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

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

Production

Music video link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5XRequCRdI

Forms and conventions of alternative indie rock media products Indie rock is extremely diverse and from studying and researching the depths of this genre the outlook of products are very grunge, abstract and have an emo portrayal. There music is very mellow and relaxed version of rock therefore its not as explicit and shouty as rock music, it has more of a hippie influence towards the genre. You will notice the colours used to portray alternative indie rock colours that look faded and old, warn out. Black is a primary colour used throughput this genre however we have bands like 1975 that fall into the alternative indie rock genre and their product colours are baby pink and white however thats only recently changed because of the new image for their most recent album. Although, before they used black and white colours for merchandise, album digipak and covers and their general outlook . In music videos they used black and white filters as well. 1975 were also an influential impact as inspiration to create our music video, digipak and poster for our band New Desert Blues". Our music video was also inspired by other bands like Vampire Weekend, Florence and the Machine and Twenty One Pilots, Oasis, The Killers, The Muse, Chemical Romance, Paramore, Coldplay etc. Comparing all these bands they all had a similar outlook. Abstract, grunge, emotional and dark colours used with in there portrayal as artist and media products. They also have similar target audiences, which are 15 21 age range. Youll also notice that the artists clothes and fans wear abstract, grunge and emotional clothes. A lot of the clothes are ripped and dark coloured. They wear dark colours because they are comfortable and not very visible toward the world because they tend to blend into the crowed like the genre has blended into the other genre's they don't have as many songs on the charts as pop their music videos aren't as vivid as pop genres either they like to blend within the industry. They also like there music to be the main attraction and the more influential bit of the artist rather then the image of them and their branding. Their aim as artist is to get their emotions and views across through their music.

Alternative Indie Rock Poster

Alternative indie rock Artist inspired artist for meeting codes and conventions when designing our poster for New Desert Blues

Develop Colours; from research I have evaluated the colours used on artist products and brand image for Alternative Indie Rock genre. From example from the previous slide you can see the dark element in the posters, e.g. black & white images, navy blue, deep purple, grey-scale etc. I also included formats the bands album can be accessed on the poster, because this genre dont have the following like pop artist and rappers etc. they have to advertise their songs a lot more through social network and YouTube for it to get heard or seen by fans to build up their following rather then having their music a lot harder to access for build up hype because this genre of bands and artist find it hard to get their music prompted on charts and radio. Because from research this genre tends to be independent bands rather then bands with a record label backing the artist or band up. I also used basic and simplistic fonts on my poster because Alternative indie rock dont like to be hidden behind brand clothes and glam, they like to be natural and show the real personality of the artist and what their music is about so they dont want their image to overthrow the reason why they started to play in the first place. I've also entwined the atmosphere the imagery coveys in the conventions. The atmosphere captured is grungy which fits into the criteria of Alternative indie rock forms. Developing

The use of colours, been turned sepia showing the codes and conventions of using darker tones of colour in images. As it relates back to the type of music.

In comparison to the body language that the oasis poster has from the band members, we have developed it into our vision of an Alternative Indie Rock band poster. The facial expressions are expressionless and avoid direct address toward the camera. Backs turned away from each other. This body language is very gloomy, and has a cool outlook. It meets the terms of a bad boy stereotype which is the impression that alternative indie rock bands want. Because they are guarded characters and like to express their emotions through there music, to make there music the real focus of the artists

Tour dates/Album Dates

Challenge We Challenged the codes and conventions with other Alternative Indie Rock band posters. To Promote the new album on the poster, we placed the digipaks front cover on the poster where we framed it as a polaroid picture. This was creative and innovative style which appeals to our target audience as well. We kept a consistent theme throughout our product with the 3D effect in our digipak and music video. However we used the same photograph from the digipak front cover on the poster minus the 3 dimensional effect. Making this image bare and personifies the faces of the band members. Our objective of this decision was to create direct address with the audience to make a more personal connection with the poster then the digipak as the album is suppose to make relation towards the music video to make a clear understanding to audiences what sort of band they are. Their trademark in the industry that divides them from other Alternative Indie Rock bands.

Alternative Indie rock Digipaks

Develop

The first image is the edited Original that was the photograph me and Lucy decided to have as the front cover. We edited the Photo on Adobe Photoshop keeping with the codes and conventions of the Alternative Indie Rock genre. To gain inspiration we looked up other AlternativeIndie Rock artist product range, we looked at artistlike The 1975, Twenty One Pilots, The Muse, Florence &The Machine, Coldplay, The killers, Oasis, Chemical Romance and many others. This helped us to keep to the criteriaof our chosen genre.The image was taken in the day time, however the use of the flash, as well as some lighting enhancements on Photoshop make it a lot darker and grungy. conforming to the codes and conventions of the genre. This image is most likelyto be used for a background for a magazine, website album cover etc.

This is the originalimage for the digipak, our first finalised draft, However when we saw the clash of colours for the text the theme ended up not looking consistent. The idea of adding in blue was becausethe band was called "New Desert Blues" creating that link with the word "BLUE" with the colour blue. Although it did not convey the outlook we wanted so it was back to the drawing board with that specific idea as it was an obvious link that looked amateur and childish. However editing the photo making it lookblurredwas effective, meetingthe codes and conventions of our chosen genre.We used a traditional typeface font as it gives it an edgy vintage look and retro attitudewhich is typical of the indie rock genre.

