2. In what ways does your
media product use, develop
or challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?
3. Conventions This music video shows all the key representations of the Pop
culture. The overall acting and mise-en-scene enables her target
audience to relate to her attitudes and the overall song.
Throughout this A2 level task I feel music videos like this have really
helped me to grasp the basic and developed conventions of real Pop
music videos. I learnt that in order to be successful, target audience
attraction is key, and relating to them throughout is crucial. When
developing this idea further, the introduction of primary and secondary
audiences allowed me to understand how to target a wide range of
audiences whilst maintaining the mature attitude for my older audience,
however still keeping to the traditional ‘Pop’ culture whilst doing this. .
Music videos like this allowed me to conform to these conventions and in
term create a successful music video.
Using Taylor Swifts music video ‘22’, the conventions of the Pop
genre became clear. Throughout her music video she has used
a wide range of props for example the heart made out of roses,
and many outfit changes and scenery's as shown which tell an
overall story that portray the characteristics of her younger
audience that is targeted. This performance and narrative based
music video is representative of the lives of many teenagers in
modern day, this is all shown through the use of camera shots
and angles that are continuously changing to show Taylor swift
with a broad group of friends in different locations. These
conventions are later developed through the use of the screen
shots cutting to the fast tempo beat of the music. Taylor swift
also uses theorists to develop her work, for example through
Andrew Goodwins theory whereby her lyrics correspond with her
visuals. These conventions of her music video are all
representative of her teenage audience, as she shows herself
with a group of teenage friends, and as her lyrics states ‘make
fun of our ex’s’ which is the main focus point of many teenagers
from this age group of 12-17 year olds.
The various uses of shots use help to tell the overall story. For
example, using long shots create a sense of atmosphere
throughout the music video and also helps to set the scene. This
in Taylor Swifts music video is used to portray a sense of
freedom and happiness amongst herself and her friends.
When creating our music video, a lot of the conventions that are
included in this Pop video needed to be included in mine. For
example the use of close ups and long shots were very helpful to
us as they allowed us to create a sense of emotion that needed to
be prominent throughout our video.
4. Continued..
However, when comparing this to a different style and genre of music, my use of research into the
various conventions of music videos broadened. Using Ciara ‘Like a boy’ as an example, I was
able to establish the differences of the conventions from different genres. Ciara’s music video
targets the ‘RnB’ genre whilst still including aspects from a the Pop culture. There are many ways
by which she targeted her audience yet again revolving around the mise-en-scene, however with
added importance on the lyrics of her music video.
To start, all of her music video is shot in black and white which automatically targets an older
audience as it adds a level of sophistication and seriousness to the overall music video. Also,
the screen shots show a range of different camera shots, much like Taylor Swifts music video,
however they are more intimate and are featured with the artist in an older range of clothing.
This image corresponds with the overall feel of the music video as she is linking to the Pop
culture through the means of her lyrics.
Ciara's music video tells a story of romance following a break up.
This relates to the Pop genre as she has used the same storyline
following the lyrics of her music video, despite the fact that it’s a
performance based music video. From this representation she
dresses herself up as a boy in order to relate to the lyrics ‘like a
boy’. This attracts her older audience as she creates a rapport with
them by telling a story of most teenage experiences. The way she
has presented herself also relates to Laura Mulveys theory as she
portrays herself through the means of the ‘male gaze theory’, and
then following this presents herself as a pretty feminine character.
These representations work towards creating a successful music
video through the means of dress and dance. These conventions of
the screen shots and props link closely to Taylor Swifts music video
however at an older audience.
Throughout our music video, I have used my research to develop the conventions used. I have used
some of the conventions from Taylor Swifts music video for example the lighting, and clothing, however
in order to target our older audience we needed to add some conventions from Ciara’s music video as
our primary audience focuses around the older teenage audience. We have presented our artist much
the same as Taylor Swift whilst using some aspects of Ciara’s music video such as the facial expressions
throughout close-ups. This clear link between the two music videos allowed us to successfully target our
audience through the means of basic and developed conventions. This also challenges the traditional
iconography of Pop genre music videos as we are incorporating two genres and two target audiences.
5. What’sincludedandwhy?
Throughout this process I learnt the importance of conventions in
music video and how much of an impact they have over the overall
representation of the music video. The use of close-ups allow the
audience to feel the emotions of the music video whilst a long-shot
sets the scene and adds towards establishing the music video
itself. These conventions have been used throughout the creation
of our music video and have all stemmed from the research taken
place over the period of work.
