Evaluation Q1

Q1. How does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real

media products?

What are the forms and conventions of Digipaks of this genre?

Front Cover • band name • album name • cover design • possible image of the

band

Back Cover • track list • barcode • record company info

and logos • band website • copyright info

Inside Right • CD holder (either a

sleeve, pocket or disc tray • page design including

photos or illustrations

Inside Left • page design (including

photos or illustrations) • credits • thank yous

CD • simple design • possibly band name • possibly album name

All of which stick to one colour scheme and either 2 or 3 fonts.

Digipak - frontMy digipak front cover follows the conventions of an indie rock band’s album design in its abstract use of common indie iconography (cityscapes) and monochromatic colour scheme. I used my own illustrations for my design so that it was unique to my own style. I used this black and white colour scheme to go follow the usual look of an indie album, like the examples from The Black Keys and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club below. These bands are very similar to The Heavy.Also, I chose not to include a photo of the band on my digipak cover which is another common convention of indie rock band albums and branding, as seen on the examples from The Black Keys and Awolnation below. They use typography and illustration to represent the band while adding a sense of mystery and enigma to their image.

Digipak - insideThe inside pages of my digipak design follow the conventions of real digipak in that they continue to stick to the monochromatic colour scheme and use my illustrations. I included a small ‘thank you’ text on the inside left page as from my research I found that this was a common feature in some of the examples I looked at, like on Mumford & Sons digipak. For my CD design, I elided to make the disc white so that it stands out against the black backgrounds of the entire digipak and used my dip-mark illustrations on its design but inverted the colours. I decided not to include the band name and album name on the disc in order to keep it minimal and clutter-free. Continuing my illustrationsthroughout the inside of my digipak creates synergy in the product. I also use this design elsewhere.

Digipak - backThe back of my digipak uses the conventions of most digipaks in its use of a track list, barcode, institutional information, website and record company logos. Real products will aways include these necessary features with the only differences being in the design. For this reason I ensured that I used all of the necessary information on the back of my digipak. The background colour on my digipak is black to go with the rest of the design to retain continuity and keep the dark, indie theme throughout. I also used a small reference to my illustrations from the front and inside of the digipak with the use of one of my little skyscrapers. As for the font, I used the same font as I used in thetitle on the front cover as most digipaks will keep the amount of fonts used on one design to the bare minimum, using no more than 2 fonts. I used Helvetica for the institutional information as this is commonly used for such a purpose because it is plain and legible.

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What are the forms and conventions of band websites of this genre?

Band name/logo as it appears on the newest album

Promotion of newest product as the biggest item on the homepage

(represented by a video, album cover, tours, etc.)

Blog posts and news informing fans of newest info, what the band is up

to, what’s coming up and what to expect

‘Out Now’ album/single promotion

Links to purchasing newest album via either

their official store, iTunes, Amazon, HMV,

etc.

Tabs linking to news, tours, discography, videos, gallery, merchandise, contact info, forums, newest releases

WebsiteFor my website design, I chose a Wix template that reflected the dark, indie theme of my band and then customised it to create my website for The Heavy. For the banner, the only text I chose to include was the band’s name as this is common of most band websites of this genre, retaining the minimal style and drawing the most attention to their name. I used a black background on the banner to match my digipak and to contrast against the white background of the website. The drip mark illustrations are the same as the ones from my digipak design. I used them on my banner to create synergy between the two media products, a technique commonly used by bands on their websites, to create visible connection between their products.

Website - Gallery PageAll band websites have a gallery page, in which the band/their manager can post photos to promote the band and their image and show the fans what they do. From my research of conventional band websites, I found that this page often consisted of professionally shot photos, tour photos, stage photos, backstage/tour bus photos, photos from a music video shoot, images of merchandise and album and single cover art. To follow these conventions, I used photos that I took during my music video shoot and photos from the gig I saw of The Heavy. This way I created a mixture of photos form different events, making it more similar to the gallery pages of real rock/indie bands.

Website - Music PageFrom studying the conventions of rock band websites, I found that all band websites will include a Music page. This page can consist of links to music videos, a list of discography, embedded song players and links to purchase albums and singles. I have included this in my own website, linking to 2 of The Heavy’s most popular music videos and to my own music video on YouTube. This is a common convention of band websites because it is effective in promoting the band’s latest work and links the fans straight to the video, making it quick and simple to find. Putting these videos at the top of the music page is useful in drawing the most attention to them. Bands will want to do this because it will get their videos more views on YouTube and this will increase their popularity as videos with lots of views attract lots of viewers.

Website - Tour PageAll band websites will also have a tour page, consisting of the dates of their upcoming gigs and past gigs and links to websites where they can purchase tickets to the shows. As I found from my research, these purchase links will always go to other websites elsewhere, like Ticketmaster. Tour dates will usually be listed very briefly to get only the most important information across to the fans. I used these conventions to design my website’s tour page, including upcoming and past dates. I got the information for these gigs from The Heavy’s website so they are in fact real gig dates. I linked my ‘buy ticket’ buttons to ticketmaster.com. Not all band websites choose to include past tour dates on tis page of their website, as you can see from the screenshot of King of Leon’s website on the right below. However, I decided to include this as I think it gives the fans more information as to what the band has been up to recently, and which cities they have been in.

