EVALUATION TASK 1IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

A convention is a way in which something is usually done. I have looked at how conventions of the Indie Rock genre of my band have been developed, challenged or accepted through the three products I created.

Form is the particular way in which something is created

What

MUSIC VIDEO- CAMERA

There is a similarity between Foster The People’s music video for the song ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ and out music video. They both are a mid shot of the lead singer. I found during research into the conventions of the Indie Rock genre that mid shots were often used for the lead singer. This is to allow an audience to feel a sense of closeness with the singer. However, I also found that due to bands of the Indie Rock genre being mainly of organic ideology (according to Negus’ theory) few if any close ups were used of the lead singer. Therefore we thought it was important as a group to stick with this convention. However, we used a lot more mid shots of the other members of the band not just the lead singer, which developed on the convention.

MUSIC VIDEO- LIGHTING

The Kooks’ music video ‘Naïve’ is similar in lighting to our music video. I found doing research that red wasn’t necessarily a common colour between the videos. This can be seen in The Kooks’ music video, the red only features for a few seconds, where as we used the colour red for the main theme to tie all three products of the campaign together . Therefore, our lighting decision is an example of how we went against the conventions of the Indie Rock genre due to using a specific colour as a theme throughout not only the music video but the entire campaign.

MUSIC VIDEO- COSTUME

Mumford and Sons’ music video ‘Little Lion Man’ is similar to our music video in terms of costume. The characters seen in the screenshot above can be seen to be wearing smart clothing (shirts, waistcoat and ties). However, the men in our music video aren’t the lead singers of the band like in Mumford and Sons’ video. We dressed our lead singers in t-shirts and jeans to give a casual look. This was to help the audience recognize that the band were according to Negus’ theory organic and just “like us” and it is their music that is extraordinary rather than the way they look. We stuck to the genre conventions in terms of costume as we thought that it would be easier for our target audience to recognize in the first few seconds of the music video that the costume the band are wearing fits with the genre of music they listen to

DIGIPAK- EDITING

I found an Indie Rock artist called Grayson Gilmour who has a similar distorted image on his album artwork as I do. However, Gilmour’s work is a painting, it has still been edited using Photoshop in order to enhance the colours. Where as we as a group did a photo-shoot with the band and cut out each band member’s face and edited it together to create one face. I found it difficult to find a similar artist that had done the same, as I found through my research that none of the artists of the Indie Rock genre had used their faces on the front of the album cover. This is an example of how we went against the genre conventions of the Indie Rock genre. However, we developed on the idea that no whole photo was used of the band and cut and cropped Cigarettes After Sex’s faces together using Adobe Premier in order to create a sense of mystery, which can be seen in Dyers’ theory of the artists being present yet simultaneously absent, which other artists have not done.

DIGIPAK- SETS

Foster The People with the album ‘torches’ has a very similar setting to our album artwork. Both artworks have a plain white setting which makes the center piece of the artwork stand out to potential target audiences. I found during my research that most Indie Rock albums have a plain white background with something eye catching in the middle of the frame. We thought that we would stick with this convention so that our target audience would be able to recognize the genre of the album just by looking at it. This would be especially important to follow this idea as none of the band’s faces are featured on the front of the artwork due to the band being of organic ideology, therefore a target audience has to recognize the album some other way

WEBSITE- COSTUME

Both the Arctic monkey’s and Cigarettes After Sex have a similar gallery of photos on their website of the band. They both share the convention of relaxed clothing that is seen throughout Indie Rock campaigns. We decided to dress our band in relaxed clothing in order to accept this convention of the genre, as someone might just find the website and can almost immediately tell from the relaxed t-shirt and jean vibe that the band are Indie Rock. However, unlike Arctic Monkey’s where some of the clothing is smarter and much more of synthetic ideology due to them being a huge band, we decided that we wanted our band to keep it casual in terms of costume and so we didn’t choose to dress them this way, as they are supposed to be an up and coming band rather than already stars, this is where we went against the convention of the band having an edgy suit look like can be seen with the Arctic Monkey’s and Two Door Cinema Club (among many more). (Look on next slide for photos of this)

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUBWEBSITE GALLERY

ARCTIC MONKEYS-WEBSITE GALLERY

WEBSITE- POSITIONING

I found that Alt- J had a very similar website homepage to the one we created. Both the titles have been edited so that they are in the center of the page in order to tell the target audience exactly what they are looking at. The positioning of the social media tab is also very similar how it easily accessible near the main title that stands out. However, during my research I found that they seemed to be a center piece of the website and then the rest was minimalistic with a white background. We developed on this idea, as we had the idea of a swan running throughout our video and digipak therefore we added it onto the website in order to pull together the campaign and make it similar, it also adds something interesting to an otherwise plain website. We went against the convention when we created a GIF for the front homepage. I couldn't’t find any other Indie Rock artist's who had done the same. This makes the website eye catching as it is the first thing you see in the center of a white background. The changing colour also adds a sense of modernism to the band. However, we still kept with Negus’ theory of the band being organic which is the fundamental element of the Indie Rock genre.