Using, Developing and Challenging Conventions

Using forms and conventions of real media products:-

Our music video:
*Represents the youth of today, as we found many music videos did. (such as The Kook's Naive)
*By dressing our central protagonist in typically ‘indie’ clothing, synergy was created between our bands genre and our music video, which also links to the idea of conformity.
*We decided to choose a grainer, more saturated effect. This style reflects the ideologies of our target audience who are attracted by vintage products and whose lifestyle is fashionably grittier. The effect was also employed by The Cribs' music video for 'The Mirror Kissers'.


My digipak:
*I have used the conventions that I have noticed from other real media products, in terms of layout, page design, fonts, text size variation, use of language and integration of illustration and text.
*I have conformed to the loose convention and ideology that an arty illustration rules over the inclusion of the protagonist from the music video.
*I have ensured that the most important information is presented larger in the design. For example, in other real media texts such as Delphic's debut album where their band's name is very large on the front page compared to the 'small print' on the back. I did a survey to find out which information the target audience seeked most and ensured that this was the boldest.
*I have ensured that the format of the digipak conformed to the industry's format.
*I created a complex design which was common in real media texts for the Indie genre. This was evident in Little Boots' album called 'Hands' and in Friendly Fires' debut, too. When collecting information from the survey on digipak designs, these complex designs were rated highly.
*Through researching bands' linking album covers and music videos: I found that a convention was that the faces of the bands - nor the representation of them used in the video - weren't used in the design of the digipak. Often, an interesting illustration was used instead. Therefore there was not much synergy between the album covers and music videos in real media texts. Hence, there is not much in mine (however there is on the other 3 sides)

My advertisement:
*Uses the conventions that I had found were common in real media texts. The information provided was particular to music advertisements that I had found in magazines like NME, which my target audience would read.
*The information provided was presented in a similar way to real media texts: for example the text sizes used varied and so did the fonts that were used.
*Similar to other adverts I've seen, larger fonts were used to promote the most important parts of information.
*Imagery in the background was common, and so I used this convention too.
*When comparing real media texts of advertisements and digipaks, I noticed that there was a strong link between the imagery, text and fonts used. For example, Marina & The Diamond's album cover design was used in the advertisement.
*I used phrases like 'Out Now!' which were evident in others I had seen.

Developing forms and conventions of real media products:-

Our music video:
*I was initially planning on adding a translucent layer of flickering stars onto my music video, however, my trial for Adobe Premiere Pro had expired.
*We noticed that saturation was fashionable by the way that Indie followers are interested in vintage. We used iMovie to go through each clip to add this effect.
*We used a 'Romantic' effect that was a preset on iMovie to improve the lighting, as it was filmed in a party atmosphere.
*We experiemented with camera movements that reflected the Indie followers lifestyle - carefree and lively. We saw some evidence of this is The Kook's 'Naive', which is where we found the inspiration. It also invites the viewer to feel as if they are at the party as it mimic their movements.

My digipak:
*I wanted it to appeal to my target audience as much as possible, and so made a survey to see what they were attracted to in a design.
*After having noticed and researched into the convention of the use of triangles, I decided to develop my design to fit it. I added these triangles to act as symbol of the Indie culture which the target audience could recognise and relate to.


My advertisement:
*I developed my design for the advertisement in the way that other real media texts tend to use the same layout of imagery and text for both the digipak and the advertisement. I did not adhere to this convention as the survey I complied showed that 87% were interested in the design being a reflection, but not necessarily a copy. Therefore, my advertisement uses the same imagery but in a similar (not identical) layout. To me, this is more effective as if I had used the same layout, it would have looked silly considering an advert has a different shape to a digipak.


Challenging forms and conventions of real media products:-

Our music video:
*We adopted a voyeuristic feel that is not evident in many media texts. It is difficult to find music videos that use jerky camera work, but initially we were inspired by the camera movements in the Skins' promotional video. Our sometimes exaggerated camera movements were embraced in our production as we felt that they reflected the madness of the party scene; the state of a tipsy youth; and the stereotypically jerky dance movements that are associated with Indie music followers. Our style is much grittier and careless when compared to the conventions of the highly polished Hip Hop music videos. This 'gritty' and 'careless'ness would appeal to the target audience who is between 0-35 (but mainly 16-25, says the survey) and belong to the 'indie' stereotype. This stereotyped group is often un-materialistic, spontaneous and un-vain, unlike the stereotyped R&B follower. Also, our jerky documentary style camera work contributed to the voyeuristic feel that we used to create realism.
*The music videos tended to feature the band members either performing or as the protagonist however due to the fact we downloaded our music from a copyright free website we are unable to feature the band.
*As our budget is a lot less, our mise-en-scene won’t be as professional looking; and our lighting will not be either. This could be argued that it makes it seem more realistic.Other real media texts would use more professional programs for editing the footage, and better quality equipment that offers a professional aesthetic. We were mainly limited by iMovie's amateur features. However, I was able to use Adobe Premiere Pro to create the introduction, using a complimentary trial of the program. This meant that I could attempt to mimic the special effect used in Ellie Goulding's video 'Under The Sheets'.


My digipak:
*Does not challenge the forms and conventions in many ways, except one. This is that many Alternative/Indie digipaks are often covered in a cardboard sleeve. My digipak does not have this feature.
*I did not want to challenge the conventions as it was important to me that the audience could recognise and relate to my product.

My advertisement:
*My advertisement does not challenge the forms and conventions in any way.
*I did not want to challenge the conventions as it was important to me that the audience could recognise and relate to my product.