Evaluation - Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stage?

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Evaluation - Question 3

Here are a few comments from my generation that were commented on when I had 


uploaded my video to Facebook.


The composition of the shots have been completed well, and pieced together nicely. The fact that there are multiple stories keeps the viewer interested in the video. I especially like how the film cuts from black and white into colour; from the past to the present day I presume... The actors in the video work well. The only thing to look out for is writing; when we see the text, naturally we want to read it so it moves our attention from what's going on. Well done. - Steph May

I did really like the use of the plain backgrounds during the Eminem rap, helped focus on the words and rap. - Melissa Hutton

Overall, bloody fantastic!! Although I would say some of the lip syncing can be a bit dramatised sometimes ad look a bit unrealistic which occasionally doesn't fit the pace of the song - Sarah Reeve

This is so good man! I'd say better than the original! Its really professional as well. - Sam Tootell

Good Points:

• Kept me engaged throughout
• Followed well
• Times were very good
• Fast, so added drama

Bad Points:

• Maybe a little too fast in places

- Dave Perry






Below are a few comments from the YouTube site, where my video was uploaded to.


Overall I thought it was a good video, however I didn't like the voiceovers at the beginning as they seemed out of place - clarkamedia


Good job guys, engaging video with the great performances. I thought you got the balance between the different elements of the video just right which isn't always easy when you've got separate performance and narrative strands running throughout. I wasn't over keen on the use of green screen as it make the production values look cheap and takes away from the gritty look and perhaps a more interesting setting for the girl singing could have been used. Well done, great video! - 2finnman

Good job guys. There is some framing issues in this. Lots of headroom given and the subjects are positioned right in the middle of the screen in places, which doesn't make it interesting for the eye. The scene where he gets bullied could have done with some close-ups to show the tension. Costume could have been thought about a bit more too as the jacket moves on the Hayley character. Great performances though, well done. Hope you get a good grade. - jimmynugg

The use of green screen was slightly jarring especially when compared to the actual locations and I don't feel it worked during the flashback sequence used, however you got the size of the person compared to the background pretty much spot on. You could have worked a bit more on mise-en-scene as during the flashback there was a red dead redemption poster in the background which wasn't released till 2010 (later than the flashback scene). The fades 1:47 - in - kept with the video well. I would have liked t have seen a larger variety of shots for each performer to really "sell them" but i felt the performance was really good. Well done. - attwillg

The above comments are from my YouTube upload and my Facebook upload. This has given me positive and negative feedback from many different people.

From showing fellow peers, the comments I got from them were as follows;

Shannon Westwick - I think this piece of work is amazing, I really like the use of black and white throughout, and the slow motion outside the boarding house, this works well within the video.

Izzy Stephenson - I really liked this video especially the voices right at the start, also the use of black & white to tell the story behind the video and the way it flicks between the performance shots which are in colour so you can easily distinguish between the two.

Ash Scott - I am not to sure about the voice overs at the beginning of the video, as I can't seem t understand why they are there. The use of the green screen throughout has been very effective as it has shown the use f different technologies throughout the production. the fade outs are very stylish, they show the style of the genre. They also help to give the pace a sense of RAP. The ratio of performance and narrative, this has allowed us (as the audience) to be able to connect more with the audience. The black and white effect throughout the video gives a clear indication that they are flashbacks and helps us to relate with the actors. There is a bit too much use of green screen within the production, as an audience member we like to watch a realistic performance, this is not helping with that case at all as there is too much green screen. There is no chance for us as an audience to get emotionally involved. The thing I enjoyed the most was the varied shots throughout the production, this became more apparent when Eminem was performing, this helped with the faster pace, for the music.

Above are comments from fellow members of my class, this has helped me to understand the good points and the bad points within my production. 

1.On a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest), how engaged were you throughout the music video?

10     10     9     9     8     7     7     7     7


These are the results of question 1 in y questionnaire for my Airplanes Music Video.
This shows me that my music video was very engaging throughout and that i had captured the audiences imagination and kept hold of it throughout.

