New and updates question 1 evaluation

1. Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge the forms and conventions of real media
challenges.

2. For me to see which ways my media product uses, develops or challenges the
forms and conventions of other real media products, I must look back to the
research that I gathered from the Research and Planning stage and see what
conventions I included within my media product. I firstly researched two different
genres of music by looking at known conventions that each genre conventionally
includes. The two music genre’s were both ones in which I was considering going
into.
I researched the trends, history, target audience and artist examples. I also linked in
existing music videos created by the artists within that music genre. This research
enabled me to put conventions into a category and think about the type of narrative
trends that I could include within my final product.

3. I went on to research Andrew Goodwin’s Theory before planning my product so that
I knew what to include to meet the needs of my target audience.
These are the representations that Andrew Goodwin suggested.
After looking back at this previous research, I can see how this theory has
influenced my media product, having used some of the conventions featured within
this research summary.
This research is very useful because it has helped me to develop my ideas and
ensure to use conventions that will attract my target audience. It has also made me
realise what needs to be considered before creating a final product.

4. I have used Goodwin’s theory in the way that I have
included links to the lyrics and narrative visuals on screen.
Within music videos, each music genre has its own
common characteristics. For instance in the Alternative
Rock genre, there is something alternative that happens.
The ending isn’t happy and pleasant, whereas in a POP
genre narrative, it would be expected that with a
progressive song there would be happy and built up
conclusion to the narrative. I made these narrative
decisions to meet my music genre and have a non-
stereotypical ending, which is conventional for the
Alternative Rock genre. I think these decisions work well
because after audience feedback, they really liked the
twist within the narrative and unexpected ending, because
it is unique.
To make my footage more eerie, a lot of my shots were
hand held camera shots. I like that these shots are shaky
because the action hints instability to the audience and
suggests what the twist will be at the end of the narrative.

5. However, I have challenged some of Andrew Goodwin’s
theory in the ways that I haven’t included a stage or live
performance to match with the Rock genre and I haven’t
included lots of close ups of the artist. These two theories
have not been included within my final products because
wanted to make outcome as professional as possible and I
wouldn't’t be able to shoot close ups of the artist or live
performances because I didn’t have the opportunity to do
so. The other choice would be to use an actor to make them
be presented as the artist. I presented this idea to an
audience in my Potential Ideas planning stage however
they didn't’t like this idea because they thought that it could
look unprofessional and have a bad overall effect on my
whole product.

6. After researching the conventions of music videos according to theorist, Andrew
Goodwin, I then went on to research real media texts from different music genres, I
created a nine frame analysis for three different music genres, artist specific. Here
is an example of the analysis I created for the POP genre.
I found that within the POP genre there are conventions such as close up’s of the
artist, dancing and colour. The narrative is often light and fun.

7. I looked at the band, You
Me At Six before I had
made the decision to use
them for my final idea.
I identified various
conventions such as
there being a live
performance and close
ups of the band members
within the music video.
There will be links
between the lyrics and
visuals and the audience
will be in the music video.
I also found that the
artists are suggested to
have visual style.

8.  I made narrative links with the lyrics by having the story line of a
boy and girl that were in a relationship together. “It was a cold night,
we stayed with each other just to stay warm, up all night”. My initial
thoughts were that there would be a boy and girl and the content
would be filmed in cold looking outside locations, at night. I didn’t
film any of my footage at night because it was too hard trying to
organise to get to my desired filming locations at night whilst trying
to maintain good quality footage because I did some test shots and
they came out blurry.
 I used filters in the editing process which made my footage more
washed out and the colours more faded, I did this to make my
footage look quite eerie and different, relating to my music genre.
 I used a deep and meaningful narrative which is progressive, this
conforms to the conventions of alternative rock because the
meaningful narrative causes a twist which shocks the audience and
therefore is different and an alternative idea.

9.  I challenged Goodwin’s view that all Rock genre music
videos show the artist to have visual style and for there to
be shots of a live performance. I didn’t include these
conventions because I could get access to film the artists.
So, I would have to present actors to be them but this
could have looked unprofessional and I wanted to focus
on the quality of the product and not this one convention.
In addition, in my potential ideas feedback, the audience
said that they didn’t want to see the artists because it
would look fake and it could bring the overall product
down.
 I challenged Goodwin’s theory further by not including any
aspects of voyeuristic treatment of the female body. This is
because I don’t think that this convention would suit my
narrative choice. The narrative is mainly focused on the
boy, not the female, I wanted the audience to connect with
the boys personality not the females.

10.  I have developed Goodwin’s theory of including close up shots of the artist.
However, instead of the artist, I shot close ups of the main characters. I did this
to meet conventions however maintain the focus on the narrative rather than
crosscutting between shots of the artist then the narrative. I think that these close
ups are effective because they show emotion so that the audience connect with
the characters in the narrative.

11. I now need to look into what conventions I used, challenged and
developed in the creation of my magazine advert and digipak.

12. For me to see which conventions I needed to use, challenge and develop for my
magazine advert, I had to conduct research into existing products.
I researched existing adverts for two different sub genres of rock, Punk Rock and
Alternative Rock. I found that for my specific genre of Alternative Rock. The cover art
is often surreal and doesn't’t feature a photograph of the band on it.
I found that the bands name is much larger than the album name and they follow the
rule of thirds by placing things in a central composition.
I found that logo’s of where customers can buy the album, links to social media and
reviews of companies are effective in the magazine advert.

13. For me to see which conventions I needed to use, challenge and develop for my
digipak, I had to conduct research into existing digipaks.
From my research into digipaks, I found that the digipaks for my specific genre, the
colours are very dark and eerie. Also, similar to the magazine adverts the digipak art
is very surreal.
I need to include the band name as the main heading then a smaller subheading for
the album name.
The digipak also needs to include a song list, barcode and record company
references.

14.  After being undecided whether to try and challenge the convention of putting the song
list on the back cover or not, I did decide to do so because the audience thought that it
would be best because it was much more practical and clear to do this.
 I ensured that my digipak convent was relevant to my genre by making the colour
scheme unusual. I didn this by having half of the digipak clack and white and half of it
in colour.
 I included conventional information such as,
• Band name being largest and keeping within the rule of thirds;
• Album name as a sub heading;
• Surreal album art;
• Bar code;
• Record company detail;
• Song list;
• Links with single;
• Website links;
• Where to buy the product;
• Reviews of the product by a genre specific magazine so it is
relevant.

15. After looking at previous You Me At Six products I do not think that
my advert or digipak was as low key or as eerie as I would have
thought. The colour scheme is much darker, especially because
one is black and white. I tried to incorporate some of these features
by having three pages black and white. My coloured pages and my
advert however were higher key. I chose to use these colours firstly
to suit my music video colours. They were still of muted tones
however I thought that it was much more appropriate to link my
products rather than conform to all of my conventions. In addition,
the music video music itself is very progressive and I wanted my
colour scheme to look progressive and I think if it would have been
a low key colour scheme, the themes presented could be too
serious and dark, something that my audience did not want when I
produced my online survey.

16. To conclude, I have used challenged and
developed various conventions genre specific and
artist specific throughout all three of my products. I
have conformed to more conventions than I have
challenged or developed. I think the reasons for
this are because I needed to refer to my genre
repeatedly to show that I can focus on one genre.
I needed to maintain the interest of my target
audience so I had to keep in mind the main
conventions of the genre.