The music video summarizes how it used and developed conventions of real media products while also challenging some conventions: 1) It stuck to conventions like including a protagonist to follow a storyline and linking it to the lyrics of the song. However, it interpreted the lyrics to create its own story rather than directly adapting them. 2) It used camera techniques like close-ups found in other music videos but challenged conventions by only briefly showing other characters through body parts rather than fully. 3) While it incorporated typical transitions and shots, it challenged norms by including a single unexpected point-of-view shot and not showing the artist, developing mystery.

1. In what ways do your media
products use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products?
Zainab Oyenuga

2. The ways our music video used forms and
conventions of real media products
As a group we felt that it was vital for us to stick with media conventions as they are often the
reasons why most music videos makes sense, have clear meanings and are able to appeal and
connect to audiences; making them look a lot more professional.
Lyrics and storyline
Including a protagonist was a convention that we used in our music video, this way the audience
would have someone to almost follow through the story with. Also, having a main character
would ensure that the audience knows who the story/ song relates to. Following this, another
form and convention that we enforced involved linking the storyline with the lyrics- allowing
the lyrics shape the story and events. Below I have analysed the lyrics to show the parts of the
lyrics we considered when producing the storyline:

3. White lips, pale
face
Light's gone, day's end
Struggling to pay rent We made our protagonist
Long nights, strange
men homeless
But lately her face We made our protagonist a
seems prostitute
Slowly
We made our protagonist buy sinking, wasting
drugs Crumbling like We made our protagonist pale
pastries with dark circles and eye
bags, messy and greasy hair
And go mad for a
couple grams
And she don't want to
go outside tonight
Or sells love to another
man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly
Angels to fly
We made our protagonist drown
Ripped herself& wear a raincoat and
gloves, raincoat
Tried to swim and stay ripped tights
afloat
We made our protagonist have Loose change, bank
loose change and find a £20 note notes
on the floor Weary-eyed, dry
throat
Call girl, no phone We showed our protagonist making
a phone call in the phone booth
For angels to fly
We captured our protagonist An angel will die
closing her eyes in hope, just We showed our protagonist kill
Closed eye herself/drown. We captured birds
before she kills herself And hoping for a
better life flying

4. Furthermore, all music video use the lyrics as the main influence of the storyline, often performing the lyrics
and bring it to life , which is what we did. Challenging such a convention is likely to confuse the audience
and make the music video hard to understand. At the same time, we often had to, like all music
video’s, interpret the lyrics to create the storyline; the lyrics didn’t provide a exact story.
Camera shots
Another convention we used, following our detailed and wide ranging research of music videos, was our use
close-up shots to capture the protagonists deep and depressing emotions, for example, her anxiety after
sleeping with the man.
Through this, the audience, as shown through my audience feedback, were really able to feel the
protagonist pain and sadness, creating sympathy from the audience. Most music video do this
through close-up shots, in order to engage with the audience and almost play with their emotions.
Following this, I feel capturing the video in black and white enhanced this bleak mood as these are
colours that are used in the media to represent and capture gloomy atmospheres. Moreover, like
most music videos, we used long-shots to establish the different settings, and the movement of the
protagonist.

5. Costume and setting
A convention that was prominent for us to follow, especially as protagonist was homeless and a
prostitute, involved ensuring that the protagonist looked unpleasant, dirty, greasy- like a
homeless person. We made our protagonist wear ripped tights with a tight and short dress, as a
typical media representation of a prostitute. The way in which our model chewed her gum and
did her make-up was also unpleasant looking – again, we aimed to reinforce typical media
representations of homeless people and prostitutes. This notion was further emphasised
through settings, specifically as we captured the protagonist waking up outside in an alley
outside a pub, which is the sort of setting, as shown in the media, where a homeless person
would wake-up.
Editing
Through editing, we incorporated typical forms and conventions of real music videos, by using
dissolve transitions in order to create a clear link between clips ensuring that they blend in
smoothly. Like real products, we used this to speed up the transition and to create a correlation
between the beat of the music and the video itself, also, using transitions such as the one
below, allowed us to present this event (the protagonist drowning herself) in a more simplistic
and clearer form.
.

6. The ways my music video developed forms and
conventions of real media products
Our product developed forms and conventions, through the fact that, although we followed through
with music video norms such as, the story being carried out by a new character, rather than the
actual artist, we have avoided placing the actual artist into the video or the protagonist singing
along with the song. For example, if you look at Ed-Sheeran’s ‘A team’ music video, or Pinks
‘Perfect’ video, the artists feature in the video in a distant way. We could have chose to do
this, however, this would have complicated, or even risky. Overall, we developed forms and
conventions of music video’s by including a protagonist, without the artists existence, and without
the protagonist singing along with the lyrics- avoiding lip syncing. Using this structure, helped
add to the audiences emotion by making it more distant- adding a sense of mystery. Following
this, it can be argue that, we not only developed forms and conventions of media products, but
we also challenged them, by taking a new approach. Also, even though, Ed Sheeran and Pink
appear in their music video’s, the protagonist who features in their storyline, also avoid lip
syncing as it prevents the video from being emotional and deeply depressing, this was our reason
for avoiding it. Therefore, lip syncing, I feel is more suitable for different genres of music/
storylines, perhaps ones that have a more angry tone, compared to upsetting and depressing.

7. We product further developed forms and conventions as, usually, music videos that follow the life
of a main character/ protagonist, either equally combine point of view shots and distant shots
(including long shot or mid-shot of the characters actions), or use one or the other.
However, we decided to slightly change this by randomly placing in a point of view shot in the
middle of our video. I feel that this gave the audience a new perspective of our
protagonist, developing a sense of hope which is only indicated through the point of view shot.
I think this shot also, gave the audience an opportunity to relate and connect with the
protagonist, for the first and only time, and the fact that it is so uncommon in our video makes
it more extraordinary and effective. We intentionally incorporated it when our protagonist is
in a natural and rural setting because this type setting represents freedom- a feeling which is
presented through the point of view shot.

8. The ways my music video challenged forms and
conventions of real media products
Real media products, especially ones that focus on a protagonist, tend to include, explicitly, other
characters, even if they are shown for a short moment, however, we have avoided this
completely due to the fact that characters can be reliable, whereas Niamh was a member of our
group making her as the protagonist and the only character more convenient. In addition to
this, to ensure that the story made sense we incorporated snippets of other characters, and
rather than showing them fully and explicitly, we used body parts, such as the hands and
body, to represent their existence. I feel this added to the mystery of our product.

9. Iconography
We further challenged real music video forms and conventions by including iconography which is
mostly common in other forms of media such as magazines or films etc. Our icon was the necklace. We
used this to create mystery in video. The fact that the pendant was a heart enhanced its purpose, as
heart is a symbol of many things relating to love. I feel this would have made the audience more
engaged, almost giving them a role to guess what the heart may mean or symbolise, and why it is an
important object to the protagonist. The icons importance, is however, developed through the use of
media conventions such as close-up shots which are used to capture emotions or things of
importance, as shown in the picture on the left. In addition, the way we challenged conventions is made
effective, through our use and combination of real forms and conventions of real music video.