Commentary!

Evaluation- CHLOE

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

The media product that my group and I created is labelled within the hip-hop genre. We did a lot of research into music videos from various genres and further research into the conventions of hip-hop music videos. From the research from group work and individual work, we formed a list of common conventions. These conventions included factors such as colour scheme, effects, mis-en-scene and style. With colour scheme, we found a common trend of bright colours with clips of black and white. One professional example of the videos we looked at which included this was ‘Word To Ya Mutha’ – Bel Biv Divoe. Which was a popular 80’s hip hop band. This use of colours gave a contrasting edge to the video which made them more interesting to watch. Although it was not always evident that the appearance of black and white scenes had any form of pattern or reason, we adapted this idea and added further meaning for our own music video. Our storyline is fragmented, with one part of the video telling a story and following a young, homeless drug addict who is searching for ‘sunshine’ and a way out (this part of the storyline is all in colour), and the other part of the storyline involves three separate urban looking females using direct address and rapping the chorus. The chorus is the only part of the video which is completely in black and white. This links with the storyline and indicates that these three women are trying to escape and sunshine and happiness. All the colour has been drained from their lives. Comparing this with the main character, whose life has a little hope left and so there is colour in her scenes. Another common convention was the use of effects. Hip Hop was popular within the 80’s and early 90s. This means that technology was not as advanced as it is today. Because of this important factor, even modern hip hop videos have stuck to its original conventions. One example of this is the music video for Ghetto Gospel by Tupac and Elton John. In this video it is evident that there are little effects and yet still a strong and powerful storyline. However, one of the effects that were commonly used in many of the hip hop videos that we analysed was the different styles of transitions. This included transition effects such as dissolves, fades, shaped cuts and swipes, which were all evident in the videos we looked at. With regards to this particular convention, our music video has challenged this and gone against what most hip hop videos conform to. In our own hip hop music video we used many different effects and used only a few, simple transitions, all with good reason. Our video included effects such as split screen (which was effective when showing two contrasting characters coming together), slow motion(this was used for emphasis on how slow time moves), sped up scenes(used for the mattress scene to show an ongoing event which lasted a long time for the main character), distorted scenes(such as the ‘CCTV’ effect used in the churchyard) and reversed scenes (used at the end of our video for effectiveness). We wanted to include all these effects to show up skill levels and to try and challenge ourselves whilst filming and editing. Although we have challenged the initial convention, we still tried to maintain the hip hop image through various other factors such as clothing and colouring. The transitions used in our video included only straight cuts and a cross-dissolve. We decided to keep it simple for a nice and professional balance between effects and transition. We did try out different transitions but it didn’t flow or compliment our video to any advantage. This is why we decided to challenge that convention but still managed to keep a hip-hop feel to the entire video. Whilst analysing multiple hip hop videos, we found that another popular convention linked with mis-en-scene was the use to staircases. Which doing further research into hip hop music videos, I was analysing Bel Biv Divoe's 'Word To Ya Mutha', and noticed that they included several scenes which showed people on staircases, with a total of four separate staircases and locations being used. I came up with many theories as to why staircases are so popular within this genre. One reason was that it could be to gain height and show superiority. This idea of being superior on a staircase can be emphasised by the camera angle being low and using a worm shot. Another reason why staircases could be popular within this genre is that it was common in suburban areas of America (where hip hop originally became popular) to have a staircase lead up to the houses. This idea then links to the stereotypical view that people within this genre are very strong and supportive of family life and life on the streets where they live. Whatever the real reason may be, we knew we could interpret this clear convention into our own music video.  We have two scenes which include two different staircases. They can be seen within the first two choruses and the camera angle is slightly lower to give each of the actors a ‘superior and threatening urban’ attitude. Aside from looking at hip hop conventions alone, we also did research on Goodwins Analyse. One aspect of Goodwins Analyse to look at was genre characteristics. I feel that we took the genre characteristics on board very well and tried to include important conventions of hip hop whilst still keeping to a good storyline. Whilst giving a presentation on the conventions of hip hop videos, Leila asked the rest of the class to give their views and opinions on what they would expect to see in a typical hip hop video. The feedback was extremely useful and the answers we got we adapted to fit in with our video (answers included an expection to see things such as crime, sex, drugs, alcohol, gangs ect). From these named conventions, our storyline included aspects of crime, drugs, alcohol and gangs. With further research of our own we also discovered that another common theme used in hip hop music videos was religious references. The most obvious example we found for the theme was Ghetto Gospel – Tupac and Elton John. Even in the name it is apparent there is a religious reference. Within our own music video we included scenes within a church yard, another scene which passes a church and Jesus on a cross, stained glass windows in a church, a hand gesture which was religious and a prop which was a silver cross necklace. We wanted the religious references to be a reoccurring theme throughout the entire video to strongly link in with the genre characteristics. Another genre characteristic is the style of clothing. Within the Hip-Hop genre we noticed that there was mainly two different types of styles; 'stylish and expensive clothing' (which showed off how much money the artist had), and the other type wore more 'urban and street' styled clothing. Having our main character wearing stylish and expensive clothing was not consistent with our storyline of having a ‘homeless drug addict’ so we purposely chose to stick to 'urban and street' styled clothing such as the hoody which was often used as the main characters signature item, and also the denim jackets and the fluffy hat that the two actors wore within the choruses.

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

                                                                                                                                          

