Evaluation Question 1

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

Throughout my creative process, I researched current music videos as I wanted to create a piece that would not look out of place if it was shown today on a music television channel such as MTV.  

I researched the conventions of music videos and applied them to my own video.

The main videos we used as our style models were “Oceans” by Mallory Knox, “All About The Money” by The Blackhand , “I feel so” by Box Car Racer and "Nobody to Love" by Sigma. 

We complied with some of the conventions present in these music videos, but also defied some others.


I Feel So

Oceans

All About The Money

From my research, I have concluded that most indie/rock/pop rock music videos use one continuous band scene with short break ups in between - much like Oceans, one of our style models. We wanted to use this convention in our music video to connote the genre to the audiences, and create a familiarity. 

Both “Oceans” and “I Feel So” follow the conventions of a typical band music video. The videos both feature clips of the band playing their instruments in large open rooms. We used this convention in our music video as we liked the atmosphere the shot created. The band shots gave the video energy and the image of the band “Rocking out” were relatable to our target audience who would also be in bands.

Both of the videos for "All About The Money" and "Dirty Little Secret" make use of extras - members of the public or the band's family and friends, holding something. We decided to incorporate this into our music video as we felt it would give a personal touch to the video. 

The local band, The BlackHand, use members of the public holding up whiteboards that say which they have wrote on saying what they would do with £1million. The All American Rejects use postcards that have the holder's secrets on. In keeping with this theme, we used postcards that had the song chorus on, and our friends held these up in the music video.

We also took inspiration from the pop song "Nobody to love" by Sigma. This video defies pop conventions by featuring a mixture of landscape and people shots, and having a continuous narrative throughout the video. We decided that half of our video would be narrative.

We incorporated Andrew Goodwin’s theory into our filming. Andrew Goodwin states that:

•        Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
•        There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
•        There is a relationship between music and visuals
•        There is frequent reference to the notion of looking and also voyeuristic treatment of the female body in music videos.  
•         There is often intertextual reference

Our video contains many of the themes outlined in Goodwin’s theory.

We demonstrate the characteristics of our genre well through mise-en-scene, costume and editing. We use shots of our band performing because this is a convention of our genre. The video splits between band shots and a “story” which is also a well-used convention in rock music videos.

The costumes we have used in the band sections of the video where specifically selected to connote the genre of the piece. We wore band T-shirts and jeans, which are commonly worn in music videos by rock bands.

We also took into account the positions of the band in the video. We placed the drum kit on a higher level on a pallet. We were influenced to do this by the video for “Oceans” by Mallory Knox. This is because the drums are usually at the back of the video as they are the largest instruments, but in order to be able to see them we decided to raise them up.

We used fast paced close up shots of the different instruments in order to match the pace of the video; this links with Goodwin’s theory that there is a relationship between music and visuals. When the tempo of the song increased, the shots became shorter and more numerous, and when the tempo decreased, we made use of longer sweeping panoramic shots and lyric shots.

We linked our lyrics with the visuals, supporting Goodwin’s theory.  In the chorus our actors held postcards that had the lyrics from the chorus on them. These were synced up with the song lyrics.

We also included lots of close ups of the band, along with motifs that reoccur across the music video. These motifs are:

•         Postcards: One of our most prominent motifs are postcards. These postcards feature different designs, some with only images, some with the lyrics printed on them. We were inspired to use these postcards from two music videos: “All about the money” by the Black Hand, and “Dirty little secret” by the All American Rejects.  These postcards reinforce Goodwin’s theory by linking the visuals to the lyrics. The chorus is presented as an onscreen lyric video so that the viewer can sing along.

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•         Close ups of the instruments: We followed conventions of Rock music videos and used close up shots of the instruments being played. This also links to Goodwin’s theory that there is a relationship between music and visuals, as we linked certain parts of the song

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•        Sweeping Panoramic shots: We used panoramic shots of the environment to show that the band were travelling on tour, and to establish a location. The shots also added an interesting aesthetic to the video, as they were shot on location in Greece and New Brighton.  The Narrative follows the band on their European tour, so the sweeping shots establish the tour locations.

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•        Close ups of the artists: We included close ups of the artists in our music video because we wanted them to become well known and this helps to promote them.

Magazine Research and Design

For my other ancillary task, I have created a magazine advertisement that works in conjunction with my music video to promote my digipak.

I first researched music magazine advertisements in order to gather information on their codes and conventions. Here is what I discovered:

Conventions of an advert

The Release date - important to the audience so that they can find out when they can start to purchase the album.

The Album title - promotes the upcoming album and establishes it as a product.

