Evaluation Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Evaluation Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Evaluation Question 1

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

During the research for this unit, a sample of 10 males and females were given a questionnaire regarding conventions and other questions such as the focus on individual band members. These questions were asked about our chosen genre ‘rock’ and rock music videos.http://media-bell-h540.blogspot.com/2011/09/results-from-second-questionnaire.html

The primary data collected shows gave both quantative (numerical and statistics data) and qualative data (written and descriptive data). The respondents gave general conventions that they expected to see in rock videos. An example would be that a convention of rock videos that participants saw in a lot of music videos was that “the band members usually have long hair”

From the conventions that were given I believe that our media product uses conventions such as the focus being primarily “on the singer” and “the use of close ups and quick editing”. I believe our media product used these conventions of the ’rock’ genre.

A convention suggested was long hair

Another was a reference to band members

Band members suggested, such as drummers

Within the music video there is a band, with 4 members, a lead singer, two guitarists’ and a drummer. “The band” the prominent focus of the music video; another rock video convention I believe we have met 

A drummer               A singer           A male        A female
                                                           guitarist        guitarist

Another convention of the feedback was a “referencing specific instruments used by band - drums and guitar”. I believe that this convention has also been met as there is a set of drums and two guitars within the music video used by the band members. As our music video is performance based and has little narrative the instruments suggested are heavily seen and are focused on with close ups etc. during the music video. The convention of ‘rock’ associated instruments is used in many other real media products.

A convention that was not mentioned was the location/setting that we met; the setting is within a staged area such as a gig that is used is some rock performance based music videos. Usually rock genre music videos the performance shots if there are located in concert halls.

An example of this, Escape the Fate's song this war is ours
is performance based and is set in a run down looking
stage/concert hall

Another convention found by respondents was the amount of focus on the singer “lot of focus is on the singer”. Within our music video the main focus is on the singer. This focus of the lead singer appears to be shared in most music videos where, partially within a narrative, the focus and amount of time in shot by the singer is much greater than other band members and/or cutaway.

The focus is on the singer and follows him even during narrative performance
 (Panic at the disco Balled of Mona Lisa)

There have been “general references to the instruments” so this would suggest they expect instruments in the music video. This could be interpreted as participants expect performance shots of the band members with instruments. As our music video is performance based I believe that this develops as well as meets this convention as there is a large focus of the band members and instruments. An real media example of a performance based music video would be escape the fate this war is ours.

“Close up's and quick editing” have been suggested i believe that we will take this into consideration during the production and editing process and have got the pace of the song to match the editing. Within real media product’s the pace often fits the editing, e.g. slow editing and cuts for a slow paced song, and faster editing and cuts for a faster paced song. Our music video pace changes from a slow pace, and gradually speeds up. The pace is much slower with regards to our editing at the beginning (screen shot) and speeds up as it gathers pace (screen shot).

The suggestion of loads of speakers, I believe that this convention has been met as one of the back grounds that will hopfully be used within our music video is of a large quantity and variety of speakers http://media-bell-h540.blogspot.com/2011/10/background.html and a further cutaway used within the music video is of two speakers http://media-bell-h540.blogspot.com/2011/09/cut-away.html.
Within real media products such as within a ‘Pink Floyd’ music video there is wall of speakers.

I believe that our music video also challenges some conventions of rock. I feel that by challenging some conventions of rock music videos we are creating a unique media product and provide a unique experience for our target audience.

The band members usually have long hair, according to the questionnaire responses this is a convention of rock music videos. Within our music video two of the band members, the lead singer and the female guitarist both have long hair whereas the male guitarist and the drummer have shorter hair.

There has also been a reference that the band members should be performing actions such as head banging. Our band members do not have these actions and there motion is static with movement of arms, the difficulties of creating a complex animation was a factor but, there is the motion of the lead singer tapping his foot in tune to the beat throughout the song where his legs are visible. By challenging this convention this may help is setting this rock video apart from others.

