The document discusses how the author's media product uses and challenges conventions of real music videos. It describes researching various music videos and identifying common elements like shot types, pacing, and symbolic meanings. The author aimed to incorporate some conventions like certain colors, locations, and emotions, while challenging others like having a young main character, including dance scenes, and not showing the band performing. The author also discusses researching album advertising posters and digipaks to identify standard elements to include and ways to make the design unique. Overall, the document shows how the author developed their media product by following and adapting real conventions based on thorough research of existing music videos and album packaging within the rock genre.

1. 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
The formation of my video was inspired more specifically by Goodwin’s seventh point noted
in his findings: ‘A music video can either be concept, narrative or performance based, but
some videos incorporate more than one of the three areas listed’. This provided me with the
awareness of the main elements that a music video can be based around, which fuelled my
understanding; and benefitted the planning stages of my project. I found out that the people
who filled out my survey find videos more interesting when all three of the areas are
combined, and this contributed to making the choice of using concept, narrative and
performance elements in my final video. Throughout the discography of the band, Red, Blue,
Black and White are consistent colours and shades that are used, and this is partly why I
decided to use them in my main colour palette:
 Red ; A colour that is primarily associated with fear and anger.
 Blue ; Linked with feeling sad/down/miserable. In relation to this, I link the colour Blue
to tears. However, light blue could also represent the feeling of liberation.
 Black (a common shade that has been used throughout the Twenty One Pilots
discography, and for me, Black is a representation of the unknown and uncertainty -
linking with fear, anxiety and depression)
 White ; A clash/contrast against the shade Black, as a result more refreshing and
happy, could also represent innocence, purity and youth.
As well as the fact I felt the above colours were relevant to my concept, this was my own
personal opinion about the colours that I felt would look the most effective in my products
based on previous releases from Twenty One Pilots themselves. The decision wasn’t
finalised until I had performed some audience research to finalise my decision. The choices
were confirmed when I conducted a section of research that involved me speaking to my
friends via Facebook. I first posted a status asking for people to come forward if they
consider themselves a fan of Twenty One Pilots. Once I had my samples, I then asked them
various things about their thoughts on Twenty One Pilots, so i could get a feel for what other
current fans through regarding certain things.
This research task supported my choice of colours and shades, as the majority of my friends
said that they associate the colours Red, White, Black and Blue with Twenty One Pilots;
based on their previous releases, eras, and tone/mood of their tracks.
Conducting a shot count task was also very beneficial to the production of my final video. I
found that the slower the track, the less shots that were presented in the video, and the
faster the track; the more shots. I looked at a Twenty One Pilots cover of Elvis Presley’s
‘Can’t Help Falling in Love with You’ as well as a contrasting fast video from Knuckle Puck
for their track ‘Give Up’. During this exercise, I counted only thirty two shots for the Twenty
One Pilots video, whereas the more fast paced video for Knuckle Puck had fifty five. I found
during this task that the main shots used in videos are:
 Medium close up shots (to clearly illustrate to the audience who the members of the
band are, and the role they play in the group, eg: Tyler [twenty one pilots] can be
clearly seen singing and playing the ukulele, and you see John [knuckle puck]
playing the drums)
 Medium long shot (so the members can be seen, as well as establishing their
surroundings and the set for the video)

2.  Long shot (show the audience the bigger picture of what the frame contains almost)
 Close up shot (enables the audience to see key details up close)
 Shallow focus (to enhance the main point of focus to the audience)
 Extreme close up shot (to add emphasis to the importance of the finer details that are
key or iconic to the story line or band)
I also found during my ‘nine frame analysis’ of a Blink 182 video that narratives within the
rock genre can often have deeper meaning and be quite symbolic. The video I looked at was
for the track ‘Up All Night’ from Blink’s most recent full length release ‘Neighborhoods’. I
found that this video has a dark and unclear concept, and I guessed this initially from looking
at the lyrics of the track. I found during this analysis that the track talks about how people
struggle to cope with their inner demons, and how other people fail to see the struggles
because a mental issue cannot be seen; unlike a physical issue. The Blink video
demonstrated typical stereotypes that are associated with the rock culture, including:
 Instruments (guitar, bass and drums)
 Rebellion
 The colour black
 Fire/destruction
 Skinny jeans and leather
Alcohol
 Crazy hair
This video gave a strong indication of typical genre conventions of rock, however I wouldn’t
associate Blink and Twenty One Pilots with one another completely. And this is where I
slightly diverted away from typical features with my video. I wanted to create something that
was not only different to any video for the band, but something that stood out to the
audience, and had more of an artistic and symbolic take when compared to other rock
videos:
TESSA PERKINS
 Having a young main character - This goes against typical presumptions that ‘real
Rockwhen I conducted a section of research that involved me speaking to my friends
via Facebook. I first posted a status asking for people to come forward if they
consider themselves a fan of Twenty One Pilots. Once I had my samples, I then
asked them various things about their thoughts on Twenty One Pilots, so i could get
a feel for what other current fans through regarding certain things.
