A2 Music Production: 2015

Written evaluation

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

When planning and filming our music video we made sure that we kept in mind the typical conventions that are used in professional music videos. We also looked at Andrew Goodwin’s codes and conventions and made sure we included as many of them as possible. We thought that one of the most important conventions was ‘’there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals’’ my group decided to do a concept based video but we also made sure that most of the visuals and lyrics had a link. Our song is mostly about teenagers doing what they want and the main lyric is ‘’everybody want kicks like me, everybody wanna to get like me’’ when thinking of the concept of the video we kept these lyrics in mind and decided to base it around teenagers doing what they want for example smoking and drinking alcohol and being ‘’free’’. We also did quite a lot of close up shots of the artist, this was another of Andrew Goodwin’s conventions and it allows the audience to see the artist’s facial expressions and body language, this sells his star image to the audience. We also challenged some of Andrew Goodwin’s conventions, we did not use things such as intertextual references and voyeurism.

The genre of our music video is a mixture of both indie and rap. When we picked the song we did some research in to what the typical conventions of indie rap music videos are and tried to include some of these when we filmed our music video. We decided to follow most of the indie music conventions since we thought they suited our artist and concept better than mainstream rap music conventions. Rap music videos almost always usually include lots of expensive cars, jewellery and are centred around money whereas indie is much more relaxed. The conventions we used were filming outside, we decided to film on a rooftop because it was a good place to represent the teenagers ‘’freedom’’. We dressed our main artist in urban style clothing and told all of the other people in our video to try and dress in the same kind of style as it matches our genre. The clothing they wore represented them being able to do what they want without having to think about what others are going to think of them.

Before creating my albums advert and digipack I had to research the typical codes and conventions to make sure I could include them when creating my own. The main conventions of an album advert are things like a bold title for the artist’s name, a main image of the artist and text that advertises the album. I have included all of these, I made sure the title was big and I also did it in a bold colour so the audience’s attention was immediately drawn to it. The image I have used is also very large so that the audience can clearly see my artist, he is looking directly in to the camera which makes it much more effective, it also makes the audience feel a more personal relationship with the artist, and they are able to see his facial expression and body language. I also included other conventions such as the links at the bottom, I used a link to iTunes and the record labels website. To promote the album further I included the name of one of the popular tracks from the album, this means when the audience recognise the song they will be more interested in buying the album, I made sure this was also written in large bold font and also in another colour so they could see it clearly. At the bottom of my album adverts I included reviews from music magazines, for example ‘’very original, complex’’ this gives the audience an opinion of the album from people who know what they are talking about, which again makes them more interested in getting the album.

When making my digipack I wanted to ensure that it caught my audience’s eye and showed my artists personality. The typical conventions of digipacks are things such as a main image on the front cover, a track list on the back and more images on the inside of the case. I have included all of these, the front image I used is a close up of the artist, he is wearing sunglasses which makes him come across as quite mysterious, the fact that the audience cannot see his eyes can make it seem like he is hiding behind them, this could connect to the concept behind our music video of the artist not being able to be himself until they are up on the rooftop. The mysterious vibe can intrigue the audience, making them want to find out more about him. I included the artists name and the title of the album on the front cover too. The main colours I have used on my digipack are orange and black. The track list at the back is very simple and has a black background with white text, I did this so that the writing stood out. There is also the barcode on the back which is another typical convention. The CD has another image of the artist and also the other typical conventions such as the record labels logo, the title and name of the artist. I decided to include another image of my artist on the inside of the digipack and above it I included a quote which is also a lyric from one of the main songs on the album, ‘’everybody wanna get like me’’ this really links in with the image as he is smiling, this is showing the audience another side to our artist.

I tried to make sure that the representation of my artist consistent across my music video, digipack and album advert. The concept of the music video was very important and determined the representation of our artist. We wanted him to come across as a young person that is able to dress how he wants and act how he wants without worrying about what others think of him. He is a rule breaker and prefers to live outside of the mainstream conventions, this is the reason that we dressed him in the clothes he did and we show him being rebellious and having fun. In the beginning of our music video we have the main artist along with the other people in smart clothing looking very serious, but when they go on to the rooftop they change clothes in to what they are comfortable in and are able to be themselves, this is the message that we wanted to portray. We tried to represent our artist this way in our album advert and digipack. The setting of my photo-shoot was in front of a green screen, I decided to do this so that the artist would stand out and the audience wouldn’t focus on the background. It also creates a simpler studio setting which I think looks more professional. I dressed my artist in simple clothing, in my advert he is wearing a t-shirt and he has a headband on his head. I think the headband highlights the fact that he likes to be different, he wants to stand out. In my digipack he is wearing the same top and sunglasses, the glasses also show that he doesn’t care what people think of his image.

Getting audience feedback has really helped throughout the process of making the music video. After we had created the first draft of the video we did a focus group, we came up with around 5 questions such as ‘’ do you think the concept of our video makes sense?’’ and ‘’do you think it would be better filmed in the day or night?’’ to ask and got others opinions on our ideas. After listening to what they had to say we made some changes to our ideas to make sure that it would appeal to the audience. Peer feedback also helped a lot, after showing them the first draft of our music video they watched it and told us what they think was good and what could do with changing. This again gave us another insight to what the audience thought and meant we could improve it. When creating my album advert and digipack the audience’s opinion also helped when deciding on things such as what fonts to use. I made a poll on my blogger, I created four different titles for my album advert and then sent out an email asking people to vote on what one they thought would look best.

I used a range of media technologies throughout the making of my music video, album advert and digipack. The platform I used the most is blogger, every time I completed a piece of work I would post it to my blog. My blog was accessible to everyone and also my class mates, this meant they were able to see my work and do any polls for example. I am also able to see everyone else’s bloggers, which really helped with inspiration on pieces of work if I wasn’t sure what to do. When doing research blogger also helped me a lot, I am able to see other people’s bloggers, and if they have done the media course their work really helped when it came to pieces of work such as finding out the conventions.

I used to YouTube when researching other music videos. On YouTube I could find professional music videos from my genre, which helped me figure out what the conventions are and what I should include. Not only could I find professional videos I could also find past media students music videos. Watching these really helped as it showed us a more realistic image of what our videos could potentially look like. It also taught us in some cases, what not to do. We edited our music video using Sony Vegas, we chose to use this as it was much easier than iMovie or final cut pro for us. As my partner had already used Sony Vegas he was then able to teach me when editing our video.