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

MagazineWhen constructing our media products, we had to research theories and conventions that helped develop our music video, Didpak and Magazine Advertisement.When looking at theories, Goodwin’s theory was a good one to help us decide the form of our video. It consists of eight principles and one of them is a video being performance based as opposed to narrative based. We chose this, as we want the audience to get a feel of the band together as if they were on stage.The genre of “And The Winner Is…” is alternative rock, so I researched other videos within that genre to see what conventions

Shot Print Screen from Video Why we used this

Static or handheld

Other comments

Mid Shot We used this, as we want to show the band entering so the audience can get a feel of what they are like before they start playing. This shot shows enough without being to up close.

Static. We chose this way for the band to enter, as it is different to any conventional way.

Low Angle It added variety also; you can see the bands instruments in the background showing their eagerness to play.

Static.

Pan shot. We used this as it followed the bands path to their instruments. It effectively giving the impression to the audience that they are there with them.

Static, tripod. We chose the black and white to colour transition as it fitted well with the beat of the music as the music changed to more upbeat from the introduction.

Noddy shot/ two shot.

By having the lead singer in the foreground and then the band in the background, we are keeping to the convention of the lead singer being the front man and focal point of the band.

Hand held. We had the bassist on the drum kit as it shows a connection through the band.

High angle We used this shot as to give an insight into the drummer’s playing. As they are normally they are set at the back.

Handheld.

Cut in By using a cut in you are focusing mainly on the bands talent.

Hand held

Wide shot To show the band together, like as if they were on stage. Also the audience understand its purely performance based.

Link to Paramore – Crushcrushcrush video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei8hPkyJ0bU In this shot list, you can see the shot we used and why we used them. However, I used Paramore and Incubus’s video as starting points to get conventions. In the image below from Paramore’s video, “crushcrushcrush”, we used conventions of having the band play together, same as the wide shot from our mudic video.

Having the drummer at the back is a convention as is having the lead singer at the front.

The fresh, sunny atmosphere is something we used in our later shots to show the youth of the band. However, in this particular video it relates to the narrative as well, this is something we could use in future videos.

The instruments are a main convention of alternative rock, so we wanted to keep this in our music video.

They also have the location of a deserted area; we have a similar location chose as it shows the concept that wherever the band is they will play as they enjoy it so much.

By keeping the same conventions such as having the drummer in the background, we are allowing the audience to recognise the type of genre.If the band had no instruments and was dancing, the audience could misinterpret it as a boy band, as opposed to a rock band. An example of a pop boy band is JLS.

Link to JLS- One shot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r2Q9S4PLkQ

In this image they have no instruments and there is lighting and visual effects. This is a convention of pop, as they tend to sing with no microphones in their music video and have a dance routine choreograph for them.

Digipak

In my digipak I challenged the conventions of alternative rock. In other digipaks I researched such as Paramore, they tended to have a more concept based front cover as opposed to having the band on the front.

I got my idea from the artist’s video B.o.B, “nothin’ on you”. Although this is a completely different genre, this artist has collaborated with other artists in the genre of alternative rock. I liked this idea of the cut images as I think it worked well for the And the winner is… as the digipak showed a scrap book look of their journey so far. Although I have challenged a convention, it works as it makes the audience feel they are starting with them from the beginning as well.

Link to B.o.B ft. Bruno Mars – Nothin’ on you: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=8PTDv_szmL0

Magazine AdvertisementWhen researching into magazine adverts, I had to keep in mind my digipak as I wanted something to represent genre as well as the digipak. I looked at various magazines such as Kerrang, NME and Mojo and there was a variety of ways the digipaks have been promoted. These enable me to play around with the way to set it out. I was originally going to have the front cover of the CD on my magazine advertisement but I opted for just having image as the background. I did this as I wanted to keep it simple and make it easier for the audience to identify the band members if they were briefly flicking through the magazine.

In terms of the font and information, I kept a limited amount of information on the advert as its good for the audience to want to know more about the band. I found it difficult to begin with to know what information to put on the advert, but with more research, I found the right balance.

I kept the convention of having the logo for where the audience can purchase this CD as it’s important for the target audience to know somewhere familiar and go regularly.

By using the convention of, by having the names of magazines with ratings, it gives the audience a clear indication of what genre the band is.