Planning Evaluation Q 1 - In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - Draft

Music Video 

• Goodwin cam up with the common 3 types of Music Video - Narrative where the lyrics have a relationship to the video being shown this can be seen in many videos and is common feature often used and example can be seen in Professor Greens - Read All About it  where the lyrics are talking about his relationship with his father and the video shows this in the form of narrative by having a young boy presumably him when he was younger and his family. The Second type is Performance which involves the members of the band or people in the video lip syncing the song, maybe adding a little bit of choreography and dance moves and sometimes props such as drums and other instruments depending on the genre, you can mainly see videos containing just performance in videos for genres such as Death and Heavy Metal. The third type is Concept where the video has no relationship or meaning to the video present.

• There are many general codes and conventions of music videos which include :    

1. Music videos are often focused more on a artist and often contain performance footage which includes lip syncing as a way to show performance, aswel as narrative, concept doesn't appear to be that popular of a convention used.
2. There are often variations of shots and locations, which fit the feeling of the song, an example of this is Depeche Mode - Enjoy the silence
3. There are different types of music videos, non-linier and linier.
4. Special effects are also often used.
5. Heterosexual Relationships are often used in music videos, when focusing on relationships, however there are some exceptions one example of someone challenging this is Christiana Agurlaria in her video for 'Beautiful' where their feature a homosexual relationship in parts. 
6. Female and Male gaze often used.
7. Fast paced editing
8. Layering is a effect used in editing processes.
9. Dijetic Openings and example of this is Thriller by Michel Jackson which in some way turns into a short film almost.

However these conventions may vary depending on the genre: 

• For example Heavy Metal Music Videos can include more shots which are focused more on close ups on the performers face.
• Close ups are often used on the instruments maybe to signify talent and the genre of music.
• This genre often includes Performance, maybe sometimes live.
• The location is normally dark, and isolated. 
• The special effects are often used, mainly being fast paced editing and lighting.

On a completely different note to this genre, R&B videos contain convention such as :

• Props such as Cars, big bling necklaces, Women are often seen to be wearing diamonds and chains could symbolise wealth and power and contain elements of Male Gaze.
• Dance routines are often frequent as well especially with women. 
• Often focus on one girl throughout and sometimes sing to the camera ( lip syncing ) 
• The girls used often have big breasts and are revealing a lot of flesh, the camera mainly focuses on getting their look to the audience. 
• Female often following the male, and the male seducing the women, showing the authority of men. 

Pop is the genre we worked with for our music video and our sub- genre being Boyband pop, for now I am going to focus on the conventions of Pop Videos : 

• They often focus on a member of the opposite sex, showing the typical convention of a heterosexual relationship. 
• Locations are used such as more public places, such as parks, cafe's, shopping places, streets in a town etc. 
• People just having a laugh, more happier locations and brighter settings and lighting compared to the metal genre. 

Boyband Pop is our sub - genre : 

• Conventions include, a rural setting such as a warehouse shown in the Back Street Boys " I Want It That Way" or country settings or maybe sometimes shopping places seen in the video for N'sync video for "Its Gonna Be Me" 
• Often cars, or fast cars are used and country roads so silent settings again shown in a N'sync Video " Bye Bye Bye" when we see the guys being chased by a girl using them as puppets which sort of reverses the roles of gender placed in many videos, This time we see the girl as the one in control and the boys being the puppets. 
• Sex Appeal often shown in boy band videos as their main target audience is teenagers, so they attract girls into watching their video, giving off the Female Gaze and boy band image
• There is often a female being sung about or maybe the lead having a relationship with a female.
• Water is sometimes involved when focusing on locations and effects, rain could be added to a scene, or there could be shots by a river or beach / sea etc. 

Conventions we used in  our music vid  : 

• Layering
• Variety of locations
• Lip Syncing
• Male/Female gaze
• Narrative/Performance
• Portrayed a heterosexual relationship as the norm (normative)
• Constant narrative through out
• Performance separate from narrative
• Some special effects used on flashbacks 

Conventions We Have Challenged : 

• There is no dancing in our music vid
• We have not put text on screen to make it have a dijetic opening / short film
• We haven't really had fast paced editing in ours with it being a slow, love song. 

Digipak
Digipaks are a paperboard case that allows space for a CD (in a plastic tray) and an information booklet about the artist or the tracks.They are used because a number of images and text can be printed onto every panel which is perfect for a special edition CD or DVD.  A digipak is a recyclable form a cd packaging. Digipaks are not as comoon as jewel case. A digipak consists of;

• Front panel
• Back panel
• 2 inner panels
• spine

Common conventions of Digipak

The front cover of the digipaks can contain;

• Artist shot
• Name and Album name
• Sticker showing DVD bonus
• Sticker showing leading singles contained

Back Cover;

• Track listings and timings
• Bar code
• QR Code
• Website URL
• Logos eg production and record company

The advantages of a Digipak;

• Recyclable as its made from card
• Lower in weight so reduces distribution
• Thinner cases- can fit more on the shelve
• Some resemblance to a LP
• More collectible than a jewel case

Other features;

• Spine- small details such as catalogue number this can either be a different colour or image to other panels or the picture front the front or back can be continued over the spine
• Inside design
• Removable lyrics sheet
• Distinct colour scheme

Some existing digipaks are very simple for example Take That- Beautiful World whereas others are a lot more complex.

The example we used in our digipak;

• Including a image of the band and making in the focal point of the front.
• Have the relationship bewteen the front and back cover- we used the same pose for the boys but took it front the back.
• Sticker
• Logos
• Social Networking images
• Track listing and times
• Production company URL
• Relationship between front and back panel.

Magazine Ad

Our target audience is 15-24 females, a secondary audience is an older audience of 25-35 because the they would of been 15-245 when the NSYNC track was released. Another secondary audience could be gay males of the same age.

It is possible for us to use slightly different adverts to appeal to a slightly different audience for example for a younger audience who read magazines such as 'Sugar' we could use larger texts and have more focus on cute and happy pictures of the boy band whereas for a older female or gay male audience who would read 'more' or 'heat' we could use slightly more seductive pictures of our boy band.

Conventions used in our Mag Ad.

• Artist name
• Album name
• Release date
• Production company url
• Image of band
• Small amount of text
• Font variation