Evaluation - Question 1

EV. 1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
MUSIC VIDEO
For our music video, we chose the song ‘Not So Sad’ by a local
unsigned band, ‘Faux Pas’. They are an indie-rock band and
therefore, when planning our video and how we would
produce it, we did a lot of research into the existing genre and
products. We analysed music videos by various bands in the
indie-rock genre as well as the official music video for the
chosen song. Originally, we had chosen the song ‘Not Nineteen
Forever’ by The Courteeners, however we made a unanimous
decision to switch due to the pace, tone and general feel of the
song, as we felt it would make a much stronger music video than the original song.
Furthermore, we also looked at a number of theorists who have studied music videos
and genre conventions. A key one was Andrew Goodwin who wrote ‘Dancing in the
Distraction Factory’ in 1992. According to him:
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in rock
video, dance routine.)
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals.
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the
artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual
style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens,
telescopes, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music
videos etc.).
When planning the production of our music video, we made sure that we focused on
these conventions and included as many of them as we could where possible. Genre was
very key when we were creating our text and we paid particular attention to making
sure that we stuck to genre conventions of rock and indie music videos. The importance
of this is represented through Jacque Derrida’s theory, which says ‘A text cannot belong
to no genre. It cannot be without a genre. Every single text participates in one or more
genres, as there is no genreless text’. As a group, we believe that our products support
this statement.
One very popular genre characteristic in the indie-rock genre is live performance. From
our research and existing music video studies,
we found that this is used in almost all music
videos which fit into this genre. As a group, we
decided that since we wanted our genre to be
clear and obvious, we would follow this
convention. We discussed this idea and instead
of filming in a studio, we felt that this would
look too staged, so instead we filmed our live

performance at an actual concert for the band. We ensured that our camera was set up
in a decent position, where the band could be seen clearly. Analysing the quality of this,
I believe it worked very well in the end, as we cross-cutted between the storyline and
the live performance, which had a positive effect on the audience as they didn’t get
bored of each section, because we regularly switched between them both, providing
entertainment and variety in the text.
Returning to the conventions of Andrew Goodwin, he says that there should be a
relationship between music and visuals in all music videos. We followed this convention
in a number of ways. For example, a lot of the cuts between shots were done on the beat
of the music to help the video flow better. This also makes for a more professional
looking video and ultimately enhances the
quality of video. Furthermore, this
convention was also followed towards the
end of the video when there was a slow
guitar solo and we had the protagonist
playing his guitar slowly to make it look as
though he was the one playing the music.
This received positive feedback from our
audience and fitted well with the storyline
as well as the music. This was also
another reason for our decision to use live performance as there were a lot of times in
the music that the opportunity was clearly there to show the music being played by the
band. For example, in the middle of the song there is a lengthy instrumental and we took
this opportunity to use shots that we filmed of the band playing the song, which made it
clear for the audience to see that that was what they were playing as the electric guitars
and strumming patterns linked clearly with the audio track.
In my opinion, I believe we followed all of Andrew Goodwin’s characteristics of a good
music video. However, we did pay more attention to some than others. Another one that
we paid particular attention to was frequent reference to the notion of looking. We felt
that this was important, because it can
help create a personal connection with
the protagonist. A good example of this
was the shot early on in the video where
the character is looking at himself in the
mirror. Though this involved skilful
camerawork to avoid getting the
cameraperson in the shot, it was an
effective shot and the audience can
recognise that he’s looking determined
and is ready to make a big life change. They do not get this impression simply from this
shot; however it works nicely with the previous shots to build this story in the mind of
the audience. Looking was also made reference to through the point of view shot
outside the clothes store. As the protagonist looks down at his own clothes, a cut is
made from a long shot to a point of view shot to give the effect of being able to see
things from the character’s personal perspective. Again, here the audience gets to
understand the protagonist more and build more of a personal connection.

