In what ways does your media

product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
 The use of forms and conventions of
real media products:
As my music video is of the rock genre, it
instantly conforms to the typical conventions
of a rock video within the opening. The
opening displays a performance element
which is continued throughout the video.
After observing many videos from the rock
genre, I felt having both narrative and
performance elements to my music video
would work quite well as this is common
amongst many music videos belonging to the
rock genre nowadays. All performance
elements in the video were shown in black
and white so it was easy to understand which
parts of the video were narrative and which
were performance. This is sometimes seen in
other rock videos too.
The guitar eventually became a key part of our video. It is instantly connected
to the rock genre and holds various connotations such as rebellion. The colour
of the guitar being an electric blue connects to the band members too which
also conformed to our rock genre. We made sure we had an all male band
because generally bands of this genre are male. There are some exceptions
such as ‘Paramore’ with a lead female vocalist, but the large majority of
successful bands in the rock genre have male lead vocalists as well as males
playing the instruments such as guitar, drums, etc.
When designing my products that were part of the ancillary tasks (Digipack and magazine advert). I
stuck to a similar theme. For example ‘The Mags’ was written in capitals and red font in both my
digipack and magazine advert as this highlights the band name to listeners of music. This is positive
because people will begin to recognise the band if they have a particular image about them which
was in my intentions when designing both the digipack and magazine advert. By sticking to similar
themes, it will stand out to viewers and they should link the two together. I included photographs of
some instruments and musical equipment in my digipack as this is common of this particular genre.
Unlike the pop genre where it usually has an artist pictured on the front of an album. I have also used
the same image on both my magazine cover and my digipack cover. This has been done intentionally
and is common amongst this genre. Here is an example of the Klaxons album ‘Surfing the void’.

ALBUM COVER MAGAZINE COVER

 When researching into the rock genre at the beginning of the process of
making a music video. As a group we looked into bands such as the Kings Of
Leon themselves, Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys and many more to gain an idea
of what their music videos were like. We picked up that the editing was very
fast paced with lots of different camera shots. There were numerous shots of
each band members from all different angles capturing lots of performance
elements. We realised if we wanted to make our music video seem
convincing, then fast paced editing was a must. So we acted on this and there
is fast paced editing that can be spotted throughout our music video.
 The development of forms and conventions
of real media products:
During the research and planning towards the making of our music video, as previously
stated we watched many rock videos to gain an idea of the typical conventions of this
genre.

A common effect used in many different music videos is split screen and we brainstormed
videos that featured split screens within them. A different type of split screen in Blink-
182’s video for ‘Always’ inspired us hugely as a group. It was a 3 way horizontal split screen
which is different to an average split screen and the way in which it was filmed was very
effective. We were so inspired by this that we were eager to do the same in our music
video. After searching forums of how to do so, we managed it and it looked extremely
good.
 From learning to split the screen horizontally 3 ways. It enabled us to gain
other ideas on different ways of doing a split screen. For instance, from
learning this we were able to create a 2 way horizontal split screen. We did this
of Tom and Charlottes feet walking in different directions. As a group we
thought this looked good as the timing was perfected and their footsteps
match on the split screen. We also included a 4 way split screen, which was our
original idea when we wanted to include a split screen. In this part of our
music video, each instrument involved appears according to when they begin
to play in the song.
 Another bit of inspiration we gained from another music video was
‘The Only Exception’ by Paramore. This features the lead singer
Hayley Williams lying in a pile of love letters lip syncing. There is part
of our music video featuring Charlotte lying down lip syncing and
this was taken through inspiration from this music video. However
rather than love letters we have Charlotte lying in magazine cuttings
which is a representation of obsession towards the singer and plays
a part in the narrative. Charlotte is shown upside down in our video
which relates to the odd atmosphere that is portrayed throughout
our video which is created around her.
The Challenge of forms and conventions of real media products:

As well as very much conforming to

the forms and conventions of a real
media product, our music video also
challenges them. Although our music
video conforms to the rock genre with
the performance elements and the
instruments gaining a lot of attention
throughout the video. The kisses on
the guitar challenge the basic idea
people probably have of a rock music
video. It is not usually expected to be
‘lovey dovey’ as such. This would be
more commonly associated with a pop
music video. The ice reverse melt into
heart shapes also relates to this point.
Our music video also challenges the general
conventions of a rock music video with some
of the ideas we have featured in our video.
The melting of the ice hearts was an idea we
gained from the Wretch 32 ‘Traktor’ Music
video. This would probably come under the
rap/grime genre which is obviously a very
different genre in comparison to rock. The
general conventions of a rap and rock video
are bound to differ, so this is a challenge in
itself as we adapted an idea from a rap
video. Another challenge that can be seen
within footage of our music video could be
the stop motions that are used. This idea
was gained from Kate Nash’s video
‘Foundations.’ We also use voyeurism in our
music video which is not particularly
considered to be a main convention of a
rock video.