Generic Conventions of Romance

These are the generic conventions of romance genre:

Romance Genre Conventions
Romance is the theme of our music video because this is one of the generic conventions in pop music videos. The narrative of our video is to show between the past and present of the female being happy and melancholic with her ex.

This is a screenshot where we portrayed the female as being depressed and melancholic as she is broken hearted and she wants to isolate herself from everyone. We used white gown and white bedroom because we want it to reflect on the female's innocence and purity. It also makes our music video formal and professionally done.

We have used hairbrush and mirror because this is essential to every teenage girls. Also we want to portray her as she isn't different from any other girl which makes the audience to identify themselves in her. Her body gesture also implies that she is thinking on the reason why her ex left her because of her appearance and maybe she needs to do something about it.


We have used the park as we want to portray her being missing her ex so she goes to the places where they used to go out with her ex. And this is stereotypically what teenage girls do when they can't move on with their past boyfriends. Also we used this because it is the type of location where the couples would normally go for hang outs and dates.

We have used a party scene because this is what stereotypically teenage do when they want to have fun ro get rid of their problems. We have used teenagers on this because it helps on aiming our main target audience and they will be able to identify themselves on this scene.

We have used a male and female on our music video because it is one of the generic conventions of Pop. We have used the spotlight on the couple as we want the audience to focus at them more and so it creates an enigma to the audience. For example, they might think that the male character is going to propose on the female.

We have used connotations on props/locations/characters as we want our audience to identify the situation easily. For example, the red curtains and sofa connotes as love. This makes the audience know that this music video is mainly about love/romance. The orchids at the windowsill makes the audience think that this is what her ex gave to her.

We have used the egg timer instead of a clock because we don't want our music video to look too modern. The slow paced of sand falling on the bottom also makes the audience feel that time passes really slow.



 
We have used black and white effect as it matches her sad/melancholic emotions. It also implies that the dull colours helps to show how are female character is feeling because she hasn't got the one that she loves.






Overall, we have used and met the generic conventions of romance as we want the audience to identify her situation easily.

3 Different Pop Music Videos and the Conventions of Pop Genre

I have analysed three different Pop music videos so I would be able to determine the conventions within our chosen genre. This would help our group to have some concepts on what we could include in our music video.

Conventions of Music Videos

Conventions of Music Videos:
They have different storylines and meaning in music videos, this are portrayed through a range of ways:

• Performance based – this is where the band or the artist is playing the song throughout the music video.

• Narrative based – this is where the words and meaning of the song is acted out in some ways.

• Mixture – this is where the camera cross cut between the artist/band playing and the narrative storyline of the song is happening.

• Animation – this is where some music videos contain animation and this makes creativity and entertainment to the video.

Camera Shots 

They use different camera shots as it depends on what style of the music video is. However, they are mainly using longs shots, close ups and mid shots in music videos as they want to make emphasis on the artist, locations and emotions. For example, close up shots are used to portray different emotions which suit what the song is about. Also, they want it to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist. Sometimes they use close ups on the instruments and certain, significant props.  

Camera Movement

The movement of the camera such as tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots are used within the music video as they want the audience to follow and trace the artist or the band. For example, crane shot are used especially when there is a usage of stages and where the artist/band is performing. This is capable to hover around the stage from many different angles to capture what is happening. 

Mise-en-scene

This is about how they place the performers and props on stage or in a scene for production of a music video. This is very important in music video as it contains:

• Props - they are important in music videos as it helps to add the scene and create meaning on a particular objects or people. It also depends on the genre of the type of the song it is. For example, if it is performance style, there would be performance equipment, instruments, stages and lighting.

• Costumes – this is a vital aspect because it can manipulate on how the audience will address as they use some of the celebrities as role models. For example, Lady Gaga has specific clothing to show off her fashion, this is evident in her “Poker face” video. It also depends on the lyrics of the song as well as the genre. They will have different outfits on certain artist/band as they want it to reflect on what they are representing in the video. For example, in “Mad” by Neyo they have used dark clothes which represent the down mood of the song.

• Settings – this sets the scene immediately and many settings used are simple setting where many people can relate to.

Editing

The process of editing in music videos takes a lot of time and it is the essential part of music videos. This is because they need to select and put the scene at the right place. The pace of the editing is always in synch with the beat of the track. The lip synching is one of the important things that need to be edited so that the artist/band looks as they are actually singing the song at the exact same time as the music playing. The main editing technique that is used in music videos is jump cuts as this will make a sudden change from one scene to another. Fades and dissolves are the most common transitions in music videos as this creates a different effect to cuts and it also matches the mood of the song.

Lighting

Black and white is used in some of the music videos as it helps to emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the artist in an enhanced look.  Lighting also enhances the atmosphere as it can be used to give a bright and upbeat feel particularly in dance music videos or a dark and eerie feel which is used mostly in rock music videos.

Sound

The sound in music videos is mainly the vocals or the song but sometimes they add some sound in the background which makes the music video into a short film. Therefore in some clips there are various sounds which can be heard such as diagetic and non-diagetic sounds.

Colours

The colours are likely to set the mood of the song through constructing an atmosphere. For example, bright colours are used more in hip hop and pop videos. Also dark colours are mainly used more in rock songs. 

Music Video Analysis

I have chosen to analyse one of David Archuleta music videos because it is pop genre and it would be able to give me some ideas on what I could have for our media project. 

David Archuleta - Something bout Love on Prezi

Ideas & Chosen Song

These are the music videos that we have been researching based on 'Pop' genre:
After researching on different songs of Pop music, we ended up with two songs which are called 'Finish Line' and 'On My Own'. They are both sung by Yasmin and it lasts about three minutes long. Both of these songs are not very popular which means that it is less competition for my group with other people who want to re-make the music video. It will be easier for our group to complete our music video on time because the song is not that long and we can cut some of the parts.
Yasmin - Finish Line

Yasmin - On My Own

Conclusion:

In the end, my group and I decided to do 'On My Own' song because the tempo is upbeat which is what everyone likes. The song lasts about three minutes and 56 seconds so we are planning to cut the end bit off of to make it shorter and it would be easier for us to complete the whole video on time. Moreover, it would be easier for us to do this song because we already have some ideas in our minds that we might include for our project.

This is the lyrics of Yasmin - On My Own:

 

We have looked at the lyrics to analyse so it would give us more ideas of what we could base the music video on. My group are thinking of performance and narrative based is the best choice for the music video as we could show the actor singing in some parts and also a storyline behind the song. This would make our music video interesting as it is not just the female singing throughout the video. The lyrics ''Although the road is frightening, I'm gonna make it on my own'' portrays that we could have the female by herself and not having anyone on her side which shows that she is going to achieve the upcoming trials and proves to everyone that they are wrong.

My Group

This presentation is about the introduction of who I am working with throughout this course and the reasons why we want to work together as a team. It also describes about the genre that we decided to do for our music video.

Introduction on Prezi

Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band;
• a digipak for the album's release;
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak