Final Video

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

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

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

For this evaluation question I’m going to be diving each of the three headings into sections this is so that I can add more depth to each one and so that I can concentrate on each of them individually.

Research

For most of my research I used the internet which is an endless source of useful information. By using the internet I was able to find out a wide range of different things about not only Wretch 32 but also information about the genre we had chosen. We went into a lot of detail when choosing the right song as we didn’t want to make any mistakes. We therefore used the internet to find out all the information we could about Wretch 32 such as his record label the songs that he has done in the past and also his background history, to do this we used specific websites such as YouTube and Facebook. After researching all these different aspects of Wretch’s life we decided that we would choose one of his songs. By using Google I was able to expand my research, whether it was magazine related, video related etc. Just at the click of a finger I was able to get hundreds of pages of information on Wretch 32, and learn more about Wretch’s attitude and the influence he wants his songs to have. As wretch 32’s genre of music is mainly focusing on hip-hop when coming to a conclusion on which song I was going to use ‘Unorthodox’ I decided to research other artists similar to him in order to see what the conventions are of that genre I also did this by using the Google search engine.

The use of the internet was also very useful to help determine what our digipak was going to look like by viewing different album covers in the same category of genre to ours. After closely looking at other examples through the internet we had finalised our decision and had decided to use a few similar conventions to the hip-hop genre but also still wanted to keep our unorthodox theme. We used Google images to view other types of album covers we managed to get a series of examples and analysed them in a lot of detail. After consideration me and Harrison decided to stick with our unorthodox theme and not follow the typical conventions of hip-hop album covers however there were a few ideas of unorthodox that had already been used by artists such as The Game he used an album cover that had one colour dominating the whole cover. We decided to interpret this into our own music video as the colour purple is symbolic within our music video and we wanted to make this apparent to the viewer.

Not only did we use the internet to choose what song we were going to use but we also used it to determine who our actor was going to be. After Harrison suggested to me that we should use Nick Stott I decided to look at some videos that he had done in the past after viewing the videos I thought that he would not only bring experience to our music video but also a positive and energetic vibe which is exactly what we were looking for. I used sites such as YouTube and Google to listen to Nick’s music. By doing this research it helped me and Harrison determine who our actor was going to be and we were both very pleased with his performance in the music video.

Although most of my research helped me determine what to include within my production and digipak some other research that I conducted also helped me when it came to the post production stage of our music video. I wanted to improve my knowledge on editing techniques so I decided to research different methods of editing so that I was fully aware of how to edit effectively. I researched techniques such as letterboxing and also the sin city effect which is where a shot or sequence is dominated by one colour. I got this research by using the search engine Google to generate some results from these results I then found myself on YouTube with helpful videos that helped improve my editing knowledge.

After completing the editing adjustments above I was able to come to a final shot of the one above with the research that I gathered about how to do this successfully. By viewing he videos on YouTube I managed to get a good understanding of how to edit effectively. 

Planning

When thinking about the planning stage of our video production we used many different technologies in order for us to record and manage this data. As I was studying hip-hop, a genre that gets little exposure; without the mainstreams paying much attention to it, via radio. channel AKA on Sky was a vital resource for identifying generic rules and concepts within the UK urban genre's. As a channel that plays UK Hip Hop and Grime music back to back all day; in one sitting, I was able to pick up concepts straight away. From this I was able to craft an idea on how to challenge and develop the genre by focusing on the lyrics. It also saved me the work of having to look up grime artists, because the music channel did it for me.

Also when planning all of it was recorded using Blogger, this was another very useful piece of technology that I used as i was able to look back at all the other posts that I had done in the past. This wouldn't have been possible without the rapid revolution of technology. Blogger was a great asset to our planning stages as we were able to record our research and effectively and also have it in a specific order.

Construction




In terms of construction me and Harrison both used a wide range of different filming equipment that would give us the best outcome for our production what we used initially was a tripod  a HD camera and also an SD card. We took this with use to the filming in London we both believed that this would be the right equipment an everything that we would need in order to have a successful shoot. Although we could have brought along other filming equipment as well such as a dolly we didn't think it would be nessecary to bring it as we were travelling to such a far away location and was limited on the amount of weight that we could carry.

