FAREWELL BLOG :-(

We hope you have enjoyed looking at out blog and the journey we went through creating our media products

Ciara, Lauren, Hannah & Aaron

EVALUATION: Aaron's Question 4

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

In the following video I explain how the use of new media technologies influenced all aspects of the production process of our projects.

EVALUATION: Aaron's Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Using social media as a form of contact with our target audience has really been beneficial in receiving feedback on our products. We used Youtube, and Snapchat to see how the audience reacted to the products and also asked them for ways we could make the products appeal to them more.

EVALUATION: Aaron's Question 2

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

We chose to wear red for a variety of reasons. Firstly, because it is a vibrant colour and it stands out, making the protagonists easy to identify. The fact that we used this colour as one of our synergistic elements enabled the products to be easily identified also. The energy that the bright colour brings to the image is youthful and exciting, exactly what we anticipated.

Due to audience feedback, I learnt that my target audience were able to recognise that all 3 products were part of one project through the synergistic elements, especially my ancillary texts. They found that the colour scheme especially allowed them to recognise the products better and then know that it was an advertisement for Semz & Zino's album almost immediately. They also recognised that the two males are the main protagonist in the music video, and saw how that followed through into the print products which they found effective, and also recognised this was common within the genre to have the artists to represent the band.

EVALUATION: Aaron's Question 1

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

In a typical music video, the videographer or production company usually includes their name at the start of the music video. We also included this element in our music video 'Black City Presents'.

One thing that we didn't include in our project that challenges the conventions of film is the title of the song as well as the artists performing.

1) There is a clear relationship between the actual song and the visuals as the music video is representing the actual story told in the song (spontaneous date).

2) The music video included some scenes where the artists were rapping directly to the camera and performing the song to the audience. Due to lip-syncing, we were able to create a sense of verisimilitude.

3) The transitions and effects throughout the music video are in sync with the beat of the song which really exaggerates the liveliness and pace of the song.

5) The two artists are the main feature and synergistic element throughout all of the products. This is because the are wearing such eye catching colours and also due to the composition of the shots (using the rule of thirds).

 The woman are represented in a sexual way emphasised by the lyrics 'big back, posing for her snapchat'.

It is clear that the video is set in the heart of London which is an urban area, conforming to the conventions of the rap genre.

Money and materialism is seen through the expensive car and clothes

Digipak

We created out digipak with 8 parts, as it is the most commonly used layout for most digipaks, especially in the Hip-Hip/Rap genres.

Common conventions of a digipak include:

Front cover:

artist name

album name

linked to genre, music video (and film if its a soundtrack)

usually image of artist

Spine:

Artist name 

album name

institutional label

Back cover:

Image follows the front 

list of all songs on the album (in order)

Internal panels:

images of artists

linked to front and back cover

CD can be plain or colourful, has album and artist name

page where the CD goes on top of is often a plain colour 

Booklets/ postcards/ postcards:

details about each song on the album (producers etc.)

images watch the front and back cover, same colour scheme 

matte or shiny finish

images inside 

(most tend to be booklets)

Magazine Advert

Comparing our product to a real media product, you can see that it is evident that we have conformed to the conventions of a magazine advert.

Common conventions of a magazine advert include:

• The artist/band in the centre
• The artist/band name is the biggest credit, and usually at the top
• Album title is the next credit, under the title
• Release date
• distributors

FINAL PRODUCT: MAGAZINE ADVERT

Magazine Advert for the album Fund Fetish by Semz&Zino

FINAL PRODUCT: DIGIPAK

Digipak for the album Fund Fetish by Semz&Zino

FINAL PRODUCT: MUSIC VIDEO

Group 6 (Music Video) A2 Media

Fund Fetish by Semz&Zino

PRODUCTION: Behind the scenes

These behind the scene videos , show our group collectively having a go filming for our music video. 

It includes shots of the two main boy characters 'semz and zino' taking the two main girl characters on a date to a bowling alley/ arcade. 

We used the colour scheme red, black and white in order to create a synegisitc element.  

