By Louise Heathorn

After 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.

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.

Like 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.

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.

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.