In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

QUESTION 1: • Looks at the researching of the music industry.• How I have chosen to reflect those forms and conventions through the production stages

of my music artist. • This would include the constructing of my own music video, which would feature my artist

as well as well as the making of a digipak and website.

TALK ABOUT:• How did research help to construct my artist?

• Website Analysis• How did I decide to do my website? WHY?

• Digipak – what is a digipak?• Does digipak reflect my research?

• What elements make up a typical music video?• Did I decide to conform or subvert my research? WHY?

During my researching of the music industry, I came across various areas that I thought I could replicated in my own style for my music video, website and digipak. Each aspect helped to construct my R&B/Hip-Hop duo, Indigo as a real up and coming group.

I’ll be discussing how and why I chose to reproduce some conventions to bring my artist to life as well as 2 media conventions; - Mise-en-scene- Editing

Artist Representation: Jock

When analysing various music videos, I noticed that those with some form of love narrative contained a relationship as the storyline, whether it being a break-up or ‘hook-up’. I thought that this would work well for my artist duo as I could have them both be part of the plot.

For clothing, I wanted to have my artist replicate an urban, youthful demographic. This led me to look at clothing that denoted them as young teens but have colours that connoted the emotions shown at the time. An example of this is Jock (the male) seen wearing a grey and black coat, representing feelings of depression due to his relationship crisis.

Within that exact same shot, I had Jock look out towards the sky-scraping buildings seen in the background. With this done, I could introduce the concept of an urban environment.

During the latter part of my video, I showed shots of the two arguing at home. To show this, I had arranged the room to show household props, such as a TV, Sofas, curtains etc.

I got this idea from analysing Neo’s video, Mad, where it shows him and his girlfriend having arguments at home. Due to this, I thought that replicating this would help set a similar theme. However, instead of having put the argument at only the start of the video, I had snippets go throughout, reinforcing the narrative with the song.

Artist Representation: DanellaFor Danella, I wanted her to subvert forms of sexual appeal in music videos, usually having females shown in explicit clothing. Countering this idea was so that instead of having drawn attention to her physical attributes, I wanted her ability to play the piano to be referred to just as much as her looks.

This being said, though, I still wanted her to still have some attractive charm and appeal. Therefore, having her wear clothing that complimented her figure as well as having her tie her head back then down later down, showing a natural endearing appearance.

As well as this, I thought that having her way no make would signify a natural, pure persona.

MISE-EN-SCENE

In terms of mise-en-scene, my music video was to have aspects that reassembles an urban environment within the UK. This was so that my target audience was to find direct appeal and connection with my artist seen in the video.

to make similarities between individual videos to create a hybrid music video that could be identified as an R&B/Hip-Hop video as much as possible based on the visualsI’ll be discussing elements of my video such as background, clothing and colours between individual videos that helped me create a hybrid music video that could be identified universally as an R&B/Hip-Hop music video.

Conforming – Piano Comparison

During my video analysis, I noticed that there has been an increase in musicians performing with their instruments in music videos recently, such as Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys and Clean Bandit

I thought that Alicia Keys would be the best to gain inspiration from. One influential video that I wanted to relate to was Jay Z ft. Alicia Key’s, ‘Empire State of Mind’.

Conforming – Clothing Comparison

Another feature in the video was the use of background props. Putting the ‘Empire State’ building in the background helps to establish the videos location.

This for me, not only sets location but can also reveal an artist culture and town to an audience.

Influences from the same video came from analysing Jay-Z in conjunction to my artist, Jock.

Looking at his costume, Jay-Z has a snapback hat on along with a buffed coat. The use of clothing can be also seen as a demographic styling of rappers. That being said, having Jock seen in this format would connect with his temperament.

Subverting – Location & Positioning Comparison

When looking through Alicia Key’s iconic videos, I found her song, Fallin’ quite interesting. Having her shot on bus could done with either gender. Instead of having Danella in this shot, I thought that that having Jock here would better in the narrative as Danella is seen still with saddened look, whilst Jock would be shown on a bus; as if constantly thinking about her.

Alicia Keys is seen playing her piano standing at key moments that go alongside with the music.

Therefore, I thought that I could show this but having her sit down instead as it seemed more suitable to the characteristics of the song.

Editing

For editing, I’ll be discussing my editing styles and ordering and the reasons for those specific features. I’ll also be referring to examples from other music videos that influenced my video.

Time Lapse

When representing time, I wanted convey a long period which denoted a location similar to where my artist was placed.

This also helped me to show a change in scenery and location for Jock as the video varies from him shot during the early day to later afternoon.

Title Sequence

For my title sequence, I wanted to look towards finding a font similar to Kanye West’s all of the lights video as it create a hip/hop themed style. To a degree, I chose to use this type of font but challenge it at the same time by having the words transparent, to foreshadow the establishing shot coming up.

Fade Transition

To gain a flowing transition with different angles of my artist, I wanted to replicate Chrisette Michelle’s Epiphany video.

This meant that I would go from close-up shots to shots of her either on the piano or in a different location to show the difference in her emotion.

The Digipak

Digipak covers are one of the primary aspects in expressing the career of a music artist. I will be discussing digipak’s that I thought went well as well as reasons for choosing them as my inspiration.

Colour Influence

Neo Soul group, Floetry had a huge inspiration on colouring for my album. As they are a duo themselves, I thought that having a similar colouring may help to be referred to that form of genre. This being said though, instead of copying the colouring exactly, I wanted to have it as a small form of colouring, creating a sunset effect with colouring that referred to a normal sunset with the importance of the colour still being seen.

Artist Configuration/ Positioning

With colouring dealt with, I thought that I should feature my artist in some shape or form in the album art. This led me to look at famous front covers such as Drake’s, well known, Nothing Was the Same, album cover.

This iconic album seemed to show relevance to the type of album I wanted to create. With that in mind, I thought that constructing the album to have both Jock and Danella’s bodies towards each other.

I thought this worked well as Drake’s album has a similar thought in mind, only his younger self is shown on the back cover, not the front. Therefore, any thoughts on copying the album directly can be.

The Website

Having artist websites allow for audiences to gain more of a connection with the artist. It shows them what they are like when not in music videos and what type of person they truly are. It also allows for them to keep in touch with exclusives from the artist as well as merchandise and events that may be happening.

Colouring Comparison

For my website, I wanted to construct it so that it had connections to the album.

This led me to introduce the front cover but with a slightly tint that represented more of an Indigo colour.

In conclusion

In conclusion, I analysed various aspects of media products so that I could introduce them into my own. This helped to bring my products to life by having similarities and my own ideas link.