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK: Construction of music video

RESEARCH AND PLANNING: PITCH AND STORYBOARD FEEDBACK

CONSTRUCTION: Behind the scenes : Digipak picture taking

We took pictures in every location we shot at, in order to get as many as we could so that we would have a successful digipak.

However, the shots we took at the bowling alley were the least successful as we had some lighting issues. This is evident in the pictures of 'zino' and the blonde female character , because his dark complexion was not suited to the lighting as it was quite dim. Furthermore, the pictures we did take the lighting looked good on the female but not the male.

Although, the other shots we got at the graffiti background and with the car were ultimately successful.

CONSTRUCTION: Making our Digipak front cover: Deciding on the background

This is the initial editing of the billboard in the background - we took away the writing that was there and replaced it with the name of our artists and album name.

We started with the editing with the name of the album which is also the single the song is surrounded  on  as the main focus. However , we realised it looked best with the artists names as the main focus because it would be the artists first album and they need to gain the best promotion.

CONSTRUCTION: magazine advert progression

These were our first drafts of our magazine adverts, we felt like the image was too crowded with long lines of text which made the image less powerful and captivating.

The text of Semz and Zino were not bold enough and looked weak , however we wanted them to look powerful and effective in conveying the rappers to have dominance. This is the effect we wanted the text of their names to give, so we decided to change this.

In order for the names to dominate we decided we had to take away the long lines of text , by doing this we believed only using short punchy lines it made the advert more effective and more attractive.

We also thought in order to make it more realistic it was key to add all various types of media platforms in which their music and profiles are accessible.

Because of these things we redrafted and came up with this.

This is our Magazine advert.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK: how it shaped our product

Generally the use of audience feedback was helpful in shaping our products as it guided us towards bettering our final products.

This was done through our final draft feedback aswell as digipak cover and magazine advert feedback.

Our digipak cover was the most vital audience feedback we got , we spent alot of vital time deciding wether we wanted the graffiti in the background or not and when we posed the question to our audience the majority voted in favour for it. As a result , it lead to syngery throughout as well as a professional final product.

We also used this advice from our final draft in order to enforce a music video which conformed to it's genre and look professional.

We discovered that we need to make the cuts quicker in order to bring one of the characters forward,  so that the audience see our video as an uptempo , fast paced new and upcoming rap video.

We then used this advice and implimented it throughout the whole of our music video.

RESEARCH: Audience Feedback: DigiPak

In this case we had already had some feedback from an audience perspective , once we had came up with 3 prominent drafts of background for the front of our digipaks. We had some people analyse which one they thought would be best.

They thought, that although the simple black and white text was good , the graffiti covering the whole of the background was too much. Overall , the background that had a faded bit of grafiti was the best as it used synergistic elements from the video itself but also captivated the audience as there is a pop of colour.

PRODUCTION: ROUGH CUT - FEEDBACK

We used this advice in order to make improvements to our final product.

we discovered that we need to make the cuts the quicker in order to match the genre , and cut the          clips in order to  bring one of the characters forwards. So that the audience see our video as an uptempo, fast paced new and upcoming uk rap video.

We tried to then filter this continually throughout the whole of our video.

PLANNING: shot list

This price of pre production planning made the production stage (filming) go a lot smoother on the day it also ensured we had enough footage and our music video matched our animatic.

PLANNING: mood board

This is a mood board for the type of scenes we feel would fit our music video. The images given are from examples of contemporary music videos.

PLANNING: costume , concept , examples

We decided to follow Lauren's music video concept , therefore these follow:

Locations:

• party
• date night
• london at night 
• Driving around in a 'nice car'

(conveying a certain type of lifestyle)

Characters:

• two central boys
• two central girls
• 'temptation' characters
• extras

Costumes:

• colour code of black red and white on each character

The main message of the video is to convey how in this day and age, it is difficult to be involved in a relationships when there is other people that put it on a plate and often ruin relationships because they can. Although it is the party involved in the relationship that is to fault, it shows how easy it is to get caught up and make these stupid decisions which we later realise wont get us what we want and love.