My media product as a whole conforms and challenges codes and conventions. For example, Andrew Goodwins convention is that there is usually as relationship between the music and visuals however, there isn't a significant relationship between the lyrics and visuals of my media product. The lyrics don't clearly amplify the visuals, but when interpreted we can understand that the lyrics illustrate the visuals, conforming to Andrew Goodwins theory.
Rather than just illustrating the lyrics visually like Erik Davis says, we attained a more surreal approach with an intertextual reference to the Red Riding Hood fairytale. The lyrics are about a girl who's lost trust in her boyfriend and is trying to get out of her relationship so we symbolised the forest as the relationship itself and when she finds the balloon it symbolises hope that she'll find something better, in this case the wolf is her boyfriend who she's trying to run away from. Our media product like Davis says is an abstract one that will keep viewers interested as it's all about 'repeatability' and it's a suggestive narrative rather than a realistic one. We also follow Erik Davis' disjuncture convention as our video is clearly disconnected from the music, lyrics and visuals. According to Davis we are 'auteur' directors, because our video is somewhat abstract since there is no obvious link between the visuals and lyrics, but instead all open to interpretation. We are authors of our music video, selling a story to the audience rather than just an artist.
The visuals do however cut to the music which is a typical convention that most R&B music videos conform to. This side of editing was important for our video especially because of the eerie sound it has to it, we used several edited in cuts and black empty shots to relate to the beat. It's supposed to suggest how the artist is feeling disconnected. Our video started with an establishing shot of the location which indicates a story, but as soon as the song starts the first shot is of the artist singing, conforming to real music video conventions. Although she was the main focus of the video, it was important to get the narrative side of the music video across, so we had shots of the location and tracking shots of her just walking in the forest, again conforming to Davis' convention that music videos feature suggestive narrative.
Goodwins conventions state that particular genres have their own video style, for instance my music videos genre is R&B, which usually has the main artist glorified and glamorous. However my video doesn't conform to this convention as the artist is dressed in 'everyday' clothing; denim shorts and a simple white tee. She's sporting her natural shoulder length hair which challenges the convention where most R&B females wear long fakes weaves. Her make up; red lip and dark eyes can be seen as seductive, it was important that we followed this convention when it comes to R&B mainly because she must be the face of her music like other female artists in the same genre.
Unlike real R&B female artists her appearance is easy to emulate and many viewers especially teenage girls may see themselves in her, because she's portrayed as down to earth and somewhat like 'the girl next door'. Again our video isn't a typical R&B video as the artist doesn't sell an aspirational lifestyle challenging John Stewarts convention, but we did however have many close up shots of the artist like most R&B music videos, this was to create an intimate relationship between the artist and the viewer, which conforms to Stewarts code that music videos contain aesthetics of a TV commercial. This was important as the song is about a hurtful 'break-up' so we want to ensure the viewer is able to empathise with the artist and they're able to relate to the song as well as the artist, widening her fan base and expanding album sales.
We also challenged the convention that 'sex sales'. We didn't sexually exploit our artist in order to make sales or expand her fan base, although it's been proven to be an effective strategy it's not a genuine one.
Our entire video is an intertexual reference to the well known fairytale little red riding hood. The artist is seen laying in the middle of the forest wearing a big red scarf. The establishing shot and the first tracking shot of the artist is intended to put the video into context. Although the target audience of the artist herself is 16-24 year old women, the Red Riding Hood reference in the music video widens it to a bigger audience as people of all ages are familiar with the fairytale.
The use of this intertextual reference conforms to Stewarts conventions as we are trying to incorporate an old fairytale that the viewer is familiar with, with a modern nostalgic twist.
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