This research task supported my choice of colours and shades, as the majority of my friends
said that they associate the colours Red, White, Black and Blue with Twenty One Pilots;
based on their previous releases, eras, and tone/mood of their tracks.
Conducting a shot count task was also very beneficial to the production of my final video. I
found that the slower the track, the less shots that were presented in the video, and the
faster the track; the more shots. I looked at a Twenty One Pilots cover of Elvis Presley’s
‘Can’t Help Falling in Love with You’ as well as a contrasting fast video from Knuckle Puck
for their track ‘Give Up’. During this exercise, I counted only thirty two shots for the Twenty
One Pilots video, whereas the more fast paced video for Knuckle Puck had fifty five. I found
during this task that the main shots used in videos are:
 Medium close up shots (to clearly illustrate to the audience who the members of the
band are, and the role they play in the group, eg: Tyler [twenty one pilots] can be
clearly seen singing and playing the ukulele, and you see John [knuckle puck]
playing the drums)

3.  Medium long shot (so the members can be seen, as well as establishing their
surroundings and the set for the video)
 Long shot (show the audience the bigger picture of what the frame contains almost)
 Close up shot (enables the audience to see key details up close)
 Shallow focus (to enhance the main point of focus to the audience)
 Extreme close up shot (to add emphasis to the importance of the finer details that are
key or iconic to the story line or band)
I also found during my ‘nine frame analysis’ of a Blink 182 video that narratives within the
rock genre can often have deeper meaning and be quite symbolic. The video I looked at was
for the track ‘Up All Night’ from Blink’s most recent full length release ‘Neighborhoods’. I
found that this video has a dark and unclear concept, and I guessed this initially from looking
at the lyrics of the track. I found during this analysis that the track talks about how people
struggle to cope with their inner demons, and how other people fail to see the struggles
because a mental issue cannot be seen; unlike a physical issue. The Blink video
demonstrated typical stereotypes that are associated with the rock culture, including:
 Instruments (guitar, bass and drums)
 Rebellion
 The colour black
 Fire/destruction
 Skinny jeans and leather
 fans’ are over the age of 40, due to the fact they were around when some of the
biggest metal bands were at the height or prime of their career. There is a lot of
negative shade thrown towards younger rock fans today, as many believe that ‘they
don’t understand the genre’, or they are ‘too young to get it’. So, having my main
character as a 19 year old goes against these presumed genre conventions.
 The main character is evidently portraying negative feelings through their actions due
to their sister dying - Like younger fans being mocked, it is often presumed by people
outside of the genre that people who associate themselves with Rock are very
heartless, and don’t care about anyone as a result of this. My video goes against this
presumption, as the main character demonstrates throughout the video that they are
emotionally impacted by the death of their sister, which suggests to me that the main
character had a genuine bond with the lost one, and if they didn’t care, they wouldn’t
act the way they do.
*This point does follow the cliche view however that people who like Rock are often
depressed/sad*
 Depression is often seen as an emotion that makes the person suffering not want to
leave their bed. There are multiple locations within my video, and this demonstrates
that my main character is gradually trying to overcome the negative feelings as we
progress through the video.
 There are no live band playing scenes in my video, which goes against the typical
conventions of a generic rock video. I found during my research and previous
knowledge of watching music videos that most rock bands make the live
performance element a key part of their video, and only slightly touch on
concept/narrative during the remaining parts of the video.
 Including dance scenes is a device I wanted to use in order to hopefully make my
video appeal to people who are more into Pop music rather than Rock. As dancing if
more so featured in Pop videos rather than Rock ones, I feel that this element is
going against the typical genre conventions of my chosen genre.

4. On the other hand, in terms of conceptual meaning, I would say that I was very much
influenced by the ‘Up All Night’ video to come with a concept that was meaningful, but not
entirely obvious to the viewer. I feel that my video can be very misleading, and I wanted it to
be this way in order to ensure it had the audience's attention and focus.
