Evaluation question 1

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

When creating our music video, digipak and digiapk advert I had to take into consideration the conventions of real media products.

When we filmed our music video we created it using a point of view perspective, this meant that there was only one main character in our music video, however the camera symbolised the other "female" character. Throughout the scenes in our music video the main character would directly look at the camera as if it was another person. Using the idea of the point of view perspective challenges the conventions of most music videos as the majority of music videos use two shots to represent two people in the frame of the video. So therefore the camera shot we decided to use was the over the shoulder shot to create point of view. In general using this camera shot meant that we could create more audience interaction in our music video.

A general camera shot convention I used was an establishing shot. I used this for the opening scene in which we see the train tracks for 20-30 seconds. This uses the conventions of real media products because in music videos having an establishing shot to present the opening sets the mood and tone of the song which influences the genre. For example if a music video shows an abandoned, derelict area/building it can foreshadow the music video's genre in the sense that you can tell it would be an R&B/Hip Hop genre. We also used a range of long shots and mid shots as part of camera conventions in music videos. We used these shots for our "flashback" scene. Furthermore we used tracking and still shots to show the movement of our main character. Based on these two shots the one we preferred was the still shots to record movement because our scenes were easier to capture whilst remaining in focus. Another convention of music videos we challenged was the use of close-up's to reveal and convey emotion. The reason why we didn't include many close-up's is because it did not entirely fit in with the scenes we were filming and conveying emotion can be done through the use of mid shots and long shots by the character's facial expressions and body language.

Using conventions of mise-en-scene, we filmed our music video in different locations. We filmed at Millennium Green which is an open space area, this was suitable for our establishing shot to get the whole subject in the frame. We also filmed at a shopping centre, this was for our "flashback" scene and when the characters go separate ways at the end. Again using this convention signifies the mood of the song and highlights the genre. For the editing of our music video we used the most common convention of music videos which was "cuts/jump cuts". Using this convention it allowed us to follow the traditional route of a music video, which is important because we understood and used the skills that an artist would represent in their music video.

Moreover, we followed the conventions of R&B music videos, this included doing our filming in urban locations and keeping it narrative based by showing our main character a lot. On the other hand we did challenge the conventions of R&B and Hip Hop music videos by not including stereotypical features surrounding this genre, such as clubs, smoking and alcohol/drugs. This was important because it showed how we could still maintain the genre and narrative by only getting rid of stereotypical elements.

Our digipak used conventions of typical digipaks because we used dark colours such as blue and black. This reflects the mood of the album and can also reflect the artists power in the music industry. Additionally our digipak and advert included mid close up's of our main character this shows high status and how they're seen as superior and the star image. The key conventions used in typical digipaks and adverts can reveal meanings behind songs in the album within the lyrics, so therefore I took this into consideration when creating the digipak and advert.

Therefore the conventions of existing and real media products is important to take into consideration when constructing the music video, digipak and advert as it keeps the product realistic and within the genre, this means the audience can infer and understand the song.