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

Before creating and producing my video I researched into the various conventions of other media products that were relative to the genre that I was aiming for; pop/rock. This allowed me to gain ideas for what is desirable in order to attract my target audience. This meant watching products of similar genre and researching into designs of what makes a successful and suitable digipak. Incorporating these ideas allows the target audience to familiarise with the product and instantly recognise its style.

Through my research I found that there are common themes and styles within certain genres of music videos, specifically pop and rock. Pop videos tend to focus on some kind or convention of narrative that links with the lyrics of the song; an example is ‘Taylor Swifts’ “You Belong with Me”. Taylor Swift is seen as the key character based on a typical ‘Hollywood’ love story of ‘Boy meets Girl’. Rock videos on the other hand tend to incorporate aspects of performance such as ‘David Crowder Band’s’ “How He Loves”. The performance aspect comes from the setup of being in a band performing as though in front of a live audience at a concert. The setting however is based in house and therefore creates a different perspective of performance conventions.

Therefore my goal was to incorporate both forms of narrative and performance aspects to create my pop/rock product. The performance aspect of my video can be identified through the setup of a band on stage. The band isn’t actually performing in front of a large audience but instead creates the feel of a live concert. The narrative however is based on a single character, the lead singer of the band who is a reflection of the lyrics. He is found walking around the graveyard of a church creating various hidden connotations in relation to the lyrics.

Lighting was an important aspect of my video, particularly for the performance of the band. The backlight is red and therefore used to create the background. Red is again key to creating the hidden meanings and connotations that link to my product. Other lighting features help to focus on the band members. Each member has a key light focused directly on them highlighting them throughout the video. I want my audience to question why various conventions are used and therefore keeping the audience engaged throughout.