As our music video is in two parts, narrative and live performance, we had to pay
particular attention to both and look at how they are represented in existing products
and what theorists have had to say about them. I have already spoken about the live
performance aspect, however the narrative was just as important, if not more so.
Andrew Goodwin, once again, had a lot to say on this topic and argued that a music
video’s narrative can connect back to the actual song and these are through illustration,
amplification and disjuncture. Illustration
is where the video is a literal
representation of the song, for example if
the song says ‘walking down the street’
there would be a shot of somebody
walking through the street. Amplification
is where the lyrics and visuals still link in
this way, but often through connotations
and they can commonly use live
performance to balance out the narrative.
Disjuncture is where the video intentionally ignores the content of the song and creates
a whole new set of meanings for the lyrics. In our group, we decided to use amplification
in our narrative as we liked the general meaning of the song so didn’t want to change it
completely, yet we didn’t want a completely literal video, as we felt this would look too
staged and cheesy. We wanted to have that link, but for the video to be a slightly
unpredictable at the same time.
When planning our filming for the narrative, we also had to consider what kind of
narrative structure we would like our video to follow, be that linear, episodic or circular.
We decided that for the story we were hoping to represent, the best to use would be the
simple single-strand linear structure, as we did not want a confusing storyline or one
that had to be interpreted. As a group, we made the decision that our video should be
easy to follow and there should be no arguing over what the storyline was trying to
show. Therefore, our narrative begun at the start of the story, it continued throughout
and then the end of the story was at the end of the video.
One theorist who studied story narrative was Vladimir Propp. He proposed that there
are six stages in which a narrative takes place. These are:
1. Preparation – The scene is set
2. Complication – A problem/evil occurs
3. Transference – Hero gets help and leaves on quest
4. Struggle – There is a fight between hero and some kind of villain
5. Return – The hero returns, his quest fulfilled
6. Recognition – Villains punished, hero rewarded
Our video narrative was all based around one person and there weren’t any physical
villains. However, I still believe that we followed Propp’s theory to an extent:
PREPARATION – We see the character get out of bed and get changed, which sets the
scene and it is recognised that this is the main character and we, as an audience, will be
getting to know him.
COMPLICATION – Nothing goes particularly wrong, however we see what the
complication is by him putting a note up saying ‘Get it together’, which tells the
audience that there is a complication and not all is well.

TRANSFERENCE – As our story is all focused on this one character, we do not see him
receive help from another person; however there is clear determination for him to
change his situation and we see him leave the house on his quest.
STRUGGLE – Further struggle comes when he receives an ‘F’ in a college exam
RETURN – He goes through a lot of effort to change his life and that includes studying
hard to improve that result. He ends up receiving an ‘A’ later on in the video.
RECOGNITION – He is able to put his dark days to bed and remove the note, which
shows he has fulfilled what he set out to do and he achieved his goal. This represents a
clear end to the story.
Another key consideration in our video was the use of mise-en-scene. When creating
music videos, the use of costumes, lighting and
props are huge and without them very few music
videos would exist to the standard that they do. We
focused on the costume element significantly,
because this can help to create a character. After
studying some existing videos, we realised that it
was very rare for a protagonist to remain in the
same clothing throughout the whole video. Usually
two or three different costumes were used. We
followed this convention, as we felt we could
manipulate it to fit well with our storyline. At the
start of the video he is wearing a fairly scruffy
outfit, which represents his life as his life is supposedly in a mess
and he wants to change it, which is clearly shown through the use
of mise-en-scene props with the ‘Get it together’ note. Therefore,
later on in the video, the protagonist goes shopping for a new outfit
and changes into some tidier, smarter
clothes, clearly linking together the use of
costumes and narrative as it shows his
quest to change his life is going in a
positive direction. If we had kept him in
the same clothes, it would have almost
looked like nothing had changed and our video would have
taken more of a circular narrative structure. Therefore, this was
a pivotal part of our music video. There was also a third
costume used, which persisted of sports clothes and this was
used to show that he was attempting to get fit, because if he
was pictured just running and cycling in normal clothes, then it
could have been interpreted as him simply being late for
something or maybe cycling to the shops, yet the use of a
physical outfit makes it clear to the audience what is going on
and the character is represented as being serious about completing his ‘quest’ as stated
by Propp.
Another mise-en-scene convention often used in indie-rock videos is musical
instruments as props. These are incredibly important as the rock audience expect to see
these whenever they watch a video. Again, linking back to Goodwin, they are an
important characteristic of the specific genre. Therefore, guitars were featured in the
Here the protagonist has
a darker look, prior to
his clothes change
representing his poor
life at this stage in the
video
After the change we can see
the character is in much
brighter, smarter clothes to
represent his improvement
in life

