1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Question One
In this evaluation I am going to talk about all my products (digipak, music video and magazine advert) in depth and I will talk about my choices and why I have followed certain conventions. I will also talk about how I have challenged certain conventions and why.



Music Video:
For my media product, I decided to make a music video along with a promotional package which included an album and a magazine advert. I chose to produce these from an already established song from the artist 'SBTRKT' which is called 'Hold On'. I chose to produce a video on this song because firstly the artist is indie and this is a genre I listen to so I have some knowledge about it and secondly, I knew who the artist was. Although I knew the artist, I had never really seen many of their videos or what the artist is all about so I felt this would be easier to make a video for because I had no narrative to follow, I had to create a narrative myself to match the song.

To create my products, I did a lot of research and planning which allowed me to learn the conventions and follow them and I then uploaded it to YouTube once finished. I uploaded my video in different stages, showing the progression throughout editing. On top of my music video, I also made a magazine advert and 6 panel, 2 CD digipak which promoted my artist and the music video.

The existing artist I chose was 'SBTRKT' so I needed to choose a male to portray the artist because I wanted to create a video with a narrative about love. I already had an idea what stereotypical videos about love looked like but I decided it would be best to look at some more so I was sure of the conventions. These are a few of the videos I looked at:

After looking at these, I felt they were too stereotypical and quite cheesy so I didn't really want to follow the conventions of these. I also felt like they were quite female orientated and because my artist is a male I didn't think this would work. Due to this, I decided I would break conventions and completely reverse them by having the male who is heartbroken over the loss of a relationship rather than the girl. This is quite unconventional in terms of narrative about love in existing products because I have found that a lot of them are females singing about heartbreak, which links to Tessa Perkin's stereotype theory because women are stereotypically seen as the 'weak ones' or the 'emotional ones'.

Despite breaking the conventions by using a male artist to sing about heartbreak rather than female, I have followed conventions in terms of creating a narrative and having the artist perform. Although this video isn't in my genre, one video I looked at in my research was 'Moment 4 Life' by Nicki Minaj because this incorporates narrative and performance. I chose to look at this because I am very familiar with the artist and I know the video very well, so when I thought about doing narrative and performance combined, I knew this would be a good video to look at. Another video which influenced a lot of choices in my video is from the same artist called 'Right By My Side'. This video influenced me in terms of editing and the camera shots I have used in my video.

Here is my presentation talking about how my product uses conventions:

                      

Below are the 2 videos that I looked at that influenced me the most in terms of following conventions and challenging them.





Textual Analysis of my product



Theory applied to my product:

Representation Theory
I feel as though I have paid attention to a lot of theorists and their statements when making my music video. Firstly, I have definitely challenged Laura Mulvey's Gaze Theory because I have chosen not to represent my male or female artist in a sexual way because I did not want to conform to the ideologies she states. Due to this, I have challenged these conventions of how women are normally represented in music videos. As you can see below, I have looked at popular music videos which prove Mulvey's theory to be correct and then I have shown screenshots from my own video to prove how I have not sexualised my actress.

From these pictures, you can see how I have dressed my actress appropriately so that my video doesn't conform to the 'Gaze Theory'. You can clearly see the sexualisation of the women in the existing products I looked at and how this contrasts massively with my video.

Richard Dyer's Star Theory:
Dyer's Star Theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are constructed by institutions for financial reasons and are built to target a specific audience or group of people.
His theory breaks down into 3 sections:
-Audiences and Institutions
-Constructions
-Hegemony (Cultural Beliefs)

I have followed Dyer's Star Theory in my products so that my artist would appeal to my target audience. For example, on my digipak, I used the 'spot healing brush' so that I could cover up any of my artist's flaws, therefore making my artist have, what Simon Cowell would say is 'the full package'. If I had not have done this, some of flaws would be seen and the product may not have looked that appealing. I conformed to what is seen in the industry of celebrities always looking flawless.
In terms of the constructing my artist, I have not given him any persona, I have simply given the name 'Lewis Ryan' because it his name and I wanted him to be as real as possible by only having one identity. Hegemony is apparent in my music video because people may relate to how my artist is feeling within the video and may choose to idolise my artist because they may feel like they connect with the artist on an emotional level.

Tessa Perkin's Stereotype Theory:
Tessa Perkin's argues that: 'A stereotype is an idea that is adopted about specific types of individuals/group of people. The thoughts may not always accurately reflect reality'. She identifies 5 such assumptions:
-Stereotypes are not always negative
-They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful.
-They can be held about one's own group.
-They are not rigid or unchanging.
-They are not always false.

