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Question1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - Draft

FEAR THE UNKNOWN are a Metal core band, and so I looked at music videos of bands performing their music to this specific genre.  I looked at what typically occurred in these music videos – and so gained an idea of the ‘conventions’ associated in these. I went about this by asking the band members themselves for their views, asking friends who listen to this genre of music and so watch these videos regularly of their opinions, and also by conducting research myself by watching videos on YouTube.

Goodwin believed that there were 6 typical conventions associated within every music video, these are:

1.      Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics; our video adheres to this in many ways, and I shall be showing this further down within the question.

2.      There is a relationship between music and visuals; this convention is also displayed within our music video – typical ways in which this is shown is when the camera is looking at the performer who is predominantly playing at that time.

3.      There is a relationship between visuals and lyrics; this is shown well in our video, with different lighting being used during different lyrics. For instance, when James (the lead singer) screams, the lighting goes dark.

4.      Close up of artists; during the video we feature many close up shots of the performers. This is because we want to expose our members to the audience as much as possible (especially as this is a debut track) – this is a typical convention of music videos.

5.      Reference to the notion of looking; our video features this convention once – and it can be seen in the free hand capture from over the shoulder of the drummer Callum. We did this in order for our audience members to feel more involved with the video.

6.      Intersexual reference: in the video all of the members wore clothes that they would wear at their gigs. They also all used and played their own instruments which they would also use during these gigs, this was to give an identity about them and make them more recognisable.

Camera Shots:

In our video we decided to use a mix of fixed potion shots and moving shots. We believed that this would allow the band to easily be seen and recognised (fixed), whilst also keeping the audience interested, and reduce tedium (moving).

We also tried to use a lot of close up shots – in order to increase the coverage given to our members faces – and so make them more recognisable. We have seen this done in many videos of which we analysed, including BRING ME THE HORIZON - Blessed With A Curse.

Location and setting:  

After looking at videos of Metalcore, we came to the conclusion that many are shot in indoor locations. We decided to use this convention for a variety of reasons, one being that it would allow the audience to easily recognise what they were watching, and also it would prove easier with logistics in terms of moving instruments. This would also help support our performance based theme (see later on).

Lighting:

During our video we experimented a lot with different non-digetic lighting, trying out common conventions such as reduced light and black and white, and more challenging forms such as ‘cartoon’. After reviewing the different lighting schemes we came to the conclusion that we wanted our video to stand out, and so chose the ‘Cartoon’ effect. We hoped that this would help differentiate our band from other similar bands in order to get noticed. We also used to lights behind where the band were set up in order to create a tempo and pace to the music to give it more effect.

Costumes:

The costumes that the band members feature within our video challenge the typical forms associated within Metalcore videos. The members are wearing clothing items such as shirts, jogging bottoms, and hip-hop t-shits. None of the members were wearing any items of leather– normally associated with metal performers. Once again we were hoping that this would help to portray our band as unique, and so help raise their profile.

 Props:

The instruments that the band members used where the same that they use in their gigs, and so we believe this develops the convention in most metal videos. In videos we have looked at, most bands use the same instruments that they would use on stage, and so our band conforms to this. However we believe that we then further develop on this as we are not only using this idea to conform to a convention, but also to help people recognise band members more with the members and so help to increase the bands profile.

Music video structure:

When making this decision we always felt that we had to feature the band members themselves within the video, and should not use actors. This was because after watching videos of bands in their first years it was evident that this was always done in order to raise the member’s profiles.

We also had to consider whether I video would be performance or narrative based or a mix, and we chose performance. This is because the majority of the videos we saw were performance, and many of the narrative based videos tended to orientate around more established bands. It would also be easier for us in terms of filming to do a performance video, and so it was a fairly simple choice. We chose performance because of being easier as well as raising our bands profile to a greater degree.

