The majority of media products are created in established and repeated ways which then tranform themselves as recognised forms and conventions to specific areas of media text, e.g TV sit-coms often run for 30 minutes with a circular narrative. It was important when in construction of my media products that I referred to these forms and conventions within existing media products and translate that for myself for my own creation. Within this blog post, I will evaluate the way in which I have used, devloped and challenged forms and conventions of real media products in my advanced production
I have applied the use of a consistent font and colour scheme across all of my ancillary products. When researching real media products in the beginning stages of my production, it was a clear convention of bands to have almost their own 'band' identity which can be easily identifiable to fans and audiences through the design of their media texts. This was a convention that I didn't want to subvert to, therefore I have applied the usage of a consistent colour scheme or a burnt yellow, grey, white, black and burnt red/burgudny. This allows my products to be easily identifiable and linked to the band. The ancillary products colour scheme is then further linked to my main task advanced production; the music video. The music video features warm hue colours similair to the colours featured in my ancillary products, further following the conventions of a consistent colour scheme often seen in real media products. This is shown by the print screens of some of the shots within the music video to the right which show the visible yellow warm tones also featured in the ancillary products. The use of consistency was identified through existing Paramore media texts such as their official music video for Misery Business as well as album artwork for the Riot! album and photography. I have demonstrated in the picture below how they have consistently used the same fonts and colour scheme which becomes the brand identity. Similarly, I have also produced this within my work, producing both ancillary and main tasks as one brand identity, linking them via the consistent use of font, colour and logo. 
In my research of tour posters and advertisements of bands in magazines, I noticed how they include their websites and social networking links. The presence of social networking amongst the young teen generation is highly prominent, therefore I felt it was important to conform to this common convention found in real media texts. As seen in the picture above of my magazine advertisment, I have included a strip which states the bands official website as well as their official Facebook and Twitter links. This further advertises the band to a wider audience via the social networking hub.
I have followed the conventions of using motifs within my media products which I noticed was prominent in the work of official Paramore work. A motif is a dominant theme which reccurs throughout the a specific text. This was seen in Paramore by the consistent use of the motif of 'Riot!' in their work. Similarly, I have used a motif within my ancillary products, by using a polaroid theme in my photography to add a distinguished and creative design for my teen audience. I have used the motif in my magazine advertisement to captivate my teen audience as well as using it in my DVD digi-pak which features many polaroids of shot
In my ancillary products, I have applied elements of gaze theory through my photography I have taken. Through the use of gaze theory, it enables a wider audience to identify with the product through the visual attractiveness of the band. The three band members are visually attractive in which people are drawn too, equally gaze theory enables both genders to appreciate the beauty of their own gender. For example, girls want to look like the female main singer and men also identify by finding her attractive, and the same for men aspiring to be like the male members in the band and the females finding the males attractive. I have applied this theory subtly, as through the genre of rock/pop it would subvert conventions by being overtly sexual in their appearance. This can be seen through the costumes that the band members are wearing, the female singer is clothed in denim shorts and tights, subtly showing her phsyique in a way that is conventional to the rock/pop genre. Therefore, by subtly using gaze threory it conforms to the conventions of the rock/pop genre especially in the type of video we were creating.
At the beginning of the project, we subverted conventions within the rock genre. In the first attempt of filming, the band consisted of one main female vocalist, one male guitairist and one female drummer. The roles of the individual band members subverted the traditional conventional rock band line up which almost always features a female vocalist and all male instumentalists. Through this first attempt, we decided to cast a new male drummer whom fitted the rock genre conventions. I believe that through following the conventions of the band line up commonly seen within the rock genre, it made the mise-en-scene of the music video more genre specific through the extra cast members persona and costume. The final cast of the band are as follows: Georgina Kerwin = Lead singer, Paul Healey = Guitairst and Alex Wood = Drummer.
Final band cast
Further following the conventions of real media texts, we applied the use of 'motifs' throughout our music video. We included a recurrent theme of split screens which allow multiple shots to be shown in one screen. Although, this follows the codes and conventions of real media texts by the use of motif, we found in research that split screens weren't a common occurence, so this could be argued that we subverted the conventions of real media texts. To portray the 'stalker' character Joanna further, we used several editing techniques to create a TV theme throughout. The timecode at the beginning resembles that of a CCTV camera as if the character is being watched, following that the shot shows Joanna watched on multi screens similair to CCTV recordings. A grain was used over the shots to futher portray an unsettling atmosphere which looked like the videos had been shot by a home camera. To tie the motif altogether, at the end of the video there is a still image of the no signal card which is displayed on TV's when no reception is being recieved. The portrayal of the narrative character; Joanna, is mainly portrayed through the use of motifs through the video, as we further added the motif of flames in the video. This enabled the audience to identify that the character is 'evil' and dangerous. In the narrative of the music video, we have applied some of the aspects of Vladimir Propps character functions theory. Through the video it is clearly recognisable that Joanna (stalker character) is a negative character within the narrative and the main singer (Georgina) is a positive character. Therefore, Joanna is portrayed to be the villain, and Georgina the hero, this underlying structure can be seen in much of today's media output where you see the struggle between good versus evil. The idea of a struggle between 'good' and 'evil' or opposition being central to narrative has been highlighted by Claude Levi Strauss who identigies the importance of 'binary oppositions' in orgranising a narrative. The use of binary opposition constructs two characters in the audiences mind along with the stereotypical portrayal of the archetypal character types. Demonstrating this, I have created a table showing how we have portrayed the two characters throughout the music video using binary oppostions.
The narrative in our music video could be taken in a multitude of different ways making it polysemic. This follows reception theory which is based on the idea tha no text has one single meaning. The way in which we interpret a text's meaning is dependent on factors such as upbringing, age, frame of reference, location, the mood we are in etc. Reception theorists suggests factors such as gender, social studies, and social context are very important when we construct a meaning for a text. In relation to the narrative we have created, I believe you could see the stalker character as an alter-ego of the main singer or simply see her as a crazed fan of Paramore.
The camera shots we have included in the music video have ranged, but we have mainly followed the conventions seen in existing texts in our genre. We have incorporated close ups of the singers, close ups of instruments, wide shots, two shots, rule of thirds. Below, are examples of the shots we have used.
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