Question 1:

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ?

Conventions Of Form - Music Video

Music videos follow conventions such as the following:

-Narrative

-Performance
-Lip-syncing
-Dancing
-Change of costumes
-Change in Make-Up 
-Change in locations
-Change in lighting
-Range of Cinematography (Movements and Angles)
-Characters (Other People and/or The Artist)
-Meaning of Lyrics
-Editing Types (Fast, Slow , On The Beats)

Conventions of Form from EGladders

Draft 1 of my music video compared to Jess Glynne's - Take Me Home.

Ideas I Would Like To Use/Develop:

- Natural look

- Minimal make-up

- Minimal colours

- Eye line match

- Lip-syncing

- Long clips of performer singing directly towards the camera

- Passion within the performance

- Use of jump cuts

- Use of medium close-ups

Compared To My 1st Draft/Mock Exam:

During the making of my music video I watched Jess Glynne's music video, Take Me Home. From this I took inspiration for my own music video and the images below show how I used similar shots to Glynne's music video.

Image 1:

Both performers are showing their passion through the use of facial and body expressions. As this shot is a medium close up the arms help to show the emotions and passion of the performer. I think this is an effective way to show the audience the passion in which the performer is trying to convey.

Image 2:

These images show a close up with the performers both making a direct connection with the audience. Both performers are lip-syncing and appear with very minimal make-up on. In my opinion the natural look helps to create a realistic connection with audience. The performers look directly into the camera and a close up helps to emphasise this is as it makes the performers face, especially their eyes, connect with the audience.

Image 3:

These images show a change in the narrative and colour tones. In my music video I choose a B/W colour change to show my performer being weak and withdrawn from the rest of the narrative. In Jess Glynne's video , she uses darker lighting to show a change in the narrative. I think both these shots are very useful as they show refection shots away from the narrative.

Image 4:

These images show a medium close up. Both of the performer display the narrative through the use of lip-syncing. I like this shot because it shows the full face and neck of the performer as well as some of the background. Emotions are also very good to show via facial and hand movements because the camera can focus on these specific movements. 

However I then changes the idea for my music video but during the draft 1 process I learnt how my product could compare with an exciting product.

Conventions Of Form - Digipak

This image shows the conventions of my Ancillary Text 1:

These images show the analysis of exciting an front cover, back cover and spine:

I have compared the conventions of my front cover to Jessie J's 'Who Are You' front cover. I noticed that they were very similar to each other, showing I have created a product which conforms to the conventions of a front cover.

I have compared the conventions of my back cover to Beyoncé's ' I Am Sasha Fierce' back cover.

I have compared the conventions of my spine to three existing products ... Mcfly's 'Memory Lane' and 'Radio:Active' and The Overtones 'Higher'.

Conventions Of Form - Poster

This image shows the conventions of my Ancillary Text 2:

This image show the analysis of an exciting music advertisement/poster:

This image show the analysis of an exciting music advertisement/poster

 

I have then compared the conventions on my own product with Jessie J's poster. I noticed that we have lots of similarities. However Jessie J's product also included record labels and an example of a song which appears in her album. On the other hand my product includes a release date and social media icons where you can consume the product from.

I also compared the conventions of my own product against the conventions which appear on the Kings Of Leon advertisement. On the one hand the Kings Of Leon poster includes examples of songs which appear in the album. On the other hand all the conventions which I used in my poster also could be found on the Kings Of Leon poster except I included an image of the front cover of my digipak.

Imagery, Lyrics and Themes

During my planning and research I conducted a lyrical analysis of Emeli Sandé - Clown.

I have annotated key words within the lyrics:

From the annotated lyrics I came up with a list of potential themes:
- Changing character out of choice
- Being focused to behave in a certain way
- Loving someone but they don't love you for who you are
- Trying to impress others
- Not being true to yourself
- Hiding your true identity behind a mask
- How death affects the way we grieve

My Theme:
The initial theme I stuck with was about changing character and changing your appearance to suit the needs of society.
Some interpret my music video as the character being Schizophrenic and therefore having multiple characters inside them. Others interpret the young girl as not being able to fit into society because she looks different therefore she has to experiment with different types of appearances.
I wanted to leave my video open to the interpretation of the viewer as this video will mean something different to everyone who watches it.

Conforming To The Genre:
I think the lyrics and my video combined link well to the genre of  POP. I believe I have challenged this in a way such as only having one artist delivering a very strong message. This is commonly seen in R&B music video but I wanted to create a popular video which would attract a large target audience. I have used lip-syncing and a change in locations which are both very strong features of Pop videos. Overall the lyrics such as ...'I'm selling out tonight' expresses the transformation the artist within the video goes through. It implies the artist has to sell herself in many ways in order for society to accept her.

Applied To Real Media Products

I have shown how my digipak may be played via an iPhone and what my poster would look like on an advertisement board.

This image shows my music video on YouTube in which it appear along other music videos such as Sia - Alive.

Analysis of Music Video

I have recorded myself talking about the cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene and sound which occur within my music video. I  have also made reference to my interpretation of certain parts of my music video and how I have conformed to the conventions of form.