In addition to this we brought along a HD camera which produced very good quality film me and my partner were both very pleased with the outcome of the quality and didn't encounter any problems from it. Compared to our AS production last year these cameras were much more easier to work with as the lighting was much more clearer in darker spaces and wasn't grainy were as one the SD cameras it was hard to see in the dark. 

Also on the day we decided to take two 4g SD cards and two 2g SD cards this was so that we were able to film as much footage as we got. Me and Harrison wanted to make certain that we had got enough footage in order for our production to be successful. Also as the footage was going to be in HD this meant that it was going to take up more space compared to SD footage. Taking more than one SD card was a good idea and this technology helped us a lot with our filming.

Finally and probably the most important piece of technology that helped us was the programme final cut pro  which me and parter use in order to create our music video. This programme let use edit our footage that we recorded on the camera if we didn't have this programme to help us then we would have been unable to complete the music video. Within this programme is many different tools and effects that we were able to use in order to create a successful music video. Because of technology we were able to use this programme and make our music video.

Ancillary Task - Audience Feedback

Me and Harrison both conducted a series of questionnaires to ask our a small audience about what they thought about our video and ancillary task and how successful we met the audience needs and match our unorthodox theme. We asked a wide variety of different people from young to old asking them different questions about our music video, we asked a total of 15 people about what they thought made our music video good and how we met each of the assessment criteria.

1. What was your opinion on the Music Video?
Most of the responses that we got from our audience said that they really liked the music video and thought that we targeted the audience well and had met the conventions of our genre. Also a majority of people said that they liked that way that the location changed quickly which makes it very interesting to watch. Out of the 15 people we asked only 2 of them said that they didn't like the music video. Me and Harrsison are very pleased with the feedback that we got from this question and we believe that people have positive opinions towards our music video.

2. What is your opinion on the Ancillary Task?
Everyone of the 15 people that we asked all said that the music video and ancillary task all relate well together, they said that the way we used similar elements from our music video and then out them into the ancillary task was a great way of getting the audience to recognize the artists from using the purple text and also the urban environment.

3. Do you think we met our audience needs?
Out of the 15 people that we asked all of them said that we had met our audience needs. They also said that our video was very entertaining to watch. Overall i'm very happy with the outcome of our music video and ancillary task and we both believe that we have successfully met the target audience needs. We kept the audience in mind throughout the whole process of this unit, we used similar conventions to the hip hop genre.

4. Did you expect to see what you did in the video and Ancillary Task?
Many people said that they did expect to see elements from the music video in the ancillary. However a few people said that they didn't expect what we have produced but it did work really well. Also people said that it was better than they expected in the main task.

5. Out of 5, how highly would you rate our Video and Ancillary Task combined (5 highest, 1 lowest)?
Out of the 15 people that we asked 11 of them rated it out of 5 where as 3 people rated it as 4 and 1 person rated it out of 3. Overall we are very pleased with the results that we got from the audience feedback.

Final Poster

Poster - Final

Our Final Poster

Overall i'm very pleased with the outcome of mine and Harrisons poster as we didn't have much experience on photoshop and managed to produce a good piece of work. I believe we managed to get the right message across to the aduience by using the similar background from the music video and by also using the purple text that was used in both the music video and CD cover.

Poster - Final Idea

Me and Harrison have finlaysed on what we are going to include in our poster. We have decided to follow the cimilar convention in our CD cover and choose the purple text, we have also decided to go with Harrsion and Nick being in black and white. The way in which me made our poster unorthodox was by having Harrsion and Nick pasted onto the buildings in a the same shot that we used in our music video. We wantewd to do this so that the audince can relate to the poster and also bring in some elements from our msuic video. We believed that this a great idea and woulnd't take too long to complete. If this is done successfully we will be able to portray our unorthodox theme is a positive way.