We decided for a while that this was going to be out final front cover for our Digipak until we got feedback from audiences that it wasn't as clear to read the jumbled up letter in black text. When hearing this we decided to change the colour of the bottom left text. However the audiences liked that the words said;"New Desert Blues" jumbled up because it was very fitting towards our image and portal of this album especially after seeing the music video. and the blurred and overlapping effect running throughout out ancillary tasks and music video. we had feedback from our target market because thoughtthe white font stood out a lot more and gave a good contrast to the jumbled up lettering in the bottom left hand corner (which also spells out New Desert Blues). The jumbled up lettering contrasts also against the orange leaves as well as the clothing of the actors.This was officially our final outcome. In the end we decided to keep consistentand stick with the text just being all white as its easier to see on the dark paletteof the photographthen black and white still makingthe front coverlooking sophisticated and mature rather then using blue or any other colour. the harsh exposure created a white tint on the modelsmaking them link in with the text colouring even more. Having the text white also makes it more clear to audiences that the jumbled up letters read "New Desert Blues". we challenged the forms and conventions throughthe use of thought process and refining our ideas, Having feedback from our actual audience was very influential because it outlines and projects the fact that we are meeting our target markets needs and requirements for AlternativeIndie rock genre.

Challenge

We challenged the forms and conventions in our Digipak by apply images that are staged instead of performance photographs or Photographs of all of them staged together. Which is what Alternative indie Rock Bands tend to apply in their merchandise and product range when promoting themselves, this is because bands of that genre in the industry like to show the artists in action when they are performing. We also challenged the codes and conventions by having no black and white images. A lot of Alternative indie rock bands use black and white images on their brand image and merchandise. This is because of the subtlety of tones that black and white images can have. The artist think colours can be terribly distracting in images and can take the focus away from your subject. Black and white images strip back, its honest and it allows you to show the true person. Which is the objection for Alternative indie rock artist. They want their audience to see them as individuals and normal people that express their selves through music. We challenged this convention by replacing, instead we used darker tones and shades. We used a lot of lighting techniques to created expressive dim lighting by exposing their faces and their characteristics. However our portrayal of the band was to be three young adults enjoying their life to the fullest with what they love to do, playing music. Black and white images do not portray this view to audience they portray deep emotion.

Alternative indie rock music videos

Develop Due to my research on Alternative Indie Rock and evaluating this genre through existing music videos, there was a feature used (The Artist being the cameramen) thats commonly used in Alternative indie rock video especially indie artists because they are independent bands that try to use their own resources. I was filming on the hand held camera well Lucy was using the digital camera. We also got the band members to record each other to create that grunge atmosphere and more personal connection with the audience as they were striped back from being staged and told what to do and where doing their own thing. Creating characteristics and qualities towards the band members.Furthermore from watching the video you can see that we have used wide shots of the band playing all together like they are on stage, the shots were quickened up into second long shots which made it look like the band are jumping in time with the music, rather than them playing their guitars and singing, because the same shots gets boring to watch over and over again. This can loose interest for audiences hence the development of shot. These are popular shots that artist use in their music videos, because they tend to use performance style of music videos instead of narrative or abstract due to the rush and real atmosphere for audiences. We used 2 typical locations, forest and driving at night time, the forest is a good location for the band members to mess around and be playful off scene it is also a remote location that doesn't has pedestrians stopping the shoot. And driving at night is what musicians and artist do for half of their career to get to gig to gig which is what we were portraying in our music video. Driving at night was entirely filmed with a hand held camera because of relaxed motion behind it. It comes across as the band documenting how they are feeling before their gigs and what they do etc. making it less formal and creating a relationship with the audience of showing what kind of personalities they are. Its the same for when we filmed some shots in the forest the personal relation of showing what kind of people that band are for audience, the audience and fans can get more fixated on them because they show their true self it enables the fans to show true affection towards them and their music.

Challenge Well shooting the music video we took the same shot from different perspectives with either a canon digital camera or a hand held Toshiba video camera we took a static point of view with the canon digital camera which was in higher quality of footage then we used the hand held Toshiba video camera for more laidback viewpoints almost as if the audience was a forth member of the band which was the impression we wanted to make with our music video, to create a more personal connection towards the audience. The two points of view were to show the band at work being serious having to perform and then when the camera isnt rolling their real selves behind the scenes. Fans love seeing there role models and idols in their natural nature in the world. Makes the fans feel like they are actually real people. Hence why we included this style of filming in our music video because of the audience love to be included it will draw in.

To challenge the codes and conventions of the indie rock music video, strategically involved vivid colours on our three dimensional editing on the footage. This is because, from looking back at our primary and secondary research about the genre and they type of audience the music gets me and Lucy found and understanding that our target market are creatively active individuals shown in our audience profile and applying vivid colours shows sense imagination and eye popping effects which we believed would intrigue the audience more. Typically Indie rock use neutral colours or darker tones, a lot of the time they use black and white images to create vintage and deep art in their image as artists. Black and white colour pallet is also very appealing towards the eye and likes to take advantage of lighting in photographs to create raw images. Which is why they use these colour palettes because of the deeper meanings behind them which tends to attract their audience profile. Although we challenged that convention still meeting the target market needs in what they look for in indie rock music.

Normally you would see a massive heart-breaking, tearjerker narrative which is very stereotypical for indie rock bands to do in there music videos because they like to link the narrative with there song etc. However we challenged that conventions by planting the seed of a narrative well as showing a performance video. We wanted our band to play themselves not characters in a story. Part of our narrative was travelling to a venue for a gig at Koko and the other was them travelling and eventually ending up to the location of the music video shoot. Me and Lucy didnt want the footage to be in order we wanted footage to show what happened before and after keeping the audience intrigued. To make the audience understand that, that was happening we placed text on travelling footage which showed where the band was heading. This ensured that viewers would have an understanding of what was going on.