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product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge conventions

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

Media ProductThe media product which I have created consists of an album digipak, a magazine advertisement and a music video to an already existing song. This meant they all had to link together in a certain way to make each product easily recognisable to the public and target audience.Each media product of mine has Used, Developed and Challenged the typical conventions of real media products. In order to create a successful media product I have followed many conventions of existing products, however I have also developed and challenged some conventions to add individuality and originality to my media product.

Digipak My Digipak

Existing Digipak (Linkin Park)

Uses Conventions Of Real Media ProductsThere are many ways in which my Album Digipak uses the typical conventions of real album digipaks. I have used an example of ‘Linkin Parks’ digipak to show the similarities in both products. The front cover identifies the masthead (Young Jack) clearly and in bold writing making it clear who they are, even if the band themselves are not directly shown on the front cover. Before creating my Digipak I did some research of existing front covers of both the pop and rock genre. I found that it is typical of rock or indie artists to not show the band on the front cover of the album. They either use quirky album art, or do not directly show the band. They would either be disfigured or have their faces merged with something else, possibly an animal. Therefore I followed this convention and thought it would be best to use a person who wasn’t part of the band, to make it look more mysterious. The inclusion of the band’s name on the back cover is also very typical. The other song names that are on the album are also a very important convention as it gives the audience a view of what the album will be like. As the genre of my digipak is Rock I had to think about song names that would usually be seen on rock albums. It was very important I did this otherwise it would not have fit with the whole theme of the album. Rock is usually focused around dark and negative things which is the reason for the song names such as “Like War” and “When they come”. The inside of the digipak shows the actual band with their instruments, reinforcing the fact they are a band. The images were also taken from the video which links the two products together and creates a house style.

Develops Conventions Of Real Media ProductsAlthough my album does frequently follow the typical conventions of an album. There are some things that have actually been developed slightly. When I researched the rock album covers I found that on quite a few occasions they did not include the name of the album, such as “Blink 182” “The 1975” and “Linkin Park” only have their name and that’s the only writing that is on the front cover. So to develop this I included the name of the album, which was ‘Beyond it all’. I decided to put it over the eyes of the model on the front cover to add more mystery to the album and to also make him look quite rebellious and the fact his face covered it goes against the pop album conventions as they almost always have a close up or medium shot of the artist. Therefore basing their product more on popularity and image.

Challenge Conventions Of Real Media ProductsThere are not many conventions that were challenged when I was creating my album digipak because it is crucial to keep the conventions in order to get a successful and professional looking media product. Another reason why my digipak did not challenge the conventions of real media products is because my album would need to stand out to a particular target audience who enjoy that genre of music and therefore if the house style is different and not stereotypical then it may not be as recognisable to the target audience wanted for my product.

Magazine Advertisement My Advertisement Examples of existing advertisements

Uses Conventions Of Real Media Products The typical conventions I used with my magazine advertisement was the bold, block masthead (Young Jack) that is going through the middle of the advertisement. I also included the website of the band so the audience can go onto it and possibly buy some merchandise, also find out about upcoming tours and events. This use of consumerism means that it will make more of a profit for the artist and will give them more publicity which will therefore make them more popular. I have also included the record label logo at the bottom which is “Warner Bros Records”. Also the five star ratings from magazines such as ‘NME’ and ‘Kerrang’ show the audience that the album is approved of. I also used the black and white font and backgrounds to link the magazine advertisement to the music video for ‘Little monster’ which is one of the ‘hit singles’ on the album. The main image used on the advertisement is also the image that is used on the album cover. This makes it easily recognisable and links the products together. The tagline of “out now” is also a common convention. This gives a date of release and encourages purchase from the audience. I have also included the logos of places where they can purchase the album, this gives the audience a chance to test some of the songs on ‘iTunes’ before they commit to buying the full album. I included the shadow of an animal. Which quite frequently seems to be used in rock magazine advertisements.

Develops Conventions Of Real Media Products There are not many conventions of my magazine advertisement that have been developed. However whilst I was looking at existing rock genre magazine advertisements I found that the name of the band usually went across the top of the page. I thought that with my advertisement it would look better it their name went across the middle. I chose to do this because I thought it would be more noticeable and would be more in the eye-line of the consumer. Also by putting the album name “Beyond It All” over the eyes of the model, I felt it added some mystery to the album and complimented the name of the album, and you can’t see ‘beyond’ him.