Our main product was our music video which we spent weeks researching, planning and producing. Throughout our research it is clear how we found the conventions and how we became more familiar with the style of hip hop videos. Because of all the research we did this meant we could plan everything down to the last detail. We wanted to include certain locations (church yard to fit in the the reoccurring religious theme and the church where the main actress slept on a matress), certain acts and behaviours (drug taking, drinking alcohol and shop lifting) and certain effects during our editing (split screen for the effectiveness of two separate characters coming together). We wanted the right colours, the correct clothes and the most effective angles to use. We tried to combine everything together to make a perfect music video. But making a music video was only part of it, we also had to create a magazine advert and a digipak. Once more, we did a lot of research and planning for both of these tasks. Within the early stages of our planning we had already agreed that the image for the digipak cover and the magazine advert would be the same. This was a common trend in many genres, not only hip hop, and whilst doing  research I found that artists such as Band Of Skulls, Paramore, Gwen Stefani and Wretch32 had all used the same image. Our main reasons for doing this was so that the artist could be easily recognised and hold a strong image. This was important as hip hop has quite a niche audience and so if the magazine advert/digipak appealed to another audience members then they would be able to recognise and remember who the artist is. Another important factor here is that we used the same character in all the tasks (music video and both ancillary tasks). This character is meant to be AIM (the artist). We wanted the artist to be present in all of this so the audience could form a relationship with her and find themselves attached on different levels to the artist. Even though it was important the keep the lead character strong, the most obvious theme that is carried throughout all these tasks is the reoccurring theme of religion. It is frequently shown within the music video and is also included in the artwork for both ancillary tasks (holding rosary beads with a cross hanging on it). We felt that this religious reference tied all three tasks together as our research had provided us with enough evidence to show that it was a common convention of genre characteristics to include some religious references. Not only is the artist holding rosary beads with a cross, but in the magazine advert the artwork has been edited on photoshop and an effect has been used to make the image look like a stained glass window, which is another obvious link to religion. Aside from religion, another effection theme we have throughout all three tasks which links and flows together is the colour scheme. With such a ‘dark and gloomy’ storyline, the video reflected the lyrics so the visuals where viewed in a slightly dimmed light. There were certain scenes in our music video where we purposely lowered the lighting to make the frames darker (the first church scene with the fight). We felt this made the scene more dramatic and edgy. The ‘dark and gloomy’ theme was then carried throughout our ancillary tasks as we used dark colours such as blacks and purples. Another colour we specifically used was red. This was to represent blood which links in with all the crime and gang violence which is stereotypically linked to the hip hop genre.

3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

During the process of researching about our genre (hip hop), Leila and I gave a presentation on what we thought the conventions where and explained some of our initial ideas for our own music video. During the presentation Leila handed out some paper and asked the class to write down one word each they would expect to see in a hip hop video. Feedback included words such as drugs, violence, crime, sex, gangs and minimal clothing. This was really useful as it allowed us to gain insight as to what the audience would expect to see in our own music video. During the planning stage, we continuously went back to our audience feedback and planned our storyline with them key words taken into extreme consideration. From the key words the class gave us our storyline was based around mainly crime, which scenes including drugs, violence and gangs (all words from the initial feedback we were given). Throughout the rest of the planning stage our storyline was constantly changing, but we always kept the audience feedback as an important source of how to structure the storyline. They also mentioned that we needed a clear idea on key aspects for the planning stages of the production which was to find set locations and cast members. We instantly started planning where we could film and who we could cast in our music video. Making relation to research, we decided to use a graveyard in a church as one of our main locations which links back to our reference to religion. We also decided that our main character in the music video should fit the conventions of our genre. Our inital idea was to use our friend Laura. She was African, took drama and was interested in hip-hop music. She seemed perfect for the role until we realised she wasn't as reliable as we hoped, so we quickly changed our minds and used one of our own group members as the leading role (Nia). Another way we gained useful audience feedback was by making a rough cut of our work so far and to present it to each of the groups in the media class. Each group would then give us feedback and say what they liked and didn’t like and also where they thought we could improve or do something differently. The rough cut we produced was 38 seconds long and included our opening scene and half of the first verse. Although this was only a short clip, we gained useful feedback which then helped us to develop the rest of our music video. First, we were told that our storyline wasn't that obvious. Although we went with the fragmented storyline, we still wanted the video to make sense.  So we went back to editing and changed the order of a few clips so the storyline was easier to read and was instantly captivating. There was also positive feedback in that they liked the use of religious references and were all happy to see that we took their feedback on board and used this element often within our video.
 We also got professional advice from our own media teacher, a media teacher at another school and an external examiner when our music video was viewed and briefly sent off. Our own media teacher came back to us with their combined feedback. They all agreed that our opening scene was good, but they didn’t like the point-of-view shot with the beer can and they also advised us to put in more close up shots. After receiving this feedback we immediately went back out to film more shots, even though we thought we had already finished filming and editing completely. After taking out the point-of-view shot we decided it would make sense to film the main character smoking. This scene would allow us to get an interesting extreme close up, fit in with the style of the character and also fit in with the hip hop conventions. After we had uploaded the new footage, edited it and then added it in to an appropriate place, we realised how important and useful the feedback we had received was. It had made us go back out and change a bit of a storyline, even though we thought we had completed everything. It also allowed us to get a wider variety of shots as we then included the extreme close up shot of the main character smoking. Not only did our media teacher give us advice here, but throughout the entire process had given us her personal opinion and feedback. She liked our initial ideas in the planning stages, helped us with our blog work (which we also won blog of the month on) and gave valid feedback and criticism against our music video throughout the entire process. An example of how her feedback influenced the final result of the video was when she told us to make it more ‘realistic’. By this she meant the conventions of all music videos, having a black fade in and fade out at the start and finish of the video and to have the artist name and song title appear briefly at the beginning. After we had made these few changes and added the extra details we noticed how much of a difference it has made. Our product actually looked like a genuine music video, and had we not have listened and taken on board this piece of feedback then it wouldn’t have included some of the main features which every music video is expected to have. With regards to our ancillary tasks (the magazine advert and the digipak) our main source of feedback was received from our own media teacher. We expressed our initial ideas with her and in return she gave us useful feedback. She told us that if we somehow managed to link all three products together then it would seem more realistic, genuine and professional. After discussing and planning a few ideas, we went with the idea of religion. Seeing as this was such an important aspect in our music video, we wanted to carry this through to both ancillary tasks to have a constant theme that would stand out. I sketched out a couple of ideas for the magazine advert, which we planned to produce first. Then as a group we chose the idea which we liked best and felt that it represented the style we were going for most. After we had taking photographs and uploaded them onto the Mac computers, we started to edit the magazine advert on Photoshop. We were happy with how the product was turning out and the feedback we received was all positive. Seeing as we didn't get any negative feedback from the magazine advert, we carried on and went onto producing our next ancillary product which was our digipak. From our reseach we decided it would be beneficial to use the same photograph for both ancillary products. However, even though we kept the same photograph, we edited the digipak image to make it look slightly different. After testing some techniques on Photoshop and trying out the effects, we knew we wanted to still keep the religious theme strong. We found an effect called 'stained glass' on the Photoshop software. This changed the image to make it look like stained glass, another reference to religion. We asked for the opinion of our teacher, who really liked the idea and said it was obvious what the links between all three products were. With her approval, we went ahead and carried on editing on top of the stained glass effect. After we had added some finishing touches such as text and positioning we were pleased with the outcome of our digipak. Without the advice and feedback we received we wouldn't have managed to produce such professional and linked products.

