1. A2 Media Studies
G324: Advanced Production Portfolio

2. Connect
• Have a look at the Purposes of music videos
on your cards
• Can you sort them into the order of
importance to a successful video?
• Think carefully!

3. Codes and Conventions
• Codes and Conventions are a really important
part of studying and producing Music Videos!
– What do you already know about Codes?
– What do you already know about Conventions?
– Are there any other Key Words relating to Codes
and Conventions that you know?

5. Codes
• Codes in a media text are the established way of
creating meaning in a text
– technical codes - all to do with the way a text is
technically constructed - camera angles, framing,
typography etc
– verbal codes - everything to do with language -either
written or spoken
– symbolic codes - codes that can be decoded on a
mainly connotational level - all the things which draw
upon our experience and understanding of other
media texts, our cultural frame of reference.

6. Codes
• In media studies, a message is often described as
being "encoded" from the sender and then
"decoded" by the receiver.
• The encoding process works on multiple levels.
• For semiotics, a code is the framework, a learned
and shared conceptual connection at work in all
uses of signs

9. Watch The Following
• These artists all use CODES in their videos:
– Can you identify them?
– What is the Denotation and Connotation?
– What do they mean to you?
• D12- Purple Pills
• Carly Rae Jepson - Call Me Maybe
• Christina Aguilera – Dirrty
• Tynchy Stryder & Dappy - Spaceship

10. Conventions
• Conventions are the commonly understood
ways of doing things in a media text
• Conventions are probably the easiest points to
use to identify the Genre of a media text

11. What is Genre?

12. Conventions
• The use of Conventions in a music video help the audience
to identify the genre of the song and the artist.
• This allows the producers of the song to “sell” the song and
the artist as the audience will recognise common imagery
quickly!
• Watch the following videos – what are the genres and
conventions used:
– One Direction - Kiss You
– Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way
– N’Sync – Bye Bye Bye

13. On Your Blog
1. You need to define the terms Codes and
Conventions – Use PEA and Images to help you
2. You need to analyse and compare 2 videos in
the same genre:
– Identify the Codes used
– Identify the Conventions used
– How successful is the video in promoting the artist?
– Is one more successful than the other? Why?