1. In what ways does your media
product use, develope or
challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?
Music video:
My music video that I have created conforms to some of Andrew Goodwin’s ideas on
music video such as the visuals link to the lyrics. This is demonstrated through
the lyrics ‘smoke and lasers, love and ravers’ being played over footage of a
crowd of people dancing, in a club with laser lights beaming out toward them.
s
ser rs’
& laave
okee & r
‘Sm lov
In doing this I have created a visual representation of the words in song, thus conforming
partly to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos.
Moreover, the pace of my music video also links to Andrew Goodwins theory that the music
and the visuals interlace with interweave with one another at times. The song I chose, ‘Afterglow’ by Wilkinson, is predominately of fast tempo, therefore when editing my music video, I
ensured to keep a face pace by making sure that the shots cut in time with the beat and so it
did not negate the inflection of the song.
The timeline of my music video demonsrates
the short clips that cut in time together to
keep with the pace of the song

2. With reference to representation, I attempted to portray two contrasting situations.
The first representing the loneliness some people experience in life. This was displayed
through the use of my protagonist continually drinking by herself in her room, the shots of her
walking home in the dark, and also the footage shot in the studio with the bright lights.
I could be argued that my music video does in fact challenge forms and conventions of real
media texts, as I have use a women as my protagonist in my music video, whereas many
dance/drum and bass music videos tend to use young me as there protagonists.
I decided to challenge forms as I wanted my narrative to be original; I also wanted young
women to be able to relate to my music video, in turn meaning they could create an empathetic relationship with my protagonist as they would understand her predicament, meaning
that my music video can also be applied to Bulmer and Kats Uses and Gratifications Theory.
My music video fits into the genre of ‘drum and bass’. This can be identified through the shots
used of the crowd and also through the intoxicated state of my protagonist. Objects such as
lasers, crowds dancing and alcohol bottles are all things that an audience expect to see in a
Drum and Bass music video, thus illustrating that in this case my music video does in fact
conform to conventions of other Drum and Bass music videos.
the second situation represented ‘togetherness’ which leads to happiness via the shots of
the club scene with a crowd dancing altogether.
The representation of loneliness was portrayed through the narrative and also the performance of my protagonist. Camera work also helped along the way with close up shots of her
face displaying a range of different emotions i.e smiling, rubbing her face, blankly looking
into the camera etc. This helped represent the multiple stages that people go through when
they are intoxicated, i.e. they start of happy and in control but if they drink too much they
become disorientated and not in control of themselves
Props such as the vodka bottle also helped reinforce the link between the protagonist’s
feelings of sadness as the reason of being drunk and drinking heavily.
Magazine advert:
It could be argued that my magazine advert does not in fact conform to the conventions of
real-media products. There are very few real ‘drum and bass’ magazine adverts to compare
mine with, even the real music video does not have an advertisement poster. However, the
few that I did see normally included a black background with brightly coloured text. They
did not included reviews or even a date of when it was released.
Whereas, on my magazine advert I included a close up of my protagonist, on a purple background with reviews, the date of release and also where the song can be
brought. The only point that my magazine could follow codes and conventions of a real-media product is the size of the font and the text used. Most of the magazine adverts I saw included blocky text, like ‘impact’ for example and was enlarged. I used ‘Impact’ and also used a font called ‘Birth of a hero’ which I enlarged to a reasonable size.

3. Digipak:
My digipak cover also breaks conventions of real drum and bass products. The real digipak
for the song ‘afterglow’ consists of a black background, with ‘Wilkinson’ and ‘Afterglow’ taking up the whole cover. The text is in a font called ‘impact’ and has a yellow/orange effect on
it or just comes in black, with a white background. There is ‘prominent’ image on the cover
as such, as the bold text takes the attention off of it. The also have a digipak for their album
called ‘lazers not included’ which includes the same fonts and style but this time in black and
white.
In comparison, I have included a close up of my protagonist and have written ‘Wilkinson’
and the album name ‘Smoke and Lazers’ in the font called ‘birth of a hero’.
In challenging the codes and conventions I have created something new and original. I feel
that having a picture on the front cover was necessary as it allows my audience to be able to
recognise my music video and relate it to my digipak and magazine advert, and visa versa. It
could potentially be argued that my digipak does follow codes and conventions of a digipak
simply because it has four sides to it, just like most real digipaks do. However this would be
the only conformity.
I feel that my all of my products both conform and challenge the forms and conventions
of real and more specifically Drum and Bass products. I feel that this a postive for my products as not only does it give some familiarity to the audience but it also provides them with
something new and orignial which they can enjoy. Seeing as my target audience are primarily
individulists this is means that I have provided them with a product that does not ‘follow the
crowd’ as such, matching their personality.