Going against the findings of Tessa Perkins and considering many genre conventions of
Rock, I did include the following in my video:
 Isolation and self pity - associated with the whole depressive stereotype that is
unfortunately instantly linked with people who express that they like Rock. I created
specific scenes to illustrate these feelings, not only to follow the stereotype, but to
also project the story to the audience more efficiently. This is supported through the
use of close up shots, so the character’s facial expressions can be seen clearly by
the audience in order to illustrate the low mood.
 Vans and skinny jeans (mise en scene) - two items of clothing that are very popular
within the rock culture, and having my character wearing them in the video, links
them more so to the chosen genre, as they are two popular items of clothing
amongst people who listen to Rock.
 The skeleton hoodie - Rock music is associated with gothic and horror occasionally,
and having the skeleton hoodie links in with this theme. The medium close ups
throughout show my character's upper body, allowing the skeleton decoration to be
seen.
 Graveyard location - similar to the skeleton hoodie, graveyards are often linked with
Rock because of death and sadness. Through the use of establishing shots and long
shots, the audience can see that a section of the video is filmed in a graveyard, as
headstones can be seen in the background, as well as grass and paths.
*SECTION COMPARING MY POSTERS TO ALREADY EXISTING ONES*
(Then summarise how I have followed/challenged the conventions)
Prior to my poster creation, I looked at a Foo Fighters advertising poster for their ‘Greatest
Hits’ release, as well as a Greenday one for their ‘21st Century Breakdown’ release. I
noticed during this that including the artwork from the upcoming album, as well as identical
typography from the release is essential for brand identity; and linking the advertisements to
the products as a result. Plus, due to the rise of the internet and social media, I found that
displaying websites (such as the record label/band website and links to social media
profiles) is an essential aspect of the advertising aspect, as this acts as more promotion for
the band and their label. More so on the social media accounts, it is a common occurrence
that the icons of popular networking sites (facebook, twitter and instagram) are simply
featured; implying to the audience that the band have accounts on these platforms. Based
on my findings, I included the following on my posters:
 The name of the band (Twenty One Pilots)
 The name of the release/album (Songs for the Emotional)
 Release Date (
 Reviews (Kerrang and Rocksound Magazines)
Linking back with the findings of Tessa Perkins, I adhered with traditional forms and
conventions of advertising posters partly, however I also challenged them by creating a

5. poster that was landscape as well as a standard portrait version. I decided to do this as I felt
it would strengthen my advertising campaign, and having them both very similar
demonstrated the consistent brand identity I was hoping to achieve. Traditional album
advertisings are portrait, as they often feature in music magazines; and it is more convenient
for the reader to process the information without having to move the publication on its side.
The font that was used throughout my products (SPQR) resulted in me challenging typical
genre patterns with regards to its concept and representation. Rock music and Religion are
two factors that have never seemed to comply with each other for several reasons, including
satanic references (more specifically metal bands, however in terms of the genre as a
whole, it is generally frowned upon in the eyes of religious believers), expletive lyrics, drugs
and various other contributing factors. Despite Twenty One Pilots being nothing like a typical
rock band (the likes of Maiden and ACDC) they still do fall under the bracket, so it is a typical
presumption that all bands alongside are the same, and condone this ‘reckless’ behaviour. I
wanted to use a font that has religious significance to represent not only the members
beliefs, but to rule out this generic judgment that is made towards rock bands. In my
research and planning, I made reference to how my chosen font symbolises how the rivalry
between the people of Rome and Christians has gradually decreased over time due to
Christianity becoming the main religion in the area. I want to show how some religious
people are becoming more liberal and accepting towards these kinds of bands, and
therefore they can both be featured alongside one another. As well as this, I wanted to
highlight the religious significance of Twenty One Pilots.
With the tone and mood of the track, I wanted to match this with the pace of my video. When
conducting my research, I found that the faster and more upbeat tracks had videos that
featured more shots and the pace was a lot quicker (more specifically, the Knuckle Puck
‘Give Up’ video). Whereas the more slower tracks had videos that have fewer amount of
shots, as well as move a lot slower in pace (twenty one pilots ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love with
You’).I felt that ‘A Car, A Torch, A Death’ positions in the centre of being a slow or fast track.
This moderate pace was considered when thinking about the amount of shots and
movement in my video.
As well as my poster research, I did look into various already existing digi-paks to pick out
specific elements that form the final product; and help promote the band and material to the
target audience. I decided to look at a release from Blink 182 (The Mark, Tom and Travis
Show) and another release from Fall Out Boy (Save Rock and Roll). I picked these two as I
feel they both represent different themes that still fall under the same genre category.
