Evaluation Question 1

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


For our main product, we looked on youtube for videos of a similar genre or style to get ideas from. We used the video for the song 'First Day of My Life' by Bright Eyes as an inspiration for the use of sofas in our music video, which were featured quite a few times. We also liked the idea of more than the artist singing along to the song, as I think that it portrayed universality of love, which was an aim and a sub-theme for the music video as that is basically what the song is about. The people that we used in our video all had different styles and had different relationships (not just boyfriend/girlfriend), as was in 'First Day of My Life'.


I also used youtube to find a clip from 'Mom At 16' where a couple take pictures in a flashback, when they were together and happy. We used this idea for inspiration for our music video, taking the same picture-taking idea and putting it into our video with both of the girls. I think that this was effective as it achieved what we aimed to and helped outline with clarity the relationships that we were trying to put across. This use of intertextuality relates to Goodwin's theory, as it referring to another text by taking an idea from one thing and using it as inspiration to put it into another.


We were going to include a part in our video where the artist would be singing the lines "Praying that disease would leave the ones we love and never come again" and pan across to next to her on the sofa which would be empty, as if a person was supposed to be there. The idea for this partly came from the Cancer Research advert where there is the same empty seat next to a loved one, again on a sofa.


When researching and planning for the music video, we looked at other artists of a similar genre and their music videos, in order to get an idea of what clothing we were going to use for the artist, putting this in the artist profile. We looked at music videos of Vanessa Carlton's mostly as she has the same sort of look that we hoped to achieve for our artist; quirky and pretty. For the style of the rest of the characters in our music video, we just ensured we made them dress differently to each other. Again, this links to Goodwin's theory applied to music videos of genre characteristics. This is because the genre of music is reflected through the style we have chosen for the artist, as was expected.
  
The last way in which our music video uses coventions of real media products is the idea of the trinkets. We were going to use trinkets anyway, to anchor characters to each other, but then our teacher suggested we look at the video 'Fucked Me Right Up' to get a further sense of how we could achieve this and make it clear that the trinkets were a main part of it. For example, we took and developed ideas from it, such as the close up of holding hands, and the close up of a trinket itself in order to frame it well to represent the importance of it and the relationships.


 For the digipak I tried to emulate artistic elements, which I took from the genre of music I usually like (rock) and then searched for digipaks of a similar genre to the artist we chose which used art in it. I did this so that I was aware of what I was doing for the digipak and had a clear idea of it. Despite the complete difference in genre, it helped me to know the sort of art that I would use and want for my own digipak. I found that artists such as Regina Spektor use artistic elements for their album art, as on the album 'Far' and also Paolo Nutini's 'Sunny Side Up.' I did look at more female artists, such as Elissa Franceschi, but found that the style was not what I wanted to achieve and I was not sure of whether I would want the artist on the cover or not.


On the cover of 'Far' there is a piano featured with a blue sky and white clouds on it. With further exploration, I found that this was Regina Spektor perhaps using the inspiration of Rene Magritte's art, which always included this. Instead of copying the same idea, I decided to use it as a step and include something nature-related. In the end, I went for the tree as I think that it suits the natural and quirky style of the artist and genre. Also, I wanted to get across that the artist's audience may be artistic themselves and so would understand what the inspirations would be.


The inspiration behind the poster was very similar to that of the inspiration for the digipak; simple and linking to natural style of the artist. Having already completed by digipak by the time I got onto my poster I was motivated enough to know exactly what style I wanted. I wanted the poster to be down to the point: the artist is bringing out a new album and you should go and buy it if you are a fan. I therefore followed the coventions of any other poster promoting an album- bold and clear title and name of the artist, eye-catching image and a review to show that it's worth the purchase.