Artist name - advertises the album further by gathering interest in audiences by associating the band with the album.

Reviews - reviews seek to create a positive first impression of the album as they come from respected members of the music industry, and respected companies such as NME and Kerrang!

Main image - The main image should be eye catching and should follow the same theme as the other products in order to link them together.


I chose to follow all of these conventions as I felt that defying the conventions of a key piece of advertising would be ineffective. When advertising a product, defying conventions can be risky because audiences want to see something familiar that they can relate to, and also to compare to other similar products.

Example Magazine Advertisements

I used this advert as my style model, again following the minimalistic style I used for my digipak. The advert uses one image of a clouded sky. There is a minimal amount of text on the cover, keeping a clean image and creating an advertisement that could also be used as poster to hang on a wall. 

I followed my style model and used one font type in order to create consistent branding within my products. 

I was unable to fulfil my original idea of having a full page image as I would have then stretched my image too much, so I instead used the image on half of the page. 

Here is my unfinished magazine advertisement. I have kept a consistent font style throughout both of my anciallary tasks (Return to Sender)

Digipak Research and Design

For my Ancillary task, I have started to create a digipak for the band's debut song

I researched Digipaks on the internet, and this is what I discovered:

• Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside.

• Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums

Conventions of a Digipak

The outer packaging of a Digipak is made out of card and the inner packaging is made of clear plastic. Digipaks are designed to fold into a square case. some have pull out panels, whereas others are simple 4 panel packs. 

The front and back panels are the main panels of the Pack, and server to draw in customers through promoting the CD. The front and back panels should contain the most information about the band, such as the name of the band, the Album name, the track lists, and an Interesting main image.

The inside panels are usually more subtle than the outside panels as these are only seen once the digipak has been purchased.

Example Digipak

I decided I would go with a minimalistic style for my digipak, as it fits well with the new trend of minimalism that is appearing within advertising. I researched some minimalistic Digipak examples.

I particularly liked the way that this digipak was designed. The images on the front and back panels cover the entire panels and the text is applied over the top of them. I chose to use this idea in my digipak. 

 This image shows my draft back panel.  My image fills the entire panel, following the same convention as the mumford and sons Digipak. I feel like this gives a pleasing aesthetic to the panel, and makes it very eye catching to look at. 

I have broke the traditional convention of listing the tracks on the Digipak in a linear order on the digipak. Most Digipaks lay out their track list in either a vertical or horizontal manner, whereas I chose to curve my tracks around the sunglasses in the image.

In my front panel I have also followed the Mumford and Sons album cover design. I kept with the simplistic design, and the only text on the front cover is the band name and the Album name. 

Finished Video

Ancillary Tasks - Magazine Research

For one of the Ancillary tasks, I need to create a magazine advertisement for the Band's new Digipak.

Before I created my magazine advertisement, I researched into suitable magazines for the advert to be displayed in.
I first need to understand my target audience in order to effectively appeal to them with the advert and its placement.

My target audience are:

• Males and females aged 16-21
• Interested in Pop rock music
• Interested in Music Magazines
• Living in the United Kingdom

I chose 2 magazines which in which i would feature my advertisement.

NME Magazine features many Rock and Pop bands, and would be an excellent fit for my advertisement. The demographic of NME's target audience is between 17-30. NME is a unisex magazine but it is male dominated, with 73% of readers being male. 80% of readers feel that music plays a big part in their lives. This would mean the reader's would be inclined to buy a digipak that they have seen advertised if it looks interesting. 

Q is also a male dominated male dominated magazine, with 68.3% of their readers being male. Q readers are approximately 70% ABC1, meaning they have a high disposable income. Q's most prominant age rage is is 15-24.  This ties in to my target audience, and is one of the main factors for choosing to display my advertisement in their magazine.

Q also has an extremely high brand influence score - 73%
This means that adverts in Q will reach and influence a large amount of people.

Due to the demographics of these two magazines being quite wealthy with a large disposable income, I will be creating my poster to suite them. The poster should not look out of place in a glossy magazine. 

Use of inspirations

We referred back to our original inspiration heavily in our filming process, as shown in these particular shots.

We took inspiration from the music video for "All About The Money" by the Black Hand. This shot in particular highlights the similarities between the videos. We chose to have all of our actors with their arms outstretched towards the camera. This meant that the post cards were the main focus of the shot.

Re-shooting the Drummer scenes

These images are from the first filming session our group did. The scenes need to be re-filmed because when they were first filmed, the camera did not contain thew whole subject in the viewfinder. This meant I was cut off from the video.

In the new filming, we have decided to include these shots from the music video for "I feel so" by box car racer.

These still images show the poses we will film.