2. What kept you interested throughout the music video?

• Desire to see what happens next
• The variety of shots
• Different singers
• The various narratives
• The performance contrasted with the narrative
• All the different artists and the narrative
• The various editing techniques and camera shots
• Representation of the different artists
• The different colours

This has also suggested to me that I have kept the audience engaged and have made an impact on them with the different variety of things mentioned above. This is a good thing as they are making a mental note of the things listed and recalling them in the future.

3. Do you think that the editing kept the video interesting?


Yes - 9                               No - 0


Why?

• Because of the variations
• The green screen was effective, however i do believe that it was not needed in some parts
• It gave more variety to the piece
• Fast cutting etc
• Because it was good entertainment, something you wouldn't see without editing
• Well placed, kept moving
• Looked professional
• The quick shots throughout the whole video kept it interesting
• Kept changing to keep things interesting

The reasons that are listed above have helped me to understand what the audience like and also that I have satisfied them as much as they need with the product in which I have created.

4. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest), how would you rate this music video?

8     8     8     8     8     9     9     9     10

These are the results of the question mentioned above, this has implied that they all enjoyed the video and that they would watch it again and again.


5. What did you enjoy the most throughout this music video? 

• Shot variety
• Near the end - where we see Eminem's childhood
• The different shots and different story lines
• The narrative shots and also how the audience get to know the artists
• The balance of narrative and performance
• All the different artists and the narrative
• The variety of camera techniques used
• The portrayal of Eminem's character
• Colour/ pictures

This shows that the audience enjoyed viewing my video and also that they liked the way in which I had portrayed the different artists


6. How would you improve this music video?

• Stars
• Less use of green screen - although it is effective
• Maybe link the characters a little more
• Syncing and the green screen shots
• greenscreen, slightly smoother
• Sharpen some of the pixle-ated images maybe. Maybe a narrative for Kate?
• Mor rapping that signs
• Can't think of anything i'd improve
• More consistency with the ancillary tasks

Above are the comments that I retrieved from my Question 6 question for the questionnaire I put out to my peers (target audience), this shows me that the green screen was not a popular feature to use, but that it was effective. 

Overall the feedback that I have been given is very positive, there are a few negative and constructive points, but overall this suggests that I have achieved my objective, that i set myself, which was to produce a music video for a particular target audience to a high standard.

Evaluation - Question 2

How effective is the combination of your video, digipak and advert?

My music video falls into the genre of RAP, there are many conventions attached to this particular genre. I have integrated the majority of conventions that go along with the RAP genre, the young black male rapper, the urban locations, etc.

I wanted to get across brand identity throughout my 3 products, music video, digipak and my magazine advert. This meant that I would be able to relate all the three products with one another, so that it would be easier for the audience to identify them against one another, e.g. if you saw the digipak in a shop, you would be able to look at it and remember the magazine advert and relate them to one another.

The way in which I achieved the brand identity was by using the same background for my magazine advert and my digipak, I had decided that it would be better to use the same background throughout because that way it would definitely be more related than completely different backgrounds. I also used the same photographs of the artists throughout the both as this would then also be more identifiable than having different photos.

I have also included the narrative theory of Levi Strauss; Binary oppositions, within my music video I have included the Past Vs Present Binary Opposition; this is a regular thing that appears throughout RAP genre music videos. This can be seen throughout the narrative parts of both male performers in my video, the ‘Eminem’ character and also the ‘B.O.B’ character, within the B.O.B character we can see that when he was younger he used to get bullied and to portray this I have made all of these shots black and white throughout the editing process, not only does this make it more understandable to the audience but it gives the effect that he is remembering his past when he is rapping, I have also used the same strategy with the Eminem part, here you can see that he didn’t get on with his mother when he was younger and also that he hated life when he was younger.

I decided that I wanted to use green screen within my video as I could make the background into the night sky, so I filmed all of my performers singing their parts of the song all the through, when it came to editing I then took the shots of them on the green screen and put a starry night back ground behind, this starry night background was made by myself by putting pin prick holes in a piece of black card, then pinning it to a door frame and covering up the rest of the door frame up with bed sheets, ensuring that I had placed a bright light the other side of the frame, then filmed the stars which gave of the effect that they were in the night sky.

