Evaluation - Question 1 (Axl Santos)

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

Music Video: 

The track that we have chosen to use for our music video is called "Fire" by Spur. The genre of the song is alternative rock. "Alternative rock is a style of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s.

Andrew Goodwin's features:

In Andrew Goodwin's theory on music videos, it suggested that a successful music video would contain these features. The features are:

1) Demonstrates genre charactreristics

2) A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals

3) A relationship between the music and the visuals

4) Close ups of the artist; used by the record label to market and advertise the artist

5) A reference to the notion of 'looking' or voyeuristic treatment of the female body 

6) Intertextual References (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.)

We tried to apply some of Goodwin's features to our own music video in order to make it look more realistic, similar to real music videos produced by record labels, and also convincing to our audience that it was a music video.

How our music videos shows different features of Goodwin's theory:

 Some conventions of rock genre:

- Performance shots of the band playing
- A narrative to go along with the performance
-close ups/extreme close ups used
- set in studios (usually the performance)
- Mise-en-scene (Costume, make up). Creates the character

Our music video conforms to most of the conventions of the rock genre as well as some of Goodwin's features as well. For example, our music video shows performance shots of the band playing. Despite the fact that it was only one person playing different instruments, it still conformed to the performance convention. It also demonstrates the genre characteristics since the performer is shown to be playing many musical instruments and that musical instruments like the ones shown in our music video mostly associates with the genre rock, it's easy to identify that our music video falls into the alternative rock genre.

linking it to some real music videos such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, they also show performance shots of the band playing. However, they focus more than us on the band performing but it still shows a relation and that our genre is similar to theirs.

There is also a narrative in our music video. It is separate from the performance as it's a different person as the protagonist for the narrative and it's not the same person who's performing as well. The narrative in out music video is mixed in with the performance so from watching through the music video, it constantly switches from some performance to the narrative and back to the performance. This would follow of how not only the performance is partnered with the narrative but it also follow one of Goodwin's features of how there is a relationship between the music and the visuals. When it switches from the chorus to the verse, there is also a transition between the performance to the narrative. This is because we decided that since the verses had more of the narrative lyrics, the verses that are sung would show the narrative whilst the upbeat chorus would show the performances which is also upbeat. 

Another convention our music video follows is that the performance shots is set in a music studio. From looking at some examples, we found out that the performances in an alternative rock music video are set usually on a performing stage or studio and so we also decided that the musician in our music video would perform in a studio too. An example of a real music video set in a studio is "Semi-charmed life" by Third Eye Blind which is shown below.

Additionally, since there is a narrative in our music video, it's able to show how there is a relationship the lyrics and the visuals. We researched and discussed the meaning of the lyrics and we agreed how the lyrics was about someone having a strong love for something that too much of it can destroy the person themselves. We decided that protagonist would be a drug addict who takes drugs in order to make himself feel better. At first he feels fine from taking the drugs but he doesn't realise the severe impacts it can have on himself such hallucinations, headaches and passing out but it seems that the protagonist doesn't really care and recklessly does it anyway. An example of how the lyrics and videos are linked is that part of the lyrics were "You could be the one to drown me out" which we implied meant that the person is totally in love with his own drugs that he wants the drugs to destroy himself. The protagonist as the lyrics are said is shown to be looking out thinking he's in outer space when really its just him hallucinating.

Another one of Goodwin's conventions that are followed as well as one of the rock genre conventions as well is that there are many close ups and extreme close ups of the artist. In the performance shots of the music video, we have the "singer" shown to be singing which establishes him as the artist. This is very common in the rock genres since in most rock music videos, it always shows the singer singing since they are the ones who are creating the music. Linking it to some real bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, they also have close ups of the artist singing.

Digipak:

Conventions of a Digipak:

1) The artist's name
2) An image/logo of the artist
3)A song list
4)An insert (Could perhaps be a booklet with info about the music, artist or a poster)

From looking at our digipak, we can see that it uses some of the conventions. For example, the front cover of a digipak would feature the artist's name in bold as well as the image of the artist. It can be said that it follows the conventions but also challenges because of the fact in our front cover it shows the the band name and album name but the image shown isn't the artist but instead is the protagonist of the narrative. We found that it caused some confusion with the audience as from receiving feedback, some people believed that the actor was the artist and instead should've shown an image of the singer instead. However, it does conform that it shows the the artist/band name on the digipak. For ours, we made the name "Spur" stand out to make it easy for the audience to see that it's an album by Spur. Which is why the font colour of the name is white as it contrasts with the dark image behind it.

Similar to some real digipak front covers which we used as an example, it shows the name as well as the image.

Similar to most digipaks, we did not use any stills from the music video but rather we took a separate image of the actor. This is so we could conform to what most digipak front covers look like.


 We included a song list at the back cover like what most Digipaks would have so we also conformed to the convention as well.

Examples of real song lists:

We included a booklet inside the digipak which would therefore conform to the convention of a digipak. The booklet included the lyrics to the song and also a still from the music video.

Lyric Booklet

stills we used for the inside:

examples of real booklets inside real digipaks:

Magazine Advert

Conventions of a magazine advert:

- The artist's name
- An image of the artist
- The Album title
- reviews/ratings
- where to find the song

Similar to our digipak, the magazine advert shows the band's and album's name. the same image of the actor is also shown which creates that synergistic link between the products. The band name in our magazine advert is large and is very clear for the audience to see. It conforms to how the artist's/band's name is very dominant and it stands out to make it eye catching.

Similar to some real magazine adverts like the one below, the name of the artist stands out so it can be the first thing the audience sees.