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.