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

There are many conventions when producing a music video, within camera shots, camera movement, editing, post-production digital effects, lighting and mise-en-scene:

• Close ups of the artists, instruments, crowd members and/or body parts such as their lips to show singing - establishing who the main artist is.
• Low angle shots are used to portray a sense of power, strength and dominance of the artist.
• Establishing shots are used to show a new location or show an aspirational location which can also link to the artists status, money and power. 
• Direct address breaks the 4th wall, allowing the audience to feel more personal with the artists which connects the bond between them.
• When running, walking or dancing, a pan, tilt or tracking shot is used to help the audience to feel more involved in the action.
• Handheld camera is used to create a more personal effect for the video as if it’s a diary; the artist is letting you into their personal life in a sort of video documentary style.
• Cross-cutting is used to switch between the story line and the artist, this makes the audience more involved.
• Editing is often fast and structured, jumping back and forwards in time using jump cuts, often involving some sort of montage or slow motion to highlight key aspects of the video.
• Editing needs to be in time with the beat or rhythm of the music, to each section of the song which helps the overall music video flow and work properly together. 
• Lyrics will sometimes appear in a music video which can highlight key words or phrases that are an important part of the song's message.
• Colourisation can be used to create different scenes, to make the day look sunnier, or mysterious and dark depending on the message the video wants to portray.
• High Key lighting is the most common among music videos to enable the audience to see everything in the scene, nothing is hidden.
• Isolating spotlights can be used to highlight a key band member or a key message to the story being told on screen.
• If it’s a happy, upbeat song the lighting will be bright and sunny looking, whereas if it’s a slower, sad song the lighting could be dark, moody and mysterious.
•  Mise-en-scene is used to express an artist’s glamorous lifestyle, setting the video in aspirational locations which is always influenced by the genre of the music. 
• Elaborate costumes and dance routines are created helping the video become more memorable and interesting.
• Very theatrical to exaggerate the lifestyle of a music artist, to also boost their profiles so that fans will want to aspire to be like them. 
• Sexualisation of women is often used; this is shown by the costumes and dance movements. 

Reggae video conventions
My chosen song is a summery fusion between Reggae and R&B, and within these genres there are different conventions that are very genre specific, for example: 

• Summery music video including aspirational locations like beaches and swimming pools.
• Cheerful bright colours.
• Laid back lifestyle is portrayed (Stereotype of Jamaican culture).
• Often family orientated featuring people of all ages, mainly from black origins
• Scenes showing dancing along streets, playing the drums and lots of energy, upbeat and fun.
• Typical caribbean fruit markets, graffitied streets, people dancing in the streets.
• Very basic editing is used to the pace of the music, stripped back with no special effects; more realistic and relatable.
• Wearing casual clothes and big hair.
• Sense of aspiration, however it isn't in the typical British materialistic sense, but in a way that its so peaceful and happy, with a sense of community.
• Sexualising woman explictly, using them as the main focus.
• Love to party!
• Simplistic, not many special effects are used, it makes it more relatable and also easier to aspire to.
• Aspirational locations are mostly used, because the videos are mostly set in the Caribbean on the beaches, gardens and nice houses.
• Repetitive, smooth and slow editing is used to make it flow with the music, make it much more realistic, making dancing the focus.

My music video
I then thought about my own music video about how I used, developed and changed these conventions:

