Question One

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product, a music video to accompany a song that I have chose, shows many conventions that are associated with actual music videos within the music industry. The genre I chose to base my music video around was Alternative Rock. To ensure I was familiar with the genre and the concepts generalised with it, I carried out several research activities so I could apply any conventions and ideas to my own music video to give my video a high standard and make it seem more realistic. Whilst watching several alternative rock music video's, I noticed an occurring theme that the frontman of the band is always dominant within the video and for most alternative rock music videos, the band are nearly always in the video too. This supports Andrew Goodwin's theory of Star Image and that an audience prefer to see the band in their own music video. Furthermore, my video has used another Andrew Goodwin theory of thought beats. This is the theory that the image is synced in with the beat of the music which I managed to achieve quite well as the drum beat is very distinct in several parts of the track I used; I Wanna Be Adored by The Stone Roses. I used this theory as I believe it gives the video a more professional look and that the director knows how to address and create a successful music video.
To expand on Andrew Goodwins theory of Star Image, I have applied this significantly to my music video. Throughout the video, we see the band constantly playing and singing along to the track. Using the band to promote the track is a frequent technique used in alternative rock videos so I decided to carry on this theme to fit the convention. The actual music video for "I Wanna Be Adored" by The Stone Roses also centre's it's attention on the band. However, in my video, I decided to give the video some narrative as I found this more appealing to an audience as they can try and figure out the storyline and apply it to the lyrics, given them a more connected and indepth feeling towards the song itself. I have also applied Richard Dyer’s theory by making the lead singer perform in a particular way. Ian Brown, the frontman and lead singer of The Stone Roses, has his own identity by the way he moves when performing his songs. I decided to apply this to my video as it would be recogniseable to any fans of The Stone Roses.
Instead of the lyrics directly linking to any actions within my music video, I have tried to challenge this theory by applying my own take on the lyrics by conveying a meaning in the actions rather than directly applying them to the lyrics. For example, when the lyrics "I don't have to sell my soul" appear on the track, I've linked this into shots of the character walking aimlessly and alone to show a deeper meaning of dereliction. Carol Vernallis also dicussed how the video may bring questions, another aspect I believe I have achieved. Showing the character constantly walking on his own through different locations makes the audience question "Where is he going?" "Why is he walking alone?" "Has something happened?" which later are answered when the character is shown producing drugs from his coat pocket.