Considering what I had found to be displayed on both of these digipaks, I set to work
designing my own digipak, which included my chosen colour scheme. The two digipaks had
the following in common, and this is how I followed these conventions with my own creation:
 They both present the name of the band, and title of the album either in an identical
font to one another (the Fall Out Boy one) or in a way that the two fonts are different,
however still link together (the Blink one). With this in mind, I wanted to present mine
like the Fall Out Boy text, and use the same font for both the band name and title. I
decided to do this because I wanted my design to be uniform and matching; in order
to reflect the minor tone that the album has; calling it ‘Songs For the Emotional’ was
also selected to portray the album as being quite moving and deep.
 Following suit with the Fall Out Boy artwork, I decided to use artwork that was more
symbolic rather than illustrative (the Blink art clearly illustrates that there’s a show
going on - just like the album title states). The audience probably wouldn’t
understand why there is a person in a skeleton hoodie on my cover, if they either
haven’t looked into Twenty One Pilots, or if they haven’t seen my video, and this is

6. the effect I wanted to have on the audience, in order to draw them into looking at my
products to find out what it is all about.
 A clearly presented track listing on the back panel of the digipak. The Fall Out Boy
presentation was slightly different compared to the Blink presentation, however it is
still an important element that needs to be featured on a digipak. I decided to go for a
slightly generic layout by simply listing the tracks numbered 1-9 , and this was
considering Twenty One Pilots appeal to a variety of people (in and out of the Rock
genre), which links to the judgements made by Ien Ang; where she states that
‘audiencehood is multifaceted’.
 I added copyright information, as well as my record label logo to the bottom section
of the back panel; below where the track listing is located. I feel that these two
elements are not just considered within the Rock genre, but they are also an industry
standard requirement, and without them, I feel that the digipak would be incomplete.
*SECTION COMPARING MY DIGIPAK TO ALREADY EXISTING ONES*
(Then summarise how I have followed/challenged the conventions)
To draw this answer to a close, I feel that throughout my project, I have not only adhered
with typical genre conventions, but I have also went against them, and this has resulted in
my final portfolio being an interesting and creative range of products. Adapting conventions
of Rock to my own interpretation of the chosen track and artist enabled me to explore
deeper into the sub-genres, as well as various elements that appeal to different types of
people.Combining both my opinions as well the viewpoints from others meant I could create
something that not only appealed to myself, but would also appeal to my target range of
music fans, who fell ideally between the ages of 14-20.
2 How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Before I started production, I knew that I would have to enforce a clear brand identity in
order to link my creations together with one another and come up with something that
provided more impact due to the uniformity. To me, I believe that brand identity is especially
important when it comes to creating a range of products, as this is the main factor the links
all the creations together, and illustrates the links to the audience.
As well as the similarities for strong brand identity, I also wanted to create something that
appealed to my target audience; teenagers who are fans of rock, and more specifically
Twenty One Pilots.
During the research stages of my work, I looked deeply into the meaning of the track,
previous art work from Twenty One Pilots, how other artists have established strong brand
identity, and ways in which I could link my video with my ancillary texts. First of all, I figured
that it would be a good idea to establish my colour palette, this is because I feel that the
colours are essential to demonstrating brand identity, and also finding the colours to suit the
mood, tone etc of the theme can be quite difficult. I came up with Black, White, Red and
Blue:
 Black (a common shade that has been used throughout the Twenty One Pilots
discography, and for me, Black is a representation of the unknown and uncertainty -
linking with fear, anxiety and depression)

7. This shade is used constantly throughout my three products. In my video (more
specifically during the light scenes), my actor is dancing in a pitch black room, and
this represents how they are feeling submerged in negative feeling, which is brought
on by the loss of her sister. With regards to my advertising posters, some of the text
presented on there is black, and my chosen over-layed images are converted to black
and white; in order to contrast against the final overlay of the red and blue lights.
Predominantly in my products, the black is to represent negative emotions and
uncertainty. Having black boxes behind the white text in my lyric book is to represent
how people often have mental battles between negative and positive feelings; and
especially with MPD, it can be very hard to distinguish your feelings. Through the
costuming in my video, the majority of the clothing is mainly black, which represents
this negative feelings that are suppressed as a part of the impact from the death of
the main character’s sister.
