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How my media product uses, develops or

challenges conventions.

Manoraj Sivantharajah

I learnt a lot about conventions of music videos and did a lot of research into this. I have presented my findings in my blog post named “conventions of music videos”.

This a basic summary of what I found about conventions of music videos; There are very basic common features that can be seen within all the music videos. These include close ups of artists and the shots when they do change, change to the beat to make the music video flow and look effective. Also there is the artist actually singing through the music video whilst other things are happening in the music video.

Conventions of music videos.

I learnt a lot about conventions of music genres and have done research into this. I have presented my findings in my blog post named “conventions of music videos”.

The genre of music that our music video belongs to is Pop/Rock. The genre that our music video falls into has the following conventions as well as the conventions of a generic music video as mentioned in the previous slide. These music videos tend to have lot of shots of the artists and also there always seems to be a video that goes alongside the lyrics that are being sung. Also the artist is singing the song whilst performing in the actual music video.

Music Genre conventions.

After looking at the conventions of music videos and genre conventions we as a group decided to use a lot of these conventions as we believe that by using these conventions it will help create an effective music video. We did not use all of the conventions however as we did not feel as if though it was appropriate for our music video. For instance we did not have the lead singer performing in the flashbacks. Also we did not just have the main singer singing in one place.

In this slide and the next I am going to use screen shots with captions underneath the pictures to show what conventions we have used.

Conventions that we have used.

Shots of artist performing song.

Clear difference between performance and narration.

Conventions that we have used.

Superimposition Close-ups Reinforcement of narrative side

Very clear storyline. Prolonged shots of artist.

Also we made sure that we changed the shots at the change of beat to make it effective and this is a convention of music videos.

Another convention of music videos in particular a convention of the genre that we worked is the categories that pop/rock falls into. The genre work in falls conventionally into performance based and narrative based. So we decided to incorporate this into our music video to make it as effective as possible.

Conventions that we have used.

Performance aspect

Narrative aspect.

In order to know what the conventions of a Digipak are I decided to research into them and presented my findings on my blog under a post named “Digipaks-Overview”

I found that the conventions of a Digipak is as follows: Images Artist’s name Details of tracks Track listing Song producers Song writers lyrics

Digipak Conventions

“Loud” Digipak cover

“#3” Digipak cover

In the next slide I shall show you what we conventions we have used. We did use a majority of the conventions but we were heavily influenced by the Digipak called “Coexist” by “The XX”. You can see a full analysis of this Digipak on my blog under the name “Digipak Analysis: Coexist”.

We were influenced because of its simplicity and we thought that it will go well with the type of band that we have created for our music video. Also we used the conventions we have used to create a successful Digipak that will sell if it were put out there in the real world. However we did not provide information on the details of the tracks of the lyrics as we felt that this was not useful. And also we felt that this information will take too much room on the Digipak, thus taking away from the simplicity we had planned for it.

Digipak Conventions-That we have used.

Front cover of “Coexist”

Back cover of “Coexist”

Digipak Conventions-That we have used.

Image of artist

Album name

Artist name

Track listing Barcode

Song writers Publisher

In order to know what the conventions of a Digipak advert were I decided to research into them and presented my findings on my blog under a post named “Digipak Adverts: Overview”

I found that the conventions of a Digipak advert is as follows: Artists image Image of the Digipak front cover Album name Legal information (smallprint) Information about release date

Digipak Advert Conventions

“Fallen Empires” Digipak advert

“#3”Digipak advert

In the next slide I shall show you the conventions that we have used within our Digipak advert. As we were influenced by simplicity to create our Digipak we decided to carry on this theme and use the Digipak as a house style and do a similar thing for our Digipak advert. We were also influenced to a certain extent by Ed Sheeran’s Digipak advert for his album “+” I have analyzed this on my blog.

We were influenced by this advert as it is simple and it is spaced out a lot really drawing the attention into the picture in the middle. The only convention we did not include was the legal information as we though this would take room and take away from the effectiveness of the advert.

Digipak Advert Conventions-

That we have used.

Digipak Advert for “+”

Digipak Advert Conventions-That we have used.

Twitter and FacebookBrief info about album Website

Artist name

Release date

Production company

Album name

Album cover

Image associated with Digipak

The conventions we have used will appeal to the audience and engage them as in terms of the music videos our target audience look for a stereotypical music video as this is the case for the genre our music video falls into. So we followed the conventions of the genre so that it would appeal to the target audience. However we did make it a bit unconventional at times by leaving stuff out and adding bits in such as unique shots such as the “Photo to Reality” which will catch the eye of the audience and engage them.

In terms of our Digipak and Digipak advert we followed almost all the conventions which will appeal just normally to audiences but as incorporated the simplicity it will appeal more to the audience as it would catch the eye of the audience as the simplicity alongside the bright blue colour.

How our use of conventions will appeal

to an audience.

We didn’t really adapt an existing convention but we did play a huge emphasis on simplicity and incorporated on the Digipak and Digipak advert.

Also we did do this thing where buy we repeatedly used a similar image across all three products which promotes each other side by side. As they get repeated the audience are most likely to remember all three products. The image I am talking about is the one below which can be seen in all three media products.

Adaptation of conventions?

Music Video

Digipak

Digipak advert