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

I chose to produce a music promo package for a song which I have established on my own, by my artist also singing the song, however the song is not an original; it is a cover of a song. The song I chose to feature in my video and for my artist to manipulate to her own style was Coldplay 'Fix You'. I completely changed the video and song so that it sounded like an original and appeared legitimate for my media products. I undertook planning and research stages to create my production and once I had finsihed my final verison of my music video, I uploaded it onto YouTube.com After this I then made the decision to create a six panelled Digipak for my fictional artist, along with a maagzine advertisement to then help promote the products.

Below I will evaluate my media texts on the effectiveness of use of conventions, how the products work cohesively and the use of digital media during all stages of production, then I plan to contrast this with audience feedback.

Although the music video to the original music video by Coldplay is purely performance based including live perfromance, this does not link with the lyrics Coldplay have implied there song is about. Chris Martin, the lead singer and frontman of the band, once stated he wrote the sing for his current wife Gwyneth when her father died. The lyrics demonstrate how he wants to try and help her and be there for her. However I wanted to manipluate this idea and create it so that the artist and singer of my music video actually wanted to fix herself as she is facing internal struggles. I feel to a certain extent my music video portrays this idea, through the use of abstract and performance features. Thus I have not followed any of the original conventions displayed in the music video, except for performance features including my artist lip-sycnhing and playing the piano, which is shown in the original video by Coldplay, as shown below:



Here are some examples of the shots I feel looked professional in my music video, as they were inspired by the original music video and I have taken some conventions and cinematography into my own video. Part of my research included looking at the original music video and this has really helped me to use the correct conventions to enable my product to appear professional. These include:

• Range of cinematography (angles, movements etc)
• Range of mise en scene such as costume change
• Lip synching and performance
• Editing to match the beat and pace of the song
• Different locations
• Editing techniques
• and many more

 

I was inspired by the camera pan featuring the artist walking past the focal point and decided to include it in my own video. It has connotations of the artist walking away from her past and inner struggles.

 

I knew I wanted to add the performance aspect of piano in the video, as not only does this reflect the live performance in the original video, but it is the artist actually playing the piano both on the song and the music video, thus creates a sense of authenticity and uses conventions of real media products.

 

 

 

I also wanted to include the very popular performance convention of lip synching, as although my video is abstract, it is very conventional of real media products. Furthermore it emphasises that it my artist who is also singing the song I have used.

 

 

 

The original music video includes camera track and movement of following the artist walking, I was inspired to incorporate this into my own music video.

 

Editing

 

 

The most commonly used conventional editing techniques that feature in Indie music videos are the use of slow motion frames. This is to convey the message and emotions behind the song, in addition they usually depict the emotion of the actor/artist. Therefore, by using the effect of slow motion throughout  alot of my video, this is a very conventional feature of existing products. In addition, another important convention is that the pace of the editing goes in conjunction with the movement. This is so it would be in sync with the beat of the music video, so that it fits well with the music and creates cohesion. This creates a very professional style to the video, thus I have tried to convey this as muh as possible.

 

 

Digipak

 

 

I have used all of the relative conventions of a professionally made digipak and poster, these include:

• Barcode
• Copyright infringements
• Artist Webpage
• Dates of year
• Label logos
• Tracklist
• Album title

I also made sure the design of the promotional products were to a standard, thus these include a colour scheme, house style and use of continuity.

 

 Creating the CD'S with chosen music labelIn order to create a professional looking CD for the inside of my Digipak, I carried out research into music labels. I wanted to create a realistic and professional digipak that could be sold in shops, that would also fit into my Indie genre. Thus I decided to create my CD's with the style of smashed mirrors, as not only does this show a new and creative design, but it also creates cohesion with the album cover of my digipak, and also the use of props in my music video with the cracked mirror. This brings all three of my products together and creates familarity for my artist with the audience.

I came up with the idea of my CD covers being an allusion for cracked mirrors by existing artist's CD artwork.

Kanye West - Yeezus

I was inspired by Kanye West's album 'Yeezus' artwork, as it creates the allusion of a clear CD case. Although Kanye does not fit into the 'Indie' genre, this artwork creates originality, and provides the image of a low-cost album, which would be associated with the indie genre.









I found this CD template on www.wizbit.com it was a huge help for me in the deisgn and construction process of creating the CDs for my digipak because I was unsure on how to create a CD prior to this task. After finding this disk during my research, I knew exactly the layout of one. However, once I had decided I wanted my CD to just be a plain design with no tetxt, I did not need to work into designing the pathways on the disk for copyright, as seen in the image on the right.




I am pleased with the final design of my disks, as they are simple which reflects the simplicity throughout my products, as well they create cohesion of not only the use of props in the music videol of smashing the mirror; but it also fits in to my colour scheme of black and white.
It is typical to have some brand names on album disks for copyright purposes, however, because I made the decision to not include these on the disks, I added them to my back album cover instead. These include:






I made the decision to place the logo's in the bottom right hand corner of the back cover of the album, so that they do not take away the attention of the main artist image and the tracklist. But also I have placed them alongside the barcode, which is conventional to be situated in the right hand corner.
Back Cover
Before I consturcted the back of my album cover , I researched existing designs of artist's albums and found inspiration from them. These include:

I was inspired by this back cover of Britney Spears as I liked the layout of it featuring a simple close up of the artist and how the tracklist was presented. I knew that I wanted to present my own tracklist in a similar format.

I also took insiration from the album back cover of Lana Del Rey. Firsrtly, I found it admirable as it features the same simple oclour scheme as mine, thus I knew if I portrayed a similar design mine could appear professional. In addition, the artwork also features a close up of the artist, which I have now found as a conventional feature for albums and made the decision to include this cinematograpy into my own deisgn. Moreover, the positioning of the tracklist was also what I had in mind and I would like to design mine in the same way.
Poster
After gaining feedback form my media teacher, I was recommeneded that the image I had created on the front cover of my album was very strong, and it would be a good idea to use the same image for my posterm, as this would create cohesion and recognisation.

I aimed to make my poster very conventional, thus I included copyright and promotional logo's which were also included on the back cover of my album.
I inserted my posters in several advertising locations to see how effective it appeared and to see if it would be eye-catching. This is a conventional proccess for posters to be advertised in public locations. I felt these images were appropraite as it shows globalisation and also creates realistic situations.