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

Evaluation Question 1

(PART 2)

My media product uses typical forms and conventions from real media products.

Genre: "patterns/styles/structures which transcend individual films, and which supervise both their construction by the film-maker and their reading by an audience" - (Tom Ryall, 1998)Steve Neale (1990) argues that Hollywood's generic regime guarantees meanings and pleasures for audiences meaning that people have expectations for each genre. For example, people can normally predict the sorts of conventions that will be in a rom-com and a horror. Neale (1980) also adds onto this by saying that much of the pleasure of popular cinema lies in the process of "difference in repetition" - i.e. the recognition of familiar elements in film and the way these elements may be presented. This shows that people are entertained by the difference in repetition, where the same generic storyline and conventions can show up over and over again but people will still go and see it because it is presented differently each time. It's like with sequels, certain elements are similar in all films but new ideas and material are incorporated into each sequel which is what makes people want to go see them.The viewers will have certain theories and expectations that they take with them into the cinema due to knowing all the typical conventions of each genre.

The genre of my music video is ComedySome general conventions of comedy you usually see in a comedic narrative:iconography-Bright mise-en-scène- bright and happy colours- props

technical code-natural camera, goes along with characters-editing sounds to add humour-funny props

character types:- idiotic, accident prone people- smart people, socially awkward- regular, sarcastic people, accidents occur around them

Themes:- parody- anarchic comedy-romantic-comedy-gross-out

The genre of my music video is Comedy and it is a parody/spoof of things like batman (1966).Comedy is a popular genre that can reach out to many people, the music video may reach out to comic-book fans in particular as they'll understand the humour of the parody more than people who aren't. However, I feel like anyone would be able to watch it, comic-fan or not, and still enjoy and find the video quite humorous.

Alongside this, there is a narrative to the video like lots of music videos have, it is a typical storyline about bullying in school and then fighting against it. It is about Rebecca being a stereotypical 'nerd' and getting bullied in a high school, but uses her love of comics to imagine a scenario where she can fight these bullies. Also, since the video is comical, it adds light to the usual sad story about bullying.

We have a female protagonist too who is able to fight back against these bullies/villains, going against the usual gender roles as there is no male there to save her. This can be inspiring to young females and makes them want to be just like her.

There is also clips of the singer miming the song

which is another typical convention in most

music videos as it advertises the singer in a way

and shows that they are the one singing it.

Andrew Goodwin (1992) says that there is a

demand on the part of the record company for

lots of close-ups of the main artist/vocalist and

that the artist may develop their own star

iconography, in and out of their videos, which,

over time, becomes part of their star image.

There is also conventions I have used from Batman (1966) which makes it like a parody of it, such as the use of onomatopoeia on the fight scenes and the tilted camera angles.

I think the main thing I have developed is the fact that this is a comical parody with a narrative within a music video. It is not a very common type of music video to see these days, most have very serious storylines and things that attract people such as women and men being sexualised so I have challenged mainstream music videos by creating one that has a narrative of a short, comical parody film.