Question 1:

In what ways does your media product

use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

Our music video production uses, develop and challenges forms and
conventions of real media products through the way that the genre of our
music video is portrayed. Professor Gunther Kress defines genre as A kind
of text that derives its form from the structure of a frequently repeated social
occasion, with its characteristic participants and their purposes. and so the
genre of our piece is Fip Fok; a merge of both traditional folk and
contemporary hip hop genres. We used conventions of these genres in
creating our production; Warriors by Coco and the Butterfields. Warriors
is a fast paced, upbeat track, that allows for a very lively atmosphere and
enabled us to portray the individuals within our video in such a way. This
conforms to Andrew Goodwins Theory which states that a music video
should consist of music and visual links; the positive vibe from the music
itself allowed us to create, equal, positive imagery for the video.

Genre Characteristics
We conformed to the conventions of the Folk side of the track throughout our music video via the use
of locations that we chose. For example, locations such as the UEA lake and Norwich Plantation
Gardens were incorporated behind the narrative of our video due to the large, wide open spaces
that they possessed . By using predominantly outdoor locations, we were able to recreate
specific conventions, such as the naturalistic imagery that is often associated with the folk genre.
Additionally, within these locations, we aimed to create a sense of original fairy tale themes, such
as Alice in Wonderland and Little Red Riding Hood as relating to suggestions from Katie Wales,
who implied that Genre is an intertextual concept and therefore our piece conformed to this
particular theory by similarities such as the costume and said locations.
The costumes that we used within our music video develop the conventions of genre characteristics
and the contemporary themes of our production itself. For example, we see the two young
characters within our music video, wearing clothes that resemble a more modern and
contemporary fashion, rather than historical in many ways, such as the use of piercings and high
street items such as shorts and lipsticks. This idea relates to our chosen audience, of 16-20 year
olds, as the contemporary fashion aims to become a feature that is easily identified with for the
audience. However, conventions of contemporary music videos are challenged in the way that
although the characters are placed into contemporary clothing and setting, items such as the
confectionary used as jewellery within the Hansel and Gretel section, imply that the characters
are younger than they appear, making the video more relatable to a fairy tale rather than a music
video. This idea challenges the views, also, of Goodwin, in saying that women are often
recognised within music videos as sexualised objects as by adding in small features such as the
confectionary and the basket, relating to the fairytales, in the eyes of the audience, the characters
become younger, though ages are never specified or made clear within the video.

Continued

We used Props and Objects throughout our music video in order to develop the conventions of
real music products further. For example, we used a small tea cup toward the beginning of the
video, labelled DRINK ME in order to begin the first transformation. By doing this, we were able
to recreate an intertextual link relating to a well known and significant piece of literature; Alice in
Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. The intertextual themes continued throughout our production,
such as the use of the basket and the sweet confectionary, in the Hansel and Gretel section.

The use of lighting developed over the course of the video itself, with predominantly ambient
lighting throughout because of the outdoor location and then toward the end, becoming artificial
lighting as the Goldilocks scene reverts to the inside of the house; in the kitchen. This vast
change in lighting challenges generic conventions of music videos within the Folk genre as
usually, such as in the Mumford and Sons music video; The Cave we can see that there is
almost always natural lighting that adds to the feel of an environment that relates to the sound,
conforming to Goodwins theory of links between lyrics and visuals and music and visuals,
equally.

Narrative Structure

Our production somewhat challenges the conventions of music videos that consist of a narrative
due to the way that we incorporated a circular narrative within our video. For example, we see,
toward the beginning, that the female character; Danielle, is drinking from a tea cup before she
finds herself in numerous locations ( as different characters; Alice, Gretel, Red Riding Hood
and Goldilocks) as the narrative progresses before the end in which, we have created a reverse
speed montage, allowing the character of Danielle, to find herself back in the original garden with
the tea cup once again. Therefore, by doing this, we are challenging the forms of real media
products by manipulating the images and the order that the order the audience receive them in.
This creates a sense of confusion and disorientation as the images are in an unnatural order and
therefore, as we see Danielle looking almost bewildered in the final shot, this allows the audience
to identify with the character in this respect. This idea of a circular narrative is mirrored in Katy
Perrys Wide Awake music video, where she sees herself in the particular dystopian world before
reverting back to reality in her dressing room. Additionally, we challenged the idea of the
conventions of this video in particular as when Katy is seen in another world, it is dystopian,
whereas our character falls into a utopian world, where everything appears perfect.

The way that Danielle falls into a utopian world with fantasy creatures, leaves implications for the
audience of drug use. For example, we see the character drink a mysterious liquid before falling
into this world and thus the world could in fact be full of illusions. The 2006 film, Pans Labyrinth
is also an intertextual reference for this particular part of the narrative, as the fantasy creatures
are present in both of the pieces, equally, as the young female falls into a captivating universe.

