1. QUESTION 1: In what ways does
your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
Morgan Roux

2. Andrew Goodwin stated in his theory that
conventional music videos show a
relationship between the lyrics and
visuals, with the visuals typically
amplifying or illustrating the lyrics.
Our music video has a direct relationship “And Sarah’s into S’N’M”
between the lyrics and visuals making it
a conventional music video. The song
lyrics consist of a boy describing
different types of girls that are available
to his friend who is newly single and is
looking for a new „Girl‟ The lyrics are
very descriptive and we were able to “Megan likes the older men”
use, find images which suited each girl
described creating a slideshow of
images as if the two characters were
flicking through girls profiles. For
example “Sarah‟s into S‟N‟M” we used a
photo which illustrated the lyrics as
closely as possible. “Suzey can’t keep her mouth shut”

3. Continued…
We also physically showed the
lyrics visually, In the opening
scene the lyrics are being
typed out into Facebook chat
as if it was a conversation
between friends. San Cisco
have taken a similar approach
in their music video ‘Awkward’
however they have shown the
lyrics through text messages
this screenshot (bottom right)
show the lyrics in speech
bubbles however both ours
and San Cisco’s agree with
Andrew Goodwin’s analysis
and show a direct link
between lyrics and visuals.

4. Secondly Goodwin stated that in
conventional music videos there is a
relationship between the music and visuals
which similarly to the previous statement
amplify the lyrics.
There are several examples of this in our
music video, for example at the end of the
music there is a build up and a climax is
reached. To reflect the fast pace, and high
energy of this section in the music we
thought the best way to show this was
through hand held camera work with lots
of cuts making the footage which is being
watched jumpy and energetic matching
the fast paced music. This screen shots
show some of the different angles and
distances we filmed at to helping create a
exciting visual to match the music.

5. Continued…
Similarly to Example’s music video
‘Midnight Run’ he has used filters to
change the colour of the image to
signify the change in music. For
example in our music video throughout
the breakdown we used warm colours
to show the calm mellowness of this
section in the music however when the
colour begins to change into a colder
blue colour reflecting the drama on
screen and the change of music to a
more fast paced climax the darker
image at the build up also reflects a
typical grime music video as it creates
a ‘grungy’ feel. Example similarly
darkens the image at the climax in his
music video making this a conventional
technique.

6. Goodwin also noted that record
companies will demand a lot of close-
ups of their star/performer.
The band are not featured in the
video. This is typical of the genre of
music we are looking at so we
purposely didn’t include them in the
video. However we have two main
characters in the video John and
Mike who play the two characters in
the footage. The both take up a lot of
screen time, however John the
character in the screen shots on the
left has more close ups so perhaps
this promotes him as the star in this
music video. This challenges
Goodwin’s analysis being our music
video challenges conventions as we
aren’t promoting a star.

7. Voyeurism is also another feature which is
usually present in conventional music videos.
Voyeurism is a heavily used in our media
product. The opening shot is of Mike‟s house as
if your standing outside looking at it. The close
up shot of his bedroom window suggests that
we are about to see something we might not be
permitted to. The setting for the video is a
teenage boys bedroom and we are looking over
mike‟s shoulder as he browses Facebook, the
camera zooms in as he scrolls down so we can
see the chat box and him talking to his friend on
Facebook, moments like this excite audiences
as they are able to look in at a private
conversation. Close up shots were important to
use whilst filming to create voyeurism as your
right in the shot with them almost as if your
invading someones personal space.

8. Continued…
Another element of voyeurism
is listening in on phone
conversations. This is one of
the most commonly used
forms of voyeurism used, both
Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift
have used it in their videos. It
gives the audience permission
to listen in on private
moments and creates a sense
of intrigue and mystery to the
audience. Due to the fact that
we have heavily used
voyeurism throughout our
music video I definitely think
we’ve conformed to
convention.

9. Intertextual references to other
music videos, TV shows, books,
movies etc.
Our Digipak uses several
intertextual references. One of
which is the fireball we created
was taken from the well known
game ‘Street Fighter’. We gave the
fireball a pixelated effect to look
close to the imagery used in the
game. The band is named after a
move from this game so we
thought it was essential to include
as it added comic value as well as
please. We also pixelated the
image we created to make it look
closer to a video game.

10. Continued…
The idea for the black
background with the
heads was stimulated
from The Beatles album.
Despite the fact that The
Beatles is completely
unlike Hadouken! We have
loosely based our digipak
around their album cover
with the heads coming out
of the black, dark shadow.

11. Continued…
There is similarly strong
intertextual references
between our album cover
and Queen’s albums. The
portrait of Mike is the same
idea as Queen’s
superimposed heads as it
has a similar blurred effect
that we aimed to create with
our image.
The grid like effect we used is
similar to another Queen
album due to the more
formatted layout of the
heads. Our magazine, digipak
follows conventions as it has
quite in-depth references
however they may not be
noticeable to everyone.