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

During the research stages in the production of our music video, the only form of media technology that we used was the internet. Although we only used one media technology, this was all we needed to provide us with the information we needed and we used it throughout the entire process. The main three sites we used were Blogger.com, Youtube.com and Wikipedia.com. Blogger.com was used by everyone in the media group to keep track of work and to store all of our media work. Youtube.com was used a lot to look at various videos from various artists which we would then analyse and gain ideas from. Lastly, we used Wikipedia.com frequently as a useful source for finding out about the facts we needed for our research. We also used many other sites, some which were more useful than others, but these are the three main sites that we used throughout the whole process. Next was the planning stage. Our two main pieces of media technology equipment used was the Canon video cameras and the Apple Mac computers (which includes the software ‘Final Cut Pro’ which we used to edit our footage on). Before we went out and started to film, we took test shots on the Canon video cameras and ten uploaded this footage using a USB lead to the Apple Mac computers. Once the footage was uploaded we used Final Cut Pro to edit our trial footage. This allowed us to play about with the effects and get use to the important features that we would later be using to help edit our final piece (tools such as the cut tool, the audio tools, different effects, and livewire). Once we felt comfortable with using the video camera and how to use Final Cut Pro, we began to properly plan our storyline and went straight out into filming the actual construction of the music video. The construction stage of our music video introduced us to many different forms of media technology. We carried on using the Canon video cameras throughout the entire process. The cameras were very professional, which allowed for good quality. The cameras were also very heavy, but we dealt with this by using a tripod for most of the shots. One of the main reasons I enjoyed using this particular video camera was because it allowed us all to what what we were actually filming without having to individually look through the viewfinder. The camera had a section which you could pull out and view the scene that was being shown digitally. This made filming a lot easier as we could all see what was going on at the same time. Once we had finished filming, we uploaded the footage using a USB cable which linked to the Apple Mac computers. We had to rewind the tape in the camera back to a certain point and then press 'play' on the camera and 'capture' on the Mac, this allowed all the footage being played to be captured so we could then edit it.After it was all uploaded, we used Final Cut Pro to view the footage and decided which parts were good enough for the video. Editing took a long time, providing many complications and stressful hours. On occasions our work would not be saved and so we learnt to constantly save our work and check it was always there in case the computer had not saved it properly. Another issue we had with the technology we used was the parts of our footage would not upload onto the computer and was never found. This was extremely frustrating for us as a group but we carried on filming and editing. We used Final Cut Pro to put together our entire video (the editing side). We did this by cutting certain scenes and putting them together. We converted the track (Sunshine) onto iTunes by saving it to the computer from a CD, after it was uploaded we inserted the track onto our editing piece. This allowed us the make sure the scenes were in time, which was critical for the lip syncing scenes in the choruses. After we had finished editing, we converted our music video into Quicktime. We changed a few settings like the size of the video and sound format, all of which the changed settings allowed the video to be observed in a higher quality.  For the ancillary tasks, we used the camera on the Canon video camera. This seemed suitable as it was still of a high quality and allowed us all to use the digital viewer so we could all see what was being shown on the screen. Once more, we uploaded the images to the Apple Mac computer using the USB cable and got straight to work. We first started on the magazine advert. We used a template that was given to us and used he Photoshop software to edit the image. We used different effects such as enhancing the contrast, the burn tool and effects such as 'stained glass', all of which make the magazine advert fit the conventions of our genre and make it creative and professional. Next we produced the digipak, once more using Photoshop and a template. The template was useful as it kept our images a certain size and made the entire process a lot easier.Within the evaluation stage we created a commentary. We did this by filming ourselves talking about everything we have done so far. We wrote out a script (which we enlarged on another computer for us to remember key lines when filming) and set up a camera and tripod in the media suite. Using the small pull out digital screen allowed us to position ourselves accordingly and watch ourselves as we spoke into the camera. After we had finished filming we went through the same routine of uploading the footage using a USB cable and editing it all on Final Cut Pro. Once all the editing was complete and we were happy with the final product, we changed the settings and converted it over to Quicktime.

LEILA'S EVALUATION

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

My group and I picked unsigned artist 'Aim'with the song 'Sunshine' she fell under the Hip-Hop genre. So the next stage was to do as much research and planning into this particular genre . I looked into Hip-Hop/rap music videos and noticed there were particular motifs and themes that were constant throughout. We took the following conventions and applied it to our music video ;
-Mise en scene
-Religious symbols
-Drugs
-Gangs
-Violence
-Clothing
-Camera shots
As a group we wanted to conform and develop our Hip-Hop/Rap conventions and not challenge them, by looking at the style of the artists, mise en scene and camera shots and other motifs . In most Hip-Hop/Rap music videos the mise en scene tended to be rather dark to illustrate the dark cold life as a gangster on the streets, we really liked this idea and did the crime scenes at night and when it came to the editing the colour scheme we put a dark contrast throughout our music video for example When Nia and christina walk to meet eachother ( split screen) we lowered the tone  to make it seem gloomy and dangerous, so by darkening the contrast we followed certain conventions.
 The clothing in rap music videos is quite big and bulky with hats and hoods to disguise the gangsters identity and to make them seem threatening . We took this convention and forward it to our costume design for Nia. Throughout the video she wears hoods to make her seem threatening and dangerous, which again relates back to our research to most rap-stars having a threatening image because they fall under a niche audience who follow this particular trend ( also it can fall under John Goodwin's analysis theory 'demand of the record label'). As well as looking at music videos for research I looked at online magazines, the magazine 'vibe' gave us an idea which also ran throughout most Hip-Hop/rap  music videos, which was religious elements. On an issue of the online magazine 'vibe' it had an image of popular rap star 'Eminem' who had a cross around his neck this related to the suffering on the streets and wanting forgiveness, so we took this convention and put it forth to our music video also to our Ancillary tasks as well, so both products had a consistent theme that ran throughout.
In a lot of Hip-Hop music videos there is a repetitive amount of direct address with the rappers confronting the camera ,we took this piece of research and used it for our choruses. One of the influential videos for this particular idea was ' Jay Z-99 problems' throughout the whole video it uses direct address which connects well to the niche audience . It was also shot in black and white we liked this idea so we did some further research to help us develop the idea , we found that most Hip-Hop music videos used the black and white shots and dark colour schemes ( as i mentioned before). Following on we developed this idea for our chorus scenes. We used three actors including myself to rap to the camera, this would relate to other former gangsters suffering on the streets as well ( and it would link in well with our fragmented narrative because most rap music videos had this particular linear). The mise en scene for the choruses would be in black and white for the audience to easily establish between certain events that happen throughout our fragmented narrative. The location for the direct address was in an industrial urban-like setting . The clothing would have an urban feel with big coats and jackets to make them seem hard and tough, we wanted the actors to use a range of levels but it was filmed from a low angle  to make them seem powerful and threatening to the audience. We placed them on stairs and near railings , the idea of having them on the stairs came from 90's Rap video ' word to ya murther' where in the video we noticed that most of the rappers were on stairs and in industrial locations. The location concept for all Hip-Hop/rap music videos is set in urban or industrial places this illustrated the toughness of the gangsters surviving on the harsh streets An example of this is the end scene in our music video when Nia gets beaten up by tough looking gangsters in an industrial setting, so we wanted to conform and make Nia seem homeless and survivng on the harsh streets as she comes across bad consequences such as drugs, crime and gang violence which are occuring conventions throughout our research.
Our music videos also follows conventions of other Hip-Hop music video camera techniques and not challenge them. In our research we watched a range of different Hip-Hop artists from 2pac to Jay Z and noticed that in their music videos they had a lot of wide camera shots , cutaways and establishing shots so we used these particular techniques throughout our music video because it looked effective and we were able to include more mise en scene. The storyline for our music video was developed to follow other music videos plots for example the music video 2pac ft Elton John - Ghetto gospel the main character ( protagonist) is forced to sell drugs and it ends in a bad consequence we liked the idea of our main character Nia to suffer ( protagonist) and to be forced into this world of felony and wanting to 'runaway'# lyrics ; We illustrate the lyrics through changing the meaning , the word runaway is wanting to escape  then we further developed this idea to 'heaven' which linked into our religious concept and also one of the main meanings behind Ghetto Gospels music video.
2.) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

