Question 1

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

Throughout my A2 coursework I created a music video, 3 part digipak and a magazine advert after a considerable amount of research and planning. I created my products to conform with the forms and conventions of existing media products; however I did challenge some aspects as to make my product unique and more visually exciting as I have experimented with an idea that is not widely used in the music video world.

Before the creation of my magazine advert I researched the history of music videos to see how they have changed over the years. I then looked into the typical conventions of a music video to look at the stereotypical shots that may appear in a video and to gain inspiration of which shots look good so that I could use them in my own video. . This allowed me to get comfortable with the common aspects and features seen in music videos and the types of things to plan and prepare for when creating my own. 

My music video fits into the indie/country music genre, and so as a result follows many of the generic conventions, which was also suggested in Goodwin’s music video theory. For example, the colour narrative features only female models, and typically indie music uses females in their music videos as a large portion of fans of their music are heterosexual males. It could be said that the objectification of and voyeuristic attitude towards women are characteristic of indie music videos, however I chose not to objectify the females in my video and instead portrayed them in a more innocent light which I suppose goes against the typical conventions. I also featured close-ups of the musical instruments that are being played in the song, which is a generic convention of indie music, particularly in comparison to other music genres, such as RnB and hip-hop, where there is less of a focus on the instrumental talent of the artist and more on their success or wealth.

The target audience for my video is mainly women aged 16-25, due to the fact that the song itself is very innocent and relaxing but also has lyrics which females could relate to more so than males. However my video, like other indie music videos, would also attract a secondary male audience of the same age as there is a considerable focus on instruments throughout the video which stereotypically interests a male audience as they are considered to be more likely to play instruments such as the guitar. 

Similarly to my music video, my magazine advert conforms to the conventions of real-media products. It features the album title and band name at the bottom half of the page but it is the largest writing on the page and therefore it draws attention to it. Additionally, I featured a quote and four-star-rating from Observer Music magazine below that, linking to the fact that my video is of the indie music genre, which is featured in magazines such as Observer Music. Hence my target audience may well read this magazine and respect and trust the reviews in it. Typically magazine adverts display an image of the album cover so that customers will recognise the CD when in shops such as HMV; this is why I decided to include this on my magazine advert. 

My digipak also further continues these generic conventions. Typically an album has a ‘house style’ or continuing theme running through it and this was something that I knew my digipak also had to include in order to look both professional and realistic. To do this, I took a photo of a first aid kit and dropped it into Adobe Photoshop for the front cover of my digipak. I also used it on the inside and back cover as a basis for my design. I chose to photograph a first aid kit to use on my digipak as it makes reference to the band’s name in a humorous way, and it also provides a quirky design, which is not unusual for the indie genre.