This document summarizes how the media product, a music video for a fictional band, uses and challenges conventions of real rock music videos. It follows many conventions, such as featuring the lead singer prominently, showing the band performing and playing instruments, and including shots of band members in typical positions. However, it challenges conventions by including overlays of the location rather than just the band. The goal was to promote feelings of youth, fun and enjoyment through the "destruction" in the video. Clothing for the band was also chosen to fit this lighter hearted vision compared to more heavy metal acts.

1. Q1: In What Ways Does Your
Media Product Use, Develop or
Challenge Forms and
Conventions of Real Media
Products?
Beth Emily Cooper

2. Forms & Conventions of
Our Magazine Article
This is our first ancillary task. Our magazine
article slightly challenged forms and
conventions by not featuring the band at all.
However the image that is used is one from our
digi-pack where we focused mainly on the
graffiti art therefore we have followed the
conventions of picking an image from our product
to show on our magazine advert. We also followed
forms and conventions by adding ratings from
likely sources such as NME and ITunes icons
(where to buy it from) . Also we carried on the
graffiti theme though out the digi-pack to link
the two together when buying, this is especially
shown by the tint of pink on the graffiti. We
also typically used the same font to link
everything together e.g. the “Fall Out Boy” name
and the tag line for the digi-pack name and
websites to find out more information which is
traditionally shown on magazine adverts to keep
the audiences interested and involved.

3. Forms & Conventions of Our
Digi-Pack
This is our digi-pack cover, it follows many of the forms and conventions
expected of a band much like ours. We chose to do the traditional 6 panel
lay out with track list at the back, copyrighting demands and noticeable
feature link of the graffiti in both the digi-pack, magazine advert and the
music video. We also had a very clear colour scheme that continued through
out all ancillary task. We got this idea from looking at digi-packs from
both Fall Out Boy, 30 Seconds To Mars and Hollywood Undead. We followed
conventions of featuring all the band member together but also the main
focus on the lead singer and he is portrayed as the teenage heart throb for
the audience much like Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and Jared Leto from 30
Seconds To Mars.
Our digi-pack
30 Seconds To Mars digi-pack

4. Forms & Conventions of
Selling the Star
We featured a lot of close up-mid
shots of our star of the band as he
is the most exploited and the lead
singer of the band. This again
follows conventions of a rock boy
band that features a main singer like
30 Seconds To Mars (Jared Leto) or
Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor). He is
shown many times throughout the band
singing on his own with many close
ups and is the main feature of our
digi-pack. This also shows of our
lead singer’s talent as in every
scene he is singing along and puts in
lots of energy for his performance.
Trent Reznor from Nine Inch
Nails

5. Form & Conventions of How
The Band Are Portrayed
Throughout the entire music video we
were really focused on portraying the
band as young and free much like the
music video “Up In The Air” by 30
Seconds To Mars. We did this by the
fun shots we had of the band smashing
up water melons, exploding coke, water
balloon fights and flour. This was to
show of the childish side of the band
and how much fun they can have in
their “7 minutes In Heaven”. Our main
scene that showed this was the
dramatic flour fight at the end which
showed the band members having lots
harmless fun (this is important as we
don’t want the audience to be
influenced into doing dangerous
stunts).
30 Seconds To Mars Flour Fight

6. Forms & Conventions of
Location Throughout
Locations was a big decision for us but in the end after studying
videos such as 30 Seconds To Mars “Up In The Air” and Fall Out Boy
“Thanks For The Memories” we decided that conventionally we either
needed a closed in space to cause havoc in or a large area to
spread the band out and experiment more with. We decided to go
with the large warehouse as we thought it would make the shoot
more fun and interesting for the audience. Also it meant that we
were less worried about making a mess! The derelict building
worked really well as it showed off all the careless destruction
that the band are doing and also the youth through the graffiti.

7. Forms & Conventions of
Showing Off the Genre
Its was important that throughout the music video
we still kept scenes of close ups of the
instruments to show the genre off to link it to
the music. Rock videos always show the
instruments that the band are playing to make
them look like good performers and connote that
they are all about the music. It is also a good
selling point as the audience want instruments
like theirs (even though we shot them with toy
instruments) . Many off the shots of the
instruments are edited on the beat to make it
look like they are actually playing the music.
Other examples of this are in Sum 41’s video to
“In Too Deep” as the lead guitarists emerges from
a swimming pool playing guitar and all the focus
is on his skill.
Sum 41 guitarist

8. Forms & Conventions of
Bands
After studying many rock music
video there is a similar pattern
emerging. The position of band
members. Conventionally, the
drummer is always at the back of
the frame, then it’s the guitarist
either side and finally the singer
either placed forward or to the
side of the band (either was the
singer is always the main focus).
We followed these forms and
conventions when deciding the
positions of our band members
within the frame. We also worked
on the postures of band members
e.g. typically the bass guitarist
holds his instrument low at arms
length whilst the drummer is
usually hunched over.

9. Forms & Conventions to
Selling The Band
It was important to us that we had a
few scenes of the band members who
played instruments in focus. We
looked at bands such as Korn and
Slipknot and conventionally, even
thought they don’t appear a lot in
music videos (not the main focus)
they are still featured playing the
instruments to show off the band as
after all, the band are only as good
as their music. Also this is a great
selling point as usually within a
band (especially all boys) girls tend
to chose a favourite , and not even
girl will fancy the lead singer!

10. Forms & Conventions –
Performing Shots
Rock videos must always have
a performing shots (if they
are to follow the forms and
conventions of a rock video)
We made an effort to have
many shots of the band
performing together as it
shows the full package of
what the consumer is
buying/watching. Videos such
as Korn, always have big
performing shots that pull
the whole band together to
remind the audience that it
is not all about the main
singer but also about the
whole band making music
together. This is seen
through out the majority of
Rock videos.
Korn performing together in video
“Coming Undone”

11. Form & Conventions of the
Lead Guitarist
The lead guitars nearly always
is the second to attention in
a band. Conventionally the
lead guitarist has more on
time air than any of the other
band members excluding the
lead singer. This is because
arguably the main guitarist is
the most important when
playing music. We also made
the relationship apparent by
featuring him a lot in shots
with the lead singer. An
example of this would be the
guitars from Sum 41.

12. Challenging Forms &
Conventions
We have chosen to
challenge forms and
conventions of having
overlaid editing of imaged
other than the band. Many
rock music videos purely
focus on the band and if
there are ever any
overlays or bizarre
editing it is always of
the band and not the
location. We chose this
because we really wanted
to promote the feelings of
enjoyment, fun and
youthfulness. This was
always our main goal and
to give the boys their “7
Minutes in Heaven”
destruction.

13. Forms & Conventions of
Clothing
Lastly we spend a long time figuring out how much “rock” we were going to go
with for our band. We looked at artists like Slipknot, Sum 41 and the original
Fall Out Boy. In the end we decided to go with a more light hearted look much
like Sum 41 as it shows off the youth of the band. Skinny jeans, hoodies and
then a touch of metal using the mask. We found that the masks gave the video a
more edgy look but also improved our idea of youth and destruction due to the
consealed identities of the band members. Over all I think we chose the right
look for our band that also matched the music as it isn't as heavy as some
rock bands such as Slipknot.