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

Music Video: The Backstory

As in Music Videos, a backstory is generally used to visually excite the audience and to make the music video seem interesting to watch. This could be done through a variety of ways and after viewing the Arctic Monkey's music video 'Fluorescent Adolescent' on Youtube I liked the way they used the extras in dressed up as clowns as it also made the music video look visually interesting and created an artistic backstory.

Therefore I decided to use this convention and developed it into the 'fake' theme in my own music video by making the band members wear masks in some parts of the backstory where the band are meant to be mimicking and mocking a stereotypical fake band.

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

Digipack:

In majority of the digipacks the is a theme which is used throughout to link all the different covers together. Therefore we did this by keeping the same effect from photoshop on all of the digipack covers, having images which link the digipack together; for example images of all the members faces featured in the band and placing nicknames for them.

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

Magazine advertisement:

On many magazine advertisements I noticed that not always the band members were featured but it was more about press comments and relevant information on dates of the release of their next album or tour date. Therefore we developed this into our own media product and therefore used only the band members instruments and tried to get the mood of the band across aswell as made it more visually interesting through the colour of the bands intruments. Although they are not in the same genre as my own media product, this for example is used in the pop boyband 'JLS' as they identify the colours of blue, red, green and yellow with the band members.

What have you learnt from you audience feedback?

During Construction

Throughout the construction of my music video and ancillary task peer and teacher feedback forms were filled out to help me improve the quality of my media product.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Before the construction of my media product I carried out numerous questionnaires which was aimed at my specific niche audience which is teenagers of the age 15+ who are interested in the alternative/ indie rock genre. I used psychographical questions to find out what interests and makes a good alternative rock/indie music video, digipack and advertisement. I used the feedback in which i got to determine the conventions as well as analysed various alternative rock music videos, digipacks and advertisements of the alternative/indie rock genre.

Digipack Cover

I analysed various current and popular album covers of the alternative/indie rock genre in detail and came up with these conclusions:

• http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8160830690905498248&postID=2823292194138479593
• http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8160830690905498248&postID=3946846334257797480
• http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8160830690905498248&postID=2417114767412751775

Magazine Advertisement Analysis

Arcade Fire are classed in the 'Indie Rock' genre and The Horrors are classed in the 'Gothic Rock' genre which therefore closely relate to the genre of my band which is from the 'A;ternative Rock genre. Here I see that the conventions of a rock magazine advert are:

• The title of the band name and the album as well as the official date that it should be out featured in bold clear font and colour
• The band do not neccesarily have to be featured on the advertisement (Arcade Fire)
• Some small print
• Some comments from radio shows or popular music channels ( The Horrors)
• Appropriate use of colour which reflects on the genre of the band (Arcade Fire- Light, bright neon lights to reflect on the lighter sound of the Indie Rock. The Horrors- More black and white, monotone colours which reflects on the more dark and harsh sound of the Gothic Rock genre.
  

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I believe the combination of my main product (music video) and ancillary texts (magazine advert and Digipack) is very effective as I have linked the two using a variety of creative methods:

Music Video and Magazine Advert

• Through linking the theme and genre:

We created a theme which would be used throughout my music video and magazine advert. For example we stuck to a certain colour theme with mainly grey, blue, red, yellow (gold) and purple which are used in our music video and we kept the same colours on the ancillary task as the drum is painted blue, the electric guitar is gold and the bass guitar is purple. We chose these colours as I realised whilst analysing the conventions of other music videos of my chosen genre they usually only choose dull and dismal colours which reflect on the mood of the song and the the band. It also reflects on the earthiness of the genre instead of usign bright primary colours which suits the 'Pop' genre or neon colours which suit the 'Nu-Rave' genre.

• Visual elements

I also think that as our magazine advert is of a picture with just the drums, electric guitar and bass guitar, (which are the same instruments that are used in the music video) this reflects on the music and feel of our music video and chosen song.


Magazine Advert and Digipack

• Through font

I realised that with many artists they usually have a trademark font which is used to establish their name and to link all their products together. Therefore we kept the font and colour of all the texts on the magazine advert and the digipack cover the same. We also created a 'logo' which wasalso used on both products.

Again the colour scheme of gold, blue and black is used to link the digipack and magazine advertisement together as a promotional package.

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

My group all analysed various conventions magazine advertisements, Digipacks and music videos to use, challenge and develop in our own finished product.

Music Video:

I noticed that costume is vital for this task and is used constantly as a tool to visually intise and communicate the right message and feel of the music/song to the audience.

For example we analysed the original band 'The Arctic Monkeys' who wrote the song which we based our music video on, as well as other alternative rock/indie bands costumes.

The Arctic Monkeys: Here mainly dark colours are used such as blue, brown, white and black which are very minimalistic and earthy colours which reflect on the sound of the music as well as the indie genre which the band are placedunder. There is also a mixture of smart and casual as the lead singer is in a shirt however the others are in hoodies and t-shirts.

Paramore: are generally classed as an Alternative Rock band therefore I analysed their costume and incorporated it into my band. Again the band members are wearing quite minimalitic and dark colours which reflects on their image as well as the song.

Therefore as I was in charge of designing and choosing the costume of the band i decided to keep the same casual theme however I decided to challenge the stereotypical convention and instead of making the band be dressed in all black they were to be dressed in more lighter colours such a blue, black and grey. I thought thiswould make the costumes look more interesting and also create a 'lighter' feel to the music video to reflect on the sound and beat of the song.

How the band look as a whole:

I think one of the main conventions is not just how the bandlook individually but how they look as a whole. I realised that there is some correlation between all band members and they are usally wearing similar clothing or the same colour with the exception of a hat or scarf to make the lead singer to stand out.

Magazine Advert (template)

This is a mock advert design which I did on Paint to show roughly how our finished Magazine advert would look.

Pictures for Magazine ad

I set up the instruments on the Green Screen to look like the design on the magazine advertisement. I changed the distance and the shadow to see which one would look best. In the end we choose Picture 1 as we thought the lighting and distance was the best and would allow us enough space to add in the text at the top and the bottom.

Picture 1.

Picture 2.

Picture 3.
Picture 4.