media

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

2. Use
Our media product uses sadcore genre conventions of a
sad storyline, depicting two lovers drifting apart and
reminiscing on their past memories. This is shown through
the flashback scenes, in which we can see the couple
smiling and enjoying themselves – contrasted with the
scenes of Libby performing a slow, emotional dance and
Cameron in a boxing rage.

3. Develop
Dance scenes are typically used
to convey passion and a
powerful message. In our
product we took this idea and
slowed the dance down to
portray the emotion behind the
narrative. This meant we slowed
down the dance to a rumba style
pace. The dance scenes also
showed the idea of a last dance,
foreshadowing her death.

4. Challenge
Our media product challenges the sadcore genre
conventions through its dark themes. Sadcore typically
surrounds somber topics about depression and suicide;
therefore incorporating macabre themes of murder in to our
product challenges the norm of the genre.
The boxing scene expels the notion of anger, countering the
stereotype for the sadcore genre, which rarely presents
themes of violence. Violence is commonly shown in more
alternative genres like Rock.

5. Mise en scène
The mise en scène is helpful to create the mood of the
product. An example of this is in the dancing scene (shown
below), where the drama studio is very empty and gloomy –
symbolising conventions of the sadcore genre. The
shadows and black costume symbolise the emptiness and
loneliness of the girl.

6. Mise en scène
This is shown in real media products, with the most obvious
example being in the music video for ‘Ed Sheeran –
Thinking out loud’ which is shown below. It is similar to our
dancing scene, with dark lighting and costumes, however in
this example, there is two people instead of just one. This
shows how we developed this convention for our music
video as the man and the woman dance together In the end
of this video, however in ours she is always by herself,
emphasizing the her loneliness.

7. Intertextuality
Our music video develops the typical notion
of a ‘charming prince’ and a ‘damsel in
distress’ that fall in love, shown in fairy tales
such as Cinderella, Rapunzel and Snow
White. In our production, instead of the
‘charming prince’, the male partner is a
violent murderer that kills the girl. The girl is
still the ‘damsel in distress’, however, she is
not as helpless as the typical fairy-tale
princess, as she is shown hitting back and
shouting at the male. Using Todorov’s theory
equilibrium, it challenges the conventional
fairy tale plot of it starting out bad, then
finishing with a happy ending. In our
production, this is the opposite, as it starts
out happy showing the good memories they
had together, and ends badly with a fatal
conclusion.

8. Poster
The main focus of this poster (shown above) is the people, and
it immediately catches your eye when you see the poster. This
is using a common convention used in many other similar
products that takes advantage of star power to appeal to the
audience. It develops the typical conventions of the layout
however, as instead of the tour date texts being in the middle,
they’re in the top left. This shows how the primary focus of the
poster is to spark an interest of the consumer before we
overload them with information that they wouldn’t be interested
in if they hadn’t been tempted by the images. We have also
provided links to their social media, so we can advertise at the
same time as promoting the tour – this is not a common
implement used in many tour posters, however we feel it is
effective for our product. Originally the background colour was
white but we changed this to a warmer toned colour to make it

9. Poster
As you can see in this real-life poster, it
imitates a similar style, with a bold image of
the artist’s face so they can benefit from
star power. The tour dates here are more
noticeable and take up almost half of the
page. They clearly believe the audience will
have a pre-disposed interest in the artist
and therefore can afford to give so much
information in one block of text. Unlike our
poster the background colour is a lot bolder
and more eye catching than ours which we
could have done but decided not to.

10. Digipak
The Digipak follows conventional themes of sexualizing the
actors, shown in the girl’s Rumba-style dance where she
shakes her hips, and the male’s boxing to make him look
stronger and potentially more masculine. Some artists would
have a few pictures of themselves and then shots of
scenery however we decided to challenge this convention
and use multiple images of our actors from the music video
as it all linked together.

11. Digipak
An example of a real-life digipak that
uses a similar method to promote
through the sexualisation of the artist
is in Rihanna’s album, ‘Loud’. There
are many close ups of her face, with a
focus on her lips that stand out with
red lipstick and red hair. Lips are
heavily sexualised anyway, and the
edition of the colour red symbolises
lust and love. There is also a clear
shot of her body inside the digipak,
heavily signifying the over-
sexualisation in the media.