Task 13: Evaluation Production Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


Before making or even planning my music video, I researched existing media products such as music videos, magazine adverts and CD album covers. This allowed me to evaluate what works best and connects more efficiently to audiences, therefore making it more likely to be successful. For example, I learned that on magazine adverts, there will often be some sort of advert to a specific streaming site or shop where there may be a deal on for that particular album. On a lot of adverts there was an 'available on itunes' or listen to on spotify' segment which was a small detail, but still included as it is an advertisement. For this reason my media product, and more specifically my magazine ancillary text, uses conventions of real media products as I have used a small advertisement like this on my product as it is very popular amongst other adverts. I also learned that links between the lyrics and what is actually on screen are very popular also, which is why I tried to incorporate this into my music video. One example of me including this convention is when the line "It's been seven whole day since I heard the phone ring" plays, the female character rings the male character and he answers the phone.



Music videos often show a similar tempo to the actual music it is being made for, for example a fast, upbeat pop song will most likely have fast and sharp cuts within the music video to keep in time with the beat of the song. To show that I knew and understood this concept, I made sure that because my chosen song had a slow tempo that created a ballad like feel, I had subtle and gentle transitions between shots. I mostly used the dissolve and fade transitions but occasionally used the fade to black transition. I also used slow-motion towards the end of the video to make a clip longer as I needed to extend the clip without using another part of it . As this was slow and gentle this again showed relevance to the tempo and genre of the song.



Another way that my media product showed a convention of typical media products, in this example the actual music video itself, is by it being the standard 3-5 minutes long. This time frame is most popular in music videos as this allows time for audio to be played and that would be the entire video. Some, and now more, artists however are making their music videos longer in order to create a more developed narrative with perhaps more scenes in with more dialogue or monologues that add to the theme and message of the video. However it could be said that as more artists are including more detailed and developed narratives therefore making their music videos around 2 minutes longer, that mine is in fact challenging a convention of real media products in modern society .


One way I developed and challenged conventions of real media products was by showing a less positive side to a relationship. In real media products there will not usually be any signs of negativity in a relationship unless the song and music video is specifically about a bad quality in a relationship. What I mean by this is, if a song was about adultery for example the music video will often show things that led to the event, the event itself and then the aftermath. Although my video is melancholy due to its relevance to death there is nothing in the lyrics that suggests it was a bad relationship. However, I decided to include scenes in the narrative that show arguments as this is a normal part of all relationships and so I felt it was important to include this. I felt that this extra detail to the video contributed to the relationship's validity and believability as a relationship.

Another way in which I challenged a convention of real media products was by not having the person that died portrayed as negative in any way. In music videos that show death, they often show how it happened and why it happened, for example they may show the male taking drugs or driving whilst under the influence and then show that he died. In my music video it doesn't explicitly show how he died and so it keeps it more ambiguous and doesn't make any assumptions.


I think my music video shows existing conventions of the majority of music videos, especially for this genre. However I also think that I included developments of those conventions in order to set my music video apart from the rest.