When creating my music video, we had to take into account the conventions that are in a real music video. For starters, one of the main conventions is having lots of close ups of the artist. As described in Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory, this creates a star image. In our case, the main artist being Sam, had himself featuring in many close ups throughout the music video. We decided to take note and use this convention as using lots of close up shots with the artist, especially if it is their first single, makes a better impression to the audience. The audience gets to know the artists face more, and in a way, their personality. This is because you can see the slight facial expressions that the artist pulls from closer up. We wanted to show Sam as being really cheeky, and we think we portrayed this well with the use of close ups. The screenshot below is an example of a close up we have used. 
Another main convention is that the ly
rics have a relationship with the video. This doesn’t mean that the video literally shows word for word what is happening in the video, but it has a similar mood, and occasionally the lyrics can narrate the video. We have chosen to pay close attention to this convention, as the lyrics in our song are very specific. We haven’t followed the lyrics word for word throughout the song however as we felt this would look too cheesy, although in some scenes like the kebab shop for example, we have used the lyrics as strong guidelines. Throughout the rest of the song, we have paid very close attention to the mood of the song. So for example if the lyrics are happy and fast paced, we would use this feeling within the video, using fast paced shots etc. The last main convention we have embraced is the idea that the video cuts to another shot, to the pace of the music. This is so the music and the video actually look like they are meant to be together and not just two things that have similar relations. As our song has an extremely clear beat and rhythm to it, we felt that this convention would be extremely important to take notice of. As the quick paced rhythm of the song creates a fast and energetic mood, we wanted a video that mirrors this; therefore matching the cuts to the beat creates this perfectly.
In terms of the conventions of my specific music genre as being quite rappy and urban, as the lyrics are very direct and personal with this genre, it doesn’t make sense to have a singer and then an actor both starring in the music video. This is because the lyrics are about one person. We have definitely used this idea as we have cast Sam, both our singer and actor. The screenshot below shows this. 
We felt using this technique would have been a lot more succ
essful than if we had separate singers and actors as the lyrics are actually about the person singing them, not the actor or another person- it just wouldn’t make sense. We have also used very fast paced shots within the music video. Whilst I have spoken about this convention briefly previously, saying how music videos cut to the beat of the music, it is much more important with our genre of music as it has such a heavy and fast paced beat. This technique keeps the music and the video looking like they belong together. It is also a huge genre signifier, showing just how fast the music is.
A few of the obvious and essential conventions of a digipak are the name of the artist, album and the track listing on the front or back cover. We have included all three of these as you can see from the image of our digipak above. The artist name being “Class A Heroes”, album names being “Fit But You Know It”, and the track listing on the back. We have also chosen still images from our music video for the digipak, as we have named the digipak, “Fit But You Know It”, so it is appropriate. All three of these images are images of our main actors, two of them being our singer as well, and the other, Lucy. The majority of them are also close ups, creating the star images again. On the back cover, we have included logos of the record labels and information about them including copyright etc. This is because it is also another essential convention to include making it look as professional as possible. The final essential convention that is needed to be included, and that we have included, is the barcode, as without it, the CD would not be able to sell. Other conventions of a digipak are having a price on it, and having details as to where the album was recorded
etc. We have chosen not to include these conventions as we believe that the price of the CD changes in different shops, so it would not be essential to include this feature. Also, the details about where the album was created and written by etc, is normally featured inside a booklet within the digipak, so I have not included this convention on the digipak.
I have learnt that essential conventions for real adverts are that like the digipak, the artists name and album name are shown. Otherwise, the audience wouldn’t know what the advert is for! I have shown this in the image above, displaying our advert. We have obviously included these conventions. Adverts in general use celebrities to sell their product. We are trying to create Sam a celebrity, and keep using his face as a star image; therefore, as another main convention we are using, he is on our advert. As it is an advert trying to sell the CD, the audience has to know where to buy the product. Therefore, another main convention is having logos of one or more places to buy the CD. Because of this, we have included the HMV and Amazon logo on the advert. We have al
so included the artist’s website on the advert, as this would help in advertising the product further. This is quite a common convention used on many adverts. Finally, one of the most common conventions is having quotes, ratings and awards from related companies. This is so the audience know just how good the album is, and they aren’t just buying any old album. We have used quotes from Q Magazine and an award from NME magazine to achieve this.
The main convention that will attract our target audience within the music video is the fast paced editing that cuts to the beat of the music. This is because the audience who would be typically attracted to the song are the sort of people who would be quite active, friend orientated, like a night out at the pub/ club with load music. All of these things that the target audience like, would need to have fast paced music, or if not, fast paced music would go really well with that theme. As the fast paced cutting of the video would look good with the music, the target audience would therefore like, be attracted to and relate to the music video. The target audience would be attracted to the digipak as there are close up images of the two main characters. The use of the close up image of both characters is so the audience can get an up close look at both people, so they know what they look like, and also get to know them better. If the audience are attracted to either of them, they would be more likely to buy the digipak. Therefore, that convention would have been successful inattracting an audience. The use of using quotes on the advert, and also telling the audience about any awards the CD has gained, will immediately attract audiences. This is because, if the album has gained recognition from a well-known company, then they will assume the album is good. It’s almost like using a celebrity on the front cover of a magazine- the audience will know that celebrity or company in our case is backing the CD. This convention will almost certainly attract a wider audience.
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