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

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

The band that I used throughout my portfolio of productions was a local band named 'Kapok'. Kapok are a rock band also deemed under the subgenre of Grunge or Alternative rock. I think my products use as well as challenges and develops conventions.

I first of all established my bands genre and researched into similar bands of similar genres. Such bands as Muse, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I researched into these bands productions, especially their music videos and print productions. All of which seemed to have a theme. For example Muse's space/sci-fi theme that is apparent in all of their productions.

For my music video we wanted to capture a theme that the audience could recognise as the band's and use this to target their potential audiences. As well as use music video conventions. One way in which we achieved this was by using the conventional performance element, with a conventional band setup. This reflected the bands lively live performances, although shot in an attic, which we wanted to catch on camera for their fans to recognise. Also the lively performance is highlighted with the quick editing and short predominantly close up or extreme close up shots. The extreme close ups and fast editing are a convention of the genre.

This is much like Muse's music video for 'Dead Star' in which you see the band perform within a small dark claustrophobic area with many close ups and fast editing. This links in with Goodwin’s theory in that record companies wanting there music videos to show a lot of close ups of the vocalist or main artist. Another convention we used was the combination of the performance element with a narrative structure. The narrative itself used an enigma which at the end was tied in with and answered by the performance using a conventional converging narrative structure. The enigma is symbolised by the picture we see the girl holding at the start of the music video which is dropped at the end answering the enigma. Many music videos use this conventional of asking a question at the start of a video, why is she holding a picture; who is in the picture, and then answering the question at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhci-MG4DNE

We challenged and developed conventions of the music video and are genre as well. One way in which we did this was by having a alternative narrative in which we see a fan fanatical about Kapok shown through the narrative with her many posters and leaflets, writing letters to the band and pictures of the band.

For the digipak and magazine advert I used a combination of imagery to create a theme throughout. This theme used cassette tapes and tape along with a sci-fi space like font. Like many artist the theme was continuous and created an icon feature to the digipak to which would help throughout all advertising due to audience recognition.

One way in which I challenged the conventions of real media products in my digipak and magazine advert was by using simplistic photography. I didn't type in lyrics for songs or have any real photographs of the band, only used a stencil like piece of art of Joe, the lead singer. I also did not use a conventional CD case. I designed a case to mimic the aesthetic quality of a reel to reel tape to continue with the tape theme. The booklet also was unconventional due to firstly being round opposed to square. It also only had predominately photograph in it rather than any wording. The only wording I used was on the back panel to list the songs as well as the lettering for the tape cassettes.

The niche market that the band have makes targeting their target audience easier due to the collective demographic and collective interests. Also such bands will have dedicated fans that the band can rely on and also target. One way we target the bands niche market was with the alternative narrative within the music video. Another is by using a theme throughout all the productions. This being the sense of claustrophobia such as the music video's mise en scene or the magazine and digipak's claustrophobic dark, red photography. Also the sci-fi and tape theme that is seen throughout both the magazine advert and digipak. The sci-fi like fonts used for the magazine and digipak also can be seen as creating an image for the band, a convention many bands use such as muse with their recognisable logo and radiohead's themes of the new technological age.