In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and convetions of real media products?
For my A2 media coursework I’ve attempted to make my work as
skilled and professional as possible by following conventions I have researched
from existing products. In some circumstances I have chosen to develop original
forms and conventions into my own work; however I have also decided to
challenge conventions and create my own original ideas. As my artist is associated
with the indie/pop genre, a convention of the indie genre is to break
conventions which I have ironically attempted to do myself. For this evaluation
I will discuss how my music video, digipak and magazine advert challenge and/or
use forms and conventions of real media products.
As mentioned in my brief I decided to
produce a music promotion package from an already existing song by indie/pop
artist ‘Ed Sheeran – I’m a Mess’. Fortunately for me this song did not have an
existing music video therefore all my ideas were original and not copied. I
took the soundtrack of the song and applied a narrative storyline through
analyzing the lyrics and began creating my music video. After the planning and
research stage, I was able to apply my knowledge from what I have researched in
terms of key conventions to my production, throughout the process I uploaded
each edit of my video to YouTube allowing my video to be viewed publically. Below
I will evaluate my media texts that I have created and discuss whether they
have used, developed or challenged forms and conventions of real media
products.
MUSIC VIDEO
The song is relatively slow and has
clear narrative meaning behind the lyrics, and follows the theme of love. The
narrative of my video is that Dan realizes his love for his ex, it begins at a
train station where Dan is shown to be alone and down, then throughout the
video there are flashback memories of the couple together it then goes through how
they eventually break up, with the conclusion that Dan is about to commit
suicide but this ex girlfriend saves him and they are together again. For this
narrative I followed simple conventions seen in existing love story narratives
but also challenged well known styles and camera shots making the video my own.
Codes and conventions - Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning.
Colour
As mentioned in my slide
show above I used colour in my video to signify different periods of time, such
as reality (present) and memories (past). By characterizing my video to look
this way, I believed it would make the narrative easy to understand and show
the clear connection between the lyrics and visuals. Typically in indie/pop
music videos, this convention of changing colour in videos is not typically
used, what is usually done is the tone and brightness of colours is usually
changed and staying to one particular style rather than both black and white
and colour, therefore I have challenged a convention used in indie/pop music
videos.
Sound
For the sound on my video, I simply used a mp3 file of an existing song from Ed Sheeran's album 'X', from my research I found it is conventional in certain videos to have a monologue before the start of the video, however I found this was more conventional in indie music videos rather than indie/pop videos therefore felt it would not fit well with my music video concept.
My Inspiration
A key convention that I found was typically used in indie/pop genre music videos was the use of overlapping of images, from researching existing music videos I came across Jessie Ware 'Tough Love', as shown in the screen shots above in her video she uses a lot of overlapping of images, which is where I got my inspiration from, and I also liked the use of the long shots which is typically unconventional for a music video, so therefore I developed and challenged key conventions within my music video. As shown in the screen shots below I have used overlapping as key convention in my music video, to do this I put one shot on top of another shot and then changed the opacity of of each clip to create the overlapping affect.
Editing
In terms of editing the most common editing
technique used in music videos is jump cutting from location to location, this
makes the change in location stand out more to the audience. Similarly another
key technique used in music videos is to adjust the speed of the shot either to
slow it down or sped it up, this is done so the editing fits with the beat. Below
is a list of conventional editing techniques I have used and techniques that I have
used that I believe fit well with my video but may challenge key conventions.
- In terms of lighting, I edited brightness of many my shots to make the lighting look more professional, especially in the black and white shots I had to change the brightness up as some of the shots where quite dark and once the black and white effect was edited onto the shot certain aspects where hard to visualise so the brightness had to be altered to the original shot and the amount of effect also had to be altered.
- Overlapping images and changing the opacity to create an affect of being able to see to images at once.
- Transition techniques such as cross dissolves and flashes used for continuity and to help my video flow naturally, however I also used jump cuts for effect such as change in location and change in mood or feeling.
