Music Video Final.

Ancillary Task

Digipack

Poster

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My group all undertook some audience feedback by fellow peers and people we know. We uploaded our video to facebook for people like family and friends to comment on and to see their inital reaction to it as theyve never seen it before. Feedback by friends and family outside of school were more useful as it was their first time seeing it and had their opinions set after watching it, however fellow peers in media know what to expect and can be more critical and know what they are looking for. Our audience feedback was  mainly focussed on the lip synching and the meeting of conventions and forms. We wanted peoples first reaction to be that it was a Hip Hop video and we wanted them to comment on why its Hip Hop and what makes it Hip Hop. We also wanted to find out on what people felt about the lip synching and if it was realistic and in time. The feedback we got was quite good and fair and was constructive and useful. Much of our feedback mentioned that we met the conventions however some parts could of been portrayed better than others and that perhaps the audience could feel more connection with the artist. Other ways in which we gathered feedback was to ask people to watch it and than to film them giving their views on the video and what they thought of it. We managed to film a couple of friends who didnt do media and get their natural reaction about it.This proved effective and really gave us an insight of how our film came across and how it made people feel. Many people commented on the great use of shots and the unique locations we used and how the scenary worked well with the genre we were trying to create. Also mise en scene such as props and costumes were commented on and many agreed that the props and costume Luke was in fitted the genre as it was very 'Street' and 'Urban' via the Gucci hat and Nike trainers. The feedback gave us a real insight about a film and how hard it can be and how vital it is to meet conventions

How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary task?

When planning our production we had to ensure that our music video would link to our ancillary tasks. We had to do a lot of planning and research as a group to come up with a connection of our video and our ancillary. We sketched out many ideas and made many drafts and all put our input in on what should be changed or what we liked etc. As a group we worked hard and was all thinking on the same wave length as our group all enjoy the Hip Hop genre and know a lot about what it needs to have as an audience ourself. We decided to make the artist the main focus in our ancillary and video, making him stand out and making him the main focus off our production. This showed the status and power of the artist which is one thing an audience expect from a hip hip video. Also another factor was graffiti, filming up Southbank in the skatepark gave us chance to get some great footage of graffiti and add the urban factor to our film. We used rosehill skate park as another location with graffiti to shoot some extra footage and get some more pictures for our ancillary tasks. I think they incorporated well as in the music video you can see footage of graffiti from both Southbank and Rosehill and in the ancillary tasks you can see that they are located in one of those locations making the connection between the two. As our ancillary task is promoting our 'Number 1' song we wanted to make the link between the advert and the music video and felt that the poster should be in one of the locations where the music video was filmed, reinforcing the link between the two. Our digipak is linked with our advert and video as the panels and pictures were took in London of the bridge and scenary and also in places where their were many people reinforcing the link of 'Face in the crowd'. This linked the 3 well as even though the digipak is an album not a single, we decided to base our digipak on our main single as it was the number 1 hit.

Luke creating eye contact with the audience, as well as making hand gestures, all factors and conventions of a music video

London Southbank- Luke is wearing Hip Hop clothing and is based against a graffiti wall

Our Final Digipack Design

Costume used is the same as in the music video

How did you use media technology in the construction of research, planning and evaluation stages