The idea to have voices at the beginning of my music video came from the song Kid Rock - Care at the beginning of this video we can hear people’s opinions on what they care about. This gave me the idea to do a similar thing with people’s opinions on what they would wish for if they saw a shooting star. This was done with an Audio recorder and then cut down on the iMac’s it was an easy task to do as it didn’t take too long.

To the left you can find the device in which I used when recording the pieces of audio I wanted.
Below you can find a screen shot of the audio when it has been put on to the iMac.

My digipak has been represented in the same way as the video, the focal point of the digipak being the Yellow trails from the airplanes, I decided that I wanted to use these photographs as they were relevant to the lyrics; ‘Can we pretend that Airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars’ I used photo shop to amend the colours of the trails to a yellow colour to represent the shooting stars.

I have left the airplanes the original colour after amending the whole photo to black and white, this then gave me the idea to have the whole digipak back and white with the odd bit of text in yellow.

Screen shot of the front page of my digipak

I decided that I wanted the titles of the songs on the back cover of my digipak to go along the trails of the Airplanes; this gave it a professional look and made it easy to distinguish each title. 

Screen shot of the back page of my digipak

I then took a screen shot of each of the performers when they were on green screen and edited them in Photoshop this took me some time, but I wanted the outcome to be perfect. As Gideon was my main performer I wanted him to be in the spotlight more than the others, to do this I thought it would make sense to put him in the middle of the other two performers.

The magazine advert that I have created has got the similar layout as the front cover of my digipak, this was done so that throughout my products the ‘brand identity’ was kept.

With a magazine advert there are a few conventions that follow to make it easily recognisable, these are things such as, the record label, the iTunes logo, the release date, the song title, the artists names and also a picture of the artists.

To achieve the ‘brand identity’ throughout the 3 products I knew that it would take some time, therefore I spent as much time as I possibly could on all 3 products to accomplish the result I intended.

When working in Photoshop I had to create different layers for each little thing I had included, for the magazine advert I had altogether, 15 layers, this was so I could move them all around in the beginning until I had reached a conclusion on where I wanted everything to be positioned.

When I started my A2 advanced portfolio work I knew that I had to ensure that there was ‘brand identity’ throughout the 3 products, the music video, digipak & the magazine advert, I have tried to incorporate all 3 products so that they reach this standard. I believe that I have achieved this as much as I can with the use of colour and images throughout.

Evaluation - Question 1

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

The conventions of the genre RAP are as follows;

• Composition - This is the position and layout of the artists. In most RAP digipaks have the artists a little off centre.
• Image - The image consists of the clothing and the way that the artists portray themselves, if it is a positive portrayal, then they are going to be seen as a good role model, and vice versa, if they are portraying a bad image then they will be seen as a bad role model.
• Font - The font used by many RAP artists are used in such a way that they are recognisable as only RAP, an example of this is Bodoni MT Black
• Props - Many RAP artists use props such as 'bling', 'money', ' baggy clothing' etc.
• Settings - The settings of the majority of RAP videos, is very obscure, many different artists have their own style, many of them being within an urban location or clubs, it gives the stereotypical view of RAP music and also, it sets the scene for many of their songs.
• Colours - The colours used in many RAP videos are generally quite dull, this is the stereotypical view of the RAP videos, therefore they need to bring this out within their digipaks and videos, this is generally used so that they can be easily recognisable.
• Expression - The expression of the artists within the videos and the digipaks, are quite direct, they do this in order for them to be taken seriously and to appear more confident.
• Pose - The pose of the performers is very laid back, the have a sense about them that says to the audience that they are comfortable with things that the do and that it is a kind of second nature to them.

Within my music video, I have used most of the conventions that are listed above; I feel this gives my video an authentic look that can be clearly related to the RAP genre. 

The compositions of the artists within the video are that they are seen to be off centre a little bit. This is seen throughout my music video as well as within the ancillary tasks. This can be seen with all three artists, B.O.B, Eminem & Hayley Williams. 

Image is a key thing within the production of music videos. The image of many RAP artists is a mixture of both good and bad, e.g. Eminem, he is often seen as a bad role model, mainly because his songs are about sex, drugs, violence etc. But then we also see a good side of him, this can be seen when he is singing 'Like Toy Soldiers' he is seen as a sensitive man, who is grieving for his friend but yet he is also trying to find out how his friend passed and who did it. This can be seen as a good role model as it is a positive thing for him to be doing in comparison to everything else he raps/ sings about, he is also a very caring father and his songs portray that. 