“The band often destroys instruments such as guitars near the end of the music video” and aggressive behaviour is often part of rock videos. Within our rock music video there is no aggressive behaviour or destruction of instruments. In such videos, the song lyrics are usually is aggressive and the music videos reflect this with aggressive behaviour. However the song ‘The Pretender’ (lyrics can be found at http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-pretender-lyrics-foo-fighters.html) is more about making a stand and resisting a repressive system rather than actual fighting or aggressive behaviour in my interpretation.

 Probably the most notable convention of rock that we challenged is that our music video is animated rather than live action.  In film, video, and other media, the term live-action refers to cinematography not produced using animation and as usually rock videos are usually live action by bands such as Escape this Fate and the Foo fighters have live action. Whereas animated music videos especially in the rock genre are much rarer although there are exceptions bands such Ash –Return of the white rabbit have used animation. I believe that the use of animation within our music video gives a new and unique effect; this may attract a potentially greater audience and assist in the retail sale of the product.

The use of a female band member challenges conventions of rock genre as the predominantly a male members only shown within music videos. This expands our target audience to include females; this would also create a larger target market and could increase sales if this was this to be sold.

Another convention that we have appeared to challenge is the lack of aggressive behaviour within our music video. In some rock genre music videos the band destroys instruments within ours there are only performance shots. By challenging this convention it may make it more appealing to the general public and create a unique experience for the audience

My digipak a CD cover however met a lot of conventions that you would expect to find within a cd cover. Conventions such as barcode, logos such as copy right and music label, track list were all conventions that i have met 

The text is all standardized and uses the same font and colour this graphic match it found with real media products. For example an album by Paul Young this real media CD cover text is all the same font however, the size differ depending on the importance of the text, whether its a subtitle or maybe even to be eye catching to the audience. I believe my CD cover meets this convention of real media products.

However the title of my CD cover was drawn my hand using line tools on the computer and not using a text box. This challenges the conventions of CD covers as there ins't a complete graphic match, but i believe that is makes it more personal and adds an extra depth. There is also the idea that the target audience may find the it appealing as it ins't just using the same style font. 

Another convention challenged is that doesn't include the band but only the main singer. In most rock genre CD covers the band is usually along with the lead singer/artist is on the cd cover.

Kiss - Rock and roll over

Deep purple in Rock

.

.The exclusion of other band members was based again on the previous questionnaire that was done that showed that the rating of importance of the singer was 20/100 and is often considered the symbol associated with the band. Therefore i thought that by using the lead singer there would be a sense of brand identity between the music video and the digipak. However some CD covers for example Tommy heavenly6's album Black paper moon there is only the singer.

Tommy heavenly's album Black PaperMoon

My magazine advert also meets a variety of convention of real media magazines such as a the title of the song/album, a picture of the artist, graphics and colour match, date of release. These conventions i have met are similar to real media magazine adverts.

Digipak CD cover

By meeting these conventions i believe it adds a sense of professionalism to my magazine advert therefore making it more like a real advert. It is eye-catching in my opinion and unique as the image is layered so another pattern can be seen under the main image so people will have to look and internalise that images they have seen. However my magazine doesn’t meet some convention such as it is landscape and since magazines are usually layout in a portrait fashion my advert may not fit the page so the reader will have to turn the magazine in order to read it. Another convention not met is that there is no specified date for the realise of the album, yet i feel by challenging this convention it adds a sense of mystery and so individuals may begin to research to date of release meaning they take in more information about the date and possible create an air of excitement for the release.

Finished magazine advert 

With regards to my ancillary tasks there is not a comparative brand identity between the digipak and magazine advert and the music video. This lack of brand identity i believe challenges convention of the rock genre and others. However i believe the message portrayal of the mask, focus on the eye, and the different art style used can be interpreted or internalised as a metaphorical message that ties in with the main song 'the pretended' that is being advertised. As masks can be associated with pretending, it could tie in with the idea of wearing a metaphorical mask and the eye being seen as the windows to the soul showing there is something within the singer that is alive and rejects the grey and dark messages of the world and is trying to see through the lies to see the truth.