Throughout of filming we have used a variety of new media throughout the different stages of production. Firstly, we used an editing software called final cut express to produce our film with editing, effects and music all in a timeline. This was a big change from i-Movie which we used at AS media and is a more professional software to edit with as it is a lot more technical in terms of the cuts, the effects and the general overall production of the film. Counter-acting with this program we also incorporated softwares such as photoshop to portray our digipak and advert. Photoshop allowed us to play with the different effects and come up with a unique advert for our product, we used unique effects such as 'Gaussian blur' on the advert to fade out the background and for our artist to stand out, this worked well as our album is called face in the crowd which makes it fit well with it. In our planning stages we drew storyboards and made an animatic which gave us a basic idea of what our film would look like. This worked well as it gave us the chance to see it in an animated version and allowede us to either make changes or add more in before actually going out to film. When researching we needed to make sure we gathered vital information which would allow us to get the right conventions for our genre, we used a software called 'Bubbl' which allowed us to create a spider diagram in bubbles with all our initial ideas. This proved effective in our group as well our worked on it together and gave an input to our individual ideas and than worked on these ideas to come up with a final idea we all agreed on. Following on from this we than decided how to attract our audience, we used Google docs to produce a questionairre which we sent to people to fill out for us. Our aim of this was to see what people thought Hip Hop should be like and what to expect in a hip hop genre video. We managed to get a good amount of people to do this and based our work on what they wanted as ther audience. Factors included, money, status, power, cars, graffiti, hand gestures. We managed to work with the factors which were possible to act out and reinforced them to make it viewable for the audience and for them to understand that it is Hip Hop.

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

My music video is based on the genre underground Hip Hop. Having a genre as complex and interesting as this i feel that we can portray forms and conventions well with a variety of styles. We created research and planning blogs to gather important information which is key to meeting conventions. Starting of with the location we decided to choose London South Bank. An urban underground area situated on the thames with plenty of great scenary and facilities to show our conventions, these were the graffit walls and the skatepark area. Starting  with mise en scene we decided to go with an outfit which would suit Hip Hop conventions. Luke was suited in Hip Hop clothing with a Gucci hat, Dark jeans and Nike trainers which we felt suited the convention well as through our research we watched many videos of artists in our genre and tried to suit those conventions. Whilst watching our videos in research we picked up on little effects and styles which we can use in our video such as hand gestures, eye contact and the general focus on keeping eye contact and making a connection with the viewers. We feel that these specific factors will make our video suited to the genre and will meet forms and conventions. Whilst up Southbank we needed to take into account getting the best footage to reduce wasting time and going back. Through our research we found out that close ups and medium shots were the best shots. Having such a unique location with a lot of potential we decided to get some really good shots will plenty of scenary in the background. Being a hip hop video we needed to make sure there was plenty of shots as the beat of the music was quite flowing we needed to make sure the shots cut to the beat. Close up shots were very important in our film as it makes the connection to the audience and it gives the Hip Hop effect of status. We had a mixture of shots types which was framed in mind to make the shots effective. Each shot had to be framed correct to show potential and meaning to the video and had to prove effective. Having a natural busy-minded and fierce environment we had to try and get in as much footage as possible. I feel that we developed and used forms and conventions well and showed this through our music video.

Here are some conventions in which we tried to portray through our video. We watched videos in the genre which we knew about and artists we knew about such as Drake, Jay Z, Kanye West and N-dubz, all with a 'High status' act. We felt looking at these will allow us to get as many conventions as possible as these are well known worldwide rappers and feel that there videos will show the most conventions usefulk to use. As you can see from above we have tried to demonstrate these through our own work, but baring in mind that our genre was more urban therefore perhaps had to be a bit more subtle than the videos we have looked at.

Assessment 7/2/2012

Advertisement Poster

This is out advertisement poster for our album. it consists of out artist and the album name centred in the page. We added a big banner at the top saying the release date, this was put in big red writing to stand out. At the bottom we had a list of where you can get the album from i.e Itunes etc. 

CD Cover Digipack

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This is our CD Cover Digipack. Each panel has been designed and based on our genre Hip Hop. As you can see from this, each panel has thorough detail in it and has a meaning. The front cover consists of the album name and song writer, We decided to use a graffiti looking effect as this suits our genre. Our back panel consists of the artist placed in the centre of the picture with the normal daily rush behind him. The song names are located at the bottom instead of down the side, we believed this looked better as it didn't interrupt in the picture as much and gave more space for stuff to be in the picture. Every other panel inside is about the artist and a lot about him.

