Question 1 - In what ways does your media

product use, develop or challenge forms

and conventions of real media products?

What did you learn about what the conventions were of real
music videos? And what music video conventions did you
include or no include and why.

When researching the conventions of music videos, we focussed largely on

Goodwins theory. Goodwin suggests 6 conventions that are usually used in a
music video. He believes that they usually demonstrate genre conventions, a
relationship between the lyrics and the visuals of the video, a relationship
between the music and the visuals, the demands of the record label will include
the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and motifs, voyeuristic treatment of
female body and intertextual references. Another theorist we learned about was
Archers ideas on the conventions. He suggests the conventions consist of the
use of synaesthesia, include narrative and performance, create a star image for
the artist, have effective technical aspects, and finally how the video needs to
relate the visuals to the songs.
We both stuck to the conventions and challenged them in our music video. Due
to our genre being pop, the conventions
usually include bright colours and dancing.
So to stick to Goodwins idea of
demonstrating genre conventions, we
incorporated
bright
colours in
the
background of our performance element so that
the genre was recognisable. As shown next to us,
the use of bright colours are used in artists such
as Meghan Trainors music videos but is incorporated into costumes rather than
background which we used to show it.

Within the 9 split screen, we included all our performers in a dance element to
create the mood and atmosphere to match both the genre and the song. This
worked well and will allow us audience to be attracted to this. We tried very hard
to create a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics. In most of our video
we use performance therefore this doesnt always apply. But at some points we
match the lyrics to the visuals, such as Tom with lipstick around his mouth which
is said in the lyrics and we do focus a lot of Tom coming back which links to the
meaning and the name of the song. Therefore this convention does apply to our

music video in a vast majority of it. We also showed a relationship between the
music and the visuals such as when the pace of the song increases so does the
cuts, this is to keep the audience
interested and attracted to our video. It
also contributes to the mood of the song
and how the performance element links to
it.
We didnt include the other conventions
that are spoke about by Goodwin. We
decided not to include lots of close ups of the artist as we wanted to pace our
video more around the performance of many girls not just the artist. The artist
was only included within our narrative element to show the meaning of the song
and what its about. We wanted to give our girl aspect of the audience lots of
girls to look up to rather than just one as we believe this will allow them to relate
to more than one person and not feel on their own if thats the reason they are
watching the music video. We also didnt include voyeuristic treatment of the
female body. Even though it might be typical to use attractive females in minimal
clothing within the pop genre, we believe that this isnt always a good approach
as it may give the audience, being young girls, unrealistic bodies etc to look up
to therefore they may believe that their bodies need to be like this and this could
lead to many negative things. Therefore we decided to use females with realistic
features in order to give our audience good role models.
When we first came up with our idea of what to do on our music video, we were
just going to include performance in our video and nothing else. When
researching further we found that this isnt typical of music videos therefore we
decided to add narrative into it, getting more and more narrative by the time we
produced our music video. This sticks to the conventions suggested by Archer
that all music videos include narrative and performance. However most of this
are performance within the narrative however we made a clear split between
ours and near the ending we included both into one shot being the nine split
screen. This worked quite well as we made a connection between the two
making the music video understandable. We used many technical aspects to
make our video interesting and professional. We used editing in order to match
the pace of the song, we used cuts mostly on the beat but not so much in the
narrative aspect as it needed to flow so we didnt use quick cuts. We used a
green screen in order to change the background of the mis-en-scene, this was
complex but made the colour aspect for the genre. I believe our music video is
an example of amplification where the visual enhances the meaning of the lyrics
and develops it but doesnt stick directly to it as at parts it links directly and at
others it doesnt. We did this because we believe it makes it more interesting.

We challenged the conventions of the star image as we focused more on

collective power rather than the individual artist themselves. We did this as we
wanted to give a meaning to the video being that girls can be strong and
although our artist contributes to that we didnt think shed portray the message
alone.
Therefore we stuck to conventions more than challenged them as it allows our
music video to have a better outcome and allows the audience to be interested
by it.

What did you learn about real music genre conventions and
what genre conventions have you included or not included
and why.

