A2 Media Studies G324

My media product is a music video of the genre indie pop and it uses the song 'Grow Old with Me' by Tom Odell. This means that when me and my group planned for and created a music video using this song, we needed to think about the genre generic conventions of indie pop music videos and develop and challenge these conventions to make our music video look like an industry standard music video that was clearly of the genre indie pop.

My music video developed the forms and conventions of real media products when Alex (actor playing artist Tom Odell) wears dark clothing throughout the whole music video with the only exception being when he does the performance shots he wears a white shirt. The reason we get him to wear dark clothing during our music video is because it is stereotypical that the majority of indie artists wear dark clothing (often black). We therefore thought that it would be more clear to what genre our music video is if we stuck to using this convention. An example of an indie pop music video where the male artist also wears dark clothing throughout the whole music video is in the Bastille Music video Pompeii where Dan Smith the lead vocalist wears black the whole time. He is also an English indie pop artist and therefore sticks to the generic conventions of his genre so we thought we should do this in our music video.

Alex wearing dark clothing in my music video

Dark Clothing in Pompeii music video

The reason we got him to wear a white shirt in the performance shots is to make it a little bit brighter and change it up a bit in the music video, as it can be boring seeing the artist wearing the same coloured clothes over and over again so therefore we challenged the genre convention slightly. During these shots where Alex is doing performance the genre convention is also challenged when he is playing the piano on a grand piano with high key lighting in a concert hall. Although we are developing the genre forms and conventions by getting him to play piano (as its stereotypical that indie artists play piano or guitar), most shots in indie music videos are in low key lighting with a standard upright low cost piano. This is because independent record labels often have a low budget and therefore do not pay to use grand pianos and they do not suit the genre. This is wear the pop side to our sub-genre is shown more as Alex plays on a grand piano. An example of a music video that uses low key lighting and an upright piano is 'Hold Me' by Tom Odell.

Although Alex is wearing a white shirt in his performance shots he has his sleeves rolled up which is a generic conventions in a indie pop music video. The artists often do this to show that they are laid back whilst performing and are more about the music than there image so therefore it doesn't matter if they look a bit scruffy whereas POP artists would make sure they looked good all the time and not have any creases in their shirts or have their sleeves rolled up. By having his sleeved rolled up it makes it clear to our audience that our music video is indie pop and therefore we develop the forms and conventions of indie pop music videos. In the 'Hold Me' video Tom Odell has his sleeves rolled up whilst playing the piano and he does this in many of his music videos. Throughout the creation of our music videos we ensured we took some inspiration from some of Tom Odell's music videos because we used one of his songs for our music videos and because he is the genre of the music video that we were creating.

Alex with his sleeves rolled up

Tom Odell with his sleeves rolled up

For our music video we had to consider locations a lot because the stereotypical locations used in indie pop music videos are low budget settings that often do not cost anything e.g. a park, street, house, car park etc. Therefore we decided that it would be a good idea to follow this stereotype to ensure our genre was clear to the target audience and because we did have a low budget to create our music video it worked well using simple locations/ settings. Also due to our storyline being realistic as an everyday life story, it made sense to use normal settings. An example of a location that we used in our music video which is used in many indie pop music videos and therefore develops the forms and conventions of real media products is the park. During the shots where the character 'Tom Odell' and his girlfriend are enjoying a picnic in the winter weather, they are at a park wrapped up warm and playing around together and being silly as young couples do. The reason they wrap up warm is to show the audience what time of year the shots are based as well as there being leaves all around the park (showing its autumn). This shows that costume plays an important role of telling a story and telling the audience something. A real media product which uses this convention is in the music video 'I Know' by Tom Odell. This is set in the woods in the cold weather which is shown by Tom Odell wearing a dark black coat to keep him warm. His coat helps show the audience the time of year.

Alex is at the park

Tom Odell is at the park

Our music video had a strong narrative throughout the whole music video, this narrative was about true everlasting love and it shows a lot about the couples relationship and their plans for the future. This challenges the forms and conventions of real media products quite a lot because although many indie pop music videos are about love just like ours is and there is often a strong narrative, most indie pop music videos are about heartbreak and not about a positive love story. The reason we challenged this convention is because we thought that it would be nice for people to see something happy about love in the media for a change as there are so many sad music videos out there e.g. songs and music videos by Sam Smith and Adele. The original music video for the song we used starts off positive about love but then has a sad ending so my group decided to change this and have a happy ending.

The music video that we have created shows a period of time showing what the artist wants for the future of his relationship with his girlfriend which is to get married, have kids, grow old together etc. This means that the majority of the music video isn't what has happened already but is dreams for the future. Some music videos of the indie pop genre also use periods of time in their music video. An example of this which we did take some inspiration from is 'Wasn't expecting that' by Jamie Lawson, an indie pop artist. However, in his music video it starts with an old married couple then throughout the music video you see them get younger and younger until you see them first start going out in the past (this shows their lives backwards) therefore the shots you see in this music video are actually memories of what happened whereas in our music video they are dreams of what will happen. Although the concept is a little bit similar Jamie Lawson's music video ends on a negative note as many music videos do but ours is still positive the whole time.

At the beginning of my music video of 'Grow Old with me' Tom Odell and his girlfriend are young together.

This is during my music video of 'Grow Old With Me' where Tom Odell and his girlfriend are now old and are married with grandkids around them.

This is at the beginning of Jamie Lawson's 'Wasn't Expecting that' music video, where the couple are older together.

This is near the end of Jamie Lawson's 'Wasn't Expecting that' music video, where the couple are young.

During the editing stage of our music video we added a black and white filter to show the difference in time. This is so that when the camera goes into his eye and show his dreams of the future and what he would like, these dreams are in black and white to show that they are not real and just what he would like. This is so the audience does not get confused and think that they are happening right now, when they are actually just a dream for the future. This challenges the indie pop genre because there are not many videos that use a black and white effect. Although this is slightly different to a stereotypical music video from this genre, we did this to make it slightly different and stand out an audience because they will see that there is a different period of time taking place in this music video and they will want to know what happens in the future for this couple.

It is clear that our music video has been influenced by music videos such as 'Wasn't Expecting that' and many Tom Odell music videos because of our video being set over a period of time and using different locations, settings, costumes, colour etc. Although our music video does challenge the forms and conventions of indie pop music videos at stages such as it being a positive narrative throughout and using a grand piano in a concert hall and the artist wearing a white shirt, I do think that the majority of the music video uses and develops the forms and conventions of real media products of the indie pop genre. This is because we have thought about the low budget settings/ locations and have had the artist wear dark colours for the majority of the music video as well as have his sleeves rolled up etc. Therefore overall our music video does develop the forms and generic conventions for the most part.