Evaluation Question 1

By Louise Heathorn

In What Way Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or

Challenge Forms & Conventions of Real Media

Products?

Music VideoAfter looking at me and my partners music video, I think that it conforms well with the standard conventions of music videos made in todays society. Throughout the process of research & planning and construction, we tried to make the video as

realistic as possible and create verisimilitude through the videos narrative. Although we did not have the time and large budget to travel to far destinations, we still

managed to travel to a mixture of different interior and exterior locations like London, to capture the footage we desired. The variety of locations in turn made the video

look more professional.Previously in our research, we found the use of Pete Frasers advice quite helpful. He states that watching a lot of music videos allows you to ‘really analyse the language of the genre’. Me and my partner researched further into music videos that were of

the acoustic/rock genre and looked deeper into the micro-elements. We already had a clear idea on the types of costume and style for our actors but by watching videos

such as Plain White T’s – Hey There Delilah & A Rocket To The Moon’s – Like We Used To, but they also showed us fine examples of the types of camera angles and

transitions to use as well as making it clear that a common convention for the genre is to involve a ‘love story’ narrative. We decided to incorporate these things within

our own music video and I feel that we did well in conforming to the standard of existing products in the genre.

Additionally, part of Andrew Godwins theory states that ‘there is a relationship between the music and the visuals’ and that the visuals should either ‘amplify or contradict the music’. I think that me and my partner conformed to parts of this

theory. Before filming, we carefully planned out and analysed the lyrics to help us create and piece the narrative together.

Music Video

This meant that there would be an immediate connection to what was being heard and to what was being seen. I also feel that the way we edited our music video

amplifies the music as said that it should do by Andrew Godwin. For example, we used slow motion on certain clips to emphasize emotions going on in the scene and also used quick cuts flicking back and forth from present to past in the instrumental

of the song; which I personally feel worked well as the footage is kept in time with the beat and compliments the tension in the music as well as the visuals itself.

In some respects, I think that Torodov’s Equilibrium theory has been challenged with the making of our video, since the structure of our narrative does not fully conform to the theory. The equilibrium theory states that the equilibrium is disrupted in near the

middle of the narrative and in the end the equilibrium is restored but may not be exactly the same as the beginning. For the likes of our video, this theory is

challenged. We begin to see the characters already upset then it focuses on some of the positive flashbacks. However, since the equilibrium is partly restored with the

couple together in the end, we can say that overall, Torodov’s theory does apply to our video, but not completely.

Digi-PakLike with our music video, we tried to make it as real and professional as possible, using the resources we could. We conducted a lot of research before creating our digipak because it is one of the most key things when it comes to advertising and

representing the musician. Christopher Budd says that digipaks ‘tell us something about the musicians and the music behind it. Using this as advice, we closely designed the digipak to reflect what was in the album as well as who it was made by. From other parts in our research, we knew that Secondhand Serenades music is based around love and relationships so we wanted to create quite a calm looking digipak that reflected peoples journeys in life

both physically and emotionally, hence the use of the globe on the album. Christopher Budd also said that ‘the simplest ideas are the best’ so when me and my

partner began designing the mock up, we made sure that it wasn’t over filled, or cluttered and complicated. We stuck to this idea and made sure the overall outcome

was simple yet effective.Me and my partner also stuck to other conventions by using typical conventions you

would find in any other such as the barcode, disclaimer and lyric book. This really helped bring a strong sense of verisimilitude and made it look like our album was of a

professional standard by a popular artist.

Magazine Advertisement

In the research process we found many useful tips that helped us design a magazine advertisement that both conformed to common conventions and also challenged them. This was heavily influenced

by the existing products that we had researched.To begin with, in our research we came across advice by Ed Healy

who states that and advertisement should have ‘a single commanding image in the centre’. This in turn would be the only

focus point for the audience, leaving them with nothing to be distracted by. In some ways we did stick to this, however, we did

not use a close up image that many other advertisements did. We thought that since our album was about journeys, it would be more

suitable to use an image that people could visually explore and look into and I feel that our landscape photograph achieves this

and makes it look more interesting.Traditionally, most magazine advertisements would be displayed on an A4 portrait page but in our research, we found that some major artists such as Rihanna, had actually used a landscape design to be

displayed over a double page. This challenged the normal convention of how the advertisement would be displayed but we also challenged the idea of using a thumbnail of the album cover

instead of the whole thing. Usually the album cover would be used as the main picture in the advertisement, however, we thought by using two different images would make our design more creative

and would definitely stand out against others. The one thing that I think could have improved our magazine

advertisement is the use of incorporating social media. Although we included reviews from popular music magazines, social media

and the internet is a growing thing that has also been used in other designs.

Conclusion

Overall I think that we stuck to the basic conventions that are known in making successful music videos, digipaks and magazines and in turn I feel that all of our

products are realistic due to this. When it comes to the idea of challenging the typical norms and conventions, I think that me and my partner only did so if we found other existing media texts that were successful by doing so. Our music video conforms more to conventions where as our

magazine advertisement challenges more then conforms.