Showing posts with label Leila Aissa-Dean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leila Aissa-Dean. Show all posts
Friday, 16 December 2011
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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.
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.
Monday, 21 November 2011
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.
- 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.
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
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
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.
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.
Hip - Hop/rap Digi-Pak analysis
TEXT
Name of the band/ artist: 50 cent
Name of the album: 50 cent - Greatest hits
Track listing :
1. Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
2. Best Friend
3. Window Shopper
4. Hustler's Ambition
5. Pimpin Pt2
6. Ghetto Qua Ran
7. I'm A Rider
8. What If
9. Thug Love feat. Beyonce
10. Too Hot (feat. Nas)
11. Maybe We Crazy
12. Be A Gentleman
13. What Up Gangsta
14. Killa Tape
15. Not Rich, Still Lyin
16. Magic Stick (feat. Lil Kim)
17. Baby Phat (feat. G-Unit)
18. I Run NY (feat. Tony Yayo)
19. When Death Becomes You (M.O.P. feat. 50 Cent)
20. We Both Think Alike (feat. Olivia)
21. In Da Club
22. If I Can't
23. Rotten Apple
24. Whoo Kid
2nd CD:
1. Candy Shop
2. Fuck You
3. I'll Whip Ya Head Boy
4. Just A Lil Bit
5. Blood Hound
6. Hate It Or Love It
7. When It Rains It Pours
8. In Da Hood
9. Get In My Car
10. P.I.M.P.
11. Places To Go
12. U Not Like Me
13. Many Men (Wish Death)
14. Wanksta
15. Disco Inferno
16. How To Rob (feat. The Mad Rapper)
17. Life's On The Line
18. 21 Questions
19. 8 More Mile (G-Unit Remix)
20. Talk About Me
Price : £21.00
Website: On the digipak it has 50 cents main site where it has news and info on tour dates , videos and pictures.
Recording information: His Cd was recorded in 2005, 50 cent and G-Unit wrote the songs.
PICTORIAL
Pictures of the band/ artist: The picture on the front cover is an image of 50 cent the artist himself pointing a gun directly at the camera. On the inside cover there is a picture of 50 cent sitting in a basement writing lyrics this is suppose to reflect on the hard life he's had and how he became a rapper.
CD logo: The font of the artists name and title is in a stamp form this could symbolise a conviction stamp also it could relate to a video game.
DESIGN
Colour and style : The pictures have a dark contrast mixed with a yellow tint which gives it a video game and highlights 50 cents build, it also makes 50 cent look superior particularly because he's got the audience at gunpoint ( similar to james bond), a lot of hip-hop artists relate to their enemies in their songs or on their cd covers because it reflects to different gangs on the streets ( where rap originates from).
The super- audio cd limited platinum edition is an unfold with 2 discs and only 500 copies were released its also has a booklet inside with lyrics on it and his production team.
The design of the CD itself has a dark colour scheme with a thuggish feel.
50 cent has a threatening facial expression and posture.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Sketch ideas for our own magazine advert
From looking at three separate magazine adverts of three individual Hip Hop artists, we have come up with a few sketch ideas of what our magazine advert could look like.
Once we have decided on which sketch to use we will then be experimenting with Photoshop and colours.
We have decided on three inital sketch ideas, all with certain elements and conventions linked in with our own research we have done by looking at different magazine adverts.
Sketch 1
In this sketch the main character (the same one from our music video) is seen in a hoody holding a cross. There is a glowing light behind her and her knuckles are bruised. All of these factors are seen as contradictory, which was our aim. We wanted the audience to feel sympathy for the character, and yet still remember she is 'from the streets' and does not lead a very positive life. This is portrayed by the style of her clothes being quite thuggish contrasted with the person holding a cross. This shows both her 'street' side which is harsh and cruel, and also her religious side in which she prays and hopes for something better. The bruised knuckles show that she has gotten in fights and lives it rough, whereas the glow in the background acts as a 'halo' type effect and gives the impression that she is actually pure and holy. We liked this idea a lot as we felt it portrayed the image we were going for well.
