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

Research

During the research stage of creating our music video the media technology we predominantly used was the Apple iMacs (hardware) and the software we predominately used for the research was safari which is a web browser. We were able to find pictures of our locations, our song and music videos of different genres to analyse. Using the Apple iMac and safari during the research process was very helpful and made us do our research more efficiently. We were also able to check when sunset was on safari which was vital to our music as we needed to shot some shots when their was light and some shots around sunset time.

     

We used YouTube a lot during our research process as we watched numerous of music videos of different genres to get different ideas. A lot of what was in our final music video we gained ideas from what we found on YouTube and developed it to our own. Before the researching process I never knew that YouTube had a watch later button. This meant that I could find all different types of music videos and put them in the watch later section and have them saved for when I needed them at any time of the creating process this was a new skill I had learned. 

Google maps was another software that helped us during the research stage. Google maps allowed us to plan thoroughly every location in the most time efficient way possible. We were able to see how long it would take us to get to each location for every scene we did this helped us create our production schedule and we were able to decided what days we would film what. Google maps also had the opening and closing time of different places this helped us know what time we should go to the gym before it closed before the researching process I never knew you could find the closing and opening times. 

Planning

When planning we used Microsoft word to create a questionnaire this helped us print out a number of copies to hand out to our audience and have them answered. Making the questionnaire was relatively easy and not time consuming. We also used Microsoft word to print out the lyrics of the song Redemption this was so that our artist could memorise the words to perform.  

My iPhone helped me during the planning process as we were all able to contact each other and make plans on when was the best time to film. I also used my phone to take pictures and because we used an Apple iMac and my phone was an Apple iPhone it was easy to link them all together. 

We created a whatsapp group chat which I have shown on a picture of. The whatsapp group chat allowed us to share all our images that we had for Behind the scenes. 

Production

In the production stage, we use Sony Cyber-shot DSC- HX300 to film our music video. Along with the camera we also used a tripod to hold the camera still and have stability during our filming. The camera quality was good and before the filming I never knew the camera had different modes for different levels of light this is something new I learned during the production process.

After filming we uploaded our footage onto the Apple iMac using our memory card which had 16GB this meant we could film lots of footage without having to worry about not having enough memory. We uploaded the footage onto iMovie which is another Apple software we edited the video on iMovie and matched the song to the lip syncing of our artist Ayo.

We also used Adobe Photoshop to create our digipak and magazine advert before the production process I had no understanding of photoshop now I feel confident using it. 

We also used  our iPhone to record a scene as we wanted a range of shots and our iPhone allowed us to create a selfie type video recording which we included in our music video.

Evaluation

Blogger was used to record our research, planning, production and evaluation activities from the start to the finish. Blogger was easily accessible and could be used any time not just during school hours it was accessible on my phone as well. I constantly kept my blog up to date and recorded everything I had done towards the final product. I tried to range my way of presenting what we as a group such as having videos talking about location analysis or using slide share to discuss initial ideas.

 

Social media was another form of software we used as a group sites such as Twitter and Facebook allowed us to share our video to our friends and to the world. Social networking sites allowed people to give us feedback on what we could have done and what they had liked. 

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

Evaluation question 3 – what have you learned from your audience feedback? from David Odumosu


I have answered this evaluation question 3 on slideshare. 

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

In this video we discussed how effective the combination of our main product and ancillary text was:

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

Forms and conventions is what makes different music videos distinguishable between all the genres of music. In our music video we didn't just want to follow all the conventions of hip-hop and rap music we wanted to adhere against some of the conventions as well we felt this would promote our antagonist image as being confused.

Music videos normally have one style: Performance, narrative and concept for ours we decided to do a mixture of performance and narrative because this makes the music video more enjoyable and intriguing to watch. Hip-hop music videos normally have low camera angles which portray the artist as having power, close-up shots which imply status because they have a whole camera frame for themselves. Hip-hop musics convention includes having a female in the music video because it shows how desirable the main artist is or the woman is used for provocative nature which could be associated with 'Mulvey's male gaze theory'.

Our music video challenges the hegemonic representation of gender as you would expect the woman to be chasing after the male character in the music video and him leaving her whoever it is the male character who wants to get back with the female. I feel as if this challenges the convention as in hip-hop/rap music the male character is usually free, dating multiple woman and having multiple woman in the music video however in our music video we have the male trying to win back the female while she sees other men.

Another convention we followed was having multiple locations, majority of music videos have various locations and this is something me and my group aim for because we believed that having multiple locations which were unique made the music video more interesting for our audience and keeps them intrigued. We carefully viewed many of Drake's music video as he was our main inspiration and in Drake - HYFR we noticed that one of Drake's location was a synagogue we thought that many artist rarely ever include their place of worship in their music video and we thought we would replicate this and we included a church as one of our location and this also relates very well to the title redemption. Below I will show a comparison of Drake's music video and our music video. 

This is the synagogue in Drake's music video for HYFR:

This is the church for our music video Redemption:

Well known artist usually have a piece of costume which is used in most of their music videos for example the rapper 'Nelly' always had a plaster on his face so if you saw a plaster you would associate that with Nelly. Another example is 'Neyo' who is a singer whom always wore hats in his music videos so an association with hats and Neyo was made with him and the audience. For our artist we wanted to do this as well so we thought that we would find a unique item and have our artist wear it throughout the music video which we did. We had our artist wear a cap which had the words 'Lost' on it we felt this costume would be most effective out of all the options because it also related to the song redemption because without his partner he is lost. 

In our music video we decided to subvert the stereotypes of gender in the hip-hop genre. We wanted to portray Ayo as a male who goes after the female who is perhaps the love of his life. This subverts the stereotype of gender in the hip-hop genre because a common feature of hip-hop music videos is the male around plenty of females who are in revealing clothes not thinking about having a relationship. An example of this is a hip-hop song called Future - That's A Check feat Rick Ross where in the music video the artists are around females in revealing clothing. We as a group decided to portray Ayo a male going against the conventions because we felt it would be more effective and shows that some males only want one female. As an overall artist we wanted to give Ayo a mixed persona so in the ancillary text some conventions will be adhered to and some will be subverted.

Most artist release their music videos on Youtube as it has over a billion users and people watch hundreds of millions of hours of Youtube videos a day and it generates billions of views. So the most obvious platform to upload our music video to would be Youtube however we wanted to be different so we decided to upload our music video to vimeo. As I have said before we wanted our artist have a confused persona and create a buzz for him meaning he will be someone who everyone talks about so when possible we try to go against the conventions so we used Vimeo as our platform to upload our music video.

Digipaks

With the presentation of our digipak we followed the usually convention of having the artists face as the front of the digipak and the song lists at the back of the digipak. From research we know that rap artist and hip-hop artist usually have gold jewellery evidently in their designs as it connotes wealth and status. Although we did not have the gold chains as an accessory we still kept the convention by giving our artist a gold ring so that the target audience can still relate. Additionally our artists name on the digipak 'Osikoya' is in gold writing which follows the convention. We decided to have the text 'Osikoya' in small font as we felt that the picture alone would be able to attract a huge following as people already know who the artist is from his face. The facial expression of the artist shows that he is trouble by something or something is on his mind this foreshadows most of the songs on the album this is stereotypical of most digipaks. The artwork on the front of album are usually forerunners for what the music inside the album will be like  

Inside the digipak we followed the convention again having the artist image integrated with a burning flame. The flame was done because at the start of our music video we had a flame being lit and at the end of the music video we had the flame dying out this was to signify our artist relationship in the music video. Lastly the back cover, we followed all the conventions of having the song list on the back cover as our main target audience is of the male gender and conventionally men are simple beings and don't really like complex designs so we thought we would just have the song list from 1-9 in a basic font so it's easy for everyone to read. 

Magazine advert

When we research previous magazine adverts of our genre we found that many of the adverts were for singles coming out so we decided to create a tour advert. In our tour advert we challenged the conventions because we had an explicit image in the middle of the whole advert. This goes against conventions and the social norms because as an artist you would want to appeal to all the ages however the explicit content rules out children straight away. This would create a brand image for are artist and gain him an even greater following and that is why his social media account is also there. 

At the top of the advert you would expect the artists name however we decided to subvert the convention and put the special guests at the top of the advert. This was done so that those who want to go and see the artist on tour will realise that they are getting an added value because as well as seeing the artist Osikoya they are also seeing well known artist such as 50 Cent. 

The artist costume is simple and he is no longer wearing his symbolic 'lost' cap this is because our artist is now adhering to the stereotype of males and is no longer 'lost' in a relationship and just wants to have as much fun as possible and rebel (as shown in the design with the artist swearing). 

Overall our ancillary texts have been successful in some aspects because we followed some conventions of the hip-hop and rap genre and we feel that we created a new brand image for our artist which is what we wanted to do.

Final product - Magazine advert

Final product - Digipak

Redemption Music Video - Final

A2 Media - Redemption from David Aluko on Vimeo.

Initial designs for magazine advert

My rough copy (David Odumosu)

This is my rough copy design of a magazine advert that I feel we should use some ideas from it. My ideas came from researching and analysing already existing magazine adverts in the same genre as our music.
I dressed the artist wearing a plain white t-shirt and wearing a gold chain with a cross on it. The cross I feel follows the convention of hip-hop artist as they normally wear flashy jewellery to connote wealth and status. In addition to this I put the artist in a white t-shirt so that it would make the chain stand out more.

In my magazine advert I positioned my artist in front of artwork which had the title of the song on it and a design of one of the areas which we filmed in.

The body language I feel is also an important part in the magazine advert because it is creates the characters persona. We can give the artist a negative body language which would imply that the songs he makes are sad, violent and other negative connotations or a positive body language which would imply the music his music is happy and positive. However in my design I mixed the body language to portray that the artist music is a mix.

Ayo's rough copy

Ayo created a magazine advert with just text on it and no picture of the artist. He did this because he felt that our artist was already well know and the audience did not need an image of him to know who he is and they could already tell who the artist is just from the name. 

He also above the name gave where the songs could be found. This is something that I missed out in my design which I feel I should have implemented.

Although his reasoning for not having an image of the artist is credible I feel that we should adhere to the conventions of having an image of the advert on the magazine advert.

David Aluko's rough copy

David Aluko's design included an image of the artist central of the whole advert with the song title at the top of the advert and the artist name in a smaller font next to the image.

He also had where you can purchase it on the magazine advert which Ayo also had and I didn't include. After discussing with my group I now realise it is very important to put where you can access the music on the advert. 

However in David Aluko design one of the text says "Out this friday!" and below it says "Available now" this will need some clarification when we are making our final design.

In conclusion, we will integrate all our ideas to create a final piece which we will use photoshop to design it. We aim to create a precise and professional advert. 

Initial designs for Digipak

In this video my and I group discussed each of our digipak initial designs that we created and we concluded that we will add each of our designs to create our final product as we will all of our ideas added together can create a great final piece. 

The video is below:   

Behind the scenes 2 - Editing

This is the behind the scenes video of us as a group editing. All the changes in this video were done towards are final piece. We as a group each took part in the editing equally and we all grew in confidence (In editing) throughout the making of our music video.

Magazine advert analysis - Drake

"Take Care is the second studio album by Canadian hip hop recording artist Drake. It was released on November 15, 2011, by Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records and Republic Records." 

In this magazine advert there is one picture of Drake which is the exact same one as the album cover where he is sitting at the table with golden theme. When people see the album in store they will be able to recognise the album as the same one they saw in the advert this is a good marketing technique.

In terms of text, we are able to see the artist name in capital letters "DRAKE" which is at the top of the advert, this means Drake's name is the first thing you see when look at the advert. Drake is a popular and well-known artist so seeing the name Drake in capitalised writing will attract a huge audience. At the bottom "NEW ALBUM OUT MONDAY" this again draws the audiences attention because it is in capitals as well. It also discloses information about when the album will be released this is a difference from other adverts where they do not disclose the information in capital letters like this. The fact that the album just says "NEW ALBUM OUT MONDAY" is as if everyone should be buying it on Monday.

The most used colours of the advert are black and white these do not really have any underlying meaning however the colour gold usually represents wealth and status. Most rap artist use the colour gold in their albums artwork/adverts.

The use of gold connotes the artist having money and those who listen to Drake and his genre will usually identify that the advert is likely to be advertising a rap album. From this analysis I am able to identify that artist will try and draw their audience attention by doing the conventional things in their album artwork and advert.


From this advert I learned that Drake has a sense of simplicity in his magazine adverts as he know he is a well known artist and doesn't have to do extravagant designs for people to notice him. In my group magazines advert I will try to include the simplicity of the font which I learned from Drake's advert. 

Magazine advert analysis - Chris Brown

"With the 2007 album Exclusive, he released a record so stuffed with radio-ready singles that it almost imploded on itself. Not content to simply allow Exclusive to sit on its own as a great R&B record, a fresh and new package had to be created to maximise the buzz around this talented young man."



Chris Brown is a Grammy award winner who is know for his dancing and his singing approach he is a hip-hop and R&B artist.

Chris Brown is shown as a medium shot and is covering the whole right side of the magazine whereas his name only covers a small section of the left side. This draws our attention to Chris Brown.



We portray Chris Brown as an artist who stereotypically targets the female audience by removal of his clothes whereas in this magazine advert he is dressed in a suit looking very formal this goes against the stereotype. I feel this is done to target a wider range of audience. If Chris Brown was to have his top off and be posted on a magazine which would be sold worldwide in shops would only target a small number of a particular audience whereas his being in a suit attracts a number of audiences of different ages and gender.



The title name is in capital letters "CHRIS BROWN EXCLUSIVE" and is printed above the picture this allows attention to be paid to both of them equally due to the use of capital letters. His name is printed in gold against the background and connotes wealth and status this could be Chris Brown implying that this album will cause him to have a status and it did.



The advert involves all the singles on the album in a list manner, this would attract the audience more as they know what they are buying. The advert also says "with guest appearances by Kanye West, The Game and Lil Wayne this again attracts the audience to buy it as they will feel as if they are getting added value because not only are they hearing music from Chris Brown they are also hearing music from other well known artist for no extra cost.

Digipak analysis - Rihanna

Rihanna is a similar artist to Drake as they make music within the same genre: Pop music, R&B music and Hip-hop music. This is why I have chose to analyse her digipak as well.

 

Characters

The characters on the front of the digipak is very limited only the artist name 'Rihanna' and the album name 'Loud' which is place above and below Rihanna faces. The colour of the text is white which connotes innocence and purity. The colour white also relates to Rihanna audience of females as it links to the feeling of romance (due to a bride normally wearing the colour white). Even inside the digipak minimal characters are used as Rihanna uses images of herself to create a message which is done by her body language and her facial expression.

Setting

On the inside of the digipak Rihanna (the protagonist) is pictured laying on red roses. The image is very eye catching and also allows the audience to create plenty interpretations for the image. The image creates a story like image and Rihanna even is wearing a marital dress which could connote that Rihanna wants to feel loved. Stereotypically woman are portrayed as emotional characters and wanting affection this would mean that Rihanna is trying to reach to her target audience which is females of the age 16-21+ years old. However Rihanna reveals parts of her body as well while she is laying on the red roses this would also appeal to the male audience.

Colour 

The colour red appears to be the main colour scheme throughout the whole album. The colour red connotes love, passion, danger and fire. The fire aspect of red could relate to Rihanna's fiery personality. Her songs are usually passionate and relate to her life from the colour red we could infer that Rihanna is passionate about her career and what she is singing about. Although alternatively her red lips may symbolise a woman who is in need of romance and is innocent. The red lips may reassemble a sexual provocative element to Rihanna. The way she is laying in that white portrays her and trying to seduce someone which goes against the initials inference of her being in a white marital dress signifying innocence and purity.  

CD

On the CD the design is of pink roses which represents beauty. The CD being in roses could also portray that its not only Rihanna that is beautiful (from the pictures on the album art work) but also the music itself is beautiful. "Light pink roses are associated with gentleness and admiration, and can also be used as an expression of sympathy". The CD appeals to the female audience as the light colours and the design of the rose will attract the female audience and they symbolise roses as something much more meaningful than a stereotypically male.

I feel that the theme of the digipak and the title of the album differ from each other. From the pictures Rihanna is pictured looking innocent however the album title 'Loud' would go against innocence and would probably connote someone who is confident and bold. From my own knowledge I would say that the title 'Loud' represents Rihanna more than she is pictured in the artwork design.

Digipak Analysis - Drake

What is a digipak? 

"A type of packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more disk."

The image below is Drake's digipak for his album "Take Care" the genre of this album is

a mix of R&B, hip hop and pop music. 

The CD for the album itself follows the colour scheme of black and gold of the album front cover. It has no picture of anything and only has DRAKE and the album name. This could imply that Drake feels as if he is a well known artist and everyone knows who he is already. 

The colours still connote wealth (Gold and black) and it also implies a classic as the colours are so simple. 

The back of the album is simple and only includes the track names and credits to his producers. The simplicity of the back cover suits Drake's target audience because it is stereotypical for males to like simple designs as they are mostly interested in the tracks. The capital letters of all the songs makes it more bold and more forthright which links to Drake as an artist. The colours, black and brown, create a serious atmosphere which links to his style of music and he normally mentions the struggles of relationships and life. The design creates an unfinished effect which could represent his songs as an unfinished battle.

I feel that Drake's 'Take Care' album is conventional to the stereotypes of black male R&B and rap artist. In my opinion the design on his digipaks links with his target audience due to various reasons which I have explained in the paragraphs above such as the back cover of the digipak having a simple design to link to the male audience as they stereotypically like simple things compared to females who are stereotypically more complex.