1. Evaluation One
In what ways does your media
products use, develop or
challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?
2. Music Video
The music video that we created was for a unsigned rock band called ‘And The
Winner Is…’
To create the music video we decided to look at Goodwin’s theory. Goodwin
identifies 6 aspects that are in music videos:
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
2. A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals
3. A relationship between the music and the visuals
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of
the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly
voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference.
3. To follow these aspects I decided to look into similar artists and to
find out the conventions of a rock genre music video. I decided to
use the conventions that I discovered to make a performance based
music video that allowed the audience to obtain a live feeling of the
band and to make them recognisable.
I also came to this decision by looking at the lyrics. ‘And I'm still
wearing the same old shoes, Tracing my steps, pacing the same
old rooms, And I'm still staying in all night, Chasing the same
old ghosts i'll never find’. The lyrics are complicated and would
involve too many shots away from the band, and due to it being
their first video it would need to have a lot of establishing shots of
them, thus challenging the norm of some music videos by not
having a relationship with the lyrics.
4. Although, due to wanting to have a video that is
lively and energetic, an expression of the band,
we decided to create a relationship between the
visuals and music. The link was created by
having the shot change on the beat. This is
something similar to what is in the Paramore -
Ignorance video.
5. The conventions that I also came across were ones
that showed the rock bands performing in a range
of places from a tiny room to an empty
warehouse. I decided to challenge and conform to
the conventions of these music videos. The music
video conforms to the norm by having the music
video based in an abandoned barn. However, it
also challenges the conventions. Within the barn
there are bizarre farming equipment that we used
to make interesting shots.
6. To hint at a rock genre we added a black and white
filter, we did this as black and white is a
stereotypical theme in a rock music videos. An
example of this is the Just Because music video by
Funeral Party. When we added the black and white
it didn’t have any depth, so to increase it we altered
the clip to have a higher contrast.
This still also has similar properties to
another music video by Funeral Party,
Finale. The video shows the band breaking
into abandoned houses to play their music.
It’s also similar to the Arctic Monkey’s video
where they are simply playing on a stage,
however the way it’s filmed is entertaining.
From this we decided to create our music video
in a similar way. Although we also choose a
similar setting we found unique props that
would make the video more interesting.
7. We didn’t just rely on the props to make
interesting shots, but it certainly helped.
The still on the left would have been the
same kind of shot that music videos have
of guitars, however from having the
machinery behind him the shot is able to
capture the audiences attention as they
look at the strange props.
Nevertheless with this image we didn’t
use any of the machinery just the band
members to create a unique shot. The still
shows how we have developed a
stereotypical shot of the lead singer, into
a captivating and unique shot. This is
done by simply having the bassist stand
on the drum.
8. To create a relationship between the music and the
visuals, we decided to change shot on the beat. This is
a conventional theme in music videos, we decided to
use this approach because of how effective it was on
the Arctic Monkeys and Funeral Party videos.
Through editing the video in this way we were able to
create an energetic theme that showed how lively the
band are and how great they would be to see live. This
was mainly due to not using transition effects, by
using simple cuts it kept with the fast beat and
created the vibrant theme.
9. Overall we developed original conventions of
music videos so that we were able to challenge the
norm. This was done through the selection of the
location, shots and editing.
However we did conform to using conventions, a
main tradition for filming bands is to have close
ups of the lead singer and some of the other band
members. I felt that this is something we need to
do for an unsigned band as it allows the audience
to become more familiar with them.
10. Digipak
The digipak was created using photoshop, which allowed me to be creative
and experimental with what digipak would best suit the band. I had put
together two full digipaks and gathered a random group of people to
decide which one had an energetic feel. The group decided on the one above.
The black and white suggest its is created for the genre of rock as this is
one of there conventions. The scribbles on the lines and the CD suggest the
vibrant music and also hint at a rock theme. The abbreviation of the
bands name shows that they are young and trendy.
For this product I used conventions of digipaks to make it effective and
capture the views attention and make them instantly know whats the
bands genre.
11. CD advert After looking into a wide range of digipaks and
albums I found a correlation, both have the same
theme. Due to this I decided to follow the
convention, but to develop it in a way that made
it unique. To make it unique and standout
from the rest I have added shadows to give it a 3D
effect, causing attention to be attracted.
I have also kept with the convents that are used,
release date, name, album or single name, quote,
where to go to get more information and where to
buy.
The ripped paper and the black and white all hint
at the rock genre. The colour is used to attract
attention, this is a technique used frequently
with adverts