Sketch 2
This idea contains a gang member sitting on a staircase holding a baseball bat. Each of these aspects link back to our genre. 'Gang members' were mentioned to be related to the Hip-Hop genre when we first asked for feedback to the class about what they expected to see in a Hip-Hop music video. The staircases were found as a convention through my own research whilst looking at videos such as 'Word To Ya Mutha'. And a baseball bat is seen here as a weapon, which links in with gangs and crime, another common convention of the genre. Although it includes many common aspects and elements, we found that there was a lot going on visually in this advert, which mean there was hardly any room for text to provide information about the artist.
Sketch 3
This idea consists of a red cross on a plain background. The use of the colour red symbolizes blood and death, which is a reference to our music video. The cross is a religious reference, which was a common theme in the music video that we intended on carrying on to both ancillary products. The plain background allows the audience to mainly focus on the red cross and emphases its importance. There is not a lot of text, but there is enough for the audience to get enough information about when the album is released and where it is available.This idea would be easy to produce on Photoshop as it is a very simplistic design.
As a group, we have all decided that sketch 1 best represents the style and genre that we are working with (Hip Hop). We tried to hit the main conventions and to make it as realistic as possible.
Mood Board
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Analysis of a magazine advert fitting the conventions of Hip-Hop genre
I shall now analyse this magazine advert for the hip hop artist 'Late' and see what ideas influence my group and I for our magazine advert and also looking at the following conventions;
Codes for a magazine advert
- Name of band/ artist and album
Why we want to use this for our magazine advert
We like the idea of the writing to be bold and centered to follow hip hop conventions . The colour of the text would link in well with the meaning behind our music video- The red would represent the suffering and the white text would represent the religious element .
Date of album release
The album states it's a brand new album now and its bold white writing which grabs the audiences attention this album is obvious to a niche market by the common conventions of a hip-hop video it portrays.
Why we want to use this for our magazine advert
The magazine advert for our artist 'Aim' would have this, my group and i decided to state this on our magazine advert because it follows the hip-hop/rap conventions.
Featuring songs
It features the album title song 'UK RAPSCALLION' and it features other artists, the featured artists are printed in red and are a smaller font because it's Late's album and it would be bad marketing to advertise other artists on his advert.
Why we want to use this for our magazine advert
On the front of our magazine advert we wanted our featured song ' sunshine'.
Form of release
The album is Available on CD , mp3 and all digital stores including iTunes
Why we want to use this for our magazine advert
We would like to use iTunes because it has mass users and also available in shops i.e HMV and TESCOS, so we want to target downloads as well as purchasing it by hand.
Does this magazine advert have artwork or a photograph?
The image of the artist and background is a photograph , the contrast and saturation of the image has been edited to make it look darker and more fierce also there is a burnt border around the image to draw more attention to the centre of the image. Furthermore parental advisory is on the cover because his songs contain swearing, drugs and violence. we would have one of these on our magazine advert and Digi-Pak because we have references to bad language drink, sex and drugs.
Why we want to use this for our magazine advert
For our magazine advert we will use photoshop to play around with different ideas but keeping in mind our conventions for hip-hop. We were fixed on the idea of it being in black and white making Nia look threatening but at the same time vulnerable and aslo we liked the idea of having a light behind her ( as you can see behind Late's head) to represent heaven because in the music video she dies, so we definitely wanted to include religious elements to link with our music video.
Does the magazine advert show links to his website?
It doesn't show any websites that link straight to his profile ( facebook/myspace) but it has the web address to where you can download his album at www.wolftown.recordings.net . Wolftown recordings is the label he is signed to,
Why we want to use this for our magazine advert
We will include Aim's myspace address on the magazine advert
Is there a set colour scheme?
The set colour scheme is a two tone balance consisting of black and white with lighter elements. This is a common colour scheme for hip-hop / rap adverts.
Why we want to use this for our magazine advert
We want to have our magazine advert in black and white to fit the conventions with light elements, also we want to put a yellow tint on the light behind Nia so it draws focus on her.
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