Evaluation Task 1

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

Our Video

Front Album CoverWe wanted the font of our text to be simple and to link in with the smooth, chilled out sound that matched the song. It is usually conventional to also have the title and artist name off centre on the cover, for example, Matt Cardle uses this for his album too:

We wanted our album to demonstrate the singer/songwriter genre so that when the public see it, they will know what it involves. In doing research

into conventions of singer/songwriter albums, we discovered that many of them were in black and

white, such as:

We kept the background of our

cover black and simple, so it doesn’t

detract from his calm and content facial

expressions. Birdy has quite a plain

background to match her ‘look’:

Having the artists face as the central point of the cover, this conforms to the conventions of our genre, as they do not have any ‘gimmicks’; it is purely their voice. This is one of the strongest conventions of singer/songwriter album covers as it is relevant with many artists such as Jason Mraz, Jake Bugg, and James Blake:

Back Album CoverWe have taken a lot of inspiration for this cover from Seal – a very similar artist to our artist that we have created. This album cover in particular has a similar track layout, and also shows one picture with the tracks next to it, like ours:

It is a convention of album covers to include a barcode, and the details of the music company,

producers etc. We realised this by looking at numerous back covers:

We decided to use a picture of a piano instead of a picture of his face. We got this idea from seeing Regina Spektor’s album cover. We decided it would be a good idea to include his main instrument on the album somehow:

WebsiteThis website really helped me understand the conventions for singer/songwriter websites. For example, the name of the artist is off centre, which we have done here:

Through researching

different singer/songwriter

websites I was able to chose the most common pages:

When creating the website, the most difficult part I found was the layout of the homepage. It initially looked very messy and random, but James Morrison’s website (among others) had two panels, one for latest news and one for their work like albums and videos – this is what I have done:

CameraIt is conventional for a

singer/songwriter music video to include a main focus on the lip sync. This is done through use of close ups and extreme close ups. In using close

up shots, the audience are able to read the emotion of the song

through the artist, and also helps emphasise the link with music and

lyrics – this gives it a visual and audio hook.

Our Video Lemar’s Video

It is also common to include wide tracking shots and/or crane shots in singer/songwriter music videos. This

enables the audience to see the setting of the video, adds movement and pace and shows the full set. Our camera techniques seem to conform with the conventions of music videos

of this genre.

EditingOur Video Seal’s Video

As our song is quite slow paced and slow moving emotionally, we decided to match the pace of our editing with, and include long shot durations. We

closely synced our song including very few jump cuts as they can create high energy which our song did not need.

We cut our edit on the beat of the music, which is conventional in any

music video. This video from Seal is a cheat of a one-shot video, which was our initial idea as well. However when

another scene does appear, it is on the beat of the music.

We did however include very slight jump cuts at this point of the video

(where I’ve taken the clip from). Seal also uses a slight jump cut at this

point as well. We did this to keep the audience interested at the high point

of the song.

Lighting

When looking at one of my favourite

singer/songwriter artists – Jack Johnson, I saw that

this video contains a lot of artificial light. I then

looked at other videos from the genre and

noticed that artificial lighting was very

common. It is used to give artists a glow of

perfection. It can also help to create an

unthreatening atmosphere which is what

we wanted to portray.

Our Video Jack Johnson’s Video

PropsOur Video Tom Odell’s Video

While comparing Tom Odell’s video, it is a

convention to have the instrument that they play featuring in the

video. I then decided to incorporate a piano in

mine, however we challenged this by having

it hanging from the ceiling – something that I

hadn’t seen in a music video before. This helps to also clarify that he is

from a singer/songwriter genre.

I also included a lot of stereotypical props that

were relevant to our sets, so that the audience would

recognise the set that we were trying to create.

Sets and LocationsOur Video John Legend’s Video

We have used similar conventions to John Legend with the use of our sets and locations. All of sets take

place in one house; a piano room, a bathroom, and a living. John

Legend’s settings take place in a religious location; a cathedral,

graveyard and inside the cathedral. He has used 3 just like we have. This

helps to increase the audiences attention as we are able to cut back and forth. It also helps to show our

artist as organic, as our sets are stereotypical of a standard house that is relevant to the audience

members.All of our sets and locations

connote a standard house, however we have slightly broken this

convention by flopping the video vertically as if a bomb explosion has gone off and we have captured the

second after.