Evaluation Question 1: In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
Our chosen genre for our song 'Without You' by Lana Del Rey would be classified under the alternative pop genre. Conventions of this genre would be narratives that although may be rather traditional (e.g. heartbreak), they are still able to be presented in a new innovative and inventive way as belonging to the alternative genre gives you a level of uniqueness. Alternative music videos are also very artistic, they are approached in a completely different way- they are very interpretive to the audience, they choose how they wish to consume the narrative of the video.
An example of this would be London Grammar's 'Hey Now' music video. They main concept to take away from this is that there is no right or wrong answer within this genre- each audience member can take whatever they desire from it and this is what we want to create too.

Conforming to Conventions

The first way in which our media product conforms to the conventions of real media products is that our video has a narrative. Although it is not hugely explicit, the audience can clearly tell that there is a story line revolving around the artist and her relationship struggles. We were very careful when choosing our narrative. This was because we have a target audience of ages 16-23 and needed to ensure that it would appeal to them- I think we successfully did this as the story line of heartbreak is supposedly more emphasised in younger people.

The type of narrative used was wholly based around emotions as our story was about a heart brake, visually represented by all of the good times the artist had with her partner- also with contrasting shots of her distraught as the lyrics say ''I'm nothing without you''.
Due to this, it shows that our media product uses the conventions of real media products.

 Another way that our music video uses the conventions of real media products is the fact that it includes a lot of lip syncing throughout. This is a very typical element of any music video, particularly that of our alternative pop genre. We made sure the artist is shown lip syncing in a range of different areas spread very evenly throughout the video so that there is still equilibrium and the audience can watch it with ease. Our artist is seen lip syncing in a variety of locations and with a variety of shots so that the video remains entertaining to ensure that the viewer wishes to continue watching. In the image above, there is a wide eye-level camera shot of our artist (Nova) lip syncing whilst laying on her bed. I think that this shot is particularly successful as she can be seen as appealing to a male audience (which is good as our target audience is both boys and girls) and overall looks very glamorous which is exactly how we branded Nova. There is, therefore, a very clear correlation between the visuals and the lyrics as in this shot she is singing 'am I glamorous? Tell me, am I glamorous?''

In the above image it shows Lana Del Rey lip syncing to her song 'Video Game's in her music video. This proves that our chosen artist also lip syncs throughout her videos and conforms to the conventions of music videos, much do the majority of artists- thus supporting our decision to do so. It was also a key skill that we learnt during the editing process as matching lip syncing with the backing track can be difficult however I feel we did this successfully as it is in time which makes it look professional.

Saying this, Del Rey does not lip sync throughout the entire music video and nor did our artist. She has a range of 'super 8 style' shots which look like a home video and other establishing shots to help place the entire video into deeper context. This is also a typical convention in music videos that I feel we stuck by.

 We also wanted to stick to these conventions in this case. We made the conscious decision of filming a range of establishing shots to place into our video, we really felt that these would help build the atmosphere and set the scene for when our artist is first shown. The above sunset with panning camera work, is one of the first few opening establishing shots and it is deliberately placed there as it can be used to foreshadow what else may be seen further on in the video. We used a variety of sunset references later on (such as the projection on her back) and also used this theme of colours both throughout the video and ancillary products.

The above shot is an example of the opening shot of, again, Lana Del Rey's 'Video Games' music video. It also features an establishing shot of a location which is bright and colourful- coincidentally quite similar to ours which shows just how conventional our camera shot is.

In the is close-up wide shot (pictured right), it shows some fairy lights twinkling. This is the second shot in our video that I filmed and has mainly been used for aesthetics purposes- it is generally just very visually appealing to an audience, perhaps intriguing them to watch on further. The shots has a strong depth of field, with the orbs to the side in the background making it appear even more inviting. Both we and our target audience, whom opinions we value greatly, said that this shot was extremely successful which shows that although it was not a shot of the artist, it was still well liked by the viewer- showing the shot's importance and relevance.

It was important that we filmed more than just shots of the artist because we needed to add variety so that the viewer never became bored. This is seen throughout many music videos across almost all genres, making it a very strong convention that we stuck by.

Another typical convention we used in our media product was our use of multiple locations and costume changes.

This gif shows an indoor location of our artist at an arcade in Margate.

