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

Conventions of narrative music videos: the music video contains a series of events that both make sense to the audience and appear to be unified in time and space. So as to ensure repeated viewings and the effective marketing of the band/artist and song, the narrative code must be “loose” or simply “suggestive” rather than “realistic” or “detailed”.

Conventions of the band performance: a degree of authenticity of the performance is sought by the band and the director so we often find lip-syncing close-up, mimed playing of instruments, repetition of chorus shots to enhance „repeatability‟, unusual camera shots and angles (e.g. the micro camera shots attached to the neck of a guitar, sweeping crane shots to film audience reaction to the band playing etc.).

The developments of our media products was focused around the indie/pop genre derived from our use of the song ‘London Love’ by Maliki. Bands which share the same genre as Maliki are The 1975, Artic Monkeys, The Libertines and Bastille. Maliki have performed at a numerous amount of gigs, at various locations, including The Basement Door in Richmond, London. They already have a formed target audience of teenagers from roughly the ages of 15-21 year olds. This helped us create our media products, as well as the knowledge of traditional indie/pop genre conventions, and brainstorming our own ideas for the best possible outcome.

There are a wide number of conventions within the indie/pop genre, one of the main ones being image. This specific genre revolves around the performance aspect as the focus point in the music video, as it establishes the artist/band themselves. Although many indie/pop music videos contain a narrative sequence, it is unusual for a music video of this genre to a show a connection to the attitudes and live musical ability of the artist.

Also amongst the indie/pop genre music videos, there are a lot of close up shots, to create a clear focal point for the audience. It also creates an emotional, personal connection between audience and artist, which then creates more of an attraction to the song and artist themselves. Close up shots are also used to focus upon the musical instruments used by the band, such as guitars, bass guitars, drums and occasionally keys, which are all associated with the indie/pop genre.

Another key element in indie/pop music videos is narrative. Unlike some mainstream pop videos, narrative is extremely common in this genre, to fulfil the emotional value of the video, and to create a connection with the lyrics. Its also used to display the meaning of the song and make the message clear to the target audience, in comparison to a genre such as R&B, where female dancers are usually used to attract the attention of male audience. The indie/pop genre usually use narrative for a singular purpose/meaning, and create a connection with the audience.