This document discusses how a student's media product utilizes and develops conventions of real music videos and album packaging. It examines the use of colorful imagery, varied shots, props, editing, performances, and layout in the student's music video and digipak design. Conventions from mainstream music were considered like close-ups of artists, fast-paced editing, and natural poses in digipak photos. The goal was to create a professional product that reflected the artists while developing conventions suitably for the style of music.

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

2. Codes and conventions
We picked out some of the code and conventions from mainstream music videos and
remembered these when we recorded our footage.
• Colorful imagery which reflects the artists
• Variety of close ups and long shots
• A balance of shots of the artists and background scenery.
• Props, gold chains, jewelry
• Editing

3. Colorful Imagery which reflects the
artist MUSIC VIDEO
From looking at the codes and conventions, the imagery and colours in a music video are
important for reflecting the personalities and the general feel of the artist and the music video.
We found a small art exhibition which was a room which had reflected lights and this created
very good imagery and also created a happy, party like atmosphere for the music video. This little
colour exhibition created what would have been ordinary footage to extraordinary footage which
I found was one of the conventions when I researched music videos in my planning. I also
recorded footage at Klaudia’s house and her room which had a lot of burgundy was good for the
image of our music video. Our website also has many burgundy coloring so this matches our
music video. Some of the outfits our artists wear match the colour scheme of both the website
and the digipak making our image attractive and easy to distinguish.

4. Variety of camera shots
I used a variety of shots within our music video. The majority of shots I used were close ups
which made the music video more personal for the artists themselves. The use of the close ups
show the importance of the artist, allowing the viewers to distinguish who the artists are and
there style and looks etc. In addition, the close ups show the artists covering most of the frame,
showing how powerful they are. Record companies will demand close ups, as pop promo is to a
large extent. It is important for the audience to see the product close up. Not only did I use close
ups, I also used medium and long shots of both the artists and the background such as shots on a
bus, parks and buildings. This allows the audience to see what type of environment our artists are
situated in. Low angles shots were a convention within the music videos I researched so this was
a must for our music video. These low angle shots showed how the artists have power within the
music video and a general sense of power.

5. Props / Costumes / Setting
Looking at the props of main stream music videos, Most pop stars have flashy jewelry and gold
chains but I felt these props did not match the production values and style of our music video.
When it came to hip hop artists, the clothing was very flashy and visually appealing however I did
not choose to use this due to the vibe of our song. Compared to a song by Justin Bieber ‘Beauty
and a Beat’ the clothing there was bright and flashy however if we used those type of clothes it
would not fit. The clothing our artists had were mainstream teenage clothing such as hoodies,
jeans and hats however we added bright colours to add to the conventions. I used more than one
outfit so that the video would look more professional and also shows the audience the different
types of clothes our artists wear.

6. Editing
In order for our music video to match the codes and conventions of a music video, the editing
would need to be as conventional as everything else. From my research I noticed that the cuts
during editing were very short which created a quick snappy feel to the music video. From my
research I saw that not many fonts or filters were used so we thought there was no need for this
in the editing of our music video. I had to cut footage so quickly that we stacked shots right on
top of each other which made it easier to edit. The fast pace of cutting created a more exciting
view of the music video and if I did not cut as much as I did, the music video would have been
sluggish and slow which would loose the attention of the viewer. Relating to Goodwins theory,
the relationship with the music and visuals had to match due to the mixture of slow and fast pace
of the song and the visuals of music video matched this. I created this sense of fast and slow pace
by using the editing to create slow cuts and fast ones too.

7. Performance
The performance from the music videos I have researched seem to either be choreographed with
dancing or a story line which reflects the lyrics of the song. An example of the dancing is Justin
Biebers ‘Beauty and a Beat’ and for the story line, J Coles music video. The performance within
the music video reflects the genre of the song and the lyrics so looking at our song, ‘Can I Kick It’ I
chose to have a music video where our artists are hanging around having fun throughout London.
The performance rebounds back on the audience, making them feel different emotions and our
music video aimed to make the audience feel playful, happy and inspired through our close ups,
mise en scene and general performance such as dancing. Looking back at the conventions of hip
hop music video, women are generally sexualised however we chose not to do this because it did
not match the lyrics of the song or the general atmosphere of our song. I made sure our artists
had many close ups because this was a convention and the performance was clear who the artists
were on the close ups. The lyrics in a conventional hip hop music video would be very
exaggerated however our music video is amplified to the lyrics which still goes with the
conventions of a hip hop video. An example of me amplifying the music video is when the chorus
goes ‘Can I Kick It’ and we have someone kicking.

8. DIGIPAK/Colourful imagery which
reflects the artist
In our digipak the colouring of the digipak reflected our artist and looking at the conventions of
other digipaks, colouring was important. Looking at other digipaks for example the rappers one,
Lil Wayne, the colouring is very significant to what the artists are wearing. Using photoshop, I
managed to make the filter of the pictures match some of the clothing of our artists. The use of
black and white gives our digipak a classic look and I tried to make our artist have a more classic
look to them but giving them clothing which is urban looking, but vintage. I used the use of the
sky in most of our pictures in the digipak because this gave a natural look to the digipak and the
use of a light blue sky was a good look as it emphasized the artists within the image due to the
drastic contrast in colour. Black and white imagery portrays a classical look and makes the
pictures look relaxed and chilled out and this is the type of feel we want our artists to portray.

9. DIGIPAK/ Performance
The shots for our digipak heavily relied on the performance of our artist. When I took the shots
for our digipak I asked the artists to be natural and just do what they would usually do when at a
park or hanging around with each other. What I concentrated on was having the majority of the
shots as the three of them which made it clear to the audience who the artists were and that
they are a group. I wanted the shoot to be a playful environment and an example of this was one
of our artists, ‘Trash’ hanging on a tree smiling to the camera. I also got another shot of them
sitting on a a table smiling and having a laugh and this is what I hoped to achieve in the shoot. I
included another girl in the shoot who was a friend of the artists which I felt gave a more unisex
feel to our artists and that girls can have a listen to our music too. Looking at the conventions of
other digipaks, it is clear who the actual artist is for example the Jay Z digipak cover below.

10. DIGIPAK/ Editing
My group member Klaudia used photo shop to edit our digipak and with this we could add
different fonts to our writing, add barcodes and our distribution company and other companies
involved etc.
We added a title to our digipak and
according to codes and
conventions it was important for
the title to be clear and easy to see
to the viewer. Photo shop was
used to add fonts to make the
track list and the addition of the
barcode and quotes etc. A
conventional layout for a digipak
would be a six page layout so this
is what we used which included a
front and back cover with the
covers inside including the track
list, quote pages and general
pictures of our artists.