Representations

The representations of youth within our music video challenges those of other real media
products due to the way that we used a positive representation of youth rather than a negative
one, seen in films such as This is England, a film directed by Shane Meadows, concerning the
working class, 12 year old male, Shaun, who finds himself part of a Skinhead group after finding
that he does not fit in with his own social group. Therefore, when looking at the representations
of youth within our music video, French Sociologist, Michael Maffesolis argument, that suggests
as culture and institutions of modernism decline, societies embrace nostalgia begins to apply to
the features we incorporated. For example, the quote implies that as the intuitions and cultures
that define us by genetics decline, we, as individuals, will begin to embrace our pasts and what
made us who we are from a young age and this applies to our music video production as we
allowed the, in reality, older characters to become younger via the props that we used and the
way that we linked our video to fairy tales. The idea of nostalgia runs throughout our music video
as a reoccurring motif that the character finds herself experiencing; she is placed into situations
with costumes and props that relate to childhood. Furthermore, the audience, who may already
feel identified with the character at this point, may experience such feelings of nostalgia along
side the female at this point.
Representations of females often within music videos are also challenged as although the notion
of looking is featured through our tracking and over the shoulder shots of Danielle, the notion is
not voyeuristic and thus the character is not sexualised in any way.

Reoccurring Motifs

Our production involves many reoccurring motifs within different aspects such as the props, the
costumes and equally the narrative itself. For example, through our video, we have included
many shots of flowers such as the rose given to Alice in the first section and those lying around
the location of the Hansel and Gretel scene. This motif relates to the idea of the fairy tale, dream
like utopia that the character finds herself in. However, the fairy tales that we took our inspiration
from for our video becomes a motif in itself as the character repeatedly finds herself becoming
new characters, in new locations, and thus relates to suggestions from John Harley; We need to
understand genre as a property of the relations between texts which implies that the themes
that we regularly use in our production link themselves and become the genre of our video, yet
are also intertextual references to the original tales from which we were inspired.

Digipak Production

Within the production, I ensured that I would use and develop the codes and
conventions of a four panel, CD digipak layout, thus including a font, a back and two
inside panels, one of which being the disk tray.
PANEL 1: My first panel used the conventions of the bands (Coco and the
Butterfields) original layout form their EP, through the ways in which I used their logo
to represent the band. By editing the logo, however, I managed to interlink it
successfully with the image that I had chosen. The image consists of a close up still
of the main female, Danielles face, when in character of Little Red Riding Hood, due
to the way that I intended to create a reoccurring motif through the panels of the
colour red. Although, the logo was readily made by the band, the editing that took
place enabled it to become personalised to my digipak alone, thus ensuring a
recognisable connection for the chosen audience. Additionally, the close up shot of
the female character adds a further identifiable link for the audience as the character
resembles and represents the age category for my target audience of 16-20 year
olds.

PANEL 2: For my second panel I intended to challenge the conventions of real media
products in terms of the imaging that I chose. For example, I chose to create raw
sketches for the inside of my digipak. The sketch that I created for panel two
consisted of a drawing of Gretel from the second section of the music video, of which
compliments my third panel. This challenges many real media products of this type,
due to the way that the first panel consists of not sketches but photographs and thus
the images do not flow in terms of the constancy of the production yet via the
reoccurring motif of red.
Within the first panel the aspects of red were found within the lipstick and the hood of
the female character, however, within panel two, the red aspects come, equally from
the costume but is relating to the braces that the young female wears.
PANEL 3: The third panel for my digipak production harmonises with panel two in the
way that it also consists of a raw sketch of one of the female characters, in this case
being, Little Red Riding Hood. The reoccurring motif of red in the hood and shoes of
the costume, again, enables the images to flow through onto panel four. Within this
particular panel, although the images challenge real media products to an extent, the
layout of panel, uses the codes well in terms of the way that panel three, becomes a
disk tray for the digipak as a whole.

Panel 3: 'Little Red Riding Hood'

Panel 2 sketch: 'Gretel'

PANEL 4: The fourth panel of my digipak production uses the conventions of a real
CD, in the way that the image of the female character is off center allowing for the
track listing of the left hand side of the back panel. I aligned the text in
correspondence with the angle of the image in order to allow for a neat back panel
and a mirrored barcode in the bottom right hand corner of the panel thus not
distracting from the image. All of these features are examples of the conventions of
the real media products of this type and allow for clear recognition of the track listing,
as mentioned before.

Magazine Advert

When creating my magazine advert I followed and used the conventions of real products of the
same variety in the ay that I created a large outstanding image of arguably, the more prominent
character within both our music video and my digipak production, allowing for a recognisable first
impression. Additionally, I used the conventions via the way that I presented the logo of the band,
the name of the album and the release date as the more significant features in order to inform
successfully. A similar advert is that of the Kings of Leon magazine advert, promoting the album
Only by the night of which uses the same large close up image, although distorted of the artist
and the bold, recognisable name, title and release date. I used the conventions of this particular
magazine advert, along side that of the Florence and the machine Lungs advert, when
crafting my own designs.
Further conventions that I included within my magazine advert is that of the social networking site
links and logos, along the bottom of the image. I added these conventions in order to relate to the
younger audience members (16-20 year olds) that I aimed my product at, thus enticing them
further to take interest, this also links to the we address that I placed in addition to the social
networking links, allowing for further information, creating a more authentic feel upon looking at
the advert.