I feel as though, in terms of my music video, I have evidently used stereotypes but I have broken and challenged the stereotypes. In my video, my artist is singing about the good relationship he once had with this girl but they are now over and he is continuously thinking about her and what they used to be. I am showing him as the emotional one. I feel as though I have challenged this stereotype because stereotypically, it is the girl who feels heartbreak and upset after a relationship ends. Then, I am showing my female actress as the tough one who doesn't really care about what is going on, I have reversed these stereotypes because normally, it is seen as the other way round. In terms of a negative stereotype, I do not think I have created this because there is nothing negative about showing emotion. The only bit of negativity may be the attitude of the female actress towards the events that occur in the narrative.

Uses and Gratifications Theory:
By the audience consuming my music video on sites like YouTube and social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, they are being an active audience as they are choosing to watch my product. It is their own choice that they are consuming it and they are not being forced by anyone, they are doing it on their own accord. The reason the audience may be watching it is because they may have come across the song on iTunes and are wanting to watch the video, someone may have recommended them, they may have heard positive reviews and therefore they want to consume it to see why it is so good. Doing this supports Blumler and Katz 'Uses and Gratifications Theory'. Another reason they may be watching this product is because they may feel like they can connect with it emotionally because the video does contain existing scenarios that people go through in everyday life, so there is nothing out of the norm in this video, it is a video in which the audience can easily connect to, especially at a young age which my target audience is.

Hypodermic Needle Theory:
"The media injects ideas into our heads".
The theory is the earliest way of reading how mass media influences us and it developed in the 20's and 30's. The media injects ideas into a passive audiences mind.

My video could possibly seen as what the Hypodermic Needle Theory describes. As my video is about love and it shows my artist being sad and constantly reflecting, it could be injected into the audiences head that all relationships end badly and this is what will happen. As most popular music videos consist of some type of love story, that near enough ends badly most of the time, the idea of relationships being bad may be injected into the passive audiences mind because they have consumed all these videos consisting of the same themes. Whether the audience choose to believe what my media and other sources of media have shown is up to them but I feel as though my video is portraying this message, even though this is not what I intended.

Stuart Hall Reception Theory:

He states that media texts are:
-Encoded by the producer, meaning that whoever produces the text, fills the product with values and messages.
-The text is then decoded by spectators.
-Different spectators will decode the text in different ways, not always in the way the producer intended.

                                        

Dominant- This is the reading of a text is that the audience view the media text in the way the producer intended. The audience agree with the ideology and message behind the text. The audience will view the product how the producer wanted them to.
Negotiated- Compromised between the dominant and oppositional readings, the audience accepts the views of the producer but also has their own input and understanding in relation to the text. They do not agree or disagree, they however can see the point being made in relation to the media text. They don;t disagree nor do they agree, they understand the point given but still have an opinion of their own.
Oppositional- The audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own reading of the text. The audience reject the meaning fully as they do not agree with the message that is created for the audience

The Dominant reading of my product would be: if you have tried your best to hold on as long as you can and that certain person doesn't care anymore, it's probably time to move on and you can forever hold on to the memories but it is now time to let go of the relationship.

The Negotiated reading of my product would be: the video is telling the audience to move on and they accept that message but they feel as though the video is being contradicting because the artist is constantly reflecting on the relationship and how much he still wants her. 

The Oppositional reading of my text would be: everybody's situation is different and maybe that couple has been through different things so it is ok to let go and move on but the person consuming it may think they don't want to move on because it is not time and they still want to hold on to what they have got. The audience may think the video is odd and unconventional and therefore don't want to conform to what the video is saying because the male is emotional over the relationship and not the female, which is the norm.

Narrative Theory

From looking at Tim O' Sullivan's theory, I feel as though my video backs up his statement that 'all media texts tell us some kind of story'. The reason I feel it does is because my video has a narrative that tells a story about a boy and a girl who were once a happy couple but the girl has fallen out of love with him and he wants to get her back. The way I have represented this is by using photographs as part of my props to make my actor reflect on their relationship. I have also featured flashback scenes, which again demonstrates how he is reflecting on their relationship.

Kate Domaille:
Kate Domaille (2001) says every story ever told can be fitted into one of eight narrative types. Each of these narrative types has a source, an original story upon which the others are based. These stories are:

• Achilles: The fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless, or almost flawless, person e.g. Superman, Fatal Attraction.
• Candide: The indomitable hero who cannot be put down, e.g. Indiana Jones, James Bond, Rocky etc.
• Cinderella: The dream comes true, e.g. Pretty Woman.  
• Circe: The Chase, The Spider and the Fly, The Innocent and the Victim e.g. Smokey and the Bandit, Duel and The Terminator. 
• Faust: Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventuall your sould belongs to him, e.g. Bedazzled, Wall Street.
• Orpheus: The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of loss or the journey which follows the loss, e.g. The Sixth Sense, Love Story, Born on the Fourth of July.
• Romeo and Juliet: the love story, e.g. Titanic.
• Tristan and Iseult: The love triangle, man loves woman.. unfortunately one or both of them are already spoken for, or a third party intervenes, e.g. Casablanca.