Website - Contact PageFrom my research of conventional band websites, I found that not all of them included a contact page. In fact, I realised that the only band websites that included a contact page were the slightly lesser known bands. This is probably because if very famous bands had such a page on their site, it would most likely be bombarded with messages daily. For smaller bands, a contact page is a quick way for them to receive messages from fans or other agents and business matters. The Heavy are not incredibly famous, so I decided to include a contactpage on my website. On this page, most band websites had a contact box, which I included, where people can type quick messages that the band would receive by e-mail. I included the management information on the side and their social networking links, as the band would be able to be contact through their Facebook and Twitter, too.

What are the forms and conventions of music videos of this genre?

Range of Shots and Angles A Main CharacterNarrative

Lip-synching Use of lighting Setting and Location

Music Video - Main CharacterI chose to use a child as the actor of my main character because I have seen it in other music videos (such as “La La La” by Naughty Boy and “Tighten Up” by The Black Keys. I thought it created an interesting and entertaining juxtaposition between the innocent youth of the character and their usually mature surroundings, situations and actions. The main character of my music video is portrayed as a sort of protagonist. This is mainly implied from the lyrics, “this ain’t no place for no hero”. Music videos with a narrative conventionally tend to have a protagonist or hero character, like the two examples I’ve already mentioned. It gives the story more purpose and someone for the audience to root for, making watching the music video all the more enjoyable. I also think I managed to get my audience to care for the character, too, making him look lonely by placing him alone in every shot. Gaining an emotional response for a narrative is conventional, like in Naughty Boy’s video, because it makes for a more interesting and therefore talked about music video.

Music Video - NarrativeThe narrative of my video follows the conventions of other rock band music videos because it takes a concept (finding pennies on the ground) and creates an interesting and entertaining story around that idea (a small hero is the one to put them there when we’re not looking, trying to be a hero and make someone’s day by simply giving someone the chance to find a penny and pick it up). My narrative was initially inspired by the title of the song “Short Change Hero” and my character is a slight pun on it, implying that he is the Short Change Hero. This kind of narrative is not commonly found in rock music videos but I decided to challenge this convention and put my own spin on my interpretation of the song. My narrative is told through shots of the coins being placed or dropped in random places throughout my video. The frequency of these shots gives the impression that he does a lot of this. Music videos have to tell a story without any words (other than the lyrics of the song which, conventionally, rock music videos never have to stick to).

Music Video - CostumeI chose the costume for my main character and based it off the conventional style of western cowboys that we see in films. My costume, as seen to the left, consisted of jeans, a checkered shirt, a leather-look jacket, a cowboy hat and Converse high-top shoes. I used my research into the conventions of a western film where I found the basic style for a cowboy and based my styling off of that. I specifically looked at The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, a very successful and famous western film. I chose this film due to its critical success, meaning that the costumes used were likely to be quite accurate and effectively appropriate to the western genre.

Music Video - LocationsI used 2 main locations for the shoot of my music video: a housing estate (at night) and the inside of a house. I chose these locations as they fit my narrative of having a fictional character in realistic surroundings. As I saw from the music video for La La La, it uses strange, fictional characters in a city location. It creates a juxtaposition between the unusual characters in the very usual surroundings.

Music Video - Camera TechniquesI followed some of the conventions of the Western film genre in order to create a stylised music video to fit with my main character’s image. To do this, I focus the majority of my camera angles on the hero, as in Western films the camera will focus on the protagonist. Another convention of Western camera angles I used was in my mimicking of a shoot-out scene. I focused the camera on the hero’s hand as it twitched, often seen in Western films before a shoot-out. I used some other interesting shots such as silhouettes, focus pulls, low angle shots, close-ups and wide angles. All music vides will use a range of camera shots and so I ensured to use a range in my music video.

Music Video - Lip-SynchingAlmost every music video will inlaced lip synching and so I ensured to include this in my music video. As my main character was being portrayed by a child actor and the singer in the band is a man much older than my actor, I looked to the music video ‘Tighten Up’ by The Black Keys for inspiration. In this video, the child actors are portraying a situation that is entertainingly more often associated with adults (trying to win the girl) yet the children lip synch along with the song that is clearly sung by an adult man. I created a similar effect in my music video. The young person lip synching to an adult’s voice creates an entertaining juxtaposition. Also, the lyrics that I got my actor to lip synch over were relevant to his character, “this ain’t no place for no hero”.

Music Video - LightingI used mainly artificial lighting when shooting my music video. This is because when I filmed outside, it was night and dark so I utilised street lamps to create an ominous look with their downward lighting. When filming inside, I used the lights around the house to light my filming. The use of artificial lighting is often used in music videos as it gives for more control over the lighting. Filming with sunlight means that the lighting can move and change with the weather and so it is less reliable and can result in continuity errors. When using artificial lighting, I could ensure that my actor was clearly lit at all times. It was more difficult to do so outside at night but thankfully my location had a lot of street lamps available for my use.