The document discusses conventions in music videos and how the described music video both follows and breaks conventions. It follows conventions like using a narrative style and filming techniques inspired by other music videos, but breaks conventions by having a narrative focus rather than a performance focus typical for indie music. The document also discusses how a digipak and magazine advert for the music follow conventions like layouts and design elements seen in other examples, but break conventions through a minimalist design. Overall, the projects both embrace useful conventions and reject outdated ones.

2. Music Video

3. Music Video
When we where in the research stage, watching established music video we discovered a
few trends (conventions), that generally are followed by most videos. The most common of
these conventions is the disjuncture, amplification, performance and narrative styles of
video. This convention is very rarely broken.
We have carried this convention into our final video as we have used the narrative style of
video. This is due to the fact that the original video for our song heavily features
instruments and is a performance based video, this combined with the fact that throughout
our extensive research we found that narrative based 'cinematic' style videos are some of
the most successful.
This decision also opposes a convention for indie/pop music, which is that generally they
follow performance theme, this can be seen in The 1975 - Girls and Oasis - Wonderwall.
For the research we watched videos that we thought would be useful in the creation of our
idea and final video. We watched and paid particular attention to The Verve - Bitter Sweet
Symphony which inspired the shots of the lead singer walking down the street facing the
camera and singing. And The 1975 - Chocolate which gives us some ideas about narrative
and the night filming effect as well as close ups of the singer.The shots that were ultimately
inspired by these videos both breaks and develop conventions, the closeups for example
develop conventions in our video as this is a widely used technique employed to create
atmosphere between the audience and the singer.

4. Music Video
Our video also followed conventions based on the clothing and framing we used
throughout our video, the mise en scene fitted with the image pre-associated with the
genre of music (indie) we also used framing that is consistent with that used in real
media products, these include close up shots and mid shots of the main singer, this is
used in order to create a bond between fans and the lead singer.
The primary area that our video breaks conventions is in that most videos for songs of
our genre (indie) are performance based. Another aspect of convention that our video
breaks is that typically real media products used advanced camera equipment, by
contrast, for our video we used the camera on the iPhone 6s Plus, this records in 4K
resolution and features OIS so along with a professional camera application (in this
case FiLMiC Pro) in order to allow manual control over aspects such as focus and
exposure, it can produce results equal to a mid to high end DSLR.
Overall our video both embraces certain conventions of established music videos and
rejects other conventions that are perhaps now outdated.

5. Ancillary

6. Digipak
For my digipak, as with the video I heavily researched existing texts such as the xx, AM
by Arctic Monkeys, Blue Monday by New Order and The Dark side of the Moon by Pink
Floyd (pictured below) and analysed their features and what made them successful (or
not). This gave me a real sense of the elements of digipaks that are carried throughout
most examples, these conventions where plentiful, an example of a convention in
digipaks is that typically they feature artwork in the center and then text above and
below, typically the band name above and the album name below. I followed this
convention in my digipak (and my advert) as I felt it carried an air of sophistication.
Another convention that I embraced is the order of items on the spine
(Band,Title,Catalog Number).
During my research I found that the very best digipkas where minimalist in their design
language, this is a form of convention that is used more and more frequently now.

7. Magazine Advert
For my magazine advert, like with the digipak and video I researched various existing
products and analysed their features and their success as a result of these aspects.
looking at these examples gave me an idea of the conventions that are used
throughout most magazine adverts of this type, I found there to be many conventions,
an example of a convention in adverts is that they typically have the artwork in the
center of the magazine advert and then title text above and below, typically the
information about the album below. I followed this convention closely in my advert as
the convention creates a sense of simplicity. Another convention that I used is the use
of a record label logo towards the bottom of the advert. This allows viewers to quickly
realize who is behind the album.
The real products I looked at for ideas and to evaluate the conventions used in the
adverts where mostly the magazine adverts for the digipaks above, as they fitted best
with the style I wanted to follow. However There were a few more that I liked and took
inspiration from, like the Kasabian poster.
Another convention I followed for my magazine advert is the idea of a link between the
digipak and to an extent the video, this is widely used in the industry and creates an
identity that links the elements to each other.

8. Overall

9. Overall
Overall our media products both follow and challenged various different forms of
conventions, following the best aspects and differing in the worst. This gives our
products a quality feel for the audience that will view or buy our products.