how do my products use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products.



my album cover (left) has both conventional properties, as well as unconventional. it is conventional as it uses one main image to take up the whole picture which is very common on cd covers to do so as most CD's have this factor and i have chosen to use that because i wanted it to stand out but be simple rarther than looking like it is 'trying to hard' to be different. the front cover image however is unconventional, because on most rock/pop album covers it has a man/woman trying to look beautiful and glamorous, but i am not trying to do that im trying to show feeling just through the eyes of the character, and i want the mise-en-scene to ask questions to the audience so they think ' why is he wearing that mask?'. another conventional theme to the cover is that all of he colours link in wel with eachother and within the actual title, by this i mean 'strawberry' is red and 'fields' is green, this works well as i have used pastely colours to match the jumper of the character. it is unconventional of an album cover to not say the bands name, but i did not feel that this was important because it is a notorious enough song for this to not need to be said, if it did hav the name of the band on it would automatically draw attention away from the images because they are so famous.

the back of my CD case is very conventional again as it has one main picture taking up all the space like the front. it also uses the same objects, but the mask is happy this time rarther than sad which is a very slight difference which most may not know, but if you do its jus one of them little clever things you notice. i took inpiration for this from a pink floyd album; Echoes. again all of the colours link in with all of the products with red being the main theme. i wated all of my products to link in the sense that you can tell there apart of the same family, but i wanted them all to be very different contextualy and i think i have done this quite well.

my poster on first glance may look very simple, but as i have just stated i want it to seem quite random and off the point, but it does link in with my other products. i have used the same colours and font for the writing, and again i havent mentioned the bands name because it does not need to be said i feel as instead its like a teaser, by this i mean how on call of duty adverts for example, months before the game comes out they will just show something what is famous of the game s you know it is coming, and that is what feeling i want to be around my poster and other products for that matter. the main image takes up the whole image which is conventional again, but the image is not as it has got nothing to do with music, the beatles or my other products. however it is in a field which links in with the title and it gives the mystery feeling and i think this is portrayed throghout my products.

my music video is very conventional in the sense of how it is structed very narritively. but the shots used and costumes worn are unconventional. also it is just shot in a house which seems very dull and boring and other music videos are not usually just in a house. in th music video the main male characteris wearing the same jumper from the cd cover so the products link, and the red wall is also quite prominant throughout the video and my products. another uncventional aspect of my video is that i have put a 'dream glow' over the video so it all seems quite earie and strange, this also links in with te ending as it was all a dream, and then at this point i have put a soft focus on the video because they have just woke up and your eyes are a bit blurry, then it goes back into the dream glow when it is zoomed in on the lips so that you are again asking questions about the video and this is a deffinate theme throughout all of my products.











THERE IS A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LYRYICS AND VISUALS, WITH THEM ILLUSTRATING AMPLIFYING OR CONTRADICYING EACHOTHER.


Within my music video, it tells a story of a man and woman who are together, but the man abuses and disrespects her by not pulling his wait in the relationship and letting her do all of the cleaning and tidying and he does not even acknowledge her in any way. the song i have chosen does not specificaly say any of this within its lyrics, but that is what i have interperuted that they mean. i have come to think of these interperutations because the lyrics seem like metaphors for example, in the first line ' living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see' is not a specific thing in the sense that there are no nouns to link between the visuals and lyrics so to me that first line says a man is being iggnorant 'eyes closed' and not pulling his weight and realising how his wife feels 'misunderstanding al you see'. these lyrics are mirrored throughout the first verse so in my music video this is mirrored so that it is just showing the woman doing al of the work and being lonely and the man is just sitting in the same place to reresent how he doesnt care. so throughut the first verse my visuals are amplifying what i feel the lyrics are trying to say, but through metaphors. the chorus is where the video starts to change and that is shown by a weird shot of the main character and it looks strange, strawberry fields is a prominent theme of the music video and whenever strawberry fields forever is mentioned it is made to seem like a dream because it is so when this is mentioned the video is trying to give you a hint that it is a dream, the masks in the video are also to give you a hint that it is a dream and to represent their loss of identity which is also a key theme of the video. the lyrics throughout the chorus are showig the change in the relationship of the main chaacters and it shows how the woman is far happier without the man but how the man is very unhappy. the second and last verse starts ou with the line 'always know sometimes think its me, but you know i know when its a dream' , which says that he has woken up from his bad dream and has realised who he is and what he wants so therfor takes off his mask. the next few lines are just sort of saying the same thing of how he loves his wife, but then the last line finishes on a bad note again which saysthat maybe their relationship is a circle and it will all happen again and so i have dubbed in the chorus of the words ' strawberry fields forever' so that i seems like they are in the dream again which is amplifyed in the video.







Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography.


after extensive research, my chosen song is catorgerised in the genre of rock/pop, which is quite a wide genre with lots of different conventions. the usual style of video for this genre however is quite abstract and unusual, but with a lot of live action from the band or singer with a lot of close ups of them. i have caried these key themes through to my video with the unusual contents of my video and lots of close ups of the characters,but i have included no live action in my video because i didnt think it would fit in. i have noticed that other conventions of rock/pop videos are bright colours, and i have used this in my music video especially with the colour red. i previously stated in my research sector of my project that i wanted to include strange obscure items in my video and i have done this by including the masks as itmakes you want to watch it as you dont understand why they're really there until the end.



Record companies will demand a lot of close/ups of the main artist/vocalist.


in my music video there is nobody performing the song as such, but i did include many close ups of the main characters as possible to give it a real music video feel. because my characters are wearing masks it also seems strange and kind of pointless to have lots of close ups of the characters as there facial expression never changes and i rely more on their bodies to portray emotion. My video follows a very narritive structure so this also hinders the amount of close ups needed or that could fit into the music video.



Andrew Goodwins theory of music videos.


my music video definately conforms to Andrew Goodwins theory as it contains all of his points in the same order. however, even though my music video is completely narrative it could still be seen as unconventional as at the end of the video they wake up and it was all a dream and that breaks the theory in a way.









HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINTIONATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS.

this is my first draft of my poster. i think that it works very well with my cd cover as they are all surreal, but it is not identical to them. i like the colours used and fonts, the only problem i think there is is that the band name looks wrong at the bottom.

i have completely binned my original poster idea for the picture, because of the name of the song i have decided a picture like this one would work the best, and even though the video is not shot in a field for one second, the surreality of the video and this poster i feel would work very well together.

after observing this picture i have a definate idea for the desing of my CD cover. as i have a obvious theme of masks and identity through my music video, i will link props of my video on a neutral background and take a picture of them so it seems symbolic.

this roughly shows again what my poster will look like, i liked the idea of the picture but i am not definate on whether i will do mine like this. the colours do not work on this poster but my picture would link with the font colours better than this picture does. after looking at this picture and putting it on my poster i have now thought that this idea may work better as a cd cover but i am not 100% sure yet.

this is obviously a very basic draft of my music poster, it is basically just showing how there will be a main picture what takes up the whole page, with the title of the song over the top. i have not chosen the font or properly where the title will be going on it yet.

this is a very vague story board of what my music video will be like. the first image is just to show the characters will be wearing masks as this is important as it adds a erie atmosphere and loss of identity. the next images shows a couple arguing, then the women leaving home, it then shows the man going crazy because he is now unhappy and cant function, but the women is happy as it shows on the next picture. then a knife is shown and you dont know whether he has killed her or killed himself, it then shows him lying dead on the floor as the song says strawberry fields forever. he then wakes up and it was all a dream, the maks are now off showing that he knows himself now and what he wants.

these are the clothes that the woman in my video will be wearing. i have chose these shoes because they match the mens shoes and i want all of the clothes to link in a way. this dress is sloghtly what i want it like, but i want the dress to be more red to link in with the mans jumper and the title of 'strawberry fields', but these are pretty much what i want her to look like.

