Evaluation 1

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

The genre of music my group and i had picked for the music video was dance music as it really appealed to us we felt we could do a lot with it as it has many codes and conventions in it that we could develop or challenge through our music video to make a video that suits but is different to the genre at the same time, i have analyzed many different types of music video from this genre of music such as the prodigy "Invaders must die" and justice "D.A.N.C.E" and this helped me find different genre characteristics to challenge and add to the film.

There are many codes and conventions in music videos that are a must for a video a director can choose to challenge or develop these ingredients Andrew Godwin is a Key writer for the ingrediants for a music video he argues that most music video's will challenge or develop six key conventions, they are.

1. Music video demonstrates genre characteristics (E.G stage performance in rock videos)


2. There is a relationship between music and lyrics aplifies, illustrates, contradicts.


3. There is a relationship between music and visuals, aplifies, illustrates, contradicts.


4. Demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist may develop motifs which recur across thier work a visula style.


5. There is frequently the notion of looking (screens within screen, telescopes ect) and paticularly voyeristic views of the female body


6. There is often an intertextual reference (Film, tv, other music videoes.

One of the conventions i have noticed in this genre is that a majority of the videos video's agree with the Godwin theory that the music matches with the video as all the videos i have analyzed from this genre the music and a lot of the lyrics match up with the video which is a convention we have tried to develop this convention as in our video the way we have edited it is as if the song and the video were made for each other and the beat matches cuts we have made so the beat matches with the video we have also made our actor lip sync so it matches the lyrics and again goes with the the Godwin theory as it looks like the video and the song are one. So overall the video and the song match also just the way the beat goes and the places we have filmed match each other as the way the lights are on iconic structures makes the song almost look like its bringing London life.

Another convention that we developed in our music video is that all the videos i have watched from this genre they make you want to dance it may not be a convention but it is something i have noticed about the majority of the dance video's for instance the use of lights and colours and certain cuts in the animated video makes you want to dance its not some clever secret message you have to analyse it just some animated shirts that makes you want to dance.

Another convention we have tried or in my opinion have followed is something that Andrew Godwin mentions in his theory is that a video and the music and lyrics match for instance when the women of our son say "and i close my eyes now" hayley closes her eyes and falls on a bed as if ready to dream also the way certain scenes mix with the song for instance lights change colours and match the beat, there are many other parts of our song that do this and develop this convention.

One convention we challenged that i feel is a convention and Andrew Godwin comments on as well is that an artist has to be in their video however we have not put an artist into our film we have just an actor so the artist is not the focal concern which i have noticed with many video's of many different genres even our own genre they do this however we decided to go against it, i think this was a smart decision as it would have not matched the video however Andrew Godwin did say that some video's are voyeristic of the female body i feel this is the case in our video a lot of our video is based around watching a girl dance so in that respect we have not challenged this convention but challenged the convention of having the artist in it.

Another convention that Andrew Godwin mentions that we have challenged is in our video there is no intertextual references to anything its all our video something new we did not do this intentionally i guess you could count London as an intertextual reference to Britain. The genre that our music comes from is like any genre with intertextual references for instance not every video has one it all depends on wether the reference and the video mix or suit each other like Dance the video on my blog has many references to Michael Jackson because they fit into the song and the video.