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

I have constructed my product to both reinforce and challenge conventions through the use of cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene. As part of the pop genre, the conventions include things like lip syncing, costume and rhythmic editing which I have used in my product.

For my main product I discovered the conventions of pop music videos from my research from earlier in the year, doing a textual analysis which can be seen here. Using the music videos from Mcfly, G.R.L and Beyonce, I discovered the important conventions that I will need to include to make my music video successful.



To ensure that my final digipak looked professional and conventions I looked at existing albums as part of my planning and research earlier in the year. I looked at existing front covers, back covers and CD designs which can be seen here.



For my advert, I put a lot of effort into making it look conventional and good. The research that I did during the planning and research was looking at existing products and pointing out the conventions which can be seen here.

Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory was a key part in my portfolio this year as I wanted to challenge what she stated. Mulvey is a British theorist who si known for her Male Gaze theory which is how the audience view women who are presented in the media. She states that women are to be seen and not heard and through the use of  camera movements and certain angles, are portrayed as sexual objects.

To ensure that I didn't sexualise the girls, I looked at music videos in the pop genre that do sexualise females. I looked at Can't Remember to Forget You by Shakira ft Rihanna, Partition by Beyonce and Anaconda by Nicki Minaj which sexualise females in through the way they look and the camera movements. These images belows are screenshots from each of the music videos where Laura Mulvey's theory is reinforced through the use of clothing and camera shots and movements. There are minimal clothing on the girls which instantly makes them look like a sexual object. Also the way the camera focuses on he female body parts such as boobs and bum and the way the camera moves around these areas also presents them a sexual objects.

As I have focused on females in my music video and them feeling confident about themselves, I wanted to make sure that they were not seen as sexual objects, challenging Mulvey's theory. To ensure this I allowed the girls to wear what they felt comfortable in but not to expose themselves. They dressed themselves  appropriately and still represented themselves. I also left the camera stationary without changing the setup up of it so that the camera would not focus on certain parts of the girls, and would focus on all of them so that they were not seen in a sexual way.

The Hypodermic Needle

The hypodermic needle theory is a model of communications that suggests that and message is intended to directly received and accepted by the receiver. In my case, the message of my music video is to feel confident about yourself and I want females to feel this. In the media, such as music videos, women feel pressured to conform to an image of someone else which can make people feel worse about themselves. This is why I used four different girls in my video and focused on the lyrics so that the message of feeling like a 'sexy lady' is put across.

Tessa Perkins

I tried to challenge Tessa Perkins Stereotypes theory in my products by not representing women in a sexual way in which females are stereotypically seen in music videos in the pop genre. Perkins theory states that we make judgements upon a group of people, see in my research from earlier in the year here. Looking at music videos that conform to the stereotypes of females, such as being sexualised, in the pop genre, I learnt how to portray the girls in the video, which I described above when talking about Laura Mulvey. I looked at music videos such as Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus  where women are sexualised to emphasise their bodies and to attract attention to the video.