The document discusses the ways a media product can use and challenge conventions of real media. It analyzes the author's music video alongside Chris Brown's "With You" video. Several conventions are examined, including opening shots, eye contact, use of cars, and presence of girls. The author notes how their video both follows and challenges conventions. Form and lighting choices are also discussed. Audience feedback was collected through a questionnaire about the video posted on YouTube. Responses were mixed but most felt the video fit pop/soul conventions.

2. I am going to be discussing the ways our media product uses’ and/or
challenges’ the form and conventions of real media products.
Firstly I am going to be discussing the ways in which we follow or
challenge the codes and conventions of a music video. I will be doing
this along side Chris Browns’ With You video. Here you can see a shot
from Chris Browns’ video and shots from our video. Here we can see
that we have challenged the conventions of a typical video as you can
see that in the beginning of Browns’ video the first thing you see is
Chris Brown himself but in our video we have opening credits and the
shots of the skate park. Also, the fact that you don’t see our artist is
giving it a mysterious feel and we don’t actually see him until 38
seconds into the video.

3. Eye contact is an important convention in all music videos. It’s a type
of way in which you can interact with the audience. In Browns’ video
he doesn’t give eye contact to us even when the camera is faced
directly at him for quite a while but then when he sings the line ‘with
you’ he gives eye contact. Whereas in our video, Leyton doesn’t give
eye contact throughout the whole video until the end, and we end on
him looking into the camera. I think that when Leyton is looking into
the camera it doesn’t give an inviting look but if Leyton was to look
into the camera with a little more passion and not had such a serious
face on then maybe it would have made it less intrusive.
The most prop that is used in most R&B videos is cars. Cars have been
used in both our video and Browns’ video. The car in Browns’ video is a
bright red Mini and stands out a lot from the dark scene, whereas the
motorbikes kind of blend in with the background. In our video we have
used a black BMW, therefore this shows that we have followed the
conventions of a music video, the car also stands out from the light
scene. The car in our video is in nearly the whole shot and we can’t see
the driver or anyone sitting in the car creating a mysterious feel. A
convention that we have challenged is the presence of a girl. Browns’
video shows many girls. This is obviously because he’s talking about
being without someone, whereas in our video we haven't got any girl,
obviously because the song isn't based around heartbreak or anything to
do with girls.

4. For our music video we decided that we wanted a narrative and a
performance. The narrative is in black and white whereas the
performance is in colour. We decided that they were going to be
different so the audience can distinguish between them. We have
followed the codes and conventions of a typical music video. Even
though Chris Browns’ video has a performance throughout the whole
video, there are clips that are slowed down which shows us that
those clips have importance in the video. In our video we have shown
the importance by making the relevant scenes black and white.

5. Mise-en-scene means ‘everything within the frame’. I think the key
aspects are: setting, costume, figure behaviour and lighting.
Our music video was shot in South Bank Skate Park and in a house in
Greenford, whereas Browns’ video is shot in Los Angeles, California.
The main difference between both videos is that one is shot in the
day and the other in the evening. Another difference is that our video
was shot in two different places. We have extended our control by
using two locations to give meaning to our narrative and
performance. We have used props in the video e.g. iron, TV, teddy,
white board, pen, headphones etc. In Browns’ video they have used
the bus, guitar, motorbikes and cars for their props.
I think costume plays a big part in the music video. Leytons’ genre of
music is R&B and soul, and although the codes and conventions of the
way a R&B artist should dress is in baggy clothes and hoodies (like in
Chris Browns’ video), we told Leyton to wear smart shoes, jeans and
shirt because he is a soul artist as well and therefore the clothes he is
wearing fits into both genres. Leyton has two looks in the video, the
other look is when he is dressed in a simple T-Shirt and a normal pair
of jeans. We told him to dress a certain way because we were
shooting the narrative which was to show abuse from his step-father.
Chris Brown also wears two different costumes, both costumes were
used for both the performance and the narrative.

