Things I have learnt throughout the course;

These are just a few things that I have learnt throughout creating my music video and ancillary tasks. I feel that my skills have developed throughout.

Evaluation Q4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning, and evaluation stage?

Evaluation Q4

Evaluation Q3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Firstly I created a questionnaire which I used near the start of the coursework. This questionnaire allowed me to find out what people around the age range of 16-18 like to see in a music video and type of music they like. I got very good feedback which allowed me to create graphs and get a percentage of each question. I found that most people liked Hip-Hop and R&B music and this is where my idea of doing a Hip-Hop song came from. I began to discover that although most people preferred a Hip-Hop video they wanted a story or structure to the video. However, I decided against this as I wanted to make my music video quick and up tempo with lots of dancing and movement. One of the main questions in my first questionnaire was "what do you expect to see in a music video?" The results showed that most people said they would prefer to see varied shots and the artist singing. This is why I decided to research different shots which I could use -

• Handheld
• Three way shot
• Mid shot
• Close up
• Long shot

This also helped me confirm my target audience age which was from around 15-20 years old. Most of the results from this questionnaire were girls. This made me consider my next questionnaire that I need to be more careful and make sure I get even results so that I can have a fair result.

"Taking into account the questionnaire results I decided to do a song which is up-tempo mainly being R&B and Pop. With a target audience of 16-18 year old's. The results that I received were mainly by girls this has effected the way that I have created the story board. Also because of the story board I thought it would be a good idea to add a story to the song which runs throughout as most people who finished the questionnaire said they would prefer a narrative included. This may be because it makes the video more interesting and helps the audience to stay engaged in it. Just a simple idea of having a boy and a girl attracted to each other. This would also be good as the majority of the people who fed back were girls and they like romance".

My second questionnaire was aimed directly towards my target audience. The results showed what usual conventions of a Hip-Hop video people would expect and/or like to see. Dancing was the highest one with four people saying they would expect to see it in a Hip-Hop video this relates to my storyboard which has a lot of dancing throughout the video. Therefore I made sure that I had lots of dancing throughout my video. The majority of the people who filled out this questionnaire said that they would prefer the video to follow the conventions of the genre of the song. This helped me to think of different cutaways that I could use in my video of the conventions of a Hip-hop song for example champagne and cars which are cutaways that I tried out. I used champagne cut aways as they fitted in with my music video where as the car shots didn't work out properly because of technical issues. The majority of the people who filled in the questionnaire said that they would rather watch a music video which has both narrative and performance elements in. This has been used in my research as I decided to have the main performer performing in different places throughout the video and also to have different dancers throughout.

Formative feedback;

Throughout the construction process of my video I showed my video to my peers. I received a lot of good feedback which was both positive and negative. One negative comment I received which really helped me was that I needed to as some cut aways, as at this point I didn't have any, although I wanted to keep my video simple with just the artists performing and people dancing I realised I should have a couple of cutaways to make parts of the video different and keep it interesting. Another piece of feedback I received was that the part where the writing came up saying "Pass Out" didn't look very professional. I personally felt that this also added something to the video and helped to keep the continuity of the writing throughout. I changed it slightly so that the opacity of the writing was around 60% this made it so you could still see the background image through the writing. I felt that this gave it a bit more style and kept it simple but effective.

Sharing my video in different ways;

Facebook -
After I finished my video I decided to post it on my Facebook to see if anyone would give any feedback; good and bad. I posted it saying I would appreciate good and bad feedback. I got a very good a response overall. Most of my friends said that it was really professional. One person said that I should of changed the writing that said "hello, hola and bonjour" as it looked unprofessional compared to the other titles, this was the only negative comment to do with titles I received on Facebook.

People who liked my video;

Girls - 15
Boys - 9
They are also all around the same age range 16-19 this is the age range which I was targeting my video at so I feel that this was very helpful.
This maybe shows me that my video attracts girls more than boys. I think this could be because it has male artists in it who are good looking and one way I have developed the conventions of a regular Hip-Hop video is that I haven't got girls dancing in sexualised

Third questionnaire;

After finishing my digipak

This questionnaire was based around my magazine advert. I created this for the same reason as the digipak one. I just felt that it was important to have feedback from all three of my products and then analyse what I would of done different across all three products as I feel my products are all equally as important in promoting the artist and promoting the song.

