DRAFT Evaluation Question One

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

When looking at research and existing media products to plan my video, digipak and magazine advert, I paid close attention to the conventions and elements contained within each example. I then investigated the most interesting and applicable conventions to identify which were best to use in the creation of my products.

The research and planning for my digipak meant looking at existing products by a variety of artists to see what they both had in common, and what made them different and more appealing than others. To gain initial research I used a book from the Art department that covered designs within CD covers, and by extension, digipaks. There was a variety of different styles within the book, and I quickly decided I wanted to create a digipak with 4 panels, instead of 6 or 8; Erik Wennergren’s ‘Tales from the Earth’ was my main influence for this choice. His digipak contained images of nature and the artist – and although I didn’t use Rosa-Leigh on the cover of my digipak – I took the idea of holding a flower within cupped hands and developed that convention to suit the colour scheme and style of my digipak. His digipak was much neater than the ones with multiple panels and the links between each of the panels were clear and easy to see. After looking at other digipak examples such as Rihanna’s ‘Loud’ album and David Ramirez’ ‘American Soul’ I decided that I definitely wanted to include nature within my digipak, as it would also tie in with the theme of our video. I looked at around 100 album covers to achieve a broad range of conventions and ideas, many of which contained images of nature such as the ocean or trees, so I knew that creating a digipak using the theme of nature was plausible and looked good.

I began to look at albums by Peace and Splash and really liked the idea of a visible ‘sticker’ on the album cover to convey the title and artist name. I used the convention of a circular sticker, as speech bubbles or stars would have looked too childish and not professional enough for this style of digipak. I used the ‘sticker’ as a focal point for the album artwork, as all digipaks need something to entice the audience and give it a centre of focus. Because I chose to include nature on the font cover (and throughout the rest of my digipak) I decided not to include Rosa-Leigh on any of the panels. Many other artists do this such as Arctic Monkeys ‘AM’ and I decided to follow this convention in order to give the impression Rosa-Leigh was an esteemed artist and that buying the album for her name, not just for her looks was a credit to her work. I decided to use the same image on both the front and back of the digipak, taking ideas from Julianna Barwick’s, ‘The Magic Place, as the use of nature and similar images has also been used. When adding information to the digipak I adhered to generic conventions within what was written. I included the track listing, barcode and copyright information on the back panel, an image of hands holding a flower on the inside right panel and then production information on the inside left. I invented this information by studying albums by McFly and Lady GaGa as they are well-known artists. From these albums I made sure Producers, Writers, Vocalists and Musicians were all accounted for, just as they would be on a real digipak.

When creating my magazine advert I ensured there was a clear link between the theme, style and images used on both of the products. I looked at existing magazine adverts from bands and artists such as Mika and The Wombats and found there was a clear link between their album cover and digipak, through use of the same text, image and branding of their artist. Coldplay’s ‘Mylo Xyloto’ and Florence and the Machine’s ‘Lungs’ were my main sources of inspiration, and to generate ideas for my magazine advert I used conventions from theirs. Both adverts had used the same image that was featured on their album cover, so I decided to use the sunflower picture on my advert also. I followed the theme of Florence and the Machines, placing the title of my artist at the top of the page where it is most visible and having the rest of the text in the lower thirds of the magazine advert. I included a release date (‘Out Now’), the various platforms it could be bought on, the record label logo, a website address and featured songs, following the conventions of many digipaks who adhere in the same way. I also chose to adhere to the rule of thirds, something that was introduced to me in AS media studies, when creating our magazine front covers. I chose to place ‘Rosa-Leigh’ and ‘A beautiful life within the top third’, the spiral and 'new album’ in the middle third and the remainder of information within the last third. There is a clear link between the digipak and magazine advert to ensure that the brand is recognisable and professional, as well as representing the idea of nature explored within the video.

To gain ideas for the creation of our music video, we spent time looking at existing videos by bands we both liked such as Givers and Lana Del Rey. We both really liked ‘Noche Nada’ by Givers and wanted to create a video that followed roughly the same structure and ideas, however, once we had developed our ideas and conventions from other products, it became more of our own video, rather than a copy. When choosing what to put in our video we found a variety of conventions such as the use of nature, the use of intro text, experimenting with the focus within shots, and having the artist lip syncing. We ensured that the artist sang along in the video to adhere to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of performance and making the video look credible. We have created a star image in which the artist communicates the lyrics to the audience, by singing along and looking into the camera; breaking the fourth wall and creating a connection that entices the viewers, making her a storyteller. The voice of the singer is unique, creating a trademark for our artist, so she is recognisable and sets her apart from other artists. One of the conventions we could not find much evidence for was the use of bubbles. We only managed to find David Guetta’s ‘Where them girls at’, and even then the bubbles were CGI. Although we could not find any videos containing bubbles, I understand it does not mean there aren’t any. Therefore, by using bubbles we are developing the conventions used in David Guetta’s video and filming with real bubbles, instead of CGI. Another convention we have developed is using various locations and outfits within our video, instead of keeping the continuity used in most existing products. We took the idea from Lucy Rose’s ‘Middle of the bed’ and developed it to suit the genre and style of our video, choosing exterior locations and summery outfits to keep the light-hearted theme within our product. The styling was influenced by artists and bands such as HAIM, Daughter and Lana Del Rey and was something we ensured was appropriate when filming our music video.