Codes and Conventions

Group Task - Deanna Hammond-Blackburn 9164
                    - Emma Hall 9162
                    - Alex Major 9190

Goodwin’s Conventions of Music Videos

·         The visuals fit the genre.

·         Our music video will conform to and manipulate this convention, as we will be using elements of the indie, folk and acoustic genres, but also trying to appeal to the wide target audience we have found for the music. We will do this through our use of costume, to match clothes seen in similar product research.

·         There is a relationship between the music, lyrics and visuals.

·         We will conform to this convention as our target audience research shown a clear desire for this correlation. We have done this so far by analysing the lyrics and taking the key themes to weave into our ideas. The title ‘Silver Light’ has also influenced us greatly and the colour silver will be a big part of our aesthetic design. We also conducted target audience interviews to ensure that the mood of the music is stuck to.

·         Record labels demand close-ups to develop artists’ motifs.

·         We will be using a lot of close-ups as this was seen in several similar product researches, and will help to build up the abstract, concept-style we need. However, the close-ups will be quite abstract and not necessarily show the artist fully, which may conflict what institutions typically want – however the mysterious style could become the star image for our artist and what makes them stand out. The unusual shot types would also help to make a more-concept based video that matches what our target audience wants – a video that makes them think.

·         Voyeuristic/Exhibitionist approach

·         We will be discarding this convention, as though it works for pop music, our genre tends to shy away from the narcissistic artists. Instead, our gentle song will be matched by a gentle male representation that is not too controversial or overly made-up, but is smart-casual: a representation of the ‘normal’ man. Our target audience also agreed that the looks of the singer are not overly important, but also not to be undervalued, so we will respond accordingly.

·         Inter-textual references.

·         We will not be using a lot of specific inter-textual references, as we have not found too many of these in our similar product research, although we will be using several book props, and scattered pages of books that come from romance novels, in order to establish the idea of the legacy of person or a relationship being left behind after a person has gone.

Carol Vernallis’ 4 concepts

·         Narrative – Driving forces for the video may not be a narrative, and though relating to the lyrics, may only be partially related and partially resolved by the end.

·         We will be following this convention particularly, as our video will have a narrative that is not particularly story-based, but is more of an abstract journey, that does not have a resolution. We have decided this as we want our audience to be active and have to think about what there being shown.

·         Editing – Music videos break the rules of continuity, jump around in time and space to the beat of the music and can have extreme changes of pace and cutting rhythms.

·         We will be following this convention as we will be cross-cutting between contrasting images of the dark studio and barn and the light countryside. Most of the videos we looked at did this, and also cut along to the rhythm of the song. As our music video ups its pace at a significant moment in the song, our cutting rate and camera movement will have to reflect this in order to relate to the music.

·         Camera – A mixture of establishing shots and close-ups, with extremes being common.

·         Close-ups are something we intend to use a lot of, as they fit with the mood we wish to create. Establishing shots will also be key for us to show the scenic views and exterior, natural locations that our target audience said the wanted to see.

·         Diegesis – The world of the video is not always clear, there are gaps in the audience’s understanding, repetitions and foregrounding shots.

·         We will be using this convention extensively to make our audience work to understand – we will not be following the hyper dermic needle model.