Final words :)

Formal Sign Off :)

Well it's been a long, emotional journey for the load of us and it's been a pleasure working with my group, we had our ups and downs but we pulled together and we got it done. This is my  final blog just to sign off for good, goodbye blogger. :)

FINISHED!

This is the last post on the blog! I have learnt a lot about the conventions of a promotional package and the theories behind them. I have enjoyed putting them into practice with the rest of he team, and hopefully you like what we have created :)

Final Music Video

Charlene, Ivet, Sifan, Amy from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Evaluation Part 4 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

EVALUATION - Question 4

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have used another medium, facebook, to get some written feedback for my ancillary coursework.

We also got some feedback from our fellow students at Candi! Here are some of the comments..

These are some videos from my teacher and two students about my ancillary work, and music video. 

This video explains what I have learnt from the feedback.

Question 4

EVALUATION Q4

The Audience feedback we got from viewers was very good in general. On the day of the screening I went out and recorded audience reactions to our Music video and asked them what they thought about it, the good points and the bad points. I gathered the information from the above clips and the good points were that we had a good motif, good effects and the artist was looking at the camera. Among other good points listed those were the most key features people pointed out, for the negative there wasn't much but the fact that the story was hard to follow, or the sequence of events although our video was disjuncture based and another point of improvement was the addition of the motif and what it's purpose was to do with the story and maybe more base tracks. 

In light of the response from the audience I can think about what kind of changes to make to my work. But first I want to analyze two responses, the first one said that the motif was something that they were not sure what it's purpose was. To answer that question I would say it was a random addition that we wanted to put into the video to make people think about, just a visual pre-occupation for the viewers who would wonder what it's purpose was, this way the video stays in their minds, somewhat a promotional tool. 

The second response is about the story line, we purposely wanted to have no story line because it's disjuncture and they don't have a linear story. Now to improve I think I would probably make sure that the motif's purpose was more obvious, maybe show them more often and let them have some type of part in the music video, that's one major improvement and something I learnt from the feedback, also I would try and make a music video with some type of story to keep the audience interested because it's something people like to be engaged.

 Overall I've learn a lot from the audience feedback and will make the improvements next time, I found their feedback very helpful and I learnt to make things in a video very clear so as to create no confusion for them.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Making a prezi at the moment

EVALUATION Q3

I made a wordle on the internet to show all of the technology I used this year.

In media this year we used a range of technology to make our work come to life, for our music video we used the latest video cameras and recorded HD footage which would later be used for our music videos and bloopers, also for our test run. We recorded everything using memory cards that were also provided and then we put the files that we saved on to the Macs then started the editing process.

Technology Used on Prezi

This Prezi lists in a visual way all the technology I have used in the construction, research and planning stage of my work, individually I used all of them uniquely.

Windows 7: Most people used the Mac computers at college while I did the majority of my work at home on my PC and this technology was used because I was used to it already. I did most of my research on the internet at home as well as access all my other types of technology there too like websites for research and things of that nature, I also used Windows Live Movie maker on it and my webcam videos too.


Photoshop: I used Photoshop to edit my work mostly, my ancillary work was all done on this vital tool, it helped me edit all my pictures to get them to the right color balance and everything was done on there like font changing, color, and ever type of editing process was done on this program.


MAC & Handbrake: I used the macs at college to do the editing for my music videos using video editing tools and also a lot of my preparatory research as well as YouTube which I forgot to put on the picture but that was something that's obvious to me, for music video research purposes.


Blogger & Facebook: Blogger is probably the tool which was used by everyone in the class because it is something that was needed to put up all our research and findings as well as our own extra work, it was the most important piece of technology I used, and I am using it right now as I right this. Facebook is a social media outlet that helped me get feedback on my work which was very helpful.


Flip Cameras & Digital Cameras: The flip cameras were used to narrate the work progress as well as record audience feedback and the digital cameras were used to document every part of the music video process.


Final cut Pro & Prezi: Final cut pro was extremely important in the editing process, we used it to edit our music videos, from the lip syncing tutorial all the way to adding effects, final cut pro was the most important tool we used when it came to making our music video in combination with the cameras. 

 Youtube, I used this website to research music videos that would later inspire me.

 Example's official website, I used this site to gain information on our artist and build our own.

 Facebook, I used this website to look up my artists pictures and gain a better idea of him.

Mtv official website, I used this to look for hip-hop artists which is our genre.

Final cut pro extension: Me and my group used Final Cut Pro a lot to put our work together, we started off simple and then we all did some editing learning from our teachers. We learnt the lip sync tutorial at college and also at one point we were contemplating if we should use green screen but we then decided we didn't but we still practiced how to use and edit on green screen just in case. We played with the speed of our video to make it slow motion at certain parts using the timeline manipulate buttons and we also played with the lighting and contrast to give it a certain look and we chopped the scenes to make it fit together, it took an extremely long time to do this and we now know how to edit music videos.

Here is an image of Ivet pointing at a clip which we are about to chop up to put into the timeline at the bottom, it is visible on the picture how we've already cut most of the video up using the razor tool and also the music at the bottom in time.

