Question 1 - Miss Georgiou

Question 1: in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


Our brief for this media product was to create a music video between 3 to 5 minutes long for a song within a genre that had been chosen by our group, which for my group was indie due to the fact that we were all avid listeners of the indie genre, therefore we felt as though we would enjoy and feel more confident with this project. The choice of genre and artist gave our group total create control over our music video which meant that we could be more creative in terms of our narrative, our interpretation of the deeper meaning after analysing the lyrics and how we wanted our video to look visually. The purpose of a music video is to expose an artist to an audience through the use of visuals as these clearly show the audience what they look like and how they are feeling, to show the audience the creativity that the artist possesses through the use of a narrative or performance as these are usually planned extensively before filming, or to express to the audience that the song has a deeper meaning, also through the use of narrative or concept as an audience will usually appreciate when there is a bigger purpose behind the creation of a song. These purposes can all be seen in the music video for the song 'wings' by Birdy, who is an example of a well known artist within the indie genre. Visuals of the artist performing the song can be seen throughout the entire music video, but especially at the beginning when the audience can see her lying down on a couch in the middle of what appears to be a living room. These visuals are beneficial to the artist due to the fact that it introduces her into the music video as the artist and allows the audience to see clearly who she is, therefore they will be more likely to recognise her in other aspects of the media, such as magazine articles or on social media, which are other popular ways in which an artist can connect and communicate with their target audience. Furthermore, the audience will be able to see that the artist is at a house party with a larger group of people, most of whom appear to be young adults. The target audience for this video are of a similar age, therefore they may be able to relate to this setting and the idea of friendship groups that are often associated with teenagers. This setting is suggested to be the narrative behind the song due to the fact that the location of the music video remains the same throughout, therefore the audience may feel as though the location is purposeful and they may relate the lyrics of her song to the visuals that are being show. This purpose of this is to show the audience that there is a deeper meaning behind the lyrics and that the artist has thought about what they want their audience to see. This means that the audience will be more likely to think about the music video while they are watching it and will therefore remember the video for longer...


There are several conventions of the indie genre that are included in our own music video, for example, the use of a close up of the face of the artist at the beginning of the video helps the audience to see clearly what she looks like and how she is feeling at that particular point in the video. The use of a close up is beneficial to the artist due to the fact that she is new to the music industry, therefore not many people will know who she is, however, after seeing these visuals of her they will be more likely to recognise her if they see her images in other aspects of the media. Furthermore, it is important for the artist to be able to connect with an audience because these will be the people who are going to buy into her music and continue to buy her music which in tern will help to increase her success within the industry. The use of a close up is more personal due to the fact that an artist is completely exposed in the sense that this specific shot in the video will be all about her, which is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists are known for writing their own songs that are often based on real life experiences, therefore the lyrics of these songs will relate to the artist directly and will be likely to tell the audience things about the artist that they may not already know, for example, indie artists often write about past relationships or friendships, which will appeal to the audience because these are often topics that the audience will be able to relate to and they will therefore feel as though they are not going through these situations alone.

Furthermore, in our music video we have also included elements of both performance and narrative styles. We have shown performance through the use of visuals of the artist playing the piano while she sings at various points during the video. These visuals of a musical instruments is conventional to the indie genre due to the fact that indie artists are known for writing their own music and for having their own individual styles regarding their music and also their appearance, which is why they do not tend to find into the mainstream. This arguably helps the audience to view indie artists as being more relatable because not everybody will seek to keep up with the mainstream or be able to afford the designer brands that are associated with the mainstream, therefore indie artists will be of a similar personality and style to them. Furthermore, the audience may also envy how talented an artist is in the sense that she has the ability to sing as well as play a musical instrument which usually take a lot of time and effort to learn. Performance is used in our video to break up the longer sections of narrative, for example, the scene in which the two characters first meet is followed by visuals of the artist playing the piano, which then transitions into the first date scene. We felt as though the combination of the two styles would make our video more interesting for the audience to watch due to the fact that they do not have to be constantly focused on how the narrative is developing. Moreover, the use of performance allows an indie artist to show their audience any other musical talents that they may have such as the ability to play a musical instrument which is conventional to the genre because indie artists are known for writing and performing their own music. The use of performance is conventional to the indie genre due to the fact that indie artists are often perceived as always being on the road in order to perform for new audiences. Indie artists are known for being solely focused on and passionate about sharing their music with their fans, which is why they are not always too concerned about how they look and keeping up with current fashion trends. The audience may find it easier to relate to these indie artists due to the fact that they may not be able to afford designer brands that are associated with popular music artists and the mainstream. Most of our music video is heavily narrative based due to the fact that we felt a narrative would help to engage our audience and make the video more interesting for them to watch as we are giving them visuals to relate the lyrics of the song to. For example, narrative can be seen towards the middle of the video when the male character and artist are on a date at his house, drinking wine at the dinner table. The use of a narrative will make the audience feel more involved in the lives of the characters because they will feel as though they are there with them which will appeal to them due to the fact that they may feel as though the artist views them more as a friend, rather than one of the hundreds of people sitting behind a screen watching the music video.


Moreover, we used a flashback at the beginning of our video when the audience see the elderly lady's face merge with the face of the younger girl which we felt would show the audience that the video is of a past event and that the two characters are the same people. The use of this flashback has the potential to make the video feel more personal to the artist due to the fact that we are suggesting that she is sharing a memory with the audience and allowing them to get to know more about her life outside of the industry. The use of a flashback connotes the idea of going back in time which is conventional to the indie genre due to the fact that indie is know for being old fashioned and therefore for not fitting into the mainstream which is often dictated by artists from within the pop genre who are known for being rich and popular and for setting the current fashion trends which the younger generation are often influenced by. The audience may find our artist to be more relatable due to the fact that she can be seen wearing affordable clothing such as grey dress and black leggings, and in an easily accessible locations such as the park which will appeal to the people who may not be able to afford or like to wear designer brands and who may have been to some of the places featured in the video themselves. It is often difficult for an audience to be able to relate to people from within the music industry due to the fact that they are highly talented and can therefore afford to live luxurious lifestyles, however, my music video arguably portrays the artist as being more natural due to the fact that she is not trying to flaunt how much money she has through the visuals of expensive clothing which has the potential to alienate members of her audience. Having said that, our group arguably challenged this convention through the use of visuals of a modern mobile phone which the audience see her drop after she finds out that the male character has died, as well as well known London landmarks such as the London Eye and Big Ben which can be seen during the time lapse towards the end of the video which we felt would make our video more relatable to the modern day audience, thus increasing the appeal of our video to a wider audience, which has the potential to boost the sales of the album if the audience like the song and can therefore increase the success of our artist within the industry. Furthermore, other artists and record labels will be more likely to want to work with our artist if she is successful because she will be more well known within the industry and will have people talking about her, therefore other artists will be able to increase their own exposure by being associated with her. By working with other artists our artist will gain exposure into newer audiences that she may not have been able to reach on her own, especially if they are both from different genres of music. Most of the conventions that are used in our music video conform to the indie genre due to the fact that we wanted our video to be recognisable within the genre and to compliment the other music videos that our artist has already produced in order for her to continue appealing to her established target audience.