Even though in the music videos shown, the use of props have
been prominent, throughout our music video we have chosen to
stay away from too many props. This is because we felt that in
order to attract our audience; using the lyrics of the music video we
had to express our artists feelings through the means of facial
expressions and clothing. Where Ciara’s music video is shot in
black and white, we have taken this seriousness and added it into
the performance of our music video. Throughout these moments
our artist is shot wearing black and white to heighten her overall
feelings and upset courageous emotions of going over past
memories. However, using Taylor Swifts music video, we
incorporated her clothing into the memories of our music videos as
it features our artist in a happy, bright and colourful mood due to
the fact that her memories are were she was happiest.
Using these conventions to portray our artists overall emotions I
feel have really helped to set the storyline we was aiming to
achieve. Our artist tells a story through the means of facial
expressions and close-ups whilst her clothing and the location of
the central London scenery; due to the fact that there is a vast
range of tourist attractions and activities, all allow our target
audience to understand what she’s feelings and what she has gone
through.
6. Digipak Conventions
This real media Digipak products follow the norm of conventions from the Pop
genre of music advertisements, all of which have been developed based around
the artist’s target audiences. However the different conventions used allow their
target audience to be attracted to the CD itself. In Rihanna’s Digipak, the use of
close-ups have been used to show her facial expressions which are of
considerable seriousness. Even though her Digipak is simplistic, the colours used
attract the audience as it allows her to stand out. Her red hair and red lipstick
signifies strong feelings of love, strength and passion. This Digipak does not
challenge the traditional Pop/RnB advertisements as the bright colours stand out
to the audience, and her backgrounds are iconic of the female audience as it
shows roses, yet again showing signs of love and happiness and overall
femininity. Using these conventions in a Digipak advertisement broadcasts a
message of her lyrics throughout her album. This CD advertisement targets an
older teenage audience, which is what, as a group we have developed in the
creation of our CD Digipak.
Ellie Gouldings Digipak allows people to connect with two types of
music just from the visuals. Her Digipak creates a sense of the Pop
culture whilst incorporating a sense of country music in this. The
settings and clothing of the artist portray these conventions which
allows two types of audiences to connect both of which from an older
teenage age. Her Digipak is set outside, and also shows the artist in
a recording studio. This allows an automatic connection between her
target audience and herself as we can see the process of her music
take place. Even though her Digipak has simplistic conventions, it is
still representative of her target audience. This Digipak challenges the
normal conventions of a Pop Digipak as she has incorporated two
types of music and different settings to what can be considered the
norm.
From looking at these Digipaks I leant the importance of targeting your audience purely through visuals. The visuals need to express the lyrics and feelings of the
artist throughout the music video given. From this, our ideas developed towards what types of imagery we would be using and what type of message we would
like to broadcast to our target audiences. These Digipaks really helped us to grasp being able to target a feminine audience, which we then developed and
challenged the normal conventions of these CD Digipaks.
7. What we used, challenged and
developed…
This is is a picture of the front cover of our final Digipak. Based on
our research into different front covers, as a group, we were able to
create a front cover both conventional and appealing to our target
audience.
Our use in lighting and colours are the most prominent aspect of this
front cover. Using Rihanna's Digipak ‘LOUD’ as an example, as an
artist she was able to denote what her album was conveying whilst
connoting the powerful aspects of being a female artist. From this,
we understood the importance of targeting an audience through the
use of colour. The colours included stand out because the lighting is
bright, and strong. This is completely conventional of our target
audience and our sub-culture of the ‘Pop culture’. Whilst these
conventions target our main audience, the writing used on the front
is something by which we developed in order to establish a hidden
meaning behind our Digipak.
The writing on our Digipak front cover, has aspects of sophistication and femininity, however is also considerably powerful in the way in which
it is presented. We decided to have our artists name in italics, surrounded by black with pink in the middle. The slight black around the sides
of the writing shows our artists anger towards her situation fading, and the happiness coming through (through the use of pink), all of which is
shown in our music video. However, contrasting with this, the writing of the actual song presented in the music video is of a bigger font and
also in italics, but however much darker and in a bold font. This shows basic aspects of our music video. The fact that the name of our music
video is of a bigger font allows the audience to see clearly that her feminine ways and sophistication are of bigger prominence, even though
throughout our music video she is still showing herself gradually progressing in strength. The storyline of our music video corresponds very
closely with this Digipak front cover whilst completely appealing to our target audiences.
We decided to develop our music video to be different in comparison to past music videos from the Pop genre, However, this was only
because as a group we felt that portraying our artist as strong, whilst still showing feelings would not be easily represented through a simple
image of our artist. Portraying our artist as strong was highlighted through the means of her make-up, hair and clothing as they all stand out
very clearly making our artist the main focal point of the front page. The colours used are also hugely conventional of our target audience
whilst also representing the personal aspects of our artists emotions.