Challenges Conventions Of Real Media Products There is only one way in which my magazine advertisement challenges conventions of real product. That is the inclusion of the screen shots from my music video, next to the main image. I thought it was a good idea to include these as they link with the video. This adds continuity throughout all three products, making them recognisable as promoting the same product.

Music Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0ZQHwZNsaw – Here is a link to my Final Music Video.

Uses Conventions Of Real Media Products As I wanted my video to reach out and appeal to a wide audience, but also to an audience who like the rock genre of music. I followed quite a lot of conventions of existing rock/indie music videos. Mostly looking at the particular shots and framing that is commonly used. Also the way the videos were edited to match the pace of the song and the way the edits flow together. I did three textual analysis’ of existing videos that I like the narrative or performance and the way they used effects and shots to create a story for the audience. Whilst researching these existing products I found that in terms of Cinematography there are quite a lot of different angles that were used within the shots to portray the narrative or performance in a certain way. Therefore I used a lot of close ups, and mid shots, with the inclusion of a few long shots, these helped to establish the location and reinforce the genre of the song. Which is quite typical of rock or indie music videos. However just like in the existing videos I didn’t just film the shot from one point of view, I used tilts, pans and low angled shots. I used these low angles in both the narrative and the performance, to make the man in the narrative seem powerful over the woman, and to show the band were the main focus of the video.Another convention that I followed was the contrast in colours between the performance and the narrative. When I looked at Linkin Parks ‘Castle of glass’ I noticed that when they produced it they put all of the narrative in slow motion, whilst the performance of the band was at normal speed and was made to look like it was in another “dimension” I followed the idea of this convention but instead I put most of the bands performance in black and white whilst the narrative was in colour. This helps to distinguish the difference between the different realities within my music video.

Uses Conventions Of Real Media Products In order for my video to look realistic an professional I had to make sure the mise-en-scene of my video followed the ‘typical’ stereotypes of rock music videos. Therefore I decided that my band performance would be filmed in a warehouse, I thought that by doing this it will look more ‘rebellious’ and will fit with the fact that they don’t need the money, they just want the music. I also asked the band to wear casual clothes instead of fancy costumes, the reason for this is because it is very common for rock videos for the band or artist to be wearing casual clothes. This is shown in my textual analysis’ “Linkin Park Castle of Glass” and “Jimmy Eat World- The Middle” . Therefore is copies the convention and stereotype of the usual ‘rock music video’. The last convention that I have used from existing products is editing the different cuts and shots to the pace of the beat and the sound of the instruments. This keeps the video exciting and adds variety to it. I also made sure that there was a range of different shots used, such as long shots, mid shots, close ups, tilts and two shots etc.

Develops Conventions Of Real Media Products

Bastille- Bad News My Video

There are only a few ways in which my video develops conventions of existing products. However there were some developments with the types of effects that I have used. Throughout my video I have used quite a few effects. But they are effects that might not usually be seem in rock music videos. Such as at 2:12 in the video I use a cross dissolve effect. The reason I used this is because I really liked the way it looked, getting my inspiration from Bastille’s ‘Bad News’, which was in my video influences blog post. This could be said to be developing the stereotype of what is usually used in existing rock videos because this inspiration came from a pop artists video, which could be slightly merging the two genres together. Also the narrative could also be a development of real products because its involving a couple which are stereotypically used in more pop songs.

Challenges Conventions Of Real Media Products

What challenges existing products the most in my music video could also be classed as a development. This is the narrative section of my video. It is not very frequent that you will see a serious storyline within a rock music video because they usually like to be seen as happy, fun and rebellious. Whereas I wanted to use a narrative that matched the my interpretation of the lyrics. To give a more serious and animalistic effect to the video. Another way my video challenges the typical conventions is the fact that within the band performance there is not a member singing the song. This seems to be unusual and makes it look like they are less of a professional band and more of a band practising and performing music they are interested in.The last way my video breaks and challenges conventions is the car scene that is towards the end of the video. The fact I made it look like they were listening to the song on the radio, whilst the band were performing it, it breaks down the fourth wall and also shows different realities within one media product but they are all happening at the same time. Fitting this with post modernism, all of the realities are still true.

Conclusion • All three of my products frequently follow the conventions of

real media products because I knew that will be what will attract the audience and will help them identify the genre easily.

• But I have also interpreted my own meaning and ideas within my products, especially my music video to develop and change the stereotypes that are set upon certain genres. In order to do this I have challenged conventions and viewed them in a different way.