I also created a questionnaire based around my digipak, this was basically asking the same sorts of questions as the other two; how did it fit in with the genre, do you think it looks like a real media product etc... I also wanted to find out from this questionnaire whether my digipak had brand identity with the two other products I felt this was important as if all of the products don't match and do not have continuity then they do not relate to each other and are not as easily recognisable.

YouTube;

After finishing my video I decided to post it on YouTube, as this allowed me to be able to post my final video on my blog and explain parts of it for my evaluation questions. Another reason why this was a good idea was that I was also able to post it on my facebook and ask for feedback:

Most of the feedback I received on my video on YouTube was helpful. The main point that was put across was that I could of used more cutaways throughout this was the same as the feedback off my facebook. I received one comment which I decided to discard after looking at some of the work he had  published on YouTube as it was apparent he had no experience with this kind of work. Clarkamedia said that they liked the use of titles at 0:47 which is where they say "charge now" I personally think this is the best text cutaway I have as it looks more professional like "All of the Lights" video.

Overall feedback from my music video;

After reviewing all of the feedback I received there were many aspects which I was pleased about, one of them being that everyone said that the video was very professionally edited and fitted in with the pace of the video. This was the exact thing I was looking at achieving so being able to see people saying this was very pleasing for me. Another piece of good feedback I received was that the writing shots also looked very professional. I was looking at creating writing shots like that on "All of the Lights" video and I feel that I achieved this with some of the writing shots. One thing that was negative feedback to do with the writing was that the writing which appears every time Tinie Tempah says "pass out" was to jarring I tend to disagree with this also I can understand why some people may think this, also I wanted my video to stand out and be "in your face" so I feel these shots help to achieve that. The main negative comments which I received throughout sharing my music video was that I should of added in more cutaways as the shots of the performer becomes a bit repetitive. I totally agree with this and I would do this differently if I was to do it again. I wanted to keep the video clean and simple but I think a few more cutaways of different conventions of Hip-Hop video's like cars, girls etc would of worked really well and given a different image to the video rather than it just being the performer and shots of a club. I also think that I could of had the performer singing in the club with people dancing behind him as this keeps the continuity to the video and also gives the video a narrative, which is what I feel my video lacks.

Overall feedback from my ancillary tasks;

After reading through my questionnaire results and talking to many different people about my ancillary task. I found that the majority of the people only had good things to say about them. They said that there was clear signs of brand identity throughout my products, this was probably the main reason I think why they worked so well. I used black, white and red on the CD cover and the magazine advert I felt that this would work best as my whole video is basically black, white and red again to add to the brand identity of my products. One piece of positive feedback I received was that the pictures of the artists were really good their pose and stance. I agree but I think if I was to redo my magazine and CD cover again I would probably ask my actors to stand how I wanted and take a picture instead I cut them from the green screen so although I really like the way they have turned out the pictures are not as sharp and clean cut as I would of liked.

Evaluation Q2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions of a music video -

Before tackling this question I thought it would be worthwhile looking at the most common conventions of both music videos and hip hop;


Music videos are basically short films that are created to fit a song and promote the track in the way the director and artist feel is appropriate. 

Performance videos; normally focus directly on the performance of the band. A wide range of shots used, in particular, close-ups of the artist
- Artist is shown throughout "performing" or "singing" the song.
Narrative videos; show the views a short story, which may or may not be to do with the song.
- Narrative based videos are usually used for a love song, so that the viewers can relate with the lyrics and the video.

- Music videos are often both narrative and performance based - they can have a narrative (story) throughout, but are used alongside various performance shots.
- Wide range of shots, from different angles which give different perspectives.
- The editing will usually go with the pace of the song, e.g. fast pace song means fast editing and visa versa.
- The video will usually last as long as the song, on occasions the video will have an intro to introduce the story line this normally happens in highly narrative based videos.

Conventions of a Hip-Hop music video -

After looking in depth at many videos (and images) from the Hip Hop genre, a number of reoccurring themes were evident:

- Usually a male artist performing to the camera.
- The performer is almost always highly confident, making direct address towards the audience
- Women are prominent, often wearing revealing outfits (sexualised dancing)
- Men are often wearing baggy, fashionable, 'American style' clothing.
- Display of money and power and power; e.g. cut-aways of cars, jewellery, champagne.
- Usually set in an urbanised area, tracing back to the roots of black America and/or connoting that these artists are one of the people, that they've lived the 'rags to riches' tale but have stayed true to their background.

