Q1 – IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT, USE DEVELOP

OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA

PRODUCTS?

This is my final promotional package made up of my two ancillary texts – digipack and magazine advert for an upcoming album. Throughout this section of my evaluation I will state how I have challenged, developed and used conventions of real media texts, demonstrating my points with images of real media texts and focussed images of my individual products.

MY FINAL PROMOTIONAL PACKAGE:

FRONT COVER: As I have taken much inspiration from current music albums I believe that I have conformed to the conventions of a real media product in relation to the front cover of my music album. The album which I am referring to is the Bastille – Bad Blood, in comparison to the music album cover I created. Although I looked at many front cover this album was the one I took most of my inspiration from and I believe that this is shown in my work. I developed the idea of this album cover and added extra individual things which added to the individualism of the product.

Another album which I took inspiration from was the Jessie J album, which features a medium close up of Jessie J on. On this album cover Jessie J looks very vulnerable and innocent, this is the effect I tried o accomplish on my front cover, however as my genre was different to the genre Jessie J is featured in I added colour so that I stuck to the forms and conventions of album covers particularly in my genre.

The third and final front cover I took inspiration from was the Beyonce – You are a Boy album, this is due to the use of black and white on the image. Making it easy to define between binary opposites. I developed this convention by using a colour other than white, red.

As all of these are real media texts and I have used the forms and conventions of general other media texts which I have researched in the planning and research process of my construction I think it is clear to see that on the front cover of my album I have used many forms and conventions on my front cover. I decided to use the conventions rather than challenge them as I understand how important it is to use them in relation to my product looking as professional as it possibly could. Giving it the chance to compete with existing media products.

ANCILLARY TEXTS:

ANCILLARY TEXTS:MAGAZINE ADVERT:

The magazine advert is also a product which I believe I conformed to the conventions of. The Jessie J magazine advert incorporates the album cover of the CD which it is promoting. I decided to use this convention as I believe it shows continuity across my ancillary products allowing my audience to distinguish that my products belong together as part of a promotional product. Another convention is the use of the record label logo on the magazine advert again showing continuity across my promotional package and also promoting the record label which my artist would be signed to. I developed the idea of this advert by adding an extra colour to it to show the colour scheme across each of my products as much as I could.

A convention which I found of magazine adverts, such as the Marina and The Diamonds magazine advert, is the date that the album is released or ‘out now’ I did not include this convention on my first draft of my magazine advert however I did on my second and final draft as I came to the conclusion that it is important for my target audience to be aware of when they can download/buy my album.

One convention I wish I had conformed to which I kind of challenged however did not include is includinginformation about where the album can be downloaded from. Although the assumption could be made about the audience – that due to the world we live in today it is clear where these products can be consumed by audiences. If I were to do another product like this in the future I would include a logo such as the one below:

BACK COVER:

As I used the Jessie J album front cover for a lot of inspiration I was aspired to research the back cover for the digipack it was included in. I found that the back of the CD album was extremely plain also, however this was not a convention I liked the look of.

After researching other back covers of albums I found that a common convention was to use an image of the artist on the back cover, this was a convention I found in ones such as the Rihanna back cover. Although I used this convention I believe that it was important to develop it to make my digipack back cover original. Which I why I used another media close up of my main character with half of her face on the image demonstrating the idea that she has two different personalities and just wants to be herself.

I used both of these album covers as inspiration create a unique product however still conforming and developing to all conventions which I have referred to. General conventions which I found were present on all real media products which I looked at were publication rights, barcodes and record label logos as you can see. On the images below which are examples of existing back covers.

The Beyoncé album was one which I took inspiration from in relation to the one colour which is included – the gold. As I had a clear colour scheme throughout my other media products I decided to develop this convention by changing the colour of the lips on my artist to a brighter red.

ANCILLARY TEXTS:

ANCILLARY TEXTS:

SPINE:

These are two album covers which I have taken inspiration from in the process of making the spine to my album cover. Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kenny Chesney. The colour scheme on these two is different to my colour scheme ‘black, red, white and pink/red’ Which is why the inspiration I took from these spines has had the colour scheme changed.

One convention I found was that the record label that the artist is signed to is featured on the spine. I really liked the way that the first spine of the Red Hot Chile Peppers record label is incorporated, with a small thin line separating this text from other pieces of texts. This inspired me to do something much similar with the spine as my digipak as you can see.

Also I found that a small code was featured on the spine – I could not find what this code actually stood for however upon my research of other album cover spines this was a common convention so I knew it was important to include on my album cover spine. Developing the idea/inspiration I though that it would be a good idea to include this code underneath my record label text in order to keep the added information in one small space. Also in this space I wanted to include an image of the major label Sony Music Entertainment as Columbia Records which is the label I have put my artist under is a subsidiary of SME.

ANCILLARY TEXTS:

CD and DVD:

Although the CD WICKED is not in my chosen music genre I really liked the way that it looked, the simplicity of it, yet the detail relating to the album music, also compared to the images on the right. I chose to design my CD like this also as I believe it works well with the other products on my digipack, I used this as inspiration and loosely followed the template of it. I developed the idea and changed it to accommodate my colour scheme. Also I developed the way in which the birds/strange creatures on the WICKED cd and added kisses as I believe that it shows continuity with the rest of my digipak.

As I had already used the ‘HOL BEAU’ title on my other products, to show continuity I did this also on my CD, I believe this works well as I am promoting an artist in order to sell a CD, this is why the Artists name is the largest text on this product - much like the Emile Sande CD below.

Due to the fact that the artist who sings my chosen song is Emile Sande I decided to have a look at the CD which this song featured on. Like the Wicked CD I also like the simplicity of this CD yet I believe as a non professional simplicity can look a little tacky, which was shown in the first draft of my CD. Publication rights are also featured on the bottom of this CD so I believe this demonstrates a way in which I have used a convention.

INSIDE PANELS:

Below is an image of the inside panels in my digipack, the two on the left are the panels which the CD’s would be on in a professional situation, as demonstrated in the first slide. Due to the fact that it was generally difficult on the internet to find a professional example of inside panels I asked my media teacher for help. She advised me to ensure that I showed continuity across the whole digipack, which is why I chose to use the lips as a main feature.

The images of the kisses were found on the internet – if I had more time I would have scanned images of my won kisses and used them, making them my own images however I found that due to the fact I got a little stressed out it was time to leave the digipack as it was and concentrate my time on more important things much as my final music video. Which is why I did so.

On many digipacks the common thing which many people have seemed to do is put images of their artists on the inside panels, showing continuity however as I have used two images of my artist already I did not want to overload the digipack with many images of my artist as it could have become a little bit overpowering for the audience. Text could have also been an option for this part of my digipak however I also did not want to overpower my audience with tonnes of text. Also with the text on the CD’s I believe I have the balance between images and text just right throughout my digipak.