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

QUESTION 1

MUSIC VIDEO

Using conventio

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I filmed my whole video outdoors, in multiple locations, but with a particular focus on

natural surroundings e.g beach, forest, lake. This fits with the indie-rock style of music video in the way that they don’t focus on artificial backdrops and extravagant

music sets. They are generally much more relaxed and have a

realistic feel to them.

By using multiple

locations, I also used

the conventions of a typical travelling

video. This shows

movement and creates a sense of

journey and time passing

for the audience.

For the outfit, I was inspired by a mix of 90s rock grunge and the

modern-day ‘indie’ style of clothing. I chose to style an outfit that was casual to fit with the laid-

back style of the genre (hoody, jeans and casual t-shirt). I also

used layers as this is typical of the ‘indie’ style for men. We chose to

have a preppy loafer style shoe for our actor to add a certain edge to the outfit - this is conventional for bands such as Mumford and Sons who dress quite smartly. We kept our actors hair messy and filmed

him running his hands through it as this seemed appropriate for the style of artist we were trying to

portray. We made use of natural lighting

throughout the shoot - luckily we had a sunny day for the beach location.

This is typical of the indie-rock genre; videos in this style tend not to use

lots of artificial light as they are commonly filmed outside in similar

locations.

Using conventio

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We filmed a variety of different angles and frames for the bike shots in all locations to portray movement - a common feature of

travelling videos.

For the opening instrumental section of the song, we only included shots that concealed the actor’s face, and

cutaway shots. This is not necessarily a convention of the indie-rock genre in particular, but whilst researching I did find that this technique is commonly

used in music videos to build up mystery surrounding the protagonist.

Using Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0, we added a ‘ghosting’ effect to one of our panning shots of the sand, sea and sky. We also used the time stretch tool to speed the clip up slightly. This created a dreamlike quality to the clip, which we matched to an

appropriate part of the song - an instrumental piece with soft backing vocals faded in. This is a common feature of a music

video as it provides the music with a moving image that represents it.

WEBSITE

Artist/band websites tend to stick to a certain theme

- in terms of images, colours, fonts and logos. In

line with this, I chose a limited number of colours to feature on my website, which we inspired by the

music video and the choice of outfit for our actor.

The bone logo which I designed features on every page of the website. This is

a common feature of an artist website, used to

strengthen brand identity.

I also included social networking logos, feeds and share

buttons throughout the website - one of the most commonly found features of an artist website when I

was researching conventions.

Most websites include plenty of embedded Youtube and Soundcloud links, so under the

‘music’ page I decided to follow this convention.

My website features links to purchase tickets and merchandise for the artist - something

that is becoming more common in artist websites, allowing fans to access products

easily.

Using conventio

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Using conventio

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My website, similarly to those that I analysed in my research, includes plenty of large, high

quality images, both of the artist, and the merchandise in the ‘store’ section.

A feature that I thought was particularly important after conducting my research was the use of dividers on each page to

section out different parts of the website. These usually consisted of bold, horizontal

lines. I used this feature in my own website to make it easy to follow for the

audience.

I included a fairly short and concise information section about

my artist, as I found that artist websites don’t usually include a

full biography - they aim to provide a brief overview of the

type of artist, musical influences and past and future projects.

Most artist websites include a variety of ways to get in touch with the artist, through management

contact details, social networking, forums, blogs or email dropboxes. I made use of some of these

features on the ‘contact’ page.

Developing

conventions

Some websites that I researched featured a ‘gallery’ or ‘photos’ page in the menu bar. Instead of using the conventional and perhaps slightly old-fashioned way of organising images on a website, I

decided to use a slideshow to present my images of the artist. This was inspired by the Bastille website, in which slideshows were a

common feature. I placed it on the homepage rather than create a new page for it, and I think it works well - giving the website a

uniqueness.

DIGIPAK

Using conventio

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In line with the conventions of a digipak, I included a barcode,

logo, credits, record label information and copyright

symbols on the back cover.

I also followed the convention of a full tracklist on the back

cover.

The name of the artist and album title is clearly displayed on the front

cover.

I also followed the convention of the

spine of the digipak. I included the name of the artist at the top, then the album

title, and put the logo at the very

bottom. This would be useful to the

audience for when the digipak is

stacked on a shelf in a store, for

example.

My choice of image for the front cover is

conventional for my genre in the way that the actor is looking away from the

camera and also how there is a plain white

background (implying it has been taken during a

professional photoshoot).

Images used on digipaks are

usually edited to give them a more clean, professional feel. I edited both

images (back cover and inside left

panel) using the same effect, so that my digipak would stick to a certain colour

pallette.