What have you learned from your audience feedback? *

After going back to our peer evaluations and carrying out the alterations, we then had our teacher assess our work so far. The main issue was the font of our album cover, and whether or not it linked in with the conventions of a Hip Hop video. We decided to change the font and chose one much more bolder and sophisticated.

The font below was the original one we had chosen with a golden glow to stand out, but felt it wasn't serious enough.

The font below is much more bolder and we decided to use this. We gave the glow a subtle grey hue to enhance the lettering yet keep it serious. Bright colours are not normally found within the conventions of Hip Hop music videos, unless its in clothing.

What have you learned from your audience feedback? *

With the peer evaluation we did for the music video, we also did one for our ancillary task which was again quite helpful. The majority said that we should include more graphics and edit the artist more finer on Photoshop, so the CD covers look more professional.

Ancillary task examples.

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

My album cover shows the the contrasting artists. We split the images in half and combined them together to show the difference between the two, as one artist is wealthy and has made it and the other is still upcoming and trying to be successful. When collaborating the two and placing their faces on the front of the album cover, the audience will get to know the artists by face and begin to recognize their music more.

Placing the images of the artists on the front cover is a common creative effect which is popular in the Hip Hop genre as the music Hip Hop artists play are more about the artist and quite personal sometimes.

Here our artists are staring straight at the audience to connect with them through eye contact. This draws the audience attention and encourages them to listen to the music.

Rihanna's album 'Rated R' is the key inspiration to our album front cover design. It shows the face has been split but here, by her own hand, creating mystery. Again the artist here is looking straight at its audience to draw them in. I feel it also creates emotion and engages with the viewer. The appeal of this creative effect is simplistic and works well to attract the audience.

What have you learned from your audience Feedback? *

We were met with some criticism at the first screening of the music video. It was far too simplistic and didn't have edge which would keep the audience interested, so it did not meet up to the full potential it could have done so. For example, rather than using the editing software in order to create impressive effects, the repetition of the camera focusing on our artists resulted in an illusion of just a meaningless film with two artists performing. Therefore, bearing all this in mind, a plan to changing this flaw had to be done.

What was done

• We went out to film knew footage at Canary wharf of skyscraper buildings

• More footage of symbolic objects were required, therefore, adding more footage as well as combining it with the building footage would give the audience a sort of parallel edit to keep the audience engaged.

• The music video had been introduced with a black background but didn't work so we placed the skyscraper footage here and edited it photoshop to create audience reaction.

• A few shots of an unsteady camera were seen which made the video seem rushed and incomplete - these shots were removed and smoothed either through re-shooting or replacement

*

In order to push the use of Media to its full potential and to receive the most objective views in regard to my creation, I uploaded the music video on to a social networking and broadcasting website (YouTube, Facebook) Though it can be criticized that I had only uploaded the music video and not the CD cover and poster to accompany it, However, the use of people with similar interests as I hold meant that I received a generally positive attitude towards my work from the audience I had intended and aimed to target.

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

Software Used for Main Media Product (Music Video): Final Cut Pro
Software Used for Ancillary Text: Adobe Photoshop
Other Technologies: Digital Camera & Recording Camera

***
The construction of the groups Music Video involved a lot of filming, re-filming and location. We used the camera in many different ways:
• Hand held• On the tri-pod
• Tracking our artists
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1) Applying influences

We was influenced by other Hip Hop artists such as Chris Brown and lil Wayne's performance in their music videos. So to adapt this to our own our performers took on the role of an Hip hop artist by using a lot of hand gestures and acting out the lyrics which is typical of a Hip Hop music video.
Hip Hop artists also show wealth by symbolic imagery like cars, sky scraper buildings to show achievement and ‘bling’ jewelry which makes the audience want to be like them in order to reach theses things.

This photograph was taken by an ordinary digital camera and uploaded onto Photoshop. On Photoshop I managed to place a black and white tint over the image to create the idea of the desired location to be very dreamlike and hard to reach.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback I saw that 35% of them said they preferred casual clothing on the artists such as jeans and 30% said they liked sophisticated clothing rather than sporty clothing. I feel even the audience is becoming more modern looking for change and something knew which i beleive they will now find in our music videos due to us developing the conventions and steriotypical perceptions in mise en scene.

MTV which shows a large number of Hip Hop and R&B music videos got the highest ranking from the feedback with a large 50% watching the channel, making it the most relevant channel to broadcast our video onto.

45% said the lyrics of a song attract them to the music they listen to, therefor to feed their interest we created a music video which amplifies the lyrics, but not literally, to encourage our audiences to continue watching.

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

In these shots you can see the two shots of the artists collaborating whilst singing and performing. In my work I have included similar shot types to show conventions of real media products.

Conventions of a Hip hop music video include cutting to the beat, casual clothing, lip synching, performing, montage editing and eye contact with the audience/camera. To establish these conventions further I have used smarter clothing on one of my artists to develop forms whilst cut to the beat of our song to provoke response from the audience.

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

Cinematography We have continued to use conventions of cinematography by using a range of mid-shots. Other shots we used were close ups to create deeper connection with the artist and audience, by doing this the lyrics of the song become more meaningful. Long shots were used to create a sense of light and space as well as allowing the audience to understand were the artist is whilst singing. This also enables the audience to view the artists clothing so to understand the genre of the music video more. Establishing shots were used to allow the viewer to understand the location of the shot and the surrounding environment. Panning shots were used to set the scene as the lyrics in our song is quite atmospheric therefor I believe this worked well.

Mise en scene Our artists wore a selection of less steriotypical clothing as this develops our conventions of a Hip Hop video. Our audience's would expect to see baggy clothes,vests, long gold or diamond chains and maybe some grills (gold teeth). I feel by making their clothing more sophisticated we could also encourage audiences of maybe older generations which wouldnt normally watch Hip Hop videos to watch them, as maybe they could relate more to the smarter trench coats and trilby hat than baggy tracksuits.

(add image of artists)

I feel that Andrew Goodwins theory of amplification applies here, were the film cuts on the beat but also to emphasise features such as facial features and hand gestures. I also feel some of our images amplify the lyrics. (give example)

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

My media product develops conventions of Hip hop genre music video as one of our artists is wearing smarter clothing than a stereotypical artist in a Hip Hop video. This plays with audiences perceptions on modern day Hip Hop videos and how much its changing. Also in my ancillary task we tried to show the contrasting artists style, we did this with the portrayal of their hats. By having a combination of the Era and Trilby hat, I feel the audience begin to see the collaboration of different styles in Hip Hop and how they can compliment one another in the music industry.

New era hat in contrast with a Trilby hat.

Smarter clothing on the artist which we used to develop conventions In contrast to Stereotypes.