Peer Assessment

Shooting Schedule

Costume Slideshow/Ideas

This is a slideshow on some possible costume ideas. As our video is hip hop we decided to use clothing which will match this genre. We made a list for males and a list for females and will again come together as a group and decide on a final costume for each member. We have added many ideas and more than one of every idea allowing us to have a wider variety of what to chose from and also allows people more of a chance to have these costume parts as its not too specific and quite casual wear.

Reply permission

These are the replys allowing us to continue our product. Thes first one is from Ministry Of Sounds allowing us to use the song by Wretch 32. These also asked us to send them a finished copy once we are done therefore feel quite proud and excited to persue with this video.

The second reply is from Southbank council allowing us to use the southbank walk as our location. It states that if we do want to us the centre than we need to get more persmission but to use the southbank walk is perfectly fine to use.

Location

This is South Bank. We decided to use this location for most of the shots as it is a great location and has a lot going on in it. As we wanted both characters to be walking, we decided that people walking past will be a good effect and South Bank is always busy so it will work well. Also there are a lot of attractions in South Bank and will allow us to get some good and interesting shots.

Props and Costumes

Costume list for Cast




E-Zee


Grey T-Shirt (possibly logo)

Vans/Smart trainers

Jeans

Silver Chain necklace


Angel


Black jacket

Blue plain T-Shirt

Heeled sandals

Large Hooped earrings

Gold chain necklace

Make-Up needed

• E-Zee only needs some foundation to stop him from looking shiny on film
• Angel needs foundation and eye liner and lipgloss. 

Props

• N/A

Equipment

• Floodlights/Small floor lights to shine in Angels on-stage scene. 
• Cameras, Tripods, Fig Rig,  

  

Track permission Email

Here is my email which i sent to Ministry Of Sounds asking to use Wretch 32 song Dont be afraid in our video. I stated that using the song will be for educational reasons only and not for money. Hopefully they will allow us to use this video and help us to continue with our video.

Track permission form

This letter is for the record company of the song we are using. We are asking for their permission to use the video and state that it is for educational purposes only. We also stated that we will not profit from this at all. We are hoping to get a reply soon, hopefully agreeing that it is okay to use this as this song is very important for our media work and without permission we wont be able to use it.

Email for location permission

This is our location permission letter. With this permission it allows us to film where we wanted to without being told not to. We contacted the council on which South Bank walk is owned by and am awaiting confirmation. We added that it will only be a small crew and very little equipment and shouldn't disrupt anyone or make any of the public feel uncomfortable.

Talent release form

This is our talent release form. We handed this out to the potential members who are casting in our film. This form agrees that the casting members are allowing us to use them in our film and accept that it may be shown to an audience and put up on YouTube. This is a good way to organise our film and cast without arguments or disruptions. We are now just waiting for the cast to get back to us with the signed form and then our filming can hopefully begin

Storyboard and Animatic

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This is our animatic and storyboard. Our storyboard is very detailed and understandable. Jordan drew out the storyboard as he is a very good drawer and then we all shared and helped add detail to it. It was a very well organised group effort and will show through our final piece. We all helped do the animatic, myself taking the pictures, others uploading and editing it, and someone putting the music on it and finishing it off. I believe the animatic is a very close comparison on what our music video will be like and we are aiming to follow the storyboard as much as possible and hopefully have no problems

Image annotation

This person represents what we are trying to aim for in our video. Subtle but suitable clothing and accessories for a hip hop video. The chain, hat and watch represent everything hip hop stands for and is what we are trying to reinforce through our video. Using jewellry and dark coloured clothing will ensure our video keeps to the hip hop conventions.

This female reflects what we are trying to impose through our video. The female in our video hasnt got to have as many conventions as the male as it seems to always be the male who needs the power and material things and the female stereotypically always seems to be a materialistic thing to the male therefore the female can be casually dressed with little or no jewellry and items such as watches and hats probably wont be needed.

Jay-z is showing conventions of a hip hop artist. The glasses, chain and casual hip hop wear show his power and status. Although he hasnt got all of the conventions of a hip hop artist he shows it in a subtle way through his clothing and style