EVALUATION: Genre Codes and Conventions

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

As a whole, we decided to not adjust the conventions of the Indie genre in our music video, as we wanted to use as many codes and conventions linked with this genre within our work in order to appeal to the chosen target audience and to create an exciting media product that would not be confusing to the viewer and would also link with the style of the music chosen.

Conventional to the genre:
Stock characters:

 We used too different scenes within our video to make the plot seem exciting to watch but also to catch the attention of the viewer so they would be interested in the narrative. Firstly we used two characters within the plot, with the type "boy loves girl" scene, in order to help the audience relate to the lyrics of the song and the story played on screen. We also used another actor who was to be portrayed as the singer of the band, in an attempt to make him seem like he is singing about his story to the viewer of the video, again connecting with the audience. We dressed our characters within the indie scene, for example, knitted jumpers, beanies, doc martens. We did this so that the conventions of the indie genre were clear.

the artist of band

two actors/characters

Stock settings: The settings we chose to feature within our media text were conventional to the indie genre, including city centres and public transport, however to make the conventions fit even more, i believe if we have used an even more gritty setting in some sections of the music video, it would have been a lot more effective and appealing as well as conforming to the genre and it's stereotypical conventions.

city we based our video in (stock setting)

Image: Within the subject of ''Image'' we found that clothing was a vital part of the production of the music video, we made sure our actors chosen could dress suitably to fit their roles in order to convey the indie genre to the audience and to conform to the genre as a whole.

Clothing (Indie Style)

Music: Our music choice was very much suited to the indie genre, it including slurred vocals and rough voices as well as soft guitar music. The song told a story which we believed was very effective in the production of our media text as we could suit scenes and create a narrative alongside the lyrics.

Connotation: The lyrics are the secondary level of communication within this music video.They tell a story to the audience and help them connect with the narrative along with the characters, making the band seem appealing, which is a huge success within the music industry. The lyrics come from the males point of view, telling his feelings and portraying his emotion to the audience.

Mode of Address: Throughout our Music Video, the audience are addressed subliminally through not only the lyrics but also the camera shots and movements used. For example in a lot of our media text, the audience are directed by eye contact with the camera from the ''singer'' of the band, This helps him tell the story through his lyrics and makes the narrative seem a lot more genuine, addressing the audience directly and making them feel connected to the band and the story, helping them relate to the story and finding themselves within the problems that the characters face.

shot we used at the end

Narrative: In terms of narrative theory, Todorov's Narrative Theory could not be introduced, as throughout the video and the lyrics from the song, the plot seems to never fix itself, the male character seems to be as unhappy telling his story as he was from the beginning, therefore there is never a new equilibrium (new beginning), although there is a constant disruption in the plot, the beginning (equilibrium) echoes throughout the video without drastic change, leaving the audience with slight sympathy for the main character. Although Todorov's theory could not be applied here, Propp's Character Theory could in some sense, as the male is seen the be the hero, as he is telling his story through his eyes and his opinion, introducing a sense of a bias opinion and portraying him to be the hero, positive and often taking on the female role of caring, loving and chasing, challenging the idea of patriarchy and reversing the roles of genders. Because of the male's portrayal of the female, she appears to have the attributes of a villain and she upsets and torments the male character with her confused feelings.

Not conventional to the genre:Stock Settings: Although we chose a lively and youthful city to base of video within, a lot of the settings including a lot of adults and general public, which did highlight the fact that the characters feel alone, but also it did not match the conventions of the genre. The city idea conformed to the indie genre, giving it a raw and modern look about the media text/music video but however i believe if the setting was a lot more edgy and gritty, it would have conformed even more to the indie genre and would have been even more clear what genre it was to the audience.

setting was too clean and not gritty enough to be indie
regardless that we filmed in an urban city.