EVALUATION

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Question 4

 Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

BloggerThis was a very effective and useful technology to use at it helped us as a group to track the process of all our work. This meant we could keep referring back to our research if we ever needed help with a certain task or if you'd forgotten something important to do with your music video. Also, if, as a group we found some really interesting videos on YouTube or pictures on Google, which influenced us greatly, we wouldn't have to waste time trying to find them again as they would be posted on our blog. Blogger also helped us develop our ideas for our final music video and brainstorm new ideas which would help when making our video. Also, I find that using blogger helps you see how you have improved, which is very important; learn from your mistakes. Using blogger at home worked very well also, as if you came up with some really good ideas, you could just post it on your groups blog so these ideas could  be shared with the rest of your group without fail. 

Photoshop 
When creating our ancillary products, as a group, we used Photoshop quite a lot. It made it a lot easier to create the certain look we were going for to interest our target audience. It helped us create the 'cartoon-look' we were going for with our digipak. Here i learnt how to hand draw your own images and use different effects, such as 'grain' to make them look very professional. As a group, we experimented a lot when it came to using Photoshop. I certainly picked up some new skills which i can defiantly use in the future.  We wanted our magazine cover and digipak to come across very quirky, fun and original; like our music video. Photoshop helped us achieve our goal here. In my opinion, the final results were very effective and our star persona was presented exactly how we wanted. 

Youtube
YouTube was great when it came to research. We found many amazing videos which influenced us greatly. Without these videos our music video wouldn't have half the techniques and interesting ideas. Also, YouTube was useful as it taught us a lot about how lighting can be used effectively, which is very important when making a music video. I learnt a couple new skills when using YouTube. For example I learnt how to add annotations a video. This was very important as it helped me a lot when it came to completing my evaluation. YouTube also helped us when it came to Photoshop. As Photoshop isn't that easy to use, just by watching tutorials on YouTube we quickly picked up useful techniques to use on Photoshop. 

CONCLUSION 


Conclusion Q4
by: emilyrosemaryx

Copyright

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept. It protects the physical expression of ideas. As soon as an idea is given physical form, e.g. music, a web page, a piece of writing, a photograph and a film, it is protected by copyright. Generally, it is "the right to copy", but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work. There is no need for registration or to claim copyright in some way, protection is automatic at the point of creation. Both published and unpublished works are protected by copyright. Copyrights are said to be territorial, which means that they do not extend beyond the territory of a specific state unless that state is a party to an international agreement.

Copyright is usually owned by the creator of the work, for example, the composer, author, artist photographer and many more. 

Copyright refers to laws that regulate the use of the work of a creator, such as an artist of author. This includes copying:

-distributing, 

-altering 

-displaying creative, 

-literary and other types of work. 

Unless otherwise stated in a contract, the author of creator of a work retains the copyright. 

Copyright law grants to copyright holders certain exclusive rights in relation to their works. They have the right to: copy a work, issue copies to the public, perform show or play it, make adaptations or translations. They also have the right to prevent: 

• others communicating a work to the public by electronic transmission, e.g. broadcasting it or putting it on a website.
• others making available to the public a recording of a performance by electronic transmission, e.g. putting it on a website

 Infringing the rights of copyright holders may be a criminal offence and/or cause them to sue for damages.

Digipack and Magazine Advert

Digipack

Magazine Advert

Editing Our Music Video - DRAFT

Possible CD designs

In this blog post we're going to look at possible designs for our digi pack.

The Gatefold CD.

Our digi pack is going to be four sided and will consist of photo's of our star that are advertising his style and promoting his album. we could have either pictures that were taken from filming or pictures we have used of josh on our blog already. We as a group will make sure that the colour's and images all match and blend well together. Our aim is to make it look as professional as possible and to attract consumers to our product.