The main theme that runs throughout both music video and ancillary tasks is a religious concept. This was further developed by our research into Hip-Hop/Rap images from magazines adverts and album covers. Firstly we researched and did planning such as sketches to how we wanted it to look, we wanted to follow certain conventions for example Hip-Hop stars have images that focus on them and the font print is strong and bold, we liked this idea a lot and made the Nia the main focus for the magazine advert and the front cover of the Digi-Pak . we looked again at the hip-hop magazine 'vibe' and noticed that a lot of rappers had religious symbols either as jewellery or body art . Furthermore from our the research we gathered for our Ancillary tasks we took the font conventions and developed it to the colour blood-red i.e Representing Nia suffering and for marketing purposes the colour stands out and perhaps open up to other audience types.
The pictures we took for both Ancillary tasks were very effective we took into account mise en scene, costume and lighting . The location for our magazine advert was in an alley-way, we had Nia against a concrete wall with graffiti on it, this was effective because it represented the Hip-Hop genre perfectly because we used that industrial , urban-like setting. In relation to Nia's costume we had her in the same outfit as she was in the music video so it had significance not only to the music video but to the genre itself, she had her hood up staring directly into the camera in a threatening yet vulnerable manner , this was effective because it has a noticeable quality to the character Nia the protagonist in the music video. The Font , design and imagery on the Ancillary tasks are effective and relate well to the music video because it carries certain themes for example the cross necklace, this is repeated on the magazine advert and digi-pak in relation to the idea of faith and suffering in music video.
The technology we used to produce both our Ancillary tasks was photoshop. We had intial ideas for the magazine advert that stemmed  themes from our music video. We used the stained glass tool which transformed the whole image of Nia making it religious, it looked really effective and eye-catching. We darkened some areas for it to relate to the music video because the music video had a dark colour scheme, this was very effective. We also wanted to close in the darkness around her to make her the main focus of the image ( following conventions) and by using the highlighter tool we gave Nia a Halo effect around her hood, which again relates to the religious theme. Under her eyes we used the burn tool to darken underneath to make her look rough like she would on the streets, this combines well with her as that particular character in the music video. The image itself is invasive and focused on the good and bad , pure and evil. We decided to use the same character from the music video to represent the artists 'Aim' on both Ancillary tasks because it would be effcetive and it made the Ancillary tasks come with a story and to have siginificance , easy to relate to and also be influenced by the music video where the Hip-hop/rap genre is easily depicted and effective.
 Both Ancillary tasks are extremely effective because they relate to our music video and fit perfectly into the conventions of the genre. The Digi-pak has similar effects, on the back of the Digi-Pak the image is focused on Nia's hand gripping a cross to represent faith and strength with the track list along side her hand which is effective because it doesn't overwrite the image itself. Overall Both Ancillary tasks and the main product create an effective combination because they follow conventions of the hip-hop genre and captavate the niche audience.
3.) what have you learned from your audience feedback?

You definately can learn a lot from your feedback, it helped my group and i create ideas and also to discard of any errors that came across through the making of our main product, and both Ancillary tasks.
First off as we researched and started coming up with intial ideas for our music video, my group had to give an individual analysis of a particular Hip-Hop/rap music video, and what certain elements or motifs ran throughout them and how we would illustrate them.
 When filming our main product; as always there is constructive criticisms...the class and the teacher told us that we needed to elaborate more on the location for our music video and to think about cast members and risk assessments. We took this feedback into account and started to map out and get a final idea of the location. We came to this conclusion of filming in an urban-side of windsor because we were to film at night so both casts and crew were familiarised with the location, in relation to cast we ended up appointing a pupil from our group to play the main character due to reliance issues and we all knew what conventions we had to include, the risk assessment was one of the major things we needed to consider , we examined the locations and jotted down any risks that would take place and why the whole crew and cast had to be notified about the safety of us and others. On a more positive note we were also told how good our analysus on the rap music videos were , including good media terminology , they especially liked our ideas for transitions , camera shots and effects. The teacher liked our descriptions on the music videos i.e mise en scene, colour schemes , camera shots and angles including the conventions for that particular genre. I wrote a questionnaire to establish our target audience and what they thought about HIp-hop music videos and what common factors were they most likely to see.
 The feedback we got from this was great we established what things we needed to include in order to make it good storyline - the audience preferred a fragmented narrative because it was intense to watch, also the feedback helped us establish certain themes i.e religious elements, drugs, gangs and violence.
We then shot the footage for our music video which we thought was good and then uploaded it and edited it on Final Cut- Pro this was then examined by the teacher and another media teacher and their feedback was that we didn't include a variety range of shots , and more of a ' bad side' to the character Nia. We were only following certain camera technique conventions that other Hip-hop music videos had...BUT! we took this advice and went out and filmed close -ups and extreme close-ups of Nia smoking ( what a gangster indeed) this proved to be very effective and much better when we showed our teacher. My group and I showed how our main product to our friends and other classmates they said the narrative was clear and the effects and camera shots were excellent and really fit the conventions of the Hip-hop/rap genre.