Editing:

When editing our video, it was clear to see that we would need to conform to convention of Metalcore videos – that of fast paced editing. We were hoping to reduce the tedium of slow cuts, and keep our audience members interested and interacted within our video – to create a more lasting effect from which they would remember. We also conformed to the form of cutting sequences every 4-8 beats, in which the majority of the music videos do.

Final Digipak and Magazine Advertisement

Final Magazine Advertisemet

Final Digipak Cover

Magazine advertisement

Digipak design

Digipak design

Writing style

On my magazine i will need a consistent writing style and design. This is to allow FEAR THE UNKNOWN products to become recognizable, and adhere to the metal genre.

Slipknots writing style

Magazine Advertisement Planning

This is an example of 'Metal Hammer' magazines music advertisements, it shows a unique style of the band with a forward approach, shirtless guy with arrows in him, this therefore gives of the impression of straight to the point.

The title of the band is also 'in your face' with striking letters and bold outlining. All of these factors put together therefore show a stunningly unique perspective and visual representation of the band that leaves an impression.

If we compare this to a magazine such as 'RadioTimes' we can see that it is a lot less 'serious', more clean edges, neat and tidy. With a striking presentation of the magazine title but less striking band/musician title, suggesting it is more of a general 'chat' than serious PR.

Therefore with this in mind I believe to get the best advertising for 'Fear The Unknown' a specialist music magazine will have to be used such as 'Metal Hammer' or 'Kerrang'.

Target Audience - Survey Distribution

This one of the forums we have used to distribute our sirvey and vdieo in order to gain some more insight into our traget audienece.

Proposed band symbol

Here is my first proposed symbol for our band. It is in its very first stages, however i believe that i should go along with this type of design. It is both simple (four intermixed letters), and has meaning (the name of the band.

Magazine advertisement

For my magazine advertisement i shall be making two A5 sized advertisements. This is because i want to broaden the profile of our new band, and so to do this i have to target a wide range of people, and this can only be achieved by having one advertisement which appeals to metal fans (our target audience) and one which appeals to other music fans.

Here is an example of the band Iron Maiden featuring in a metal magazine and a rock magazine, appealing to different audiences but conveying the same music:

Metal Hammer

Kerrang 

Digipak design

I have decided on which type of design i will be using for my digipak. This design will be a slip case design, the reasons for this being:

• It is cheaper to manufacture
• It is easier to manufacture
• Although being simple, it is bold (and so relates to the genre of our music)

Here is an example of a slip case digipak

Band symbols

After looking at both digipaks and magazine advertisements it is clear to see that many bands have a symbol. This is to allow them to become instantly recognized to their target audience. Here are some examples:

Ramstein

Metallica 

Slipknot

It is evident to me that creating a symbol for the band is a logical way in ensuring that as their profile increase, they are able to be more easily recognized through their symbol.

The symbols also act as a way of showing the bands beliefs, and so many people (our target audience), may buy into this and have the symbol on their t-shirts or wrist bands as well as posters. 

Target audience

After looking in the magazine MetalHammer, it is clear to see the clothing which our target audience will likely be wearing.

This clothing has the following characteristics:

• Bold colours - mostly black with reds and whites on top
• Usually a band T-shirt, either from a gig or album artwork
• Standard T-shirt
• Trousers worn are usually jeans
• footwear is varied - favoured wear however is boots or converse
• Leather jackets are popular - mainly towards the older metal fan

Magazine Advert and digipak analysis

Upon first views it is clear to see that the adverts  in magazines and digipaks have clear characteristics, these being:

• There will be at least one band members face clearly visible
• If not there will be a symbol that is recognizable to the band
• The colours are bold - with red and black being dominant
• There is a large presence of war/death often shown - ways in which this is done is through the colour red being blood like, and through many back ground shots of destroyed landscapes or weapons
• The saturation on the pictures is also lowered, as well is the brightness
• The pictures shown can also show two clear distinctions - the colours and themes are organic, or they are metallic.