i have been thinking about the costumes that my two characters will be wearing. i want them both to be wearing bold colours to fit in with the video and i want the costume to be quite querky. i am first going to concentrate on the male part, i have decided on this red jumper because it is bold coloured and i just think it is perfect for the video, mainly because it is red which fits in the the title, ' strawberry fields forever'. i think i will give him simple indigo coloured jeans like these ones i have shown here to keep it simple and a pear of brown boots. i have chosen this outfit because it is simple and bold, but it has a querky charisma.

i have pitched the idea of my music video infront of my class, although it was quite vague i think people liked the idea of it. the point of this was to see what peers thought of my idea and it helped to show what i am missing out on having feedback and seeing where everybody else is up to. to make it easier to see what will be happening on my music video i have drawn a story board to show the basic story line of my video, i have already completed this but i need to upload it onto my blog.

these are the masks that i will be using in my music video. they will be used to show the loss of identity for the two characters in the music video. they will also be used to show the emotions of the characters so they will not always be wearing the same mask. another reason of these masks is to add surreality to the video and i will have close ups of the actors eye in the masks and different shots that make it all seem strange.

i have decided that for my first scene i want it to be scened with frost on the grass so it will have to be early morning. i want this because i want the environment to seem strange and i know frost isnt all that unusual but with the rest of the setting it should work well together. i have decided also for the other part of scene two to have it in the field behind my house but in another part of the field so it doesnt look as messy, for this part of the seen which is the womans part i want it to be sunny, but for the other part which is the mans i want it to be rainy and dismul weathered.

i have given it much consideration on where to have my location for my music video and i have come to the conclusion to have it outside. because of the erie, unusualness of the song it would fit perfectly to have the first seen in my back garden and edit it to make the grass really green and the sky really blue to show that upon first look, like the song that it looks happy, but when you look closely it is an unhappy place. for my second scene i will need to location and one of them will be filmed in the field behind my house because it needs to show sadness and if i film my video here on a gloomy day it will show the sadness i need to portray. this field is also good for this because it looks a bit messy and i need to show messiness in this part of the song, it also has trees which is important for my video. i still need to consider where the other location will be for the second scene and i also need to think what my final scene location will be. i also need to take photos of these locations to show what they look like and if they look good for the part.

now i have got a basic outline of my story i can now think of a setting of where would be most suitable to shoot my music video. considering my music video is based on domestic issues then it would more thank likely look the bets if it was shot in a house to make it look authentic, i will think more about the place it can be in because a house is not deffinate yet because my song is an unusual song i would like an unusual setting but i am not sure if it would work.

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.

Ignorance, sleeping, cant see whats happening- break up- she could be doing things for him and he isn’t noticing - both people are wearing masks.

Its getting hard to be someone but it all works out.

Finding hard to be themselves but being optimistic about the situation(woman).

It doesn’t matter much to me

Cause of break up – man not caring what is happening.

No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low

Woman leaving (picking up suitcase) contrasts between how the man is dealing with it and the woman.

That is you cant you know tune in but its alright, that is I think its not too bad.

Cant focus – going crazy – mans house is a mess – spinning around mans house, stops on woman and she is happy.

Let me take you down cause im going to, strawberry fields,

Man is crying- canted angle to show everything isn’t right.

Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.

Gets knife out- shows him killing his self but in a suggestive way.

Strawberry fields forever.

Him lying on floor, lots of still shots of a red blanket getting bigger to show spillage of blood.

Always know sometimes think its me, but you know I know when it’s a dream.

Wakes up was a dream – relief – masks are off now.

I think I know of thee, ah yes but its all wrong

Him cuddling her realises his identity – who he really wants to be.

That is I think I disagree

She rolls over and both smile.

cut out last chorus but put in strawberry fields forever and have heart growing instead of blood growing.



this is a brief story line of what is going to happen in my video, it doesnt say what shots or setting i am going to use because i have not decided fully what they are going to be. the words in black are the lyrics and the words in red are my brief description.

Setting

judging by the name of the song it would be suited to mainly be in a grassy kind of setting and it sounds happy so i would haver lots of bright things and objects in, but i could change that around and use strawberry fields as a metaphor for something else, like strawberries are red and so is blood and it could be a war field, but it would be hard to create such a large scale thing. i think to further pick a setting i need to decide what i want the videos story line to be like so i need to consider this.