Evaluation Question One

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

2. Music Video
Andrew Goodwin theorises that there are five conventions of a music video,
these are…
1. Relationship between music and visuals
2. Relationship between lyrics and visuals
3. Close up and focus on star personality
4. Intertextuality
5. Voyeurism and notions of looking
These conventions can be found in most music videos however we have
conformed to some of these conventions but also challenged these
conventions.

3. Relationship between
music and visuals
Our music video conformed to this conventions as their
several examples of the music matching the visuals o
screen. The first example is taken from the beginning of
the video and is on the top in the left hand corner. This
shot shows a foot walking on the pavement. The foot hits
the ground on the beat creating a direct link between the
music and visuals. The second to examples show beneath
on the left hand side show two people playing their
instruments at the same time they are being played in the
song, once again creating a direct link. By conforming to
this convention it makes the video look smoother and
creates a sense of rhythm throughout.

4. Relationship between lyrics and
visuals
The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is one of the conventions that
we did not follow and instead challenged it. Instead of focusing on the lyrics and
making sure what was shown in the video at the same time matched instead we
focussed more on the narrative of the video and making sure the shots matched
the music. The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals isn’t the most
crucial convention to follow as if the lyrics and visuals don’t match the music
video can still make sense and look good where as if the music and visuals didn’t
match the video would look disjointed and strange.

5. Close up and focus on
star personality
Our media product used a lot of close ups throughout the video.
We used the close ups to show what our characters were doing or
to show how they were feeling. The first examples of this is are
the first two images on the right hand side. The second image
shows a close up on another charcters face. By using close up
the audience can see clearly how the character is feeling and it is
a change from the long shots and mid shots used in the video.
The third image doesn’t show a character but instead one of the
band playing the drums. We broke up the video between a
narrative structure and footage of the band playing. By showing
the instruments it gives the audience a clearer image of what is
happening. The last image on the right hand side shows another
one of our characters in a mid shot. By focusing on him it allows
the audience to get a good luck at the character as most of what
they have seen of him before this was a close up of his foot or his
eyes.

6. Intertextuality
Our video features a couple of
examples of intertextuality. The
first is when we show Alex stood
behind the bars and the second is
when we see Charleigh dragging
her along, once again behind the
bars. We decided to do this as a
homage to Francois Truffaut's “The
400 blows”. Truffaut often filmed
his main character, Antione,
behind bars to signify how he was
essentially trapped and how he
longed for freedom. We filmed
Alex behind the bars as like
Antione she was trapped and
wanted to be free.
The second
example of
intertextuality is
the shot where
Sam appears to be
talking and moving
about at 1:38. This
was meant to be
another homage to
Travis from Martin
Scorsese's “Taxi
driver” when he is
psyching himself
up.

7. Voyeurism and notions of looking
We have conformed to this convention
however there are not many examples of
voyeurism and notions of looking in our
video because its narrative doesn’t involve
a lot of watching or looking. However there
are a couple of examples of it in our video.
The first two examples on the left hand
side show two close ups of Sam’s eyes. By
looking directly into the camera it gives the
appearance of looking straight at the
audience and makes them feel as though
they are right there. The other example is
of Charleigh holding a banana and looking
directly into the camera. Once again this
makes the audience feel as though they
are in the video.

8. Magazine Advert
Our magazine advert conforms to all of the
conventions that you would expect from an advert.
Unlike a music video however if we didn’t conform to
the conventions our advert wouldn’t be very
effective at all. Some of the conventions of a
magazine advert are…
1. Name of band
2. Name of album
3. Release date
4. Recording studio logo
5. What it is available on

9. The name of the band and of
the album are displayed on
the top of the magazine so
that it is the first thing that
the reader sees. This catches
their eye and makes them
want to read more if they are
a fan of the band.
By displaying the logos of
apps that the album is
available on it shows that
it is easily accessible for
everyone.
The recording studio label gives
a potential customer an idea of
where it is from.
The release date and the
website of the Band is
displayed towards the
bottom of the advert.
The release date is a
crucial convention to
conform to as without it
no one would know
when they would be
able to purchase it. The
website means that if a
customer wants more
information they can go
online and look on the
website.
The main image used is
effective for catching the
audiences eye as the eyes are
all looking directly into the
camera. It makes the
audience feel a though they
are being watched. It is
effective as it will attract the
readers attention.

10. Digipak

11. Front cover
For our digipak we have used a logo for Queen
so that our audience will be able to recognise
the band. We have also used the same
background as was used for the magazine
advert as well as the same fonts for the name of
the band and of the album. By using the same
fonts we are establishing a sense of continuity
between two of our media products.
Conforming to the conventions of the front
cover was essential to creating an effective
digipak.

12. Back cover
The back cover for our Digipak once again
conforms to the conventions that you would
expect to find on the back of a digipak. It contains
a track listing for the CD and what is on the CD,
as well as the barcode and recording studio logo.
All of these conventions are important as they let
the customer know exactly what they are buying
as well as what to expect from the digipak. By
conforming to these conventions we have made a
more effective digipak that we would of done had
we not conformed.

13. CD and DVD
For our CD and DVD we have used images instead
of leaving it blank or with one block colour as some
digipaks do. For the CD we have used a close up of
Alex's hands whilst for our DVD we have used a
silhouette of one of our models doing an iconic
Freddy Mercury pose. We have challenged the
convention of having the track listing on the CD
and using an image linked to the music video
instead. We decided to do this so that our digipak
would link to both the music video and to the
original band itself.