Star Persona

1.       What is your finalised star persona? Include a photograph of your star that best communicates their persona. Discuss what ideas/ideologies they communicate (materialism, rebellion, innocence, the cultural “ideal”, alternative to the “ideal” etc.). How do they communicate these ideas? How is their persona expressed visually? (costume, hair, makeup, bogy language, lighting, framing etc) How is it expressed through lyrics, genre?


Our star persona in our music video is Josh. Below are a couple photographs of him: 

As our original actor could not be in our music due to an accident which resulted to a broken leg, we had to re-think who we could use that would fit well into our music video. As a group we decided to use Josh. We want our star persona to be 'cool' and 'hip' however we want to move away from the stereotypical 'ganster' which is used in most rap videos; we wanted to think outside the box. We've not used violence and drugs which is used in most rap videos also. 

To achieve this, we want our star persona to be well groomed, stylish branded clothes and confident care free body language. We took this all into consideration and i think we achieved our goal. 
Even though we would of preferred to use a black guy as this would of fit into our genre better, we only had a few days to sort a new actor, and it was quiet hard finding another black person who could do it, so josh was our plan B. 

The lighting used in our music video also emphasizes our star persona. We have used a variety of different bright colors to highlight the atmosphere for our music video; 'cool' and 'swag'

Comments about feedback

Overall we were very pleased with the feedback we got from the other groups about our music video. From the feedback, we now know what we need to improve on, for example, we were told that we should add more lip singing in towards the end of the music video; this is very true and we will work on this next time we film. Also we were told to improve on some shots as they came across shakey.

Filming Part 2

On the  week back from half-term, 5th November commencing we knew we had to re-film some of the music video to fill the content of our video. We once again used the same space as last time. This was a sound proof drama studio. We blocked out all natural lights again and used the effects of artificial light. Doing this gives the feel of being in a music studio. Josh had learned the lyrics  of by heart this time round, so when recording he flowed much better with the lyrics, and looked much more genuine. Additionally this was useful for editing. Not solo relying on lip syncing as a technique in post filming. He raps it so well we don't deem it  necessary. In the first session of filming we had Josh rapping fine, but the lighting set up was the same in all of a long duration shot. The camera height and angel was the same throughout. Taking this into consideration on the second time we wanted to make the video more dynamic. We done this by josh rapping the entire song 3 times. But at different angels and heights. Also every song we would but colored filters over the studio light we used to create a nice affect. Last thing we did was the mise-en-scene. Josh changing t-shirts in the different run troughs.

This a similar kind of set up we used when filming. Using a big tall light, reflectors, blacked out background. But in addition to these we put colored filters over the lights to liven up the frame when shooting.

Our star Josh Oosterhuis

Rough Cut Feedback

Feedback from other groups

Marking Criteria

Rough Cut Music Video

Goodwin's Points and our Music Video

Here is a plan of how our music video will relate to Goodwin's points.

Voyeurism
We plan to include shots of our star, both of him rapping to the camera and him seemingly unaware that the camera is there, including footage shots in a 'behind-the-scenes' kind of way. We are also planning on featuring some shots of other members in the group, referring to the notion of looking by peering directly into the camera.

Selling The Artist/Demands of Record Label
Our star will be appearing in his freshest clothes, and acting in a cool manner to appeal to our target audience. We will also attempt to appeal to a more arty crowd with our more abstract shots, which should help us sell the artist even while not directly portraying him.

Lyrics/Visuals
Our abstract shots should add to the inspiring, uplifting message of the song, and we are planning to make more direct connections to the lyrics, particularly when the rapper makes a pun along the lines of  'my dream works' we are going to put in a shot of a stack of Dreamworks Studios DVDs, and when he talks about 'great whites' we are going to include a short stop-motion animation of a shark. We will attempt to make more literal links like this throughout our video.

Music/Visuals
Most importantly, we will attempt to edit our video to the beat, which is much more satisfying for the viewer than offbeat cuts. The music is quite chilled out but also at a danceable tempo, so amongst our abstract shots (linking to the calm music) we will also featuring people dancing, raving and generally having a good time.

