A Level Media Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Conventions are the expected, recognised and known way of doing things,
therefore a genre convention is what we expect to see from a specific genre. An
example of this is how we expect to see voyeurism in pop videos. The typical
conventions of a music video are lip-syncing, fitting the length of the song and
the editing matching the music.
Andrew Goodwin’s codes and conventions of a music video are one of the most
relatable and relevant around today. These include:
 Visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music
 Visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics
 Music videos displaying a style and iconography
 Voyeurism
 Intertextual references
In our music video we have primarily stuck to these code and conventions
despite not using any explicit intertextual references. To make sure our visuals
illustrated the music we cut on the beat and increased the pace of the shots in the
chorus to match the speed.
Our visuals matched the lyrics as shown by our use of lip-syncing throughout the
performance section and occasionally in the narrative section. This is best shown
through the shot of Tom, our male character, lip syncing “its nothing” with lip
stick round his mouth as described in the lyrics.

2. The iconography we illustrated throughout was group unity, which we showed
through the nine spilt screens of the girls around Tom, this style was the bases of
my ancillary tasks.
The conventions of a digipak are much simpler than those of a music video. The
majority of digipaks will have 6 panels although some do only have 4. From the
digipaks I analysed in my research I discovered that it is conventional for a
digipak to have one colour theme, a barcode, legal details in small print, the
artists name as a focus and for the convention pop for an image of the artist to be
the front cover, often a close-up or mid-shot with direct address.

3. Despite the majority of black and white digipaks being from the indie genre I
wanted my images look sleek and classic which is an effect that a black and white
filter does, even too a man smoking. This unconventional route is one that artists
such as Adele have chosen to maintain a classic image.
I have included the record label logo,barcode, a full sound track list and a font
that is then repeated on the album advert to follow the contentions and make my
digipak look realistic, as well as including 6 panels.
Despite genre, band or solo the majority of album adverts follow the same
conventions; the artists name, albums name, release date/out now, reviews and
imagery related to the digipak. I have conformed to the majority of these
conventions in my advert except I didn’t include reviews as the style didn’t fit
any necessary writing and I wanted the focus to be on the “#1” Comeback.

4. Unlike the majority of pop adverts I didn’t follow the conventions of my chosen
genre as I didn’t include any images of the artist. However by including shots
from the music video as well as repetition of the spilt screen I created consistent
iconography throughout my three products.
By following conventions it will offer the audience satisfaction due to the
familiarity of the product. This combined with the conventions I have no
included will create a product that is familiar yet new therefore will entice the
audience to look at the product, which will hopefully lead to its purchase.