Mikey Pearce

In What ways do your media products use Develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I have taken this screen grab from my music video of warriors dance, It is of our lead singer who is in a threatening pose. The shot is a medium close up which conforms to the conventions of building a star image and creating a persona around the act. However our female is looking aggressively into the camera which is meant to scare the audience and get in their faces. This subverts the stereotype of the female pop star and is seen more regularly by a male artist in perhaps a hip hop record showing his dominance, You can see he is leaning into the camera which shows off his sense of power, Where as in our music video we decided to give the lead single an image of a power independent young women rebellioning against the system as she is snaring aggressively at the camera/audience. We believed that this would appeal to a wider audience and wanted to show the rebellious side of the artist as the song has that feel to it so we felt to make the female lead slightly subverts the stereotype would make for a more interesting and our video would have a more unique element to it. However by the way she is dressed it gives her a sex appeal which is usually seen in many videos with females in. We have used a traditional technique in our lighting by having strobe lights in the background to give the video and party feel to it this conforms to many other dance videos and we thought it would be a nice

touch to add.

Our song is fast paced and uses a lot of quick editing. This shot is an example of the many jump cuts we used during our editing process we used a lot of jump cuts because our video is high energy and we wanted to create a sense of frantic movement. This conforms to the conventions of a high paced track and is regularly used in dance tracks. We wanted the beat to match the editing as it adds emotion and really make the audience in a trance with the music, this is a technique which many dances track used and we felt it was appropriate for our track and video. We also wanted to a create a live performance element to our track by closely synching the song to mimic a live performance which isnt often done in dance track as they are more narrative based and rarely get a live performance element to the video but we thought that it would really benefit our video and add an extra layer to our work.

The lighting we have used for our video was very prominent we wanted to use artificial lighting to give the artist a glow and add excitement to the video which lighting can add. When each of our performers were lit it gave them an image of perfection with clear skin and a tanned glow surrounding there persona. This was certainly apparent of our lead singer holly who was the main attraction of our video we wanted to emphasis her to give her the added star image. This is common in many videos as lighting is a key part in creating a star out of the video. We used multicoloured lights which are usually used in videos the conventions as we wanted the audience to realise the dangerous mood of the video. of this nature. We decided to use these colours as they set a good tone and atmosphere and reflected the one we wanted to create red symbolises danger and we wanted to give of a dangerous vibe to it. This conforms to

In our music video we wanted to do a close up of a scary figure to frighten the audience and make them feel uneasy, this helps create the mood for our video and give it a surreal feel to it. This challenges the mainstream conventions of modern pop which is often seen in dance rock music which is trying to rebel against society. As it is a sign of raising it because our lone animal is joined by others which gives a spooky and dangerous feel to

We wanted to show to use a close up on the guitar to show that music was an important element in the making of this video. This conforms to many videos in the dance music genre as there is a lot of sounds use it is often shown on camera to give the audience a taste of how the sounds are created. It also places emphasis on the link between the music and the video. This would increase the audience as many keen musicians would want to watch copy and learn the guitar riff in the song. It is also matched to the beat as it adds emotion to the music and gets people really involved. Showing the guitar is very common also as it fits in the category of the music.

We wanted to create a delusional feel to our music video as the concept originally was a girl suffering from a bad trip. We used mirror and editing and face cuts to create panic for our victim who was being in engulfed animals. This increases the tensions and leaves the audience wanting to know what is going to happen to her. This is usually seen in high pace and exciting songs so we have conformed to the regular conventions for our genre. We wanted to create a sense of being trap and shocking the audience and I think we have done that through innovative camera work and editing, Which will leave the audience wanting to watch again.

Digipak

In our digipak we decided to create a very visual product we lots of dark colours and keeping a graphic design which is common in many dance genres digipak, This is a reason why we decided to not use a picture as it would be more prominent to use a graphic theme to it rather than a picture of our band which would subvert the norm for dance music videos. We decided to use a rough wall like background and graffiti writing to give an urban feel to it which relates to our music videos and fellows many themes which we have included. As our music is heavily influenced by man made elements with an electronic tips to it, we decided to create a more man made digipak which is rough and gravely to link in with the music of our band. In terms of colour we used promindantly grey, red and white keeping to the norm of digipak as they usually have three colours to them otherwise they become complex and difficult to read. Our texts our bold and oringally and we only used two fonts one to focus on the bands name which is in graffiti writing and the other to establish the bands details. This is usually the forms that music videos take and we have used this as it would give a clear indication of the bands name which we wanted to highlight as that symbolises there identity. We wanted to show in our digipak a young rebellious band which reject the norms and values of modern society and giving it an urban edge as well as a piercing on the tongue I believe we have been able to do this to good effect and this conforms to the norms of the product we are trying to create.

Poster
Our poster is similar to our digipak it has the same the same logo which we wanted to use as it would become a symbol of our band and give us an image which is recognisable and is known. We also used the same graffiti as in our digipak as it would enable us to keep the urban feel to our poster. We used reviews as it was a major theme in many other poster to show the audience how critically acclaimed our band are. We also used magazines the audience would be familiar to and read as it would appeal to much of the public. The advert incorporates many codes and conventions which are likely to be seen in many other media products when promoting a band or artist. It is typical to the dance genre to have a graphic design and the edgy and urban theme to it fits in nicely to the image we where looking to include. It is also very simplistic as it doesnt confuse the audience and they get the picture quickly once they read so therefore it would add an extra selling element to it