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

Within the time period from the start of our advanced portfolio my group and I have been technology crazy! Firstly all our work, such as planning,research,images,evaluations and footage is up on our blog wesite Thewindsormediablogspot.com. We used cannon video recording cameras to film and capture our music video and also it was used to take pictures of our Ancillary tasks, for us to then upload certain footage or images we used a USB cabel to upload it from the tape to the Mac computer to edit our main product on the software Final Cut-Pro. Once we captured the images we wanted for our Ancillary tasks we edited it on the software Photoshop, which was used to edit using a range of different tools and effects. We also burned our artists track onto iTunes and then converted it to Final Cut-Pro, once we were happy with our main product we had to use quicktime converter which changed the file so it's easily read on our blog and youTube , so we changed certain settings to better. As well as using a cannon recording camera to capture pictures , we also used a  Sony digital camera for our Ancillary tasks and risk assessments we then converted what was on the memory card via USB and then uploaded it onto photoshop and used a range of different tools and effects in order to create the perfect image we wanted for example the burn tool, size tool, contrast effects, sponge tool and different layers.
YouTube and google search engine was a big research help for us , we used YouTube in order to view different Hip-hop music videos for our research and planning, if we liked a certain video and wanted to analyse it we would embed it onto our blogs by clicking embed and copying and pasting the code into the HTML bar on the blog so it allowed the blog viewer to watch the video clip on the blog and not as a hyperlink. We surfed the net including google images to examine and analyse pictures of magazine adverts, digi-paks and rappers. We also used the search engine google as well, to look at online Hip-hop magazines for more research . Wikipedia gave us more information about certain artists and record labels which helped us during research and planning for our Ancillary tasks and other artists analysis. Microsoft office was used in order to create slide shows and to write evaluations. Throughout the process of planning, research, construction and evaluation stages we used a wide variety of technology in order to make our main product and both ancillary tasks to the best they could be.

Evaluation - Nia

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

For our media product, my group and I wanted to use and develop the conventions of hip-hop music video genres rather than challenge the forms. For example, where the design of our music video was concerned, we had to ensure that we had completed an appropriate amount of research in order to collect a vast understanding of our genre’s conventions.  For our music video research my group and I used YouTube to research some traditional and contemporary hip-hop music videos.  One video that really stood out for us was Tupac- Ghetto Gospel. This encouraged us to decide on a theme of religion as it was clearly prominent throughout the music and images. Other artists that I used for my research were Dr.Dre, Eminem and Tyler the Creator. I wanted to include a broad spectrum of old school rap artists and new up-and-coming artists to ensure that I had a general picture of the theme of hip-hop music. We used Tupac’s ‘Ghetto Gospel’ as our stimulus to help us keep our music video as realistic as possible. Particular themes that we decided to include in our video that we discovered in our research was the use of drugs, the use of alcohol, poverty, crime and deviance, personal struggle and religion. We used the theme of religion quite strongly throughout our piece as we felt that it was important to have something clearly being consistent throughout our entire piece. This was displayed through the use of cross necklaces, stained glass windows, churches and the image of Jesus. Furthermore, the character in the video uses lots of religious gestures such as making a cross shapes on her chest and praying. Another convention that we found through research that we wanted to include was the use of one single character. This way the audience are encouraged to get to know the actress and get emotionally attached. We did this by constantly involving the main character up until the last shot of the video. We chose to regularly show the character instead of use images that were meaningless to the audience, this way they could piece together a narrative and really feel connections to her.

Moreover, another characteristic that was influenced from our research was the decision not to conclude our video. We wanted the audience to be able to decide the fate of our character rather than concluding the final scenes. This is very popular in hip-hop music videos as it leaves the viewer clinging on for an explanation, ensuring the next music video is even more successful.  

For lighting and camera angles, again we took our influences from music videos such as Tupac and Eminem. With the assistance of our research we ensured that the majority of our shots weren’t too brightly lit as we wanted to give off quite a depressing theme, therefore with some of the shots we had to darken them slightly to produce a more convincing affect or simply film them during the evening. On top of the lighting we decided that it would be effective for the direct address scenes for the chorus to be in black and white as this was a very popular convention within hip hop music. This can be seen in Tyler the Creator’s ‘Yonkers’ video. The black and white affect came across as very affective as it almost appeared to age the video and to transform it into a traditional hip-hop music video.

Other portions of our video that support the forms and conventions were the costume, the locations and the mannerisms of the characters. Our research showed that most rap artists/actors wore loose fitting clothes with overwhelming dark colours. There was a lack of makeup unless the characters were intentionally dressing up in the videos. Therefore, our character wore tracksuit bottoms and a beanie hat with a dirty coat, or a black ‘G-unit’ hoody. This way we were sticking to the conventions that we had found in our research.  Additionally, we made sure that the character’s mannerisms were very aggressive and intimidating. We all agreed that we wanted the audience to feel some sort of sympathy for the actress, in order to keep them watching.  

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

My group and I decided that it was extremely important to keep aspects of the main product and ancillary products similar. For example for the music video I was used as an actress. We developed this by using the character from the music video in the ancillary texts also. This way a potential audience would find it easier to acknowledge us as a particular group that stood out in the market as they could link the same character to our music video, magazine advert and digi-pak. We found that it is very important to keep your audience familiar with recognisable images and characters. For example, with the Kanye West ‘Graduation’ digi-pakEminem and Kanye West, all key figures in hip-hop culture. When I was assessing the design of Eminem’s magazine advert I realised that the font size is usually quite large in order to make an impression. Also, the font style tends to be quite strong and harsh. The wording is usually quite centred near the top of the advertisement or slightly to one side. Therefore, when creating the design of the magazine advert we decided to ensure that the font was large and had an impact. We also ensured that we did a small amount of research on the different font styles as it plays such a significant role in the design of the advert. We decided to place the font in a central position in order to enable the audience to be able to recognise the artist at a quick glance. This way, we ensured that we were using the forms and conventions of a hip hop magazine advert. Where use of imagery was concerned, our research showed that artists usually used imagery of themselves or something symbolic to themselves. For example on Eminem’s ‘recovery’ he used an image of himself walking away into the distance down a long road. This showed that the artist was intending to be portrayed with some sort of narrative as it leads the viewer to question his relation to the images and background he has chosen. Whereas when I researched Dr.Dre, the majority of his magazine adverts were quite simplistic and tended to use his face. My group and I decided that it would be more effective to use an image of the actress from the music video (myself). This way the audience would be familiar with the character throughout all of our products. Furthermore, it fitted a convention that is regularly used in hip-hop. This convention is when the artist uses minimal images or a simple image of themselves and this gives off an attitude of not caring and letting the music speak for itself. When we were taking the pictures for the magazine advertisement and the digi-pak we made sure that my facial expressions came across as aggressive and downbeat. A lot of the time the colours came in couples such as red and white or blue and red. From the sketches I created, we decided to use red as our main colour theme along with the image of a cross we chose. This was to fit our theme of religion and I feel like this came across strongly and effectively to an outside audience as our intentions are clear with the consistent use of characters and themes throughout the music video to the ancillary texts.