- Tints and filters
In terms of editing my artist and actress in the video, I was unable to do so on the software available to me and due to my inexperience using final cut pro, I had to just top up make when shooting and making sure both my actors wore the same clothes for each day of shooting as throughout my video there is no costume change.
MAGAZINE ADVERT
For my magazine advert, I didn’t particularly have many
inspirations I simply tried to be as conventional as possible and show
continuity throughout my music video, digipak and magazine advert. The main
image I chose for my poster was of a train a station, this fits well with my products because one of the main locations within my video is a train station,
and from asking for advice from my teacher they suggested this image would be
the best to use. There are certain features that I have included that are key
conventions that are used on magazine adverts, however I have also challenged
conventions as shown below I have explained the conventions I have developed and
those I have challenged;
For example the main image typically used on a poster advert is usually of the artist, however i have challenged this convention and have used a image of a setting in the video rather than the artist themselves. Key conventions I have actually used in my poster is the use of ratings from well known publications, also taglines to encourage people to buy the album.
From looking at existing posters, that are posted on my blog
the most common conventions I found are put in place on my own album release
poster. When it came to creating my poster I had no real inspiration so just
went with what I though would conventionally work well alongside my other two
media texts. I thought color would be key to the design of my poster, so for
the text I had two main colours I felt this would show continuity and follow
house style. To see if my poster was legitimately eye catching and worked well
in various locations, I decided to test this and actually took my poster and
applied it to various possible settings where it would feature in real life
situations as shown below;
DIGIPAK
This front cover from Taylor Swifts album ‘1989’
was my inspiration for my front cover of my own digipak. As the main image used
does not show the full face of the artist, as on my front cover I used this as
a inspiration and didn’t show the face of my artist either. Therefore I have developed
a convention of album front covers as this style is not typically seen however I
have managed to apply this style to my own digipak and make it look effective.
For the back cover of my digipak I took
knowledge from my planning and research stage and used examples of existing
products as a guide to what to include in certain aspects of the back cover.
For example for the bottom set of copyright information I used an example as
what to write on my own back cover to make it look proficient and professional.
Adding to this the main part of the back cover is the list of tracks, to keep
the style and continuity of my album I originally placed the track list to the
left, which is typically the conventional place to put it but when creating my
back cover I found it looked more effective with it being brought slightly more
to the center. Further conventional aspects I have added to the back cover are
the barcode to the right and keeping the flow of design by using a related
image in the background.
Comparing my digipak to existing products ;
Looking at my own digiak compared to an existing digipak from an artist of the same genre, there are clear similarities and differences, conventionally I have used three main colours for my colour scheme which is followed throughout all three of my products. Another similarity that which I shown between my digipak and the existing product is that on the actual CD there is a design rather than just been plain, however I have conventionally included small print copyright information on the CD as well. In terms of differences the main images used on the Lana Del Rey digipak are typically medium close ups of the artist themselves, however I have challenged this convention and have not included images of the artists face.
For my digipak I have unconventionally used an image that
does not show the artist, this is unusual for a CD cover; however I wanted to
challenge this convention and use an alternative image. In the indie-pop genre
digipaks are usually heavily based on art work, therefore I have used this
convention and focused on the use of flowers as the man artwork theme on my
digipak. I felt by doing this it reinforced the ideology behind the images and
the reference to the love narrative of my music video. Also the colour
connotations link to the narrative as red represents love and passion, whereas
black and white portrays sadness and dullness which links to the narrative of
my video. I really felt that the layered effect and changing the opacity of
certain layers worked really well together and created an image that looked
almost like a bunch of flowers which creates verisimilitude and links to the similar
effects that are also used in my video, showing continuity.
