Evaluation Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To gain the information needed for my audience feedback I asked a series of questions directed at the members of the class to see their views and thoughts on it and any criticisms they had. We also showed the video multiple times to the rest of the A2 media class as a whole and listened to the feedback given. A second part in receiving feedback was for both I and Hayley to post the finished video on Facebook and show it to the masses and get them to leave comments and feedback on there. This aloud us to reach i higher number of people very easily rather than doing surveys. It also gave them a chance to watch the video at the same time as commenting meaning thoughts and feedback was given straight away and no mistakes made.

From the surveys I constructed in class, the feedback I received was very positive and as an overall observation was something that people liked and was a good finished product. The main points the the people liked were as followed.

• Editing was timed well with the tempo of the song.
• Vast amount of camera shots and angles.
• Very interesting special effects.
• Mise-en-scene is very appropriate, costume, actors, locations etc.
• A very fluent and well composed piece. 

Although the majority of the feedback we received was positive, there were some constructive criticism to help us. These were such things as follows:

• Some syncing problems.
• Lighting isn't great in places.
• Strobe light scene is used to much in one go.

After taking into consideration the constructive criticism and the positive feedback we adapted small parts of the video to adjust to these points to make it better. I believe with the finished product it is now at the level we want it and is interesting that no more negative feedback has come from it.

These next images show the evidence of the different ways both I and Hayley chose to show our video, this included Facebook and Twitter and other types that pictures aren't available for were in class and around the school.

 

By posting the video and asking for feedback on the social networks it aloud us to reach a much larger audience easily. 

Overall, answering the question in a paragraph would be that I have learnt not to use lots of one with, the strobe light scene was used to much and as it was one of our best shots we felt we had to use it a lot but due to the audience feedback it became clear that there was to much in it. But apart from that criticism from the audience feedback we gained it shows its a very well composed piece that people enjoyed watching.

This next section is all on the ancillary tasks and answering the same question for them. The ancillary tasks as a whole were a fun project and something different which we enjoyed a change with. We got to use new software that we hadn't used before so it was a nice challenge.

A similar style of showing our ancillary tasks was used except it wasn't shown on social networks like the main task. Both sections of the task (The digipak and magazine advert) were shown to the class and the feedback noted down.

All feedback for both parts was very good and they seemed to be a popular piece among the other class members. One small negative point that was raised was the darkness of the image on both parts but this was due to the printer and on screen the images are perfect.

After the audience feedback for our ancillary tasks nothing was changed, the only negative was the fact the printer wasn't set up properly so nothing could have been done on our part. This shows we made a very successful combination and is something that needs little if any change.

Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?

This is the answer to the evaluation question 2 answered in a multi media way.

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

As part of the question I thought it would be useful to run through what conventions are and the major conventions of the genre.

Conventions are the things you automatically associate with an object, place, scene, pretty much anything and you expect to see them when its used again . In the context of a music video its often the genre which people think of conventions. For example a rock genre video would have performance of the band, this is a popular convention of this genre.

Conventions in a music video are still something we expect to see. These are things such as performances, narratives, instruments, equipment, actors, artists etc. The conventions in a music video are what we familiarise ourselves with a associate with a music video.

For the hip hop genre, there are many conventions that numerous artists stick to multiple times. These are what I feel to be the most popular conventions within the genre:

• Money and wealth are frequently displayed and have a prominent theme within the majority of the hip-hop music videos.
• Girls, girls are shown in the majority of hip-hop music videos, more often that not in provocative attire and dances.
• Black and White shots are predominantly used in a large number of hip-hop music videos. This has been done for a number of years and is still used today.
• Urban locations are another convention, they are used in a lot of videos and is something that has become expected in a hip-hop genre music video.
• The editing is nearly always very fast paced with quick cuts in and out of shots. There are exceptions where some artists challenge this convention but it's very often used.

To put into context come conventions of hip-hip I have out them into a wordle. These words not only have a direct link to the genre but also the conventions as what they mean is often taken into account and reproduced in the form of the video. E.g. "ghetto" - An urban location would be shown in the video. 

There are literally hundreds of conventions within the hip-hop genre but these five above are the ones which the general public are familiar with.

To help make out music video a more professional looking piece, we took inspiration from a variety of videos in and out our genre. We have used an array of conventions from these videos to help us make our piece to a higher level.

• We have included many black and white shots within our video. I think using the black and white has made the piece more genre specific. 
• We used a black male as the main character. The artist is black and the hip-hop genre is predominantly black males so this made a more authentic piece.
• Another convention we used was uand change quicklysing urban locations and also the club locations. These locations have been used in hip-hop videos for years so us using them helped with the authenticity of the product.
• There are very small clips within the video that show a female in a provocative manor. This is something which is used in a large amount of hip-hop music videos.

As we have recreated a video, I thought it would be worth while to compare our video with the original headlines video.

We took inspiration from this video in the instance of editing. The edits in this video are very fast paced, and change quickly in time with the tempo. We both thought this worked very well and is a popular convention in the hip-hop genre so decided to use it. When a certain drum beat or percussion beat comes into the song, the tempo is very quick, and so we interchanged a number of clips with quick transitions. 

There isn't much of a narrative in the original video, its predominantly performance based. This is another element which we have taken into account and reproduced in our own style in our music video. We used this because it is again a popular convention of music videos, and hip-hop music videos. By using something you expect to see in a music video, we thought it would help with the authenticity of the piece. 

In the original video, there are a huge variety of different shots, these keeps the viewers attention focused on the video for longer, making it more effective. We partially used this but it didn't work quite as well as the original.

