Evaluation Question 1, In what way does your music video use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Goodwin's theory was that there are three different types of music videos, performance, concept and narrative. Our video is definitely based on both narrative and performance, because our video involves lip-syncing, and the lyrics can relate to the video. The concept does not occur, because the concept of a music video is based on nothing to do with the lyrics, the video is seen as something quite random. So an example of the concept can be this:

But an example for the concept and narrative of videos can be Professor Green, read all about it.

Our fifteen music video deconstructions we were able to pick out the main conventions of music videos before looking more deeply into genre specific music videos, these included: Lip syncing, shot variation, shot angle variation, close ups of the lead singer, different locations, interesting mise-en-scene, high use of lighting and usually fast paced editing. If the music video were to be performance based there is no narrative therefore shots are focused solely on the singer but may also include shots of the audience and instruments.An example of this can be Beyonce's Single ladies.

They may also use shots where an audience member or significant object relating to song is focused on this may show a deeper meaning or a person who may be related to the target audience. They may also include fast paced editing because they have no narrative and they have to keep the audience interested especially when targeting youth audiences.
Contrasting with these ideas in the R&B genre forms and conventions differ for example; they often have a lot of flashy objects such as cars, jewellery and money and are featured wearing black and white suits and dresses as the genre represents wealth and glamour apposing ideologies of black families living in small homes with the extended family. These are the common codes and conventions you would find in a typical R&B video. But R&B videos may also include dance routines and focus on the main singer as the product rather than the music being delivered because of this convention in our music video we dressed our band members in dresses and in one part of the narrative we enforced the sense of class in dress by dressing them in long flowing dresses with the lead singer wearing a large diamond covered necklace and simplistic make up. This was influenced from the well known girl band 'The Saturdays' song 'Missing you'

The band members are seen in three different outfits reinforcing the idea of wealth and self importance we always see in R&B music videos although in our video it is a female group rather than a typical solo male which tend to dominate in R&B music videos. In Destinys Child's song 'Lose My Breath' the girls are seen in three different outfits.
Instead of focusing on objects such as flashy cars we encorporated a diamond chandelier to demonstrate the idea of wealth and the class of the band members as money is a huge part of R&B culture, we would never of been able to use the cars as a code and convention due to the budget difference.

We have challenged the convention of using one male or female dominating the narrative aspect and replaced it with a couple as the song is telling a story of heartbreak and betrayal when the boy in the relationship is found out to be cheating on his girlfriend, we found that instead of 'sugar-coating' the relationship which many video's do, we would keep to the heartbreak, due to the fact that any teen watching our music video will be able to relate and it gives a sense of realism for our audience members. Shots of the band on the front cover of the digipak and the magazine ad represent the idea of feminism and female unity as they pose holding hands in a low angled shot. As you can see in this picture...
We chose locations which could be seen as being romantic in both performance and narrative aspects of the video for example, the band are singing by a lake which the sun is shining on and at the end of the video it starts to cloud over around this location. Again 'The Saturdays' have used out door locations to give that heartbreak, romantic feel to fit in with their song.

One of the narrative aspects was filmed at the park where the couple a featured feeding ducks and holding hands while walking around the park (a close up of the couple holding hands at the beginning creates a sense of unity and romance). These locations were also chosen to appeal to our secondary target audience who we would expect to watch romantic comedy films.

A side shot of the band was used while they were lip syncing to show the band were as one and because it is a common convention in band music videos. Lip syncing is a key convention in all music videos except when the band is performing live at concerts or gigs, this convention has a reluctancy to change in music videos as it had always been used which shows that the passing of time can not change conventions. Also we used close up shots of the band which is used regularly in girl band video, for the male gaze aspect.

With any girl band we made sure that our costumes used could relate to any girl band and be quite revealing, again for the male gaze aspect. We also challenged the convention of using a lot of dance moves, as R&B music videos are often filmed in clubs or at parties because the song we chose was less upbeat we decided to go against this idea, also in Destinys Childs original video there is no dancing involved for this specific song.

Codes and Conventions for Digipaks include the material used to make the Digipak. It is made from paper board which is recyclable and therefore more environmentally friendly than a CD jewel case, although they may have plastic inner CD/DVD tray. The band name is usually clear on the front unless there is a symbol representing the band and we used 'Eurostile' font due to the fact that it can give off a R&B vibe. The band image or print on the front is usually recognisable, website information and band website for people to find out more information is displayed, the band and album name on the side, including category number and company logo, a brief description of the band or a lyrics sheet in sometimes found on the inside booklet providing fans with extra information, copy tight information and there is always a barcode finally, there is often a leaflet inside which may show lyrics of each song included or photos of the band in performance usually ie. some use festival photos. 