When researching into the genre of our music video which is pop, we found many
conventions that they show. One of these being bright colours. The use of bright
colours allows the video to stand out, this brings in a younger audience as it feels
vibrant and happy. It makes it upbeat which allows it to match the beat of the
song. This can be within the costumes or within the whole mis-en-scene. It can
be down to lighting which creates the bold effect. Bright colours could also be
down to the editing, introducing filters which allow the colour to be boosted. We
kept to this convention as it allows our genre to be demonstrated easily and it
appeals to the young audience in our target audience.
Throughout a music video, particularly in the chorus, the use of fast cuts is put in
place. This helps creating a pace and mood of the overall song. In pop this is
usually shown as being fast to create the happy mood. In our music video, we
use fast cuts when the pace increases such as the chorus. This is to allow a
match between our music and our visuals to keep the audience tied in. I believe
this works really well with the rest of our video.
It is found in most pop music videos that there is a lack of narrative. However the
music videos I looked more closely into had performance and narrative tied
together. We challenged this convention as we wanted to represent the meaning
of the lyrics and without narrative this would have been virtually impossible. I
think breaking away from this convention allowed more meaning into our video
but we still included performance and it makes up the majority of the video
therefore we have slightly kept to this making performance priority but the
narrative adds a little more meaning than none at all.

What did you learn about real digipak conventions and what
digipak conventions have you included and not included and
why.

When researching digipaks, I identified many different features it needs to

include to stick to the conventions of the genre too. I researched two pop
digipaks, Rihannas Loud digipak and Katy Perrys Teenage Dream digipak as

these are both female artists creating pop

music.

I found that both use bright colours and keep to a house style throughout the
digipak which I believe in any digipak needs to be included as it allows the
audience to create a picture of the artist in their mind and will recognise this
style anywhere.
It is usually typical for every album cover to have the
name of the artist and album name shown on the left.
However these werent shown on the two I
researched. However I thought to stick to conventions
overall, I included the
name of the artist and
the album shown on the
left.

This allows the audience to see this and pick it up because of the name. Whereas
people may not take an interest if there was no name.

I found that most digipaks have 6 panels or more therefore my template was of 6
panels, I thought any more than that would be too much. I used this as it allowed
artwork of the artists to be included not just the front and back cover and the
actual CD which I felt wasnt enough. I challenged many conventions of a pop

digipak. I believed that it didnt look as professional when it was bright therefore
I toned it down but used bright colour writing so it had some link with typical pop
digipaks. I kept to a house style as I used a similar effect over all the pictures in
the album so it all had similar colours and I kept the font and the font colour all
the same to keep to the conventions of a similar look throughout.
Another feature I noticed in the digipak is there are many pictures of the artist
themselves, this is to create a star image which is built up using many photos.
Therefore in every single panel of my digipak, I included a picture of my artist,
including different shots and settings to change it up. This allows the audience to
use this artist as a type of role model and may allow them to relate to the artist. I
believe if there is a lack of pictures, it doesnt allow them to get to know the
artist and not just that but the meaning of the album as a whole.

What did you learn about real Advert conventions and what
advert conventions have you included or not included and
why.

When researching
posters, I found
similar features in
all of them no
matter what genre.
Every poster
featured the name
of the artist, the
name of the album,
the date of release,
a website, a photo of the artist and the record labels logo. Examples of
these and shown above. Even though these may not be all of my genre,
every poster features the same information. Pop posters like Lana Del
Reys are brighter however I didnt really stick to these feature as I
thought it was just too much. I used bright colours on the writing to show
some brightness to match the genre. Most of the cover pictures are the
ones from the front of the digipak, this is to show continuity in the house
style and allows the audience to recognise the style. This is something I
did go by as you can see below.

I believe conventions should be used in a poster to an extent but I think all

images you give your artist makes them look different and allows them to
be recognised as an individual not defined by a certain genre. Therefore I
broke away from the bright element of the conventions of pop and created
an individual style for my artist.

How your use of conventions might attract or appeal to the

audience

As I have identified above, certain features portray a genre theme which

will appeal to our audience such as bright colours, use of narrative and
performance etc. The bright colours we used in our music video will
capture the attention of our audience as it is a convention used to identify
the pop genre. Also because our audience is younger, simple bright
colours will capture their attention. The use of narrative will allow female
teenagers to relate to the situation if they are going through it so they feel
like someone else is on their side. Therefore it gives a reason for the
audience to watch it. Also in my digipak it allows the audience to relate to
the artist as it gives them a sense of identity for who the artist is due to
many pictures being involved.

Have you adapted any conventions on any of your three

products and if so, why?

We adapted Steve Archers theory of including narrative and performance

as weve got less narrative than performance, which subverts the norm.
We did this because we wanted to show the girls strength which was the
meaning of our music video so we thought if we included any more
narrative, it would take that element away from it.