Intertextuality
As mentioned previously, we will refer to the works of Dreamworks Studios with a shot of some Dreamworks DVDs, linking in with the lyrics. Although not strictly a 'text', we will be referring to clothing labels such as Supreme, which will feature prominently in our video.

Genre
Since the song is part of the hip-hop genre we will obviously feature shots of our star performing, as this is one of the most common elements of rap videos, and we will focus a little on his clothes/material possessions, but not a lot as we want our video to be quite unconventional.

Our Star Persona

Throughout the planning stages of our music video we have been thinking about our star persona: what ideas do we want him to convey and how will we convey these ideas? Due to the actor we were going to use being unable to perform for us (as mentioned in our October 11th Blog Update) we have had to slightly rethink our star persona.

First and foremost, we want our star persona to be 'cool'. Our song choice takes care of a lot of that, being an independent, well-written rap record, but we also feel our star needs to be well dressed and groomed, wearing stylish branded clothing and acting in a nonchalant, carefree manner. However, we want to stay away from the 'gangsta' stereotype of rap music and create a persona more fitting with the uplifting message of our song, so we're going to avoid the usual rap clichés of drugs, violence and misogyny.

The new actor for our star persona is group member Joshua Oosterhuis, as we feel he is a good fit for the persona. Although we would have preferred a black actor, which would have been a more realistic choice for the song, we could not find a replacement in time and we think he is more than capable of fulfilling the role.

Example images of our actor

Written Storyboard

We want our video to open up with one of our abstract ink shots, and then when the beat drops and the rapper starts to perform, we will fade into a shot of our actor rapping. This shots will start out focusing on the actor's T-shirt, which will be a top by Supreme featuring Kate Moss on it. This will link into the lyric 'never chase girls chase dreams first', as well as displaying the cool brand.

The shirt we will focus on.

From this point we will cut between our abstract, object related shots, our dancing/filtered shots and the shots of our rapper performing. Specifically, when the lyric 'my dream works' appears, we will feature a shot of Dreamworks DVDs showing off the Dreamworks logo, and when the rapper talks about 'great whites' we will feature our stop motion shark.

Dreamworks Logo

We really want to include an impact shot similar to the one in the TNGHT - Higher Ground video (at roughly 1:35) however our song does not really feature a big 'drop'. For this reason, we are instead going to feature an impact (specifically an egg splatting on the floor) when the chorus comes in.

During the chorus we will again cut between our rapper performing, dancing shots and more abstract ones, returning to the ink. After the chorus we will continue like this. At the second chorus, as the song builds up more and more, we want to feature some of the filtered shots with trippy fades added, to hieghten the experience of the music, before finishing off with more abstract footage.

Lighting Our Music Video

We already have an idea of what we want our music video to look like: we want a lot of abstract, high-key shots of semi-random objects, with bright, bold colours and patterns. These shots will be mostly close-up and extreme close-up, again to emphasise the abstract qualities. However, for shots of our star, we want a more moody, atmospheric, low-key style. We have looked up some tutorials on Youtube for how to achieve this.

This video is very helpful as it teaches you a lot of tips on creating a very specific, low-key look for your video, while still keeping the star brightly lit and visible. We are definitely going to use this lighting style for our star.

This video shows you a very interesting way to lip-sync your video, by singing along to the song at half speed and then speeding it up in post-production. This creates an interesting look for your video, which we might explore in ours. It also offers some useful tips on lighting in small spaces.

Update

BLOG UPDATE 11TH OCTOBER 2012

Throughout the making of our music video,Chiddy Bang - Never we have come across a few hiccups on the way.
As a group, we have all come up with some brilliant ideas which will work very effectively in our video. To help us, we have done a lot of research to broaden our ideas - we wanted to look out-side the box; be different. For example, we researched the lyrics and carefully looked at each word and thought what we could do with certain important words. 

We have got all our ideas down and are ready to start filming for the rough copy, however recently not all of our group have been present at the lessons so it has been harder then we thought to start filming as we would be lacking equipment; props ect. Instead of filming, the remaining people in our group would carrying on adding information to the blog or trying to think up some more good ideas we could possible use. 

