During the creative process of my groups three primary and secondary media products (music video, digipak and magazine advertisement) for Meant to Be, I believe that we have used developed and challenged the current media conventions that are based on real media products.
Music Video
The song that we chose to use for out project was a pop song, with the subject of a break up. This inspired us to create a narrative based music video over an abstract video as it is more conventional of the genre. Like most narrative-based music videos, we based the narrative of the songs lyrics, as well as the artist's emotions, conveyed through the music. This can be supported by Andrew Goodwin’s Six Features of a Music Video as there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. A key example of this is when Chelsea throws the cards towards the camera and sings 'you're not into playing games', which links as there is number of games you can play with cards, such as solitaire. You can also lik the narrative to Carol Vernallis whose theory states that whatever is happening on the screen should match with the songs, lyrics or meaning. An example of this in the real world is Adele's 'Hello', which shares they emotions of the artist as she goes through her breakup, which can be implied through the tone of her voice throughout the song.
As well as this, during our music video we use a large number of breaks, which is a convention of the pop genre. In our music video, the brakes we used showed Chelsea changing environment from the narrative interior clips to the exterior shots of her in the field and trees singing. An example of this in the real world is Ed Sheeran's new song Castle on the Hill. Throughout the song there is a number of breaks that use video footage from his childhood as the song is reminiscing, such as when he sings 'When I was six years old I broke my leg' as the first line of the song, before moving back to the present day narrative.
We have also followed conventions by changing Chelsea's costume during the music video, which is common in pop videos. This is usually done to signify the change in location or time. An example from this in our music video is that to signify that the scene takes place at night, Chelsea is wearing a dressing grown. As well as this, Chelsea changing into her work uniform could suggest to the audience that it is early in the morning as she is getting ready for work. An example of this in the real world is Jessie J 'who's laughing now', where she changes her character multiple times as well as having a child play the younger version of her self.
A fourth convention that we used as a group was focussing on the artist. During the video, we used a number of close ups of Chelsea as she was the only actress in the music video, as well as this she is the singer meaning she is following convention by being in the video. This also links with Andrew Goodwin’s Six Features of a Music Video as it suggests that the video should be focusing on the artist. An example of this in the real world is Beyonce 'Sorry', where the camera will always start and end a shot on her, such as her watching Serena Williams walking in and then later her reaction as a close up.
A convention that we broke is the stereotypical ending for a break up pop song. This is because majority of the songs contain a sad narrative throughout, whereas my group decided that we would be different and create a happier ending for the artist. This creates a timeline of the artist progressing through the emotions, which could be more relatable for some audience members. We decided to show the change of emotions through the decay of flowers, which gradually decreased in number before increasing again when the emotion of the song changed. This reference will make it easier for the audience to understand the current emotion of the artist as throughout the video it changes frequently. It could be suggested that for this aspect of the video we were able to develop current conventions for a music video by changing the prognosis of the narrative.
We were also able to challenge conventions as we did not used the male gaze during our music video. Compared to most pop music videos in todays society that will have the artists wearing revealing clothing or using suggestive movements, our artist does not do this. By challenging the convention of the male gaze, it will help the audience to feel more confident as they realise they do not have to be like the current artists to be liked. This could encourage them to buy the song and its products as the artist is more relatable to their real world.
Digipak
During our planning process, my group decided that we would use a mid shot of Chelsea holding a pink rose, which links all of our products together with a recognisable object. This follows conventions as most music videos have a certain element or object that will link it to their digipak and advertisements. A real life example of this is Rhianna's Loud which uses her current hairstyle to anchor all of the products together as it is also featured in the music video. Unlike this digipak, we did not use any form of male gaze as it did not feature in the music video and could cause confusion for the audience.
We also developed a convention further as instead of creating a separate booklet for the lyrics to be written on, we printed these onto the main digipak. This was because we found that these booklets were often lost or never opened after buying the album. An example of a booklet containing lyrics in the real world is Adele who places further images and lyrics in the booklet for the audience to read whilst listening to the music. As well as this, compared to other artists we only added the lyrics of Meant to Be. This was because we did not want to overpower the inside of the digipak. As well as this it is her most well known song so would be recognised easily, due to the title being on all three products.
Music Video
The song that we chose to use for out project was a pop song, with the subject of a break up. This inspired us to create a narrative based music video over an abstract video as it is more conventional of the genre. Like most narrative-based music videos, we based the narrative of the songs lyrics, as well as the artist's emotions, conveyed through the music. This can be supported by Andrew Goodwin’s Six Features of a Music Video as there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. A key example of this is when Chelsea throws the cards towards the camera and sings 'you're not into playing games', which links as there is number of games you can play with cards, such as solitaire. You can also lik the narrative to Carol Vernallis whose theory states that whatever is happening on the screen should match with the songs, lyrics or meaning. An example of this in the real world is Adele's 'Hello', which shares they emotions of the artist as she goes through her breakup, which can be implied through the tone of her voice throughout the song.
