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

Introduction

To complete our A2 Media Coursework we had to as a group produce a promotional package for our chosen band, in our case this was Royal Blood. The promotional package includes a music video for one of the band songs ( Loose Change), digipak and magazine advertisement.

To be able to create the promotional package successfully we research the band, the genre of the band (Rock), and analysed music videos, digipaks and magazines adverts from other bands that are part of the same genre.

The Music Video Camera Work:After studying Andrew Goodwin before producing the music video I was able to find out his theory on camera work in music videos. His theory is that the camera is focused on the lead singer of the band, we were able to support this idea by analysing other music videos where we were able to see this theory in place. However after watching a Royal Blood music video we noticed that their videos featured both close ups of both of the band members but still primarily the lead singer. I feel that Royal Blood has decided to do this to show a rebellious approach to the music video as well as it being slightly unconventional.

To support Andrew Goodwin`s theory as well as keeping the rebellious approach and ideologies of a band from this genre we decided to have several close ups of the band as well as having media close ups of the drummer and several shots where the audience would be able to see the two band members together.

Mise-en-Scene- locations While planning to make the video was decided that the locations would be important

and are need to be able to tell he narrative of the song clearly. The main locations that we were considering were where the homeless man was as this was the opening shot and would be the first thing that the audience would see, as well as it looking realistic as a place where a homeless man would live and it being a suitable place to film.

We also put consideration into where the live performance shots would be of the band. We also decided to use lights lit up the band members which made it look more like a live performance. In many rock genre music videos while the band is performing live the is shots of the audience. However we were unable to do this due to the location we were filming in as well as the time we had to produce the video. If we had have more time to complete the video we could have considered finding a separate location to shoot audience scenes as well as finding audience members that look like they support the band. Filming the band playing live is a convention that was seen in all of the music videos that I analysed, as a result of this I decided that it was important to feature this as the audience would be expecting to see this.

Mise- en- Scene- costumes / Props In order to keep to the conventions of the rock genre we have decided to have the

two band members wearing black or dark coloured clothing. This also makes them look more like the original band members from Royal Blood. The audience would expect to see this as well as this possibly relating to them as they will be influenced by the band.

After analysing three music videos from the rock genre I have noticed that there is a convention of the band playing their instruments. Andrew Goodwin`s theory also says that by the band playing their instruments it shows their skill and are seen as powerful. The instruments for the band was an important part of the music video. Not only was it to make them look the part of being two members of a band, but the instruments were also used as product placement. These factures are both conventions of music videos and were seen in all of the music videos that I analysed. With the music video featuring product placement fans will be influenced to purchase the products as hey have seen the band using them. Product placement is used in a lot of music videos as companies know that audience members will be influences by the band, this is another reason why the conventions are important as the audience are influenced by them.

Editing One of the convention of editing in a music video is cutting to the beat of

the song, this is called rhythmic editing and was present at times in the all of the videos that I had previously analysed as research.

For parts of our music video especially at the start rhythmic editing has been used. This was decided upon because it is a common contention for this to be done on a music video as well as this type of editing working well with the style of song although it was not use for the entirety of the song.

Also after researching bands from a similar genre I found out that these bands also did the same style of editing, this included the Foo Fighters, Foals and Royal Blood. As all three of these videos featured this style of editing our group decided that the audience would expect to see this type of editing in the music video.

Special Effects We decided to add a black and white effect to the music video

while in the process of editing. While researching music videos I analysed the Royal Blood video for ‘Little Monster’ they also had made their video black and white, this made the video look gritty and unfinished. We decided to add the black and white on our video which continuous a possible convention and idea of the band as well as it making the music video look good with it suiting the ideas that we had.

Digipak While in the research and planning stages of this project I decided to research three existing digipaks

from other band that came from the same genre. By carrying out this research I was able to find out the designs of digipaks and there layouts. After look at the three digipaks I was able to see similarities and conventions between the three designs, this included the layout and the content of the digipak. This research helped our group produce a digipak that featured the conventions need to create a high quality product as well as something the bands audience would want to by.

While in the process of designing the digipak we thought about the colour scheme that would be suitable to use, the research that we had previously done on the bands genre came in useful here as we were able to see what audiences would expect to see. The colour scheme that was decided upon was black, grey and gold, these are conventional colour schemes that also link well with the art work used on the digipak.

It is conventional that a digipak contains more then one disk, after researching into this further I was able to find out what the second disk usually contains something that the audience would not be able to get if they do not purchase this product. We wanted to continue the idea of this by having the second disk contain special feature that the bands audience would not normally be able to have.

Digipak-Mise-en-Scene The colour scheme for the digipak is black and grey. This was decided upon the

conventions of the genre as well as the research from looking a similar bands digipak designs. However there is also sections of gold which has been used to create the art work that is shown on the front of the digipak and has been used as the colour for the font as it has already been used on the digipak artwork and works well along side each other.

A live performance image of the band has been used on the back page of the digipak. Although it is not a convention to have a live performance image of the band it is a convention to have an image of the band on the digipak. We were able to develop this digipak convention by using a live performance shot from the video rather them just using a studio shot of the band.

Digipak- Layout and content The layout of the digipak is the most common digipak design that I saw while doing my

research and analysing digipaks. The digipak when folded in half will contain three panels on either side, on the inside of the digipak shown as the top three panels in the images contains two disks, a CD and a DVD. The DVD will contain exclusive songs and life on tour footage, this will encourage audiences to purchase it as they feel that they are getting something extra. There is also space for a lyric booklet which is also a convention for a digipak layout. After researching digipaks I was able to find out that it is a conventions to feature both a DVD and a CD if the band is producing a digipak.

Magazine Advertisement For the magazine advertisement we decided to use the same art

work for the front cover of the digipak and use it for the advert. From the research that I carried out I noticed that conventionally the poster advertising the digipak used the same image or artwork design. As the two separate ancillary products are trying to sell one main product having the same design will allow audiences to recognise that the two products link easily.

Magazine Advertisement- layout While researching magazine advertisements I noticed that there was no

conventional layout design for how the advert should look but I did notice that there are conventional aspects that I was able to see on all of them. These were: the name of the band clearly shown, the date of release, the name and design of the album or digipak, and normally the record company that has made this for the band.

To make sure that the magazine advert continued the conventions we decided to have these aspect on the advert. We also made the decision to have ratings from music reviewers clearly shown. Although this was not one of the most common conventions for a magazine advert I did see it on some and would be something that the audience could see and be influenced to buy the album.