Task 1 - In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media productions?

The first stage of the production of my music video was the research and development stage. One element that is key within these stages is the major conventions of a music video. Keith Negus, a music theorist identified major conventions, such as:

• featuring the artist/ performance element
• a wide and extensive use of shot types
• camera angles and movement
• narrative
• the flexibility to disregard realism
• shots cut tightly to the beat of the track
• use of special effects
• mise-en-scene appropriate to the content

When listening to the track, we thought hard about the song and artist's genre. We came to the conclusion that it didn't fit any stereotypical/obvious styles of music and therefore we thought it a good idea to follow through with this 'unusual' style for the narrative. Therefore we decided to feature the narrative and the performance element interlinked throughout our product.  

With the original artist (Bon Iver) not putting music videos to his tracks, it shows his fans that he is all about the music rather than his image, this also gave us inspiration to make the video more about the narrative than the artists performance. Our narrative generally subverts Negus's conventions in terms of the fact that we didn't use tightly cut shots and special effects. In fact we chose to follow the organic style of a similar artist Newton Faulkner, who style generally conforms to the the organic ideology also from Negus. The record company allows artists such as these to have a naturalistic approach, and allow them to grow and evolve to their full potential rather than force them. 

This image is an example of the naturesque feel to our video. We tried to fit the feel of the music; we all agreed that the visuals that came to mind when listening to the track were nature shots. You can also see that we chose to enhance the colour scheme. We felt this gives it an antique look, which further appeals to the style of the music. 

This next image is another good demonstration of the style of our product. It does not conform to the stereotypical 'hip hop/R&B' music video, with dancers everywhere (right); it is quite the opposite in a way that it has a 'vintage' and intellectual feel to the room (left).