We are going to be using photoshop for use to do this, unfortunately both me and Harrison and inexperienced when it comes to photoshop and we may find this part of the task vey hard to complete. However i believe that we can complete this sucessfully and it the timeframe that we have.

Poster - Other Exmaples

2pac

Snoop Dog


Here are some exmaples of some posters that i found on the internet. As you can see they mianly consists of two colour which are black and white. Me and Harrison are hoping to use these colours within our poster along with the purple text that we will be incorpetarting from our music video. These posters are a great exmaple of what I wish to use in our poster along with this , the chracters are also a key figure and stand out from anything else, as our text is going to be purple and both of the chracters are goin to be in black and white it is going to be difficult for them to stand out. However i believe we can overcome this as we are wanting to go along with unorthodox theme and make it seem unordinary. This means that we aren't going to make the chracters stand out as much compared to other elements of the poster.

Poster - Inspiration

When deciding on what mine and Harrisons poster is going to look like we needed to come up with some ideas. We did this by relating to other products of posters that other artists had comeplted. This was a great way of us being able to see what other people had done and also what we could incorperate into our music video. Firstly we started looking at posters from the artist from our chosen song.



Wretch 32 Poster



Album Cover


As we could see he kept a consiststent theme throughout his music video and CD cover and both were very similar. We wanted to do this in our ancillary and have the CD cover and poster with the same elements this will show the audience straight away who the artist  is as they have similar aspects of each other. Wretch 32 has used similar colours in both his CD cover and poster me and harrison wish to use this aswell.

Althought there are some elements from this poster that we are not going to use in our poster, for example as we want our poster to be unorthodox we want to make our poster stand out from others this will mean using differetn elemetns to usual hip-hop posters for example instead of using dark colours we are going to be using purple for the text.

CD Cover - Final In CD Case

Font Cover

Inside

Back, Spine, Front

Back

Here are the final pictures of our finished CD cover we used photo paper so that the CDs would firmly fit into position and not move around. Overall i'm very pleased with the outcome of our CD cover i believe that we have met the target audience needs by using similar elements from out music video and then incorporating them into our ancillary task.

CD Cover - Ready for CD Cover

We are currently in the process of putting the photos into the CD case this isn't going to take a long time but we are currently having issues with the sizing of the different photos. Later I will be updating my blog explaining the process that we took and pictures of our final CD cover. 

CD Cover- Finished

Me and Harrison have both finished our album cover for the ancillary task. Overall i'm very pleased with the outcome and feel that we have completed this task successfully. I also feel that we have met the audience needs and also used similar conventions by using elements that were previously seen in our A2 music video.

Along with the finished front and back cover we have decided to use for the inside cover a shot of both Harrison and Nick but when formed together they make a complete picture. We though that this was a smart abstract to our ancillary task and is something that is rarely done. This associates with our unorthodox theme.

in terms of the spine we decided to keep it simple and just include the song title along the spine. This is so that it kept the album cover plain and simple and would attract audience attention as the song name is displayed and the audience would know who the artist is just by looking t the spine. We also decided to use the purple colour as we wanted to keep it consistent throughout the music video and also ancillary task.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Inside Right

Inside Left

Spine

CD Cover - Back Cover Final

Harrison and I have finally finished our front and back cover for our album cover. We used a consistent theme throughout the ancillary task which is using the white back ground black characters and purple text. We wanted to keep the colours simple and make the colour stand out so that the audience can see the relationship between the music video and album cover.

We decided the idea of the back cover when starting to plan about our ancillary task we kept this idea throughout and managed to keep to the same idea. Overall i'm very pleased with the out come of the front and back cover of our ancillary task i believe that we have met our target audience needs and also used similar conventions to our genre. 

Back Cover Final

CD Cover - Final Decision

Me and Harrison have both decided that we are going to change the layout of our CD cover as from our audience research people have been commenting saying that it may be too confusing as the text will be split out into different sections and may be hard for the audience to read. We decided that we would change this and include just a simple picture of Harrison and Nick and include text that is laid out in an unorthodox style this would mean that we followed the convention of our song and managed to meet the audience needs. We also wanted to relate our CD cover back to our music video we used the studio background on the CD cover similarly to our music video where we used the studio to record our performance.

