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

media products?
Our music video is a pop music video which I believe conforms to the forms and conventions of real media products. It particularly uses and develops forms and conventions of music videos of the pop genre. Music videos have different storylines and meanings which are shown in many ways, a music video can be performative where the artist/band is performing to the camera throughout the whole song e.g. such as Beyonce- Love on top. There are narrative music videos, this is where the music video has a storyline and the words and meaning of the song are acted out e.g. The Saturdays Ego. Music videos can also be a mixture, this is where there is a musician involved in the music video as well as a narrative, the video will often cross cut between the musician and the storyline. There are cameo music videos which involve the band/artist featuring in the narrative but they do not actually perform. The last style of music video is animation, this is where the music video has some form of animation edited into it, or the music video can be completely animation. Our music video is narrative based, with some performative scenes in it. The style of our music video (narrative) is a way in which our media product uses and develops forms and conventions of real media products. In narrative music videos the focus is on the meaning of the lyrics and in most narrative music videos the acting in the storyline often reflects the lyrics in the song. For example, in a particular scene of our music video, shown in the picture below, Emily is sitting on her windowsill reminiscing on the memories of her and her boyfriend and then a medium of shot of her boyfriend is shown with the lyrics you always kept it so cool. Also at the beginning of the music video we have a picture of Lauren with her boyfriend on her phone with the lyrics we used to go together. These shots and scenes conform to the convention that the storyline reflects the meaning of the lyrics. This is also similar to the actual Saturdays Ego music video, as their storyline reflects their lyrics such as the scene with Frankie all done up, surrounded by paparazzi and flashes represents the lyrics And now you want to pretend that youre a super star. Therefore, our music video also uses the conventions of the real Ego music video.

How our music video also develops the forms and conventions of real media products is through the lighting and colour of our music video. Many music videos in the pop genre use a studio with a black or white background to create effective lighting or to use the blue background, so that they are able to change the background in Photoshop to make the scenes more effective. In our music video with have used the studio in some of scenes so that we could have the right lighting. The lighting and colour of music videos represent the mood of the whole video. In our music video, we all had our own individual colour and so each member of the group wore a dress of their own colour, I wore red, Lauren wore blue, Emily wore Green and Kerry wore yellow. We did this so that we stood out more and represented each of our own uniqueness. I however, do believe that we slightly challenged the conventions of a pop music video, as they are usually full of bright colours, but because of our narrative being quite dull and gloomy, we challenged this convention of bright colours in the music video and made our music video look quite dim. We did this by editing certain scenes black and white and filming in the natural light when it had been raining. In pop music videos there are always certain outfits for certain scenes which reflect that particular scene and the artist. The costume depends on the lyrics of the song as well as the genre (pop). In most pop music videos the costumes are often colourful, in fashion and glamorous, but the costumes can also be quite bizarre and revealing. For example, in Lady GaGas music videos she always wears weird and outrageous costumes, which reflects her crazy personality as well as the song. In the Saturdays music videos they always wear costumes that suit their scene and narrative and they always wear costumes that make them stand out and make them look innocent and appeal to their target audience. Our music video conforms to the conventions of a pop music video because we have a range of costumes to suit a particular scene and the narrative. For example, for the studio, this was our performative scenes and so we all dressed up and wore dresses and heels to get more of a performative feel. In our narrative scenes, we had outfits that were more casual and laidback such as leggings or jeans and a vest top. Props are essential in music videos, there is always some form of prop in the music video. Props are one of the many factors which make a music video as well as the setting etc. Depending on the genre of the music, props in music videos vary and also depend on the design and creativity of the music video. In performative music videos the props are often the performance equipment such as the microphone stands, guitar, drums etc. In a narrative based music video, the props depend on the story of the song. In our music video we have a range of props we have used, these include the microphones and the microphone stands for the performative scenes, a mobile phone with an image, small red heart balloons and red lipstick for the close up scene of the lips. These props are all used as a reflection of the lyrics, which are used as an a creative object to demonstrate parts of the song. Editing is a convention of real media products that our media product has used and developed. Our music video conforms to this convention because we use more than one editing technique to put our music video together. We have used editing techniques such as dissolve, split screen, jump cut and fast cutting.

The scene starting to dissolve editing technique

Camera angles and shots are used constantly throughout a music video and are merged together through editing. There are many different types of camera angles and shots that are used in different music videos. In pop music videos there are often close up shots of the artist to show emotion and expression in the face. For example, in the Saturdays song My heart takes over, there is a close up shot of Vanessa, the emotion her face connotes that she is sad. Also another example is Lady gaga Just Dance, there is a close up shot in the beginning of her music video which denotes expression and connotes a fiery attitude which is enhanced by her make-up. In our music video, we have used a range of different camera angles and shots, we have used close up shots to show expression and emotion in the face, the expression and emotion represent the mood and narrative of the song. We have used mid shots that show some sort of action that the artist is engaging in e.g. a mid- shot of all of us singing individually. We also have a few long shots, which focuses on the artists in the video but the background emerges into view. A convention of real media products are the camera angles, our music video has conformed to this convention of real music videos as we have used a range of camera angles to create our pop music video.