This document discusses how the media product challenges conventions of typical pop music genres. It summarizes: 1) The music video uses close-ups and natural lighting/costumes to contrast with typical pop videos' sexualization and unrealistic portrayals. Locations are everyday instead of exotic. 2) The digipak uses dark colors instead of bright tones and focuses on scenery over the artist. Fonts are simple to highlight the music. 3) The poster desaturates an outdoor photo instead of using bright colors. Credits are centered at the top like typical posters to draw attention. Overall, the products strive for a unique acoustic-pop style rather than conforming to pop stereotypes.

1. Q1. In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Lucie-Rebekah Car

2. Music Video
For research into music videos I looked into the same genre I had chosen so that I was able to identify the typical conventions used, which I then applied to my own products. The basic
conventions of pop music were bright colours, bold fonts, crazy costumes and overly-dramatic acting. An example of this being Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’. She can be seen wearing skimpy feminine
outfits that only accentuate her figure and curves. This music video in particular was very sexualised towards women and conformed female stereotypes. By doing this research I was able to not
only see what pop genres included in their music video but identify the techniques they used in order to successfully sell their products. From this research I then decided that I wanted to
convert those ‘typical’ pop genre conventions/stereotypes and produce something unique and refreshing to the eyes by choosing the genre acoustic-pop which has that unusual twist to it
rather than it just being pop.
For our music video we had borrowed the convention of using a lot of close up shot types/angles within scenes, but also some long shots which are used in a lot of pop music videos to show
body language/outfits or give us an insight into the environment their in. As our genre was acoustic-pop we already had that energising feel of something new to offer but by also deciding to
convert many of the stereotypes it was an interesting challenge for us to produce three new products. We decided to convert all the typical conventions of costume and go for a more laid back
approach. Our aim was to give a homely, warmth to our music video which is nothing alike to your usual pop music videos. We chose to make our singer wear a light coloured flowy dress so that
it was more symbolic to her role of being an ‘angel’ so it would convey feelings of invisibility and not being apart of reality. To follow through with the natural day-to-day realistic feel the son and
father wore casual, comfy clothes in the home environment and did a clothing change of scarfs, hats, gloves and coats when outside. For us, the aim was to make sure that the audience could
relate to the narrative and feel close with the actors but to keep them engaged by having the change over of costume. Our choices in comparison to typical pop genre’s are very different and it
can clearly be seen in terms of a music video that we have challenged existing products and took them out their ‘comfort zone’ by doing the complete opposite and not following the
conventions of mise en scene. Another example of where we have chosen to convert the stereotypes is our choice of setting. Pop music videos typically film their text in extravagant locations or
set ups. For example; Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’ is set in a jungle with lions, tigers and monkeys. The theme of being surround by dangerous things. All of these things are very daring and bold which the
pop genre aims to be. Within our music video we have chosen to challenge this and strip it right back to basics by picking locations that are on the same level with our audience. Our chosen
locations were a family home were we chose to use rooms such as; bathrooms, living rooms, kitchens and stair ways. Our second location being a open park as we felt it fitted best with our
narrative being around family as we saw it as happy place were memories are made. They may not be the ‘typical’ locations to film a music video but we thrived on the uniqueness of it and was
our intention all along to convert conventions of typical pop genre music videos.
Through research I found the lighting used in pop music videos are most of the time brightly lit. We developed this into our music video by making the happier scenes brighter by adding filters
to bring out the highlights and lowered the contrast to emphasize the light/floaty mood of the song at those particular parts so that it creates an inviting atmosphere for our target audience.
This was developed from examining existing pop music videos in more depth, we noticed that they would have a white wash on most videos to brighten the overall visual but made sure they
stood out from the rest. Furthermore, to develop our music video and make it more intriguing, our location in the park created a calm like feel allowing the viewer to really focus and reflect on
the narrative and the knock-on effects its having. As well as this, it was also a time to aid promotion of the artist by getting her on her own and having her lip sync such powerful lyrics, enticing
and pulling in the audience even more.

3. It can be seen that this music
video uses bright, bold colours
and this is very common
throughout pop genre. The close
up used here is also famously
used within pop as it’s a way of
promoting the artist in the song.
This music video In particular is
very sexualising towards women
through the use of mise en
scene. It can be seen that her
clothing is minimal and her
figure is very defined. As well as
this, her pose is very feminine
and ‘girly’. The lighting on Katy
herself is also very warming
creating that inviting feel.
Again, the clothes worn are very
skimpy and small. Katy looks very
done up, pristine and perfect. To
be in a jungle environment and
still look as clean as she does
send the message of being a
’fighter’ which she is in the
music video that you have to
look good in order to succed.
We similarly used warm colours
to form that inviting feel but
also use a close as it’s a way of
promoting the artist in the song
but also as we felt it was a way
of getting to know the actors in
the music video.
Our choice of mise en scene is as
follows. We chose not to
sexualise our actors but do what
they felt comfortable in. It can
be seen that the mum wears a
navy dress with very natural
healthy skin. The acting between
them is very closing knitted and
we felt this closeness converted
typical pop music videos where
they are usually very
individual/independent.
Here, the shot used is following
pop genre conventions as they
often use two shots to even out
the space within a frame and this
is what we chose to follow.