We also wanted to use the symbolic colours of our music video which is purple as harrison is seen wearing that colour throughout the music video. We incorporated this into our ancillary task and used purple font.

Final Fron Cover

CD Cover - Update

Album Cover So Far

CD Cover - Audience Needs

Throughout the whole process of planning and designing our album cover we were considering the whole time about how we are going to meet the audience needs. I research some other examples of album covers and see what people thought about them. Our initial idea of the four segments was our first idea and we were putting a lot of planning and attention into this plan. We firstly looked at many other album covers with four segments i asked some of my friend what they thought about this idea and they thought that it would fit the unorthodox theme and would suit the title of our song. Although many other people said that it would look confusing and maybe put the audience of the product.

After this I decided that I would should people our initial idea and what they thought about it we showed some sketches of what we hoped to achieve and we asked them what they thought we could improve about it. 

Sketch of final idea 

From the audience feedback that we got the vast majority of people said that it was a good idea and would express the unorthodox theme. Also it would be eye catching and would appeal to the audience. Also fans of the hip-hop genre would know that this product is from the artists because it has the artist on top of the cover and also it has other elements from the music video such as the purple text which we incorporated from the music video.

CD Cover - Ideas

Me and Harrison have began contructing ideas on what our CD cover and poster should look like, we came up with the concept of having similar colours to what we used in our music video which is purple. We though that the intergration between music video and our digipak would be a good idea of getting the audience to recognise our product imeddiently just by using a single colour.

CD Cover - We agreed that we wanted to follow our unorthodox tradition and have the CD cover different to others, firstly me and Harrison gathered some examples of CD covers and began critisising them to see what was usual to see in them. we then wanted to start focusing on what the aestheics were going to be for our digipak, we had already come up with the idea of only having one colour inluded in our CD cover and we were sure that we wanted it to be purple because we included this colour within our music video. But we were unsure on how much colour we should include as we didn't want the CD cover to be dominated by just colour. We then began to look at examples of album covers that include one colour.

Here is an exmaple of an Album Cover that uses one colour.

This exmaple inspired us into choosing where the colour should be included on our digipak. We finalised our decision and decided to have the text of the CD cover in purple and the images in black and white.

CD Cover - Research

Eminems Album Cover

The Dark Knight Movie Poster

When researching different CD covers I need to make sure that i find one that relates to my audience the most. This CD cover is a great example of one that does. The picture is very dark and mysterious and is seen as a more dystopian pleasure. The text looks like it is trying to scare the reader and make them feel uncomfortable. The reason why i have chosen to analyse this CD cover is because it has a significant vertical intertextual reference to the film 'The Dark Knight'. In my opinion i really like this CD cover the reason why i like it so much is because Eminem's songs usually involve felling’s of people (mainly himself) and how the world hates him. I wish to use this same type of CD cover to express the artist's feelings, however in a much more positive way. I also wish to use an intertextual reference similar to this one. Also I really like the choice of colour in this CD cover the reason because it is dominated by the colour back and only includes three colours in total which are black, white and red. Using the black and white makes the red stand out and makes it more significant  compared to the other text.

Another exmaple of a CD cover would be Examples 'Playing in the Shadows' Compared to the other CD cover theya re very simluar in the way that they represent he artist. Each example is dominted by the colours black and white connoting a mysterious life and that the audience doesn't know the whole side of him.
The use of simplistic colours creates a sense of mystery. As well as this, the black and white image symbolises the album name 'shadows' a Example is half enclosed in a shadow on the cover. The album cover appeals to the target audience which is example fans and hip-hop/rap fans as it shows an image of the well-known artists and everyone knows what sort of music he does.

As my partners mum is a professional photographer it means that we are able to create a professional looking piece of work. Me and my partner have already planned what we wan't to have our cover to look like. We would like to use my partners mums studio to take some photographs of the two singers. We would like to have a plain back ground and then edit the photogragh to add some intertextual reference or even cover up some of their identity similar to the two covers that i have analysed