Evaluation - Question 4

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

PowToon Presentation

Here is a powtoon on how we used media technologies in the construction of our research, planning and evaluation stages of our media products. This presentation will include how and why we used each media technologies, and the benefits of using them.

Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Introduction to evaluation question 4
This short presentation describes how we used some questionnaire results to improve and upgrade our work. It also signify's how much we value questionnaires to be, as they can be a useful source to gain knowledge and information about our tasks.

Once we completed all of our final products, we decided to create a questionnaire to receive feedback on how effective we were at showing conventions of the rap genre, developing them, and also challenging what raps messages and values are about. We also wanted to see if are products were all distinctly recognisable as being related to each other. I will be talking about three questions that I believe to be most important to us, and helping us make the final changes to our work.


The first question we asked was 'What genre of music do you believe all three products to be?'. This was one of the most important questions for us, as we wanted to conform to the conventions effectively, to establish the genre of the products. From the results, 92% said that rap was the music genre, whilst only 8% of people suggested it was pop. This tells us that we expressed conventions of rap extremely well in our video, through use of location, props and costume. However, codes and conventions could be slightly stronger. In order for us to increase the amount of people how thought it was rap, we decided to include more editing conventions, such as cut to the beat and other cool effects, like cropping around the videos edges.

Question 8 says 'Can you see the resemblance between the music video, digipak and rap poster?' This question was important, as it allowed us to effectively answer evaluation 2, and make our texts have a similar finish to them. We also wanted to identify any areas we could improve or have done well in.
The feedback showed that the majority of people (85%) saw a resemblance between each product, whilst 15% didn't see a resemblance between each product. This meant that the combination of our main products and ancillary texts were effective, but could still be improved. I also thought that the video, lacked the most characteristics of each text overall, but still was effective in showing a combination of each product. However, we needed to add more shots to make it better.

 We improved this, by using videos of birds in the music video, as the poster and digipak both included birds. This made it more visible that each product was related, and could also consistently represent messages of freedom, which will appeal to fun/atics, as well as tribe wired types of audicnes from the life matrix, as they are seen as free, creative and spiritual people. One of the most important ways to combine each text was also through the throne, which we didn't include in the video. However, after the feedback we decided to include it to create a more effective combination.

Are final question I felt was important was 'Did we show themes and messages of rap throughout each product clearly and effectively?' I felt that we portrayed these well throughout the video and texts, by including shots and images of graffiti, which represent poverty and criminal activity which is common for the majority of rap songs and videos.

 The feedback also suggested that we did well in making clear themes and messages throughout our products. One person (Tom) said that "The circular narrative allowed us, the spectator, to understand that his journey has just began, and he hasn't yet found a role model he desires". The feedback also allowed us to include more conventional themes such as religion and culture, by using a church sign and crosses to symbolise these themes, and the beliefs of the character.

Overall, our feedback has been extremely important to us and highly valued, as it has allowed us to make slight adjustments and improvements to our products by adding things in, and taking certain things out such as colours and props that may not be conventional for the rap genre. I am also very happy with the responses given by the audience, as they are mainly positive, but the negative feedback has been very constructive, and allowed us to improve a lot more then positive responses. Therefore, I am very grateful for everyone who took part in the questionnaire, as it helped us hugely in producing are finished products.

Evaluation - Question 2

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

When creating our main product and ancillary texts, we wanted to have synergy throughout each piece of media material. This resulted in detailed planning, as we wanted to have brand recognition and identity reflected throughout.

Prezi Presentation

Evaluation - Question 1

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

Forms and conventions within our music video

Creating a music video that allowed us to conform to the rap genre, was one of the most important aspects when considering the creation of the video. We wanted to produce conventions effectively throughout the video, therefore we had to consider all micro elements such as mine-en-scene, cinematography and editing. However, we also wanted to develop and challenge genre conventions in unique and creative ways, that will keep the spectator intrigued throughout the whole video.

Prezi - Presentation 

Here is a presentation of how we used, developed and challenged the forms and conventions of the rap genre within my music video.

Final Rap Poster

                                     Final Rap Poster

Here is our groups final rap magazine poster. We wanted to conform to the conventions of the rap genre, whilst ensuring that we used our audience feedback to appeal more to our audience, therefore creating more sales. We wanted to include a colour scheme that conformed to the rap genre and our audience so we could establish the genre easily, and also create synergy between each of our products to help raise brand recognition and image across are products, by using similar fonts, colours and imagery. We also listened to our audience, as they wanted to see images of the stars and have colours like red within our texts and products.

Digipak

                                     Final Rap Digipak 

When making the digipak, we wanted to analyse our questionnaire, to create a focused product that meets the wants and needs of the viewers. The majority of spectators wanted to see a mixture between poverty and images of stars therefore, we included graffiti and an image of a star and combined them together. However, we change the opacity of each image, as we didn't want the artist becoming merged with the graffiti therefore, becoming unnoticeable.

