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

Accompanying Notes: I believe that we use, develop and challenge forms and conventions in many ways throughout our music video. These nods are evident in both the theoretical and stylistic elements of our video. An example of where we have used a convention of real media products is through the primary setting of the video - the woods. Two existing media products which use this setting are Dog Days Are Over by Florence & The Machine, and Gust of Wind by Pharrell. However, we also developed this setting, as both of these videos have been filmed in the daytime, with our use of a nighttime setting giving our video an eerie feel. Our music video has used the dark and confusing themes which are seen within many of SBTRKT’s other music videos, such as NEW DORP. NEW YORK and Hold On. We chose to extend this convention of his work to encompass our video as the themes of his videos perfectly evoke the emotions within his songs, meaning that our video would not have been as effective had we taken a difference stance to it. Another convention which we have used within our music video is the mixture of colour and black & white shots, which was influenced by films such as Kill Bill, with the black and white added in order to give it a further sense of mystery. 

In addition to this, our music video takes a lot of influence from Donnie Darko, as the majority of the shots are incredibly dark with only the subject being illuminated. This was difficult to achieve, as we had to keep adjusting the ISO on the camera to ensure that it only let in enough light for the subject to be visible. 

In terms of challenging forms and conventions, our video challenges the often seen convention of teenagers being seen as partying and having little to care about, as seen in videos such as We Can't Stop by Miley Cyrus. On the contrary, the close up shots used within our video show that our character is clearly deeply troubled about something, meaning that our video challenges the stereotypical representation of a teenager within music videos. In addition to this, our video also challenges genre conventions of existing media products. In other deep house/electro videos, one of the largest conventions is to include the artist performing as a DJ - for example F For You by Disclosure. However, our video doesn't include anything like this, as we believe that it would distract from the narrative and would make the story seem less realistic to the viewer.