The media product uses and develops conventions of the indie/rock music genre. It presents the band performing and with their instruments throughout the music video, similar to other bands. It challenges conventions by using a studio setting rather than filming in front of an audience. Close-ups of the band members develop individual star personas while emphasizing the front man to create a central star to identify with. Shots and fading are used to represent the mood of the music. The album cover features the whole band and uses shots from the video to interlink the products and brand identity. Recurring logos and labeling the record label are used to achieve instant recognition typical of the genre.

1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real life media products?
By Sam Francis

2. From the opening scene in our video we have instantly used a typical convention of
music video from within our genre. As with many other indie/rock bands we have
continually presented the band itself throughout our video. Along with this we have
incorporated instruments into our performance which is another convention of our
genre’s media products.

3. One of the ways in which we challenged the typical conventions of music videos for
our genre was through the use of a studio setting for the majority of our video.
Unlike typical music videos of our genre we went against deciding to ‘big ourselves
up’ as a band by filming in front of an audience or on a large stage. We felt that this
approach would add both individuality and character to the band, allowing the
target audience to effectively to relate to the band.

4. Additionally we attempted to re-represent the typical conventions of music video’s
from our genre through emphasizing a lot of focus onto the band’s front man. We
achieved this through introducing several shots consisting of only the front man as
well as close-ups and dynamic shots. In doing so we successfully created a star
persona which we felt the audience would easily identify, which in turn is typical for
our genre.

5. Along with using several close-ups of the front man, we also used close-ups of
other band members. Through doing so we used existing conventions of music
videos from our genre as the individual members of the band are almost given their
own kind of star persona yet not one which overshadows the front man.

6. We also attempted to represent the mood of our music track through the
presentation of our music video. An example of this development of the typical
conventions of music videos from our genre would be in the final 20 seconds of the
video in which the video and music track fade out in sync. Along with this we
introduced the blue light to reflect the almost melancholy mood of the track.

7. In this image of our album cover we have used the typical
conventions of our genre through using the whole band on the front
cover. In doing so we are re-enforcing the structure of the band’s star
persona.

8. Through using this image on our album we have challenged the
typical conventions of our genre simply by using shots from our
music video shooting on the album cover. We felt that doing so
would conveniently interlink all three of our products, adding to
the band’s identity.

9. Throughout our products we have re-used the
same band logo as we felt that this would again
add to the identity of our band. Along with this
it is also typical of bands for our genre to have a
recurring band logo which is instantly
recognizable to the consumer. We were
therefore influenced by this and decided to
implement this concept into our products to
achieve the same effect of instant recognition.

10. A seemingly small but in fact extremely
influential aspect of a bands products of our
genre (or any genre) is the record label under
which the act performs. As is essential for any
act performing under a record label the label’s
logo must be displayed on any of the act’s
products. As a result we felt it necessary to
implement this in both our magazine advert
and album through clearly displaying our record
label on both our magazine advert and our
album.

11. Finally, we used typical conventions of our genre through the
clothing of our performers. We felt that accurately representing our
genre through the clothing we wore would help to engage the
audience and allow them to relate to our band more effectively.