live performance clips, while the protagonist also possessed a guitar, which we used to
link into the narrative of him changing his
life. He finds a guitar in a cupboard and
learns it to add another positive influence
to his changing life. The guitars are also
used in the live performance clips as a way
of linking the music to the visuals as they
are often being played in sync with the
music, particularly in the lengthy
instrumental.
Overall, our music video clearly followed a lot of conventions of other music videos,
particularly those in the indie-rock genre, by using live performance clips as intercuts,
while also dictating the narrative through mise-en-scene, such as props and costumes.
Goodwin’s seven music video characteristics conventions are clearly followed and
Vladimir Propp’s narrative structure is also.
MAGAZINE ADVERT
Just like for our main product, prior to creating our first ancillary
text, research had to be done to find the popular conventions and
decide which ones would work well with our product.
From research, we found that one of the key conventions for our
magazine advert was the use of the band name as a masthead. All
the adverts that we analysed used this convention understandably,
as it provides the audience with instant information regarding who
it is about. The reader can then
make an instinctive decision
whether or not this advert is something worth
investing their time into, as if it is a band they like,
they are likely to read it, while if it is someone they are not a fan of, they would know
instantly to flip the page. Therefore, we followed this convention, as it will draw in our
target audience instantly.
One more key convention that we felt it was important to conform to was the use of
links. On all the adverts we analysed, there was some form of link that direct the
audience somewhere to find out more information. For example, social media
usernames, iTunes logo, etc. As ours is about a local, unsigned band, we thought that
this was especially important as a limited number
of people will know who they are, therefore it was important to bring in as many fans as
possible through this. Therefore we attached the band’s social media usernames as well
as website address, because these are all popular ways of communicating information
on our society and would be good ways for new fans to find an ‘entry point’ into the
band and explore them a bit more. This is also used to then direct them to the music
video and other products, because these would all be shared on social media and the
website. Therefore, the use of cross-media convergence and synergy is important here
as the magazine advert can be used to direct the audience to somewhere that they can
access the other synergistic products, such as the video or such as the digipak.

From research, another convention that I discovered was commonly used on magazine
adverts is the strategic positioning of information at the bottom of the advert. We
followed this convention, as the typical person
would read the top of the page first. Therefore, the
audience would read the name of the band, before
making a decision whether or not to read the
bottom to find out more. The information is also a
convention in itself. Commonly featured here can
be the album name, the names of particular songs
on the album, a release date, reviews and the
platforms that it is available on, e.g. CD, Vinyl, iTunes download. As a group, we decided
on which of these we would like to use and all agreed that the name of album and
release date were most important. We conformed to the convention of placing all the
information at the bottom, so that the audience were first invited in through the band
name at the top, before deciding to read the information. We made the name of the band
and the release date stand out through size, font, colour and use of bold text, as these
are the two key pieces of information and it creates a sense of urgency, which
potentially could make the audience realise that they need to buy it as soon as possible.
They were also centralised to make them stand out and are supported at the sides by
various album reviews – another common advert convention, which should help to
draw in the reader when they see positive things that are being said.
Another convention that I
discovered from research
was that the main magazine
advert image is usually the
same as the front cover of
the album advertised. We
played around with this
convention and tried out
different images, but it was clear that the best one to use was the front cover image as it
just created a clear connection between the two products and they are then linked
together in the mind of the reader. It also creates a sense of identity and when you see
the same image on more than one product, it is clear that it is advertising that particular
band’s work.
A final convention that we used when designing our magazine advert was sticking to a
colour scheme. In all of the adverts we studied there was a clear colour scheme and this
was also the same colour scheme as the album cover, for the same reason as above, that
it creates identity for that artist and makes it clear who it is advertising. We chose a
red/yellow/black colour scheme with bits of white also, as this is the colour scheme
commonly used by the band in their other work. Therefore, it helps to create that sense
of identity and is almost an expectation of the band’s work from their fans.
Just like the music video, we studied a lot of magazine adverts to decide on conventions
that we would like to be used in ours. For the majority of the conventions, we decided to
use and develop them to fit our particular purpose, as opposed to dismissing them as
the ones we studied were by professional artists who had been in the industry for a long
time, therefore they know what they are doing and how to create an effective text, so we

