Evaluation: Question One

Saturday 9th March 2013

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

Overall, I feel as if all three of my media products conform to the forms and conventions of real media products. However, I also feel that in some ways I have challenged the conventions of the music video I created in some ways. To begin understanding the forms and conventions of real media products within the Pop genre I did a lot of research on the genre, this involved me looking at similar products e.g. music videos by artists such as Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber and seeing what conventions they follow to appeal to their target audience. During the research I discovered that many pop music videos either use a combination of narrative or performance, or solely a narrative with the artist occasionally performing to the character; as a result, this was something I considered when I went on to create my music video.

Firstly, in terms of my music video I feel as if I challenged some aspects of the forms and conventions. For example, Pop music videos generally use “popular” music that is in the charts and are by “popular” artist’s hence where the word “Pop” originally derived from; however, I decided to take an unconventional approach, the artist I chose ‘Sara Bareilles’ isn’t necessarily a popular artist and is quite unknown however a few of her songs fall into the Pop genre and have entered the top of the charts e.g. “Love Song” as a result I aimed to take a relatively unknown song and make it popular through my music video which I feel conforms to the conventions of real media products and therefore would allow me to ultimately reach my initial aim

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How my music video conforms to conventional media products is that it firstly portrays an upbeat and exciting atmosphere, this is conveyed through the bright lighting that I have used throughout, and the idea that my music video is quite fast paced due to the quick cuts that I have made. My music video also slightly relates to Andrew Goodwin’s theory that there is a relation of visuals to the song e.g. the lyrics of the song match the action happening in the music video, this is relatively true in my music video as the structure of my music video consists of lyrics and images entering the frame that directly coincide with the lyrics of the song, this also reinforces the fun atmosphere I was trying to convey. For example there are three ways music video can promote a song, illustrate, amplify, and disjuncture, my music video uses illustrate and amplify. Firstly, my music video uses a set of images to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics, and secondly I repeatedly showed images e.g. the use of the crown to amplify the meaning of the song throughout.

The second product I created was a digipak consisting of a front cover, back cover and two inside covers. The first thing I considered was the colour of my digipak, initially I used a coral colour as the main colour throughout, however I changed this on my final digipak to yellow. This is because the yellow colour fitted better with the overall theme of the crown being gold also I considered that my target audience was a mixture of both male and females. Therefore, I felt as if the coral colour was too feminine; as a result, the new yellow colour best suited a unisex audience. Next I directly linked my digipak to the music video I created as this is regularly seen in similar products e.g. Katy Perry, I did this by making all the information on the front and back cover being displayed on signs which were held by hands coming in from around the edges of the digipak (this emulated what was done in my music video), not only did this illustrate creativity but it also created a fun vibe for my target audience and made it unique from other digipak’s out there. The inside cover displayed all of the signs and images used in the music video, once more this created a direct link to the music video, it also displayed the bright colours used in the signs which I further increased by altering the vibrance and brightness levels of the pictures. Finally, I created the next inside cover which would be where the CD would be held, I decided to make this simplistic and imitate the white screen used in my music video. For this I simply created a white background with a gold border and finally the words “King Of Anything”, the use of the white background allows the title to stand out from the back and as a result allows more focus on the overall meaning of the song/album, this is illustrated in the digipak of the Pop artist Justin Bieber, the CD consists of a black background with the title of the album ‘Believe’ written in gold. As a result, this illustrates how my digipak conforms to the conventions of other digipaks in the Pop genre; the high majority incorporates a lot of creativity on the front, back and inside cover, and then uses a more simplistic style and layout on the CD.

The final product I created was the magazine advert, for this I incorporated an image of the artist that was clearly taken on the same day of the digipak shoot it also gives the impression that it was taken on the same day as the music video shoot which is a common convention used by Pop artists e.g. this is displayed in Gwen Stefani’s album “Rich Girl”. Once more I created a direct link to the music video and digipak and used the same title “King Of Anything” which was taken from the front cover of the digipak; in addition, I have created signs with information such as the artists name, release date, and the name of the album which I edited and made it look as if they were being held by hands coming in from the edge of the page. Finally, I incorporated an image of the album, quotes and ratings from music industry experts, useful websites, and places where someone can buy the album e.g. iTunes, all of which are typical conventions expected to be seen on a magazine advert.

Overall, all three of main products clearly conform to the forms and conventions of real media texts; however, there are some aspects of them that I have chosen to challenge.