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

In our music video, we have successfully used the forms and conventions from real media products in our genre. We have put in many features of dance music into the video, for example the lava lamps which show the movement in clubs and the glowing, vivid colour effects that match that of the lasers and lights in a club.

The shots cut on the beat and quite a few shots cut on syncopated rhythms to make the whole piece (audio and visual) more interesting. I think it also develops the conventions as there are different locations that are usually not used in music of this kind, like the river and sea.

We used conventions from real media products by looking at the image of Daft Punk. The image there is artists in helmets and you cant see any identity but you get a strong image. The style of music is similar to that of our music and so we thought that we could do something similar. We had the artists wearing hoods and dark glasses, also darkening the video as well so it would be very difficult to see their identity but get a strong and memorable look of the band.

The genre of our music is generally quite creative anyway so we came up with quite a few things that would give the artists a strong look. We looked at different effects and found a few that give a club like feel, we also filmed the lava lamps which would give a good effect made for us, which also has motion in it to represent motion in the music and clubs again.

We made sure the basic conventions were followed, for example cuts on the beat etc but also pushed them slightly as we put cuts and transitions/ fades off beat, but rhythmically to emphasize parts of the drum kit and a few nice chord progressions. We gave only a portrait of the artists to give a simple yet effective image.

Our music video has parts that other genres of music would relate to more but in adding these different scenes (sea...) we were able to create something that develops the conventions of music videos of the club dance genre.

The music video was a mix of continuity and montage editing. Near the end of the video it was more of a montage of clips put together and cuts were frequent and fast. Earlier in the video, there are parts of continuity with a small structure (close up lip synching parts). We mainly used quick cuts as the music's tempo is fast and in 4/4 timing which also means cuts can go on the offbeat and on the beat which means the cuts can be in 8/8 (if there can be a time signature for visuals).

Photoshop idea for Digipak

This is my idea of the style for the digipak. I have got images of the three members of the band, all wearing glasses and with their hoods up, looking straight at the audience. I have added and effect called Glowing Edges which make them seem very relevant to the style of the music which this group is supposed to produce. I then added a large 2 panel section with a gradient on it with plastic wrap and then the glowing edges around it again to give the electric colours to go along with the music genre. Lastly, I added a black panel with a black and white version of the main member of the band on the right hand side of the panel, just showing his glasses along with a lens flare, a black and white gradient on the black panel with plastic wrap around it to finish it off.

I then came up with some more possible panels for the Digipak:

Photoshop quick ideas for posters

I have come up with some designs for the poster. They both have an image of the sea with a sunset with the Spinnaker tower in Portsmouth. They both have the logo with the hair but the images of the tower are slightly different in each one.

Later on, I put some more effects on and a few pieces of text and came up with this:

Photoshop ideas for logos

I have come up with two logos that try to fit our music video. The first one shows the hair of the whole group. The second one has the glasses that we wear in the music video which really is the main image or look of the group. I feel that the hair logo suits our genre well as it shows the 'faceless DJ' which is what you get in many clubs. This also shows how you don't know who the people are that are making/ playing the music but you go along with it. This fits perfectly with our dance music track and with our video.

My Digipak

I used these colours and layout as the visual impact would be very good. I wanted some panels to go together when folded out and used some shading to create very 3D standing out visuals that make it look interesting. The colours, tones and shapes relate to the genre of music in our music video as there is a lot of strong colours and lines that reflect the strong, plain beats of the music.

Digipak CD Covers

What is a Digipak?

A Digipak is a cover/ packaging made out of cardboard, like a small booklet, which folds out. The CD is usually in the middle.

What makes an effective Digipak?

- Once folded out, images/ designs may match to different panels

- Colourful/ bright or Black and white but contrasting and strong (some sides may join up)

- Sleek design

Pictures of the band/ artis

- Cover art

Long Road Music Video Blogs

What makes these blogs good are the use of relevent images and visual material, however in some of the blogs, there is a lot of text without any sort of visual whatever.
My blog compares to them by having quite a lot of text and having some very good visual material but I believe that my blog has a lot more visuals than some of the others on the Long Road Music Video site but may have no text in some visual posts.

My Blog:

What Went Well:
Good use of photographs
Good amount of video clips
Good use of relevent screnshots
Good relevent research into my genre
Good amount of text to go with the visuals

Even Better If:
Text with every visual
Relate all or most visuals to my music video more
More clips or screenshots of other music videos along with text