Props that are used within RAP genre media videos are generally things like cars, bling, money etc. This is often all you see within the RAP music videos, it is a very stereotypical view of the videos and when RAP music videos are mentioned that is the first thing that you initially think. Within my music video I have not used the typical stereotype of everything, I have decided to keep it to a low key event this is because I wanted my video to be different from the rest.

I have used an urban setting within the shots of B.O.B performing. An example of this is where we see him on the bridge, this is known as an urban location as it is covered in graffiti, this is a general stereotype of an Urban location as it looks run down and abandoned. 

Colours have been kept constant throughout my video and my ancillary tasks, the general colour being black and white; I wanted to tie in the ancillary tasks with the video in a subtle but effective way. The best way to do this was to have black and white throughout them both, the black and white in the music video being the reflection of the past, keeping this throughout the ancillary tasks b having the artists and the background in black and white, this is known as 'Brand Identity' this is a way of having it effectively but subtly. 

Expression of the artists is a big thing that links them to their genre. Having done a RAP genre music video, I had to think hard and carefully. This then lead me to do the following. Having my Eminem performer had an angry expression towards the audience, this related to the anger that he feels within the song and also between him and his family/ friends.

Pose has been used in my ancillary tasks and also the music videos to give the audience an understanding that it falls under the RAP genre. The general pose is relaxed. This is a convention of RAP videos as they are generally the same they find it easier to perform when they relax.

A stereotypical view on the lyrics from a RAP song, often involves the mentioning of a Rappers childhood. This can be seen within many different videos. The main one that i took inspiration from was 'Eminem - Cleaning out my closet' This is a very good song to use for the explanation of the example above. I decided that I wanted to portray this within my video by using Ash and Gideon for this, i then had to other actors, act in my video as their younger selves. This can be seen throughout my video in Black & White. I believed that this would help my target audience to view this experience and be able to understand the meaning behind it.

I decided to use the background of stars for part of my video, i believed that this would help with the illusion that went with the lyrics, this being the  part of the song where, my performer Kate (performing Hayley Williams' part) sings 'Can we pretend that Airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars' I believe that this was a good background to use whilst Kate was performing on green screen, it gave the realisation and the relationship between image and lyrics.

The way in which I achieved this look was by creating the stars myself, I got some A4 black paper and I put pin pricks in it so that it would let the light shine through, I then pinned it to a door with sheets attached to the door, with the light placed behind the door it allowed the sheet of paper to look like stars creating the above effect.



I liked the idea of having my performers in different places, this gave me the idea of having my performer, Ash (performing Eminem's part), in the gymnasium, the brick wall as a background and also with him writing his raps, etc. I believed that this would give my audience a sense of understanding and that they could also imagine the performer being in these places when they were performing.





 With my actor Kate I wanted the audience to be engaged throughout the music video, I decided that I wanted her in different locations, this gave the music video the look in which I had intended, it kept the audience engaged throughout and made it more enjoyable for their viewing purposes. 

I started with her playing the piano, this was at he beginning when we are introduced to the song, this went very well with opening of the song as it gave me the opportunity to use it again later on in the song. The next time we see Kate is when she is on the roof top singing, this gives the music video another edge to it in which keeps the audience engaged throughout, it adds an enigma to the whole video, making the audience wonder why she is on the roof top, the reason being is that she is trying to reach for the stars in order to have them for her wish. We then see Kate on a bridge at night time. The last time we see Kate is on a backdrop of stars (created in the way mentioned above) This links in with the lyrics 'Can we pretend that Airplanes in the night sky are like Shooting Stars'. 











An example video of this is; Chris Brown featuring Benny Benassi - Beautiful People

The inspiration to do the changes in background came from this Music Video above. In 'Beautiful People' you can see the change of locations very easily (0:31 - 0:48), it starts with them scooting along down the street, then in the car, then we see Chris Brown talking to the different people and then finally on stage, this short sction can show you exactly the same meaning as I had intended.

