1) The document discusses the challenges of creating a media product that appeals to both pop and alternative music genres given Ed Sheeran's unique style. To address this, the author analyzed conventions of both genres from artists like Amy Winehouse and Panic! At The Disco. 2) The author created a music video that uses conventions from both genres, such as close-ups, while challenging conventions like only using black and white to give it a darker tone. 3) For the advert and digipak, the author mostly followed conventions like consistent branding but challenged conventions by not including the artist's image to make it stand out.

1. 1) In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media production?
For my media product i have decided to create a music video and promotional material for
ed sheeran's first number one single lego house from his first album Plus. when looking at
some of the key conventions of media such as genre it is slightly difficult to place Ed sheeran
in one genre due to his unique style of both alternative and pop he is placed into a subgenre
called alt-pop. When we look at Ed's fans they are mostly split into two groups the first being
people who mostly like pop music and the others who are more into alternative due to this it
was a challenge when creating my product as i have to not only be unique but appeal to both
types of genres and people. To solve this problem i looked at pop artist and looking at the
conventions of their genre the main artist i looked at was Amy Winehouse, when watching i
would take note of the conventions of her music videos and genre. After this looked at the
alternative genre of bands such as Panic at the disco and Kings of leon, i would also take
notes on their genre conventions. After i had all my notes i would then use them notes with
my others to help influence my design for my music video. But to make sure my products
where not just copy and pastes of other artist videos mashed together i took the information i
had on both genre conventions and then followed some with my own creative design and
ideas but others i would challenge and go against to make my music video stand out and be
different from the crowed. For the three areas of my product; music video, advert and digipak
i looked at different areas to look at the different ways genre conventions are used to attract
and pull that genres audience.
Music video
In order to create my media product to a industry and effective standard i have had to use,
challenge and develop may different forms of real media conventions. To analysis my own
work to see the conventions i have use challenge and developed i have looked at the
theory's from Andrew Goodwin and applied it to my own work i then will compare this to the
music videos i have previously done in my research stage of my product. In Andrew
Goodwin's Theory his points are broken into multiple areas the first of these being music
videos demonstrate genre characteristics, an example of this stage performances in metal
videos or dance routines for a boy band music video it is things which the audience of that
genre expect to see. As my chosen artist is both pop and alternative it was difficult to try and
apply both of these genre characteristics in my music video as pop music videos are more
up beat and normally are shot in public with a lot of people or public present, whereas
alternative music videos are more emotional and the artist is more alone and secluded. As
you can see both of these genres are polar opposites when it comes to what their audience
are expecting to see in the music video. Because of this i had to sit down and think what i
was going to do to solve this issue in the end i analysis some key elements about these
genres and then i took this information to make a unique and different design with both
genre characteristics. For example i looked at music videos for both genre the first being
Kings of leon for the alternative and looked at what you see in there music videos like types
of shots, is there more close up in emotional songs or is there always shots of the full band
doing something in the video. After this i looked at amy winehouse video and looked for
genre conventions so i could combine them with the other conventions of my other genre to
make my music video correctly and pleasing to both sides. But when i did this i thought i
should appeal to the side with the great audience as it will be easier to help my video gain
attention and success.Firstly i looked at which had a larger audience and after my survey
and my own research pop came out with the larger audience, because i wanted my product
to be as popular as possible i created my product with more pop genre conventions to

