1. Media Evaluation
Question One
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions or real media production
To discover ways in which we could conform to or
challenge the conventions we had to research into
different genres and videos to identify the
conventions. We Looked at different videos of
different genres in order to identify the distinctive
conventions of our choses genre; Indie. During the
research into my chosen genre for my music video, I
found that in many videos of this genre including ‘Josh Record’, ‘Mumford
and Sons’ ‘Kodaline’ and ‘Frank Hamilton’ included outdoor settings and
there was a feel for nature in each of the videos. Also there was a
significant use of natural light which shows that these artist are not
superficial, they want to be closer to the audience, creating a relatable
environment for the consumer. This relatability also comes from the
storylines that the indie genre tends to have. By doing this it creates more of an interest for
the audience. A good example of this would be Kodaline’s ‘All I want’ which is a two part
music video. There are underlying links to lyrics and visuals, they are not as apparent as
they are in pop videos, through looking into the Indie Genre I found that the colour pallet was
very similar for each video of the same genre. By using monotone, sepia, brown colour tones
I felt as though they add to the emotion of the video,
which compliments the storylines that tend to run
through indie music videos. Our final product
conforms to the indie genre through the fact that our
video tells a story in which the audience can
engage with, we chose a narrative that would leave
clues throughout the whole video but never fully
give away the full story. The narrative we chose
was a mother and son relationship and the
conventional stories that crop up frequently in many
different genres, as well as Indie, are love stories so we wanted to stray away from the
typical love story and explore the parental kind of love that seems to be lost. We used
projection in order to show this parental love, we
chose to use projection as it was a discreet way
of portraying the love in the video. We
challenged the conventions of this genre,
however we still conformed to that fact that there
is a storyline. In our music video, we adjusted the
colours to some shots in black and white but then
contrasted them with scenes that are in colour.
By doing this we are showing that the black and
white shots, the emotions are heightened and impulsive, but the shots that are in colour are
reflective of what has happened, and that our character is reflecting on the impulsive
behaviour that happened in the black and white. Music videos for the indie genre tend to
have points that the emotions are heightened further with the use of slow motion. We
included this use of editing in our music video alongside the use of black and white as we felt

2. that the narrative was very heartfelt therefore by adding these different aspects, the
emotions were amplified. We used black and white to determine the main characters
thoughts and actions for example, we used black and white for the dancing and in the
reverse scenes at the end; we used sepia tones when at the beginning when the arguments
happen.
Lip syncing isn’t widely used in the indie genre as this
may take away from the realistic feel for the video, the
links between lyrics and visuals are mainly through the
narrative. However in our music video, we decided to
make use of lip syncing to form a relationship between
our character, the lyrics and the narrative. An example
of this would be where he is sitting in the car which
gives the connotations that he is going to leave during
the lyrics “I’ll carry your story wherever I may go”, by doing this we are challenging the
conventions of the indie genre. There are also moments in which the visuals are symbols for
the narrative, the first chorus the dancers reach out there hands which could symbolise the
mother and how he is reaching out to him. Overall there are moments in our music video in
which we conform to the indie genre, we did this to secure that it is within this genre however
we do challenge the ideas of the genre, to show that we are able to challenge the
continuous conventions and still show it is indie.
Question 4
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research?
In the research of our media product we
began by using YouTube to look at
different music videos within the indie
genre. YouTube allowed us to explore
the different conventions of the indie
genre which we could then apply to our
own music video. We studied three
different artist; ‘High hopes’ Kodaline, ‘Summer’ Frank Hamilton and ‘Bones’ Josh record. By
using YouTube we were able to compare and contrast the different conventions. To present
the information we used ‘Prezi’. When we stared to film our product, we stared by using a
video camera, however we found that the time of day in which we wanted to film made the
picture rather grainy as it is hard to film at night, so we use an IPhone 5 to film some of the
darker scenes which ensured that the quality of picture was better than the video camera.
However when it came to editing our video we found the sizing
was hard to match between the video camera and the IPhone to
make the video consistent. To edit our video we used iMovie on
a Mac laptop. This program was easy to use and it allowed us to
explore different editing techniques, we were able to change the
saturation and contrasts of the picture as some of the shots on camera were quite dark, we
also were able to put shots in black and white like the dancing, and the very beginning. This
contrasted between the coloured scenes because the scenes that were in colour are a sort
of reflection to what has happened. The use of black and white intensifies the emotions. We
were able to use different transitions between scenes, however we wanted to keep the video
quite naturalistic therefore we used a lot of jump cuts and some fading between scenes; the
fading was used as a sort of thought insight to his mind for the audience. By using fading

3. between scenes in our video, it overlaid the dancer and our main character, suggesting how
they are fading away from each other. Also using IMovie we were able to put the ending in
reverse, we did this to show that he is rethinking everything that
happened and reflecting. It suggests a feel of regret which is why
we have him stood at the door before and after the reversed
scenes begin. We also used Moviemaker in order to make the
compilations of the mother and son pictures, we did this to
represent his thoughts. By presenting these pictures through the
projection on to his face it gave the suggestion that the audience
are looking into his thoughts which builds the connections between
audience and artist. In the indie genre this seems to be an
important convention as they want to create something that the audience can relate to.
During the dance scenes we used a lighting desk in order to get the right lighting to set the
atmosphere for these particular shots. Also using the lighting desk with the white background
created a good balance of light which on
camera created a very clear picture,
which we also added black and white to
the dance scenes to add to the effects of
all these elements. To create our digipak
and advertisement we used a
combination of Picmonkey and
Photoshop. We used these programs to
create the templates for the digipak and
to adjust the pictures. We adjusted the
colours to become consistent with the style of video that we went with. We did this to make a
distinctive look for the artist so it is consistent through the video, digipak and advertisement.
To create these digipaks and advertisements we looked into different artist and the
conventions of the digipaks and advertisements and then presented this information in slide
share. Overall our use of technology allowed us to create a music video that conformed to
and challenged the conventions of the indie genre. We also were able to use what we had
learned throughout AS and apply it to our final product at A2.