Evaluation: In what way does your media product, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout my initial research I thoroughly looked into music videos within the indie/alternative genre in which I wanted to focus my product around. From this, I found that videos inside the genre are so vast with many not sticking to a particular pattern unlike pop or R&B. In ways this was good for me as it allowed me to do what I wanted without challenging the typical forms and conventions so much that it had an effect on whether the audience liked it or not. Despite not following any specific guidelines I still tried to give the video an indie/vintage look to it and I believe I did this well. For example, including props like the guitar and Beatles-esque clothes/hair are similar to what fans of the artist wear meaning people could relate to and potentially enjoy the video more than they normally would.

As I mentioned previously, I wanted the video to be completely narrative based with the artist featuring in the throughout it. However, I didn't want it to be performance based with the artist singing or lip syncing to the lyrics either. I looked at a video for Arctic Monkey's single 'Suck It and See' before coming up with my own idea. The video met the forms and conventions that I knew I wanted to include in my own product with the artist featuring as the main character of a narrative based music video yet no lip syncing or major performance included. Although this video is completely different to my own it influenced me quite significantly and helped me create my final finished product.

This video as well as my own in regards to Todorov's theory both start off in a state of equilibrium of the narrative. This changes as the main character/artist is given the task of funding himself some money for beer. As the video finishes, the narrative meets a new equilibrium as he walks into the distance with his beer and no longer has any problems to solve. 

As well as Todorov, I also believe my music video follows some of the forms and conventions of Andrew Goodwin's theory and meets some of the 8 codes that he proposed. One for example is 'Links between lyrics and visuals'. As my music video as a whole is continuously narrative throughout without any interruptions there are no direct links between the visuals and the lyrics at the same time. However, the general mood that the lyrics of the song give off such as 'stuck in speed bump city where the only thing is pretty is the thought of getting out' and 'in this trouble town, troubles are found' heavily influenced the music video and it's overall idea. By just making it purely narrative and giving it a black and white effect, I tried to make it look as if the main character had quite a bleak life with no job and flike Miles Kane for example feature in their videos and decided not to challenge this idea and took it forward myself. Because I obviously couldn't get the actual artist to feature in the video I asked my friend Nathan to act as 'Jake Bugg' which I believe he did a good job of. Including the artist in the music video was particularly important for me in my opinion as I made the decision to use a 'logo' for the album art of the digipak and poster rather than a picture of the singer. This is so members of the target audience can get an idea of what the artist looks like and who is he before perhaps going on to purchase the album or vinyl.