Media A2 Evaluation Q.1

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

I have been asked to produce a music video promo, a digipak for the music promo and a magazine advert for the music promo. For my music video promo we used an unsigned a bands song called “Rock Pride” by the band “B.I.T.E”. The songs genre is Glam Rock. Our main aim was to successfully make a Glam Rock music promo that will rival the professional Glam Rock music videos out there. The three tasks we have been asked to complete all join in together very well to promote a band or artist themselves. For example, successful magazine adverts and digipaks help to promote the music promo. An example of a well put together magazine advert is from the band Plan B.

An example of an impressive digipak is shown below. This is Michael Jackson's “This is it” digipak.

As you can see from this successful magazine advert and digipak, these types of promotion and advertisement are put together very well. The types of advertisement help to create hype and interest towards the upcoming music promo. When the band/artist have been advertised then it is time to introduce the music promo which has a more personal side of promotion with it being the main thing that draws in fans around the world. This is because you get to see a physical and visual form of how the band/artists perform and act around others. The music promo will hopefully aim to create a fan base from their specific target audience to help keep them interested in their songs for as long as they are released. I believe that our music promo, magazine advert and digipak combine to rival and seriously contend against the real types of promotion out there. For example we, like the real bands have kept to the typical conventions within these three areas that help keep them successful and popular. An example of a successfully constructed music promo is shown below being White Snake’s “Here I go again”.
 

This is a successful music promo because it is filmed extremely well to help show off their skills. One example would be how there are a lot of performance pieces of filming to help show who the band members are, what instruments they play and how good they are. This is shown through lots of close ups, shots of the instruments being played and especially of the lead singer showing his talents. A music promo is a very important feature of promotion to their target audience so it is important that all the elements included all fulfil their potential.

  In a pop video the performance side will be used to develop the band member’s personality to help make them more personal to the audience so that they have someone to relate to. An example band that uses this side of performance is “McFly”. The narrative side of a music promo is used to tell a story that relates to the song. If the song for the music promo had a low tempo and the lyrics had some lines that related to romance then it is likely that the visual representation of the video will show a love story or something similar. The camera work that is used on a music promo can vary hugely as many different bands and artists choose to use lots of new and interesting camera shots. There might be one music promo where there is only one shot used throughout their video and then there will be others where there are hundreds of different shots. There are some very common shots in particular though that tend to be used often. One of these is a close up of the band members face to show their emotion and interaction with the consumer. The editing process in a music promo is often determined in the tempo and pace of the chosen song. For example if the tempo and pace is high then the video will most likely have lots of fast and quick edits to stay in time with the beats. In a low tempo and slower paced song the editing will not be as quick and the shots are likely to be longer distanced shots to show the person for example moving about easier due to the length of the edited shot. Close ups are used more often in the quicker edited shots as too much movement of a person would result in the introduction of a longer shot.

The actors in a music promo are always the band members in the performance side but the narrative side can often include new actors that are not part of the band. The actors can sometimes be part of the narrative side though as shown in the Glam Rock music promo “If you really really love me” by Steel Panther as the narrative is about the band themselves filming a music video. The video is shown below.

Mise-en-scene can be shown in many different ways like location, props and more. The most important feature would be the mise-en-scene location as it sets the scene for the music promo. The song that is chosen for the particular music promo needs to relate to the location in the music promo. Genre is very important in the music industry as it is used to define the particular song and what sort of music it contains. Some of the well-known different genres include the likes of Rock, Alternative, Pop and more. All genres have their own separate styles. All music promos that are out there stick to the typical conventions for their particular genre. The typical conventions of a music promo are shown below through this link.

http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/16359250

The typical conventions of a Glam Rock music video are shown below through this link.

http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/16359113

In our music promo we have tried to stick to the typical conventions shown in other Glam Rock music promos. The location of our Music promo was set in the Stamford Arts centre ball room/blue room. Some pictures of the exterior and interior are shown below.