This is our animatic that we made using final cut pro, it's our first edit video.

EVALUATION Q2

A short video which begins to explore some of the links between our music video and our later ancillary work and how our audience can make the links themselves through the visuals in the video and the pictures.

This is a collage I made to visually illustrate how the audience would see the artist as a whole, this is how they would think of C. MOORE the collage includes stills from the music video, these scenes will stick in their minds and the album cover will reinforce the image of the artist in their minds, it would appeal because his persona is one of a carefree person who has a lot of fun and this will appeal not only to hip-hop goers but music fans in general because it is paramount to have a good artist image when trying to market someone who is a new artist to the scene.

A final longer more detailed video that answers all the questions asked. Summary.

EVALUATION Q1

Music videos have a lot of forms and conventions that we tried to follow when making our own, we had a lot of inspiration from many other artists in our chose genre. We chose to do a disjuncture video, of which the conventions are that the song does not have to match the video as Goodwin highlighted. We followed most of the pop video conventions like repetition of shots and our artist also looks straight at the camera.

The above Prezi is of our three most influential videos put together on Prezi, it covers the most influential aspects of the chosen videos and how they came to together.

This video further explains what the Prezi touches on in much more detailed and also does some side to side comparisons of real media products next to our Music Video.

A scene from Nas' one mic that inspired our own video, the scene uses a person in the middle of the screen just like I am in the center and people running past him but in slow motion. We thought this was very powerful because it promotes the artist and it develops the conventions of real hip-hop videos.

The first image is the album cover of Tyler, the Creator's album Goblin, he is a relatively new artist just like our artist C.MOORE and they both work within the hip-hop genre. The reason the album cover appealed to me so much to me was because it was so simple yet so effective, the color purple really stood out and at the same time it didn't over power the artist himself so it was still promoting him. I think my work develops the conventions of standard hip-hop albums mainly because it promotes the artist and also is very eye-catching which is heavily necessary for a new artist especially in the hip-hop genre.

The first image is a real life advert made for the artist J. Cole who just released his debut album last year so he's a new artist just like C. MOORE, the two adverts have some similarities since they both heavily promote the artist, using pictures and big letters to show off the artist names. Mine is really simple just like the other one because it has the name of the artist in big bold letters and also has a picture of the artist as the main focal point of the whole advert, this is extremely conventional in Hip-Hop music and I chose to use that idea.

This is another advert used in real life that I got some inspiration from, the artist is a major player in the hip-hop game and he still uses the same types of advertising ventures as new artists like J. Cole and Tyler, the creator. The conventions of hip-hop advertising are that the artist name has to be very visible as well as the artist himself being a selling point and I think my work illustrates these conventions well because our artist is on the forefront of the advert and the digipak uses the same types of conventions present in contemporary hip-hop music.

Finally this is the bag cover of my digipak and it was majorly influenced by that of Big Sean who is also a new artist and they have some similarities, with the use of dull background colour which brings the artist out there a bit more and also the writing is conventional. I chose to challenge only certain aspects of this genre like not putting on jewellery and showing off, which has become a part of this genre in recent years as is evident on Big Sean's digipak picture above but altogether I chose to either use or develop the conventions of this genre like, advertising the artist and using eye-catching covers with names big.

These two images are here to show how the artist C.MOORE (bottom) & Example (top) have similarities the reason this is important is because this comes under mise-en-scene when looking at what links the music video and ancillary work. It is important that the artist dress according to the genre in which he exists so that's why it's a good thing for the audience because they can relate him to a certain type of genre. The significance of these images is that our artist and Example are both wearing checkered shirts, something very common in the UK hip-hop scene and something our audience will recognize straight away.

This is a music video that inspired me quite a bit only because the music video doesn't have much link to the album cover all except the fact that it is a means of promotion for the album and the single. The way it influenced my work was that we also chose to make the music video very promotional for the artist, so we had C.MOORE on every scene just like this video and also it looks similar to the album.

Evaluation Question 3 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Question 3 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation sta on Prezi

How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?Both my advertisement and my diji pack follow a smiliar convention and theme.

Both my diji pack and my ancillary work link together this is down to the black and white colour i have used. My video links with my diji pack and advertisement also as we have used the same mise-en-scene (  the hat )

Wretch 32 is an artist that has used the black and white theme for his digi pack.

My target audeince is teenagers and young adults and also aimed at people who go to clubs alot. I think my video appeals to this audience as it is very fast beat and also there is a clip where people are out a house party drinking which will appeal to young adults.

Overall i feel that my music video went really well and i am pleased with the end result it was very fun to film and to edit and my group worked well. I am happy with my digi pack and my advertisement however i feel that i could of been a bit more creative and used my imagination more.

EVALUATION - Three

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

RESEARCH AND PLANNING:

INTERNET. Youtube, Google and Hotmail. Without the use of the internet for research purposes, the media products we have created would not be as successful.  By looking up past music videos and ancillary print work on youtube, it is able to establish the conventions of different media products.

