In what ways does In what ways does your media product your media product

use, develop or use, develop or challenge forms and challenge forms and conventions of real conventions of real media products?media products?

I feel that our music video from the stages of research and planning up until our completed product both challenges and develop the conventions that are used in real media products today. I believe that because our product does not meet all the conventions of today, we are able to show a sense of creativity and with aspects of uniqueness; our product is more likely to stand out for the rest.

We studied a media theorist Andrew Goodwin and according to him there are 7 key aspects, the audience should look for when analysing a music video.

- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals- A relationship between the music and the visuals - Genre characteristics - Star image – close up of artist - Voyeurism - Intersexual references to other media texts.

Before creating our own music video, we looked at several different music videos from different artists in order to see the typical codes and conventions used within our genre of Pop/RnB/Soul, so that we were able the then apply these or challenge them when creating our own product. I will be focussing on our music video and comparing it to Conor Maynard’s music video, ‘Can’t Say No’. As well as mentioning other comparable artists

Unlike typical music videos, our video does not show Leyton’s face until 0:41 seconds in. This is because we wanted to make him look important as well as looking mysterious. This type of feature creates tension within the music video and makes the audience want to watch on and find out who he is and why he isn’t showing his face. This slightly challenged the codes and conventions as typical music videos usually open to the artist on screen showing who they are. We wanted to make Leyton look more mature and successful so there is a shot of him getting out of a BMW and walking towards the balcony where he looks towards the City of London. There is a similar shot in Chris Brown’s video forever where you see him jumping out of a fancy sports car which makes him look glamorous and attract women.

The establishing shot of Conor Maynard’s video was at his house, singing through his mic. Where there is a tracking movement to show his room, this goes well with the beat of his song. Whereas Leyton’s establishing shot was at a skate park. These two songs are similar to each other as They both have scenes in which graffiti is portrayed. This was an urban sort of look that we were trying to convey, to show how Leyton had grown beyond that stage and become a better person. Our artists main target audience would be from the ages of 12 – 15 as he comes across as very feminine friendly like Conor, where his lyrics are about girls and how there are so many, he just ‘can’t say no’. As both artists have started from a young age, I feel they can relate to each other as they are making progress.

Within the performance element, we showed Leyton sitting at the skate park singing his lyrics on screen. We decided to chose this location as it gives off an urban look, which Leyton has escaped from as he does not wish to be a ‘hood rat’, he wants to make something of himself. The locations of a house and skate park fit in well with the codes and conventions as many music videos have similar locations with graffiti on walls making it look urban. Leyton’s costume, and lyrics give off that he does not belong to this category of people and just wants to do his own thing. The storyline of our music video is quite typical in the sense that several artists had a rough past and they strive to be almost perfect by writing a song about it and how they have achieved this success. However throughout the music video, this can be portrayed in different ways and although we followed some codes and conventions, we also tried to challenge them and see what we could make of it.

In the narrative element, we decided to greyscale the shots. This is because we wanted to differentiate this to the performance element, as the narrative was meant to show Leyton’s childhood past. I think this fits in well with the codes and conventions of a typical music video as it is an element used to portray someone's past. For example Neyo – Mad. This whole video is shot in greyscale as it is a song about Neyo’s past. The fact that Leyton was pressurised to do several things, made him stronger emotionally and physically. This can be shown through our music video where he is trying to fight back with his stepdad but fails and gets forced to work harder. With the use of black and white shots, we can distinguish Leyton’s past to his present and how he has achieved success through all the ‘blood, sweat and tears’.

The costume worn in Conor’s video is a plain black and red hoodie, white shirt and jeans. The camera then shows a shot of his feet where we can see his purple Nike trainers. This is casual clothing so that he can relate to the audience better. Within the genre of Pop/Soul/RnB, the artist usually wears casual labelled clothes to make them look good to the opposing sex and relate to the same sex in ways where they can either look up to them for fashion sense or have the same style. Leyton on the other hand is wearing smart clothes in his video. He has two costumes; in the narrative element he is wearing casual tracksuits and a t-shirt. But the performance element shows him wearing smart clothes, making him stand out from his haters who are wearing jeans and hoodies and making himself look like the better person. His clothing also portrays success and wealth. Showing that he is the better person for being so humble in what he does, never showing anger.

Overall, after using Goodwin’s theory as an pointer of music videos, it is clear that our music video meets a majority of codes and conventions of real media products that are commonly found in that specific genre of Pop/RnB/Soul for example Leyton getting out of the car which is a main convention used which also suit the demands needed by any particular song to make the artist look important. However as well as this, we also challenged some conventions such as Leyton’s clothing was not something pop artists would wear making him stand out and look different, but at the same time he looked appealing.