8. Advert Conventions
These Digipak adverts are suitable for many different types of audiences.
However, the conventions vary purely around this. All of the adverts given
express the artists in a very serious light which can either be used to
portray the lyrics, or themselves as an individual. The original conventions
surrounding these Digipak advertisements all include the artist, and the
name of the album they are promoting. These conventions are then
developed by including a review of the single/album from a newspaper or
magazines perspective. This will heighten the fan base for the artist as a
good review will promote the artist. Then, adding to this further, including a
direct website address allows the audience to connect with the artist on a
personal level and interact with the music they are selling. However, the
overall selling of the advertisement revolves around the imagery of the
advertisement itself. For example, an advertisement needs to be simplistic
enough for the audience to have the artist as a main focal point, but also
has to be interesting enough to attract the varies audience members to
want to listen or purchase the music they are trying to promote.
All of the advertisements shown are simplistic but seem to have a
hidden message behind the connotations of the artist themselves.
For example, Lana Del Rey’s advertisement has high levels of
triviality amongst it, which suggests that there is further emotion to
be shown in her performances and lyrics. Throughout the creation of
our advertisement, we have developed this image further, however
challenging it slightly due to the fact that our artist may not be
positioned looking directly at the camera. This creates a sense of
loneliness about our artist .
9. What we used, developed and
challenged…
This is our finalised print advertisement. We decided that on reflection
of our previous print advertisement it was too dark and therefore was
not fully representative of our target audience. Due to this we made
various changes to our print advertisement which I believe has made it
look more professional.
We based our print advertisement around previous research into other
print advertisements whereby an artist has included the CD front cover
on their advertisement and targeted their audience through the use of
writing. The writing techniques allow the name of our song ‘mistake’ to
stand out a lot more due to the fact that it is in a different colour. We
also ensured that there were quotes from Pop magazine ‘Top Of The
Pops’ to attarct our audience on a wider level. We also included our
artists twitter name and facebook. This allows there to be a certain
level of communication between the audience and the artist which will
appease our audience.
The colours that have been used I believe are bright enough to attract
our audience and stand out as something which is a different style to
the ones that have been annotated.
I believe the overall advertisement is fully representative of our target
audience due to the fact that we have added the CD on the
advertisement which allows there to be a correlation between our the
rest of our digiapak and the print advertisement. This therefore allowed
our work to look professional all of which heightened our creativity.
10. Continued…
Here is another clear example of how we have related to our artist, and used some of the conventions. The writing in our print
advertisement corresponds very closely with Demi Lovato’s from the colour of the writing, to the changing fonts throughout the writing.
However, this is also an aspect in which we developed. Where Demi Lovato’s writing moves from bold to regular fonts, we changed ours
to bold to italic. From this I believe this development added a range of writing styles whilst targeting our female audience and identifying
what our music video was trying to represent. However, even though the fonts were still used, we had to change our digipak as we found
that it was too dark and therefore not fully corresponding with our CD front cover. Therefore we kept the CD and the advertisement the
same, which allowed our work to look more professional and more representative of our target audience.
As shown, the colours are also the same in our print advertisements, however we have kept the correlation of the writing throughout the
CD front cover and print advertisement in order for there to be a link between the two even though the colours may differ.
11. In comparison to Demi Lovatos back page, it is clear that
similar conventions have been used. We chose to make
clear comparisons between the two due to the fact that
we have based our music video around Demi Lovato as
an artist, and therefore have the same target audience.
As shown, the mise-en-scene between the two women is
similar, both portraying power and independence. The
gold chain in our image shows this whereas Demi
Lovatos outfit is strong enough allowing the artist to be
portrayed in a strong light without the need of a statement
necklace. The make-up also has clear similarities of
heavy eyes and pink lips. These conventions
automatically target our audience and allow a clear link
between the two back pages to be prominent.
We have chosen to show our artist in a medium shot
which matches Demi Lovato’s back page, as she too is
shown through the means of a medium shot. We believed
that a medium shot allowed our audience to relate to our
artist a lot more as the emotions of her face are still
present whilst her clothing has been highlighted too. We
have also added effect on the lyrics shown on the left-
hand side to make the writing have a feminine touch.
As shown here, we have also made clear similarities
between the lyrics on the left-hand side. The lyrics
are both in a simplistic colour and font. The names of
the lyrics also have clear similarities. Our lyrics have
very powerful names which correspond closely with
the feelings throughout our music video. This makes
enables a clear relationship between the album and
the music video.
