Media A2 question 2

2. When creating a music video which we did specifically for the genre
of Pop there was certain codes and conventions and it was up to
our group to follow, develop or challenge them in the creation. As a
group we decided to chose a female solo Pop artist because the
majority of us had knowledge and enjoyed this genre of music
which thought gave us an advantage. We chose the song,
‘Battlefield’ by Jordin Sparks in agreement for the music video, then
I began to research on the internet deeper into other Pop artists
such as: Rihanna, Pixie Lott and Beyonce.
When looking at these types female Pop artists I found very
similar things, they had there own brand identity which made them
stand out from each other but the cinematography and mise en
scene was very similar. Most of the shots were extreme close ups
of their body and face also with mid shots to show their figure and
wide shots to show the scene of them in it. In addition the facial
expressions and their movements are key to them to look beautiful
and desirable to the viewer. The songs the artists were singing were
relatable for the target demographic of the female Pop artist which
young female teenagers and women and stereotypical of the genre
to be about: childhood experiences, break ups and love. Mostly
important I think i found was that their artists appearance is heavily
focused on throughout the videos which i found with this genre.

3. Andrew Goodwin was the main theorist we used when we started relating
specific codes and conventions into our music video, the one we tried to
abide to were these are:
•Music video demonstrates genre characteristics
•Relationship between lyrics and visuals
•Relationship between music and visuals
•The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups
of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which reoccur across the
work
•Intertextual reference
We also looked at Mulvey’s theory of ‘The Male Gaze’, which suggests the
idea of men looking at women as sexual objects, ‘voyeuristic’.
Relating back to our music video when considering how it demonstrates
genre characteristics of the genre of Pop which we chose, it can be seen
that our artist Isabel Beau played Jess is a beautiful young women which
you find constantly in the this genre. In addition the artist is always
wearing clothes and an appearance that is always on trend so this costume
for the video were cute tight dress that the viewer will expect to see to try
and recreate her look. In addition in most Pop videos there is a mix of
artist performance and a narrative which we felt strongly that the video
should have, so we cut back and forth between the two. Also the use of
mid shots, close ups and extreme close ups of her performing in the black
studio is a main characteristic of the Pop genre to show her looks and
figure to make it appealing to the viewer but also for a man to look at, ‘The
Male Gaze’.

4. The relationship between the lyrics and visuals is apparent in the music video, the lyrics
‘Battlefield’ at the very start of the video is shown with a visual of the mum and dad arguing
referencing there argument to be like a battlefield. Furthermore the visuals for ‘tear us down’
showing the artist sliding down a wall portraying the pain and battle she is facing. The lyrics,
‘both hands tied my back nothing’ is shown with the artist putting her hands behind her back
showing her vulnerability.
Another part of Goodwin’s theory is, the relationship between the music and visuals half way
through the song the beat and mood of the song changes from a vulnerability and sad to an
outbreak of passion of pain. This change is also shown in the visuals at this point the music
videos has more mid shots of the artist performance to show body movements to show passion
a few examples are the artist : hitting the wall with her fists and big arm movements.

5. The record label we chose for our artist is , Mercury Records which is major record label which
has many female Pop artists signed to their labels, such as : Pixie Lott, who was one of our main
influences for our artist, Isabel Beau. According to Goodwin’s theory the record label wants
close ups of the artist and I believe especially in the Pop genre if they are a new artist because
their face is their selling point. We abided to this code and convention very closely, by
throughout our music video having multiple close ups of the artist because we believed this to
be crucial to our artists success. These shots show the artist feature more closely so she will be
remembered more the viewer and the target demographic, they also show her emotion.

6. The last code and convention of Goodwin’s that is included in our music video is, ‘intertextual
referencing’ as a group we had a clear of a existing media product we wanted to reference
within in our own. The main idea we had at the very start which deciding on using was the
opening dance scene from the movie, ‘Black Swan’ to reference. This idea worked extremely
well with our music video as we wanted already to include ballet dancing in the video, they way
we shot the ballet scenes was very similar to ,Black Swan’ and we took influence from this. In
addition the costume in the video is very similar to what the young dancer wears in ours, it
being a white leotard and tutu. This we believed would help the audience to make the reference
between the two.

7. One way our music video challenges the codes and conventions of the Pop genre is that, most
Pop video has bright lighting and are colourful throughout however are music video is all in
black and white. The decision to do this was to keep the focus on both performances without
any distract because they are emotional and passionate and give it some boosted elegance. I
believe this choice was the right one to make because it i think it works very well and also from
audience feedback we received they agreed.
Overall through the whole of the music video we as a group followed every
convention very precisely which I believe this shows we followed a strong structure
of a typical music video, and more specifically for artist the Pop genre. We only
challenged one small convention to see if are own idea would worked better and I
think we accomplished this to.