In this document, the author discusses how their media products for an A2 coursework assignment utilized and developed the forms and conventions of real media. They produced a music video for Ellie Goulding's song "Figure 8" along with a digipak and advert. Through extensive research of music video genres, conventions, and examples, the author aimed to include typical elements such as links between lyrics/music and visuals, changes in scene, and different camera angles. Their digipak and advert also followed conventions like featuring the artist and album information. While developing genre conventions, the author sought to make their media products feel authentic and appeal to target audiences.

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

2. For my A2 Media coursework I had to produce a
music video, complete with a digipak and advert
promoting the chosen artist in a form of a
poster. Through my research and production of
these products I have discovered that each of
these media texts has a specific set of codes and
conventions, which helped provide constraints
in which I worked.

3. When I first began my A2 coursework, I began by looking for inspiration for my
music video and ancillary products by looking at existing and popular
examples. The first bit of research I done was looking at the various types of
genre within music videos. From this I extended my research by looking at
different types of music videos and noting that the three main categories
which music videos fall into include, narrative, concept and performance and
the audience expectations of all three. I then went on to research the 100
Greatest Music videos, along with the chart favourites and my own favourite
music videos EVER! Additionally, I looked at the History of the music video
giving me more understanding of the concept of what a music video actually is.
From this I went on to deciding how and where I would shoot my music video,
this included deciding on what artist I would chose and I began my research on
Ellie Goulding, her music, inspiration and her music videos, I also looked at
codes and conventions of the genre which I would incorporate into my music
video, this also included looking at secondary research (Young and Rubicam)
into who my target audience would be. Throughout all this research I had to
decide on the conventions which I would either develop or challenge in my
music video.

4. Another part of my coursework which proved to
be helpful in the research and planning stage of
my music video was looking and the different
genres of music videos and I looked a series of
YouTube videos from varying artists as well as
looking at other student’s work.

5. Music Video Theories:
Goodwin’s theory works on 8 main principles:
1. Links between lyrics and visuals
2. Links between music and visuals, (complementary,
contradictory or amplification)
3. Genre characteristics
4. Intertextual references
5. Notion of looking (pnjectification of women)
6. Voyeurism (direct gaze, other people looking at the artist,
insight into the artists life, screens and mirrors)
7. Demands of the Record Label 9representation of the artist)
8. Performance based, Concept based or narrative based music
videos.

6. Conventions of a Pop Music Video:
- Artists are dressed in fashionable, stylish and
mainstream clothing
- The lyrics are normally based around love or
relationships
- The song is usually set between 3-5 minutes long with
a set structure and consistent beat
- Camera shots are usually fast paced
- Pop videos show sudden change in scene
- Pop videos also show many different camera angles

7. Examples from my music video…
Links between lyrics and visuals
“and lovers hold on……”

8. Voyeurism and the notion of looking

9. Shows sudden change in scene

10. Shows different camera angles

11. I very much developed the conventions of the genre
as I felt it was important that I targeted the
audience of the genre and fans of the genre have
certain expectations and I felt that it was important
to deliver these expectations in order for my video
to be successful. Pop is very much about promoting
the artist therefore there is a lot of focus on my
artist performing the song as well as featuring in
the narrative. However it couldn’t be purely
narrative based as I felt that it was important that
the audience saw a link between the visuals and
lyrics.

12. The artist which I chose was Ellie Goulding and decided on her song called ‘Figure 8’.
Before I started I did some background research on her as an artist and looked at her
music videos for a number of her songs including Figure 8. This research was useful
as Ellie Goulding is just a pop artist and can be described as a pop/indie artist, this
research helped me discover the genre codes and conventions of the genre as they
were hard to define due to it being a hybrid genre. For instance, her music videos
vary from high budget to more simplistic, and her videos are usually based in an
outdoor setting and focus a lot on performance of the song.

13. Once I had completed my filming and was
moving towards the post production stages of
my coursework it was time to start thinking
about my Digipak and Advert! Fortunately I had
begun preparation for this whilst filming and
managed to get some images whilst fiming
which came to be useful when designing my
ancillary products and creating a continuity
between my products.

14. Features of a Digipak and Advert!
Digipak
- The artist on the front cover
- The album name
- A track list
- Institution information
- Multiple panels and images
- A message to fans and or note of thanks
- Barcode
Advert
- Album title
- Artist name
- Date of release
- An image either of the CD or the artist
- Information of available outlets

15. To gain inspiration for my Digipak and Advert I looked at many
different examples of famous artists within the genre as well
as Ellie Goulding’s. From this I really liked the lighting effects
used on Goulding’s cover and experimented with different
lighting and decided on a warm lighting effect which gave
emphasis to my artist and produced an inviting glow to the
cover. The Digipak was much easier after looking at examples
and having done lots of research into it and after sketching
through various layouts I tried various ways of achieving my
final design.
The Advert was much easier as I used the image feature on
the back panel of my Digipak as it left room down the side of
the poster for reviews and created a link between the two
products.

16. To conclude, in creating my final products I feel
like they all fully develop the general codes and
conventions whilst aiming to relate to the genre
and look like a real media texts. I included
frequent reference to the codes and
conventions of the genre as previously
mentioned and my ancillary products also
include the features they ought to in order to
fulfil the criteria.