The document discusses conventions for music videos, digipaks, and album posters. It analyzes conventions outlined by Goodwin and Archer for elements that should be included in music videos, such as relating the visuals to the lyrics and song. It discusses how the student's music video incorporated many conventions, such as using a narrative that relates to the song lyrics, but adapted some conventions, like portraying the artist in a negative way to fit the narrative. It also analyzes conventions for digipaks, such as including exclusive content and photos of the artist, and discusses how the student followed conventions by using a similar style to the artist's other albums. Finally, it discusses conventions for album posters, such as including the artist name

1. In what ways do your media products use, develop and challenge the
forms and conventions of real media products?
Music Video Conventions and Genre Conventions:
At the beginning ofthe year I was taughtaboutAndrewGoodwin and Steve Archer’s forms and
conventions of music videos and genres.
Goodwin wrote abouthowmusic videos should include genre characteristics,have a
relationship between the lyrics and visuals, and between the visuals and the song,howthere
should be a recurring visual style, reference to the treatment of women (voyeurism), and finally
there should be intertextual reference to films and TV.
Archerwrote about howmusic videos should include synaesthesia,include narrative and
performance,create a star image for the artist, have effective technical aspects,and finally how
the video needs to relate the visuals to the song.
In ourmusic video we tried to include as manyof these forms and conventions as possible,but
first made sure that they were typical conventions of the genre of ourartist. We made sure that
we created a relationship between the visuals and lyrics. We did this by having our artist
performing throughoutthe video (lip syncing)whilst also being the main characterin our
narrative.
Forour narrative, we decided to create a story that linked to the lyrics. The song tells a story
abouthowhe “wasn’t made for loving” and that his mum called him destructive, so we created a
narrative abouthow he’s always the cause for the break-ups ofhis relationships,or is always

2. messing up his relationships, butwhen he finally found a girl who he was falling for, she
cheated on him and the relationship ended.This links to Archer’s convention that the visuals of
the video need to relate to the song,I believe our video links to the ‘amplification’ genre
because the video enhances the ideas of the lyrics. This also links to Goodwin’s convention that
there needs to be a relationship between the visuals and the song. We also stuck to Goodwin’s
convention of genre characteristics. The genre for our music video is ‘alternative R&B’ and the
genre characteristics for music videos of this genre tend to be a mixture between performance
and narrative, normally tend to be either the amplification or illustration type, and also include
voyeurism. Even though ourmusic video does include narrative and performance and is also
the amplification type, it howeverdoesn’tinclude any voyeurism.
We knewthat mostmusic videos created by ourartist (The
Weeknd)would include women in less to no clothes, etc., but,
the song we had chosen had a slightly different meaning
compared to the other songs on his album, so we therefore
took a different approach with the ideas for our music video. I
believe the narrative fit very well with the meaning ofthe lyrics,
and it didn’t need to include any voyeuristic features in order
for it to fit to the alternative R&B genre. We also challenged
two of Goodwin’s other conventions.We didn’t include a
recurring visual style, i.e. the demands ofthe record label
will include the need for lots of close-ups ofthe artist and
motifs. Our music video doesn’tinclude a majoramountof
close-ups ofthe artist because its mainly narrative based.
Our music video tells a very vivid story, and the need for
close ups wasn’t applicable to the story. However, because ourartist is the main character in
ourvideo and he is in nearly every single shot, we have therefore created a recurring visual
style. We also challenged the convention of intertextual references.We didn’t link our music
video to any previous music videos, films or TV programmes.Again we had a very vivid
storyline, butit was an originalidea on ourbehalf. We also stuck to Archer’s conventions of

3. synaesthesia; ourvideo creates a mood for the piece,whilst the voice of ourartist makes it
unique.
Digipak Conventions:
When researching Digipaks as a whole,I found and
learned that all digipaks have either 6 or more panels,
include some kind of exclusive content that isn’t available
with the normalalbum,and also includes more aboutthe
artist himself. I analysed 2 different Digipaks,The
Weeknd’s ‘trilogy’ album, and also Rihanna’s ‘Loud’
album.
By analysing these two Digipaks I was able to learn what sort of things were conventional of all
Digipaks as well as what was conventionalof Digipaks in the R&B genre.I learned that The
Weeknd tended to keep his albums and Digipaks very similar and simple. Nearly all of the
albums and digipaks that he has released have followed a black and white theme.
So, I thoughtI would follow in the same footsteps when creating my Digipak so
that it would be typical of one of his other albums. He also kepthis albums and
digipaks looking very similar, he tended to use the same front coverfor his
album as he would for his digipak and the same with his album posters.
I therefore followed the same theme with my digipak and posterby using the
same photo and same theme. I also found it to be very typical of R&B artists to
make the front cover photo of their albums be a close up of their face. Both,
Rihanna and The Weeknd did this.
They also include more photos of themselves throughoutthe
digipak to build up their star image and add a sense ofcontinuity

4. throughout. I therefore also created this in my digipak
by adding more than one photo of Tom on it.
The style of the Weeknd’s digipaks/albums also reflects the style of
his music and genre.His music tends to follow a deep rhythm and
blues vibe and this is also connoted throughoutall of his albums.I
took inspiration from this when I created my digipak because I
wanted it to be very similar to something that The Weeknd himself
would release because thatwas the idea I was going to be going for.
Advert Conventions:
Real album posters have very specific conventions.They will always
include the artist’s name and album title and will also include the date
in which the album is going to be released.Some artists also create a
post-release posterfor after the album has been released.This would
be used as an extra marketing technique if the artist felt as if they
needed more people to purchase theiralbum.
An advert will also normally include a photo of the artist; it tends to be
the same photo from the front cover of the album to keep with the
continuity, and will also follow the exactsame theme as their album. I
followed all of these conventions when creating my poster. I used the
same photo as I did for the front coverof the album, and keptit to the
black and white theme, as well as using the same typography (fonts)
throughout.

5. Attraction of the audience:
My use of conventions would attract/appeal to an audience because Iused the specific
conventions that would appealto the 'alternative R&B' audience.I've previously explained what
specific conventions are typical of the alternative R&B genre,e.g.lip syncing,narrative and
performance,a monochrome theme,close-ups ofthe artist, etc., and I have included all of
these in my music video, Digipak and album poster. I have learned that the audience ofthe
alternative R&B genre tend to want to relate to songs.Songs in this genre have meaningful
lyrics and audiences would like to relate to this and associate the lyrics with their own lives. This
is why we created such a vivid narrative for our music video. The 'player' characterthat Tom
plays is the typical view of what men are like in this generation.Therefore we were creating a
story in which mostwomen and/ormen would be able to relate to in one way or another.This
would then make these people wantto listen to other songs bythis artist to see whether they
can relate to any of their other songs,which would then attract them to the posterand then
make them want to buy the Digipak.
Adapted Conventions:
One convention that we adapted in ourmusic video was the idea of the star image.In our music
video ourartist was portrayed as a player and not a very nice man up until the end.However,
Archermade outthat music videos are a good way for an artists star image to be portrayed in a
positive way because othermedia sources and an artist's business outside oftheir careermay
portray them in a negative way. We chose notto do this because in orderfor the artist's lyrcs to
mean something,we also needed him to be the main characterin the narrative for it to mean
something to the audience.This is a common convention in The Weeknd's work and so this is
why we chose to do this for ourmusic video, even though it may have been portraying our
artist's star image in a negative way. This was the only convention in which we adapted.But, we
did use and challenge others,and by doing this we were able to create a good music video,
typical of the specific genre and Iwas also able to create a Digipak and album poster which
were also typical of the genre.