I N W H AT W AY S D O E S Y O U R M E D I A P R O D U C T U S E , D E V E L O P O R C H A L L E N G E F O R M S A N D C O N V E N T I O N S O F R E A L M E D I A P R O D U C T S ?

I S A B E L L A R O S E W O O L G E R

W H AT A R E F O R M S A N D C O N V E N T I O N S ?

- A media convention can be defined as a set of clues in media texts that allow the audience to identify its meaning. For example, when the setting of a film consists of a desert with horses and cowboys the

audience will immediately be able to identify the film as a “Western Film”.

- A media form can be described as the way in which a media product is presented or the overall shape it takes

E.g A music video or a comic book.

F O R M S A N D C O N V E N T I O N S A P P L I E D T O O U R O W N M E D I A P R O D U C T.

- In the production of our own music video we drew inspiration and used these three conventional building blocks that consisted in

performance, lip sync and stylistic elements.

- Many music videos follow these three popular conventions in order to ensure success as these conventions generally have in the past.

Forms and Conventions in our video

C L O S E - U P S We used the convention of close-ups showing the star lip-syncing in order to build recognition for the artist as well as helping the audience associate the artist

with the song. However in regards to our music video we did this by shooting a brightly exposed face that is projected onto a rough surface to emphasise the way in which the artist is not aiming to look beautiful. This is a less conventional way of portraying a star’s image as in most music videos (Eg, Lady Gaga in Judas or

Katy Perry in Wide awake) close-ups are used in order to emphasised the stars beauty. Our Video

Katy Perry in Wide AwakeLady Gaga in Judas

C L O S E - U P S A N D M I D - S H O T S• A typical convention that is used many contemporary music videos is

the use of close-ups and mid-shots to emphasise sexual imagery and sexual movement, for example, in Lana del Rey’s Born to Die music video where the idea of a dangerous sexuality is highlighted. This convention is used often as it appeals to many teenage audience members who are at a stage in their lives where sex is a dominant thought. During the footage filming process we used extreme close-ups of our dancers hands touching one of the male figures in the video.This highlighted the sexual imagery of the video which conforms to the contemporary music video conventions. By conforming to this convention through the use of camera we embodied the value of the artist portraying dark and dangerous sexual imagery. Even though we took inspiration from this particular example that would work with our specific genre, the use of sexual imagery through camera is a convention that is used across many different genres.

Lana del Rey in Born to Die

Our Music Video

L I G H T I N G Another convention in the dubstep genre that can

be seen across all music videos in this particular genre is that of dark lighting. The dark lighting is

used in order to create a mystifying, dark and dangerous atmosphere that matches the

soundtrack.

Centipede by Knife PartyOur music video

The convention of dark lighting used in the Emalkay and Knife Party video, we also used in our own music video in order to recreate the effect of nightclub or rave which will effectively appeal to

our young target audience.

Forms and Conventions in the edit

E D I T I N GIn our music video we conformed to a widely used convention

within our genre in the edit of the music video.

We used very fast paced editing which helped to emphasise the fast beat and fast rhythm of the music. It also made the video look

“trippy” reinforcing a drug culture convention seen very often within the dubstep genre.

The idea of fast paced editing also created an unpredictable visual element which helped keep the audience entertained and intrigued.

We took inspiration from other music videos in the dubstep genre such as Skream by Nefariousa and Emalkay by Crusader in regards to the editing. In these music videos the fast cut editing pace has been used in the way that each shot lasts a very short amount of time (around 2 -6 seconds) which is exactly what we have done in

ours.

E D I T I N G C O N T I N U E D• Our music video also conforms to a dubstep genre convention in the edit in which

discontinuity editing is used through the abundance of jump cuts. This disorientates the viewer giving them the sense that they are “tripping”. The portrayal of drug culture is very stereotypical of this specific genre which we have conformed to. An example that we had researched before the production of the music is Moodswings by Swindle. This is done through constant jump cuts between different shots throughout the video which we did in our music video much like they have in this example.