 White (another common shade used, and I feel that White adds a glimmer of hope, a
sign that everything is going to get better. Also links with the purity and beliefs linked
with Faith)
The use of white isn’t as prominent as the use of black; and this is to represent how it isn’t
easy to be positive when you have a disorder that affects your life greatly. In my lyric booklet
on the first page, the quote from Tyler Joseph is in a white font, and this is because I want to
highlight the glimmer of hope that Tyler has for his fans, and represent how he likes to
inspire people around the world. As well as this quote, the chosen lyrics on each page are
also in white. This is to demonstrate how twenty one pilots inspire people with their lyrics,
and many people feel comfort and safety when they listen to this band; including myself.
Plus, the use of black and white images are to show the battle between peace and fear
(inspired by a lyric from a twenty one pilots track called ‘Car Radio’ - Peace will win, and fear
will lose). The subtleness of white featured in the costuming for my video shows the battle
between the two feelings, and is symbolic in the sense that positive feelings are a lot harder
to maintain than the negative ones.
 Red (mainly represents evil and the symbolism of ‘Blurry’, and links back to the ‘Bar’
logo that Twenty One Pilots originally used before the Blurry Face era)
 Blue (the second colour used on the ‘Bar’ logo to accompany the Red. Also
represents sadness and isolation, as well as confidence and stability)
Another way in which I have tried to link my video with my ancillary texts is through the
displaying of the ‘Mr Skeleton’ character on my posters and digi-pak. I feel that this
personality is significant both in my narrative, as well as amongst the Twenty One Pilots
fans. Having this character/personality on the front of my digi-pak and on my posters linked
these two products together, and as a result strengthened my brand identity. I decided to do
this based on the fact the exact hoodie is very iconic amongst ‘The Clique’ as Tyler wears is
at the start of pretty much every show the band play live now. My concept also covers how
people with MPD feel that they are more than one person, and having the skeleton mask
zipped up covering my actor’s face, in a sense symbolises the feeling of being trapped that
someone who suffers from this disorder may feel on a regular basis; being trapped in
someone else’s body or mind. Having the skeleton design also represents how putting aside
defects (such as mental and physical illness), everyone on the inside is the same; and this
will never change.

8. Using the ‘Ø’ throughout my ancillary texts is another way in which I tried to connect with the
fans of twenty one pilots, as well as link the pieces together. When Blurryface was released,
this Ø was introduced to the fans, and since then many people have done the following:
 Included it in their social media profile display names
 Created art and featured this symbol
 Used it when making reference to the band on the internet
So, having it featured in my ancillary texts and video makes that bond between the fans and
the products stronger.
Despite Blurry Face being the most recent release from the band and the most familiar to
most people, I wanted to highlight the ‘Vessel’ era, as I personally prefer it, and I don’t feel
that the concept of ‘Blurry’ is obvious to people who are not fans of the band.
The use of blue and red el wire is a key concept within my franchise, and this is why I
wanted to include them in my ancillary texts. I would like to familiarise the audience with the
representation of feeling submerged and trapped amongst negative emotions, and how
sometimes it isn’t physically obvious that people are suffering and finding it hard to cope with
what is going on in their head. With regards to this, the use of black and white against the
red and Blue enhances the colours due to the contrast between the two effects. This was
mainly done through the use of over-laying images in photoshop
This mise en scene throughout I personally feel was consistent and uniform. I specifically
paid close attention to this as I wanted to prevent it from looking like there was no thought
gone into my production. And with my concept being quite strong, I wanted pretty much
every factor to symbolic in some way; as well as link to the narrative. With the costuming for
my cast, I also made sure that my chosen colour scheme was evident through the choices of
clothing. My character was dressed in the following throughout the video:
 Blurry ; Skinny jeans (black), beanie hat (red), black paint on hands and neck, long
sleeved shirt with sleeves bunched up (black), socks (red) and vans shoes (all
black). Linking back to Brandon Rike’s conceptualism behind the ‘Blurryface’ art
work, he spoke about how he doesn’t feel the colour blue (previously used in the
‘Vessel’ logo for the band as well as on the self titled and regional at best albums)
suits with the mood of the album or the concept, and following this; I decided against
having any blue artifacts on the character whilst they were playing the part of Blurry.
 Mr Skeleton ; Skeleton hoodie (black and white), bracelet (blue), skinny jeans
(black), vans shoes (red/burgundy) and socks (black). Despite the main shades
being black and white, I still wanted to incorporate red and blue somehow into this
character. As these two colours have strong conceptualism in my video (representing
fear and sadness), I wanted to show that putting aside the fact my character’s frame
of mind and perception has changed, these two feelings are still present due to the
disorder.
