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.