The document discusses how a music promo video for a band both uses conventions of real music videos but also challenges some conventions. It is a narrative and performance based video, showing the band members in various locations. While it follows conventions like using music and color correction, it challenges conventions by only showing the lead singer performing instead of the full band. The accompanying digipak design for the album release also both follows conventions like using consistent colors and fonts, and challenges them by using a custom barcode and releasing over two discs instead of one.

1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
Fateh Khaled 8703

2. Introduction
• My music promo has used, developed and
challenged forms of conventions of real life media
products in various ways.
• Firstly we have developed the conventions of real
life music videos this is because our music video is a
performance based and a narrative based; these are
the two most common types of music videos that are
produced and are very conventional indeed.
• However instead of just going for one style (ie
performance based) we decided to go for both; this
is because we wanted to diversify our music video
and keep the audience engaged as much as possible.

3. • The artists in my music videos are conventional this is
because our band is all male which is the gender you
associate with in most pop bands. For example, Bastille,
The Script and Maroon 5 are all pop/rock bands
consisting of all males.
• In terms of location, our music video takes place in a
house and the local town (public area) as well as a studio
where the performance piece occurs. Our music video
can indeed can be challenge the conventions of a regular
pop promo, for example a large proportion of music
videos that are performance based are usually in front of
a large crowd however our group decided to take a
mellow approach and have the lead singer (myself)
performing in a drama studio as opposed to singing in
front of a large crowd.

4. • In terms of props, our music video matches the key
conventions; for instance the use of the microphone
(performance based segments) is very stereotypical
in performance based music videos as you usually
see the singer holding a microphone, this gives a
sense of reality and allows the audience the
familiarise the voice with the singer.
• However, we also challenged the conventions at the
same time, this is because in the performance based
segments you only see the lead singer (me) singing
which is very unconventional for a pop band as you
would expect all band members to be in the
performance based segments playing
instruments/backing vocalists. This is
unconventional as people watching the video may
depict singer as a ‘one man band’.

5. • In terms of editing, our music video is conventional
this is because the majority of music videos are cut
to the beat; we therefore have met that expectation
and believe that cutting to the beat is essential.
• We also added a letter box in post production (the
two black lines at the top and the bottom), once
again this is vital and a key convention in music
videos because it gives that music video ‘tone’ and
‘feel’ to it.
• The music promo was also colour corrected which
once again is necessary in post production, for
example natural colours in music videos are vary
rare and a lot of music videos are colour corrected
before they are published.

6. • One other way we challenged the conventions of
a music video is that the song does not play
straight away. We see the actor putting in
earphones then the song begins, this isn’t very
conventional in music videos as they tend to
start straight away however we thought doing
this gives our music video a twist.

7. Costume
• In terms of costume and make up, what our band
members wear in the music video is indeed very
stereotypical this is because they are wearing casual
clothing which is becoming increasingly popular in
music video nowadays, our members are seen
wearing jeans, t-shirts, jackets and shirts. These
particular clothing items are associated with young
people which is a reason why we wanted to depict
this in our music video.
• However, in the 80’s pop music videos tended to
wear suits and dresses in their music video however
casual clothing in music videos are becoming
increasingly popular.

8. Goodwins theory applied to my music
video
• In terms of Andrew Goodwins theory my music
video would fit under ‘amplification’ because it is a
mixture of narrative based and performance based.
• Andrew Goodwin believed that it was important for
an artist to be involved with the music video by
performing or acting as the role of the main
character or the singer, my group took this as an
advantage as one of the members (myself) was the
lead singer whilst the other member (Jeremy) was a
main character, this enables us to get a special
connection with our audience and reach out to them.

9. Digipak
• In terms of my digipak design I had followed
various conventions; for example a digipak has
either 4, 6 or 8 sides. I chose mine to have 6
sides which fits the criteria of a conventional
digipak.
• I decided to use a maximum of 3 fonts in my
digipak, this is a key convention as most
digipaks range from 2-4 fonts, digipaks do not
go beyond 4 fonts because it overcomplicates the
design and makes it look unprofessional.

10. • My digipak also had a specific colour scheme
which was kept consistent throughout the
different sides; I used four main colours (blue,
red, yellow and green) to represent each band
members. These four colours were shown
throughout, this is conventional in digipaks as
they are said to have the same colour and design
to give the audience a sense of familiarity.

11. • I also used a barcode and the record label
logo (Warner Music Group) which are
conventional in a digipak this is because
the product is sold at shops and in order for
it to be sold a barcode must be displayed
and it must contain specific information
such as the artist name, record label, who
owns the music etc.
• My barcode is quite unconventional in the
sense that it is a custom made barcode
using the words ‘Bangladesh’ I used this
font by downloading it on ‘DaFont’ but it
gives an extra touch to our product giving
our consumers that warm feel.

12. • However, one final point about my digipak is that it
is quite unconventional in the sense that it has two
discs – this is very uncommon for recent digipaks as
they tend to be stored on one CD. Technological
advancement has meant that storing music on CD’s
has been better than ever before with most CD’s
having the capacity to store 25 songs however both
my discs hold 5 songs each.
• Although it is uncommon I believe it works
effectively because it means that the album can be
spit up into two which has different meanings.