12. Using Andrew Goodwin's Theory
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
2. There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals.
3. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals.
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the
artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking.
6. There are often intertextual references.
Throughout the production of our music video and ancillary task we made frequent referencing to Andrew Goodwins theory. One of the
most prominent of the 6 is that our visuals correspond very closely with the lyrics. This created an automatic relationship between
between all of our tasks and caused our visuals to represent a professional artistic level. Throughout our music video we have also
included a range of shots, with intertextual references at some points. Our overall music video strongly convey genre characteristics
and I believe was created at a successful level.
13. Attractingouraudience
We attracted our audience in various ways, all of which originated from our target
audience research. To start, we underwent basic research by looking through and
analysing the general conventions of Pop music videos and their advertisements.
This broadened our knowledge towards the Pop genre and our target audience
which in turn allowed a successful creative product to be inevitable.
After this, we decided we needed to get an insight into our target audiences
thoughts and feelings towards the ideas of our music video and our Digipak
production. This proved very helpful especially in terms of interviewing our
secondary audience who surprisingly gave a similar approach to our music video
as our primary audience. Without this knowledge, targeting our audience would
have been based upon general idealist ideologies. From this we found that our
target audience prefers music videos of a narrative nature, in order to tell a story
which heightens the emotions of the storyline, As shown in our music video, our
artist is hugely conventional of our target audience alongside the narrative. Our
clothing and make-up were all something strongly considered throughout this
process in order to allow maximum attraction of our target audience.
In terms of our Digipak, we had to ensure that maximum attraction of our audience
was still strong, This meant that our music video had to strongly correspond with
our ancillary task. Yet again, audience research and further research into Digipak
productions of Pop artists was hugely helpful. However, we had to adapt our
imagery from moving to still. This meant that we had to portray the feelings of the
music video to our target audience which would attract our audience further as
they would develop a rapport with our artist as the storylines often occur in real
life, revolving our main primary audience – females from the ages of 14-21.
These screen shots taken from our music video clearly show the effects in which we
were trying to create. In the first picture we added the use of wording amongst a
memory to show what their relationship used to be like. We also continued this by
including a zoom in of pictures of the couple before they broke up. Following this our
artist was positioned in a clearly isolated position staring directly into the camera as
she sings the chorus. This not only highlights her isolation at this time, but shows
her strength as the eye level shot shows her upcoming power.
14. Adapting conventions
In order to make our three products stand out against the hugely competitive market of the Pop culture, we had to adapt our conventions to give
a different feel. This involved the slight changes made in our music video. Our music video goes against the general conventions of most music
videos which have been stated by theorists. For example, theorist Todorov expresses his ideas of the basic conventions of a music video by
stating they involve a equilibrium – disequilibrium – equilibrium. This however, has been adapted in our music video due to the fact that we
challenge this statement and begin our music video with a disequilibrium. Even though to most members of our audience, this would appear a
small change, we have gone against the general conventions of traditional Pop music videos which in turn makes our music video stand out.
As shown below, our ancillary task has been continuously adapted in order to target a widespread audience. I have included the changes
made to our front page in order to make it more appealing to our audience, which was achieved through the process of adapting
conventions. We significantly changed the lighting and the positioning of our artist, however kept the overall imagery the same. In
comparison to our back page, the adapted the conventions to show a darker side to our artist and the album itself. Whilst our print
advertisement was hugely adapted in order to portray the huge sense of power and strength insinuated with our artist.
15. Concluding…
Throughout the process of creating our ancillary task and music video, we conformed to most of the traditional conventions of the Pop genre,
however the changes we did make developed and challenge suited our products. We chose to revolve our music video around the normal
conventions of this genre. Creating a narrative music video, with a young female artist hugely conformed to the traditional conventions and
targeted our audience. However, the slight changes we did make, e.g. starting our music video with a disequilibrium attracted our audience
because it moved away from the norm, and made our narrative a lot more interesting.
In terms of our ancillary task, we understood that they had to strongly correspond with our music
video. Therefore we had to transmit our audiences feeling through the use of imagery. We focused
around the deeper meanings and created a much more serious image as our artist is not looking
at the camera. This adds levels of emotion to her face as she is not smiling either. This challenges
some forms of print advertisements as they normally are shot showing their artist in an eye-level
shot to show power, however we felt that our artists make-up showed her emotions fully.
Overall, I believe our finalised products are hugely
conventional of the Pop genre, and the changes in
which were made were fully representative of our
older primary audience following the Pop culture.
This allowed us to create media products in which
revolved around the traditional, and challenged the
smaller aspects. Our overall media products were
both creative and professional, yet again appealing
to our target audience.
