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

This Post will be the answer to question 1 of my Media product evaluation. As my Product falls into the Romance Genre it is important to understand the stereotypical codes and conventions of the genre, shown below in my Mind-map which i made on Bubbl.us.

In my video I used the codes and conventions of the Romance genre but in slightly different ways. largely I adhered to the Codes and Conventions of the genre, including images of hugging, happiness, holding hands ect in flashback scenes, using a fragmented narrative to tell the story. Where I Slightly subverted the stereotype was by telling the story from the perspective of a victim of a break up, portraying him as sad rather than happy which would be the usual stereotype. Other than the Subversion of the Narrative stereotype I predominantly adhered to the Codes and conventions of the Romance Genre. 

When looking at other, professional products of a similar genre it's clear that certain shots are used within the genre to help it adhere more to the stereotypes. The image about is a close-up shot from Ronan Keating's "When you say nothing at all". The shot is used to emphasise emotion and expression on the protagonists face which is of great importance for Romance as stereotypically there is a vast amount of strong emotions being experienced by the characters and so certain shots such as close-ups help to further that. When comparing it to scenes from my video, for example a scene in the image below is of the protagonist at the cliffside in present time looking emotional and feeling sad, it can be seen that a similar shot to the one in Ronan Keating's video has been used in my own video, showing that i am once again adhering to the stereotypes of the genre and of other products within it. 

Below is a brainstorm of the conventions found on a stereotypical poster for an artists Tour dates or Album release

This is my Tour Poster. It again adheres to the stereotypes of the conventions listed above. It has a clear, stand out Title, drawing the attention of the audience. It has a large, centralised image of the artist/ album cover, again making it stand out, he is holding a guitar much like he does in the film, which makes the link between music video and poster. It has a colour scheme of mostly darker with some lighter colours to represent the nature of my film, as in parts the protagonist is very sad and alone, while at other points (flashbacks) he is very happy. 

Before making my own Poster i researched other posters from artists of the same genre which was how i was able to formulate the mind map of conventions for poters in this genre.

This is the Album artwork for my music video. Once more it adheres and follows the generic themes and conventions of the genre. The front cover has a bold, central figure and a clear heading of the artist/ the songs name. In the same image he also appears 'soulful' or in deep thought and as it is a close up shot it highlights the emotion on his face. The Black and white mixed with the one image in colour is representative of the emotion of the protagonist of my video, for in the two black and white images he is on his own where life is dull and colourless, looking sad as he does in the video, whereas the the image in colour he is holding hands with his ex partner, i chose to put this image in colour so it reflects the flash back theme running in my music video. 

Ancillary Task 2 - Album Poster

Ancillary Task 1- Album Covers

This is the album artwork to accompany my music video. It consists of (from right to left) The front cover, the back cover and the middle cover. It adheres to the conventions i researched from other products from the same genre, for example the front cover has a bold, central figure and a clear heading of the artist/ the songs name. In the same image he also appears 'soulful' or in deep thought and as it is a close up shot it highlights the emotion on his face.  It has the use of red/pinkish text which is representative of the romance genre and themes/ stereotypes of love. The image of the hand holding connotes themes from the romance genre as it is a sign of affection and a relationship.

Final Music video.

This is the end and final result of my music video for Busted's Sleeping With The Light On. I am pleased with the end result as a whole and made changes from previous cuts based on audience feedback that i received.

The 180 Degree rule

The 180 degree rule is when you visualise a line passing through the actors, and you stay on one side of this line with all of your shots. if you do not follow the rule it is known as crossing the line orjumping the line. The main purpose of obeying this rule is to keep good continuity editing. Using Youtube i found this video which explains the rule well and shows the consequences of not following the rule.

First short clip from Music Video.

From this first attempt, short clip of the music video i have learned that editing on the beat is very difficult and when it comes to the final editing process I need to spend a great deal of time and care on making sure the shot transitions are nailed and on the beat. I think some of the shots worked particularly well, such as the Mid-shot/ panning shot near the beginning, but in some of them the camera work was a bit sloppy and that resulted in a couple of shots being unstable and shaky at times. To adress this I will take greater care over the movements of the camera and the tripod.

Email for Permission to use the song

This is a screenshot of an email I sent to Universal Music Group (UMG) asking for permission to use the song for my music video as they are the record label that my chosen artist is signed to. Although I do not expect a response I felt it was worth emailing them just to make sure.