In what ways does your media products use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

Ruben Clark and Sam Thompson

Genre ConventionsAddressed

DIY/Homemade/Low Budget aesthetic

Summer, sun and nature Breaking the norm Carefree/Feel-good

Subverted Concerts and crowds High-tempo, energetic

editing

Convention: DIY/Homemade/Low budget

aesthetic Conformed to or subverted? : Conformed toExamples in other media products: Swim Deep: King City (2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATxs0N_DFTwHinds: Bamboo (2014):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk-5w3Di0jkThese two examples are very relevant to our media product and show that the DIY look is a repeated theme within music videos in the indie rock genre. Both of the bands which I have referenced have had similar commercial success to the band we have chosen (Alvvays) and both released their debut albums around the same time that Alvvays did.

How did we conform to this genre convention?

This genre convention was an obvious choice for us to conform to in the initial planning stages of our media product; we felt that it was important to not overdo it with the conventions and end up with a product which was a cliché. Despite this, we knew that this was a convention that we could adhere to in both a creative way and a practical way. Creatively we used this genre convention by using a mid-range camera which would not give an overly professional or “Hollywood” visual look to our video; we extended this effect by adding a visual effect when editing on Adobe Premier which was designed to make the footage look more homemade and retro. Not only was the camera itself designed to look homemade, but the camerawork was also kept decidedly unprofessional in parts, as if it were simply filmed for a home video. Examples of this include in the scene where we are placing rings onto each others fingers, the camerawork is very clearly handheld. On this particular occasion we used this to echo the homemade look of a classic wedding video and make the moment appear very intimate through human-held camera action rather than through a precise and robotic tripod. On one occasion we took this effect even further and held the camera ourselves whilst we were acting in the scene, as if we were taking a “selfie” photograph; this is a really good example of us conforming to the convention but also allowing ourselves creative freedom and individuality to use a non-standard camera shot.

Convention: Summer and Nature

Conformed to or subverted? : Conformed toExamples in other media products: Mac Demarco: Another One (2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbg27oT8Z9MWavves: King Of The Beach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O0-wfOWcVIBoth of these examples are North American Indie R ock musicians who are active in the same period as Alvvays, the band we have chosen to produce a video for. Therefore they are relevant examples which give a good indication of nature and summer being used as a theme in the Indie Rock genre.

How did we conform to this genre convention?

We used this genre convention to add to the joyous and celebratory vibe of our music video, rather than using gloomy indoor shots throughout the video we decided to shoot a lot of it outdoors. Not only does this add to the overall quality of our media products but it also conforms to genre conventions. In order to use this genre convention effectively we created a lot of footage in outdoor locations such as Harlestone Firs where around half of our video was filmed. In addition to the music video itself we also ensured that nature played a very large part in our Digipak, with an entire three panels of the design being dedicated to a landscape shot of the woods. With both the Digipak and the video itself featuring plenty of the outdoors we also applied saturation and brightness effects to them in order to give the images an even more intense summery and natural look. Overall we are very pleased with the way in which we have conformed to this theme, because as with all of the genre conventions we were keen to avoid our media products becoming unoriginal or cliché. In order to avoid this happening we ensured that there were a variety of shots from the indoor location of the church we used to film the band performance, with the only lighting in the scene coming from three large stained-glass windows around the band’s performance area. The contrast between the light outdoor shots and the darker indoor scenes is very effective in our video and we are very pleased with this particular outcome.

Convention: Breaking the norm

Conformed to or subverted? : Conformed to Examples in other media products: Wolf Alice: Moaning Lisa Smile (2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z71df68qLp0Peter Doherty: Last of the English Roses (2009): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjIO-AJlFoUThe first example which we have listed here features a number of men overcoming their fears and worries before cross-dressing into clothes which typically would fit more into a woman’s wardrobe. This is a clear example of subverting the norm and conflicting with the general society’s expectations; although gender fluidity is becoming more and more accepted in this country, the Wolf Alice music video definitely does break the norm. Wolf Alice are a great example to use of the current Indie Rock genre because through both their music and their personal identities they are symbols of the genre in it’s current state and they are easily comparable to the band we have used in our media products.

How did we conform to this genre convention?

With this particular convention we were certain that we wanted to capitalise upon it and incorporate a strong element of it into our media products. Although gay men and women can now get married and in general we have a tolerant enough society towards single-gender relationships, as the men getting married in the UK is only a relatively recent development, we felt that it would be a good idea to break the norm and show a relationship and marriage between two men in our music video. We also broke the norms in our video by having the actual wedding itself take place outdoors, rather than inside a church; the band performance took place in the area of a church which is usually reserved for the organ player and the choir so for our band to be playing rock music in such a traditionally mellow location was also designed to fight against the traditions of the church and break the norm in yet another way. Finally, although the song we chose to create a video for features the vocals of a woman, we decided that to break the norm and subvert the idea that gender is an all-conquering construct, we would have a man singing in the band and in the video.

Convention: Live concert, crowds and dancing

Conformed to or subverted? : Subverted Examples in other media products: Palma Violets: Tom the Drum (2012): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgWvKmsI2MkFoals: My Number (2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRR_pvZcu-oAs a large part of the Indie Rock genre is stereotypically based around live music and organic music with the band playing their own instruments and writing their own songs, quite often a band from this genre will use a live concert with a crowd as part of their music videos. The crowd dancing, singing and having a good time makes for very good shots from within these videos and can help to create an exciting “live” feel for the audience of the music video.

How did we conform to this genre convention?

Although with a lot of these genre conventions we had decided to conform to them and make a video which was easily identifiable with the genre it belongs to, in this particular case we felt that creating a live concert scenario would be unrealistic and the finished product would be sub-par and distract from the other scenes in the video. This is because in order to create a crowd for the band in the video we would have needed many extra cast members to be on location whilst we filmed the video, and it would have required some highly skilled editing in order to have the crowd dancing and singing in time with the music during the video. Although these two problems could have been overcome with a lot of time and effort, we felt that the finished product would still look very unrealistic and manufactured, distracting away from the band themselves and the narrative of the video. Therefore we decided to subvert this genre convention and have the band playing to a visibly empty church auditorium, with no audience members at all. We felt that this had quite a jarring effect in the video as it appeared like the band themselves were playing to an audience and that they were singing to a crowd, however when the camera angles changed and the church pews became visible, they were very much empty. This really contributed towards the classic Indie Rock tradition of being an “outsider” or not being particularly popular; we felt that despite the no audience turning up to this band’s show, the band continuing to play the gig was a very indie rock thing to have done and really conformed to the genre conventions.