For our music video, we want to include some shots of a male rapping ( lip singing ) to the lyrics. To achieve this, we all decided on using our friend from college 'Tee'. We chose Tee for many different reason; we took the 'star persona' in to account. To help us, we did a questionaire with questions such as 'what do you think is a stereotypical rapper' and so on. I found that this was really effective as it gave us a rough idea of to what people expect when it comes to the genre rap. 

However, we came across slight problem, our main star Tee broke his leg yesterday and now has a huge cast on his leg. This means that we can't use him in our video as we need to do a lot of long shots where tee's full body would be in view; having a cast would ruin the effect completely. Straight away, we thought of who else we could use instead of Tee. We came up with a few people however we still need to decide who to use- this will be solved next lesson.
Next week, we are going to start filming straight away as we are slightly behind in this area. We are going to start of filming some of the abstract shots, for example the dye falling into the water. Also we are going to start filming the lip singing shots with the person we decide to be our new star. 

Overall, even though we have come across a few bumps on the way we are still staying strong and thinking of good solutions. :)

Questionnaire

On thursday 11th of October, our group went out within lesson time. Interviewing a variety of people at long road sixth form college. These kind of people range from 16-18 years. With a even mixed gender. We have designed these questions to help us understand what we need actor-wise, but also to help woth the digital packs and CD covers.

1. What would expect to see in a rap video?

- I would expect to see a variety of 'hot' boys and 'hot' girls

2. What is your view of a stereotypical rapper?

- Black and muscular

3. Do you like rap music and why?

- I have a mixed response to rap music, i don't like all rap music.

4. What attracts you to this type of music?

- The beat and the lrycis; you can relate to them.

5. What normally attracts you to buying a rap album?

- The reputation of the artist; i.e. if i've heard they're good

Star Persona

The star system is the method of creating, promoting and exploiting movie stars in Classical Hollywood cinema. 

Examples of comparison of start to 'ideal': 
Jess Wright, from the program 'TOWIE' looks 'glam' on the red carpet in the magazine 'OK'. She is wearing a 'baby doll dress' at the launch of her fashion collection. There are no negative comments; all positive. 

Challenge to ideal? - A 'large' star i.e. Adele is represented negatively in 'OK' magazine; comments about her weight. 

Music contributes to star persona - Genre, lyrics -> Media Material ( music video ) 
                                                                         Intimate, relate to fans life, reinforces relationship + personna



We have chosen 'JLO' to talk about a unique selling point. For example, we find that her USP is her bum. This is because it is sexy, curvy and shown off in most of her music videos. The ideologies that she convey - materialism - The veet advert which she is in shows a lot of sexuality; her bum. This challenges the idealistic view - seen acceptable. She does not conform to the hegemonic cultral ''ideal'' as she is curvy and isn't the same as most famous people ; not stereotypical, skinny and blonde etc. 
Anything that could devalue the star quality? Nicki-Manaj takes over JLO'S seat on American Idol; someone new/current taking over.

Our star

                                                                Tinashe Tee

Storyboard to complete...

This is our storyboard for the music video. (think josh has) (upload)



task on board
you must complete a storyboard and upload a picture of it. And then blog it with shot lists on it.

Our Music Video - General Plan

Our music video is going to be divided up into 4 different shot types, taking inspiration from the music videos we have looked at. The first is footage of ink droplets in water, similar to the fan-made video for Baths - Aminals. We are also going to do some shots of random objects and objects relating to the lyrics of our song, similar to the abstract style of the video for TNGHT - Higher ground. Our third shot type, influenced by the videos for Rusko - Everyday (Netsky Remix) and The Internet - Cocaine, will feature people dancing and generally enjoying themselves, but with coloured filters and disorientating fades throughout. Our final and most important shot type, influenced not by a particular video but by rap videos in general, will feature our star persona rapping to the camera.