Tuesday, 12 May 2015

Evaluation -In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Convention Of Real Media Products?

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Convention Of Real Media Products?

My music video planned to use conventions from present and previous media in order to create a identifiable image that would include my intended audience. For example through our research, my inspiration of music videos were either narrative or concept based performances.

We chose to use a narrative based video along side performance based as it expressed our chosen artists style of music. Our song begins with a slow then switches to more off an up beat instrumental, so we decided to highlight this through visuals that amplified and reflected the lyrics.

In our music video we used various shot types, extreme closeup when the female is blowing smoke, also low angle and closeup of our artists, as it shows states and the idea of power and emphasises the audience connect with the artist and to the convention of hip hop music videos, due to intense reattach we found this to me very effective. We experimented shooting in POV, this gave us an realistic look when trying to create filming a house party, it gave our footage a more valiant and enduring raw effect.

Our editing techniques we used a range of slow motion and fast-forward clips to exaggerate the effects of drugs and alcohol, giving our audience the theory off real life experiences of drugs/alcohol effects.

We challenged the stereotypical conventions by having our music video in black and white, we thought this would be effective as we've added colour from the night before, portraying two different time frames being day and night. The lighting in our music video was produced mainly from artificial lighting through the use of editing, we included flashing lights to portray a house party.

We used a variety of props such as alcohol bottle/cans, cigarettes, tablets and playing cards, this helped us establish the atmosphere we wanted to create to our target audience, the crops were crucial to include  within a party scene to produce a sense of realism. The main artist wore simple black hoodie and jeans and timberland boots to portray rap artists within the our time frame.

Our location was set in a house, we planned to include shoots of central London but thought shooting our entire music video in a house gave the audience a more personal, deeper incite into the artists lifestyle.
Our influences gave us a better understanding of what we was tying to represent, we wanted to represent the artist as a powerful, strong male dominating genre. We achieved this through camera angles/shots, when the camera is looking up at him during the dancing scene.





In the music video 'Break From Toronto' by 'PartNextDoor' were is in a drugstore with two females, as we see the artist holding a camera recorder, the angle flips showing the artists point of view. We liked the fact you could see what was going on through the artists eyes and thought this was an creative effective aspect, also very original.







We waned to recreate this style using an editing technique name 'camcorder' giving the audience the impression it's filmed with a recorder due to the 'rec' symbol. portraying a dance scene of teenagers having a good time contributed with editing skills, adding facing lights and over layers makes the shots look busier as we only had 5 people creating a party scene.














We wanted to use someone who resembles Travis Scott, as a young black tall male with similar features and style. The use of young back male connects to the conventions of a common Hip-Hop video.





The Outtakes Of Our Music Video


THE OUTTAKES








A fun way of showing how the process of our video was created was through our 'bloppers'. We created a short video with various clips from our first attempts at shooting, a lot of these clips were actually chopped, edited and integrated into our final music video. As you can see from this video, we experimented with shot angles to see what worked well and we also payed close attention to detail when it came to our props such as the alcohol bottles, cards, peanuts and making them look realistic in each shot, in order to portray a party scene effectively.

Production- Music Video Final Cut



FINAL MUSIC VIDEO 




Changed we made since our first draft and our progress. 


In order for us to get to this stage with our final cut, we decided to make certain changes in order to improve our music video based on our feedback from our teacher and peers. We spent an extra day filming our main artist in a white room and a room with red lighting. This was because we believed that he didn't appear enough in the video, as most of our footage was closely focused on POV shots. With this being said, we integrated these various clips of him dancing at different points, one being at the beginning in quick flashes when he wakes up. This was effective because it was almost as if he was remembering the night before and his actions at the party.

Having explicit content of what we made look like real drugs being consumed we decided to censor, to make it more subtle and suitable for our target audience. Furthermore, while we decided on having the night scenes in a purple tint which we edited in on Final Cut Pro, we played about with the colours and the scenes looked better in a red tone so this was something else we altered.While reviewing our video, we questioned whether it should be introduced with a title or a quote, but we didn't feel as if that detail was really needed and wouldn't have any major effect on our video as a whole.

After reviewing our music video again, we decided that we should tone down the explicit scenes of what we made seem like someone consuming drugs (sugar). We did this by using a censoring tool in Final Cut Pro to pixelate the shot.

Music Video First Draft



Music Video First Cut Draft





FEEDBACK











From our feedback with various groups of Media students who have watched our first cut draft, it showed us that the concept we pictured in our minds has formed in our music video and worked effectively in conveying the narrative. With plenty of room to improve, our group are now thinking of whether to slow down the music to fit the part in our video where we have people dancing and then have faster shots where the music switches up mid flow of the song to make it seem more hectic.


Our whole idea was to have the footage from the morning after being black and white in contrast with the bright flashes of colour you get overlapping opacity shots to distinguish the party atmosphere with normal day to day life. Establishing shots of the setting were used more for the morning after so you were able to see people passed out on the floor whereas the night before we had more close ups for props used i.e. playing cards, alcohol etc.










