In what way does your product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
1- In the video:
1- In the video:
The final product, with commentary:
Videos that inspired us:
Below are real media texts which had inspired our own production, through camera shots and angles and shot composition, lighting and colour and costume.
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COSTUME:
A simple costume can be seen in these videos, confirming our choice about a plain white t-shirt and black jeans.
LOCATION:
The use of a skate-park as one of our locations came up in the initial stages of planning, we thought it would appeal to a younger demographic while simultaneously the graffiti would give an urban vibe and reflect the funk and r&b beats in our song of choice. Thereby adhering to conventions of the R&B genre but not conventionally to pop. -However for Justin Bieber's song 'What Do You Mean' the location of a skatepark is also used; depicted as an underground adolescent hang out.
LIGHTING:
While it could seem as if we're keeping away from a conventional pop video as far as lighting is concerned, due to the dimly lit visuals with lingering neons, these conventions perhaps being more fitting with an alternative or rock genre however I did find pop videos which included these elements.
In the video for 'I don't want to live forever' the use of colour and lighting is exploited to make the video look effective. There is a generally darker tone to the video which parallels our own shots; in the real media text this is used to give the video a mysterious element (taking in mind that it's part of the sound track for the new fifty shades of grey sequel) in our video however we use low lit shots to contrast with the bright morning shots and shots with neon lights; the contrast being symbolic of the persona's contrasting emotions.
This video also parallels with our one through the use of a colour tint where in the real media text it is created through lighting and enhanced in post-production. We liked the idea of coloured lights influencing the image, seeing as colour is one of the fundamental conventions of a pop video. We used coloured light both in exterior filming with the pink light construction in Waterloo, as well as during interior filming with flashing red lights.
In the video for 'I don't want to live forever' the artists are lit with flashing red and blue lights, this can be seen as implying a sense of danger through the connotations of red, but also through the blue and red signals of police lights. In our video we use the flashing red lights to create a sense of warning; the persona in the song needs to force himself to make the right choice in walking away from the relationship, furthermore the red light links with red traffic lights which ties in with the idea of 'Jaywalking', pivotal to the song.
The same sort of atmosphere with a night setting and neon lights can be seen in Justin Bieber's video for 'What do you mean'. We liked the overall aesthetic look of the neon lights and knew that a pop industry is very much about the way things look, with arguably an even larger focus on artist's image than sound, so the look of the video was important for us.
The videos for Coldplay's 'The Scientist' and Sam Smith's 'I'm not the Only one' utilise natural lighting, giving the video a fresher look, I followed this approach in the first scene of our video where the story re-winds to show the persona in the morning.
CAMERA SHOTS, ANGLES AND MOVEMENT AND EDITING:
Coldplay's 'The Scientist' and Sam Smith's 'I'm not the Only one' largely influenced our ideas of shots in initial stages of planning.
The video for 'The Scientist' is recorded backwards, something that I found really effective. Knowing that this had grabbed by attention I wanted to apply a similar shot in our video. This is done in the first scene after the opening when the clothes are being thrown out of the window. By applying the reverse effect (in final cut pro) the recorded footage is played backwards so the falling clothes are collected of the floor and fly back up. -This can be interpreted as a want to re-wind time and have another shot at the relationship that has fallen apart, but through the way that the persona sits on the floor, untouched by what is happening behind him- almost incongruous, it gives off a more complex idea of his inner turmoil. -He simultaneously looks stoic and regretful and this theme of contrasts is kept out throughout in our product, as mentioned before with the lighting.
In the video for 'I don't want to live forever' the use of colour and lighting is exploited to make the video look effective. There is a generally darker tone to the video which parallels our own shots; in the real media text this is used to give the video a mysterious element (taking in mind that it's part of the sound track for the new fifty shades of grey sequel) in our video however we use low lit shots to contrast with the bright morning shots and shots with neon lights; the contrast being symbolic of the persona's contrasting emotions.
This video also parallels with our one through the use of a colour tint where in the real media text it is created through lighting and enhanced in post-production. We liked the idea of coloured lights influencing the image, seeing as colour is one of the fundamental conventions of a pop video. We used coloured light both in exterior filming with the pink light construction in Waterloo, as well as during interior filming with flashing red lights.
In the video for 'I don't want to live forever' the artists are lit with flashing red and blue lights, this can be seen as implying a sense of danger through the connotations of red, but also through the blue and red signals of police lights. In our video we use the flashing red lights to create a sense of warning; the persona in the song needs to force himself to make the right choice in walking away from the relationship, furthermore the red light links with red traffic lights which ties in with the idea of 'Jaywalking', pivotal to the song.
