Evaluation: Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For our media coursework we created a number of different media text to work in conjunction with each other in order to promote an artist of our choice, in our case Charlotte Webster. It is key that we understood and were able to apply conventions of real media text to our own products not only for future reference and understanding of the media industry but also as we are working with a real current artist. In order to aid us in our endeavour during in the planning and development stage of our media texts we observed and analyzed professional media texts giving us examples of what currently is successful for our chosen texts of a music promotion video, a digipak and a magazine advert. It is important to understand why and how media texts appear and work within the commercial world and to critique these examples in order to develop an understanding of what should be included in the production of our media texts.

Ancillary Tasks- Digipak and Magazine Advert

Promotional media texts surround and influence our daily lives, and so as consumers it was easy for us to identify what we liked, what we disliked, what we considered to be successful and unsuccessful. Making the transition from consumer to producer, was made easier by this fact. In relation to our magazine advert created to promote our chosen artist ‘charlotte webster’ and her debut album ‘simon,’ there are many features that correspond with the conventions of real media texts. For example both the magazine advert and digipak market an ‘image’ (a portrait of Shelley) rather than straight way marketing the concept and theme of the artist. This is a popular marketing strategy that focuses on enticing an audience with visual stimuli in order to open them up to the concept of the artist, or in our case our music video. Examples of this is real media texts include this poster for the libertines.

 The use of a portrait develops a visual relationship with the audience enhanced by the use of eye contact. The image does not rely on any former knowledge of the band with no attention concentrated on producing a persona for the members, and simply exposes two figures which intrigue and entices the audience.

Similarly our magazine advert uses the promotion of a portrait in which eye contact is used to found a relationship with the audience. However unlike this image, our magazine advert tries to create and develop a persona for advertisement purposes. This persona reflects the themes of the song, such as vulnerability, beauty and intensity, and therefore promotes the concept of the artist and her album. An example of this used within real media text comes in the form of a magazine advert for Jessie j’s album ‘who you are.’

The portrait is extremely strong and creates  a strong, independent, individual persona, the themes explored by the artist and her music. Another similarity between this magazine advert and our own is in the layout. The promotion of a name is key with most magazine adverts, an audience needs to understand or at least be given a reference point of what it is you are promoting. In terms of the music industry a name is a key element, as it is an audio based industry visual stimuli are not accessibly at all times for example when a song is broadcast on a radio station and so the name of the artist is key.

Our digipak also promotes both the name of the artist and the portrait creating an immediate link and therefore enhancing the commercial viability of the two. Like the album for ‘jessie j’ our digipak reuses the same image that is used in the advert, however the different edited interpretation begins to promote the concept of our artist. One of the key elements of many professional digipaks is the continuation of a theme, something that we have achieved within the production of our digipak in which we have continued the reinterpretation of an image in the form of a border which appears both on the digipak and magazine advert.

For the production of both our digipak and magazine advert we have utilised professional level software in the form of adobe Photoshop. A software used globally throughout music industry as well as advertising, media industry and the art world etc. Although complex, the results achievable with this software can be incredibly successful and perform to a professional standard.

Music Video

Our music video was created using the software ‘final cut’ a great software used both professionally and for recreation around the world, although seemingly complex, it is quite simple compared to the software used by larger institutions and has allowed smaller institutions to achieve similar levels of success in term so editing, and so was creates more competition. although it is not as advanced as the editing software used by large institutions, the editing process is still a convention of real media thatwe have used and explored. The music promotion video that we have produced contains multiple examples of conventions from real media texts. For example it explores montaging of visual stimuli in order to enhance but not distract form the music, something also explored professionally by many of the music videos for ‘lana del rey.’

Our idea, although not originally influenced in terms of planning and production by this artist as she had not yet achieved global acclaim, there are very clear similarities between the two. For example the multiple examples of mid shots of lip-syncing used in both, as well as the creation of nostalgia.

The music video that we created also included the title of the track and artist in the bottom left had corner both at the start and end of the video. This has been inspired by the format of music channels used to broadcast and exhibit music videos for example ‘MTV,’ however recently artist have begun to produce this themselves, giving more control over the presentation. A prime example of this is in the paparazzi video by ‘lady gaga.’

Overall, both in production, and exhibition our media texts follow the conventions or real media texts with the music video being uploaded to youtube, a fantastic free platform for worldwide video sharing, and we both consider our media text to be successful.