This Wordle shows many of the conventions, artists and songs within the genre of alternative/indie rock...
In order to ensure that my music video, magazine advert and album look professional and appeal to their target audience it was important that I looked into the conventions of the genre and chose whether to use of subvert them. Kaylee and I chose to create a video for the song 'Like We Used To' by A Rocket to the Moon which is usually throughout of as alternative/indie rock. I wanted to use the conventions of the genre, for example using a lot of natural settings and colours, showing shots of the artist singing and playing his instrument, creating a visual representation of the story the lyrics and music are telling, and also creating a storyline which our target audience of people between the ages of 14 and 20 can relate to and possibly seek advice from. I feel that by following these conventions I can encourage our target audience to watch the video as they will have some expectations of the video and can therefore predict some of the themes of the video and will hopefully choose to watch it based on it. In addition following conventions will help our video appeal to a wide range of people as a traditional storyline can be enjoyed by many, whereas a subverted plot may not appeal to a mass audience.
Although using conventions has helped us create an music video which is appealing and easy to view, I wanted to avoid following all the conventions of alt rock videos and stereotypes of relationships This is because it could become quite boring for our audience as they are likely to have seen many similar videos before, and this would result in people choosing not to watch the video or turning it off if they became bored. For this reason I decided to include some shots which you would not usually expect in a romance video, for example when Jess puts ice cream on Toms face, this creates some humour within the middle section of the video where it is common for there to be a lack of entertaining and appealing shots. Using some forms of subversion helps to keep our audiences attention throughout the entire video.
If I was to plan and create the music video again I may consider using some more subversion within our video in order to make it really unique and special. I am happy with the final product and I believe that it fits the genre well, however this could mean that some people may find it too predictable and would be more engaged by a quirky storyline or total subversion of the conventions.
Comparing my music video with another within the same genre...
In the presentation below I have looked at the similarities and differences between my music video and an already existing video; I have analysed some of the shots and discussed how I have used or subverted the conventions of the genre.
I have also chosen a one minute clip from our video and created a directors commentary looking at the forms and conventions we have used within each shot:
For my ancillary products I chose to use the conventional idea that alternative/indie rock bands focus on freedom and nature, in order to create an album cover and a poster style magazine advert which have clear connotations of the genre. I decided to use a map for the background of the digipak and album poster because this symbolises freedom and journeys. I also followed the convention of focusing on the artist by using him as the main focus within each of my ancillary products. In order to keep the attention on him I have used only one polariod photo on the cover of the digipak which shows him and his guitar as this quickly shows new listeners that his music is focused on his voice and his guitar. On the magazine album poster I have trimmed a photo of him using photoshop and overlapped it on top of a slightly transparent map; the image of him is the full vertical height of the poster and therefore the eye is drawn to him. By using large images of the artist and focusing on nature within my promotional products I believe I have successfully followed the conventions of the genre of alternative/indie rock.
In the presentation below I have explored the conventions of a real advert and album; I have then looked at the ways in which my products use and subvert these.
In order to assess how well my ancillary products fit with the conventions of the genre or alternative/indie rock music, I decided to place my products in magazines which focus on similar genres of music. This will allow me to see if they looked as though they fit in, and yet still draw the eye. I have used 'Glogster' to present my product placement images and discuss how they fit with the magazines.
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