Monday, 11 May 2015

How Effective Is The Combination Of The Music Video And Digipak?

I think our music video is well constructed and the theme remained continues throughout adhering to our chosen genre and conventions. Due to having clear goals and visions from the start, our planning process has definitely had an effect on how effective our production is. However on the way we faced some challenges, changed our vision and grew as a team due to constructive feedback , our planning and research process and positive feedback from our peers and teacher, overall we completed a successful production within our music video and digipak.

We were able to examine similar artist and products and gain inspiration from them. throughout our entire production we used distorted and colourful effects, using layers and overlays on photoshop. we used similar effect when editing our music video on final cit pr, such as transition and Gaussian blurs.

We wanted to do this to maintain the historical content of our artist, creating a dreamy atmosphere. drug use, we were inspired by Alice and the Wonderland when creating the flashbacks in our music video, stimulating two different worlds/sides.

We wanted our didgipak to be equally as creative as our music video, we don't this by creating a 3D effect through the front and back of the image of the main artist.
Another create decision was having the artist eyes blacked out, this relates to the alcohol and drug content. By impairing the artists vision this has created a scary and 'demonic' effect that corresponds to the artist main single 'Hell of a night'.
Using red overlay effect, gives a hellish and rebellious atmosphere.
By covering the artist mouth, the connotation of this is that the artist lyrical content may be deemed as controversial as they surrounded topics such as sex and drugs. The image leads to the topic considered as 'taboo' not openly discussed, however the artist lyrics show he freely speaks his mind within his music.






Our digipak gives the impression that the artists in a dream like world. due to the dreamlike clouds created in the background, also our choice of colours using purple is effective and challenges the typical conventions. Also the front style used gives the the digipak a fresh street style look which fits well with our genre and with our music video, we used text when spelling out 'Hell of a night' combining them both, giving a quirky urban style to them both.








The poster features a large close up shot of the artist in the foreground, which is the dominant feature 
of the poster.  In the background there is another close up shot of a girl, however this image is smaller  than the main image, we made the decision to feature this image as most hip hop videos feature females figures. instead of adding the girl in our music video state the artist a dream like girl supporting the Laura Mulvey's theory on make gaze. We used the same front in style as the digipak so the audience remembers it and is more appealing to the audience. 









During our planning we wanted to continue the colour scheme and editing which created a hallucinatory effect within our music video. By over laying and and using a variety of editing techniques to combine our three media products in to a great production. We had many targets throughout our video starting with entertainment, we wanted our audience to be entertained so we included dance moves and the effect to make the video more appealing but also producing a narrative based video. We wanted to lyrics and visuals to connect and show a story. we successfully done this through miss-en-scene. 

When editing our music video on Final-cut-pro we was able to use effects such as 'direction blur' and 'gaussian' also an effect of rainbow colours, also another effect we done was a mirrored effect. We did this to maintain the historical context of the lyrics in the song, speaking about drug use and the effects also due to creating a dream like atmosphere which was inspired and reinforced by the movie 'Alice and the wonderland' 






What was important when completing the effectiveness of the music video, poster and digipak is how well we received from our target audience (16-25). We attracted our target audience in many ways, firstly due to the age similarities of the actors, dancer and models on our final products. Also the party lifestyle portrayed throughout, drinking, taking drugs, card games and dancing, this creates escapism, it is able to immerse themselves init and escape from the stresses of daily life. The psychedelic atmosphere we created throughout our three media products brings a new element make the sequel to appear rebellious. We continued this throughout creating a distorted alice and the wonderland theme. 












Andrew Goodwin Theory

Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in music videos. They are:
- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
- Genre-related style and iconography present.
- Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.
- Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
- Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.


He says that music videos are often constructed by the link between the visuals and the song plus the artist. Relationships are built between these in the video, and the close-ups of the artists gives them the representation and publicity they require. Voyeurism is used to increase the video’s attractiveness, particularly to males, whilst intertextuality is often employed in humorous videos
.



Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

Day/Time: (DAY 1)
 February 9th – 1.30pm

Location:
David’s house

Shoots:
-Establishing setting – graffiti and posters on wall
-Alcohol on the floor in bedroom
-POV walking down the stairs

People needed:
David
Talal
Rhea


Date/time: (DAY 2)
February 13th – 4.30pm

Location:
David’s house

Shots:
-Niff waking up in bedroom and walking towards the stairs
Niff (main)

People Needed:
David
Talal
Rhea



Date/Time: (DAY 3)
February 16th – 1.30pm

Location:
David’s house

Shots:
-Playing cards 
-Smoking(steph)
-Kitchen shots of alcohol bottles/fake drugs