Different shots and editing used -


Some of the most frequent shots I found in Hip Hop videos were the following:

• Low angled shots (to make the artist seem more powerful)
• Editing to fit the pace of the music
• Either the use of bright lighting to make the artist seem more important, impressive or powerful, or black and white, to add a gritty, or perhaps timeless, classy touch to the visual

ANSWER;





These were two of the first Hip Hop videos I analysed, and I feel that both carry classic conventions of their genre. I feel that these two videos have similar cut aways, both use regular shots of the performer and take place in urban (or simple, stripped down) locations. This was a convention I used in my own video, having shots of my performer against a brick wall which connected with the usual conventions of a Hip-Hop video being shot in a urbanised area. Also as I decided to do my video in black and white I felt having a plain background of the genre would contrast and look more sleek and stylish - another convention used.

The background of both Hip-Hop and R&B come from successful black rap artists, who communicated their frustration and passion through lyrics. Therefore I chose to use locations like one below, to use conventions of traditional Hip-Hop music videos such as 'Home-coming' below.

My urban shots;

The plain white background in my music video worked well in comparison with the brick urban background as it added to the contrast of black and white and also emphasised the genre of the music video. Another of my locations was shot within a club. As Hip-Hop music seems to be identified with the teenage population from 16-19 (demographics from my questionnaire earlier in the year) I was able to connect locations to this, using a cut away of a nightclub to connect with this age range, as this is stereotypically what they would be doing at that age. The shots that I have used include both male and females dancing as this video/genre appeals to both male and female demographics. Most of the videos that I have watched have been mainly females dancing in a sexual way. I believe I have challenged this convention as the girls in my video are not wearing  normal Hip-Hop clothes as they are much more covered up than most of the girls in the videos that I have watched.

Another way I feel my video challenges and develops the conventions of a usual Hip-Hop video is through the girls I have dancing in my video. Although they are seen dancing in my video they are not seen in provocative clothing.

My video -

 
A usual Hip-Hop video -

This contrasts with the dancing in my video as it is more focused on sexualised dancing and the video is more predominately focused on males.

My video hand-held shots -

"99 Problems" hand-held shots -

One way my video develops the conventions of a music video is through the pace of the editing. During research I noted how most music videos are edited to fit the pace of the music. As the song that I chose has a fast and upbeat tempo, the pace of the editing was very quick. I compared the amount of cuts in the real music video for Pass Out with my version and found that my video was even quicker in terms of editing (over 200 cuts compared to around 160 in the original). This is where I began to develop conventions - taking fast editing and pushing it even further. I feel that the pace of editing that I have used fits the song better than the original.

Videos which the editing fits the pace of the song;






Both of these videos have different pace of editing. But they both fit in with the pace of the song. "Deuces" has a very slow beat and there for has less edits and cuts. Within the video the transition between two shots cross fade used a lot. This is used to make the video flow. Cross fade works for this video as it is slow and sleek, where as my video has a very fast and sharp pace and to have a slow cross fade would make the video seem like it doesn't fit the song. "Just a Dream" starts of slow and therefore has less editing. There is also a lot of slow motion used at the start as this shows he was "dreaming". I have used slow motion in my video, in the club scene as this is when the song breaks down and gets ready to go into the bridge. Slow motion also needs to be used in the right way. The part I have used it on is the slowest part of the song, therefore it works. I have used this convention of Hip-Hop by the type of cuts I have used.

Cutaways of conventions of a Hip-Hop video;

Mine;

'Drop it like it's Hot';

The style that is used in the video uses a convention of a Hip-Hop video being sleek and stylish. This is a regular convention of a Hip-Hop video. As the artists are also seen to be stylish and sleek. Black and white helps to create this effect. In my video I changed the contrast on the shots to make them more crisp. I believe this also added to the stylish point. To turn an image into black and white you;

Go into 'Video Effects' then go onto 'Image Control' - then 'Black &White' 

Then click onto 'Black & White" then drag it onto the clip you want to change into black and white.

After you have done that it should come up in effect controls under Video controls.

These still shots above are mainly of the performer in the video. I would say my video is mainly performance based. This is developing the conventions of a usual Hip-Hop video as they are usual performance based with some narrative (usually something to do with a girl). When exploring different videos of the same genre as mine I came across quite a few black and white videos (although black and white has also been used in videos from such genres as rock and indie). I believe black and white could be seen as a convention of Hip-Hop as all of the videos are sleek and stylish and I feel black and white is both sleek and stylish.