A music video very often uses a variety of different locations, this could be to keep the audience gripped as one location may seem too boring. As a result of this and our research, we decided to include a total of 7 locations, this included; Rochester, Whitstable, Faversham, a red ivy wall at school, a classroom for projection, Margate and the studio.
Our reason for selecting a lot of different locations was because we wanted there to be a wide amount of variety present within the video to keep the audience interested. We felt that if we only used one location then the music video may seem to repetitive and therefore not very entertaining. We wanted to use both in and outdoor locations as this is something often seen in real media products. We felt that it would be conventional to film in 'natural' places such as the beach to have a fresh, calming feel and also film indoors in a studio to give it that professional industry feel. I feel that we successfully achieved that as we got brilliant feedback on a range of locations from our target audience which shows that they have worked effectively together in the video.

Using multiple costume changes was also very conventional of us. Through our extensive research, we noticed that in real media products, artists are almost always featured wearing different costumes- this usually changes with the location. We felt that by including a large number of outfits would emphasise the brand we created for Nova and therefore our target audience would get a stronger sense of her style, possibly making her more relatable to them. As well as this, the fact that the artist is in a variety of different outfits portrays the fact that there is a sense of a change in time- this is definitely true in relation to our music video as our narrative is based on the good memories Nova spent with her ex-boyfriend over the summer period.
We kept in mind that we had styled the artist in a particular way and so we therefore had to keep this up throughout the whole video to secure consistency and also so that the audience would not get confused about her branding. The wide range of outfits meant that the audience became familiar with who she is as a person which is why it was so successful. We went for quite an alternative approach in terms of style such as her bohemian look on the beach with her dungarees and off the shoulder gypsy top to her more relaxed grey top (pictured) which is more of a casual version of her style yet still unique. I think these outfits in particular were very successful as it is not necessarily a style you see everyday and will therefore stand out to the viewer, making her more memorable.

Another convention we have conformed to is the use of camera movement within our video. We have used a vast amount of tracking shots (such as the wide shot above) and panning in our final product. I feel that this is a very conventional  type of camera movement to use, especially the shot of the artist lip syncing whilst walking towards the camera whilst it tracks her. This is a very recognisable shot and something the audience will be very familiar with seeing, meaning that it will put them at ease whilst they watch. 

This is an example of a tracking shot whilst Demi Lavato lip syncs and walks towards the camera. It proves that they are very commonly used almost in every music video- I think they look very successful, especially in ours. This is because they add a lot of movement to a video, moving along with the music- it makes the video that bit more interesting as opposed to the camera just staying static. Despite this, we still used a range of both panning, tracking and static camera work to ensure that we had some variety in our video- intriguing the audience. 

We used repeated sequence in our music video, which is another typical convention of a video. During audience feedback we received comments saying that they thought the tracking shot of the artist walking and lip syncing towards the camera was the most successful. Also as Nova was lip syncing the chorus, we felt it would be highly appropriate to repeat this shot as chorus' are usually repeated in real media products in order to portray familiarity as they are the same lyrics. I think that deciding to do this was successful because it not only meant that our most effective shot was used more than once, but that the audience could relate back to this particular part of the video- perhaps making it more memorable which is always a priority. 

Finally, another convention we conformed to was our use of slow motion. I have noticed that this is very often present in real media products- it is used to emphasise something in particular, in our case a moment in time. Slow motion is often used in the media to represent a look of love or lust which is also very relevant to our storyline.  Within our narrative, our artist is remembering all of the happy memories she had with her ex-boyfriend. We decided to slow some of these shots down such as the point of view shot on her holding hands with him as she walks down the beach as we felt that it was a very emotive shot and we wanted to highlight this to the viewers to make them aware of the fact that she misses these memories. I think that using slow motion was successful as it created more of a contrast in comparison to other clips at a regular speed, therefore making some stand out more than others- this may make it more memorable to the viewer which is important if our artist wants to be successful in the music industry. 

Challenging Conventions

A way in which we challenged the typical conventions of music videos was by the fact that we didn't use a male figure in our media product despite our narrative surrounding a relationship breakup. We noticed that in many real products, a male was seen if not at times, constantly throughout music videos if it was about a relationship- which most tend to be. 

