My music video challenged conventions in some ways but also used and developed conventions commonly seen in other music videos. It included a narrative story of a couple on a date alongside footage of the artist singing, and was shot in two locations, a bowling alley and recording studio, rather than just one. The editing included slow motion and title cards at the beginning. My digipak and magazine advertisement used standard design elements like prominent images and text but developed the idea of dripping paint graphics to clearly relate the two ancillary texts.

1. +
In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
EVALUATION
USE
CHALLENGE
DEVELO
P
EVALUATE

2. +
My Music Video - Narrative
The music video that I produced was based around the story of a girl
and a boy who were on a date. This is not unheard of in
dance/pop/house music videos, and I accompanied this narrative
with integrating shots of the artist performing the song, to highlight
the fact that it was all a fantasy world and was not based around a
‘real life’ event. This shows that I was making use of conventions of
real media products yet I also developed them. This idea came from
the fact that I was interested in creating a music video that would
stand out and make a good combination with the rest of my ancillary
texts.
The music video follows Todorov’s Equilibrium theory as all five
stages occur, including the ‘damage’ being the awkwardness in the
middle of the date (middle of the song) and the repair and new
equilibrium towards the end. However, the fact that there is a clear
story being portrayed through the video that is shown alongside ‘raw
footage’ of the artist recording the song with a full orchestra
instigates that I have not only developed conventions, but
challenged them.

3. +
My Music Video - Location
The music video that I produced was partially filmed in a bowling
alley, in which two people were enjoying themselves on a date. Boys
treating girls to a date is commonly seen in the house/pop/dance
genre as it is romantic and the videos are mainly there to attract
girls. However, music videos of this hybrid-genre are usually set in
more exciting locations such as mansions, swimming
pools/waterparks or even on the beach. However, at time of filming
we unfortunately did not have access to any of these places! After
using the bowling alley to the best of our ability we also shot the rest
of the music video in the schools professional recording studio.
Using two different locations to be featured in my music video was a
development from the initial idea of having it all focused and filmed
in one place. However, I believe that the change in location made
the video a little more exciting and challenged conventions more.
The decision was initially done to attract an audience, and the use of
a good-looking female artist would work in conjunction with Laura
Mulvey’s male gaze theory, which broadened my target audience
and showcased my courage in trying something not seen before in
this style of music video. The artist usually appears on location/as
one of the main character in the narrative.

4. +
My Music Video - Editing
My music video was quite difficult to edit, however, the first thing I
knew I wanted to do in order to use normal conventions of a
house/pop/dance music video was edit the footage into slow motion.
It was difficult to choose the ‘right’ moments to integrate between
recording footage and date footage, and in the end I decided not to
make the recording footage slow motion in order to ensure that the
lip syncing was perfectly timed.
This was not very challenging of conventions as it is commonly
seen, hence why I chose to do it in the first place. However, a
challenging decision that I did make was to add ‘titles’ to the
beginning of the music video, i.e. to include the artists names and
the song names to appear like the beginning of a movie.
I also developed my ideas when editing, as after receiving initial
feedback on my final edit, I swapped a few clips around to highlight
the narrative and use of parallel editing to make it look as if the two
events were happening at the same time.

5. +
My Digipak - Content
The digipak that I created was very much based around the
responses that I got from my vox pops and survey. I made use of
conventions by using bright colours, a main image, the artist name in
a larger font and trying not to make anything look too busy.
The back cover had the song titles in caps lock, and the featured
artist names in lowercase, as I felt this would make the design a little
different and more appealing to a particular audience. The side of
the back cover featured horizontally dripping paint which was the
same colour as the font used on the front, which also denoted the
relationship between bright colours and the bowling balls.
I did not really ‘challenge’ conventions to an extent throughout the
design of my digipak as I believe this would be fairly difficult to do, as
all digipaks need to include the same information and cannot be too
overflowing with information.

6. +
My Magazine Advertisement - Content
For my third product and second ancillary text for my Advanced
Portfolio, I created a magazine advertisement for an albums release
(the digipak I made earlier). Whilst researching and analysing
different advertisements from real media, I noted that the same
image was generally used on both products but perhaps
edited/formatted in a different way.
I included all usual pieces of relevant information and kept the
design very simple. However, I also developed the idea by using the
dripping paint from the back cover and dripping it vertically from the
artist name on the advertisement. I believe this created a very clear
relationship between the two and would allow easy identification by
consumers.
Similar to my digipak, I did not really challenge conventions as there
was not much to challenge in my design: I wanted to keep it plain
and suited to my target audience.