Google is the search engine for all of our research. Many images found on this blog are a result of a google images search, which makes it easy to find new information and helpful websites.

BLOGGER.

Blogger is the online blog (short for ‘web log’) that this coursework is posted on. The online format has allowed us to post images and embed videos from other websites.

PREZI.

The online presentation device that is what we used to present our pitch to the class and our teacher. The prezi enabled us to add images as well as text.

This video illustrates how we have used different websites on the internet for research and planning purposes.

CONSTRUCTION:

Brand new state of the art VIDEO CAMERAS.

The cameras are used to film our music video, and also some extra blogs that we have put on. The high quality of the cameras meant that we were able to produce a high standard of coursework. On the cameras we are able to view what we have filmed and judge whether the shots were good or need improving.

PHONES, FLIP CAMERAS, SCREEN RECORDING (I Show You), SCREEN VIDEO and Digital Cameras

These are the three mediums we used to film our blogs explaining our research, planning and construction. Phones and Flip cameras are small and easy to carry around which makes them convenient when we are out on location. These were used to film small videos for the blog to explain what we have done during each stage of the coursework process. The screen recording made it easy to film blogs when we were in college, working on our coursework.

MAC

The state of the art computers that allow us to put together all of the technologies, and make them work together. They hold the software including Final Cut pro, Photoshop and Quicktime amongst many other packages. This is where we constructed the music video and the ancillary work, with the different softwares. As it has so many different packages it was easy to combine all of the work in one space. It works in conjunction with the VIDEO DRIVE, which is an external hardware device that is large enough to store all of the data we needed for the coursework. This includes screen shots, the music video and the unedited clips, images for the blog.

Editing in FINAL CUT PRO:

Final cut pro is the software in which we edited our music video. We also edited some extra clips that were not successful with captions, to put on the blog. With

Edits: brightness and contrast To improve the overall look of the music video, we edited the brightness and contrast so that the video has a more striking and ‘polished’ look.

By making some clips slow motion, there is a dramatic, stylised feel to the video. Also, using the software I was able to reverse a few clips

Layering clips

ANCILLARY

We used a digital camera to take the photographs of Sifan for the print work. The quality of the photographs because of this, was high, which made it easy to edit.

Image of an unedited photograph in photoshop

PHOTOSHOP. Is one of my favourite editing software’s as it is easy to play around with and experiment with different edits. I wanted a three panel Digipak to include lots of photographs of the artist. All of the photographs are edited to black and white, for a crisp and neutral look, so it does not look to ‘busy’ with too much colour. To make the images more defined, the contrast tool on Photoshop makes images look darker and crisp. By not over editing the images, it is still clear what the artist looks like.

By using layers on Photoshop, It was easy to layer photographs and text, to make a realistic Digipak and Advertisement.

Evaluation Question 2 – How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Do you think your target audience will be attracted to them? 

Throughout the ancillary products and the music video, things like the mise en scene with locations familiar to ones our target audience would be, the clothing, all help in attracting our target audience.

Therefore I think our target audience of young adults would be attracted to the music video, and the ancillary products as they have an edge to them through the use of black and red colouring, which will hopefully appeal to our target audience. 

Similarly, the images I have used portray our artist’s personality very well, which may help connect him with his target audience, as a result attracting them to see the video or buy the digipak. The colours are kept neutral for a reason, so that they appeal to both male and female audiences, and the images really focus the whole thing around the artist, which therefore promotes him.

How successful do you think your main and ancillary texts are?

Overall, I feel our music video and my ancillary products ( digipak and advertisement), are both successful as they tick the two main boxes which are to promote the artist, and attract the target audience by relating to them or appealing to them through images, colours and over all style. I do feel, that perhaps there could have been an even clearer link between the music video and ancillary products, and that my poster could have had a few more things on in such as where the digipak is available to buy. Apart from this, I feel my products work well in representing the style and personality of my artist, which then allows his target audience to became a wear of him, when they look around and see posters of his digipak or his music video. 

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

It’s also conventions for a music video to have quite a few base tracks. In our case we have 15 main ones. The rest were just shots we took from different angles, but didn't last throughout the whole song, for example a shot of the bag nodding to the beat.

Some of the base tracks were filmed from different angles which gave it that variety and allowed us to reveal more of the scenery. 

click on image to enlarge.

Example – watch the sun come up is a real life example of a music video which also has several base tracks. 

Base tracks are usually in locations that are accessible or familiar to anyone which again relates to our audience who would be able to go to those places or have been to similar ones and can therefore relate this with our artist.

click on image to enlarge.

A bit more on how I followed conventions of real media products in my ancillary products.

We followed conventions of real media 

such as music videos with the same genre as ours, an example of this is Nas-One Mic, in it a lot of slow motion is used to highlight certain scenes, emphasis on them more, or make the more dramatic, for example with the running scene, we too followed this in our chorus when we had the guys run around C.MOORE, in order to make it more dramatic which therefore makes it more interesting to watch and would then hopefully attract the attention of our audience. The video bellow is of the two scenes where slow motion is used in the same way in our video and Nas'.