felt we should follow their lead, as they are much more experienced at creating such
products than we are.
DIGIPAK
The final product that we chose to create was a digipak for the album. As a group, we
found this the most challenging of all
the products as there were so many
different routes that we could have
chosen to go down. However, in the end
we managed to find some effective
images and created a quality package.
For the front cover of the package, we
looked at the most significant
conventions used across the analysed
digipaks. One convention that we noticed was that there seems to be a clear connection
between the font used on the cover to the font used in their other work and other
albums. However, our band are yet to release a full album so it was hard for us to choose
one font to use consistently. Throughout their other work, they have used two different
fonts irregularly. Therefore, we decided that we would have to scrap this convention
and instead we would use two different fonts on the magazine advert and the front
cover of the digipak, as their identity seems to be two fonts rather than just the one.
Thus, we followed the conventions of the band instead of the common conventions of
digipaks and used one on the cover and another on the disc. We made sure that these
stood out on the disc, while still following the main colour scheme. The image is red and
black so, we made the text red also, but to stand out off the background we added a
yellow outline, which conformed to the colour scheme (also used in the advert) and still
looked good.
A further convention that we discovered is used on the front cover of most digipaks is
that the image tends to link to the band in some way. Sometimes it can link to a certain
song and the fans will understand this and sometimes it can be similar to an image used
elsewhere and sometimes it can be the same image that has been used in a number of
places. We decided to use this convention and we made sure that we used the same
image for the digipak cover and for the magazine advert for continuity and identity
purposes, as discussed in the magazine advert section of the evaluation.
For the back of the digipak, the most common
convention is that it includes a list of contents of the
product. The audience is investing in it, so they
should be aware of what they are buying. If this was
not featured, then this would create insecurity for the
audience as they wouldn’t know exactly what they
were buying, so this would most likely prevent them
from buying it. In our digipak, we listed the contents
of both the CD and the DVD on the back page rather
than placing the DVD contents elsewhere, as we felt it
was important that they were visible on the outside covers of the package, as it would
likely be wrapped up in plastic for packaging purposes, so if we featured the DVD

contents inside, they would not be seen when the digipak was picked up in the shop,
due to this packaging. Furthermore, all of the back cover text is backed by a black box to
help it to stand out from the background image, as without the colours of text would
merge in and it would be difficult to read.
One convention that we challenged through our digipak was the use of images.
Generally, there will be a different image on each page or there will be one image spread
across three of the pages. However, we used the same image four times, with two
different overlay effects and two other similar images to create a sense of continuity
throughout the product. We also felt that this would benefit the band as they are
unsigned and not very well known, so this image that we are creating for them will help
to build up that sense of identity which is still not quite there yet. It helps make them
more recognisable and build them up a lot.
With the discs, we decided to use the same image on both, but change the image effect
to show that the content is different. However, as
previously mentioned, the constant use of this
image across the various products and platforms
will help them to stick in the mind of the audience
and build them up in their head. Furthermore, we
challenged the conventions of most indie-rock
bands, who tend to have simple colours on the
discs and do not really experiment heavily with the discs. We added some more
experimental colours, while still fitting with our colour scheme to make it stand out, as
we felt that there was nothing exciting or special about a simple black and white disc,
which is used fairly commonly in indie-rock albums. Our choice of colours though are
much more exciting and are more likely to get the band out there since they are not very
well known yet and need a unique selling point. We discussed that this could be it, as it
challenges the conventions of most digipaks and would certainly stand out in a line of
indie-rock discs.
In conclusion, the use of conventions was very important in the production of our
digipak. Just like the video and the magazine advert, we had to do a lot of prior research
to create the best digipak that we could. We studied the conventions of front covers,
discs and back covers to create a professional digipak that could easily be sold in a shop.
We tried to balance out the traditional conventions with the wants and needs of the
band when creating and I believe we have come up with a decent result.
CONCLUSION
I think I have proved through my evaluation that my media products all make use of
conventions of existing products, while they also develop other conventions and
challenge others. Having made use of prior research, academic theories and band
conventions, we managed to produce three very good products that all complement
each other and all support each other. For the video, we paid particular attention to the
theories of Andrew Goodwin and Vladimir Propp to create an effective text, while also
making sure genre conventions were focused on as Jacque Derrida said that ‘A text
cannot belong to no genre’. With both the digipak and magazine advert however, we
paid particular attention to existing products, rather than studying theorists as we could
not find many theorists that had a lot to say about the print products interestingly. But,

after studying the conventions of existing products and also researching the band and
any conventions that they tend to stick to, we had many conventions to choose from and
used the ones that we felt were most fitting, while also developing and manipulating
some to suit our purpose, such as the use of font on the digipak. Others we had to
dismiss completely, such as the use of song names on the magazine advert, due to the
fact that our band are unsigned and fairly unknown, so this would not have much of an
effect on the audience, thus we focused more on playing up the band, since few people
will know who they are and that would have more of an effect on the audience as they
will look at it and think ‘Wow, I need to hear them if they’re that good’, however if we
listed songs they would likely think something along the lines of ‘I haven’t heard of
them, so they can’t be that good’. Ultimately, we have chosen and developed the best
conventions that suited our products and it has all worked out well in the end.

Evaluation - Question 1

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Evaluation - Question 1