My choice of track in my music video belongs to the indie rock subgenre.

In order to
associate the track to this subgenre I identified the instruments used which included guitars
and drums. According to the bands website they believe that their productions takes the
ethos of 70's rock n roll and remoulds it with fun hooks and basslines that you cant help but
dance to, this statement taken from their website clarifies that they follow a traditional rock
and roll ethos while borrowing and weaving aspects of pop into their music to generate what
we hear in my video. The word indie derives from olden times which was commonly used
for record companies, this word is also a shorter abbreviation for independent which can
mean that the record company, artist or band are small and lesser known in the mainstream
music industry. Therefore the band follows a subgenre of indie rock and use it in all of their
productions. My video also follows the genres of a comedy as there are elements of visual
comedy, characters and events that can fit this genre of visual image productions.

Traditional rock music videos use many conventions that appear in a similar form in my
production. By referring to Andrew Goodwin and his idea of
genre conventions (which include characteristics of all
media texts) I can identify what I have used and how they fit
a certain genre or subgenre. Firstly I used urban locations,
urban and modern areas are used in order to present a
sense of advancement and quite potentially a fall in society,
in popular rock videos such as Radioheads Just (1995)
and Nirvanas Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991) use urban
locations. The Radiohead video takes place in a city street
and a run-down apartment where the band perform,
Nirvana use an American school hall as a venue for their
performance and the set appear chaotic and urban in ways
which link to the modernity of today. The Radiohead video
however fits more with m y locations that I chose, these
areas include Norwich city, and Gt Yarmouth town which
are both urban and developing areas of Norfolk and the UK.
Urban locations can also link to age and society as
teenagers are highly associated to urban and deteriorating
locations. I used these areas to promote the idea that teenagers
are the focus and that the video is taking place in a busy and
modern urban location. Using these areas also creates a sense
of realism and legitimacy as we could potentially imagine that
the events could take place in reality.

I also used many developed themes and signs based upon the
lives of youths. My video is targeted towards a young
demographic area and targets mainly 17 - 20 year olds who
match the ages of who appears in my productions. In classic
media texts such as A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Harry Brown (2009) youths are
widely associated to violence and brutality and are in need of reformation and rehabilitation.
In recent texts such as Waterloo Road (2006 - 2015), Skins (2007 - 2013) and other
media texts in both film and television youths are more aimed towards deviancy, violence is
not touched upon entirely but presents them as untrustworthy and breakers of rules and
laws. My video uses a more modern representation of youths today, the main character was
viewed as a normal individual who is completely robot, he follows rules and has a job,
however during the main section of my video it reverts to a more rebellious behaviour shared
between the two boys that can be seen in my production, the secondary character Ben or
G-Dawg is a lot more rebellious and free compared to the other character Liam (as seen
 on his name badge. He is completely
disregards the idea of entrapment and
work and lives in a more exciting and fun
lifestyle. This can create a sense of
comedy which can be linked to the
original British television and recently
film series The Inbetweeners (TV: 2008
- 2010, Film: 1st - 2011, 2nd - 2014) ,
Liam represents the character Will as he is more
obedient to the rules and appears awkward and
nerdy, Ben appears to represent Jay as he is more
open and outgoing, he also seems to adopt a
banterous and funny personality who mainly
doesnt take life and situations seriously. With
these character types being inspired by a wider
known source of television, audiences will be
able to identify these references easily as the
show alongside my production matches the
same audiences and appear similar in characters
and content. I develop the presentation of youths
by using juxtaposition between behaviours, in the prologue section is shows a normal and
committed lifestyle presenting the daily tasks before going to work, and then the exciting and
more rebellious lifestyle overthrows the old, with a referral towards Levi-Strauss this is a
form of binary opposition, Todorov and Barthes narrative theories can also link to this as it
tells us a detailed and vivid story of the boys life and how it is influenced by others that are
within their lives and who they encounter on a day to day basis. Rebellion is a common
theme that appears widely in rock music videos, an example such as Billy Talents Red
Flag (2005) is perfect with the idea of rebellion is being used to form a clear and effective
narrative, the video depicts a group of teenagers / school students wanting to break free
from the normality of life and the entrapment of obeying the rules and staying at school and
they also manage to cause chaos alongside the breakage of imprisonment by pillaging and
covering wherever they went in red which can be a clear link to communism and rebellion. It
is clear in my video that the boys do not vandalise and pillage locations instead they dismiss
the idea of working and replacing it with having fun and living an exciting life, the arrival of
the text message and the introduction of the boys friend are signs of opportunity to break
away and the boy decides to take it, creating a sense that teenagers are easy targets to
influence and can easily break rules whenever they feel like it. Even though I used a
common stereotype of a rule breaking teenager I also used another type of teenager
following the rules and being normal according to society therefore I managed to develop
and challenge stereotypes of British youth. The use of youths as my main characters can
also be easily identifiable and relatable to my younger adult target audience as they may
have experienced this sort of situation before and make links to other texts and understand
their motives, with a clear and strong connection between viewer and character it then
means that they are fully engaged and concentrated in watching the music video. The track
used in my video Bombay Fun (2016) can also complement with the youthful cast as it is
also directed towards a young target audience and also has lyrics aimed towards youths
breaking free, partying and causing trouble. Youths are also used as maintenance of a loyal
audience (Gledhill) as they can relate to the events that occurred in the video and the use of
similar conventions from other similar genre media texts which they may enjoy consuming.