Another aspect we used from the original video was the locations, the original video uses a lot of urban locations and so in ours we have included urban and inner city locations, but to keep them different we used less and focused more on other locations. The urban locations are a connotation of where the genre originated from and a slightly unorthodox genre.

Actors and clothing were chosen carefully and the original video gave us some guidelines in which to go with so it seemed a more authentic piece. We used a black male dressed accordingly to how the original black artist is, this all helps with the authenticity of the finished product.

There are certain existing videos from the hip-hop genre that we used to conventions of, developed challenged.

One that was used is the use of black and white. We used this convention from Jay Z's song 99 problems, not only does it appear in this song but in many more in the genre. With using this convention it will give a more realistic feel to the video, helping with the authenticity and keeping the consumer more interested and thinking its professionally made piece.

 

Another convention we used is the scene in our production where the artists smashes a glass bottle against a wall. This is similar to an aspect in Tinie Tempah's video "Pass Out" where he smashes a series of filament bulbs.We used this as its a very impressive looking scene and tried to recreate it. In a way we developed it as we used a different prop and in a different location. 

A convention that we challenged was showing the wealth and power of the artist like in the majority of hip-hop genre. There aren't a lot of videos especially in the hip-hop genre that haven't done this so it's something different and will hopefully gain attention to our video.

Another convention I felt we challenged was the way the artist was predominately alone. In most cases in hip-hop genre productions the artist is with a group of peers and this is the case with the original music video for headlines. Challenging this convention helps to make something different and can help with keeping the viewers intrigued. 

There is also the ancillary task to take into consideration when comparing them to the conventions of an existing product. For the majority of cases in our ancillary tasks, we used our own ideas and just decided on what we thought looked best. We still included some conventions from existing adverts and digipak's such as the dates, layout, small picture of the album, small print etc. By including these small aspects it has helped with the authenticity of the products and is something that looks a professional product.

Final Magazine Advert

The image above is our finished magazine advert to promote the album. Although the main image is different to the digipak images, we have included small hints that relate to the digipak and the music video.

We used simple colours and fonts, this combination gives it that classy feel which is a connotation of the artist. From research we have found that the digipak and poster images are often releveant and reflect the character of the artist.

The main image is of a screen shot from the music video so it will help to create brand identity. When the consumer view the image and automatically associate the digipak, video, and advert. The main font is also the same as the digipak, another element that helps to create brand identity. Although small elements such as the previous have been used within the digipak, some consumers may still disregard these. Taking this factor into account, a small image of the digipak is shown on the advert. This will allow people to see what the digipak is like and answer any enigma's about what the digipak looks like. This will eleviate any confusion.

Having small touches such as the parental advisory logo, record comapny logo's, dates, and websites all help to make the peice as a whole look a more professional product. This is sometihng we wanted to create as the digipak we felt was to a high standard and wanted to make sure this was to.

Final Digipak

This is the final edition of the front cover for our Digipak. When we started to design ideas for the digipak we didn't include this idea but after I edited the image like this we both thought it was a good match to the genre and the artist. The actual effect is called "glowing edges" which I used from Photoshop, and then tweaked the size, dimensions, colours and text in illustrator. We included the parental advisory logo to keep a professional looking package, a real  digipak would have one so this is the reason we used it. 

This is the inside booklet which as you can see contains the lyrics for the songs. We included pictures as the background which are scenes from the video. This will help to create brand identity and people will associate the two together. This is a popular convention from all genres and helps to give the product a more professional appearance.

The above images show the under disk graphics and the actual disc. We went with a relatively simplistic design as it's something that the consumer doesn't particularly pay a lot of attention to as well as other discs from our genre have been a very plain and simple design.We used a shot from the music video as this will help with brand identity.

The back cover is something I personally spent a lot of time on to make it as professional looking and attractive as possible. The text was particularly hard to get right as the fonts and colours of both the text and back ground were hard to contrast so they were readable. I included all the major logos involved with the artist and included small print copyright and a bar code to make it appear a more realistic product. The image is something which is used in the music industry so it is an appropriate image for the type of product as well as the genre.

Magazine Advert Analysis 2

This is the second analysis of a magazine advert,, this is Plan B's advert for his album "The Deformation Of Strickland Banks". It is a recent advert and one that in conjunction with other adverts and the songs was very successful.

Again the colour red is used predominantly throughout the add, the red is something that has been used in all the adverts I have analysed. It appears it is becoming a convention to use red in the hip-hop/urban genre. The red catches eye of the consumer, and directly draws them into the ad. Red connotes things such as love, danger, and blood. People tend to steer towards red colours more often which will help this a more successful advert.

The fonts and images are all bold and easy to read. This maximises the information the consumer will read in the limited space they will be reading. Consumers very often just flick through a magazine and skim read, using bold, clear fonts help to get a message through easier.

The advert uses a very minimalist approach, keeping info to a minimum and having everything in line and spaced out nicely are all techniques used to make it easier for the consumer to gain as much info in the shortest amount of time as possible.

The advert shows a small inset image of the actual album, this will help people to recognise it is associated with the album. Without the picture, it could have been more difficult to associate the two together because the main image on the advert has no real relevance to the digipak.

The main picture shows the artist with a microphone. This signifies he is passionate about his work, and is always doing it. The shading over him connotes he is/ or has been in the shadows, meaning that he isn't a perfect person and he is a sort of shady character. This represents his personality very well and lets people leave the advert with a bit of an enigma, making them want to buy it.

The use of star ratings have been used within the advert, this will help with the sales. If people see that it has been given good ratings, this is more likely to conjure up thoughts of buying it to see "What the fuss is about"