Audiences also associated the colours black, red and white as being the main colours that represent rap. Therefore, we included  all three of these colours in the text. This can be seen with the throne and text (red) and the background colour (black) as well as the roses being a white colour, as well as the text used for for the list of songs (white)

Final Rap music video

                                   Final Rap music video 

Here is the final product of our music video we made. We will be gathering feedback on the video as soon as possible, so we are ready for the evaluation questions.

Here is the final product of our music video we made. We will be gathering feedback on the video as soon as possible, so we are ready for the evaluation questions.

We wanted to create a music video that conforms to the conventions of rap, as well as challenge them. We also analysed our questionnaire, so we can improve from the pre-lim task, and gain the attention of more spectators as well as generate more positive feedback when speaking to the audience for their views and opinions of our products.  One of these improvements, were to include more lip syncing shots from the artist which we did.

Reflection about the making of the music video

                        The Making Of Our Music Video

In this post, I am going to discuss the decisions of the editing process, and the reasons behind why I used certain effects and transitions.

Why Final Cut Pro?

Final Cut Pro Logo

Final cut pro is the software we used to develop and create a music video. We were suggested to use Final cut over iMovie, as Final cut pro had a more in-depth functionalities, that allowed us to create some unique and high quality effects with the variety of selected editing tools to choose from.

Special Effects and filters

 the blade tool allowed us to separate a whole clip into sections, which allowed us to create special effects and transitions for certain parts of the music video, without having the whole clip being changed. This also meant that we could cut to the beat effectively, as well as creating effects that match the tempo of the song. For example, when the bass dropped near the start, the blade tool made it particularly easy for me to create a wind blur only for the part where the beat dropped. I wanted to do this, as it seems as if the bass has created a shake that is visible on screen for the spectators, and also creates a visceral effect for the viewer, making the video seem more real. This effect is called a "Bass Shake". I Did this by going to Video filters, then selecting Wind Blur, and increasing the radius of the effect to 31.

An example of Bass Shake

I also wanted to portray genre conventions of rap, through the editing of the video, not just in cinematography and Mise-en-scene. A lot of rap music videos like to manipulate the colour of the video, for very short amounts of time. I don't know what the exact reasoning behind this is, but it could portray a darker, more complex side to the artists that the spectator can't see. Kodak Black and A$AP Mob both are constant users of these effects










Therefore, I choose to recreate these genre conventions through editing, so spectators get a rap genre atmosphere, but to also create artistic messages about the artist, that can be seen in the digipak and the advert. We decided to do this, as we thought that there should be a dark and light side to the artist. This can  relate to the Advert, as we use a cross (religious symbol) which is painted black, as well as birds which represent freedom. We wanted to interpret Richard Dyers star theory into the video, as we are constructing our stars image in each of the ancillary texts so we can appeal to a wider audience. I managed to create this effect by using using a colour reducer, and selecting and changing different colours.

I also wanted to follow genre conventions by changing the speed of the video, as well as reversing clips to create unique effects. For example, I reversed a clip of Callum (the artist) walking down a set of steps. The Weeknd, Rae Sremmurd and Future plus many more slow down or even reverse some of their clips.

We also wanted the screen to shrink throughout a tracking shot of Callum leaving the comic store. We decided to do this, as it increases the range of editing techniques we used for the video, but also it matched the tempo of the song, as this section of the song contained a subtle piano playing in the background, so we decided to shrink the screen each time the piano could be heard.

I completed this by using the blade tool, and separating the whole clip into individual parts so I could gradually crop down the video in the settings menu. As you can see below, I had to crop down each size equally, and increase the amount cropped by five for each sequence. This created an effect which made the video appear to get smaller and smaller in size each time.

However, it took a while to get use to Final Cut, as the previous years I had been working with iMovie, which is designed and structured completely differently to Final Cut. This was very inefficient, as it meant that a couple hours was lost in productivity, due to being educated on the software. On the other hand, this did enhance the quality, as I was able to use the programme without little issues and setbacks.

Lip Syncing

Lip syncing was another obstacle I had to get around. When receiving feedback from our pre-lim music video, one of they key aspects we had to improve was the lip syncing. Lucky for us, Final Cut has a smooth and quick process for lip syncing.

Audio Pitch

When playing the audio in Final Cut, we were able to pause on the lyrics we needed to sync. After this, we could use the arrow keys to slowly go over the lyrics, whilst looking at the audio pitch, to see when the lyrics started. This notified us when the lyrics began, as the audio pitch would spike each time the artist spoke. Then, we could drag in the clip we needed next to the audio and it would be synced together. This allowed for our group to get multiple shots of Callum lip syncing, as it was a quick and smooth process, which didn't require much time to do. Therefore, we have increased the variety of lip syncing in our final rap music video.

