The document discusses conventions used in media products and how the student group developed their own music video, CD digipak, and website by drawing from conventions in other artists' works but also challenging conventions and developing new ideas. For their music video, they took ideas from Jax Jones and Cosmo Pyke but developed them further. Their CD digipak and website design followed standard conventions but included their own creative elements like a collage on the digipak.

1. Conventions are the familiar and predictable forms and techniques used by media
to communicate certain ideas or to convey a desired impression. Conventions can
be used to guarantee that the audience understands the meaning which is trying to
be created.
We have used the Jax Jones music video on the songs House Work to get ideas for
our music video. As you can see in the Jax Jones video there is a washing liquid
bottle with the name of the song and the artist. We found this idea very interesting
and decided to add a similar touch to our music video. The dog food cans have the
name of our song and are also completed in a similar colour finish which is very
bright. Our idea about creating these cans links very well with our video as the
name of the song is Great Dane which is a breed of a dog. We have developed the
Jax Jones idea and added our artist into the back of the shot which has made our
shot more interesting as our artist is actually involved with the cans. He is picking
up the cans from the shelf. This provides a better link of the cans to the music video
rather than having a simple white background like Jax Jones.

2. With this shot we have took an idea from the actual artist who wrote the Great Dane
song where there is a shot of a person performing an action with some papers
which have writing on them. We have thought about about the idea and we wanted
to include some kind of writing into our video. We have developed the idea by
making the writing out of scrabble pieces and the action which our artists are
performing is actually more interesting and pleasant to the eye. The girls which are
involved in this shot are writing the name of our song with the scrabble pieces and
this creates shot creates a massive link to the song and our campaign once again.
Having in mind the convention of Cosmo Pyke’s music video made us think of a
brilliant idea od how we could challenge his music video.

3. We have also used a convention from the trailer of Moonrise Kingdom. In that shot
there is an effect added to the video which makes us think that somebody is looking
at the boy in the field through a pair of binoculars. That idea is very interesting and
it works very well as the meaning is understood easily. We have developed and
challenged that shot. We decided to use a physical pipe to look through instead of
adding an effect later on which gives the music video a more of an organic feel. As
our artist is organic this is very important that we have managed to create this
mood all the way throughout the music video and the campaign. We have also have
done the opposite of what was done in Moonrise Kingdom. We created the effect
that the girl that we see is looking at us through the pipe instead of us looking at
her. This was another massive development which we have performed and it has
worked as the meaning is conveyed clearly.

4. With this shot we wanted to support the mood of our music video and create an
organic element in it. This shot gives the audience the feel of piece, being away
from all of the problems which arise in the world under the duvet and creating this
individual atmosphere. The shot below which we have developed creates a similar
effect and in that shot there is a young girl which straight away gives us thoughts of
innocence. We wanted to create the same feel, but with our artist. It was much
harder to convey the same meaning as our artist is not a child who would give such
thoughts straight away. Both our artist and the girl in the shot are reading something
which provides the effect of interesting thoughts and an individual feel to the
characters. This allows our artist to be special from all of the other artists and
highlights him in the industry.

5. In this shot you are able to see the similarities between our music video and the
video Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Henry Lee. In both video we see the artist and
there is a girl who is touching the artist and showing some attraction/connection
between them. However in our video our artist is ignoring the girls and in the Henry
Lee video the artist is also concentrated on doing his own thing. We have
developed the idea by adding more girls which allows us to have a more complex
meaning behind our music video. Both video represent very well who is at the
centre of attention and this is a very important convention to follow in a music video
in order to promote the artist.

6. The similarities between these two shots are that we see each of the artists lip sync
in an empty room and we see emptiness. However we have used completely
different colours compared to the Arctic Monkeys music video and we have placed
our artist into a different atmosphere. Our artist is in a basement and this conveys
the meaning much better in my opinion compared to the Arctic Monkeys video
where we see the performer in front of a white wall. Our shot has more meaning in
it. This shot supports the personality of our artist very well and goes very well with
the atmosphere which we have in our whole campaign. The dark location of our
shot also supports the Indie genre.

7. Kanye took Vincent Desiderio's "Sleep" & brought it to life with a modern twist. This
was a genius music video by Kanye West and we have also wanted to take the idea
and create a meaning that all of the members in our music video are in the same
boat - the same bed. We have challenged Kanye West’s Famous by changing the
shot angle which we have used and we created action between the performance
instead of them just sleeping. The meaning which we created is understood much
better by audiences and suits our music video, while there was a lot of uncertainty
about the meaning Kanye tries to create. In our shot we managed to contain the
mood of our music video and the organic feel. Our shot represent a very pleasant
atmosphere which satisfies the audience as it is very calm. This is the opposite of
what Kanye has done.