A third convention I used was bright colour filters that are used for the majority of my
production. In my music video I use a total of three different colour filters, in the prologue I
used a black and white filter to connote and project a dull and normal atmosphere, as the
prologue continues we can finally see why the boys life is that boring this is because he
hates going to work especially in early hours of the morning, this filter is used to simulate
 what the boy sees through his
eyes, in theory we are placed in
his point of view, we are in his
shoes and placed with him while
he gets ready and heads for work.
The black and white filter can also be
used to dramatise his routine so audiences can see how important this
element of the video is after all. In media black and white filters are widely used to create a
sense of drama, examples of texts such as Casino Royale (2006) and many other films use
it to create a sense of tension and to signify a dramatic event
to occur or immediately take place. Many music videos also
use this to achieve the same effect, Aphex Twins Come to
Daddy (1997) uses a grey and black colour palette to create a
sense of threat and darkness. However I use this only to
create a sense of drama and to also exaggerate his simple
routine in order to create visual comedy similarly to Edgar Wright and his feature film
productions. When the video starts just after the boy received the text message the filter
changes to colour, this may have been a drastic change in colour schemes it appears slightly
bleak, this can suggest that the boy is still within the grasp of work and a boring life as he is
still near the establishment of work, it can also suggest that the
boy feels awkward and separate when he meets his friend, this
could be further linked to the twos opposing behaviours and
personality. This colour scheme only lasts until the beginning of
the car montage. Thus triggering the change to the third filter
named vintage, compared to a normal colour palette filter this
looks more brighter and bolder, the filter also has an orange tinge which contributes the
video looking older and resembling an instagram like colour filter. This change of filter can
now indicate that the boy has fully escaped work and boring life
and is now immersed in an exciting life. In the epilogue it then
reverts to the black and white filter which can indicate a return to
the old lifestyle and indicating that the fun is over. This instagram
like filter can be seen in music videos made by Taylor Swift to
connote a youthful theme. Rock videos made by Blur are another
great example of videos that use bright and colourful imagery such
as Country House (1995) where exaggerate and bright imagery
are used accompanied by colouring.
The use of colour filters can be used
to represents codes and signifying
meanings to shape the narrative,
create a sense of character and simulate the moods shared in
the video. These codes can call out (Louis Althusser) to
audiences, which can allow audiences to decode (Stuart Hall)
these messages and create a sense of meaning and
understand why these filters were used. When the audiences decode these meanings they
could then shape these into their own cultures (Henry Jenkins) this can be supported by
understanding the context why these filters are used and by linking back to character
development.

Editing styles are also considered to be an important aspect of my

video. I take inspiration from mainly Edgar Wright in my cutting and
editing skills, mostly from the films Shaun of The Dead (2004), Hot
Fuzz (2007) and The Worlds End (2013) (Officially known as The
Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (2004 - 2013) by Universal and Wright), most notably
taken from Shaun of The Dead (2004), Wright uses multiple fast cut montages of the
protagonist Shaun getting ready for work and then making toast and tea, these are used to
 create visual comedy which
Wright is best to create and use
to high abilities in most of his
production other the Cornetto
Trilogy (2004 - 2013) such as
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
(2010) and Ant-Man (2015).
These cuts are used to create
visual comedy and to create a
sense of awkwardness and to
exaggerate his simple routine of
getting ready using extreme
dramatisation. I also added visual effects such as the filters and
also the text, this can signify that the story is about to move on. Awkward and quirky camera
shots were insprired by Wes Anderson to add further quirkiness to my video, an example of
this was used in the elevator scene of my video, this adds a more awkward and tense
atmosphere as we are placed in a tight location, this creates more visual comedy as
alongside the tight space we lightly hear jolly elevator music which is used to lighten an
already disturbed and compact space.
During the editing process of the main visual production, I was able to appropriately align the
track alongside the cuts I decided to execute, this can keep in time with the track and
ensures fluidity within my production to also help with visual appeal and appear
professionally made. Rock genre videos such as Radioheads Just (1995) use cutting to
keep in time with the track and even match movements of characters such as the business
guy we are shown many time and even Thom and the band themselves. These cutting to the
beats can improve professionalism and legitimacy and also prevents confusion on following
the video. By applying with Goodwin I was able to use motifs from other producers such as
Wright to help me create a visually pleasing and create piece of visual art.

