Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

There are several ways in which our media product which is the song ‘Mariella’ which me and my group decided from the other 19 songs uses/develops and challenges forms and conventions of a real media product. One way in which our media product challenges forms and conventions of real media product is that our female artist style sense was unique and simple, in most music that I have watched, I have always seen the female artist wearing lots of make-up and being all dressed up whereas Fatmagul who is portraying April Jones is very simple as she hasn’t worn a lot of make-up, this was because we wanted the audience to care more about her music and her voice rather than her appearance. The demographic of our target audience was mainly teenage girls and young adults, this was due to the fact that the target audience who are girls can relate to our female protagonist. By having an ideal demographic of our target audience, it allowed me and my group to establish appropriate generic conventions in order to strengthen our audience appeal. The genre of our music video which was ‘Mariella’ was alternative rock used forms and conventions of real media products. For example we used a lot of scenes for a Mise-en-scene such as images of the drummer or pianist. Also the clothes that April Jones is wearing is also very similar to the clothes that many female artists such as Taylor Swift wears as it is very feminine. However, April Jones clothes challenges forms and conventions of real media products because she wears very girl and colourful trainers but with converses and trainers which shows that she is different to the majority of females artists today because she is not dressing in a stereotypical way which shows that if April Jones was an actual artist, she would be very popular among fans. An example of a music video that is very different to Mariella is ‘Pour It Up’ by Rhianna, in our music video April Jones challenges forms and conventions of real media as she is seen as a very simple girl whereas in Rhianna’s music video, she is dressed and also dances very provocatively and this is what many artists now days do e.g. Miley Cyrus to get more people to be aware of their music because of the things that are do in their music video which therefore makes them very popular. For example in ‘We Can’t Stop’ music video, Miley Cyrus is seen tweaking and wearing very little clothing and this is the reason why she reached number 1 on UK Top 40. April Jones is very different, as we wanted her to come across as a down to earth type of girl who cares more about her music rather than her appearance and that is why in the music video she is seen very cute and girl clothes rather then being naked and dancing around. This therefore shows that April Jones who is our artist will be popular among the audience as she is doing something different and not following the trend that Rhianna and other artists have started.

Our music video is mainly performance based which associates with the lyrics and makes it look more professional. Our performance is based around a little girl whose name is Mariella who doesn’t fit in very well at school and one day she falls asleep in class and dreams about how she and April Jones are dancing around in a garden and singing. Throughout the whole music video, we learn about how Mariella likes wearing black clothes as she believes that it looks mysterious and how she doesn’t care if no one in school likes her because she knows she has herself. This develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products. It develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products because most music videos that are performance based is about love or heart break and our music video is not as it is about a little girl which shows that it is different to other music videos and other artists might end up doing the same as it looks unique. The shots that me and my group used when shooting the music video uses forms and conventions of music videos, this was due to the fact that we used a lot of camera shots that were normally seen in other music videos. However we did use a jump cut where Mariella jumps up at one part and the when she lands, it goes to another scene. This is a good thing as it doesn’t make our music video very staged, it makes look more realistic which shows that our music video is not copying other artist so it makes it more interesting as it is not the same as other music videos. From doing research I found that Paramore’s ‘Still Into You’ was quite similar to ours as the song was about love but Hayley Williams was dancing and wearing lots of bright colourful clothes. Hayley Williams is also seen in the music video wearing converses with skirts which April Jones does.

Both music videos are very colourful and in both videos a happy vibe is being shown. In the music video ‘still into you’, Hayley Williams is seen dancing on her bed singing the lyrics ‘I’m still in to you’ whereas in ‘Mariella’ April jones and Mariella are seen holding hand and dancing around in the garden. Both music videos are alternative rock and they both have used the colour pink, Hayley Williams hair is Pink and Mariella’s room is pink to connote that the song is meant to be fun and not depressing.

Here on the left whilst April Jones is sitting down, rocking side to side and singing and smiling shows that she is happy and the atmosphere is happy. On the left, Hayley Williams is on her bike riding it around the house and smiling at the camera. Both these music videos link together as they are both being portrayed as being young and innocent.

Here both music videos link in together as they are both unique in their own way, they are both alternative rock. Whereas April Jones is in the garden dancing around, Hayley Williams is looking up at the ceiling and grinning which shows that both music videos are fun and has a happy atmosphere.

Here both music videos have used the colour pink which shows that our music video uses forms and conventions of real media as both Mariella and I’m Still Into You are using the colour pink and both are alternative rock genres.

Our advert for April Jones used, developed forms and conventions of real media product in several ways. One way in which it used forms and conventions of real media product is the way we set everything out on the advert, the majority of adverts place that music artists use put their album name either right at the top or right at the bottom and we did this as well as we put the album name which is ‘Summer Winds’ right at the top of the advert. We could have made our advert unique and different by placing it somewhere else on the advert like on the corner or sideways. One way in which our advert developed forms and conventions of real media product is the fact that April Jones is not looking straight into the camera which means as we wanted the audience to focus more on the music rather than her appearance. Nina Nesbitt who is similar to our artist April Jones also in her advert looks straight into the camera and we didn’t want ours to be the same as we wanted our advert to look unique and different. Another way in which we developed forms and conventions of real media product is that the fact that April jones’s name on the advert is smaller than the album name, this is again because we wanted people to focus more on the music rather than who she was.

After doing much research in to different genres and music videos to find out what convention each type of music genre had. I found out that different genres of music had different convention and in order to make sure that I had to use conventions of only alternative rock genre so that my music video looks professional and it attracts the target market that it was initially for. For example, if April Jones was wearing really provocative clothes with lots of jewellery then it would not go with the genre that is set for her music therefore the audience wouldn’t be attracted to it which means that she won’t be popular and her music won’t get anywhere. Researching artists such as the likes of Taylor Swift and Nina Nesbitt helped me when creating the music video, advert and other things as it allowed me to broaden my knowledge of existing products and styles, compare my ideas, develop them and create my final idea. By analysing Nina Nesbitt’s music video and other artists similar to April Jones, it gave me ideas on what camera shots and what effects I should use and when doing the post-production work. However by researching other genres other then alternative rock, it helped me gain idea on what things I could probably do in order to make the music video to Mariella a little more unique.

Overall we decided to use lots of conventions of our genre and use existing products to support us while creating our final product while taking some risk and coming up with some ideas that challenges the conventions of alternative rock genre to make our music video stand out.