A real life example of this would be in Taylor Swift's music video 'Ours' which is a narrative based around her missing her boyfriend who is in the army. Throughout, it shows home videos of her and her other half and then jump cuts back to her current life bored in her regular office job dreaming of when he'll come home. The style in this real media product is actually very similar to our video, with a range of, more explicit, point of view shot flash backs to a particular moment in time. The big difference between her video and ours however is that the point of view shots actually view the male whereas ours don't. In her video, there are either two person shots of the couple together, POV shots of the male filmed by the female (in our video we reversed this the other way so that the male's face is not seen) or one person shots of the male alone - this is a more conventional approach. The reason why we decided to break these conventions was because we wanted our video to have a stronger sense of mystery which made it that little bit more unique. We wanted the audience to question who the males was and why they broke up- I believe this makes the storyline more compelling which is why it was successful that we did so.

Taylor Swift's music video 'Mine' a male figure is seen throughout this video too, showing that it is a typical convention in real media products. 

In Lana Del Rey's music video 'Ultraviolence' the entire music video is a shot of her (only her face and nothing else) with closeup shots and medium shots in order to restrict anyone else intruding the frame. It shows her in a bridal dress with the lyrics connoting that she is in an abusive relationship and should not be marrying this person. I noticed how the male figure is nowhere to be seen in this video, perhaps to signify her isolation. Del Rey has had a very similar approach to us in terms of the fact that there are many point of view shots of her and her fiance is not visible (although she only used on location therefore I don't think this video is as compelling as it could be). She has also broken the typical codes and conventions of music videos and has turned out to be a complete success which proves that taking a risk in the music industry to stand out very often pays off. The conventions broken seem to be quite similar to ours however as we have used around 7 different locations and fast paced editing, our final product is still very unique.

Another way in which our media product challenges forms and conventions of real media products is that it doesn't include any props. Stereotypical conventions of a music video with a narrative of love would include flowers, a mobile phone if they are seen arguing etc.

An example of this is in Taylor Swift's 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' music video where a variety of props are used- this video has been shot in completely one take and so they used props amongst other things to distract the viewer whilst they prepared for the next scene, cameras still rolling. Props were also predominantly used to tell a story in a clear and concise manner- we wanted to break these conventions and go for an approach which made our storyline vague enough for the audience to interpret it however they wished but still clear enough to an extent to which the viewer has an idea on what has happened (in our instance, heartbreak). We know that this has been successful because during our audience feedback someone commented on the fact that they ''liked the home video style. Seems like it is conveying how a relationship once was''. This is exactly what we were aiming for in this instance, showing that within mise en scene, breaking the typical conventions by not using props was a great success to us.

We focused on using aesthetically pleasing scenery on location to keep the audience more entertained as the thought of not using props at all could sound like our video would be quite dull. I'd say that because we kept to a bold and consistent colour scheme and have evenly used lip syncing throughout, that props were not needed.


Many performance based videos use props such as microphones and musical instruments whilst the artist is lip syncing. This can be seen in Lana Del Rey's performance based video 'Young and Beautiful' where she is performing throughout the whole video and violins/the live orchestra is a huge focus. The reason why we decided to break the conventions of using props associated with performance based music videos is because we felt that it would detract the viewer away from the narrative of our story which was a big feature for us because we wanted our video to be emotive and using props such as instruments would be a distraction.

Another code and convention we have broken is the fact that we haven't used technical facilities such as a green screen. Many record labels have the budget to be able to do this also with the most high budget editing software. Although we had a green screen available to us, we thought that we would challenge these typical conventions in music videos as sometimes the resulting images they produce do not look realistic and that would be something we would really aim for. We wanted our video to look as natural as possible which is why we chose to use locations such as the beach which has an automatic fresh and outdoor feel as soon as you see it- using an artificial background may have given the video an almost 'suffocating' effect as it will never look 100% real and would have too much of a high contrast in comparison to the rest of our shots.

An example of green screen in real media products would be the London skyline and fire in Taylor Swift's Bad Blood music video. Although I believe that it works for the video itself, I am still able to tell that a green screen has been use- it doesn't look completely natural and as the rest of our video is surrounding shots used in nature, it was vital that we avoided facilities such as this- we wanted the emotion portrayed to be as raw as possible.
We are glad that we decided not to conform to this convention as it wouldn't be right for our music video and our target audience feedback suggests to us that they like the shots/editing techniques we used as it is.