The idea of using the spoken audio that can be heard at the beginning of my Music Video came from the video; Kid Rock - Care ft T.I. & Angaleena Presley. When I originally heard this song, I discovered the audio at the beginning of the song,  and this gave me an idea of using dialogue throughout the introduction. I believed that it would relate well to the reason I chose this song, this being that we wish upon Shooting Stars. The spoken dialogue helped me express this more, and helped set the scene for the folowing video to come. I did play around with the positioning of the audio, whether i wanted it at the end, the beginning, or even in the middle, I finally decided on having at the beginning. I also had to decide on the order of the audio, whether I wanted them to be fast or slow, as I had recorded these pieces of audio I found that two of my performers gave a slower rendition of their wishes than the rest. This then gaved me the start and the end to my audio clip and I then worked on it from there. However, this is not a technique used in many Hip Hop videos and so I would say it's a convention taken from some music videos (of different genres) and developed in the Hip Hop genre here.



Within my video I decided that I wanted to portray Ash's lyrics in a way that could be understood by all. When looking through the videos of professional artists I came across the video from Eminem - Stan. This inspired me to do many different outcomes of the performer's lives previously. With Ash's previous life I have tried to convey it in such a way so that he is looking back on his childhood. The scene where we see a young woman having an episode on the bed and then again outside a door is where i have given this example. This is to be Ash's mother when he was younger and how she treated him and also herself. The inspiration that I recieved from the Stan music video was that I could use a scene like this throughout the video, I saw the way that Stan was treating his girlfriend and i decided to use that within my video. This then gave me the idea mixed with the lyrics about his mother being crazy, to do a scene like that. This is a common convention of Rap/HipHop videos, such as;  Cleaning Out My Closet - Eminem along with Like Toy Soldiers - Eminem, although this music video looks at the way Eminem had respect for the rap artist that had just died, and he believes that he could be as famous if not even more famous than him when he gets older, and he has Tupac to thank for this. This shows that we have very much used a trait of the genre.




My finished Music Video of 'Airplanes part ii- B.O.B ft. Hayley Williams and Eminem' performed by Ash Scott, Kate Fenwick & Gideon Seglah. With appearences from Tom Perry & Chelsea North.







A LITTLE MORE FOCUS ON YOUR ANCILLARY TASKS PERHAPS? OTHERWISE V GOOD, JUST ROUND OFF EACH PARAGRAPH BY REFERRING BACK TO THE QUESTION.


With regards to my ancillary tasks, the challenge, conform and also develop the stereotypical view of digipaks that are already out there. 











































I have looked into a digipak made for Lil Wayne's album, I AM NOT A HUMAN BEING. This digipak carries many different conventions, such as; 

• The dull coloured background
• A picture of the artist
• The artists name
• Tracklisting
• Dull coloured back ground
• Picture of the artist

This digipak contrasts the conventions of the RAP genre very well, it also gives the audience an idea that it is a rap album by the convention in which it does portray.

I also looked into Dr. Dre's album, DETOX. This carried many conventions f a typical digipak, this is a good example of what a digipak should like. I then included the majority of the conventions into my own digipak, the following conventions are;

• Barcode
• Parental Advisory
• Copyright
• Album Name
• Name of Artist
• Picture of Artist
• Tracklisting
• Image for the Background

Here you can see my own digipak, made for my production Airplanes.

As far as the magazine advert is concerned I have covered the majority of conventions that go along with the label magazine advert.

I looked at different magazine adverts for albums such as; The Verve and Kings of Leon, although they do not belong to the same  genre when looking into creating my own magazine advert I needed to know what a typical magazine advert entailed, therefore I analysed the two magazine adverts mentioned above and found that the typical conventions of a magazine advert were;

• Release Date
• Itunes/ Spotify logo
• Name of the Song/ Album
• Name of the Artist(s)
• Picture of the Artist(s)
• Record Labels
• Websites

Here is THE VERVE MAGAZINE ADVERT

The KINGS OF LEONE MAGAZINE ADVERT

Below is my own MAGAZINE ADVERT for the promotion of the production AIRPLANES - B.O.B ft. Hayley Williams and Eminem