2. In the research stages of my product I looked
at a number of theories and conventions that
surround music videos, album covers and
websites. I also looked at things such as
brand identity which too come into play when
designing a music product for promotion.
I first looked into methods and conventions of
music videos as this our main ancillary task to
complete so I felt I should have full
understanding of this before I moved onto
research other products. I found there were 3
categories of video styles that had specific
characteristics always present in music
videos.
The first was a Performance video,
in a performance video the object of
camera focus is dominantly the artist
itself. This type of video was the
most widely used and often used in
Rock and pop genres. The song I
used for my music video was an
alternative rock song, so I
acknowledge that this type of video
style should be used in my video.

3. However I didn‟t have to use only one style in
my music video and this brought me to the
other 2 styles. Narrative – in which the video
has some type of story or theme to it that is
often unrelated to the subject matter of the
song, it is suited to most music genres and
would allow me to be more creative with my
music video and other ancillary tasks
connected to it, so I decided to use this style
alongside the performance scenes.
I didn‟t want to choose the other style, Abstract
as this style of video is normally very random
and content is often detached from the music
and/or lyrics of the song. It is usually a series of
seemingly unconnected images edited to fit the
pace of the song. I wanted something that
would illustrate the lyrics of the song as this I
what I wanted the video to be concentrated on
as well as the fast pace.

4. After I acknowledged what style of music
video I wanted I then looked into conventions
that were used in all music videos, despite of
their genre, as labelled by theorist Andrew
Goodwin. He labelled six features, one of
which saying that music videos often
demonstrate genre characterists, such as a
stage performance for a rock band or dance
routine for a girl pop/dance/R&B band. I
followed this theory by shooting a stage
performance scene for my alternative rock
song which was included in my music video.
He also went onto say that there is
often a relationship between the
lyrics/music and the visuals. Either
the visual can illustrate the lyrics and
convey the meaning of the song, or
they can amplify, exaggerate or
repeat an effect, moment or phrase
from the song, as well as contradict
or completely ignore the song...>

5. My music video also had a
narrative section in which the story
follows what I portrayed from the
lyrics of the song, and the fast pace
of the video which includes some
running scenes were illustrative of
the hard and fast paced beat of the
music.

6. Another one of his theories I used
was the one stating there is
frequent reference to the notion of
looking. For example shots that
may show a television or computer
screen, or showing a point of view
shot where the camera is looking
through another lens (telescope,
binoculars, glasses etc). I followed
this theory with a brief over-
shoulder shot of my character
looking at a picture on his phone
towards the opening scenes of my
music video. I didn‟t have to use
all the theories and didn‟t feel the
voyeuristic treatment of women or
intertextual reference were
necessary in this video so I didn‟t
use them.

7. To follow the conventions expected of
the rock genre I researching into some
existing rock music videos to see the
conventions and methods they used.
Some artists I researched included the
artist of the song I used, Linkin Park,
Coldplay, Muse, 30 seconds to mars, my
bloody valentine, nine inch nails and
others, all of which are artists in the rock
or alternative rock genre.
My findings were that music videos of this
genre often have some sort of deeper
meaning, even if that meaning is not
immediately clear. I followed this theory by
basing my narrative story in the music
video on what I portrayed from the lyrics of
the song. I felt the writer was trying to
illustrate his anguish and despair brought
on by a loved one, and how its was
bringing him down to the point of
depression...>

8. My story closely followed this feeling with the
theme of a lost love and the anguish and pain
he felt over her departure. I also included a
scene toward the end of the video that shows
the character coming to terms with what has
happened and moving on, which I took from
inspiration of the lyrics often used throughout
the song “you‟ve lived what you‟ve learned” as I
thought it could add an interesting deeper
meaning and lesson to the video. Another
convention of rock genres is that most videos
tend to contain topics such as depression, drug-
use and hard living in their storylines, which I
portrayed through the depression and despair
the male character in the narrative was feeling. I
also complied with the theory that stated rock
videos often follow the lyrics of the song very
closely or completely disregard them, and I felt
my storyline followed the lyrics very closely.

9. As I was creating a music product for a band I needed to
create a brand identity across all three products. A brand
identity is a certain style which would consist of colour-
schemes, fonts, costumes, makeup and motifs that re-occur
throughout all of my products. They must all look somewhat
similar in style to create one overall product. Some artists
examples I looked at were Lily Allen and Coldplay. I looked at
a music video from each artist, complimenting album and
their artist website. From my findings I noticed that the Lily
Allen song „smile‟ had a very upbeat tune and the narrative
video followed a story in which the artist is walking through
the run down streets of London which transform into
something more beautiful and cartoon like. This style was
continued in the design of the digipack and website which
also used bright colours and cartoon like themes.

10. The same applied for the coldplay video
„every teardrop is a waterfall‟ which used
animated designs across the video setting
to illustrate the song. Again these brightly
coloured designs were used over the
digipack and website designs.
To create my own brand identity I used the
colours of my band logo red, black and
white and incorporated them in the
websites colour scheme. I also used the
orange amp filmed in the video as a motif
for the band by adding it to my digipack.

11. Also I used autumn orange colours over my digipack
which followed with the autumn woods setting in the
narrative video, as well as the autumn leaf image in
the digipack and the Amplifier which is orange in
colour, the stage curtains in the performance scene
were also orange so I felt this colour should be used
over my design. I used similar font styles that were
simple in design, bold, and very angular in shape. over
my digipack and website so they would also create
one overall product.
I think I took methods and conventions into
account when creating all my project tasks and
tried to incorporate as many conventions as
possible into my work. I am pleased with what I
have come up with and don‟t think there is
anything more I could have done to ensure my
tasks use methods and conventions of real
media products.