We as a group were very pleased with our location as it was suitable to the location ideas that we had thought about. This is because we originally were split between the ideas of either a warehouse or a big hall for concerts etc. To start off with we looked for a warehouse but found that the warehouses that were the right size turned out to be too crowded by cargo and goods. This led to us looking into halls and the Stamford arts Centre fitted our criteria perfectly due to its great size and authentic stage. This helped to create a concert type of atmosphere even without any audience fans available. The location fitted with our style of narrative as well because we wanted the narrative to be based on the band themselves making the music video. This meant that the location was very realistic to our narrative selection. The Ball room in the arts centre also provided some good standard lights that we were allowed management of. These lights are shown below.

The location we choose is similar to some of the locations in which Glam Rock genre bands use. This helps us identify that we are using the typical conventions. Some pictures of Glam Rock locations are shown below and as you can see most of the locations tend to be the same sort of concert style location which we were aiming for. This is challenging the typical conventions of the Glam Rock genre in real media products because these types of locations are often used but we are trying to better them.

When it comes to costumes we wanted to stay true to the Glam Rock conventions and we did this by making them colourful and eccentric. From the costumes we wanted to convince our target audience that the band was instantly part of the Glam Rock genre due to their costumes. The band that we got the most influence on when designing the costumes was “Steel Panther” as they are a well-known Glam Rock band who has had a lot of experience in this genre. A picture of the band and their costumes are found below.

  

As you can see the bands costumes are very creative and this is the type of style that we decided to use as you can see from our very own band photos bellow.

From the pictures above you can see that we have made the costumes very similar to “Steel Panther”. Our costumes are therefore challenging the typical conventions seen through other Glam Rock bands like “Steel Panther”.

In terms of props we needed to make the set on the stage realistic to music promos and our chosen genre. For example we needed a guitar, bass, microphones, drum kit, Amps, PAs and much more to help set the scene. If these mise-en-scene props were not in place then the scene would look unrealistic. All of the band equipment go together to make that concert type of atmosphere which we wanted. Through these props, we wanted to challenge the conventions in real media products by making the props as realistic as they are seen in the Glam Rock promos. A picture of the stage set up with equipment ready for shooting can be seen below.

When editing the music promo we wanted the full feature to run smoothly along with the synced lyrics. To stick with the typical conventions in the Glam Rock genre we decided to include mostly straight cuts in the editing process. This is because the Glam Rock songs are usually fast paced so the slower transitions would not flow as well in a Glam Rock video. We did however use a few different transitions that fitted the scene well. For example one of the best transitions is at the end when we combine all four of the band member’s pictures within the last jump off the stage to end the music promo. What makes this transition work even better is the fact that the change of picture links in with the beats of the song. Another type of editing technique that we used a few times is the Opacity effect. This is where a picture on the screen is overlaid with another. This allows both pictures to be evenly shown or for one to be shown more predominantly than the other. We did this twice in the music promo and the better one was when we had the guitar being played in the background of the drums being played at the same time. We chose to include this transition as it is an easier way to include two pictures in one when there is more than one instrument being played. The shot is shown below. This transition is developing the typical conventions as we are trying to introduce this transition into other Glam Rock music promos as transitions like this are not often used in Glam Rock promos. If the transition is well received then this could influence a new style of transitions into the Glam Rock genre if it was possible to reach a mass audience. We have done this through the precision opacity percentage on the screen. This precision makes sure that the opacity looks effective and professional.

 

Nearly all music promos have both a narrative and performance side in their video. The performance side in our video was set in the ball room in the Stamford arts centre where a stage will accompany the band playing their instruments and rocking out. The performance side is usually shown more in the music promos of other Glam Rock music promos as the bands really want to show off their talents as it takes a lot of skill to play guitar, bass, drums and more. For the narrative side of our video we decided to concentrate on the band themselves and this idea came from the band Steel Panther in their song “If you really really love me” as the promo was based on the band and what they did to prepare for the performance side in making a music video which we also were inspired by. For example in Steel Panther’s video some band members will be sorting their hair out in preparation for the performance side just like in our video. This will challenge the forms and conventions of the real media product being Steel Panthers video. This is because we are using ideas from a Glam Rock band and trying to make it look better. The contrast between the narrative and performance side of the video is shown through the performance being in colour and the narrative shown in black and white. An example of this comparison is shown below.