Evaluation Question 1

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

In Video Format

In Essay Format 

Music Video 

Music videos include long shots, mid shots and close ups to show the locations, artist and emotions. Our production uses all these with long shots showing the highways, scenic forests and sky, whilst mid-shots and close-ups show both characters and their emotions of the girl being happy shown by the smiling and the boy kicking the fence and looking sad showing has anger and unhappiness.
However, due to our production using scenic shots not the artist himself, it goes against the convention of many pop music videos, whilst we didn't use close ups which reflect the lyrics by showing them singing the song and portraying the artists emotion.

Furthermore, in the pop/dance genre, music videos are stereotypically quick paced with fast cuts to portray the tempo of the music, our music video has a slower verse and faster chorus, therefore, we conformed to this in parts but as the song got slower at the start and end I adapted the clips to being slower whilst the chorus I used quick, bright fireworks which flow with the fast tempo. The movement of the camera also usually tracks the artist with pans, cranes or tilt shots, however, most of our filming was still as we wanted time lapses which show the moving of time compared to the rest filmed in a 'home video' style as the girl is following her own journey after moving on. This shows the Todorov theory of  narrative where there is a disturbance and realisation however we don't use an equilibrium at the beginning and end. However, the shots of the boys are of him being filmed to show the contrast and all of his actions. In the production, we matched the style of other music videos by using jump cuts allowing a sudden change in scene.

The Mise - En - Scene in our music video uses a lot of scenery which can be conventional in some music video's however also goes against conventions as many music videos include the artist in all of the scenic locations or typical places such as beaches, bedrooms and cities which we did not use. Our music video uses more nature in our scenic shots because it sets the scene, whilst it is not a technique often used except in our genre. However, our production does use the convention of using a car scene which appears in many music videos.

For lighting, we decided to keep it bright making the production upbeat but in contrast, I added a filter to the boy's scenes making them appear duller and emphasising his emotion in being upset. The production matches the conventions of a pop/dance video in this sense as they are usually colourful for the carefree, cheerful parts and black & white or filtered for the heartbroken, depressed parts showing the boy as colours set the mood. For prop's we tried to make them modern and up to date that would attract the target audience of teenagers and young adults but also in usual music videos the celebrities put an influence on to the audience so it matches the conventions of the characters being on trend and relatable. Costumes also regularly change however this was not a noticeable feature in our production as much of the video focuses on the scenery.

Our production also matches the convention of following a stereotypical storyline of love, heartbreak and relationships.

Ancillary 
Digipak

When I created the ancillary tasks I tried to conform to many conventions that suited our genre.

The Digipak is designed to market the CD towards the target market. The audience will also use this to give them an idea if they will enjoy this genre of music as it usually connects to the artist/ topic of the music and gives an idea of the type of song e.g. happy / sad and a brand for the artist. Therefore I designed the digipak to portray this we used bright bold colours to show happiness whilst the spiral relates to the music itself appearing to move in an onwards motion as described by the song title. Using geometric shapes along with his block colours are conform to the conventions of a pop and dance song where many artists such as Clean Bandit and Calvin Harris opt to include these instead of images of themselves as this minimalistic design appears to be on trend. As Cartoon is not the vocals on the album it also conforms to not using the artist as the focus. Including the title and artists name this is a regular feature on a CD front cover. I also decided to keep the cover gender neutral so that it would widen our target audience as the song is not gender specific.

The back cover matches all conventions of a usual digipak with a simple background keeping all focus on the artists name at the top and then the songs centred in a list. There is also a barcode in the bottom right corner and the record label however we could not include any further legalities or writing as the song is non copyright so has less available about it. The night sky in the background also keeps the whole album design flowing throughout. The spine picks out the most prominent colour of the front cover with the font we chose for the artist and again simplistic keeping all focus on the song name which is clear.

Previous Attempts

I also designed two previous attempts of the digipak but I decided these did not conform to enough conventions whilst also looking unpolished and unprofessional. Both included links to our music video but did not conform to the usual CD covers. On the firework cover it appeared to busy whilst the jump did not give the correct effect of being joyful and looked more awkward. The font also did not seem as professional so we decided to use a different font in the finished product that could then be used throughout other products as part of the brand becoming a recognisable font for the audience.
On the second cover featuring the boy, we attempted to conform to a stereotypical CD cover featuring the artist which usually creates a sexualisation and appeal to the audience whilst the face again adds to the brand making the artist relatable however this image didn't portray this and the album looked unwelcoming from the dull colours whilst the font again did not look right.

 Magazine

We researched magazine covers so ours matched the conventions such as the artist being the focus of the front as this adds an appeal to the audience and by the boy looking straight at the camera it creates a more personal feel making the artist more relatable and adds a face for the brand that is developed throughout marketing. The photo of the boy also conforms to conventions as it is a mid shot which is often used by magazines however he is not sexualised which goes against many magazine covers where men may appear topless. We also decided to create the magazine using the house style therefore this cover conforms to the conventions of Billboard magazine whilst other music magazine vary in some not including side articles however this seemed important to include in ours as it shows how the audience's attention can be grabbed in other aspects such as the word 'win' whilst the bright colours stand out and catch the readers eye. As the second biggest font we included the artists name and a intriguing tagline that would make the reader more inclined to pick up. We also used Billboard as it conforms to the idea that the brand must be well known and memorable helped by the fact it is one word. We also included a barcode and information which appear on every magazine and a minor detail that makes the cover look more authentic.