Video Transitions 

We also wanted to choose a variety of different transitions, to keep the video interesting for the spectators, as we realised that straight cuts were extremely bland after being used excessively. We also wanted to create a point of view shot, where we had the camera looking up at the sky in a spinning motion. To do this, we had to use a dissolve transition which faded to black, to signify someone blinking. We wanted to do this to express how lost and confused the artist is, due to not having any role models so, the spinning motion creates a sickening visceral effect on the viewer which puts them in the perspective of the artist. This also helps create a preferred response (Lyotards narrative theory) as the spectator feels how we have manipulated them to feel.

 

Codes and conventions of a magazine ad

                                 Codes and Conventions

The main purpose for a magazine advert, is to promote and to educate people on an artist, and the music they create. This provides the artist with an increase of revenue streams, as typically, websites are listed for people to buy and download a song or album, or even to purchase concert tickets. In the rap genre, there is a constant theme between each magazine advert that are transparent across most rap magazine adverts.

Examples of magazine adverts

Codes and conventions of a rap magazine advert

One of the most consistent themes throughout each individual magazine advert, is the colour scheme and font colour. As you can see from the examples above, the key colours are white, red and black. These colours are dominant in rap, and can be seen throughout my codes and conventions post of rap.

Red is used as its a symbol of power, strength, energy and determination. These characteristics are key to a rappers image, as they talk about hard and unforgiving times during thei
r past, and how they have overcome a certain obstacle. Determination is also a big theme, as they have put in effort, to get to the position they are in now (successful).

Black is commonly associated with evil, death and mystery. This symbolises the rappers hard past, which is why it is used a lot. Eminem uses black a lot, as during his childhood, his best friend was shot and killed which changed how he is today. A lot of rappers also want to appear secretive and mysterious, which is why they use black, as it seems like they are hiding from something or the truth about their past.

A lot of white, blacks and reds being used for rap album covers.

White is associated with light and goodness, which is why they normally have contrasting colours such as black and white together, because is shows that there is always "light at the end of the tunnel", and goes along with the plot of them escaping a struggling life.

Another common convention, is that the artist is normally featured in an indirect shot (looking away from the camera). This increases the effect of the colour black, as an indirect shot is used to make the artist seem mysterious, which intrigues the spectator to find out more about the artist. This could also link to Richard Dyers star theory, where institutions construct images of certain artists to make them appear a certain way (powerful), so sales revenue can hopefully increase.

All of the magazine adverts contain informative contents as well. This can include dates of concerts or album/single releases so people know when their performing live and/or releasing an album or song. They also include where things such as tickets or song downloads will be available to download, which adds more stream revenues for the institutions, as more ways to purchase the product will be available. Online downloads are also good, as this appeals to he Fun/antics and tribe wired types of people, as they invest large amounts of time in the digital world.

Full page advert first draft

                                     Full Page advert   

I have hand drawn a rough design of a full page advert, as part of our groups ancillary text. We wanted to implement themes across all of our work, so we decided to include cultural symbols such as the cross, which represents the rap genre, as well as part of our music videos, as are artist is trying to find guidance ( a role model) which is what people look for in God and Jesus.

Conventions of the rap genre
As you can see from this example, the cross is used throughout rap to show the artists beliefs and views. J.Cole also uses religious symbolisation in his album cover, as he makes the support of a chair appear to be a cross (bottom right picture).













I have also listed websites where the song/album is available for people to download and listen to, as well as having the name of the record label affiliated with the artist, therefore people know more about the product they are consuming and increases the amount of revenue streams for the company. Also, religious symbols can  be seen by his right right trouser pocket, as well as various types of bling and jewellery. Therefore, I have decided to use this convention in our draft, by putting a gold chain around the artists neck to represent success and wealth.

I have also decided to include images of birds in the top left of my draft design, as I feel it represents a message that is expressed clearly in the lyrics of J.Coles Role Modelz, as a bird represents freedom and relief from the artists sufferings, which is not having any role models around him. Conveniently, there is also some shots in the music video containing birds flying above the artist which suits nicely with the themes we are researching.

Audience feedback

Positives

Tom - The conventions of rap are displayed excellently by using religion, bling and expressing messages that are heavily associated with rap, by using birds to address them. 

Reece - I like the design of the title, as it looks like the words are stacked on top of each other. I also like the symbolic messages of the birds.

Fraser - I like the position of the cross, as it appears to be so dominant in this draft, it almost has more influence than the artist. I feel this shows how important God (a role model) is to the success of the artist.

Improvements

Tom, Reece and fraser -  The colours of fonts and the background haven't been shown in this draft, so to gain a better image of what it might look like, you should annotate around it for a more detailed draft. Maybe you should do a quick draft digitally, using photoshop or fireworks to give it colour and more detail.