2. appeal more to the larger audience. Although i still wanted my music video to be more
alternative in style when i was shooting to make my video more unique, because i wanted
this and i choose to have more pop conventions my music video was going to come out as a
hybrid of the two genres. The key thing i had to make sure was the video didn't just become
a mess which the two genres audience couldn't follow. One pop convention which i did
adhere to was close ups of the artist and a lot of lip sync but when shooting i made sure that
my music video was shot not only in black and white but was more emotional and had more
of a darker edge to it. This was to make sure i am still applying conventions of both genres to
my music video and appealing to the maximum audience i could. The next rule in Andrew
Goodwin's theory states that there is a relationship between music and visuals, the lyrics are
a represented by the image. My song is it over all very emotional and about love because of
this i wanted to further the message and the deeper message hidden in the song by
expressing them through the visuals. The first example of this is the full video was placed
into black and white to help amplify the overall message in the lyrics of sadness. One key
convention of music video is there is no strong structure like other forms of media such as
film, this media the editing is a lot more broken and elliptical when compared to the linear
editing style of film. I have followed and developed this in my music video as i have used this
broken editing style to help show my narrative but i al;so have used my own editing
techniques to develop the editing style to my own creative idea. Another example of this is
after every deeply emotional lyric i would have a close up of my actor look regretful and sad
to coincide with the emotion in the music video. I have followed this rule throughout my work
as it is key for my video to go hand in hand with the lyrics to help capture the audience
emotions and key the interested in the video. The next rule stated by andrew goodwin is
there is a relationship between music and visuals, in my music video i have followed this
rule as the slow emotional overtone of the music is complimented by the visuals of the music
video. As the overall tone of sadness is complemented by the black and white visuals and
the lack of anything happy throughout the music video.The next rule states that the demands
of the record label will include the need for a lot of close up of the artist or artists to future
develop their motifs which will recur across all their work. I have developed this rule by not
only following it by having a uniques style through all of my work and having many different
close ups of my lead actor but complained both my creative idea with different close up
shots to develop a style for my artist. When creating my product i wanted to have unique
style which not only appealed to my audience but stood out, i had to ensure that i had many
close up as it was a convention of my genre and i also had to create an understand of my
artist with the audience. This was very important to ensure my work was different but still
followed contention. One of the last rule states that there is frequently a notion of looking, i
challenge this rule as this is not present throughout my music video. I did not just the notion
of looking as it didn't go with my over all idea and them/ also did work with my music. The
area i shot was the beach as it helped me to show my idea of isolation, a stage performance
of mirrors wouldn't work with the shots and would stand out to pull the audience from the
idea of the video. The final rule states that there are often intertextual references such as
film tv programmes and other music videos. In my music video there is not intertextual
referes to any other form of media this is both by accident and purpose i shot everything in a
lonely area to avoid anyone or anything to break this idea of isolating. Although it doesn't
have these refers it still applies to my audience as i have followed all conventions and my
feedback confirms that i have appealed to the audience i originally set out to appeal to.
Looking at the conventions of music videos and the theories applied to it my video has both

3. challenged and developed all of them to ensure my video is different but also still a music
video.
Advert/digipak
When i was creating my advert and digipak i used the conventions of my genre and of the
advert and digipak itself to ensure their success i also used my own unique design to make
them stand out and grab the viewer's attention. Through all of my advert there is many
similar things which have been used through the other pieces of my work to help having
continuity. I have used photos of the same area as the shooting of my video has taken place
to help the audience connect the advert to the video and know what they're going to see
when they want the video. Many adverts of the same genre as mine have images of the
artist i have avoided doing this to make my advert stand out although convention would tell
me to have an image of my artist i wanted to pull my audience on their interest. This could
be effective to help pull in my audience but if my artist was more popular i would have
gained more of an audience using his image. When i was creating my music video i followed
the convention of my genre and digipak as i have used images of images of my artist and
the scene to pull my audience in and to help my overall digipak successful. Doing this i have
had to restricted the unique design i original wanted to go with. I thought the design wouldn't
work as well as following connections i didn't use it. I also used the same font throughout
the digipak and advert to help connect the advert and the album, although i did make some
changes on the digipak to ensure it looks appealing to my audience. When comparing my
advert and digipak to others of the same genre my advert is very different as i do not have
light texts or images of the artist this is because i want to be different and follow conventions
of my other genre alternative. When looking at my digipak i have followed the conventions of
my first genre of pop as you can see due to the images of my artist and the more brighter
colours when compared to my advert and video.