6. I think lighting can play a important role in a music video. Too much or
too little can make your video unwatchable and/or boring. By
manipulating the quality and the direction of the light you can change
the quality of the scene. Different lighting setting can mean different
moods in scenes for example, high level of light mean happiness
whereas low level of lighting can mean sadness/grief. When shooting
our video we had all natural lighting because we were filming outside
for the performance and there was enough light in the house when we
were doing the narrative. When we were filming the scene at south
bank we had shadows forming. If we compare this to Chris Browns
video, we can see that they may have used artificial lighting because it
was shot in the dark, but there was some light coming from the street
lamps but we don’t know whether they were real or artificial.
Framing also plays an important role in the video because it shows
things that scenes that go with the music. We used many shot
distances such as close ups, long shots and medium shots. A close
up is a s hot of his face and shoulders. Both our video and Chris
Browns’ have close ups. Close ups may shoe facial expression and
how or what they are feeling. We have also used long shots for the
shots for the shots of the skate park and when Leyton is looking
out to the sea.

7. These are our final digi-pack.
We decided to choose Kavitha’s
pack because we thought it
created synergy and therefore
it would be easier to tell that it
was from the same artist. Even
though there is a little
difference between the inside
and outside of the CD we can
still clearly see that it’s from
the same artist because there's
a picture of Leyton on all of the
pages.

8. I think that there is synergy between all our products. An example of synergy is Disney.
They have a Disney channel then Disney movies and then Disney DVD’s and then
different merchandises such as t-shirts, mugs and toys. This is where everything within a
franchise promotes everything else. Our video was set half in a skate park and half in a
house. The main theme was to show the struggles of Leyton growing up, being family
problems and the place where he grew up. We decided that we wanted to use a skate
park because it represents the area in which he grew up. There is synergy between the
video, CD and the advert because Leyton is in/on each thing. While shooting the video at
the skate park we did a photo shoot from we used picture in the advert and the CD cover.
There was a certain way we wanted Leyton to look on the day (smart), we did this to
show that not everyone from a rough area wears hoodies and baggy trousers, also by
doing this we have challenged the codes/conventions of a typical R&B artist. Because
Leyton was wearing the same thing in the video as he is in the advert and CD cover, it
make it easier for the audience to spot e.g. when looking for the album or single. When I
took the pictures I realised that the pictures of Leyton looking away from the camera
worked better rather than the photos of him giving eye contact, although eye contact is
important because it helps you interact with the audience I thought looking away almost
make the audience ask themselves ‘why isn't he giving eye contact?’. Another way to
identify the synergy between the products is the font that has ben used. The font is the
same on the CD cover and the advert again making to recognisable and the audience will
instantly be able to tell that this is Leyton's album. Andrew Goodwin has said that in
music videos there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. I think this applies
to our video because we have used the lyrics in the song to create a narrative and I think
that narrative and performance work together to make it easier for the audience to
watch it over and over again without losing interest. Because Leyton is the narrator and
the victim in the narrative it make the video more authentic and the audience need to
see it as being real.

9. For our audience feedback I made a questionnaire and distributed them to the target audience which is 12-15 year old females, also as a
group we uploaded the music video on to YouTube. I showed the target audience the video and then told them to fill out the
questionnaire. I sampled 15 people for the questionnaire. I asked 5 questions (4 closed questions and 1 open question) and the results
were as follows:
After watching the
first part of the
video, did it make
you want to carry on My first question was ‘After watching the first part of the
watching the video? video, did it make you want to carry on watching the video?’.
The pie chart shows that 33% felt that the video didn’t draw
33%
Yes them in, but 67% said they wanted to carry on watching the
video. They may not have been drawn in because of the
67% No quality of filming which we could have improved by maybe
using a tripod when doing steady shots. On the other hand
they may be drawn in because we followed some
codes/conventions of a R&B/soul music video.

10. 12
Did you like
10 the video?
The second question was whether they liked the video. 73%
8 liked the video and 27% didn’t. They may have not like the
Yes
video because of the quality of the video or they may have
6 No liked it because of the narrative and performance in the
73% video, but we asked the audience to write any comments
4 they had about the video in another question.
2 27%
0 After watching this
Yes No video, would you
go and buy the
single?
My third question was if after watching the video would
they go and buy the single. 53% said they wouldn’t buy the
single whereas 47% said they would go and buy the single. I 53% 47%
got mixed responses as some said they wouldn’t buy it Yes
because they didn’t like the singing but others enjoyed it No
and they said they would and the video helps encourage
people to go and buy the single.

