Media evaluation question one

In what ways does your media product

useuse, developdevelop or challengechallenge forms and conventions of real

media products?Amelia O’Callaghan

For our A2 Media Studies we had the task of creating a Music Video along with two ancillary

tasks (Digipak and Poster/Magazine Advert). We chose to create a music video from the ‘Pop’ genre

and made sure our ancillary tasks fitted the conventions.

Generally I feel our music video and ancillary tasks used and developed the conventions from the ‘Pop’ genre, however throughout this PowerPoint I have carefully analysed each section of the music video to conclude how my media products use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Amelia O’Callaghan

Our Task

Our Record LabelWithin our genre of ‘Pop’ we researched what the most

popular record labels were, (below are the logos of these companies) we found that the one used by Little Mix, the group whose song we have chosen, was called ‘Syco Music’. Therefore we thought that this company would be appropriate as it worked mainly with artists from the ‘Pop’ genre. Therefore I feel we have use

conventions of real media products as many famous ‘Pop’ groups have a known record label.


NarrativeWhen researching ‘Pop’ genre music videos we looked at the types of

narrative that were used, we discovered that many didn’t include narratives, such as Sugarbabes ‘Push The Button’, Stooshe ‘Love Me’,

and even our chosen song Little Mix ‘Wings’. We did however choose to include a narrative within our media product as there are music videos such as Taylor Swift ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ and Carly Rae Jepson

‘Call Me Maybe’ that include them within theirs.


A clip of narrative from our music video

A clip of narrative from Taylor Swift: 'I Knew You Were Trouble’

music video.

NarrativeAfter deciding to add a narrative we decided what we wanted the storyline to

be. This is where I feel we developed forms and conventions of real media products as we not only included a narrative but developed it in order to fit our song lyrics. This also supports the theory of Andrew Goodwin that ‘music videos are simply an extension of the lyrics’. The storyline we chose was of a young girl

getting bullied. The majority of narratives within the ‘Pop’ genre include the artists themselves, however we went against this as we felt by presenting the song to be aimed at younger girls and applying this in our music video we will be

able to able to create a rapport with the audience.


A clip of narrative from our music video

A clip of narrative from The Saturdays: ‘What About Us’ music

video.

CostumeWhen it comes to the costume I feel this is where both our music video and

ancillary pieces challenged the traditional forms and conventions of real media products. Whilst researching the ‘Pop’ genre we became aware that the clothes worn tended to be revealing and provocative. We had already decided that we

wanted to aim our song at young girls an therefore we have challenged the stereotypical outfits of pop and gone for outfits that would be considered

suitable for young girls to follow after. Here and on the next slide you can see the comparisons between real media products costumes and our own.


The Saturday’s ‘What About Us?’ Music Video Our Music Video

Short shorts/skirts

Accessories (hat, necklace, bracelets

etc.)

Crop tops (lots of flesh on show)

JewelleryTrousers

Fashionable tops, yet not revealing.

CostumeA picture used in our DigipakA picture used in Pixie Lott's Digipak

Lots of flesh on show

Fashionable clothes, yet

not provocative

Male Gaze – cleavage visible

Although wearing a skirt, leggings are also worn – not as much flesh

revealed.

Lots of make up applied

Lipstick apparent

but generally a natural look.

Hair style is natural and

achievable for an audience (rather than extensions)

Hair style looks dyed and have extensions


Shot types that are used within the ‘Pop’ genre can vary from long shots to extreme close ups. We wanted to use a variety of shots in our own music video

which I feel use the conventions of real media products but also develops them. For example when researching we found the music video ‘Jar of Hearts’ by

Christina Perri that has a camera movement on a narrative section. We decided to use this and progress it by making the camera move along the group whilst we were singing. Although I cannot show the movement the arrows represent

the movement of the camera:


‘Jar of Hearts’ by Christina Perri Our Music Video

Shot Types and Camera Movements

Shot Types and Camera MovementsWe also used shot types such as close ups, extreme close ups and mid shots,

the use the conventions of a real media product as they are commonly seen and used within music video’s of the ‘Pop’ genre. Here are some screen shots

comparing shot types of real media products and our music video.


‘Do It Like A Dude’ – Jessie J Our Music Video

Extreme Close Up

Close Up

Mid Shot

‘Die Young’ – Ke$ha

‘Fight For This Love’ – Cheryl Cole

LocationThroughout our performance shots of our music video we kept them to studio shots. I think that this both uses forms and conventions of real media product

but also goes against them as the ‘Pop’ genre does include shots of artists singing outside of the studio, for example ‘The Saturdays – What About Us?’.

For our narrative shots we used the school location as it fitted with our narrative. I believe this does conform to the genre as most narrative are

filmed in cohesion with their location. Below are the shots of our performance and narrative shots along with some professional media products.


The Saturday’s ‘What About Us?’ – Performance Shots Outside of Studio

Cheryl Cole ‘Fight For This Love’ – Performance Shots in a Studio

Our Performance Shots in the

Studio

LocationFor our narrative shots we used the school location as it fitted with our narrative. I believe this does conform to the genre as most narrative are filmed in cohesion with their location. Below are the print screens of our

narrative shots along with some professional media products.


Lady Gaga ‘’Bad Romance – Narrative Shot

Taylor Swift – ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ – Narrative Shot

Our Performance Shots in the

Studio

PosterThe poster we created stays very much true to the conventions of ‘Pop’ magazine advert.

The colours, fonts and pictures are all very stereotypical of Pop and I think help to represent our new group. We have kept the ongoing theme of pink present and the

picture clearly shows a young group. The poster contains the key ingredients of a advert right down to the critic reviews which I believe gives it a professional feel. We have used a gradient background for the poster which again continues onto the Digipak, creating a sense of continuity throughout our ancillary tasks. Below is our final poster, beside some

real media products:


Our Final Poster

Poster Advertising: Rihanna

Poster Advertising: The Saturdays

DigipakI believe that our Digipak uses the forms and conventions of real media products

extremely well and the result of this is a professional looking Digipak. We did lots of research before creating the Digipak and I feel that this has paid off. Through the

research of ‘Pop’ Digipaks I found that they had a ‘fun’ appeal to them and also included lots of photos of the artist. We chose a colour theme for our Digipak which was pink as we felt this was appropriate for our target audience of girls aged 11 -16 years old. Here

are some images of what ‘Pop’ digipaks/CD covers look like and how ours compare.


Our Final Digipak

Little Mix CD Cover

Taylor Swift CD Cover

Mariah Carey CD Cover

Media evaluation question one

Entertainment & Humor

Transcript of Media evaluation question one