1. As Media Evaluation question 1
(In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?)
Elliot Ball
2. Magazine Advert
This is the magazine advertisement for our
digipak, it uses, develops and challenges the
forms and conventions of real, traditional
magazine advertisements. To discover the
forms and conventions used in real media
products we conducted a research phase as a
group where we looked at a variety of
different magazine adverts from artists of
different genres. We compared all of the
different magazine adverts and noted all of
the common features they shared despite
being of different genres. Once we had
selected our song and the artist we began to
turn our attention more towards the adverts
for albums of artists in the particular genre
we were creating in, we also looked at album
adverts by the artists on the same label as
Saint Motel. We took some of the more
obvious forms and conventions like having the
name of the band and album, however we
left out things like a release date and a still
image of the album, the images on the
magazine advert are not even related to the
album cover, again going against the forms
and conventions of real media products. We
did this because the artist we have chosen
(saint motel) are a minimalist progressive pop
band, so we tried to incorporate the bands
minimalist sound into the magazine advert.
This gives the readers a visual idea of the type
of music that is on the album. For example a
magazine advert for an album by a heavy rock
group will look completely different then that
of a folk band both in content and colour.
Above is an advert for the heavy rock band ‘Fall Out Boy’ it is innately clear when comparing the two
album adverts, which band plays the heavy rock music. This is through the use of horror iconography
associated with the heavy rock genre, and the use of dark colours for the same reasons. To make it
clear that the music the album features is progressive pop we have used bright colours and images
that are from the music video.
3. For our magazine album advert we
have decided to continue the themes
of minimalism and simplicity that is
found in the music video and the
digipak we did this to have an obvious
link through synergy. We used images
that were found on the digipak and in
the music video in the advert to also
promote the synergy of the product.
We looked at and assessed the forms
and conventions found in real
products within the genre and have
both challenged and developed these
ideas. One of the concepts we
adopted and developed within our
album advert was Andrew Goodwin’s
theory of looking from Dancing in the
Distraction Factory: this is the idea
that you should have lots of close ups
on the artist. We have taken this idea
and twisted it slightly by having the
artist in the image look straight down
the camera lens, this makes the
consumer feel like he is looking at
them. As the genre caters more for a
female demographic, having the main
artist look at them brings a more
personal nature to the advert, and will
let the consumer connect with the
artist.
The other image on the advert is one of the key shots of the music video, one
that will stay in the consumers heads more than other shots. When the
consumer sees this image in a magazine they will hopefully draw a
correlation between the music video and the album, and if they liked the
music video and the song, hopefully they will go on to buy the album.
One of the ways we challenged the codes
and conventions of other real products in
the same genre was by not putting a
release date on the album advert. We did
this because in the age of modern
technology most people in our chosen
demographic have the power of instant
gratification through smart phones and
other devices linked up to the internet . In
this day and age we thought that our target
audience would see the advert In a
magazine and then would just search either
the name of the artist, song or record label,
then find out all of the information they
need. However this would be one thing I
would change if I was to make the advert
again as by doing this we are almost
excluding people who don’t have access to
the internet from finding out when the
album is being released, this is something
we should have been more careful with
when making the advertisement
One of the things I like the
most about the magazine
advert is the colour scheme, it
is minimalist and bright yet
features images from the
video. I think that this makes
the advert enticing and eye
catching to the consumer.
4. Digipak
This is the digipak
promotional packaging for
our groups product. Within
our product we have used,
developed and challenged
the traditional forms and
conventions of real media
products within our chosen
genre. One of the key
features on digipak’s of this
genre is the use of the
minimalist style, one of the
ways we incorporated this
into our product was to use
images that were all fairly
similar, either by having the
pictures set in the same
location or by having them
of the same item in this
case the vinyl player. We
also used a minimal amount
of text on our digipak to
make it seem more
spacious and bright, one of
the reasons we did this was
in response to the
questionnaires that we had
filled out by members of
the public to gain ideas.
One of the majority of
responses said they like to
have a bright spacious
digipak cover that stands
out on the shelf of the
consumer.
Whilst in our research phase we looked at several digipak’s and identified the
common features that all of them shared. The main feature that kept coming up was
the positioning of the track listing. On every digipak we studied the track list was
always centred on the back of the digipak. As every example we looked at had the
track list in this location we decided to do the same as this is clearly a vital part of the
digipak.
When creating our digipak
the thing we considered the
most was synergy. We
wanted their to be a direct
visual link between every
product in the promotional
package. To create the most
synergy we used common
imagery from the other
products in the package, one
of the images that is featured
on every item is the Image of
the locks on the bridge, the
thinking behind putting this
on every product was for the
consumer to make a visual
link between every product
and realise it is all by the
same artist.
The common theme of having vinyl record players on
the album continues to give the album an indie
aesthetic that fits the genre. However one thing that I
would change if I was to recreate this, would be to use
less images of the record player as I think having it on
the digipak three times is overworking it. I would
instead have the main image as the record player and
the two images on the inside of a singe landscape
image that is split between the two panels
5. Music Video
The song we made a music video for falls into the genre category of indie pop music. To gain ideas for our music video the first thing we did was to
watch a multitude of music videos that are within this genre. We noted the forms, codes and conventions that were common to each video within the
genre, picked out the key ones and decided if we were going to use them, go against them or develop them. One of the key ones that we decided to
use was the use of filters over the footage to make it look darker. This is a very common feature of music videos within the genre so we felt as though
using it would be a good idea as people would be able to see a still from our music video and be able to tell the genre! This can also be done through
the costume that our singer is wearing, the big trench coat is something that is very fashionable within the genre, this again adds to the imagery of the
genre.
Another key feature we found was that in almost every video we studied the artist was lip syncing for at least some of the video, this is another key
convention that we decided to use in our video as it again something that is very common and has almost become something that people expect to
see when watching a music video. These close up shots of lip syncing also coincide with Andrew Goodwin's theory of looking, taken from his book:
Dancing in the Distraction Factory, this is the theory that in a successful music video close ups of the band (especially the lead singer) are vital as it
allows the audience to connect with the artist. This Is also why we directed our frontman to deliver his lines directly down the camera as this again
creates a connection between the artist and consumer.
6. Music Video
Another key feature that was established in the music videos we studied was that almost all of the videos featured elements of live
performance, either utilising a full band or just having a solitary artist playing s guitar and lip syncing. When we were researching
popular elements within the music videos of this genre live playing was the thing that came up the most. I feel as though it gives
the consumer the impression that the band are playing live, even if they cannot afford concert tickets, so as well as featuring a
good story that the audience can relate to it is also a good idea to use live playing to connect with the consumer as well.
Andrew Goodwin's’ Dancing in the distraction factory states the technique of ‘looking’. this involves using numerous closeups of
the band and lead singer as it is what the audience want to see, also the use of looking directly down the camera is a way to allow
the consumer to connect with the artist. Overall i believe that our music video, although may be lacking in quality of shots and
camera movement, it uses the forms and conventions of music videos within the indie genre well. If i was to change one thing it
would be to use a more structured narrative where the characters are more clearly defined.