3)       What have you learned from your audience feedback?

With the audience feedback from our rough cut, my group and I were told that the concept needed to be stronger and clearer to the audience, this way it would not be as disruptive to the storyline if our narrative was fragmented. Therefore, we agreed that if there was a strong, prominent theme that could easily be recognised, that it would be easy to comprehend the message that we were trying to get across with our character. However, my peers noted that the rough cut demonstrated some promising footage to a gritty, urban video following one important character. Another important point that my peers made was that it reminded them of traditional hip-hop music videos that they had watched before. They particularly enjoyed our opening shots of myself walking onto the bridge and opening my arms into a cross shape. This made it clear that religion would dominate the themes throughout our piece. Some of the feedback that we received from our teacher regarding our main product resulted in us deciding to re-film some of our scenes. We were instructed that we needed a larger variety of shots in our main product. Therefore, we decided that it would be fitting if we added some extreme close ups and close ups. Previous to re-filming we realised that majority of our shots were too similar and that there were too many wide/long shots. This resulted in us re-filming in order to achieve the best grade possible. Once we had shown our peers our final product of the music video, they appeared to be quite impressed with our quality of filming. Moreover, clearly by their expressionist was clear that they were captured by the occurrences on screen. Where feedback with our magazine advert and digi-pak was concerned, all the feedback from our peers and our teachers noted that there was a clear theme. They could understand the theme with the help of the cross and the colour themes of red and white. This was the most important aspect of the design to my group and I as it linked all of our 3 products together tightly.  In addition, the peer group added that we had used the lyrical analysis to our benefit as they had recognised our numerous links in the music video. For instance when we  used a point of view shot showing me falling to the ground making me appear as if I was staring at a piece of grassy concrete, the lyrics note ‘ grass in the concrete’.

 In conclusion, I feel that without the feedback we have received, our products would not be as strong as they are now. Moreover it has helped us realise that we are aiming appropriate products towards our target audience.

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

Most importantly, our work is displayed through an Internet blog. This displays all of our work from the beginning of our course in an organised, presentable way.  It is easily accessible for all members of our group where ever we are located and it enables us to keep a connection with the World Wide Web. During our research phases my group and I used the Internet and magazines in order to gather the appropriate forms of research. For example we used YouTube quite significantly to get a real understanding of consistent forms and conventions of hip-hop music videos. This is how we stemmed our research down to rap artists such as Eminem, Dr.Dre and Tupac. We used such online magazines as ‘Vibe’ magazine to grasp the concept of a hip-hop magazine advert. This proved quite helpful with deciding particular things such as font colours, sizes and styles and uses of images and symbols in hip-hop. Finally we used Google images to search for Digi-paks. As most of the research we came across used male characters and artists it enabled us to understand that hip-hop is powerfully dominated by the male gender and rarely is the image of a women used unless it is being displayed in a sexual way. This in turn, helped us to then make the advertisement more masculine and offensive to fit the conventions. With the planning of our music video and ancillary, my group and I used still camera shots to upload sketches and mood boards to our blogs to clearly display each stage from the planning to the actual creation of our products. Still camera shots were also used to take pictures for our ancillary tasks. For the still camera shots we used the cam recorder but pressed a single button to snap shot that image. During the actual construction of our music video, I used my blackberry mobile phone in order to capture some more still shots of us filming for our blog. This way I could connect my phone to my own PC and upload directly onto our blog. Furthermore, with us blogging our work through pictures, it was easy for us to refer back to certain situations that may come up in a discussion.

Where the construction of our music video was concerned we used Cannon cameras to record. The quality of the audio was not an issue for concern as we would be replacing it with an audio track. We used a tall tripod to ensure that the footage would not be too shaky. After the filming was completed, my group and I used the Mac computers in our media suite in order to edit our film footage. Using final cut pro we neatened up our music video to produce a rough cut and eventually a Final Cut. The usage of Final Cut Pro enabled us to play around with our piece adding transitions and video effects suited to our conventions. Furthermore, where the audio track was concerned, we converted it from a CD to an audio file that was compatible with Final Cut Pro.  Once we were happy with our final product, we transferred the final product onto a USB port and uploaded it straight onto YouTube. Once we had embedded the code, it was on our blog.

With the construction of our ancillary products we used the still shots taken earlier of the main character used in the music video and transferred them onto Photoshop. Using Photoshop, we inserted things such as text bars and used tools such as the burn tool to darken edges. Furthermore with the magazine advert, we used a stained glass window effect on the image of me. This way it made the image look quite grainy and gritty. Using red and white texts, we added all the information involving the artist. As the burn tool darkened the edges of the photo, the rest of the image truly stood out, especially the cross which was the main intention. After converting the image to a JPEG, we uploaded it straight onto our blog again.

With the digi-pak, I used a 2 sided template. I included an image of my arm holding the cross for the back cover and used the same image on the front of the digi-pak as the magazine advert. This way it was clear that we had a consistent feeling throughout. I used Photoshop to adjust the brightness and the colours of the images. Again, I used the burn tool to darken my hands and eyes. Furthermore, the use of Photoshop allowed me to add some text which was crucial for our digi-pak. Once the digi-pak was finished I converted the image into a JPEG and used internet explorer to upload it straight onto our blog.

With the use of all of these different technologies we have been able to initially create a basic product and develop it to its full potential.

How the conventions have been met with our main product and ancillary products

During our research we came across numerous things that we decided to include in our music video and ancillary tasks :
- dual colour themes for example blue and black, red and white. We chose red and white as we felt this was appropriate for religion to represent evil and purity for example.
- theme of religion is kept consistent throughout all of our tasks with the usage of a cross. We felt a cross would be the most appropriate as it is the most obvious to an audience member.
- In the magazine adverts and digi-pak, large, aggressive font were used and placed in the centre or to the side of images. However, they were still intrusive enough to stand out.
- the lighting chosen was darkened as the atmosphere is not intended to be bright and upbeat
- Camera angles were close up and invasive to be intimidating and in your face.
- Consistent character or image used throughout multiple products.
- Use of urban areas to set the scene
- We decided to use the same character in the music video for both ancillary tasks to create significance and for the niche audience to relate and recognise the character.
- For both Ancillary tasks and the main product they both have a threatening yet vulnerable feel which most rap-stars nowadays have so we followed these conventions.