Images of jump cuts

from the music video of the

song “Moodswings"

by Swindle

Images of jump cuts from our music video

S Y M B O L I C C O N V E N T I O N S

“Generically specific conventions that embody entirely different values and ideals. Their

symbolic appearances attempt to create their meanings for a target audience.”

P E R F O R M A N C E E L E M E N TRegarding the performance element of our music video we conformed to the conventions of using

dancers which is seen in most music videos regarding the “dubstep” genre (For example in Skrillex’s video Ragga Bomb) to emphasise the rhythm of the music. Dancers are widely used as a

performance element in many music videos in order to enhance the musicality of the song and arguably to promote sales of concert tickets.

Ragga Bomb by Skrillex (left), Crazy in Love by Beyonce (right).

D I R E C T A D D R E S SThis is a widely used convention across all music genres where the performer looks directly into the camera and hence breaking the fourth wall. As we can see from the example of Taylor Swift’s music video (bottom left) the convention is used to highlight the artists beauty and create an intimacy between artist and audience. Even though our music video conforms to this convention in the fact that our artist looks directly at the

camera while lip-syncing, the fact that it is done through projections creates a bit more distance between audience and artist and does not highlight our artists beauty as much as the Taylor Swift music video does.

M A K E - U P The bold and colourful make-up we used in our music video was quite unconventional within

our genre as most music videos use make-up in order to enhance the beauty of the artist.

Whereas in our music video we used the make-up in order to portray the tribal theme which is part of our artists branding, which gives her a

unique identity. Even though this was unconventional concept it has been done with other artists that we found upon research such

as Lady Gaga (bottom right).

Forms and Conventions in the Digi-Pack

D I G I - PA C K F R O N T C O V E R

• In regards to the front panel of our album cover we decided to go against the convention of our genre and rather than having a techno picture (which is typically used by dubstep DJ artists such as Deadmau5 and Skrillex as seen below) we used a photographic picture from one of the stars photoshoots. We then edited the photos in black and white giving the false sense of classical music that is juxtaposed with the festival, tribal make-up worn by the star. We specifically decided to use these images in order to appeal to our female teenage target audience. As most teenagers are festival goers we felt that the fact that the star was wearing make-up predominantly worn at festivals would appeal to them.

——>Inside panel on the back of the

front panel with details of artist and

other roles and accreditations that

went into the production of the

album.

W H O L E D I G I - PA C K

F R O N T A N D B A C K PA N E L S O F D I G I PA C K

D I G I - PA C K C O N T I N U E D

I T I S N O T C O N V E N T I O N A L F O R A D J T O B E S E E N O N T H E F R O N T O F T H E I R A L B U M U N L E S S T H E Y A R E V E R Y S U C C E S S F U L . E . G D AV I D

G U E T TA ( B O T T O M L E F T ) I S O F T E N S E E N O N T H E F R O N T O F H I S A L B U M C O V E R .

D I G I - PA C K B A C K PA N E L • I also wanted to portray a very controversial female star

image which led to the creative decision of using a picture of her smoking that I used on the back panel of the digi-pack. This helped us support the hedonistic theme that runs throughout. I drew inspiration from one fo Arctic Monkeys album covers (bottom left).

Forms and Conventions in the Website

W E B S I T E H O M E PA G EWhen designing our website home

page we were inspired by two artists from the same genre; Skrillex and Knife party. A convention that can be seen on

many artist’s websites is the use of a banner at the top of the site in order to

make it easier for navigation. We conformed to this convention and

added a banner at the top of our own website. As you can see in the example

of the Skrillex website home page (below left) red forms a big part of the colour scheme. We liked this idea and

therefore decided to use a similar colour scheme, however without the green as we didn't want the green

colour to distract the audience from the images of our artist.

Skrillex Website homepage

Our Website homepage

W E B S I T E H O M E PA G E C O N T I N U E DUpon research we found that most artists websites directly open

up to a home page such as Azealia Banks’ website. As a group we decided to go against this convention and created and “enter site”

page that the you have to go through before entering into the homepage which arguably enhanced individuality of our artist.

Azealia Banks website home page

The “enter site” page before reaching official homepage of our website.