The same sort of atmosphere with a night setting and neon lights can be seen in Justin Bieber's video for 'What do you mean'. We liked the overall aesthetic look of the neon lights and knew that a pop industry is very much about the way things look, with arguably an even larger focus on artist's image than sound, so the look of the video was important for us.
The videos for Coldplay's 'The Scientist' and Sam Smith's 'I'm not the Only one' utilise natural lighting, giving the video a fresher look, I followed this approach in the first scene of our video where the story re-winds to show the persona in the morning.
CAMERA SHOTS, ANGLES AND MOVEMENT AND EDITING:
Coldplay's 'The Scientist' and Sam Smith's 'I'm not the Only one' largely influenced our ideas of shots in initial stages of planning.
The video for 'The Scientist' is recorded backwards, something that I found really effective. Knowing that this had grabbed by attention I wanted to apply a similar shot in our video. This is done in the first scene after the opening when the clothes are being thrown out of the window. By applying the reverse effect (in final cut pro) the recorded footage is played backwards so the falling clothes are collected of the floor and fly back up. -This can be interpreted as a want to re-wind time and have another shot at the relationship that has fallen apart, but through the way that the persona sits on the floor, untouched by what is happening behind him- almost incongruous, it gives off a more complex idea of his inner turmoil. -He simultaneously looks stoic and regretful and this theme of contrasts is kept out throughout in our product, as mentioned before with the lighting.
I was also inspired by 'The Scientist' and Sam Smith's 'I'm Not the Only One' when the two video's simple shots are concerned. The tracking shots of the artist walking is something that I found simple but effective and professional looking, therefore applied it to my own product.
CONCEPT:
My video portrays a reflection; the persona is seen at night at the beginning of the video but earlier action is established right after the intro of the song in the form of a flashback showing the persona being kicked out by his partner. While conventionally this would include a cliche scene of an argument between a male and female I decided to avoid this, both to avoid the cliche and to challenge the convention of a straight relationship seeing as our artist of choice, 'Brayton Bowman' is homosexual. - The partner is unnamed and remains invisible but through the figure expression of our actor and location, we can infer that he has been kicked out or 'kicked to the curb' as the lyrics state. However the stark concept of a flashback is conventional across all genres, with pop in particular. (below: A fragment of Adele's 'Hello' which includes a flashback)
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2- In the magazine advert
The initial step I took in creating the magazine advert and DigiPak was to look at real media products of this sort.
The main conventions I had noticed were:
- Synergy with album or one of the single's music videos
- A title- largest element- standing out
- A release date
- Platforms of release; CD? Download? Vinyl?
- Record company
- Webiste URL
- Social Media information
Thereby I knew to include all these conventions in my own product to make it look professional and more like a genuine magazine advert for an album.
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3- In the Digi-Pak
THE LOGO:
I created a logo for 'our' 'record company' in a software called 'logo- maker'.Taking a look at real Record Label logos we realised that they are mainly simple and mainly in black and white and so adhered to this convention.
We knew the importance of audience feedback when it comes to media product creation so sought advice even at this stage, allowing our friends and colleagues to vote on the logo they preferred with the options as follows:
Some feedback we received:
- 'Number 3 looks a bit more like a film production company rather than a record company'
- '1 is subtle and looks professional like a real logo'
- 'It looks more authentic with the text all on one line, but I'm not too keen on the font of 4 so definitely between 5 and 1'
We went with the majority favourite number 1.
The next necessary element to pair with the logo was the copyright information. I viewed other CD's copyright information and altered it to fit our label to gain the most authentic look:
The positioning of this information on the back of the CD was debatable, conventionally it is located at the bottom however i placed it to the side in my design, following the look of a 'The Who' CD i own.
THE NAME OF THE ALBUM:
I felt that the most appropriate choice would be to go for an eponymous/self-titled album; many artists' albums are named after them; especially first time releases. Considering this would be our artist's first album release it would be appropriate that the album was named after him, this is an effective way of getting an artist's name 'out there'.
Some examples of self-titled albums:
An initial idea of an eponymous album:
I based the copyright information text on that of a real product; namely the back of a 'The Who' CD.
After having sought audience feedback, my friend advised that I add the album title to the CD design this is an adherence to real media products; having the album title on the CD allows for easier use; the CD won't be misplaced.
I decided to use Brayton's real lyrics considering the fact that he has multiple soundcloud releases. i had expected a few to be typed up on the internet (Jaywalk was) but thought I'd have to listen to some carefully to note the lyrics, however the lyrics to all the songs I had listed on the back cover of my digi-pak were easily located on the internet:
(above are two examples of the lyrics)
It was important to make sure that all the lyrics are in order of the songs on the album; this is a convention of digi-paks which makes it easier for the user to navigate.
The final set up I decided on for the digi-pak lyric booklet was:
