Thursday, 15 December 2011

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

Our media product has used, developed and challenged different kind of forms and conventions of real media products. We have researched into existing music videos that have gained numerous views and recognition. We developed these ideas and compare them with successful music videos. I have gathered nine screenshot from our final music video:



1. Relationship of lyrics to narrative/visuals: This shot is on the line of "I'm just a musician on the rise" is a key lyric as it reflects the state of the artist of being a new, and upcoming musician doing all he can to rise. We presented this by showing the artist in a recording studio singing the current song. This implies that she is striving hard to achieve her dreams. As this was in the rap part of the video, we didn't want to confuse the audience so we edited this shot into black and white to present it as a narrative.

2. Relationship of music to visuals: This shot is on the line of "End of the line". The music and the visual links well through the connection of the hard beat of the music. This shot changes from close-up to long shot, colour to black and white, which aids the strong beat of the music.

3. Representation of artist with reference to record label's expectations: Our record label company is "DefJam Recordings". It is one of the biggest recording companies in America which has made fame to a variety of RnB artists such as Rihanna, Kanye West, Ne-Yo and more. We researched into the artists' music videos and have found out that they use a lot of close-up. This presents, and promotes the artist to the audience which helps gain recognition to the artist. As a group, we have decided to use this to show that we can present the artist well as how the record label present their artists. We also aided this by the mise-en-scene, and setting of the music video. We have thought about this carefully on what costume the artist would wear; we linked the costumes to the RnB, Hip Hop culture and how they dress, and how the culture changes into the modern society.

4. Genre of music and how it is defined: Our choice of song for music video is RnB, Hip Hop based, so we thought about how we are going to define and present our music video in a style of RnB and Hip Hop. We have researched into existing music videos and found that most of them use urban location such as cityscape, skateparks, grafitti locations and more. This shot shows a part of location on our music video; it shows the artist dancing in front of grafitti wall to show urbanization, as well as the culture of the genre. We strengthen this by showing different types of camerawork: camera angles, distance, and shot types which complimented the idea of the genre.

5. Setting/Location: Our settings and location relates to our music genre of RnB and Hip Hop. We chose to feature the London Eye in our music video as a lot of people knows this as one of UK's top attraction (this could also imply that the artist is representing his country to his audience) and this is one of UK's modern features.

6. Camerawork and Editing: As RnB and Hip Hop grows overtime, changing and blending to upcoming modernity, we decided to make our music video modern with cityscape urban locations, that is complimented by the editing, and the mise-en-scene. This shot shows one of the dancers in our music video "jumping" to the camera (which relates to the lyric: "And I gotta jump to the next step") which presents the camerawork in this music video. We implemented different shot types such as Establishing shot to present the locations to strengthen the verisimilitude of the music video, Close-up to present and promote the artist, Long shot to show the artist with his group, and Low angle to give the artist authority and power.

7. Lighting: Lighting is one of the main constraints we came across while making the music video. We have shots at night which has very limited light so we had to find a place where there is at least some light that will allow the artist to be seen. This is important because RnB, Hip Hop artist are always being presented and promoted. Artist who fails to promote themselves will eventually lose their contract with their recording label which is the biggest downfall for an artist, so for an upcoming artist, presenting and promoting is very essential. We chose to shoot under a car park light  which gave us enough light to be seen. We wanted to create verisimilitude as we didn't want to suddenly change from daylight to nighttime. We did this by presenting an establishing shots between them to show introduction on what scene is coming next.

8. Mise-en-Scene: Mise-en-scene is very important in any kind of films. In a music video, mise-en-scene helps depicts the purpose of the visuals and the music/lyrics. Costume is a very important feature to be considered, so in our music video, as a group we had a good discussion on what costume is the best to wear. We tried to fit it into our genre; we are pleased that our genre has a lifestyle behind it; people are living through RnB and Hip Hop. The clothes these people wear are not just any ordinary urban clothes but have been recognized as part of the culture. This made it easy for us to decide on what costume is the best to wear. The main artist wore a snapback hat, a large sunglasses (Raybans: which is famous and well-known by a lot of people especially those living in urban cities); this props gave the main artist authority, and presented him in a confident, determined artist.

9. Intertextuality or influence of other music video: This shot was influenced by a music video we research back when we were in planning stage. This shot caught our eyes so we decided to capture it and modify it in our own version. The music video we got it from presented this shot as a long shot, and for our music video we made it close-up so that it is more effective, as well as recognizable. We also used this as a transition which made it very useful and very effective to our music video.

Evaluation Activity 2 - How effective is the combination of your Main Product and Ancillary Texts? - by Group





How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our main product and ancillary text link well with each other.

Why do you think that?
Our group started by discussing and brainstorming different ideas into existing RnB products. From this discussion, we learnt that RnB artists image is important as they want to promote themselves, and to be recognised. We took this into account and made our music video and ancillary products with the artist's image as the main focus.

What features have you placed in your products that are effective?
One of the features we included was the blue colour scheme we carried throughout our products. The colour blue symbolises optimism which relates to the main single of the album this implies that the artist is determined to reach his ambitions. The colour blue also symbolises wealth and business which also links to our products. Another feature we used was the close-up of the artist. We used this on our music video and ancillary products as this is important to promoting the artist as well as showing his authority and personality. 



Finally, we carried a modern theme for our music video and ancillary product by our choice in mise-en-scene, location, costume and editing. This is important because it relates to our music genre, R&B as it reflects the continuous growth of the modern society and the music industry. 


What was the idea behind the album cover?
We researched into existing album covers and found that the artist's image is the main focus as this is important to up and coming artists. This builds their image and promotes the artist and his music. We chose the album title, 'TakeOver' because it relates to the album's theme of being determined to reach recognition. This is supported by the effective use of font that fit our music genre and the modern theme. 


What was the idea behind the magazine advert?
We analysed existing magazine adverts from different genre and see the difference between. For our inspiration, we chose Rolling Stone, XXLMag and RWD as they promotes our music genre well to the target audience. We presented a close mid-shot of the artist as we want to attract the audience's attention to the image to promote the artist and his music. 



This is also effective as the artist is only starting and the artist needs recognition. The white background is effective as it makes the artist stand out, and it symbolises strength, wholeness and completion. 


Are you happy with the final outcome?
As a group, we feel that we have done a great job and we have achieved our initial aim of creating product to fit with our music genre whilst making it look professional. Our products are eye-catching and interesting from the ideas our group had. 


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


This is our ancillary product that we produced:

This is our magazine advert. The magazine advert clearly shows a close up of the artist, which is very important as to promote himself as well as his album. The advert shows the artist's name 'J.REYEZ' in a futuristic large font which is effective as it reflects the modern music society. 'OUT NOW' is also featured in bold large font in which the audience would see it easily and get the idea that this album is the 'hottest' album and that if they don't get the album, they will be missing out on experience.This is also strengthen by the image of the album beneath the text, in which the audience will see and recognize it.









 
Our Album Front Cover


Our Album Back Cover
Album Booklet (Front)

Album Booklet (Back)
Album's CD placement






Evaulation Activity 3 - What have you learnt from Audience Feedback - by Group


Wednesday, 14 December 2011

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


Hardware/Software
What is it?
Purpose
Hardware
Apple Mac
We used this to create our music videos as well as for research.
Hardware
DSLR Camera
We used this for taking high quality photographs that we used for our Ancillary Products.
Hardware
USB
This is important as we used this to back up our work as well as used this to transfer files.
Hardware
Tri-Pod
We used to help make our photographs/films still.
Hardware
HD Camcorder
We used this to shoot High Definition shots which made our music video a high, and better quality.
Software
Photoshop
We used this for our Ancillary Products. As we have experience in using this program; it gave us a good advantage and made our ancillary product look professional.
Software
iMovie HD
This is the program we used for our Animatic.
Software
Microsoft Word
We used this for Documentations such as creating the questionnaires. 
Software
Microsoft Powerpoint
We used this for our group pitch on our chosen song.
Software
Blogger
This is where we recorded our progress as well as for our evaluation tasks.
Software
YouTube
We used YouTube to view existing music videos that helped us gave ideas on our music videos.
Software
Slideshare
We used this to add to our Blog. This was an easy way to upload documents into Blogger.
Software
Final Cut Express HD
We edited our music video here. We were inexperienced at first but we managed to learn new skills by working together to create our music video.
Software
Go Animate!
This is where we created our Evaluation Activity Task 2. This gave us unique and fun way to view on how effective the combination of our main product and ancillary product.
Software
www.dafont.com
This website gave us numerous ideas on fonts that we used for our ancillary products. We downloaded the font and used them as the fonts in the computer are limited and not much variety.
Software
Facebook
We used this to communicate, as well as uploading our music video and gaining views and feedback from people who lives far away.
Software
Timeglider
We created timeline of history of music videos. This is much easier to view and upload to Blogger than creating on Microsoft Word.
Software
Prezi
I used this to create my research into Unsigned artist, as well as using it to create our Evaluation Activity 3. This is effective as it is fun, and easier to view than seeing countless text on Blogger.
Software
Survey Monkey
We used this to create surveys that helped us understand our target audience better. We added question relating to our Genre.

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

R&B, and Hip Hop Music Video Conventions

As we have chosen the music genre, R&B / Hip Hop. We decided to do some research on R&B and Hip Hop Music Conventions, and why they are important:

R&B/HipHop artists tend to use Performance with hybrid of Narrative and Spectacle as their music video genres:

Performance
In an R&B/HipHop music video, performance is important. This is because this allows them to be recognized which then also markets themselves to their audiences as well as other opportuinites.An example of an R&B Hip Hop music video is by Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull:


In this music video, we can see that the mise-en-scene is clearly urban and nightlife which is also an R&B Hip Hop convention. We can also see props such as the cars, the look (make-up, clothing and accesories), and alcohol. This music video is performance based showing a lot of close-ups of the artists as well as long shot to show the artist's choreography.


Narrative
Narrative is often used as a hybrid to make the audience remember the artist's music. This narrative can be inspiring (it can be a reenactment or an abstract version of the artist's previous experience, or a story that can relate to the audience). An example of an R&B Hip Hop music video that has the music video genre of Narrative is by Lil Wayne:


In this music video, we can see that the mise-en-scene is different from the previous example; the location is hospital and alleyway which audience can see as more "sad" feeling rather than partying. The Narrative shots invite people to sympathise with the story. This is effective because the audience will remember the music video.

Our Music Choice



This is our music choice; "I Wanna Be A Star" by J.Reyez, Maribelle Anes, and Traphik. This song is about how the unsigned artists of the song wants to pursue their career and get into the mainstream industry, and how they really want to progress their career into the next stage and gain more audience.

We chose this song, as it is upbeat, fast paced, catchy, and also different genre to take on this year. Emily is going to be the Cinematographer, Ana is going to be the female lead singer and I'm going to be the two male rappers. We have also requested a permission to the artist if we can do his song for our music video project:


Star Study: Kanye West

Kanye West is an american rapper, singer and record producer, born on June 8, 1977. Kanye West was born in Atlanta, Georgia, where he lived with his parents until his parents divorced when he was around three years old, and he and his mother moved to Chicago, Illinois.

Kanye West attended Chicago State University where he produced music for locaql artists. Through this, he later gained fame by producing hit singles in the music genre Hip Hop and R&B for artists such as Jay Z, Alicia Keys, John Legend and more.

1996
Kanye West gained the opportunity to produce tracks for Chicago rapper, Grav for his debut album. Although, the album did not attract much attention, in 1998 to 1999 Kanye West's career grew and gaining more opportunities like producing for higher profile and well known artists such as Jermaine Dupry, Foxy Brown and more. After gaining much success as a producer, Kanye West decided to take on the role of a solo artist and as a rapper. However, he struggled to find a record label to make a contract with him. This ended when his verse on Jay-Z's album 'The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse' allowed him to sign to the same record label.

2004-05
Kanye West's success progressed even further when he was involved in a near fatal car crash while driving home from recording studio. This influenced him to write songs, that became his first single, which also won the Source's Award for Best Music video in 2004.



In 2005, MTV aired All Eyes on Kanye West in which Kanye spoke out against the Homophobia in the Hip Hop industry. He claims that hip hop has been discriminating the gay community; he even admitted that he has been discriminating that community until he found out that one of his cousins is gay in which he said that this was his 'turning point'. He said: "This is my cousin. I love him and I've been discriminating against gays"

After gaining much success with his albums, Kanye West decided to launch his own clothing line, Pastelle Clothing line in spring 2006.

Contemporary
Now, Kanye West has a total of 47 awards and 147 nominations from different award ceremonies, including the Grammys. He has a total of 6 albums from 2004 to 2011.