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

Video
After analyzing multiple music videos form the appropriate genres (indie and singer/songwriter) I was able to identify a few codes and conventions that arise in modern music videos in general and of these genres. Using knowledge and stereotypes I already knew of as well as these newfound conventions I was able to create a music video that wouldn’t seem out of place amongst other music videos and would appeal to my target audience and meet their expectations.

My music video is a combination of both a performance of the song and an acted out storyline depicted in the lyrics. This follows conventions for music videos as the majority also have both performance aspects and a storyline thus enabling the video to appeal to a wider audience. The performance sections of my video take inspiration from Mumford and Son’s “Little Lion Man” video and Jay Brannan’s “Body’s a Temple” Video which both use the lighting in their videos to make more aesthetically attractive shots through glare and over-exposed shots. This means that the video I created complies with the expectations of both indie and singer/songwriter fans who expect similar effects in a video designed for these genres making it more appealing. I also took this further by introducing these effects into the transitions between cuts to make them more interesting and by applying effects like light disks and overlaying footage- all of which don’t seem out of place because they aren’t too dissimilar from the glare effects, but distinguish my video from the others making it more likely to trend on social media site and be watched by a larger audience. The pull focus effect is common place in music videos and appeared in many that I analysed for example Mumford and Sons “The Cave” and Jay Brannan’s “Body’s a Temple” therefore making it well suited to the video I was creating which already had multiple effects. Even though the pull focus feature more in the storyline aspects of both of the for mentioned videos I feel it worked well and generated curiosity in the performance footage as many of the shots would have been to similar and therefore dull otherwise.

As well as more professional lighting I also used candles which feature in Adele’s video “Rolling in the Deep” as I also wanted to create an emotive atmosphere and soft lighting. Candles are often used in music videos of this nature, especially singer/songwriter videos, as they are associated with deeper, more poignant footage that is often sad or reflective and as Taygan is reflecting on the relationship in the song she is singing which has a sad overtone it is even more appropriate.  As a result the video I created is well suited to this genre and follows industry stereotypes and conventions.

The lighting in the performance is dark and more saturated than the storyline footage following suit of videos like Jay Brannan’s “Body’s a Temple” and Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” as I wanted to evoke a similar emotional effect that is engendered by using black and white shots. The reason I didn’t use a black and white filter on the footage was because I didn’t want to have half the footage in black and white and the rest in colour as it creates discontinuity and I found the “Body’s a Temple” video dull after a while so I wanted to maintain as much visual diversity as possible to keep the viewers interested.

Mise-en-scene was also very important to the video as many of the fans of both the indie genre and singer/songwriter genre said they preferred a video that doesn’t detract form the song itself and allows the viewer to concentrate on the song. Therefore the TV studio was ideal as it was already simplistic but the shopping centre was more of a challenge. As we were filming after the centre was closed we had little distraction from other people but the advertisements around the centre are designed to attract peoples attention and therefore distract the viewer temporarily during the video.

Mumford and Son’s “Little Lion Man” video uses a 360 shot which I found interesting as it is not common in generic music videos and consequently breaks with convention. It took this shot a step further and merged multiple shots at the end of my video to give a similar 360 effect but with less uniformity therefore breaking with industry stereotypes.

Digi Pack
The digi pack was designed with the theme of love as a start point as it is the core component of the song. Love is often a theme when designing music memorabilia and artwork as artists often write songs about there emotions and life experiences which obviously includes love and heartache which is not only identifiable for fans but makes them more willing to listen to the album as they feel they have a rapport with the band/artist. Therefore by including this widely used theme the album will also reap from theses benefits and comply with convention. However it is also crucial to make the album stand out on the shelf so I used Banksy’s iconic artwork which is already widely recognised to catch the publics eye and introduce Taygan’s song to a wider audience. It was important to make sure that the album remained quirky so by using Banksy’s work the cover already breaks with convention and creates a hype but the back cover shows only Taygan’s feet implying that she is flying away with the balloon. This extra eccentric touch fits with indie album conventions as Of Monsters and Men also have a juxtaposing strange man wearing a pink mask inside their album creating interest.

The personal message featured inside the digi pack is common in albums as bands and artists are more and more conscious of appealing to their fans personally to compete with other acts and increase there social networking presence.

Lyric books are expected inside digi packs and often feature photos of the band or artist which depict their personality or tours therefore making the album seem more personal and once again more attractive to their fans. I have hence tried to do the same when designing my digi pack lyric book so that the album fits with convention and is tailored to my target audience as much as possible.

Poster

The aim of the poster/ magazine pull-out is to advertise the album whilst presenting the brand images as appealing. The design for the poster mirrors the CD digi pack creating an instantaneous link when the viewer sees the album or alternatively making the album easier to spot. The design is essentially and expanded version of the cover with the addition of quotes from accredited music critics and an album release date- all of which stereotypical elements of a poster advertising an album. The quotes help imply a high quality product and encourage viewers to buy the album. The box showing the album release date is purposely red which draws the readers eye as it is the most eye catching colour on the page and is a colour swatch of the balloon. Like the other posters I analysed a hierarchy of text size is applied implying that the album name is the most significant piece of information followed by the artists name and so on etc.

However unlike the other posters I analysed (Maximo Park- “Quicken the Heart” and The Verve- “Fourth”) the background image isn’t just a generic pretty picture it shows Taygan herself adding a personal element to the design and adding further benefits discussed in the digi pack evaluation for example reaching a wider audience. Therefore it can be said that my poster design breaks with convention in this respect. On the other hand the poster by Future Selves for “Transfer” also shows the band implying that this is common for music album release posters but the band aren’t portrayed in such a quirky way suggesting that the design is still unique and therefore more captivating.