In terms of analysing my video, theory can
also be applied to evaluate how conventional my music video is. The theories in
which I have applied to my video are narrative, genre, audience and
representation theory, which are explained below;
As shown in the examples above I have applied theory to my music video, one theory which I have already mentioned is Blumler and Katz's Uses and gratifications theory, expanding from what I have already discussed on how my video can be used as a form of escapism, I feel my music video does this to an extent as I have linked the visuals to the lyrics as the meaning behind the song is talking about loosing someone close to you and how this can affect your life making them battle with devilish temptations such as alcohol and suicide attempts. With these issues being expressed I feel a younger teenage audience can relate to these situations as through the theme of 'coming of age' they maybe faced with these dilemmas such as being tempted with alcohol to deal with personal problems.
As from my research and audience feedback I found the majority
of people liked to see a narrative within a music video, and I thought that a
linear narrative would be a good representation of the indie-pop genre as a key
feature of indie pop music videos is the use of narrative alongside the performance,
normally involving a theme explaining to the audience the story behind the
lyrics of the song, with majority linking to love and relationships of the
artist or characters in the video. As I was
personally interested in this type of video I wanted to bring my own ideologies
and visual ideas to a typical indie pop music video by following, challenging
and developing key codes and conventions. As from my audience feedback I found
that the performance element was key to the success of a video, so I wanted to
develop this convention further and not just have a typical love story performance
but to expand this idea further and bring a more deeper meaning and message
behind the video, giving the audience to take something away after watching the
video. The message and ideology behind my video follows the typical Romeo and Juliet
love story of how they are the perfect couple together but something eventually
causes them to part. The deeper message I wanted to portray in my video is that
no matter how hard life gets there’s always a way though it and I have also
included the ideology of suicide as at the end of the video my main actor
portraying the artist attempts suicide but is stopped just in time. I want people
to take from this video the message and ideology that everyone goes through
difficult times in life and ending life may seem the easy way out but always
hold on to hope as there is always a way through tough times. I have made this
an underlying message by portraying it through the narrative of a love story and
have used typical conventions to show this as mentioned above.
Furthermore a key convention used in many
indie pop music videos is the use of a filter over the top of clips or the
entire video to give a certain idea to the viewer, such as memory, age to the
video, or showing the clip in a positive or negative light. I have used this
convention throughout the whole of my video as I have used black and white to
portray both time and mood, for example the black and white parts within my
video represent present time but also negative aspects of the narrative. On the
other a tinted orange type of filter I have used represents the opposite of the
black and white and is portrays memories that are positive parts of the
narrative.
As part of the
project I had to research existing artists/bands and their products. When looking
at these music videos, digipaks and posters I found the majority of artists
followed the same specific conventions within their genre. I wanted my work to
look as professional as possible so followed some of these conventions specific
to the indie genre as mentioned above. However I also did not want my products
to look boring and ordinary as audiences would easily notice these typical
conventions therefore not being hugely interested in my products so therefore I
decided to make the conscious decision to challenge these conventions. To do
this I researched existing artists that already use their work to challenge and
shock people, the artist I looked at was Lady Gaga.
Lady Gaga is renowned for her wacky style that gets her noticed and stands out to the audience as she breaks the typical conventions of a pop star. Above is an image of Lady Gaga's album The Fame Monster I like the way Gaga has stirred away from the typical bright colours used for a pop artist album, for my own digipak I decided to follow this style and break the typical conventions of an indie pop digipak and use more dull colours like black but a bold colour like red to make it stand out rather than bright colours associated with that genre such as pink, blue and yellow.
Overall for my first evaluation question
‘Does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?’ I think that all my media products do use develop and
challenge forms and conventions. Specifically I think my music video uses and
develops conventions whereas I think my digipak and poster challenge
conventions a lot more than conform. I think my video follows more conventions
rather the ancillary texts because I wanted the genre and narrative to be
easily recognizable to the audience, however I have challenged and altered
certain conventions to suit my own personal preferences. For the ancillary
texts I think I challenged the conventions more so that they would be more
eye-catching to a wider audience and show that I have experimented with
conventions.
