Using, Challenging and Developing Conventions - Music Video

Due to the fact that our music video was based on a Pop/Rock genre, it was necessary that we used conventions from real media texts that were of the same genre so that our music video was noticeably categorized into this specific genre. However, after the creation of our media production, I analysed the outcome and have come to realise that in some areas we have used, challenged and even developed, the conventions of real media texts in our music video.

Used Conventions...
As our song used in our music video is called "Superman", some may automatically associate this with the Marvel comic books. However, when associating this with the Pop/Rock music genre, connotations might change, resulting people to accommodate the idea of "Superman" with love and relationships. Therefore, we used the idea of love and teenage relationships in the narrative of our music video as generally, most Pop/Rock music videos consist of a narrative with relationships in one way or another.
Also, another way in which we have used the conventions of Pop/Rock music videos is in the way our characters are portrayed. For example, all of our characters are portrayed in a very exaggerated manner, which becomes unrealistic until they are seen as an archetype of their particular stereotype. The use of exaggeration for characters are present in many Pop/Rock music videos such as "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne and "Up Here" by Powder. Therefore, we thought that it would be a creative idea to make our characters archetypal, as this would engage and excite our target audience, as well as use conventions from real media texts to illustrate our research and planning in the creation and development of our advanced level production.
Furthermore, in many Pop/Rock music videos, the narrative is illustrated through the use of particular scenes relating to the lyrics at the same time. Therefore, we thought that this was a crucial element as this was a main factor in portraying the Pop/Rock genre. As a result of this, we used the idea of lip syncronization as well as scenes which consists of a narrative which follow and illustrate the lyrics, for example in the scene where the devil appears in the speed dating session with the 'hot guy'. This follows the lyrics of "..the devil did him a deal...".
One last factor which sometimes did not just follow the conventions from a Pop/Rock genre, but from many genres, was the use of camera angles which relates to the narrative. For example, in many love related narratives in music videos, camera angles are used to emphasize a relationship between two people, therefore we thought it was an important factor to consist our music video of camera angles that illustrate the relationship. For example, we made use of two shots and medium shots.

Challenged Conventions...
As our target audience were of a smaller number compared to famous artists such as Avril Lavigne and Blink 182, we had the opportunity to experiment and challenge conventions from real media texts in our music video. As a result of this, as the majority of our media class has come from an urban environment, we thought that as a production team, we could make this urban environment apparent in our music video to help our target audience relate to the music video more so than the audience that renowned artists would try to attract, as famous artists would try to make their target audience as large as possible. Therefore they would not use a specific background which would relate only to some of their audience, as they would want everyone to be able to relate to it. However, as our target audience were of a minority of the population, we challenged conventions of real media texts of the Pop/Rock genre by having terraced housing and flats in the background to give an urban feel towards our video. This was not always apparent in our genre as many videos from this genre used the mise-en-scene of the inside of a building rather than the outside.

Developed Conventions...
Due to the fact that our music genre consisted of both Pop and Rock, the production team and I thought it was suitable to use conventions from both genres and develop them the best way possible. Therefore, we thought that as Rock was usually at a fast moving pace, we could use that idea from that genre and apply and develop it into our music video by making the speed of the scenes of our music, specifically at the beginning, move quite fast. We made these clips short and cut quickly from scene to the next which put an emphasis on the Rock side to our music genre.
Also, we used images and certain clips which are closely associated with the Pop genre, such as the 'POW' sign that was printed off the internet to make an appearance in the video. Also, we used special editing effects which helps to illustrate the chronological change throughout the video. However, we did also make use of other editing effects such as the romantic and cartoon effects. These are similar effects which are used to demonstrate the narrative in other popular media texts.