4. From our research, pop music has a stereotype of mostly being suitable for female audiences rather than male. We therefore challenged this and made our music video suitable for the view of
both genders and isn’t tailored to one. Plus, most pop music is associated with women being powerful humans that are represented as being indestructible and fearless. Hence, we challenged
that image by having a female who showed herself to instead be an emotional individual who converts those stereotypes of being “indestructible” and shows the reality of life rather than
showing an unrealistic representation of how women should live their lives. Therefore, in our music video we chose to have our actor lip sync in a way where she did not connect with the
audience directly as we aimed to display the idea of her no longer being alive and that she Is disconnected from reality. We supported our idea by changing the contrast of the scene to add a
colder feel to the mood.
We developed the idea of pop music videos having on main singer rather than focusing on multiple, this way the audience are able to sympathize with the artist. We approached this slightly
differently as the artist wouldn't usually be directly involved in the narrative as well as the lip syncing. An example of this would be Beyoncé's ‘Pretty Hurts’ where she not only lip syncs to the
song but takes apart in the narrative. During further research we found that audiences are more intrigued and drawn in if the artist is interacting with the narrative. By doing this research I was
also able to look into the range of camera shots/angles used. We decided close ups, long shots and two shots would fit our narrative the best. Based on pop genre it is usual for them to use a lot
of close ups to promote the artist but also highlight them as being the main event in music videos.
The pop songs we have researched heavily used fast transitions in order to keep up wit the beat and mood of the song. We learned that the pacing of the song affects the amount of transitions
in a scene, because our song is moderately fast paced, we had a lot of quick cuts to enhance the intensify the energy of the song. However, one thing pop music videos didn’t do was use slow
motion, we challenged this and chose to use slow motion to emphasise particular moments in our music video. For example; the dancing scenes linked up with the lyrics, ‘symphony, will you
hold me tight and don’t let go’ we chose to put this in slow motion as we felt the words synced the visuals and this was a section we wanted to emphasise. By doing this it helped the audience
focus on the artist for longer automatically forming a bond with them.
Typically the artist would have a direct address with the audience by looking directly into the camera however we chose to convert this and have our artist lip sync while looking into the
distance. This is a music videos main selling point, however we found for our narrative it would fit best with our singer looking into the distance to show that she’s slowing fading away and no
longer in connection with life. This was developed into our own idea based on narrative therefore using our creativity while still being aware of the conventions music videos follow in order to
be successful.
Music Video

5. Digipak
We decided to used the template of a normal 4 sided digipack so we had a cover, inside cover, back, CD cover and spine. The whole digipack was created through combining
different aspects of our research on pop music digipacks that we found were successful. The colour scheme of using monochrome, dark colours were inspired by the digipack
‘Rolling in the deep’ by Adele as we felt her digipaks were simple and basic yet unique to the pop industry. We borrowed the idea of using dark and simple colours so that the our
target audience could look closely at the imagery instead of being distracted by bright tones typically found on pop digipaks. In addition to this, results in our research showed
the darker shades seemed to appeal to our target audience more while still catering for both genders. We converted most of the conventions used on pop music digipaks we
most of them were bright, boldly used colours which we felt were distracting but also that the majority used feminine colours assuming the pop genre is for ‘women only’ so we
decided that when it came to producing ours, we wanted to convert those typical conventions.
Our intention when creating our digipak was that we wanted to keep the house-style running throughout so that it kept a level of professionalism but also linked to our narrative
so that our target audience knew it was all one product and didn’t belong to different things. To do this, we kept with the same shots types when we took our photos and also
used a maximum of three colours with one main font. On pop music digipaks we had researched used a minimum of 2 colours and font types so we followed these conventions
when applying the knowledge to our own digipak. The transparent overlays of the trees and artist throughout represents the losing of her life as we felt this was a significant
message to our music video so we thought it would only be appropriate to follow this through the rest our products.
Our front cover was unique in terms of design. It was simple yet effective. Pop music digipaks are often over loaded with colour and have so much going on at once its hard to
concentrate on the artist themselves. The layout of text helped to lead the viewer's line of sight towards the artist, allowing them to focus on her solely, plus the repeated after
image helps to enforce the image of the artist which helps to advertise her even more.
Through developing our knowledge about typical digipack conventions and how to present them in a way that advertises our product, we made our back cover with our narrative
constantly in mind. We chose to use a desaturated, white-washed photo of trees that had some sky in shot. This shot in particular links to the last scene in our music video where
the father and son are walking off into the distance. So instead of having the artist on the back like most pop genres do, we chose to use the scenery to illustrate the location of
where the music video took place. As well as that, simple imagery would not hinder the viewer's reading the song lists therefore we were able to place the text centre to the
album cover.
We developed the idea of using minimalistic fonts fonts to allow our viewer to distinguish the artist name and other text. Doing this made it easier to read so the viewer would
not be put off from reading unrecognisable, unprofessional fonts. We followed this through the rest of our covers to the digipak, using the same simplistic fonts, colour schemes
and font sizes following conventions of most standard digipaks.

6. Digipak
ROLLING IN THE DEEP

7. Poster
For the poster, our priority was simplicity. Making sure it was to the point and gave off the right information. Through research, pop music posters are often portrait rather
than landscape and often use colours similar to the ones on their digipak. We developed this by using similar colours but instead of going completely monochrome we
decided it would be good if we just completely desaturated the image. This linked back to our idea of her having little life left in her and that slowly everything around her is
fading. For this we made the background black and white with a bright sun flare centred to the poster with the same tree photograph used in the background. We decided to
add some fallen leaves onto the poster as we felt it was appropriate to the outdoors theme we have going on throughout our music video, poster and digipak. We borrowed
the conventions used on an Adele ‘21’ poster as we liked how basic yet visually intriguing it was to look at. For the pop genre itself, we decided to convert the typical
conventions used on posters as we felt the stereotypes for that genre were very specific and already had major things associated with the genre which we felt didn’t fit our
acoustic-pop style.
The artist name was placed at the top half of the page along with thanks and credits to the people who helped us in the process. This was inspired by both posters that we
researched where they had the credits and poster title placed centre top. The name of the album is usually placed at the top of the page therefore, we borrowed the idea and
it was effective because the name of the band would then get the more attention from the audience and allow them to see it making the name memorable.