11. 14
Do you think
12 that the
video fits the The fourth question was whether they thought the video fit into a
10 codes and pop/soul video. 80% thought so and 30% thought it didn’t fit the
conventions codes/conventions of a pop/soul artist. There are certain places
8
of a pop/soul where we have challenged the conventions of a typical music
6 artist? video such as not have a girl in the video, or not wearing typical
80% clothes of a R&B artists would. These issues may have made the
4 Yes audience think that it wasn’t a typical R&B music video. On the
2 No other hand, 80% said that the video fit into the convention/codes
20% of a R&B artist. They may have said this because of the ‘flashy’ car
0 in the video as there are many R&B music video where there are
Yes No cars as such.
The last question was to write any other comments that they say
about the video. The one comment that people mostly wrote was
about the length of the video, saying it was ‘too long’. The original
song was 4:52 minutes long, and we had to cut he song down to 3:28
minutes. I think the audience thought it was too long was because
music videos now a days have cut down to 2:30-3:00 minutes
long, but there are some pop music videos such as Lady GaGa’s music
videos which sometimes run for 10-12 minutes. There were also
negative comments on the artists singing and when looking at the
questionnaire the people who said that were people that said they
wouldn’t buy the single (question 3).

12. This feedback is from ‘YouTube’. We posted our video on the 19 th January
2012 an up until now the video has got 432 views. We have comments
that are positive and negative. There is a comments stating that ‘the video
isn’t doing it’. This maybe the quality of the video, one way we could've
improved it was by adding more cuts where there are longer shots. There
were also a few negative comments about the artist. We obviously
couldn’t do anything about that. I also looked at the statistics for the video
and it shows that the video is most popular with males aged 13-17 and
females aged 18-24. This audience is completely different to what our
target audience was which was females aged 12-15. the statistics also
shows where in the world the video has been watched in this case in the
UK and in the USA. The fact that the video was played in USA broadens the
target audience even more because we thought that the video was going
to be watched in the UK.

13. During our research, planning, construction and evaluation stages I have used software, hardware and different types of research. There
different software's we used which are: InDesign, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and
Wordpress. We used different hardware’s which are: Video Camera, SLR Camera and a Computer. For our research we used:
Google, Phones, YouTube and Social networking sites. To gain most of my research I used Google to research the artist I also used it to
research comparable artists such as Chris Brown and Amy Winehouse. I used Google to also look for CD covers and magazine adverts to help
give ma an idea of what the codes and conventions of a soul/R&B artist is. We used YouTube to listen to the artists other songs which
helped us to determine what the target audience was and we used YouTube to put up the final video and we got responses from users
which helped us to learn about what we did good and what we could improve on. YouTube provided us with statistics on who was watching
the video and where in the world they were watching. Social networking sites helped us put our product out to get people to watch the
video. As our artist has a Facebook account, the video being put out on Facebook will help him build a bigger fan base. I used my phone to
help me contact my group for meetings or shootings and I used to record what some of the target audience thought of the video and if
there was anything we could improve on.

14. To take pictures of our artist we used a Sony SLR camera. The settings were an issue because I didn’t change them when I needed to
which meant that I had to Photoshop to change the picture to what I wanted it to be. To film the video we used a video camera, which
we borrowed from the college. To get used to using the video camera we made a chase sequence to help us improve our skills and help
us film properly. A final piece of hardware we used was the computer, we used this in our research; to help us research comparable
artists, planning; used software’s to write up our treatment and to write down any research we did and we used it to edit our video and
create the digi pack, and evaluation stages; where I am writing up the how and why we made the video the way we did and analysing
the feedback we got.

15. I have used many software’s throughout the
research, planning, construction and evaluation stages of making the
video and the digi pack. I have used Microsoft Word when doing
research to write down everything I research and when writing the
treatment for the video as part of the construction. I have used
Microsoft Excel to draw up the bar charts and pie charts to help me
analyse the findings on my questionnaire this makes it easier to analyse.
I have used Microsoft PowerPoint to write up my evaluation which tells
you what we had to do create a music video and a digi pack. It also tells
you what we could have improved on and what worked well. Final Cut
Pro was used to edit the final music video. Initially we had difficulties
using the programme but then we got used to it and Kavitha had used
the programme previously therefore it helped us when we were editing.
I used Photoshop to edit some pictures we took of the artist. There were
times when it got difficult to use but I kept on practising with photos and
therefore getting better at Photoshop. I used InDesign to create the digi
pack which consists of a CD cover, CD booklet and a magazine advert for
the artist. One problem I had when using InDesign was the sizing of the
CD cover, sometimes the cover was too big sometimes they were to
small. Wordpress is a online blog and we had to put everything we
researched, planned, constructed and evaluated on the blog. Putting
things onto the blog helped because it was easier to see what we had
done and learnt from the beginning of the year.