Another convention we chose not to conform to was the fact that we didn't use any diegetic sound. This means that we just stuck to allowing the audience to hear the song track and no other sounds that would be audible on set (such as birds tweeting). It would have been conventional of us to include sounds of the wood burning in our bonfire scene for example (along with the song) however we chose not to as we wanted to capture a greater sense of mystery- (this is heard in many music videos of this genre, especially during the intro before the song has actually begun). Had there been diegetic sound, the viewer would know that (for example) the couple were having a row in the background or that they were laughing and having a good time. By choosing not to allow the audience to hear anything other than the song raises questions and I think that curiosity is always a great thing- it entices more interest and that is exactly what we wanted.

Digipak

In terms of our ancillary products, I believe we have both challenged and conformed to the forms and conventions of real media products.

Our Digipak is overall rather conventional, here is why:
How we have conformed to typical forms and conventions of real media products: We displayed a tracklist in the very centre of back cover in a chronological list which is how songs are typically laid out on many albums. Saying this, we did not use numbers beside each song track which is a stereotypical convention on a tracklist- this was a successful decisions to make because we felt that numbering them would add too much structure and we were aiming more for creativity.
We also conformed to using a bar code, artist logo, record label logo and copyright information on our digipak. This was also a successful decision to make because it became informative and also made it look of a professional standard which is something we always aimed for- evidence of this was in our audience feedback when we got many of the same 'professional' compliments on our digipak.

Conventions we challenged: Our main album front cover image has been edited to be black and white. Typical conventions of the images used on the alternative pop genre front covers (same genre as ours) are that they are usually colourful to pop out at the audience. As well as this, the images of the artist are normally cut or blended out so that the entire front cover look like one whole image, rather than multiple. We decided that we wanted to break the conventions of having a colourful image on our digipak front cover as a black and white photograph appears very slick and professional, perfectly fitting for our mature artist that wants to be taken seriously. As well as this, we decided not to blend the picture in with the rest of the album front cover as it makes Nova stand out further, allowing her to be the star of the show. I think that we made very wise decisions that turned out to be successful as our target audience said that they loved how it turned out during audience feedback and that is who the product is aimed at.

Tour Poster

Tour Poster:
How we have challenged the conventions: We have used a different image on our tour poster in comparison to our music video (it has not been taken from one of our filming days on location for our video). We decided that we wanted to take a new photograph that was completely different due to the fact that the audience would have already seen the other possible images and we felt that they may want to see even more of Nova. For this sole purpose, we arranged a new photo shoot to take more pictures of the artist- this is also a good thing because it means the target audience will be kept excited and entertained about new content. Simply recycling the same pictures may become boring and her fan base may begin to decrease which is why the artist needs to stay active.

How we have conformed to the conventions: We have conformed to the way in which the dates were listed (in a chronological list) however they are still displayed on the same photograph whereas many real media products display the dates on a separate layer of block colour.
Another way in which we have conformed is by using our artist's logo, record label logo and social media links on there- it also advertises release of album as well as tour. It is good that we conformed to these typical conventions because we liked the fact that the poster was able to promote other events as well as the tour itself. Also the social media advertisements meant that her fan base could grow even further as the digital age has increased the intimacy between listeners and the artist.

Digipak inserts:

Digipak Inserts

In our digipak inserts we used pictures from both of our filming days (in the gallery, Margate and in the studio) which is a more conventional approach to have. This is as the audience can cast their minds back to what they have witnessed in the video and make a clear link between the two- this adds more consistency to our overall products. Either this or they may not have watched our music video yet, meaning that the album inserts are used as a persuasive tool to make them want to watch it because it looks so visually appealing.
We have used conventional eye popping colours for our chosen genre of music. The lighting colours look as if it has been filmed in a studio (which it has), giving off a professional vibe and is very conventional of a music video.
We used a whole page of the insert with simply just an image of the artist which is also a conventional element to feature in a digipak insert. This is because, during our research, we noticed that most artists have 'posters' of themselves on a whole page, mainly as it looks aesthetically pleasing but also because they want to increase the familiarity between the fans and the artist- this is a good reason why we also chose to do this and it was a successful decision to do so because it loos very visually pleasing and rather professional.
A convention we have challenged within our digipak inserts is the fact that we decided to position our text so that it is arced at an angle to fit against the wall. We thought that this would be a more inventive way to display some font which is usually quite a boring subject matter and place it at an angle rather than the traditional way of how you would normally read any writing. This was a successful decision because the text looked as if it had been naturally merged within the photograph which gave it that professional quality.