 Faith ; Chequered shirt (red, white and black), skinny jeans (blue), nike shoes (black
and white) and bracelet (blue). As I covered in9 my treatment sheet, I wanted the
‘faith’ character to represent the twenty one pilots self titled album, as well as being
my character’s normal personality; prior to disorder taking over.

9. More specifically with Blurry and Mr Skeleton, I have tried to include factors in which my
primary target audience will recognize and be able to relate to; the primary group being
twenty-one pilots fans. As Blurryface is the most recent release, this suggests to me that
potentially newer fans of the band are going to be familiar with the theme and costuming that
goes alongside the concept of the album (the black paint on neck/hands, red socks and
beanie hat) . Also, the ‘Skeleton Hoodie’ is very iconic when it comes to the band, and
practically every fan will be familiar with the garment.
Considering my target audience, I did include elements in order to ensure that my products
appealed to the kind of people I was hoping they would. With my advertising posters, I
included reviews from Rock magazines ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Rocksound’. I decided to do this
because these publications are very popular amongst teenage music fans; my primary target
audience.
3 What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Throughout my entire project, both audience research and audience feedback has
been essential for me to create a product that would be appealing and suited to my
target range of people, as well as those who already consider themselves fans of the
band. My first piece of audience research involved me creating a survey using ‘survey
monkey’ to find out what elements people both expected, and preferred to see when
watching a music video. I presented the following questions on my survey, which
were accompanied by multiple choice answers for the audience to select, based on
themselves and their opinions:
1. Which of the following age categories do you fall under? (I wanted to see the
average age of people that my survey had reached)
2. If you had to choose, which genre of music would you say is your preferred
style to listen to? (I was hoping that the majority would go for Rock, however I did
find it useful finding out what fans of other genres thought about music videos)
3. Bearing in mind your selected preferred genre, could you please tell me who
your favourite band/artist are? (This question was simply based on my curiousity. I
also wanted to find out if anyone who filled out my survey ranked Twenty One Pilots
as their favourite band)
4. Have you ever seen a music video? (This was essential in my eyes)
5. Have you watched a music video in the last six months? (I wanted to know this
to judge if the survey taker had seen a recent video, as genre conventions are
constantly changing as time progresses and I wanted to know if what they had seen
was more recent or not)
6. When you watch a music video, which of the following areas do you believe
makes that video more interesting? (This was based on one of the seven points
presented in Goodwin’s theory regarding music videos. The point being that a video
will either be concept, narrative or performance based, or will even sometimes
incorporate more than one of the stated areas)

10. During this section of my audience research, I found out that the majority of people who took
the time to take my survey were between my target age range of 14-20. Despite this, there
were also quite a few who fell under the category of 31+, but this was useful in the sense
that I now had an idea of what older people liked to see in music videos, as well as the kind
of music they listen to.
I also found during my audience research and feedback what specific people (who associate
themselves already with the band) think about Twenty-One Pilots, and the mood they get
from their music and eras. This section of research was essential when looking at my
chosen colour palette that was going to form my brand identity. When asking the question
‘What colours would you associate with the band based on their released material?’, I found
that every person I asked associated the colours red, black and white with the band. I think
that the most recent release ‘Blurryface’ was a contributing factor to this presumption,
however I do agree that Twenty-One Pilots are a very dark and mysterious band, which
suggests the connotations with black, white and red. A few also noted that the colour blue is
one they link with the band based on earlier releases (regional at best mainly) and the iconic
‘Bar’ logo, which was established during the regional era. Blue also has connotations of
feeling down and sadness, which are two feelings I can familiarise myself with when
listening to specific tracks and releasing the concepts behind the lyrics. During this same
research task, I also asked the following questions:
1. How long have you liked the band? - I wanted to learn how long people have
liked Twenty one Pilots for, due to curiosity, as well wanting to find out on
average, how long people have been aware of them as a band, as I felt this
would be a contributing factor to their opinions. For example, if people had
liked them from the start (2009), then they may feel the need to defend them
almost, in a sense that they may not like it when people say negative things
about them, so they try to eliminate this negativity by venting out their love for
the band. Whereas if people have only been a fan for a few months, then they
may not be in the position to defend them, as negative opinions like ‘well I
don’t really like that track’ are more common at the start of an interest in a
band.
2. What is your favourite album and why? - I felt that this would also contribute to
the person's feelings about the band. The self titled album for example, is quite
uplifting and liberating when compared to ‘Blurryface’, so I wanted to establish
almost what kind of person they are, based on their favourite album.
