1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOU MEDIA PRODUCT
USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

2. PERFORMANCEWhen researching existing Little Comet’s music
videos one convention we particularly highlighted
was the use of performance. We identified from
our research on Little Comet’s videos but other
Indie-rock artists there are live performance and
choreographed dance in the majority of videos.
Also the artist sings the lyrics of the song into the
camera and when planning we decided to use this
convention as it occurs throughout the majority of
the videos and is therefore an important and
familiar convention . In the majority of our video
the actor of ‘Jennifer’ looked directly into the
camera singing the lyrics of the song. Also Andrew
Goodwin said that record labels demand a number
of close ups of the artists in music videos and this
is what we have done
Another aspect of music videos are the locations. When Little
comet’s videos, we identified that the videos for this band in
particular were filmed on just one location. However this was a
familiar setting that an audience could relate to making the video
realistic. We filmed parts of our video in our college green screen
room, however because our location was small we developed this
convention by filming in other places too . We feel this
development worked as we kept the locations realistic and they
are all in relation to each other. The locations we used included
our college, the mall and Piccadilly circus.
Location
Existing video
Our video
Music video

3. Our research of Indie-pop music videos showed that this genre of music video was
fairly fast paced.We discovered this was due to the editing in which shots are fairly
short and a simple cut is used between each shots. We used stop motion in our
video in order to createsome cool effects and it can also animate inanimate
objects. For e.g., making the tracking shot of Piccadilly circus stand out. However,
using stop motion was difficult to get the correctspeed. It was also difficult to get
consistent image quality so it looked like a continuous video instead of a series of
images. Also we had to separatelycreate the audio track. When planning, we
decidedto also use short clips and we did not plan to use any special effects such
as dissolving or fading in order to make the editing simple and fast paced.However,
in production although we have used this convention with the majority of our shots
being short, we have developedthis as in a few particular shots we have used
longer length clips as we feel it was an important part of the song and have used a
longer length to emphasis this.
Another convention that was we copied from the little comets videos and
added into our own music video was the use of stock motion. Little comets
videos , in particularly‘Jennifer’ , use stock motion to make it seem as though
an object is moving and this is a unique and intriguing convention which we
decidedto use in our own video for these reasons. . In our video we used the
tying of a ribbon on our performer’s head, Jemma. The use of stock motion in
this particular scene is to emphasise of the fact the Jennifer’s reticent
personality is escalating. This is revealed in the band’s lyrics ‘the knots she
ties in almost all her clothes’ and this is done in their existing video ‘Jennifer’
using laces of a pair of shoes . This slight unrealistic aspect gives an element
of fun to our video associating to the upbeat indie-pop music genre.
Editing
Stock Motion
Existing video Our music video
(0.1 second) (0.1 second)
(30 seconds) (30 seconds)
Existing video
Our music video

4. Another aspect of little comet’s existing videos that we identified during
research is that the band used animation to portray their lyrics. For example
in Little Comet’s ‘Jennifer’, some of the lyrics include ‘The way the ink blots on
the sink tops’. At the point in which these lyrics occur in the video, there is
animated blotting on one of the letter ‘O’ and afterwards there is animated
water dripping on one of the artist’s head. This is a very highlighted
convention in The Little Comet’s videos and therefore in order to make our
own successful Little Comets video it was vital that we included this
element. Andrew Goodwin said that there is a relationship between lyrics
and visual. In our story board you can see that we planned to use this
convention for example, for the lyrics ‘, I know that you did, cause you said
and you wrote it down’ we used a shot of a piece of paper saying ‘I love you’ in
handwriting
‘On the sink tops’
Existing video
‘The way the ink blots’
Planning to use these conventions
At the point when the lyrics
says ‘ it’s a shame that I
don’t love you better’ the
performer popsthe
balloon to indicate that
she no longer wants love
anymore
When filming our video, we tried to stick to our storyboard as
best as possible however during our filming days we were
influenced to new ideas when in our locations and the props
that were available. Therefore, we also developed some new
ways in which we could create this convention that we had
not previously planned. This was exciting during production
because we felt although we had already carried out
research and planning we were still developing and creating
new and exciting ideas.
The line where the
lyrics goes ‘fateful
words emblazoned on
your sweater’ our
performer mimics the
lyrics.
the line where the
lyrics goes ‘ the way
the ink blots’ Jemma
uses a balloon and
blots her lipstick onto
it to imitate the lyrics
The line where the lyrics go
‘him from carving thoughts
into the worktops , the
performer draws a heart and
scribbles it signifying her
lack of interest

5. When completing the research to help us with this project, we analyzed existing digipaks in order to identified the
common conventions of these products. By doing this we could then analyze these convention in the Indie-pop
genre products more closely in order to use, develop or challenge these aspects. Some of these conventions are;
color layout font photography genre feature
Digipak
Colour photography layout Font

6. After doing secondary research on the Indie-pop music genre I
created an audience profile. In order to appeal to the stereo
typically teenage, casual and fashionable target audience of Little
Comets and the Indie-rock music genre in general, I have used
similar color conventions that are used in Little Comets existing
products. These include binary opposite colors back and white, and
dark colors such as navy blue. By using this color scheme I have
also used a familiar convention of digipaks in general by using
binary opposite colors in order to keep the audience’s attention to
the meaning of the lyrics and the music video altogether. Mostly
indie colors aren’t too bright or extravagant because they don’t want
to direct the audience’s attention away from the meaning, but they
are still constructed with the same detail as other genres and edited
in post production as well.
Color
Existing
digipak
Our digipak
Fonts
Existing font
Our font
Little Comets as a band have their own identity and one aspect of this is
the font in which their name and album names are written. This same
font is used on all of the artist’s products as it creates familiarity and
makes their products recognizable. For this reason we have used this
convention within our digipak as the artist name, album name and
song lyrics on the back cover are all in the same font. The font itself
that we have used is a childlike, handwriting style (as similar to the
font of little Comet’s previous products as we could create) which
seem very free and loose creating a sense of fun associating with the
stereotypically jolly and upbeat indie-rock artists, music and fans.

7. Advert
The most common convention of album adverts is the
similarity between the digipak and advert. Like the
Little Comet’s existing products, we have used the same
image from our album cover on the advert and simply
extended the image vertically. These creates
familiarity for the product and makes it easily
recognizable for the audience.
In order to make a realistic advert we have followed the simple
genre conventions of album adverts that we identified from
existing products in our research. For example we have
included a larger artist name than the album name, the song
and a release date, This extra information give valuable details
an audience needs to purchase the album. However the fact
that the artist name is the largest aspect of the advert shows
the importance of the artist and her image over her music. In
terms of conventions such as font, color and photography, the
image on the advert is the same image that is used on the
digipak and therefore we have used, developed and
challenged these conventions in the same way.