1. In what ways do your mediaproducts use, developor challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
For my mediacourseworkIcreatedadigipak,musicvideoada website forapopmusicartist named
‘AvaJackson’.Whencreatingthese mediaproductswe lookedatthe conventionsof apopmusic
videoandpopmusicbasedmediaingeneral,tomake sure that our musicvideowasobviouslyapop
musicvideoandthat our digipakandwebsite wasalsoclearlyfromthe popmusicgenre.
I alsoensuredthatI made linksbetweeneachmediaproduct,focusingmainlyonmakingsure that
theyall shareda similarcolourscheme/themeandthattheyall heavilyfeatured‘AvaJackson’.This
was somethingthatInoticedwhenlookingatreal mediaproducts,notjustfromwithinthe pop
genre.The 1975 have everythinginblackandwhite.Thiscreatesanidentityandmakesitobvious
that theirwebsite,CDsandmusicvideosbelongtothem.
Music Video
My musicvideousedthe song‘Shake ItOff’byTaylorSwift,apop song.Thissong iswhat mygroup
and I thoughtwasa typical popsong.
We thenchose to have 3 characters inthe musicvideo,all playedbythe artist.
Thisis somethingthatoccursinthe popindustryandKaty Perry’sBirthdaymusicvideogave usthe
inspiration.Inthe videoKatyPerryplays5differentcharactersthatare commonlyassociatedwith
birthdayparties.
We knewthatout targetaudience wouldbe teenagegirls.Thisiswhywe chose tohave ‘Ava
Jackson’play3 typesof teenage girls.Thiswassothat ourtarget audience wouldbe able torelate to
the stereotypical charactersthatwe portrayed:Emo,popularandgeek.
2. We usedhowthese 3 typesof teenage girlsare portrayedinmediawhenchoosingwhatclothesthey
will wearandthe propsthat theywouldhave.
The filmSt.Triniansusesthese stereotypes:
The ‘Emo’ character wearsa lotof blackand has dark makeupon,the ‘popular’girl isshowntohave
longblonde hairandrelativelynatural lookingmakeupandthe ‘geek’characterisshowntobe
wearingglassesandhasherhair intwo messybuns.
We followedaconventionwhich isusedinlotsof musicvideos:narrative.We triedtomake sure
that our musicvideohada clearstory runningthroughoutthatour targetaudience would
understand.We chose tomake thisnarrative focuson the three differentcharactersgetting‘played’
by the same boy,and thentheyall findoutthat he actuallyhas a girlfriend.Thisisaveryjuvenile,
unlikely,exaggeratedsituationwhichisusuallydemonstratedslightlyinfilm, butwe thoughtthat
thistype of story iswhat wouldgetthe attentionof ourtarget audience astheyare at the age that
these situationsare dramaticandimportanttothem.We didhowevergoagainstthe generally
endingof thisstyle of story,where the male would‘getthe girl’,we chose tohave the focusona boy
‘messingthe girlsaround’.Thisplayedwiththe name of the song,‘Shake ItOff’,almostactingas
advice forthe audience.
In the musicvideoIuseda varietyof the differentconventionsthatAndrew Goodwinsaysfeature in
musicvideos,specificallyforpopmusicvideos.
We chose to have a contradictioninthe lyricsandvisualsaswhenthe lyricssay‘I stay outtoo late,
got nothinginmybrain’,we had out‘geek’charactersbeingshown,despite latershowingthatwe
have a ‘popular’character,whichshowsthe contrastin the stereotypes.Thisisbecause itis
expectedthatpopulargirlsare likelytostayout late andbe stupid,however,we chose tohave the
geekcharacter,whowouldbe expectedtobe the opposite.
We alsomade a linkbetweenthe musicandvisuals.Inthe songthere isa sequence of 3 claps,this
happenstwice throughout.We chose tohave a character shownclappingatthe same time asthis.
Thiswas to re-establishthe linkbetweenthe musicvideoandthe song.
3. We ensure thatwe keptto the characteristicsof the genre byfollowingthe conventionsof apop
musicvideo.We ensuredthatwe hadlotsof propsand that the storyhad narrative.We took some
inspirationfromTaylorSwift’smusicvideofor‘Love Story’.Inthisvideoitshowshertryingtogeta
boythat she likedtolike herback,despite hernotbeingpopular.Inthe videoTaylorplaysall of the
keyfemale characters.We however,didnothave amale feature inthe musicvideoandwe didnot
have one of the characters ‘win’the boy. We alsowantedtomake sure that‘Ava Jackson’wasthe
mainfeature inthe musicvideoanddidn’twantto have anythingelse thatwouldbe toodistracting.
ThisalsolinkswithGoodwin’sideathatthe demandsof the label canhave aneffectonthe music
videoasit isin the label’sinteresttohave the artistas the keyfeature inthe video.
We chose notto use the ‘emphasisof looking’ideainourmusicvideo.Thiswasbecause thiswould
not have benefited‘AvaJackson’because ourchosentargetaudience isteenage girls.
Digipak
For my digipakItriedtofollowconventionsof popmusicartists’digipaks/CDs.
I chose to have a close up image of ‘AvaJackson’lookingintothe distance.Althoughpopisgenerally
shownto be a ‘happy’genre of music,the majorityof popartists’CDs that I lookedatshowedthe
artistlookingquite serious.Ichose tofollow thisconventionasIwantedto make sure that my
digipakwouldbe easilyidentifiableasbelongingtoa popartist.
I alsousedclearfontfor the writingonthe frontof the digipak.Thiswasimportantasitis necessary
for the audience andpeople whomaynotknow whothe artistis to see clearlywhatCDit is.Thisis
generallyanindustrystandardwithonlyafew exceptionswhere anartist/bandhasn’tputtheir
name or image on the CD cover.
My digipakhaslotsof picturesall overof Ava whichisa convention,especiallywithpop,asa lotof
an artist’sbrandingiswiththeirimage.Ialsochose to have the lyricson the website,notonthe
digipak,whichchallengesthe general conventionof havinglyricbooks.Imade thisdecisionbecause
I thinkthat people are onlinealotmore so it wouldhelptocreate a linkbetweenthe digipakand
the website.
Website
I made sure that my website included the varietyof thingsthatpopmusicartists’websitesgenerally
include.Ialsomade sure that I keptwiththe ‘girly’colourscheme andwrote ina style of writingthat
youngteenage girlswouldunderstand,makingthe website appearasthoughit ismade directlyfor
them.
My website forAvaJacksonfeatured5mainpages:home,music,tour,aboutAvaand store.
I thenhave each page a differentsetof thingstoinclude.However,some of these thingsoverlapped
and some were settobe oneverypage to keep pushingcertainaspectsof the artist.Ihad social
medialinkssubtlyatthe bottomof each page but muchmore obviousonthe ‘useful info’page andI
had an image of the albumand ‘buyshake itoff now’showingoneverypage of the website.
4. Thisgenerallyfollowsthe conventionsof popartists’websites.Of the artiststhatI lookedatboth of
theirwebsitesfeature the majorityof thingsthatmywebsite features.Iensuredthatmywebsite
includedkeyfeaturesshowninall of the above including:tourdates,social medialinks,linkstobuy
musicand optionstowatch/listentothe musiconthe website,lotsof images,
I made sure to have a strongtheme throughoutmywebsite sothateachpage was clearlyfromthe
same website.Thisisaconventionof anywebsite.
