In order for us to think about the conventions our music video will use, develop and challenge I looked at several music videos and picked out the characteristics that appeared throughout the majority of them, some that we have already planned on using and others that appealed to me but that we haven't yet discussed. The main videos that stood out to me were:

The Kooks - Naive

Kate Nash - Foundations

You Me At Six - Kiss and Tell

CONVENTIONS:

• The situations are realistic and so it appeals to a young audience for they can relate to the narrative.
• The narrative tends to include a party and the connotations that come with it such as drinking, dancing and a band.
• The lighting also tends to be low which helps to reinforce the party theme
• The cast tends to be young, attractive and well dressed which should appeal to our target audience furthermore many of them should be able to relate to it. A large number of people are involved to help reinforce the party atmosphere.
• Tended to feature the band either performing or as the protagonist
• The camera movements were primarily hand held follows to create a jaunty personal feel which helps to engage the audience for it makes it feel more realistic.
• The shots used tended to be either wide or long so the costumes and mise-en-scene were revealed rather than placing emphasis on people and emotions
• The editing consisted of mainly straight cuts or continuous movement rather than wipe or dissolved transitions, this once again gives a realistic feel to the video.
• There is also a use of still frame animation which makes it fun and interesting
• The majority of the videos had a saturated look to them which made them look high quality

USE:

• It is vital that we adhere to the conventions to make sure that we are going to create something recognisable to our target audience that they will appreciate.
• Our narrative will include a house party so that our target audience can relate to it and feel they can recreate a similar situation.
• Our cast is going to include a vast number of our friends to reinforce the party atmosphere and also to create a realistic situation for they are already well acquainted. This is also useful for they are our target audience.
• As well as using the narrative and cast to engage our target audience we’re planning on the costumes being fancy dress to make it more comical and interesting.

DEVELOP:

• The main area we need to target is the techniques we are going to use for example we will have to improve our editing skills to enable us to make transitions on the beat.
• To create the saturated effect we will have to spend a lot of time adjusting the exposure so that the effect is continuous throughout the music video to make it appear high quality.
• Last year we used a phone light for our lighting however this year to create a party atmosphere we will need to practice more professional lighting techniques so that our music video will have a ‘romantic’ feel to it without distorting our images.
• We will need to extend our use of camera movements to replicate the effect in Naïve where the camera follows the protagonist furthermore we will have to find a way to make it look ‘home video’ as well as professional.

CHALLENGE:

• The music videos tended to feature the band members either performing or as the protagonist however due to the fact we downloaded our music from a copyright free website we are unable to feature the band.
• As our budget is a lot less our mise-en-scene won’t be as intricate or as professional looking however this may make it appear more realistic.