REFERENCING MY PRODUCTION TO THE USE OF CODES AND CONVENTIONS

I followed the narrative convention as it gives an idea of what the song is about, linking it with the lyrics, sometimes literally and other times metaphorically. It also allows the audience to relate to the song as the lyrics are visually displayed and therefore uses up two of the main senses (sight and hearing). For my music video I decided mainly use symbolisation. For example in my production, the bath scenes in the chorus symbolised the emotional baggage that she carried with her and how she felt caged. The fact that she is inside a bath naked symbolises the sensual relationship that she had with her lover. The way her skin is predominant in all of the shots expresses how exposed she feels to the world now that she is alone. I took the idea of the bath scene from Riahnna's music videos "Stay" and "ANTI diaRy: Room 5". I really liked how Riahnna’s dark hair contrasted with the white water and so I decided to use this in my production. I used 3 litres of milk mixed with water in order to reach the perfect white. The contrast in colour between my main character’s tattoos and her dark hair against the white water symbolised the bad and the good memories in the relationship.

The different shots of the camera also followed the indie genre conventions by using close-ups and medium shots of the main character in order to portray their feelings, which usually reference the lyrics. I used this in my production by using this type of framing concentrating on her expression along with the narrative of the story as done in the music video of “SEX” by EDEN at the beginning as it starts with a medium shot of the character’s face and along with the beat it comes closer until it becomes a close up shot of it. She mostly looks straight into the camera for example in the bathroom there is a medium shot of Eden (the main character) inside the bath with a blurry background and her knees tucked under her chin looking straight into the camera, making direct visual contact with the viewer and expressing her melancholy. Long and medium shots are used to fit both the people and the landscape in the same frame (this helps to make an establishing shot for the introduction and throughout the video). In my production I used this when there was a blurry shot of them walking in the abandoned house, portraying the mise-en-scene (another symbol of how their love is being demolished and broken down).

The mise-èn-scene conventions are very important for these type of videos as they focus on being as realistic as possible. A great example is “Single” by The Neighbourhood whose music video is a compilation of filmed things with her girlfriend by the lead singer of the band with his phone over a long period of time (going out for dinner at a restaurant, going to concerts, going hiking…). This gave me the idea of filming the main character, Eden, as if the camera was her lover and she was actually looking at her and not the camera itself.