Q1 (Evaluation):

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For the main production task of my music video I created a video to the song Simply wonderful by Tim Myers, this is an example of a stereotypical song from the indie pop genre. The predominant purpose of a music video is in advertising, its markets both a song and artist for the purpose of exposure as well as expansion of their profile. In terms of the conventions of the Indie pop genre these stereotypically utilize themes of happiness and love, directly mirroring such through prop use, as well as focusing on some aspects of performance such as miming. Conventionally they follow simplistic story lines however may include some more complex or different ways of communicating such a narrative i.e. through using humour, this separates itself from a generic pop music video and thus as part of the sub indie genre. I thought it was important in order to access a wider range of audience to directly utilise and develop these different forms and conventions rather than challenge them. In order to fully understand these I textually analysed some music videos and picked out the specific components which make them typical of their genre, as well as this I focused on key music theories like Andrew Goodwin’s in order to fully understand the characteristics of music videos on the whole such as how there is a relationship between visuals of the music video and the lyrics. I directly incorporated such knowledge into my own video and this can be supported by the fact I’ve included signs which state what each person featured in my video finds simply wonderful timed exactly with the chorus of the song. In terms of mise-en-scene my use of props directly coincided with the typically used positive themes amongst this genre where I used balloons and party poppers in my video. This also added a carefree element to the video, reminding the audiences to celebrate life’s simple pleasures. Additionally the positive themes present in my video relate back to the uses and gratifications theory in terms of escapism where it could provide the audience with a release from everyday life, specifically as the bulk of my target audience are between 15-27 and therefore may be in education.
I also decided to add a different element to my video by using signs to communicate with my audience, these signs were held up by the people participating in my video and state what they find simply wonderful. In order to keep my video applicable and relevant to my audiences I purposefully used issues on these signs such as relationships and friends, as part of the uses and gratifications theory my audience would be directly able to identify with this. Thus such iconography was key in creating the overall look and feel I wanted for my video as well in developing and going with the stereotypical conventions of this genre. By developing these conventions rather than challenging them it meant my overall video was more suited to my audiences in terms of its genre, genre being a significant factor in audience’s expectations of a music video and if I had challenged these too much it would have potentially decreased my target audience base.
In order to keep with this ‘positive’ theme the representation of the people participating in my video was key, going against the male gaze theory I displayed women progressively while my use of costumes in terms of colour added to the positive ‘feel’ of my video. The main message of my music video is a celebration of life and aspects of the world people find simply wonderful, by using bright colours such as yellows and pinks it enforced the youth in my video as well as how life shouldn’t be taken too seriously in terms of celebration and happiness. My camera movement and editing also reinforced this positive theme where I used fast cuts and several close up shots of people smiling and laughing to enforce their happiness. The use of fast cuts was also important in going with the tempo of the song and I made sure the editing was timed correctly with its pace.
In terms of both my digipack and magazine advert I followed a similar process that I did for my music video, specifically in terms of my album covers I researched the components which make a successful album pack. I looked at a variety of designs, belonging to a range of different genres and picked out those that I found successful and specifically what made them successful. I found that among the indie-pop genre typically more creative designs were used rather than just an image of the artists as for example in album covers belonging to the R and B genre. In order to gain a further understanding of my audience wants as well as their overall expectations of a digipack for this genre I created a poll on my blog, specifically asking the target audience which designs they felt worked most effectively and the majority answered that they preferred the use an unusual/ quirky design . Therefore directly based on my audiences wants I decided to come up with a creative design which interlinked with the albums name ‘missing piece’, by linking the album name with the overall design it gave my digipack some form of consistency which is important in creating a product more personal for target audiences. For my first cover I used a sideward image of the artist and combined this with a faded puzzle piece effect imposed over the top, because part of the role of the first cover is in advertisement and my product would be competing with thousands of others amongst the genre I made sure I used bold, loud fonts and colours such as reds and blacks, these not only stood out to audiences but through semiotics symbolically connoted dominance and supremacy. Even though I wanted to create a memorable design for my audiences it was important I didn’t only focus on the puzzle piece design itself and make sure the image stood out to attention too. That is why I decided to put a filter effect on the image and faded the puzzle pieces even more on my second draft. I kept this puzzle piece design across all of my products, by using the same design it allowed me to create an overall house style which made my product distinctive to its audiences. Therefore I utilised key conventions of this genre when creating all of my album covers however I developed these to directly link in with the artist and his own album.
The primary role of a magazine advert is in advertising both the artist and the album they are selling yet not giving too much away at the same time. Through my previous similar product research I found the key conventions of any music advert are the use of bold, dominating fonts which inform the reader basic details about the artist and album such as its release date as well as the use of a striking image. This overall makes the advert stand out to attention and therefore intrigues audiences to further research into the album and/ or artist. Specifically to my genre of Indie pop these type of magazine adverts offer the opportunity to provide a partial insight into the artists ‘personality’ and their individual ‘style’ of music. Their overall design is often more unique to both the album and artist than for example a generic r and b type magazine advert. I based my own advert on these conventions where I included a unique design which linked with the puzzle piece scheme I had created in my album covers, this was important in making my advert stand out as well as making it almost ambiguous, causing potential audiences to want to research into the album and artist. Additionally I kept a consistent house style across all of my ancillary products which allowed me to make my advert more personal to the artist and create an individual style related to all of my products.