Digipaks arn't used hugely at the moment even though they are more environmentally friendly consumers are used to buying CD although most people download it illegally or buy their music online. Digipaks can have four or six panels most commonly. When constructing our digipak we had previously done a photoshoot with the band members playing Destiny's Child so we had a lot of images to choose from. The clothing differed from the footage the band had featured in as we wanted to show a more feminist and strong appearing group of females which Destiny's child are. We chose to use very tight clothing all round and focused on features that may enable the male gaze audience. One member of the band is in metallic leather leggings which is a strong masculine signifier but is also seen when worn as a sexy and dominant figure, Melodie who plays Beyonce is always seen in a different outfit to the other band members, this is to stick with the original codes and conventions of Destinys Child or any girl band. All of the band members are photographed in heels to highlight the legs and bring attention to the male audience. Annie wears a crop top which Destiny's child have always been photographed in to show off their figures, showing the abdominals which is also typically a masculine feature, the band do this to challenge the male stereotypes and appear as strong and powerful women.

The front cover of the digipak we thought was the strongest shot of the band, as it is a long shot of them walking into the camera. We also chose to take the photo outside and we rejected feedback that the road we photographed them on looked a bit trashy because we wanted to present an urban look as the band like to see themselves as urban even though they are highly commercial.

The title of the band is also prominent and we decided to call the Digipak 'Growin' Up: The Best of' because Beyonce has recently had her first baby so we thought we'd like to show a transition from the younger days of the band up until the time at which they split up. We included a sticker at the bottom of the Digipak which showed the variety of special features, a bonus DVD and behind the scenes footage as the public are still buying music online and CD's producers enable extras to persuade people to buy the Digipaks. The Bonus features sticker is black and yellow, yellow is used because it is aimed at the female audience but black can be related to the male audience, so these primary colours can sell to both genders, which helps when selling to our target audience. The interior panel we weren't initially sure about but we knew we wanted a close up of the band members and after looking at Digipaks such as Rihanna and Katy Perry we decided to do a spread across both interior panels with layering in each corner, presenting the female dominance of the band. The back of the digipak shows the songs on the CD with times and features, which is what the bonus DVD includes on the right. Underneath this we included copyright information which is a key convention of digipaks and all music products. As we hadn't found any Digipaks without this information, the QR was created so that when it was scanned it can be linked via smartphones to the official website, (Blazing grace productions) which is new technology that has recently come about and can be found in magazines or featured on CD's. The barcode is always found on CD/DVD's and all media products. 

Forms and conventions of Magazine Advertisements: The band name is shown in bold text to make it stand out, using the font 'Eurostile' this is key if the background of the advertisement is busy as the audience want to know what the ad is about as soon as possible before losing interest. A good example of this is the Destiny's Child cover for Rolling Stone magazine the band are dressed in camoflarge which links with there survivor music video.

They provide realise dates for tours and CDs because Destiny's child are such a big band we decided that they would only play at huge venues like Madonna does nowadays as they have the same sized fan base so we chose big arenas to advertise on our magazine ad. We found an advert advertising the fan club and releasing tour dates if readers signed up to a particular fan site so we included tour dates and titled the tour, Newspapers or magazines often give the products a star rating out of 5 and because of the size and popularity of the band we gave them a high rating of 5/5, Band information and band websites so people know where they can find out more information on the band.

Record label information and a copyright statement. Band image or cd image. Websites related to the band are shown such as there Twitter name and Facebook page. The singer or band dominates the advertisement for example in all of our texts Mel was in the middle of the other two band member because she was playing Beyonce the main singer in the band. Female bands or solo singers in particular often go into advertising beauty and cosmetics (Beyonce releases perfume scents annually aswell as being a Loreal girl advertising a new lipstick shade) we could of added a scent to our magazine ad which would of encorporated this but as only Beyonce has done this it was not representing unity and togetherness that the band aimed to display before they split up. Since the split, the band members have also released solo careers such as Beyonce's and her endless top ten hits, and Kelly Rowland's career as a judge on the X Factor. We used multilayering on our magazine ad of a couple holding hands to show the narrative aspect of the video that we wanted to get across because normally in R&B music videos the artist/s dominate so we challenged this convention.