Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product both conforms and challenges the conventions of typical music videos of this genre. The genre of Fall out Boy's song Young and Menace is 'Alternative/ Indie'.  There is already an official music video for the song but I tried not to be too influenced by the video in order to keep it creative. Because the genre of ‘Young and Menace’ is classed as alternative/ indie, I watched music videos of different songs of that genre in order to gain an understanding of the typical conventions of the genre. Many alternative music videos are performance based with use of colour correction with it with videos often being in black and white. Alternative music videos usually feature lots of close-ups and extreme close-ups  are used to create a more personal connection with the audience as it makes it so the artist is singing directly to the viewer. The outfits used in alternative music videos  are usually basic with artist wearing casual clothes to make the viewer focus more on the music than the artist and the props used mainly being musical based with instruments which keeps the focus on the music. My music video mainly conforms to the conventions as it fits with the typical mise-en-scene of alternative music videos.
Goodwin's theory from  his 1992 book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' talks about 6 features of music videos. These features are;

1. Music videos often include a demonstration of typical genre characteristics
2. There are frequent references to the notion of looking and the voyeuristic treatment of the female body. 
3. There is a succinct relationship between music and visuals
4. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visual
5. The record label which the artist is assigned to tends to have certain demands. They often include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist will have a visual style which recurs across their work.
6. There is often intertextual references (to films, TV programs, other music videos etc.)

Goodwin's theory can be applied to my music video as there are frequent close ups of the artist to meet the demands of the record label. There is also a relationship between the music and the visuals as the shots change on the beat throughout the entire song and the cuts speed up when the song builds. There are also some links between the lyrics and the visuals as the lyrics say "I forgot what I was losing my mind about" and there are flashes of the singer distressed in the corner.

But in some ways, my music video does not fit the features stated in Goodwin's theory. There are no females in my music video therefore there is no voyeuristic treatment of the female body in my video but there is the notion of looking as the singer sings directly into the camera.