3. What would you say is most iconic, or the first thing that comes into your head
when you hear the words ‘Twenty One Pilots’? - This question was asked so I could
possibly feature iconic elements in my products that would enable a relationship
between the creation and the fans of Twenty One Pilots. As I said, I feel that one of the
most iconic things is the ‘Skeleton Hoodie’, as Tyler wears it every live show, both
members are pictured on the ‘Vessel’ art work wearing them, and there are many
photographs of Tyler and Josh wearing them for photo shoots.
4. In your opinion, what kind of mood or tone would you say the band give off
through their music? - I felt that this would also benefit me when looking at what to
include through the mise en scene, concept, narrative and pace of my video. Overall, I
got feedback that Twenty One Pilots sound quite upbeat and happy, until you actually
listen to the lyrics of the track.

11. 5. What music genre would you rank Twenty One Pilots as? - I asked this so I
could consider the different stereotypes that are associated with the mentioned
genres to be featured amongst my products. As it is quite unclear the exact genre
Twenty One Pilots fall under, I knew that I could be more creative and abstract, as the
uncertainty meant a following of specific genre conventions was not necessarily
needed. Despite this, I did refer back to the fact that Twenty One Pilots are mainly
known in the Rock genre, and this did reflect slightly in my work overall.
With my finished video, I decided to show it to people in order to find out what they thought
about the final outcome. The first person to watch it was my mam, however looking back,
this probably wasn’t a very good idea. As she is my parent, most times she will say that my
work is good, even when it isn’t. Despite this biased view that my mam had, I’ll give her due,
she did understand my narrative, and managed to figure out through the video what my story
line was.She also cried and then gave me a lecture on how proud of me she was, which I
suppose shown that she felt something when watching my video. This links with the ideas
put forward by Rick Altman back in 1999, based on his notes which state that genres offer
the audience a set of pleasures. In this case, I would argue that my video gave my mam
both ‘emotional’ and ‘visceral’ pleasures, as she was moved by my product, and she also
physically cried.
As I have already used surveymonkey for audience research, I wanted to take a different
route for finding out what people of a similar age thought about my final creations. Based on
this, I took to social media platforms Facebook and Twitter to gain some feedback
specifically on my advertising posters. As I created two, the first thing I wanted to find out
was which one people who could see my posts on my profiles prefered; either the
landscape, or portrait design. Contrary to my own opinion, I found that more people took a
liking to the portrait poster over the landscape one, which shocked me a little bit; as I
personally don’t like it as much as my other one. Once my posts had been up for a few
hours, I then decided that it would be best to ask people what they specifically thought about
my two posters, and I received the following feedback:
 Beth McConnell - I really like both of your posters, and you can tell through the colour
schemes and similarities that they are for the same thing. Out of them both, I think I
prefer the landscape style one, because the image of the skeleton person looks less
worked and re-sized, and this is what makes this one really stand out for me.
4 How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
Most of my work was primarily completed using the internet in order to collate my research
to fuel my planning and construction process. Each of the stages required a varied range of
media technologies in order to be completed to a high standard.
As well as the internet, my mac book pro was essential throughout the whole process of my
research, planning, analysis, construction and evaluation tasks that the A2 Media course
entails.
Google was the anchor for my research. However, Google is simply a search engine that
was founded in 1998 and is widely accessible in most parts of the world. You simply type
into the search bar what you would like to find out, and the majority of the time; you find out
exactly what you need to know. The results page then presents to the internet user millions

12. of results that relate to the initial search. When conducting my research, I branched off more
specifically to the following websites:
 Wikipedia; provided me with a brief overview of twenty one pilots, music video
conventions and information regarding my own camera. I also found information
about the other bands I looked at on here, as well as finding out if my record label
name ideas were already taken.
 Tumblr ; here I could find accounts from fans of twenty one pilots and how they feel
and what they think about the band. This was useful especially for my primary
audience research as I noted points that I could include in my project; based on what
the fans have spoke about liking about Josh and Tyler.
 Fueled by Ramen ; information about the band's discography is presented on here,
as well as social media links and images of the band. I also read about the other
bands who are signed to the same label, and I realised that the majority fall under the
same or similar genre/sub genre. This was especially helpful, due to the fact I gained
more of an understanding of already existing labels that signed bands who fall under
the general ‘Rock’ category. This exposed me to the various marketing techniques,
how the bands are publicised for tours etc, the kinds of designs for merchaindise and
logos, and the kinds of images that are taken of the bands under the label. I noticed
with Twenty One Pilots that many images of them revolve around the black, white
and red colour scheme (based on the Blurryface colour scheme), as well as the fact
Tyler is mainly on the right of the shot, and Josh is on the left.
