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

Codes, or forms, and conventions allow the audience to become familiar with certain genres; 'A way of constructing meaning in media texts'. These can be broken down into two categories: technical and symbolic. Technical, otherwise known as the denotations of media, the literal interpretation, focus on how equipment and technology are used to construct meaning. This can include different camera angles and shots, editing, whether it's fast paced or a unique style, and sound; diegetic/non-diegetic and the genre it applies to. As for symbolic, this could also be named the connotations of media, contrasting to denotations, as it translates a sign to meanings associated with it; meaning created beyond what is obvious to see. This focuses on the mise-en-scene of a video, as well as specific facial expressions used by the actors/artists featured.

  

In terms of my music video, I initially investigated the codes and conventions that surrounded country pop, as I knew these basic ideas were something I should try to convey as much as possible throughout the video. In order to conform to the conventions of an country pop genre, I needed to include certain signs and symbols, or visual motifs such as a guitar, slow paced editing to fit in time with the music, isolated locations and natural mise-en-scene.

Use:

 

As explained above, there are many iconic conventions that come with videos of a country genre, I simply needed to focus on building on these to ensure it worked within my country pop video. The codes that I used include:

• Various shots of my artist playing guitar; extreme close ups of the strings/her hands strumming, wide angle shots to show the whole idea that she is writing a song with the musical instrument.

• Multiple establishing shots of the natural location; close up of rain falling into a puddle, panning shots of the trees and pathway to emphasise the 'lonely road' featured; linking it with the chosen song title.

• Slow paced editing at the start of the video; slow motion used for effect as she wanders down the pathway, creating a peaceful feel to the video that audiences of a country pop genre would enjoy and relate to.

Develop:

Though I did use many codes typically found in country videos, I manipulated and developed a few to appeal to the 'pop' side.

• Though my video began with slow paced editing, this started with a 20 second gap of footage with no music, simply diegetic sounds of rain, the birds singing, and footsteps to connote walking and the beginning of a journey; a major theme in my narrative. This was a developed convention as most music videos would have the music playing straight away, and although mine faded in, I allowed for a peaceful opening to the video as it further helped establish the location.

• Furthermore, this slow paced editing featuring many slow motion effects I developed later on in the video once the music began, changing the edits to much more fast paced to fit in time with the song. This helped my video to move along more smoothly and was more interesting to watch, something that was very important to my audience.

Challenge:

It could be argued that many shots found in my music video challenge the typical conventions of a country video as these are usually found to be more Americanised, however, again, I needed to make this tie in with a country pop genre and so found it necessary to do so.

• Aside from the fast paced editing that was important to develop as a convention, the shots I chose to edit quickly include those of travel: multiple scenic shots of the countryside as my narrative progressed to the airport, of which my actress was not featured, possibly challenging the conventions that an artist is usually present throughout the entirety of a video.

• Though I did include a section of my actress playing her guitar, this was essential to the narrative as it suggested she was writing the song featured in the video. I challenged a major convention as you could normally find an artist playing music throughout the video, but I did not feel this was necessary to my storyline.

To conclude, due to the fact that my music video utilised a subgenre of country, I felt I could and have successfully explored the conventions they bring, challenging codes where important, and developing typical forms to appeal to my target audience and leave my video with an overall gritty documentary style.