FINAL MAG AD !

Here is the final result of one of our ancillary products, our magazine advert. The same image here is used again in the digi-pak as we felt it was important to have a continuous trend throughout our products. Here, Leila, Chloe and i chose to use a stained glass window effect as it blocked the colours really well. Furthermore, our research supported our decisions to use a red and white font. We chose to use the logo of 'island records' as a hypothetical image. Also, we displayed a possible retailer for the up and coming digi-pak. I feel that this image is powerful and strong as such things as the facial expressions and the use of the cross are very dominating of the photo. Also, we felt that it would be effective for the artist's name 'AIM' to be the only thing displayed at the top of the image. This follows the conventions we discovered as we found that majority of hip-hop artists like to place a title in an area where it will catch the audience's eyes.

Different font styles on Hip-Hop adverts

                

     

These are the four different examples of magazines within the Hip-Hop genre. I want to try and focus on the font styles as there will be a lot of text on the magazine advert that the group and I produce. Text is an important part of the magazine advert as the font style must fit in with the genre and represent it. With the examples above you can see that the fonts used are big and bold.
This gives the magazine a 'hard edge' which many Hip-Hop artists try and achieve.

I have found some examples on Microsoft Word that I felt would be suitable for the design of the magazine advert that my group and I will be creating. All of these font examples have similar characteristics (bold, solid and strong), which fits with the conventions of a Hip-Hop magazine. Because the genre we are working with isn't mainstream and has quite a niche audience, the advert will mainly be viewed within a Hip-Hop styled magazine. And so for this reason our advert must link with the conventions of the entire magazine.

I got some feedback from people so we could come to a conclusion about which font would be most appropriate to use.

Chloe (myself): Personally, I prefer Rockwell and Bold Ariel Black. I think that these two fonts have a powerful and cool feel to them which is what we want our artist (AIM) to represent
Courtney: Elephant, because it's plain and yet still catches your eye.
Leila: Rockwell and Vineta BT - Because I have also looked into Hip-Hop magazine adverts I am aware of the style used and I think Rockwell would look good in a wide range of colours. And it's also quite hard and solid, just like the personality of a gangsta.
Nia: Ariel Black and Bondini MT Black

After looking at the results and the resoning of these, my group and I have decided the the font which is best suited for our own magazine advert is Ariel Black (in bold). This font holds the strong and yet simple style which we are trying to maintain in a visual sense.

Artwork for both the digipak and the magazine advert

These are examples of magazine adverts from a variety of genres (Hip-Hop, Pop and Indie). My group and I had an idea that the artwork used on the Digipak and the artwork for the magazine advert were to be the same. This is a common convention throughout all genres. A good reason to do this is so the Digipak can be easily recognised by the public as they wont mix up images. This is useful as the genre of Hip-Hop usually reaches out to quite a niche audience, and so the use of the same image means that if different people see the same image, it will become more familiar and various people will remember it.

We are still to plan out our initial ides for both of the ancillary products, but we have already found and backed up our reasons for why we want to use the same image on both the magazine advert and the digipak.

FINAL digipak

Back                                                                                                                   Front

I decided to change our idea from a 6 spread digi-pak to a 4 spread case. This way we would have more time to focus on the design ideas for the 2 main covers. 

As you can see the same image was used for the front of the digi-pak as the magazine advert. This way a consistent trend can be seen and understood. Another theme that we have kept consistent is the usage of the same cross. This was used to display the trend of religion. Religion is a very well recognised aspect of hip-hop conventions. Furthermore, we felt that if we maintained the image of the cross throughout the main product and the ancillary products, it would enable the viewer to recognise that all the products are linked together with the same artist being 'Aim'.

Why were certain images chosen?

Whilst creating the digi-pak, i used photoshop to alter the two images. Different images were played around with before the final two images were chosen. For example with the cross, there were multiple images taken in various locations such as on the ground or the steps. However, we felt that this final image was the most powerful as the cross was displayed a lot clearer than the other images. Furthermore, the brick background displayed a beautiful red backdrop for our picture, again fitting the convention colours of hip hop as red is very prominent. With the front cover we decided to use the same image as the magazine advert as it is very common within hip hop to continue the theme from magazine advert to digi pak cover. This highlights the importance of keeping the audience familiar with the artwork of products. Also, the location of the image was very apt as it was taken on a graffiti backdrop which contributed towards the scene.

What types of effects were used through Photoshop?

With the front image involving our actress (myself) against a graffiti covered wall, the first effect that was chosen was adjusting the brightness to darken the image and playing around with the colours of the image to try and push it towards a red colour to match the image on the back of the case. I felt that it was important that the digi-pak looked like it matched together and that it had a reoccurring theme. After adjusting the image to darken it, i used a burn tool to add darkness to the actress' eyes. This was done because i felt that it was necessary that she looked dirty and rough in order for the audience to understand her story. We felt that this gritty image would fit our conventions as the woman would come across as being poverty stricken.

Whilst i was still using the burn tool, i added a bruise to her hand holding the cross. This continued the rough image. As i was bruising the hand in the front image, i had to ensure that i was bruising the hand in the back image also.

After the burn tool, i used a magic wand tool to select specific areas of the cross the actress is holding. I then chose to brighten these areas. This way there was a real contrast of a darkened background and a shining white cross. Furthermore, this meant we could really play on the theme of religion.

I chose to add the font for 'Aim' in large, bold, red letters as this would continue the conventions that we have used for our main products and ancillary products. Finally, i added the record label image used on the magazine advert and a 'parental advisory explicit content' label on also.

With the back of the digi-pak, the first thing i did was again darken the image. I also, played around with the colour saturation adding some more reds to fit with the front cover of the case. Afterwards i used the burn tool again to add some more bruising on the hand. This was very affective as the hand is very close up with the cross, therefore it is exposed well. Again, like before i used the magic wand tool to select specific areas to brighten on the cross. I did struggle with getting rid of the chosen sections but my teacher taught me to press ' ALT' then 'D' as it disabled the section that i was on. Finally, i added the fonts for the song titles and the spine of the digi-pak including a fan website. I chose white font for the back of the cover because it stood out the best on the red brick background. Furthermore, it fitted the conventions of using 2 colours. Red and white came up a lot during our research and we thought that it linked well into religion also to symbolise purity and evil. The same font was used here as the magazine advert continuing the theme. As this is a digi-pak i ensured that there were some added bonus features for the buyer.

Once all the text was added i placed a barcode on the back of the case for effect.