As well as this, during our music video we use a large number of breaks, which is a convention of the pop genre. In our music video, the brakes we used showed Chelsea changing environment from the narrative interior clips to the exterior shots of her in the field and trees singing. An example of this in the real world is Ed Sheeran's new song Castle on the Hill. Throughout the song there is a number of breaks that use video footage from his childhood as the song is reminiscing, such as when he sings 'When I was six years old I broke my leg' as the first line of the song, before moving back to the present day narrative.
We have also followed conventions by changing Chelsea's costume during the music video, which is common in pop videos. This is usually done to signify the change in location or time. An example from this in our music video is that to signify that the scene takes place at night, Chelsea is wearing a dressing grown. As well as this, Chelsea changing into her work uniform could suggest to the audience that it is early in the morning as she is getting ready for work. An example of this in the real world is Jessie J 'who's laughing now', where she changes her character multiple times as well as having a child play the younger version of her self.
A fourth convention that we used as a group was focussing on the artist. During the video, we used a number of close ups of Chelsea as she was the only actress in the music video, as well as this she is the singer meaning she is following convention by being in the video. This also links with Andrew Goodwin’s Six Features of a Music Video as it suggests that the video should be focusing on the artist. An example of this in the real world is Beyonce 'Sorry', where the camera will always start and end a shot on her, such as her watching Serena Williams walking in and then later her reaction as a close up.
A convention that we broke is the stereotypical ending for a break up pop song. This is because majority of the songs contain a sad narrative throughout, whereas my group decided that we would be different and create a happier ending for the artist. This creates a timeline of the artist progressing through the emotions, which could be more relatable for some audience members. We decided to show the change of emotions through the decay of flowers, which gradually decreased in number before increasing again when the emotion of the song changed. This reference will make it easier for the audience to understand the current emotion of the artist as throughout the video it changes frequently. It could be suggested that for this aspect of the video we were able to develop current conventions for a music video by changing the prognosis of the narrative.
We were also able to challenge conventions as we did not used the male gaze during our music video. Compared to most pop music videos in todays society that will have the artists wearing revealing clothing or using suggestive movements, our artist does not do this. By challenging the convention of the male gaze, it will help the audience to feel more confident as they realise they do not have to be like the current artists to be liked. This could encourage them to buy the song and its products as the artist is more relatable to their real world.
Digipak
During our planning process, my group decided that we would use a mid shot of Chelsea holding a pink rose, which links all of our products together with a recognisable object. This follows conventions as most music videos have a certain element or object that will link it to their digipak and advertisements. A real life example of this is Rhianna's Loud which uses her current hairstyle to anchor all of the products together as it is also featured in the music video. Unlike this digipak, we did not use any form of male gaze as it did not feature in the music video and could cause confusion for the audience.
We also developed a convention further as instead of creating a separate booklet for the lyrics to be written on, we printed these onto the main digipak. This was because we found that these booklets were often lost or never opened after buying the album. An example of a booklet containing lyrics in the real world is Adele who places further images and lyrics in the booklet for the audience to read whilst listening to the music. As well as this, compared to other artists we only added the lyrics of Meant to Be. This was because we did not want to overpower the inside of the digipak. As well as this it is her most well known song so would be recognised easily, due to the title being on all three products.
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| Our Insert |
A second convention that we developed using our digipak was the amount of songs. Our product has 5 songs, which is longer than the 3 songs for a single and 4 songs for an EP. This means that although it is not long enough to be an album it is too long for the conventional EP, which was our original goal when making the digipak. By having a different amount of songs to the genres convention it will make the album stand out more as people may become intrigued as to why it has a different amount of songs.
Magazine Advert
For our magazine advert, we decided that we would use a different picture to the one that is on the digipak. This is a convention of the genre as majority of artists will use a different picture taken from the same shoot, as it creates variation without it becoming confusing for the audience as both picture are similar. A real world example of this is Adele who used a similar image of her self looking down on the advert for her album 21. As well as this we also challenged the convention of using a mid close up of the artists face on the advert. For our magazine advert, we decided to use a long shot image, so that we could incorporate the nature in the background, which links to the music video. I believe this works as it is something different from the norm and will be able to cause people to question the advert.
As well as this, we decided that we would use an image of our album on the magazine advert. Although this is not found on all adverts for the pop genre, we like the idea as it would encourage the audience to look for the album in shops or online. This could increase the chance of people looking at the advert as it is not the norm. An example of this is again Rhianna's Loud album advert.
As well as this we also followed the convention of placing the information of platforms the song is available from on the advert. This makes the album more open as not everybody will buy a hard copy of the song and will use a service such as iTunes to listen to the song.
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