Media evaluation question one

In what ways does your media product

useuse, developdevelop or challengechallenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Amelia O’Callaghan

For our A2 Media Studies we had the task of creating a Music Video along with two

ancillary tasks (Digipak and Poster/Magazine Advert). We chose to

create a music video from the ‘Pop’ genre and made sure our ancillary tasks fitted

the conventions.


Our Task

Generally I feel our music video and ancillary tasks used and developed the

conventions from the ‘Pop’ genre, however throughout this PowerPoint I

have carefully analysed each section of the music video to conclude how my

media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

media products.

Our Record LabelWithin our genre of ‘Pop’ we researched what the most popular record labels were, (below are the logos of these companies) we found that the one used by Little Mix, the group whose song we have

chosen, was called ‘Syco Music’.

We thought that this company would be appropriate as it worked mainly with artists from the ‘Pop’ genre.

Therefore I feel we have use conventions of real media products as many famous ‘Pop’ groups have a

known record label.


NarrativeWhen researching ‘Pop’ genre music videos we looked at the

types of narrative that were used, we discovered that many didn’t include narratives, such as Sugarbabes ‘Push The Button’,

Stooshe ‘Love Me’, and even our chosen song Little Mix ‘Wings’. We did however choose to include a narrative within our media product as there are music videos such as Taylor Swift ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ and Carly Rae Jepson ‘Call Me Maybe’ that

include them within theirs.


A clip of narrative from our music video

A clip of narrative from Taylor Swift: 'I Knew You Were Trouble’ music video.

NarrativeAfter deciding to add a narrative we decided what we

wanted the storyline to be. This is where I feel we developed forms and conventions of real media products

as we not only included a narrative but developed it in order to fit our song lyrics. This also supports the theory of

Andrew Goodwin that ‘Music videos are simply an extension of the lyrics’.

The storyline we chose was of a young girl getting bullied. Above is a animated storyboard I created to help get an

idea of the characters relationships. Amelia O’Callaghan

NarrativeThe majority of narratives within the ‘Pop’ genre include the artists themselves, however we went against this as we felt by presenting the song to be aimed at younger girls and applying this in our music video we will be able to able to create a rapport with the audience.


A clip of narrative from our music video

A clip of narrative from The Saturdays: ‘What About Us’ music video.

CostumeWhen it comes to the costume I feel this is where both our music video and ancillary pieces challenged the traditional forms and conventions of

real media products. Whilst researching the ‘Pop’ genre we became aware that the clothes worn tended to be revealing and provocative. We had already decided that we wanted to aim our song at young girls an therefore we have challenged the stereotypical outfits of pop and gone

for outfits that would be considered suitable for young girls to follow after. Here and on the next slide you can see the comparisons between

real media products costumes and our own.


The Saturday’s ‘What About Us?’ Music Video

Our Music Video

Short shorts/skirts

Accessories (hat, necklace, bracelets etc.)

Crop tops (lots of flesh on

show)

JewelleryTrousers

Fashionable tops, yet not

revealing.

CostumeA picture used in our DigipakA picture used in Pixie Lott's

Digipak

Lots of flesh on show

Fashionable clothes,

yet not provocati

ve

Male Gaze – cleavage visible

Although wearing a skirt, leggings are also worn – not as

much flesh revealed.

Lots of make up applied

Lipstick apparen

t but generall

y a natural look.

Hair style is natural and achievable

for an audience

(rather than extensions)

Hair style looks dyed and have extensions


LocationThroughout our performance shots of our music video we kept them to studio shots. I think that this both uses forms and conventions of real

media product but also goes against them as the ‘Pop’ genre does include shots of artists singing outside of the studio, for example ‘The Saturdays – What About Us?’. Below are the shots of our performance

shots along with some professional media products.


The Saturday’s ‘What About Us?’ – Performance Shots Outside of Studio

Cheryl Cole ‘Fight For This Love’ – Performance Shots in a Studio

Our Performance Shots in the

Studio

LocationFor our narrative shots we used the school location as it fitted with our

narrative. I believe this does conform to the genre as most narrative are filmed in cohesion with their location. Below are the print screens of our

narrative shots along with some professional media products.


Lady Gaga ‘’Bad Romance – Narrative Shot

Taylor Swift – ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ – Narrative Shot

Our Performance Shots in the

Studio

Shot types that are used within the ‘Pop’ genre can vary from long shots to extreme close ups. We wanted to use a variety of shots in our own

music video which I feel use the conventions of real media products but also develops them. For example when researching we found the music video ‘Jar of Hearts’ by Christina Perri that has a camera movement on a narrative section. We decided to use this and progress it by making the camera move along the group whilst we were singing. Although I cannot show the movement the arrows represent the movement of the camera:


‘Jar of Hearts’ by Christina Perri Our Music Video

Shot Types and Camera Movements

Shot Types and Camera Movements

We also used shot types such as close ups, extreme close ups and mid shots, the use the conventions of a real media product as they are

commonly seen and used within music video’s of the ‘Pop’ genre. Here are some screen shots comparing shot types of real media products and

our music video.


‘Do It Like A Dude’ – Jessie J Our Music Video

Extreme Close Up

Close Up

Mid Shot

‘Die Young’ – Ke$ha

‘Fight For This Love’ – Cheryl Cole

Poster


The poster we created stays

very much true to the conventions

of ‘Pop’ magazine advert. The

colours, fonts and pictures are all

very stereotypical of Pop and I think help to represent our new group.

We have kept the ongoing

theme of pink present and the picture clearly shows a young

group.

We have used a gradient

background for the poster

which again continues onto

the Digipak, creating a sense of

continuity throughout our ancillary tasks.

Our poster contains the

key ingredients of a advert right down to the

critic reviews which I

believe gives it a

professional feel.

Our Final Poster

Poster Advertising:

Rihanna Poster Advertising: The

Saturdays

Poster

Image of the digipak cover

The name of the group

centred at the top.

Mentions new album Large picture

of the artists

Here you can see the comparisons between

our Poster and real media products…

We chose a colour theme

for our Digipak

which was pink as we

felt this was appropriate

for our target audience of

girls aged 11 -16 years old.

Here are some images of what ‘Pop’ Digipak/CD covers look like and how

ours compare.

DigipakWe added a competition to our Digipak as many Pop artists try to connect with their young fans by encouraging them to visit the website and buy ‘fan’ merchandise.

The pictures we used were very friendly looking and we feel due to the costume and general look of the

album will appeal to our target audience of 11-16 year old girls.


DigipakI believe that our Digipak uses the forms and conventions of real media products

extremely well and the result of this is a professional looking Digipak. We did lots of research before creating the Digipak and I feel that this has paid off.

Through the research of ‘Pop’ Digipak’s I found that they had a ‘fun’ appeal to them and also included lots of photos of the artist. I have briefly analysed he

images below as the do include features that we used in our Digipak.


Little Mix CD Cover

Mariah Carey CD Cover

Our Digipak

Name clearly shown

All Smiling

Bright Colours Used

Media evaluation question one

Entertainment & Humor

Transcript of Media evaluation question one