 Twenty one Pilots official website ; like Fueled, Tumblr and Wiki, on the band’s
official website there is information about social media sites they have, news and
updates, images, videos and a brief overview.
 Google images ; here I found some examples of digi-paks, advertising posters and
images of twenty one pilots. I also found pieces of fan art that people have submitted
online, which fueled my inspiration for creating my ancillary texts.
 Youtube ; provides me with practically every music video I could ever need or think
of.
Blogger was also essential for presenting the research regarding my chosen genre that I had
found. Using this website enables you to collate your information and categorise it under
separate sections, such as ‘Research and Planning’ and ‘Construction’. Plus, you can see
the creative journey that people go through when completing a brief like ours. Microsoft word
and Powerpoint were also useful programs for documenting my findings, and then
Slideshare converted these documents and enabled me to post them onto my Blogger
account. Despite having these two programs for taking down notes from my findings, I did
also simply post my findings onto a Blogger post (twenty one pilots album analysis) as I
personally like the way several text heavy documents look when presented as a blog post in
this format.
Pinterest is a very good platform for finding creative inspiration, however the only issue with
this site is independent artists post their work here in an effort to get noticed and recognised;
and people often copy their ideas and take the credit themselves rather than crediting the
actual artist. This is a factor I dislike about Pinterest, as people often upload their versions of
the original artwork and get recognition for the idea and concept.

13. I also used ‘Prezi’ to collate some of my research in order to create a more interactive and
fun presentation for the audience looking at my work. After previously using this website in
my AS coursework, I really enjoyed creating interactive presentations, and found the website
effective for presenting my work.
Survey Monkey was crucial for collecting audience research, and along side the college
email system, facebook and twitter, I was able to find a range of varied opinions regarding
people’s ideas of a high standard music video. In conjunction with this, I used powerpoint,
slideshare, blogger and screenshot to collate my survey results into a readable document,
and present my findings on my blog.
Screen shot on my Mac has been used constantly since the first day of working on this
project. From taking pieces of information from websites, to presenting my lesson progress
on my blog, it is a very useful tool; and I believe I would not have some of the work I do if I
didn’t have access to this feature.
I also collated my research into previous twenty one pilots videos on a production using
‘Powtoon’. After discovering this website last year during my AS portfolio, I found it really fun
to both create videos, as well as watch them.I felt that this piece of research was relevant for
me as I wanted to create a video that was of a similar style of previous releases. Don’t get
me wrong, I wanted it to be unique, however I picked out several characteristics that linked
all of the videos together that I wanted to stick with, for example:
 The predominant focus is on Tyler rather than Josh (the focus is mainly on one
person in my video, and that is Beth; my actor)
 Tyler most of the time appears to be distressed and troubled (linking in with my
concept)
 Performance is a key part of their videos (for my purposes, I focused more so on the
lip syncing side of this)
 Long shots (one of my favourite types of shot, and used a lot throughout the visual
discography)
Analysing music videos can be a tedious and boring task, so I felt that using Powtoon would
make the task more enjoyable; and it did. I personally find that you benefit from something
more when you enjoy doing it, and reflecting back on this section of research, it was fun to
collate, and the visuals resulted in me learning more. The limitation of Powtoon however, is
each frame can only be a maximum of 20 seconds long, and this can be an issue if there is
a lot of text that needs to be presented; as there is a chance the audience will not get a
chance to read it all in time before it moves onto the next frame.
Similar to the research part of my project, I used programs such as Microsoft
Word/Powerpoint, along with Blogger, Screen shot and Slideshare. In addition to this, I also
made hand-written notes on pieces of paper. The issue with physical paper notes is the off
chance that they could go missing, as well as the fact most of the time they have to be typed
up and re-written to feature on your blog. With Media Studies being a very digital subject,
things are predominantly done using digital software, and handwritten notes are mainly for
last minute and heat of the moment ideas.
I feel that one of the best websites to use for presenting information is Wix. This is why I
decided to use it again for presenting my evaluation answers.
Other technologies to include:
 El Wire
 Zoom Mic

14.  Micro SD Card
 Memory Cards
 Memory Sticks
 External Hard Drives
 Padlet
 Final Cut Pro
 Imovie
 Lightroom
 Clip Converter
 Canon EOS 600D, 700D and 1200D
 Canon f/1.8 50mm lens
 Canon 18-55mm lens
 Micro SD Adapter
 Quicktime Player