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

Ways in which I used conventions:

Images comparing my products and professional products.

Print screens of other music videos, DigiPak, and album adverts

To create my brand identity and enforce the genre and theme.

When creating my music video I was aware of the conventions of my genre having done my research. Typical conventions of my ‘UK Hip Hop’ genre include a variety of different camera angles but more predominantly close ups. The close ups allowed us to address to the audience what the artists emotions are and how he is feeling at that current moment in time.

Above is a short gif I made to emphasise my point about the close ups. The other artist in the gif is Devlin, and who was a big inspiration throughout the course of the project. The gif shows that close ups are a common convention in this type of genre as the can portray in an effective way what the artist is feeling.

In addition, like many over music videos of our genre we also included many ‘extra shots’, which were used to show the location and setting. This also enables the audience to interact more with the artist in the song and perhaps move into their state of mind, as the shop looks as if it is coming from their point of view.

Here is another gif that i have created to show my music videos shots and a professional product. The idea of these shots make the audience aware of the artists surroundings and in some circumstances it can relate to the audience as they may have their own experience there.

Throughout the music video we wanted to follow some conventions of our genre and also create our own to ensure that it was unique and original, therefore it wasn’t seen as boring. A convention that we did follow and in our final music video worked out very successfully was editing and cutting shots to the beat. Throughout and especially where I feel looks very professional the shots were cut to the beat. This idea was a group’s decision and since day one we were very happy to have chosen it. In addition, we also feel that it creates an immediate atmosphere with the song and shows to the audience that this a professional and skilled piece of work.

Challenged

Having looked into a large variety of songs from our ‘UK Hip Hop’ genre, it is becoming more commonly seen that the use of lighting and other components like mis-en-scene etc. are popular. However, the use of aided lighting in our music video I feel isn’t a main priority and I feel that the use of natural light is used but in a much more effective way. For instance, at one particular time we used the use of the sun to almost create a natural spotlight which proved turn out very efficacious.

Also at another particular time in our final finished music video we wanted to take a shot at night time, but make it so it looked blurry and the lights such as the street lamps would come up as bigger blurred circles.



Overall, I feel that our efforts to use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products have been very successful. Throughout our time creating this product we wanted to follow typical conventions such as the close ups, fast paced shots, portraying the characters emotions etc, to ensure that our audiences where not lost and could understand the genre easily, but we wanted make it 'unique'. I feel that having done our final product it does follow a guild line as such but there are specific areas that make it unique from common products.


Comparing my advert to a real advert

The image below is the album advert that we created. The following are all conventions of our album advert.

Bold and obvious title – (URB4N BLUR). The title is an immediate attraction for the album advert and brings positive attention towards the album advert. The colour of the title contrasts very effectively against the dull and dim yellow background. The brown colour runs throughout the album advert, as it is included in the title, record label, and colour of the shop.

The record label is carefully and effectively placed. The record label also matches the same font and colour as other media products, which makes the product look professional.

The image itself is very dull and ‘retro’ looking, which fits in with the genre and style of music. The background that is of a launderette looks very grotty and dull, but at the same time creates a very successful effect. For example, the slightly chipped and faded woodwork of the shop adds to the emphasis of our ‘street’ theme.

The dull and faded image contrasts well with the enhanced purple jumper and shoes. This also creates another area of the album advert that is eye catching. For example, whilst everything is dim the vibrant purple still stands out. This puts emphasis on the artists, and brings part of the attention to him.

Another feature of the advert is the text and information on the left hand side. This is very important and primarily what makes our advert different from our front DigiPak advert.

This information allows the audience to understand what is happening, when the album is out, possible contact links such as the website and Facebook page, and the blackberry barcode. The blackberry barcode is a modern piece of technology that enables customers to scan it using their Blackberry smart phone and keep up to date with news, view videos and use additional features.

We also included our record labels image as well as another record label, which is ‘Universal Music’. We decided to mention our record label twice as we though that the ‘679 Records’ in the top left was a very good idea. We changed the original shop number to this as we thought that this was a great opportunity to display our record label, especially as it includes numbers.

Another album advert, which shows familiar conventions of my genre, is ‘The Streets’. The following are conventions of the above album advert:

The main centre of attentions is the distinctive image of a black of flats. When looking at the image it is clear to see that in the middle window there is a man standing. This is Mike Skinner, the artist. In order to grab our attention, the lights of the flat room are pink and very bright which is very noticeable as it contrasts with the dark grey walls, and also the dim lighting. The image of the flats also suits their genre as follows an’ Urban’, ‘Street’, and ‘Rap theme/genre.

The advert also has a very basic and clear font in white showing the release of the advert. This advert becomes very distinctive as it is used throughout all their products. I believe that the use of the font is very effective as it can relate to its style and genre of music.

The record label and other information such as the website address is also in white as it stands out against the dark colours in the bottom of the advert. The piece of information is also in the same font and colour, which adds to the professionalism, and also allows viewers to keep in touch.

A very significant part of this advert is the lighter that has ‘STREETS’ written along it, and also ‘Computers and Blues’ above it which is the name of the album. In every album and single, ‘The Streets’ includes a lighter of a different colour making it very significant and distinctive them, and has also helped them to build their brand identity.

Therefore in conclusion, it is clear to see that the album adverts follow some typical patterns. ‘The Streets’ inspired the album advert that we created. For example, the positioning of the information is in the same place. This wasn’t completely due to ‘The Streets’, as we also had to position the text where it was appropriate. We also inspired by how the text was shown. For example, we followed their ideas, such as having it in the same layout, and also including the website and other contact links at the bottom. However, within my album advert we included the BlackBerry barcode.