Narrative is then finally used in my video and this is what

defines my genre and style of production. The video uses a
three part narrative (a structure coined by Tzetvan Todorov),
these are signalled by the prologue, main video and then the
epilogue. The prologue takes place in the home of the
character we are introduced to, we see that he struggles to get
out of bed in the early hours of a Monday morning, we then see
a montage of him getting ready to go to work and we follow him in the journey from home,
car park and then the place of work. The main part of the video is then signalled by the
arrival of a text sent from his friend, he cautiously accepts this request to meet up and the
two meet, at first the boy feels awkward when he meets his fully changed friend, they spend
time in Norwich city centre when the other boy Ben decides to go to the beach, they arrive
and eventually both start to bond and have fun. The main section is then signalled to cease
when the photo is then taken, the camera flashes (completed from using a white flashing
effect) which signals the end. The epilogue then returns to the bedroom we see in the
beginning of the video, therefore using a form of a cyclical narrative while using the three
part narrative structure. Examples of music videos that use a cyclical narrative was Bjrks
Bachelorette (1997) where the video starts with her finding a big book in the woods, and
when the video closes we return to the woods and end with her finding the book again.
Linking back to Todorovs three part narrative, the prologue acts as the first act this includes
the equilibrium where the boy heads for work, the original equilibrium is then disturbed when
the boy receives the text, the second act then begins the disequilibrium when the boy leaves
work for fun, he is unsure whether this is a good and appropriate idea, the resolution is then
created when the boys decide to head to the beach, then the third act then begins when the
boys begin to have fun on the beach and seafront such as running of the beach and
spending time in the amusement centres, then the video ends with the epilogue.
There are also many messages injected into the narrative, these signal the use of
proairetic and symbolic codes (Roland Barthes).The presentation of the text message,
the conversation based upon going to the beach, the car montage and the taking of the
photo are examples of proairetic codes used in the video. To define this type of code
proairetic codes are used as an opening of an action where
audiences want to see a form of closure. The text message
received by the boy opens up a new section of the video to begin,
the audiences see this close when the main section of the video
begins and when he accepts the request to meet. The
conversation of going to the beach is also acting as another
signifier to move the narrative to the next location, this is met by
closure when they decide to go and then arrive at the beach. The
montage of the car journey is used to signify an active narrative
and then closed when they arrive at their destination, the beach.
This is not the first time that vehicles are used to move the
narrative, an example can be taken from Arcade Fires The
Suburbs (2010) when the bikes are used to move the narrative further, they make the
scenes seem more active and also create a clear signifier that the video events are moving
on to another event or section of the video. The bikes are mainly used to connote a new
activity, days or years. Finally the photo taking scene then suggests a close, this is then
closed when the screen flashes white (simulating the flashing of the camera) and then
closes the main section of the video along with the track. The proairetic codes are used to
move the narrative along and also be able to clearly present to audiences that the narrative
will continue.
I then finally used symbolic codes to place meanings into certain items and locations,
symbolic codes is a form of a new idea to add a new aspect to the narrative which can
support the creation and shaping of meanings within my video production. Examples of
symbolic codes that I use in my video are the use of the beach location and costume to
shape the narrative. The beach is used to shape the idea that it is the place of hope and
freedom, the size of the sea can also be used as a visual metaphor for the amount of space
that freedom and escapism can run. The use of the white shirt and tie could be used to
contribute and support the idea that life can be simple, plain and boring, this can at the same
time shape the boys characteristics as robot as he follows the rules and complies with a
generic dress code. This is then broken when the boy covers the white shirt and black tie
with a black jacket therefore indicating that he is shaping his identity and changing his way of
expressing himself taking the idea that life is like a pick n mix (Hebdige) and that the boys
are similar therefore taking a tribal approach and signifying and supporting that teenagers
are the time of tribes (Maffesoli). These codes used can shape the narrative as we follow
the boys life and we also as audiences can see what the final goal is and how it is able to
make the boys happy and at ease at the end of the video. This can also satisfy audiences as
the events we see unfold in the video end and they are able to see a clear closure, however
it can be unsure whether the same events will take place again in the world of the video
therefore being an open ending due to the possibility if this will happen again in the future,
even though this ends current events its still open for potential future events to take place.
These codes can also dramatise my video, another Barthes code named enigma can be
seen Radioheads Just (1995) as we have no clue on what is revealed to have been said,
the people around the fallen man are desperate to know why he is lying on the pavement,
when he eventually decides to reveal why the subtitles that are used for the dialogue are cut
off so it is unsure why he is laying on the pavement after all which makes audiences
question.

To conclude, I believe that the visual production that I have produced meets the guidelines
and conventions that are used to form rock and comedic related productions. This was
achieved through the catalogue of methods and conventions I used above. The video was
also able to control demand (Gledhill) as I used these similar conventions to meet the
needs of rock and comedy fans by adding links and similar styles to other media texts
meaning that I successfully catered (Gledhill) to their needs.