Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin both focus on forms and conventions of music videos. Vernallis studied editing and camerawork in music videos. She believed that music videos go against the rule of continuity editing, making editing seamless. Her reasoning for this was by going against these rules attention is drawn to the action on screen as a way of encouraging the viewer to continuously watch it. Edits such as Jump Cuts and special effects are prime examples of this as they make the editing seem clear and make the video visually pleasing. Furthermore, she believes that the editing matches the rhythm of the beat and master shots are often used to give the video a structure.

On the other hand, Goodwin's theory is that music videos demonstrate certain genre characteristics and don't necessarily have a structure but are built around a narrative. For example for the rap/hiphop genre there tends to be shots of the artist and women with little clothing on as well as designer clothing/ jewellery and sports cars. The voyeuristic treatment of the female body is used to sell the artist's music through sex appeal. The visual pleasure that music video cause encourage repeated viewing and the music as well as the lyrics have a relationship with the visual.  This is either illustrative, amplification or disjuncture. Illustration is the literal meaning to the song's lyrics presented in a visual way. Amplification utilises both performance and narrative whereas disjuncture intentionally goes against the conventions of the genre and the content of the song. Furthermore, Goodwin states that there can be intertextual references promoting a movie.

In terms of costume I have decided to stick to the conventions of the rap/hiphop genre by wearing sunglasses and gold jewellery.