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

2. Album & Poster
The poster I created for the release of Alt-J’s album, ‘Breezeblocks’ follows conventions of
real media products but also challenges a few of the conventions Alt-J use on their own
products.
The poster includes a date, which the album will be released on, this is
important information for a devoted fan, as it lets them know when the product is being
released. As well as the date, there is the name of the band and album name, this allows
the audience to know what is being advertised and lets them know what album to look
out for in future.
It also includes reviews from well known music magazines, probably bought and read by
the audience, who listen to Alt-J. Album posters are used to sell a product or the band so
by having these reviews it lets the audience know that the band is desirable, the product
created by the band should be bought by its listeners and other audiences.
The poster also features an image of the actual album cover, this allows the
target audience to know what to look for when they are buying or downloading the
album. The image follows the conventions of an Alt-J album cover as it is quite
mysterious, with strange shapes and colours. (As you can see below, there is an image of
my album cover and a real Alt-J album cover) As well as following the conventions my
media product challenges them as the album cover includes an image of a male, as the
Band hardly ever show there face, (as you can see below an image of the band) I have
added an image of half a males face which makes the cover more interesting and
mysterious, Just like Alt-J are.
Instead of having a plain background, such as a block colour, like typical
posters have, I decided to make an enlarged image of the album cover as the background,
challenging the conventions of a real media product.

3. Tour Poster
This second poster was not required by the syllabus but I thought if I was to produce
real media products I should create everything that a band would do, which includes a
tour poster. I think the poster uses the typical conventions of real media products.
These forms and conventions include a tour name and band name, this is
to advertise to the audience what band and tour is being advertised. The other main
feature of the poster is an image of the band performing, I have used this type of image
as it is a live gig and indie gigs are all about the performance and atmosphere. So by
using this type of image it advertises the environment and band to the audience.
Another important feature is the list of dates, this allows the audience to see when and
where the band will be performing. This is important information for devoted or new
fans as they will need to know when and where the gig is, to ensure they attend.
The final important feature is the website in which you buy the tickets from, this will
ensure all potential audience members will know where to get their ticket. This
information is all necessary when advertising a tour for a band.
Like the album poster, the tour posters background is a part of the album
cover. I did this to show consistency and a theme throughout all the media products for
Alt-J.

4. Digipak
Like the album and posters, I feel the digipak I produced followed the forms and conventions
of a real media product.
The front cover of the digipak is the same as the album cover, I decided to do
this as it shows there is a theme throughout the media products and it helps the audience to
know which album the digipak is for.
As I used a quite complicated and interesting image for the album cover, I was
able to take parts of this to create other sections of the digipak, such as the back cover. This
features all the songs that are on the album and has a small paragraph about the record label
and when the album was produced. It also features a barcode like any real media product
would have.
The inside of the digipak consists of 4 panels, as you can see the highlighted,
red area shows where a booklet would be including the lyrics and back ground on each song.
This is a common feature in many albums/digipak’s as fans like to get to know the history
behind each song and the lyrics. The back ground for all the panels are made of a part of the
front cover, this is again to keep a theme running though all the media products.
And finally the two CDs that appear inside the digipak have an image on them. The image is
an actual shot that features in the video as part of a chase scene. By including this within the
digipak it creates a theme between all the media products, in this case the music video and
the digipak. Also the colours on the CD were tweaked to make the digipak consistent with
similar colours running through it.