A2 Media Studies EvaluationQuestion One

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media products (Music promotion video, Magazine advertisement and Digipak) all use forms and conventions that would be used in media products already on the market. For example; my Music promo video, the music that that I selected to create this video for is of the alternative rock genre,and, after researching into the topic (see previous blogger posts for research and conclusion) I found that there are several things that appear in alternative music videos and I had made note to include some of them into my own work (where appropriate.)

Such as: In my research I came across a theme which run across almost all of the real media products that I had used. There was a prominent use of the colours black and white in the videos, digipaks and magazine adverts; the colours would be used in production sections such as location for the video shooting, the costumes of the people acting in front of camera, use of text in the videos, digipaks and so on and in contrasts between light and dark. While this may only be a theme for the alternative/ rock genre of media I feel that it is very key is it was consistently used in the majority of examples I viewed and therefore I would consider it a quite important convention for the genre and perhaps the different medium separately.

So, I made sure that when I was planning my own music video and ancillary tasks (all the way in pre-production from initial idea and sketching possible shots, photos and text) the ways in which I could incorporate black and white into my pieces. When it came to filming my media piece and taking photographs for my other pieces I had planned various ways in which the colours would be included and these include a number of different places during production (Costume, lighting and location.)

For the costumes of the characters I made sure that they performed two things and I planned both – One, that they were realistic outfits that would actually be worn by teenagers and so it wouldn't stand out or look odd. And two, that they were dark enough that it would work with the black and white theme (See Lucy's dress and Luke's coats and jeans in the video) and so that it suited the alternative rock genre of the music.

I think that this worked well, however, when I look back over the video there isn't much white included in the character's costumes, just black. I think that this is balanced by the white from the light outside and that contrast which is shown in various scenes of the video – however, if I were to do it again, this is something that I would definitely consider and rectify.

The black and white them is also carried on with my lighting and locations. The lighting is mostly natural sunlight, and because of the overcast weather the sky was naturally white/ light grey which I had planned for and helped greatly with my production as it created a great natural light which I could use easily and effectively during the majority of my scenes (See the final two shots of the music video for an example of the contrast and black and white theme that I was aiming towards with my production, creating chiarscuro in my work.)

Location was also good as the outdoor has the black of the character's costumes against the natural light of the day, and indoor scenes I could control the amount of light with indoor lighting and the use of curtains and so on, these all helped to give the whole video a sense of the black and white theme which is demonstrated in my research materials (See blog posts.) and therefore follow at least one of the conventions I found.

I personally think that I have either developed or challenged conventions in one particular scene of the music video, in which the camera is used in a P.O.V (Point Of View) shot for the Luke character. Now, this is a type of shot which, from what I can tell from my research, is something which is generally avoided in music videos of any genre and yet I feel it is effective in getting across the mood of the music video more than another shot could have done in that particular instance.

So I support my use of that shot as I think it works very well in the rest of the video, also as it is just one shot on its own I think that it captures the mood even more. If I were to redo my music video I think that I would perhaps try and develop more interesting shots that aren't particularly “popular” in the media as sometimes it can have some interesting results in terms of cinematography.

I think another convention that I have followed very well is that there is a mixture between narrative and the band member(s) performing in the video. I had this idea from the very beginning of pre-production and planning, in my research I found a few examples of this from a variety of different genres so I feel this is key in the production of music video, regardless of genre or sub-genre.

For my magazine advertisement I have both followed and challenged conventions I feel. I followed the typical conventions and codes used in the industry by having a style very similar to the other parts of the promotion package (digipak and music video.) If you look at all of my products there is a clear theme that I have followed through between all of them, the theme I was aiming for to create consistency was that contrast and a significantly “dark” image.

I did this first by having a primary colour of black (fitting into my previous theme of black and white to suit alternative genres) and then having only fine details of lighter colours to draw a contrast and so that the various images didn't become dull to look at. The white lines and text I think have a very interesting effect and has a very different look to it than most other advertisements, and yet, it still works well and I think would work well if used.

My challenge of convention I feel is from my choice of images for my Advertisement and Digipak. The image of an artist's doll is very distinct and doesn't have a direct link to the genre of music, the song or the band. However, I think that the combined image of the doll and the protest sign give a very dark and “creepy” look to it which would link extremely well with the style of my music video which which would be considered dark, and would link well to the genre of alternative rock.

Also, I think that the originality of the image would work as a metaphor for my target audience who are, in essence, separated from the mainstream in terms of music taste, and would work well as a basis for advertisement as it hasn't been used before as far as I can tell (Though postmodernism would suggest otherwise, and in fact there is at least one other use of this on the market somewhere)