8. OurCDDigipak

9. A Digipak is a modern approach to CD packaging which allows to include more
information about the band/artist. It is about adding value to the music we are
purchasing which is the original good which we demand. By adding value the firms
are able to sell the music at a higher price to us and this allows them to boost
profits. Moving away from the financial side, the digipak also has visual images
which strengthen the image which is being created. This makes the start image and
the campaign stronger whilst triggering more buttons in our heads which make us
memorise this particular CD/music as a link is created in our minds between all of
the content produced. By doing this the record labels and the artist are more likely
to succeed with their product which they are trying to push forward into the music
market.
A Digipak should feature the name of the artist and the name of the album in large
font at the front cover. This is done so we are able to recognise who has produced
this content. Usually a large image or some sort of design is added to the front
cover alongside the name of the artist and the name of the album. The back cover
usually has the name and logo of the record company. It also has a full list of the
contents of the CD which you are purchasing. You will see each of the song names
in the middle of the back cover and these song names will be the main focus of
attention.
The CD Digipak has 3-4 colours max and there is this limit in place in order to
support the brand image and not confuse the audience by adding unnecessary
elements to the product. There is the same rule about the font, however it is even
more strict and a max of two fonts should be used in order to keep the Digipak
looking appropriate and professional. The same fonts should be used on the
website and throughout the whole campaign in order to create the right image in the
audiences heads. Consistency is a key to success as audiences will be more likely
to remember something if they see the same thing over and over again. These are
all conventions of the Digipak and how a standard Digipak should be made. We are
used to the CD Digipak looking like this and that is why audiences will usually be
more attracted to this format of the Digipak, if it looked otherwise some simply
would not understand where to find the information they are looking for which would
decrease customer satisfaction and a large proportion of the sales revenue could
be lost.
With our CD Digipak we have included the name of the artist and the name of the
album at the front cover as most CD Digipaks do. You can see examples of CD
DIgipaks below which we have used to inspire our design of the CD Digipak. We
have made a collage of photos with our artist August. Such bands as the Rolling
Stones have previously created a similar collage at the front of their digipak. The
photos reflect the mood of the songs and help us target our audience as the
consumers will be able to understand the genre and mood of the music by looking
at the front cover. The fact that our artist is featured at the front of the digipak
supports the artists star image and helps the audience visualise the music which
they hear. At the back cover we included a painted artwork with the name of the
record label and the full list of the songs which the album contains. We have
followed this convention which most cd digipaks have. The colours which we used

10. suit our artist star image and the image which we are trying to create throughout the
campaign. There is a clear link between the mood and the colours of the digipak
and the music video which we have created. This is also done in most real media
products. The collage and the artwork in the digipak contains our creativity and
inside the digipak we have included a photo of our artist. This will promote our artist
as audiences will get familiar with his looks and recognise him. This is going to
allow the artist to become closer to his audience and become more famous which
will set his career on the right footpath. Many similarities can be found between our
digipak and the one below. This evidence suggests that we have followed many
media conventions.

11. WEBSITE

13. A website is a set of data and information about a particular subject which is
available on the Internet.
Our home page on the website contains of the artist name and our music video
which starts playing in the background when you open the website. The font is the
same that we used on our CD Digipak and this is very important in order to create
the correct picture in the audiences minds and support the brand image which is
being created. The colours of our website are the same as of the digipak once
again. We are being very consistent and organised with everything we produce.
Our website contains 6 tabs which you can go onto to view such content as
August’s biography, his music and his tour dates.
Our website is very simple and looks very organic. This is going to support the star
image of our artist and make the campaign as a whole more capable of being
successful. It is very important to use large images on a website and keep it easy to
use for audiences. We have done that and at the same time managed to keep the
website looking interesting which is going to make audiences more involved and
want to discover more about the artist.
Nearly everything that I have listen above is the usual norm for a website and below
you will be able to see screenshots of websites which were made for real artists.
There can be many similarities found between our and a real website. I chose these
website to compare to ours because they also use very calm colours and many of
the artists are organic. As you can see all of them use large images on the website,
together with large font. Some of our web pages are similar to the website of
Florian Tessloff who is a composer. The colours look similar as both websites have
a lot of black and blue. Another website which looks similar to some pages of our
website is the Remi Jousselme website where we see a simple white background
and a simple font is used everywhere on the website, however afterwards coloured
photos are added to the website in order to keep the website looking interesting
and this creates a nice touch to the website.
In conclusion I would definitely say that we have followed all of the rules which are
required to make an appropriate and successful media product. We have used
many conventions which are used in real media products in order to convey
meaning to our audience which we are trying to create. At the same time we have
developed many ideas which were created by other people before and we have
came up with brand new ideas and challenged real media products with our work. It
could be portrayed hard to challenge a real media product at our level, however
with our combined work and creativity which has flown into this campaign, I believe
that we are up for the challenge.