People Needed:
Niff  (main)
David
Talal
Rhea
Lisa
Stephanie



Date/Time: (DAY 4)
February 20th – 3.05pm

Location:
David’s house

Shots:
-Dancing

People Needed:
David 
Talal
Rhea
Lisa 
Stephanie
Sam


Date/Time: (DAY 5)
March 2nd – 6.30pm

Location:
Rhea’s house 

Shots:
- Shots of tattoos, angel on back

People Needed:
Rhea
Craig 



Audience And Questionnaire


Questionnaire


1. State your age. 

_______


2. Gender? 

_______


3. Do you enjoy watching music videos?

Yes             No


4. What do you prefer more, male or female artists/bands?

   Male            Female


5. Do you listen to artists of a similar age to you?

Yes               No


6. What locations would you like to see within a hip-hop music video? Circle two options.

- Underground car park       -Central London          -Club                -House



7. What theme would best be portrayed within the video? Write one theme below.

    _______________



8. Do you think the music video should correspond with the lyrics and tell a story? Circle.

    Yes             No



9. In the music video, should someone in the video be lip-singing the lyrics?

   Yes              No             Occassionally



10. What album cover do you like best?






































Planning - Album Cover Design Brief

Design Brief
Date: 17.11.2014
Project Manager: Rhea/David/Talal/Lisa
Dept: 
Artist / Album Title : THE AFTERPARTY/ T$
Release Date:  1st July 2015

 

Product Overview

Who are they?

Jacques Webster better known by his stage name Travis Scott (stylized as Travi$ Scott), is an American hip hop recording artist and record produc

er from Houston, Texas. Scott signed to Epic Records before eventually signing to Kanye West's GOOD Music production wing known as Very G.O.O.D. Beats. In April 2013, it was announced he signed with T.I.'s Grand Hustle imprint.


The Album Concept

Travis Scotts' introduction to fame and his romances over the course of confessional, club-oriented, and sexual songs. Travis' emotionally transparent, self-deprecating lyrics are delivered in both rapped and subtly sung verses, and explore feelings of doubt, insecurity, and heartbreak.








Why are we doing it?

This is Travis Scott's debut album and we need this album to break through in the UK; the artwork is key to our success. The
consumers should be able to recognise our artist through the style of artwork used, this is his first album release as his previous work has been free mixtapes online. The album would be in the Hip-Hop genre section of any store and we want our album cover to stand out amongst the rest. Looking at Hip-Hop covers, most are dark in colour, we want to produce something following these elements but with a twist, challenging the typical conventions of covers. 

One of the subject matters featured in many of Travis Scott's song lyrics is drug use, the psychotic and hallucinogenic effects of drugs reflect his distorted and warped sounding beats and vocal style which was influenced by artists such as Kid Cudi and Kanye West, also, artists such as Childish Gambino, Chance The Rapper and Danny Brown have all displayed a similar style, this is apparent in the artists album cover artwork which all utilize bright, mellow, dreamlike colours.











Consumers:


Primary audience

60% males ( 18-24)

Secondary audience

40% females ( 16-21 )


What is the reaction we want?

We want the audience and the consumers to feel like they can understand the artist. The target audience should be able to build and de
velop a relationship artist.


How Will We Know It Worked?

We will know this from our sale targets. If this is met or higher than the target, then we will know this is a success. Also we are going to do focus group where we will pay a few fans to look at our first drafts and give us their feedback. This will be helpful as we will be able to improve on the criticism they make.

Sales Target: 50, 000

Kay launch dates

Press Campaign: May 16th 2015

First album song release: June 29th 2015

Album Release: July 1st 2015

























Research - Analysis Of Album Poster / Advert

Kayne West - Graduation

The advertisement for Kanye West's Graduation album is very simple but effective, it features the same iconic Teddy Bear character that is featured on the album cover as well as the previous two albums, this symbolic character immediately grabs the audiences attention as it is associated with the artist Kanye West. The sunglasses, also known as Shutter Shades are also shown to be worn by the bear, they are part of Kanye's costume in the hugely successful music video for the lead single 'Stronger' and so are directly associated with him. Additionally the text on the poster is in a digital style font, which reflects the electronic sound of the music. 

Jay Z - Kingdom Come

The poster for Jay-Z's album Kingdom Come uses the typical conventions of a rap poster, featured an eye level portrait of the artist (the image is also the album cover) in a NY New Era fitted cap, a piece of clothing usually associated with rappers. The portrait is effective as the artist is instantly recognisable and the product itself is also on display as the portrait is the album cover. 

Unlike the Kanye West advertisement, this poster features a slogan at the top, the slogan 'The President Of Hip Hop Returns' is powerful in two ways, firstly as it was considered a "comeback album" for the established rapper and therefore creates hype around this return. Also, the statement labels Jay-Z as the 'President' of hip hop, suggesting that he is in control of the scene, this statement could be considered quite controversial and therefore attracts attention. 

Lastly, underneath the artist name, album name and release date is the message, features the new single 'Show Me What You Got', this is a successful method of marketing as it advertises both the single itself, and the album, as people who have heard the single will be more likely to purchase the album.