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

Dear All, I would like to comment on the fact that our music video is not entirely original, in fact, nothing is as over the years many of people try and emulate their own ideas, however in the end, whether it be a year or several years, everyone will eventually copy an idea, so no work you do can you ever claim to be original. Unfortunately, originality doesnt exist. Our first idea we thought of: Using our instrumental at the beginning to establish the setting. Great idea? Unfortunately, its not ours. The concept comes from the video Foundations: Kate Nash as her instrumental sets up a brilliant scene, highlighting key characters and her current surroundings. [Link] [Link] We also used the film 'Mom at Sixteen' to take the idea of having a flashback in the form of a picture. We used the picture idea with the characters Hannah and Ella; this was done by Hannah holding a camera and then taking a photo. To show that this was what we were trying to emulate, we placed the image within the instrumental part and then after they had finished their roles. The 'Mom at Sixteen' idea is not something that is regularly shown during a music video; this challenges the conventions of our genre of music as it would be something that would usually appear in a film. [Link] [Link]

For the clothing idea of the artist, I used inspiration from two music videos: Vanessa Carlton- Nolita Fairy tale and Lenka: The Show. I did this by using YouTube to look at music videos and then print screen the type of clothing that would be appropriate to be in our music video. In the end, we went for a dress design (clothing that both of the artist above would wear) and we had to make sure our artist had her hair up so it did not get in her face during the singing. Our artist also had to wear light make-up, as heavy make up would not have suited the type of music genre. This conforms to the genre of music that is in our video as you would not necessarily expect dark clothing and dark makeup

As you can see, our artist does follow the conventions of the genre of music by wearing a bright coloured dress with the red lipstick (that was used in our final music video) matching the red on the dress. The red colour stands out, just like the yellow stands out on Lenkas dress.

Most of the key conventions in an anti-folk style of music video is somewhere in our music video, however, the main thing that challenges the conventions of an anti-folk video is the setting of our music video. Our video was all shot in different sofas in each persons house, whereas in anti- folk videos they choose to shoot outside- like Lenka does in her video The Show or in places that do not particularly like with the genre of the song; for example, Regina Spektor's video: On the Radio is shot in a school using younger children within the production- something which we did not do as we wanted to use relationships throughout. We also did not shoot outside as it would not have been a realistic setting to show the relationships through the use of trinkets within our video. [Link] [Link]

For my ancillary product, the poster follows the key conventions that it would be expected to follow. This is using the artist as recognition for selling her album, I done this by using a big image of her on the page; I also added the artists name and the title of the album. For this, Ive taken the inspiration from the Regina Spektor poster by having the artist name in black, with the image being the main focus on this too. Reviews were then placed towards the bottom of the page, with the record label placed at the bottom- being the last thing the reader would see. Again, Ive taken this from the Regina Spektor poster, however, I didnt add an album release date, this was because I didnt think it was needed as my poster had the HMV logo with by now from.. showing that the CD could already be purchased. The image and the artist name are the two main things that you would expect to see on a poster, and the biggest thing on the page. I did this to draw the attention of the reader and by using an image of her on the digipak and poster, it keeps continuity and as she is also in the music video, the image links the three products together.

For my digipak, again I used the artist name and album title using the same font. I also used the same picture to keep the continuity from the poster to show the two belong to the same person. Again, this does not challenge any forms of real media products. This being because the artist is the main image, something which is usually associated with anti-folk artists. On the inside of my digipak, I used a trinket that we used in the video, I did this to try and make a subtle link between the video and the digipak- which I feel worked as I used a close-up of the trinket in the hand and in the video the shot used was again a close-up. I tried to challenge Laura Mulveys male gaze, as I didnt want our artist to be seen as a sexual object, I feel this worked in all three products due to the way the picture was taken for the digipak and poster but also the way that the shots were framed in the music video.

I feel that the front of my digipak resembles the album cover of Regina Spektors album; this is because I used an image of my artist- however I did this in colour to make the artist stand out on the page. I also put the name of the artist at the top, just like on Regina Spektors album, as this would be the first thing the audience would see, and they would hopefully recognise the name as Ive used the image underneath. The only thing that challenges the conventions of this media product is having the name of the album at the bottom of the page and not directly underneath the artist name. I did this as I felt the artist recognition was more important than the album name, therefore by placing it at the bottom makes it less important as it would be the last thing people would see.

In summary, our music video is not a copy, yet the creativity behind it came from taking several ideas, absorbing them, and then using our own creativity to put them all together in an effective way. I hope you understand where I am coming from? Jemma (Creator of the music video)