Overall i feel that the final out come of this product is extremely effective as it is apparent that we have chosen a consistent theme of colours, fonts, images and ideas.

photoshopped versions of digipak images

Influences for our ancillary task

One of our main influences for our magazine advert and our digi-pak was our actual music video. We wanted to take elements from it and to include these ideas to go forth towards our ancillary tasks . As a group we took the idea of a religious symbol ( cross necklace)  and did some research for religious elements in hip-hop/ rap  genre. The magazine (Vibe) itself follows a niche market to the genre of hip-hop/rap so it was good to take some research on how each of their rap stars are portrayed on their cover.

As you can see, here is rap legend Eminem.The mise en scene for this particular advert includes a religious symbol ( a cross necklace) we also took the element of his defensive posture , so we were thinking of having Nia with her hands together, shoulders forward this could be interpreted by the niche audience in many ways, for our digi-pak and magazine advert this could make her seem like she's praying or she's trying to look threatening. 

On the front of this cover 'Vibe' is the artist T.I. as a group we like his hand gesture and the contrast of the image ( this gave us a few ideas to experiment on photoshop with light and dark areas). The gesture with his hands linked in with the praying/ threatening concept , so we wanted to include the cross necklace dangling from Nia's hands to represent her wanting help because she suffers in the music video. 

For our digi-pak we wanted to do a template of 6 so we could include different images and traits from our music video, 6 is common for a digi pak and most rap artists have 6 so we followed the conventions and didn't contradict them

Photoshop trials for magazine and album artwork

Because neither Leila, Nia or myself have much experience with using Photoshop, we wanted to try out different effects on our test images to decide what looked most effective for our artwork. 

I (Chloe) edited this image. I enhanced the contrast to make the eyes look more blue and intense. Raising the contrast also made the fur on the hood of the coat stand out more and gave it an almost 'halo' effect which the group had discussed and liked. For the background, I used the 'burn tool'. This allowed me to darken the background and take away the detail which was behind the actress. I also used the 'burn tool' on her knuckles to give a 'bruised effect'. Although this doesn't look very professional in the edited image above, the group agreed that this was a good effect and links in with the image we are working towards. A problem I had with editing this image was that certain areas in the background were too bright (the light reflecting on the window) which caused some areas the edited image to have an outline of neon blue. I will either have to find away around this problem or have to find a new effect to use.

Although this is not one of my favourite effects I used, I do like the 'sketchy' look that it gives the image. I used the effect called 'dark strokes' within the 'brush strokes' file in filters. I think that this effect makes the image look a little blurry which gives the idea that the actress is not entirely sober. The face also appears soft, clean and bold. These are the exact characterises we wanted  to give the actress to fit the conventions of the genre and to make the audience sympathize with her. 

On this image I (Chloe) wanted to make the artwork appear 'cartoony' and yet still have a 'dark' feel to it. I raised the contrast to its fullest and decreased the brightness. This gave a shadowy effect in certain areas around the face. I then used the 'cutout' effect under the 'artist' filters. This gave the image the 'cartoony' effect I was trying to achieve. It completely cuts out the face but still shows features of the nose so it is evident where certain features are. The background behind the hooded character also has a 'graffiti' type effect running down from the walls, this is linked into the Wretch 32 magazine/digipak artwork.

I ( Leila) chose this particular image of Nia to edit. I used a dark contrast on the image around certain areas to exaggerate a dark feel particularly below the eyes to create a thuggish threatening look ( to show her hard-life on the streets) and also around Nia's face to draw attention to her facial expression. I also used the 'curve tool' to highlight certain features like the fur on her hood to represent light behind her ( a halo figure as it were) because religious themes occur throughout our music video. I altered the saturation to make the image look black and white because it follows most hip - hop/rap conventions .

I (Nia), edited this image using photoshop. The first thing i did was use a lasoo tool to cut around the image of myself to change the layers and add a separate background. I wanted to create an image that reflected our sketches as much as possible therefore i chose to insert a different background. In one of my sketches i used a bright light coming behind the image of myself. Furthermore, i chose a red font which sticks to the conventions of hip-hop and i chose to display this above and below the picture. The expression on my face was supposed to represent hardship and anger. We didn't want this image to come across as positive or happy as hip-hop tends to be quite depressive. I also blurred the edges of the image to make it appear slightly more blended in to the background. Furthermore, i used a burn tool on my hands and face to make the image appear distressed. We wanted the image to encourage people to feel sympathy for the character as well as feeling slightly intimidated by them.

All these images were test shots and we intend to deliver our final digi pak and magazine advert to a higher standard than these test versions. However, it has given us a good insight into particular shots and effects we may want to chose in the final version.

Test images for our own digipak and magazine advert

Once we had decided which sketch to use from our inital ideas for artwork, we set out and shot some images. We practised with different angles and different styles so we could see what worked best.
These images were taken around our school grounds. We took these test images on the stairs because it fitted the forms and conventions of the hip-hop research we had concluded. From our research we found that there was a common use of stairs in hip-hop videos and images, therefore we found it appropriate to stick to this idea.

From these test images we will test some effects on Photoshop and decide what image works best and represents the Hip Hop style for out magazine/digipak in the most effective way. We played around with high and low angles and slightly closer shots.

These images of the crosses were taken as test shots in order to see how clearly the cross would be displayed. It shows how we have developed our ideas into physical products as we have clearly played around and tested with potential locations and styles for our images.

DigiPak analysis- Hip Hop genre

I

I've decided to analyse a DigiPak for Kanye West's 'Graduation' Album. The first thing that stood out to me about this digipak was the colours and design. It is unusual for rap artists to choose such bright, appealing colours and styles for their album covers. Typically, the artists intend to come across at intimidating and aggressive to go along with the careless attitude. However, Kanye has opted for quite a playful theme. All the images involve a bear which Kanye's fans will be familiar with. The bear is a continuous theme that is carried throughout Kanye's music, design and even in his fashion choices he can be seen sporting a bear. By doing this, he is creating an image that people will be able to recognize and associate with himself. The album being usually involves Kanye's name, however in these images they do not.
Most Digi Paks do not include this many images, therefore Kanye has gone above and beyond to create a style of album that is original. On the Digi Pak, a story can almost unravel in front of the viewer's eyes.
The colours are modern and up to date. Ironically, there isn't a lot of writing on the album talking about Kanye himself which is surprising when he is quite well know for his obnoxious attitude.
The design notes ' Parental Advisory, Explicit Content' which informs the audience of the potentially offensive lyrical content in his music. It is quite nice to see such an upbeat piece of design coming from Kanye in hip-hop, when it is so easy to use depressive images.