes of my
promo video, giving the audience something
to recognize between the two pieces (also
my magazine advert).