Q1 - Joe/Mark

Mark: We’ve chosen to use the dance music genre which has some pretty straightforward conventions. almost all dance videos feature a club scene using various colours and flashing lights. Unfortunately we weren’t able to feature the typical beautiful bikini-clad girls that you’d often find in a mainstream video.

Joe: We worked thinking of Nick Lacey’s theory of genre; we knew our audience would expect to see certain elements included in a video of this type to satisfy them and make them feel at home, but would desire something new to keep video fresh.


Mark: We challenged the convention of the general music video by using a linear narrative, like other videos such as ‘Stress’ by Justice, or Chase & Status’ ‘Let You Go’.

Mark: Another convention of this genre is to include scenes of violence or substance abuse, which you can see a few examples of here with the mugging, and of the protagonist feeding his addiction.

Joe; As you can see, we’ve been consistent sticking to the conventions of the dance music genre throughout the video; we stuck to the convention by sticking to a club scene with the use of flashing lights, we have managed to edit our video, creating a change in pace, filters have also been used to add effect to our club scene, on the other hand we have challenged the typical conventions of a music video by using a linear narrative, which isn’t often found in a typical music video.

Mark: We increased the pace and gave the video more energy by cutting quickly between the shots. As the lighting was the most prominent feature of the club scenes, we edited the length on the shots based on the patterns of the lighting as they flashed on and off or moved around.

Joe: We used Todorov’s narrative theory in that we began with an equilibrium following the activities of a drug user, but then the disruption as he overdoses which we see later in the video, and finally a re-equilibrium when he collapses as a result of his overdose, leaving his final fate an enigma for the audience.

Mark: You night notice examples of Propp’s narrative theory with our use of the characters in the video; we’ve got the main character who’s the villain, the lad who saves him (the hero), the villain’s girlfriend who’s the princess, and so on.


Mark: We challenged the convention of the general music video by using a linear narrative, like other videos such as ‘Stress’ by Justice, or Chase & Status’ ‘Let You Go’.