2. My answer to this question analysis the code and conventions of a
music video and how we tackled/followed them. We tried to make it as
original as possible however for some shots we followed some of the
codes and conventions of a music video as a music video was the
product we had to make. In this presentation I will be analysing and
highlighting substantial shots explaining why we made certain
decisions. I will also be making textual references to the music video
Runaway love by Mary J Blige & Ludacris and the artist Justin Bieber
, as these represent the aspects of the codes and conventions of a
music video. The genre of our artist is POP / RnB / Soul. The audience
would expect to see an urban environment and a good fashion sense
as our audience range is between 12-15.

3.  For our research we looked into and analysed other music Our artist was easily recognised as a pop/soul singer as
videos of the same genre as our artist, Pop/Soul. The he has got a very high pitched voice and is in
reason why we thought it was a good idea to look into as comparison with Justin Bieber as Leyton had also
many videos as possible is to see what the typical started singing when he was young and had a lot of
conventions of the particular genre and how we can use female fans than males as he is really feminine
these conventions on our very own video so the audience friendly, this is portrayed in his dress sense as he is
would find it easy to recognise. Andrew Goodwin’s usually in pink. This really helped us on our research as
definition of a pop music video is that it should have ’either we believed that out artists main fan base would
an stage perfornance or a dance routine and you should approximately be from the age range of 12-15.
look at its characteristics and the relationship between the
visuals and the lyrics to figure out the genre of a music As a group we had decided that we would want to have
video’ . a both performance and a narrative piece for our
video, although it sounds a bit complicated , my group
and I were quite sure we can achieve our goal.
Alongside with the codes and conventions of a standard
Pop video, we had also made the narrative shots black
and white so it makes it clear to the audience that it was
a flashback.

4. Runaway Love - Mary Blige & Ludacris was the influence for our opening shot as you can only see the person’s feet as he is
walking before the face is shown. We challenged the codes and conventions by adding credits at the beginning of the track as
well as scenery. I thought showing the feet of the artist before the face is shown was a good way to create suspense for the
audience to guess how the artist is going to look like if they are watching the video for the first time. The footwear also
immediately shows the class of the artist as trainers may represent Urban culture and RnB genre and classy shoes may
represent pop.

5.  For the setting , we thought establishing shots would
be the best for it as it captures the whole image /
scenery and it would look appealing to the audience.
In most music videos the setting is shown at the start
with the main souvenirs so the audience would be
able to recognise where it is taken place instantly.
South Bank skate park was the entrance to our music
video as we took shots of different angles of the
place for it. We challenged the codes and
conventions of a music video our video starts of
really slow and gives the audience time to admire
the location before the artist is introduced. In the
video Never say never by Justin Bieber, the artist is
shown straight away before any scenery where as in
our video the scenery was introduced first.

6.  For the first 41 seconds , the artist’s face was not shown
on our video. We kept his face not shown and only had
his back and feet showing as this will create suspense on
who he is. Stereotypically , audience would expect a
Black singer to be dressed in baggy jeans and long vest
tops , however we tackled the codes and conventions as
Leyton was dressed up smart with a white shirt and
classy footwear and got out of a fancy car. This idea also
makes the audience have questions in their head such as
what the artist is doing , where is he going. In most
mainstream videos the artist’s face is shown first but we
thought we shall tackle the convention. Cars is a main
source of code and convention as in most pop/ hiphop
videos as the artist usually drives through , so we
thought we would maintain that. In the video Never say
never, Justin Bieber’s face is immediately shown within
seconds.

7.  Leyton’s face is shown as the first verse of
the song starts. We shot this at a skate
park with Leyton dressed classy as we
wanted to show the contrast between the
setting and the artist. Our aim was to
portray the fact that even though the place
is Urban with graffiti and hood rats, Leyton
feels comfortable writing lyrics there even
though there are disruptions as he was
brought up there. The ‘watch’ shot
symbolises the fact that he got no time to
waste and he is making use of every
minute possible to go somewhere in life.
According to the lyrics, Leyton is an
independent young man trying to become
successful in life although there are many
struggles he got to face such as getting
bullied there by the hood rats.

8.  We grayscaled these particular shots
where Leyton looks younger and at
his home with his step dad to show
the audience what he had to go
through in the past. This is a code
and convention of a music video as it
clearly shows the audience that all
this was in the past . After every
performance shot we added a
narrative shot straight after Leyton
looks away or looks down to show
that he is thinking back through the
past . Our music video illustrates a
story as in the grayscale shots we
see that he was not treated well and
get tortured by his father , but he
had always fought back and was
passionate about music / work which
got him to where he is today , (this is
shown as we see him get out of a
nice car).

9.  We chose South Bank skate park and Leyton’s
house for the locations. The reason why we chose
the skate park for the performance part is to
show that Leyton is not a typical teenager
involved in gangs and is motivated to achieve his
childhood dream. The shot of him walking slowly
shows that he seems like a gentle young man
, and when he looks down into the river , it
highlights the fact that he is a deep thinking
person. In Justin biebers video never say
never, Bieber is in a recording suite with high
tech equipment surrounded by him where as in
our video, Leyton is sitting down at the skate
park with a pen and paper writing lyrics. This
shows that he is humble and even though if he
goes far in life , he would like to work like he
always have. We also created a binary opposition
between him and the teenagers these days as the
narrative location was at his very own house , we
thought this was a brilliant idea as it is realistic
that children get abused at home.