The clothing that I used fits in with the conventions, as both of my performers were wearing designer clothing. The cutaways I have used in my video are usual conventions of a Hip-Hop music video, e.g. champagne. In 'Drop It Like It's Hot' they use some of the same conventions as I did. Another conventional cutaway used was people dancing withing a club.







For my ancillary task I used a lot of conventions including bar codes, track listing, release dates and the artist on the front cover.  I used these as they fit with the usual conventions of a digipak. They are an essential convention of a digipak/CD covers and so it was vital I included one on my CD packaging. I decided to have the main artist (Feyi) as Tinie Tempah on the front cover as I feel that this will draw people onto looking at the CD cover as it has a well known artist on the front. This is also a regular convention of a Hip-Hop CD cover, as the artists are seen to be very confident.

I used track listing on the back of my CD cover as this shows what tracks are on the CD and also in what order, this again is a regular convention of a digipak. One way in which I have used the conventions of track listing on the back is that I haven't put the numbers of the tracks on the back. One reason I did this is because I feel it looks more sleek and less clustered.

I used the record label that Tinie Tempah is actually signed to. I did this to keep the realism of the CD and magazine advert. Another reason I added this onto both my CD cover and my magazine advert as yet again it is a usual convention of a advertisement product.


The inside of my digipak I felt should have the same style as the outside therefore I kept the background plain white with black and red writing. This keeps the continuity of my products and also allows people to connect to the video and also the magazine advert as they are all in black and white. This is a usual convention of advertisement products as for example magazine adverts are there to attract audience and onlookers to recognise it from watching the video or seeing the CD cover. One of the main things which I felt was important to include on my front cover was the parental advisory label; this allows the viewers to understand that the CD has "explicit content" which could be unsuitable for younger children. This is more predominately used on rap/hip hop CD covers.

One way in which I have challenged the regular conventions of a magazine poster is that I have put the names of the artist at the top of the advert in the style of a film poster. I did this to create a sense of excitement and anticipation about the product in much the same way as a block buster film would do.

Throughout my media products I mainly used usual conventions of Hip-Hop and also usual media products. I decided to develop some conventions as I feel the way I did them fitted in better with the style.

My final magazine advert;

I included all the main points which would you usually see on a regular magazine advert like the artists, their names and the title of the song/album. I decided to have both artists on the front of the magazine advert as I feel this makes the advert more interesting as there's two artists. I felt that as the main artist is more prominent in the music video, so I wanted to show this by making him slightly bigger and in front of the artist. These pictures I feel represent what my video is showing; artists performing a song in a confident stylish way. I chose these images as they show these conventions. Ola is looking at the camera and pointing this is a stereotype of confidence and Feyi is looking very stern and serious showing that he is not joking about this and takes his career very seriously which is a common misconception of young black males. The names are located at the top of my magazine advert I did this as I wanted to show that it was a big event. Having the names at the top is a regular convention of a film poster and films are seen to be very big events which is what I wanted my music video to be like. I chose these colours being the main colours throughout all of my products. This was because I wanted all of my products to have brand identity.

My final digipak;

This is my final digipak front cover I have included a parental advisory label as this is a regular convention of a digipak cover and also because the song which I chose has swearing throughout. I also chose to put my artists name at the top as I feel this is one of the most important information about advertising the song (if the artists are famous). I chose to have the main artist on the front cover as he appear more in the video, and I feel he is the most important one in the video. The titles are all black and red, this is my colour theme throughout all of my products. As I wanted there to be brand identity so people looking at the digipak will recognise it because the video has the same titles in the same colour and font. The composition of Feyi is central and slightly leaning to the left. I think this gives the cover more of an edgy look as he is not central but still looks confident.

This is the inside of the digipak (the part where the CD goes) I think this is in keeping with the brand identity as it is in black and white and I used Photo Shop to change the straps of his hoodie to red. I chose to have Ola on the inside of my digipak as he isn't seen on the front, I also think this picture is very symbolic and almost religious which portrays how serious he is about the music and his career.

I chose to have the lyrics to the song on the opposing side of the CD as, when I was researching digipaks this was one of the conventions shown throughout. Although the lyrics were mainly in a little booklet, as I didn't not have enough time to do this I put them on the inside. I also chose to have the website and production label on the bottom of this side in red so it stands out and is in keeping again with the brand identity.

This is the final back of my digipak, I felt it was really important to make this look like a real digipak and also make it very professional and stylish. I included a barcode (made on a barcode generator online), the record label. DVD label and also the titles of the songs.