My video proves Domaille's theory to be correct because my video would fit in with the 'Romeo and Juliet' narrative because of the theme of love that is apparent throughout. The narrative type 'Orpheus' could also be applied to my video because of the boy who is experiencing loss and he is showing his feelings and what he is going through during this loss. 

Sven Carlsson(1999) suggests that music videos fall into two rough groups: performance and conceptual clips. When a music video shows an artist singing or dancing, it is a performance. If the video shows something else within its duration, often with artistic ambitions, it is a conceptual clip. 

According to Sven Carlsson's theory, my music video would fall into the 'performance clip' category because my artist is seen singing in my video. 

The performance can be of three types: song performance, dance performance and instrumental performance. Almost every music video includes song performance. Some videos combine both song and dance performances.
A narrative clip is if a music video is most understood as a short silent movie to a musical background. This type of clip contains a visual story that is easy to follow. A pure narrative clip contains no lip-synchronized singing.

As stated, my video would be both performance and narrative because I have featured my artist singing and I have also included clips that contain a visual story that is easy to follow.

Genre Theory

Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences 'a set of pleasures' which are: 

• Emotional Pleasures - the emotional pleasures offered to audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response.
• Visceral Pleasures - the visceral pleasures (visceral means internal organs) are 'gut' responses and are defined by how the film's stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed or a 'roller coaster ride'. 
• Intellectual Puzzles - certain film genres, like thrillers or the 'whodunit' offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or a puzzle. This is derived from working out the plot and predicting the end or being surprised by the unexpected.

I feel as though in terms of this theory, my product follows the 'Emotional Pleasures' and 'Intellectual Puzzles'. My product is about love and the theme seems to be quite an emotional subject in terms of how it is presented. My audience may feel emotion towards the actor in the video because of what he is going through. As the video progresses, the audiences emotions may keep changing because they may feel excitement about what is going to happen and this may change quickly to feeling sad about what is going on. The audience may relate to the video somehow if they have been in a similar position, therefore my video creates more emotional pleasures. In terms of intellectual pleasures, my audience may be speculating throughout what is going to happen with the couple in the video, therefore they are using their brains to try and figure out what might happen. If they have figured out the plot, they may have worked out the ending already. The way my video ends, with the hands letting go, this may lead to many different interpretations, leaving people puzzled and they are left to work out from the signs what happened to the couple in the video.  

Jason Mittell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience and cultural practices.

Industries use genre to sell products to audiences. Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that very often male cultural references to their audience knowledge of society. 

Genre also allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through acceptance in order to fulfil a particular pleasure.
For example, my video is about love so if people were wanting to feel emotional or relate to something like love, they would choose to consume it because of the subject matters covered in the video. If a person was wanting to watch something related to horror because they wanted to feel some kind of adrenaline rush, they wouldn't watch my video because they would be let down because my video isn't of this genre.

Steve Neale (1995) stresses that "genres are not 'systems' they are processes of systematization". This means they are dynamic and evolve over time. The processes of systematization are as follows: costumes, props, locations, transport and narrative spheres of action. In my video, I have different costumes(black t-shirt and jeans, white t-shirt, jeans and a grey hoodie etc), a range of locations(studio, wall, foreshore (grass area), pier, tunnel) and props(phone and photos). I have used a range of these things mentioned because I feel like in a video it is good to have a variety because it looks appealing and professional. Also, it keeps the audience entertained and they are less likely to become disinterested and go onto a different video or carry on with something else. 

Digipak

Before making my digipak, I carried out a lot of research on existing products and their conventions. Doing this made me aware of the type of things I would need on my album to make it look professional and realistic. I looked at many existing products and one album I took inspiration from was Sam Smith's 'In The Lonely Hour' because I really liked how simple but professional it is so I decided I would follow a similar layout to his. Although most of the digipak was influenced by Sam Smith, the idea behind the theme of hands holding stemmed from 4 existing products which I have talked about in the presentation below. I realised after looking at a lot of existing products from Indie artists that they don't normally have a picture of themselves on the album so I followed these conventions and made the hands symbolic because they make a recurring appearance in the digipak. I have also featured my actor and actress holding hands in my music video so this shows continuity through products. Below I have created a Prezi talking about my digipak and the different choices I made.



Magazine Advert
Here I have produced a presentation on slides.com to talk about what conventions I followed when producing my magazine advert. I also talk about existing products that influenced me, why I chose to follow these conventions and any conventions I challenged. As I speak about in my presentation, Hobbie Stuart's Tour poster influenced a lot of the choices I made when producing my magazine advert as I felt like I could relate to his with him being a new singer in the music industry.