This document discusses the conventions used in the media product's music video, album, and website to develop forms and conventions of real country music products. Specifically, it focuses on using close-ups of the singer in the chorus, wide shots to establish the natural setting, slow paced editing to match the mellow song, natural lighting, pastel costumes and props to reflect the organic genre, outdoor locations for the artist to lip sync, and direct address from the singer to make the audience feel a close connection. The album cover includes the artist holding an acoustic guitar in black and white to represent the emotional music. Similarly, the website incorporates natural elements and links the themes to the latest release to connect the audience to the artist.

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

2. C amera
A key component of music videos is to make the song memorable. A method of achieving this
is using close ups of the singer in the chorus for the main hook of the song. This is so that the
audience not only get the audio but also the visual representation. It also emphasises that the
singer is important and they’re sharing a moment with the audience. The close up also shows
the emotion and attitude of the artist which in our case was happy and emotional.
We also used a lot of long and wide shots to establish the set and location as this is very
important in country as they use a lot of natural settings. It shows the artists in their domain
which is specifically for them.

3. E
L
diting and ighting
For editing it had to match the pace of the song. Ours was a very steady beat whilst the song is
very mellow and cheerful. This meant our editing pace wasn’t very fast with smooth
transitions to reflect the mood. Cutting to the bass tracks made it a lot quicker and meant we
could try a lot of variations in shots without taking up loads of time. We followed the verse –
chorus structure of the song in our editing and the three strands of the video made it more
interesting for the audience to watch.
We used very natural lighting as country and singer songwriter is about a real person singing
about real things. Because of this the scene needs to look very natural and not perfected or
made artificial. This helped to create the mellow happy tone we wanted by emphasising the
pastel colours.
This is an example of another country video that uses very
slow paced editing and natural lighting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odsGzafXAYQ

4. C ostume,Hair and Make U p
The artists that we looked at to get inspiration for costumes tended to have multiple
costume changes all of which were very girly and usually pastel coloured. We used this to
choose two different dresses for the location and set strands. The blue denim dress added
a warm pastel colour to the greens on location.
Her white dress in the performance strand added to the angelic representation of a real
person that the audience can connect with.
The hat and coat gave her an easily identifiable image that was organic and not artificial.
Finally her boots hinted back to the more American country style making it more easily
identifiable.

5. Props
Our props were specifically chosen to reflect the organic singer songwriter and the country
genre.
For example the piano was an old battered upright piano. This slightly old traditional look is a ke
element of country which is a very traditional genre and hasn’t changed much making the
conventions the same and easy to follow.
This theme is also carried through with the old fashioned 1960s suitcase we use in the narrative
strand.
The JaneDear Girls used many traditional props such as this old truck.

6. Sets and Locations
The set we built from a blank canvas was specifically for the artist and we used the camera
shots to establish that this is their domain. Once again we used the pastel colours popular to
the genre in the flowers and the painted sky backdrop. It added colour and warmth to the
video to reflect the mood and emotion of the song.
The Band Perry – If I Die Young
The location is one of the conventions of country music videos as it always includes an outside
location most commonly with the artist lip syncing whilst walking along. We also included this
to establish the genre and make the audience connect with their organic nature as well as the
lyrics.
Kacey Musgraves – Follow Your Arrow

7. Performance
The performance is important to display the talent of the band and show the relationships
between them. It also gives the opportunity to show how the singer is as they are at the front
and placed further forwards than the rest of the band. The direct address that the singer gives to
the camera in close ups or medium close ups is meant to make the audience feel like the artist is
communicating directly with them. With our slow paced editing it helps create a feeling of
intimacy and closeness which highlights the singer songwriter’s organic status.
With shots of the band members sharing moments such as eye contact and smiles it reflects the
mood of the song and helps replicate that emotion in the audience.

8. Album
The album has to immediately establish the genre and general image of the artist. The most
common feature of country and singer songwriters is to include the artist with their instrument
(if they use one) on the cover of the album. The acoustic guitar we use is very much traditional
and represents that the music is unplugged and written by Fen.
The black and white hints that the music is more emotional and reflective.
The inside panels used more natural pastel colours and identified the country theme with the
flowers.

9. Website
The website was consistently girly and rustic/organic like the singer songwriters. A lot of artists
had themselves as the background or nature. We incorporated these elements by using the
slideshow of the artist on the homepage.
This is my website: http://madelainesalvage.wix.com/fenxanadu
We linked in the theme of the latest release which is common among artists to theme the
website to what the artist has released. Kacey Musgraves used arrows on her website because o
her single Follow your Arrow. We used the polaroid photo frames to create the link.

10. This artists page is set out a lot like ours as she has a changing slideshow at the top and then
important links like news and social media. This makes the audience feel very connected to the
artists.
She has many of the same pages
to her website such as
videos, photos and store which is
a convention of all websites so it’s
easy for the fans to use and find
everything they need.