EVALUATION!

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

   Within our A2 products quite allot of conventions have been followed in relation to real media products of music videos, posters and CD albums.

  Time wise our video length is similar to those in the contempory distribution. Today’s video's usually last around 3-4mintues in length as this is suitable for television and radio and their scheduling. Music shows aim to show around 3 music video's before airing an advert every 15minutes on shows like 'Kiss' and 'Kerrang!'. Therefore due to this convention rather than picking a long duration song such as, I'd Do Anything for Love - Meat Loaf (11:59) and Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding - Elton John (11:08) we decided on Pendulum-Witcraft (4:12) released 18th July 2010.

By doing this we stick to the audiences expectations of what their expecting to hear on the radio and see on the T.V. Current music video's such as Lady Gaga's Telephone video which lasted 8mintues in length and was actually aired on TV and broke the conventions but got less air time due to the duration. We wanted our video to get a regular air time on the mediums as possible.

   One way in which our video did however subvert the audience’s expectations was through the choice of video. We chose to have a narrative based music video and with these types of video's usually involves an appearance of the band and some shots of them performing. Our narrative instead stuck completely to the story and showed no performance footage within it. We decided to do this because we felt as if there was a gap in the market for this kind of video and weren’t very common and therefore make our video more appealing to people to watch. It also creates a closer relationship to the audience with the story rather than breaking the story up with clips of performance the reader can follow the story line from beginning to end.

    Additionally, within music video's they don't usually involve sound effects and diegetic sound over the music. Our video on the other hand does this. Therefore challenging the products conventions. Through the gun shot sound effect used however intensifies the viewing of the video and in turn creates a stronger emphasis of the song and its lyrics as it enforces the lyrics to the audience and makes them listen closer to the song. Through this it makes a tighter bond between the video and the audience.

      Moreover, the lyrics were interpreted in a way that reflects the video through our understanding. We took the lyrics of the song and analysed them. We then created our own impression through the use of our video of our perception of what these lyrics meant. Click the link to see analysis.

So from this lyrical analysis we developed a story which involved the meanings of the text that we had developed and incorporated them into the story line. This follows normal conventions of a music video where the story line is intertwined with the song which in turn echoes the feelings and emotions felt through the lyrics.

    Additionally, because the song chosen was a Drum and Bass song it meant that with this genre it would naturally have a gentle build up and then have a  'drop' followed by a fast tempo. A drop is where the music takes a sudden turn in pace. We integrated the story to the song so that with the pace and tempo would work together and compliment one and another and create further emphasis to what is being heard and what is being seen. Most video's use this technique in order to have the best effect upon the audience. So when the build-up is occurring we use establishing shots to let the audience know where the story is taken place with steady camera shots taken with a tripod. When the drop happens a transition between human being to zombie is formed, so not only is there a transition within the story but also within the song. After this the fast tempo is made apparent and with this more fast pace action is shot within the video and less tripod shots were used to echo the rapidness of not only the story line but also the song.

     The genre we took for the video was horror and with this chose to challenge the conventions of this genre because normally the scenes within genre's are dark and poorly lit, our video however was quite well lit and bright. Only one scene depicted the signifier of darkness as a code for horror and even then there were bursts of flashing lights in the form of a strobe. This enhanced the build-up of the chase and intensified the scene. We didn't shoot the scenes in very dark lighting because due to the poor quality of the camera's it would have been hard to get a clear image that people could watch and therefore needed good lighting to create a decent image. We could have used the night-vision mode on the camera but felt that this would disrupt the verisimilitude in which we were trying to create and impact the audiences experience.

  Our poster follows most of the conventions of real media texts in the way that its main attention for audiences is drawn to the image displayed. The text is then laid upon the image displaying conventional text such as; release date, band name, song name and sometimes age restrictions, band label, distribution details. We chose to display the release date, band name and song title. The colour used was grey for the band and release date. White was used for the song title- "Witchcraft". By separating the song on its own with a colour not yet used in the composition means that the focus of attention after the image is immediately the song title. Deliberately doing this makes the audience question, well what is this witchcraft? Therefore, giving them motivation to continue reading. If the band name was what gained attention first may lose interest in the poster if they don't perhaps like the band. Consequently, this is also why the font is bigger for the song title, its the song your supposed to be selling, not the band.

   Although it follows the form of music posters in the prior discussed point, in contrast, it challenges some conventions in another. Most posters will either be in colour, black or white or perhaps sepia, our poster however uses a combination of colour and black and white. In this sense it subverts the conventions of a poster but i believe reflects the nature of the video. Our video is a horror involving the disruption of reality through the form of a zombie. So with our poster we tried to take elements of phenomenon by defying the laws of life. Changing the colours of the reflection to a grey colour rather than normal colour as shown before the reflection alerts the audience that reality has become perverted.

    With the CD album covers, back and front, conventions have been followed. On such products you'll find; barcodes, images, band name, title, track listings, labels and sometimes warning signs. Our Album follows all of these conventions and is evident here. The bar code, similar to other real products is located in the bottom right hand corner on the back cover. This is used by shops to scan the product in order to make a sale. It can also be used to locate the product by searching the barcode.

The track listings like other products are located on the back along with the bar code, production company logo. The title for the product is found on the front to attract the potential buyer to the cd. Also, the warning certificate is also on the front to warn parents and listeners of the content found within the product. This is conventional by law and avoids offending people and perhaps avoiding an abhorrent audience.