Beth cooper question 1

 Q1: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media

Products?

Beth Emily Cooper

Forms & Conventions of Our Magazine Article

This is our first ancillary task. Our magazine article slightly challenged forms and

conventions by not featuring the band at all. However the image that is used is one from our

digi-pack where we focused mainly on the graffiti art therefore we have followed the

conventions of picking an image from our product to show on our magazine advert. We also followed

forms and conventions by adding ratings from likely sources such as NME and ITunes icons

(where to buy it from) . Also we carried on the graffiti theme though out the digi-pack to link the two together when buying, this is especially shown by the tint of pink on the graffiti. We

also typically used the same font to link everything together e.g. the “Fall Out Boy” name

and the tag line for the digi-pack name and websites to find out more information which is traditionally shown on magazine adverts to keep

the audiences interested and involved.

Forms & Conventions of Our Digi-Pack

This is our digi-pack cover, it follows many of the forms and conventions expected of a band much like ours. We chose to do the traditional 6 panel lay out with track list at the back, copyrighting demands and noticeable

feature link of the graffiti in both the digi-pack, magazine advert and the music video. We also had a very clear colour scheme that continued through out all ancillary task. We got this idea from looking at digi-packs from both Fall Out Boy, 30 Seconds To Mars and Hollywood Undead. We followed conventions of featuring all the band member together but also the main

focus on the lead singer and he is portrayed as the teenage heart throb for the audience much like Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and Jared Leto from 30

Seconds To Mars.

Our digi-pack30 Seconds To Mars digi-pack

Forms & Conventions of Selling the Star

We featured a lot of close up-mid shots of our star of the band as he is the most exploited and the lead singer

of the band. This again follows conventions of a rock boy band that

features a main singer like 30 Seconds To Mars (Jared Leto) or Nine Inch

Nails (Trent Reznor). He is shown many times throughout the band singing on his own with many close ups and is the main feature of our digi-pack. This

also shows of our lead singer’s talent as in every scene he is singing along and puts in lots of energy for his

performance.

Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails

Form & Conventions of How The Band Are Portrayed

Throughout the entire music video we were really focused on portraying the band as young and free much like the music video “Up In The Air” by 30

Seconds To Mars. We did this by the fun shots we had of the band smashing up water melons, exploding coke, water balloon fights and flour. This was to show of the childish side of the band

and how much fun they can have in their “7 minutes In Heaven”. Our main

scene that showed this was the dramatic flour fight at the end which showed the band members having lots harmless fun (this is important as we

don’t want the audience to be influenced into doing dangerous

stunts).

30 Seconds To Mars Flour Fight

Forms & Conventions of Location Throughout

Locations was a big decision for us but in the end after studying videos such as 30 Seconds To Mars “Up In The Air” and Fall Out Boy “Thanks For The Memories” we decided that conventionally we either needed a closed in space to cause havoc in or a large area to spread the band out and experiment more with. We decided to go with the large warehouse as we thought it would make the shoot more fun and interesting for the audience. Also it meant that we were less worried about making a mess! The derelict building worked really well as it showed off all the careless destruction that the band are doing and also the youth through the graffiti.

Forms & Conventions of Showing Off the Genre

Its was important that throughout the music video we still kept scenes of close ups of the instruments to show the genre off to link it to

the music. Rock videos always show the instruments that the band are playing to make

them look like good performers and connote that they are all about the music. It is also a good selling point as the audience want instruments like theirs (even though we shot them with toy

instruments) . Many off the shots of the instruments are edited on the beat to make it look like they are actually playing the music. Other examples of this are in Sum 41’s video to “In Too Deep” as the lead guitarists emerges

from a swimming pool playing guitar and all the focus is on his skill.

Sum 41 guitarist

Forms & Conventions of Bands

After studying many rock music video there is a similar pattern emerging. The position of band members. Conventionally, the

drummer is always at the back of the frame, then it’s the guitarist either side and finally the singer either placed forward or to the side of the band (either was the singer is always the main focus).

We followed these forms and conventions when deciding the positions of our band members

within the frame. We also worked on the postures of band members e.g. typically the bass guitarist holds his instrument low at arms

length whilst the drummer is usually hunched over.

Forms & Conventions to Selling The Band

It was important to us that we had a few scenes of the band members who played instruments in focus. We looked at bands such as Korn and Slipknot and conventionally, even thought they don’t appear a lot in music videos (not the main focus) they are still featured playing the instruments to show off the band as after all, the band are only as good as their music. Also this is a great selling point as usually within a

band (especially all boys) girls tend to chose a favourite , and not even girl will fancy the lead singer!

Forms & Conventions – Performing Shots

Rock videos must always have a performing shots (if they are to follow the forms and conventions of a rock video) We made an effort to have many shots of the band

performing together as it shows the full package of

what the consumer is buying/watching. Videos such

as Korn, always have big performing shots that pull the whole band together to remind the audience that it is not all about the main singer but also about the whole band making music together. This is seen

through out the majority of Rock videos.

Korn performing together in video “Coming Undone”

Form & Conventions of the Lead Guitarist

The lead guitars nearly always is the second to attention in a band. Conventionally the lead guitarist has more on

time air than any of the other band members excluding the

lead singer. This is because arguably the main guitarist is

the most important when playing music. We also made the relationship apparent by featuring him a lot in shots

with the lead singer. An example of this would be the

guitars from Sum 41.

Challenging Forms & Conventions

We have chosen to challenge forms and conventions of having

overlaid editing of imaged other than the band. Many rock music videos purely focus on the band and if

there are ever any overlays or bizarre

editing it is always of the band and not the

location. We chose this because we really wanted to promote the feelings of

enjoyment, fun and youthfulness. This was

always our main goal and to give the boys their “7

Minutes in Heaven” destruction.

Forms & Conventions of Clothing

Lastly we spend a long time figuring out how much “rock” we were going to go with for our band. We looked at artists like Slipknot, Sum 41 and the

original Fall Out Boy. In the end we decided to go with a more light hearted look much like Sum 41 as it shows off the youth of the band. Skinny jeans, hoodies and then a touch of metal using the mask. We found that the masks gave the video a more edgy look but also improved our idea of youth and

destruction due to the consealed identities of the band members. Over all I think we chose the right look for our band that also matched the music as it

isn't as heavy as some rock bands such as Slipknot.