Genre Codes and Conventions

The genre of our chosen song, 'Warriors' by Esco Williams is a mixture of many different genres. This includes:

• Romance
• Acoustic
• Soul

In our music video, our beginning shot includes a time lapse of a gloomy sunrise, with the clouds uncovering the clouds. The narrative of our music video begins with the arguments and breakdown of the relationship between a boy and a girl. The dark and dreary lighting at the beginning signifies the dark and bitter emotions coming from the boy. Furthermore, we have put the lighter sunrise shot, filmed on a brighter and more sunny day which creates a golden and warm tone. The whole idea of doing this surrounded the fact that the boy started off in a dark place and went through emotional and physical struggles. The outcome is that he manages to deal with this, and finally ends up resolving the issue, and even meeting someone new.

The settings that we use are also an important factor to creating a successful music video. The frequent use of the urban location of Bristol helped create more of a dark tone. Especially with the use of alcoholism to solve problems, walking the streets is something that a lot of people go through because they don't have anywhere else. So, I think the setting will help people to relate to the video and the song.

The low key lighting and bleak colours used throughout the music video contrast with the high key lighting when the flashbacks of the relationships are shown. The happy memories which are shown at times symbolise the times before the relationship broke down. So, the change in colour and lighting really shows how different the emotions of the boy are. We did this by filming the memories in the day time, facing the sun so that it created a lighthearted tone to the shot.

The Iconography that we used during the lip syncing shots, I think, are really effective. The silhouette of the male singer contrasts against the bright white background. A hidden meaning in this which others may not realise is the difference between black and white, dark and bright colours. This signifies the good and bad times throughout the singers' story. Furthermore, I think its a creative idea, and we took advantage of the equipment provided to us in our course.

Other songs with the same genre as 'Warriors' include different codes and conventions such as close up camera shots, paralinguistic features (facial expressions), miming of the song lyrics, establishing shots of the location and in most cases, shots of the artist playing the instrument. In our music video, we aimed to include most of these features so it fitted to the genre well and attracted our target audience too.

Narrative Conventions

Film Narrative - Connection of events presented in a sequence of moving images and through use of sound

The Narrative Conventions of our music video very much revolve around the relationship between a boy and a girl. Some of these include:

• Boy meets girl
• Romance and love
• The break down of a relationship
• Looking back at old memories
• Dealing with the breakup
• Looking into the future and seeing positivity

Hollywood's Classical 5 Stage Narrative:

• Exposition - Shots to introduce the setting of Bristol and the main male character/singer
• Development - Relationship begins to break down, shots show the couple looking aggravated with each other and the male character shows signs of distress and frustration.
• Complication - The tension of the music builds up as the storyline gets more tense and interesting. Shots of the argument between the boy and girl are shown to explain the breakdown and obstacles in the relationship. Main character turns to alcohol to heal himself.
• Climax - A decisive moment is reached - the boy and girl walk away from each other mid argument. Feelings are still tense and they are still very angry at each other.
• Resolution - The main character finds peace and deals with his alcohol and emotional problems. The narrative finishes with him meeting a new girl, seeing the 'light at the end of the tunnel.'

Esco Williams

We have chosen the artist Esco Williams because he is not a well known artist. Part of the specification is that we promote an up and coming artist, and using him will hopefully do so. We didn't want to use a very well known song that is on social media or in the charts a lot. This is because people who listen to this kind of music will create certain expectations in their heads of what a music video like this should look like. Additionally, we wanted to try something different and use something that would keep us excited and create a challenge for us.

Target Audience - Demographics and Psychographics

The target audience of our music video isn't that different from our previous one. We have decided it will be mainly aimed towards males aged 17-25. The narrative of our music video is surrounding the effects of relationships going wrong, which results in heavy drinking by the main character. As this is not suitable for teenagers below 17, it is mostly focused on the people who would experience this kind of relationship trouble and obstacle in life.

However, it is not being said that problems like these do not occur with younger people too. It is very apparent in todays society that many people below 17 face alcohol and relationship problems as bad as in the storyline. So, by using the main character as a teenager, it may help the audience who are younger relate to the song.

Furthermore, the focus on the male gender could be reversed. The fact that Esco Williams is a male singer meant that we needed a male main character in order for it to work. However, we want our music video to be able to relate to females too, but obviously with the male being the focus in the video it will be mainly aimed at male teenagers.

We chose the younger audience of teenagers because of the artist himself. He is quite young and so the urban and youthful song genre will hopefully appeal to a younger target market, making it more successful.

New Song Choice

Since making our music video to the song '4U' by Black Bear, we realised it wasn't the right song for us to be using. We knew that it would be hard work to complete the project with the time given, especially because the beats and build up were not ideal for our level of producing. Furthermore, we felt like we decided on the wrong song because we did not enjoy listening to it - this limited the amount of motivation we had to make our project amazing.

Instead of using this song, we decided on a different one with a more suitable beat and lyrics. Esco Williams - Warriors wasn't what we expected our song to be at all. At first, before starting our project, we had the idea of a rap/trap music to highlight the urban setting that we live in. However, once we brainstormed ideas to this song, we quickly realised that we could use the setting to our advantage.

In order to save time, as we have a deadline approaching after Christmas, we have carefully chosen shots already taken from our old song which luckily fitted to the new tone. We have made good progress and after changing the who concept of our music video we are feeling more confident on achieving a good grade.

Target Audience

The target audience of our music video is males and females aged 15 to 18. We believed that the genre of pop/hip hop would relate more to this age group because they are the ones who inspire it. A lot of current hip hop artists are young, and their mainstream group of fans are between the ages of 15-18. 

Furthermore, the target audience is specified to males and females who have overcome relationship troubles or are going through them. The music video and lyrics really relate to the subject of heartbreak, so, it would specifically be aimed at this target audience.

Genre Conventions

Here are the main genre conventions of music videos, some of which we will need to include in our AS Level coursework:

• Close ups of the artists face - The audience needs to know who the record label is advertising
• Credits to the record label
• Iconography - Eventually, this could become a part of their star image
• Dreary/dull lighting and colours to signify the mood and genre of the song
• Setting - The bleak and cloudy harbourside to represent the mood and how the artist goes here in order to think

Narrative Conventions

The narrative of our music video revolves around romance and the break up of a relationship. So, the typical narrative conventions shown in these kinds of storylines include:

• Boy meets girl
• Romance and love 
• A problem occurs in the relationship
• The break down of a relationship
• The boy/girl is heartbroken, looking back at old memories with each other
• Resolution

In our music video, we are including this kind of narrative. However, instead of in most 'pop' music, the boy will be the one regretting the actions towards the girl. Typically, the girl is the one who is upset, who sings about her feelings. I think this was a good idea because it differs from the average songs in the music industry, showing the feminine side of males, which isnt usually shown in the media.