Question 1 / I n what way dose your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media text.

A convention is an arrangement codes and traditional rules which dictate the way that something is usually done. These norms are often widely acknowledged within regular culture, and help audiences instantly recognize the genre of certain products. All forms of media conform to conventions when creating products in order to comply with what an audience expects to see. In relation to music videos, conventions are often based around elements such as Cinematography, Editing, and Mies en scene. The advanced brief was to effectively create a music video, and in order for me to have a successful media products Iv undertaken in research of particular codes and conventions used within existing media texts of the indie singer songwriter genre. It was necessary for me to conduct research to understand what is associated with the genres and bracket of the music industry to ensure my music video attracted the target audience.

My Advance production music video is a predominantly performance driven video with slight elements of narrative of ‘laying a toxic relationship to rest’ and ‘letting go’. I arrive at the decision to have a predominate performance based video to comply with the existing codes and conventions of the indie singer songwriter genre by highly focuses on the performance suggesting the greater importance of the music. In addition the narrative of my music video fits the bounds of the genre and general expectations of the audience of recurring themes of loss of love and break ups. My music video also conforms to the conventions of the indie singer songwriter genre by conveying a more realistic approach of everyday situations that tend to relate to the lyrics or the life of the artist.

My music video utilizes forms and convention of a real media text through adhering to element of Andrew Goodwin's theory of features of music videos. Particular ways in which I have conformed to Goodwin’s theory was through demonstrating a direct correlation between the lyrics and the visuals through parts of my music video. A clear example of where I have demonstrated a direct correlation between the lyrics and visual representation depicted on screen is as the line is sung, “I used to recognize myself It's funny how reflections change” accompanied by a over the shoulder shot of my artist gazing into a mirror with his face being consumed my smoke. The visuals used within my media product exemplify the lyrics, therefore strengthening the meaning of the lyrical allowing the audience to gain a better understanding of the song and the message it conveys. Additional way I have utilized and conformed to Goodwin’s theory within my media product is reflected in editing of my music videos. The pace of the edit is reflected by the fluctuation of the tempo of the music and with the shots briefly transitioning into one another as the tempo builds up and shot being rapidly reduced in speed when the tempo of the music decrease conforming to Goodwin’s theory highlighting the relationship between the music and visuals.

In terms of cinematography throughout my advance portfolio music video I have fit to existing conventions of indie singer songwriter music videos through exhibits dynamic shots and angles such as mid shots and close ups of the artist throughout the duration of my video as Singer-songwriter music videos are conventionally composed of a variety of camera shots and angle. Within my indie singer songwriter music video Close-ups are frequently used as a means of drawing the audience’s attention to the emotions displayed on the artist/performers face whilst Extreme shots are also used to showcase the artist surroundings or the location. Moreover my media production demonstrations conformations to the convention of the indie singer songwriter genre through the use of naturalistic camerawork such as Hand-Held Camera work. I have constructed the cinematography within my music video to reflect the nature of the indie singer songwriter genre to reinforce the idea of the everyday and that these events within the music video are everyday happenings and in no way are composed at all rather than obviously stylized shots which are predominantly associated with mainstream culture.

The locations, which I have applied to my music video, are variation of effective location, which also conform to the codes, and conventions of the indie singer songwriter genre to strengthen my music video in terms of its visual appeal for the audience. I filmed my main stage performance in an underground low-lit indie bar. I have chosen this specific location due to its alternative nature and that it also conforms to the codes and conventions of the indie singer songwriter genre, by showcasing a live performance at an indie bar within my music videos this suggest the greater importance of the music over anything else to the audience, which is very common within indie singer songwriter genre as the main focus is on the performance and the showcasing of talent by the artist. I have also chose this location of an indie bar as it reflects the typical ideology’s of the indie singer songwriter genre itself, which believes music is not music, isn’t essentially about the limelight, fame and success, but in fact about the music and the artist holds performing.

The additional locations within my music videos comply to the conventions of the indie singer songwriter genre, which consist of a quite low budget, featuring simplistic, viable and realist location reflecting the notion of independent upheld by the genre. Locations within this genre have been constructed to reinforce the idea of the ‘everyday’ and that these events within the music video are everyday happenings and in no way are composed at all. For this reason I have filmed in locations to convey the notion of ‘everyday’ and to strengthen my visual link with my existing narrative of breaking free from a toxic relationship and letting go. Therefore some of the locations that I have utilized consist of bedroom, urban city parks as they serve as a natural mise en scene, which reflects the nature of the indie singer songwriter genre.

Indie singer-songwriters the sartorial codes often promote these bohemia indie values throughout and are represented as normal people, renounce mainstream trends. By having an authentic original image, which isn't a product of industry marketing, whereas the image an indie singer-songwriter reflects is more natural simplistic style. My artist sartorial within my music video conform to the conventions of the indie singer songwriter genre, I constructed my star image to a degree to keep in bounds of the codes and conventions of the genres therefore making him appear as a serious singer-songwriter who’s musical craft means more than his aesthetic image and attire as this genre of music is less focused on the aesthetic image of the artist but imposes more focused on the importance of the music and 'down-to-earth' perception of the singers and therefore a glamorous image wasn’t essential as the lyrics are of more important.

Within my media production props were vital factor to established genre conventions to my audience within my music video, the guitar, case and microphone fall into the general expectations of the viewer due to the indie singer songwriter genre as the guitar is the stereotypical instrument played by the songwriter over any other instruments so therefore the involvement of these prop within my music video conforms to the viewers expectations of a indie singer/songwriter, which conforms to Goodwin's theory that the genre has it's own iconography

Within my media product I deliberately chose to both conform and subvert the conventions of the indie singer songwriter genre in context to my mies en scene. I have conformed to common codes and conventions of indie singer songwriter genre in terms my mies en scene by shooting in natural lighting. I utilized natural light throughout my music video to reflect the nature of the genre. On the other hand lighting is a very important aspect for shaping meaning in media text. I have researched and have incorporate artificial red neon hue lighting within my music video and ancillary text to convey the my existing narrative and the recurring theme within singer songwriter music videos and ancillary text which is of Melancholy, loss of love and laying a toxic relationship to rest. Furthermore I have chosen to use artificial red neon hue lighting accurately in terms of representing the artist's style of music and lyrics in addition to adding to the mood and atmosphere to convey emotion within my music video. Due to the colour red-carrying connotations of love, lust hatred, passion and anger, which I believe, it accurately represents the lyrics of ‘let it go’.

To conclude Rather than focusing solely on challenging the familiar conventions of indie singer songwriter genre, I decided to utilize and explore the core features of this particular genre to strengthen the relationship with my target audience and to successfully execute my objective to create a indie singer songwriter music videos.