• Mise-en-scene: set on beaches, in fields, very outdoors, the sun shining and the use of high key lighting; cheerful and bright colours, making it look summery linking to the summery feel of the song. Using old vehicles and buildings to have the contrast between aspirational locations and a run down, less materialistic approach.
• Close ups of the artist lip syncing along with the music and also to show emotion on the actors face. Artist thinking about her boyfriend returning home that is making her happy (on Cloud 9!) this is very typical to the female gender, being in touch with feelings and emotions, being 'In Love'.
• Sunglasses to emphasise the summer season, also summery clothes worn by my actor, loose trousers, shorts, crop tops, long dresses etc. showing of female attributes in a less sexualised way. This is definitively going against convention.
• Various special effects, such as slow motions (showing the flicking back of long hair and throwing stones into the sea), fast paced editing (travelling through countryside), fading between scenes (reflecting tempo change breaks in the music), playing scenes backwards (jumping back out of the swimming pool), however it was kept fairly natural looking and realistic and not over edited.
• The use of long pans across beaches and fields to show the aspirational locations.
• Using high angle shots to make the actor superior, on top of the world, on 'Cloud 9'.
My star persona appears to be fun, laid back, very happy, fashionista, who my female target audience can connect with.
• Cutting the shots in time with the beat of the music, flowing as if the audience is dreaming, imagining this 'Cloud 9' feeling. I've also tried to match elements within each clip to the beat - footsteps on the sand, bubbles under the lilo etc.
• Appearance of laid back lifestyle - skipping through corn fields, throwing stones into the sea etc.
• Upbeat, fun and summery, capturing the Caribbean way of life - swimming, leaping into the pool, eating ice-cream etc.
• Adding a narrative to the video helps to engage the audience and bring an emotional connection. By adding an introduction before the music begins, a letter helps set the scene (boyfriend away fighting in the army and soon to return saying how much he misses her), finishing with lyrics from the song. This theme is extended throughout the song with short text messages updating the artist on his return (a few days to go, leaving tomorrow, boarding the plane and just landed).
• Going against convention I combined laid back English countryside with exotic beach scenes.
• Again with most reggae videos featuring a mainly black cast, mine is opposite convention using a blonde white girl.

Inspiration from pre-existing music videos
Throughout my planning, I looked at various example music videos and gained some strong themes and ideas which I developed into my own video:

One of the first music videos I looked at was Beenie Man- 'Lets Go', I particularly liked this music video because of the summery vibe that it creates. It has a simple setting of the beach throughout using the aspirational location in itself to engage the audience, which I carried through to my own music video, simple yet very effective, because when watching it this time of year automatically gives you that feeling of warmth, and summer happiness! The is very typical to the reggae genre with its hot beach climate, drinking rum, dancing and using Caribbean actors. In my music video I carried through the aspirational location of the beach, swimming pool and also the overall summery vibe, with dancing and sunshine! 

Another music video that I gained some inspiration from was Foo Fighters- 'Best of You', this music video is a performance based music video. I loved the idea of the 4th wall, where the artist is singing to the audience individually, these types of music videos tend to work well in high energy music videos and use a lot of close ups to highlight the intimacy between artist and audience. It also highlights the solo artists importance, being alone in the frame, dominating the screen. I used the idea of performance throughout my music video, I used a lot of cross cut editing between performance and other scenes, having constant connection with artist throughout. I developed the way it switches between performance and then to very scenic, location pans and shots of the sea and fields. I split my song into defined sections depending on music tempo and the lyrics, then gave each a separate creative treatment - cutting between more shorter clips in the faster sections and using fewer longer clips in the slower parts.

• One music video that I feel I took most inspiration from was Vybz Kartel- 'Summertime', in this video it includes scenes on the beach, in a pool and also by some run down, Caribbean looking buildings. It really captures how unmaterialistic the genre can be, simplistic locations yet very aspirational to us in our cold climate! I liked how much energy the music video had and I developed this into my own, by using similar locations to really help capture the reggae vibe. I was able to locate some beach side sheds painted in a bright blue that looked very typical of the Caribbean look, as well as a private pool and empty beaches for filming. Back in the UK I was also able to find rusting disused farm machinery to shoot.

• My favourite video that I researched into was Avicii Ft. Nicky Romero- 'I Could Be The One', because it went against the typical conventions of a music video by sexualising women and showing the ultimate 'size 0 model', It instead showed a more average woman being happy in her skin, which is empowering because of how shockingly rare it is! I tried to use the same sort of idea in my music video, although yes I did use an attractive, skinny model, I created no sexualisation of her at all, the angles of the camera were less male gaze, and a more tasteful, respectful approach. She is shown wearing more clothing, loose and long! Although some of the clothing is cropped, it is viewed in a more innocent way because of the use of editing.