FINAL VIDEO!

Final Evaluation

Above is my video'd evaluation! i did it on an old samsung with only a 1.3 megapixel camera, and for some reason the quality degraded somewhat when i uploaded it! hopefully you can make out what im saying in it! if not i've taken the liberty of writing out the gist of most my points below! 

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

-What are the conventions of your music video?

--Star performer: Kingsta is the main (and almost only) character in this video, the focus is on him the whole time with a whole range of different camera shots, location and changes in costume. the reason why i did this was simple, its to build a relationship with him and the audience (because he is a new artist) and i didn't want to establish any other relationships with audiences and other characters in his video, i.e. if most boys saw really hot girls in his video, then they'd remember THEM more than they remember Kingsta! also its a common feature in grime, were the artist is always "in your face" if you get what i mean.

--costume: this was another convention i used because costume is a key aspect of ANY music video! and it reflects genre too, i.e. hip-hop artists would wear baggy clothes, blinged chains, etc, RnB nowadays is classy guys and glamorous girls, and other genres like goth music and rock and all that has its own significant dress sense! so i decided that Kingsta would take on board the dress sense of most grime artists, to wear the kind of stuff they also wear in their videos (sports bran -swagged out- clothing!)

--location: this is another convention which is key in music videos, as location and background can tell us more about the artist! i.e. their origins, are they cultural? streetwise? classy? poor? rich? young teens living with their parents? so i decided that Kingsta would emphasise his music origins by having him filmed in street areas, in his studio etc.. and in most importantly in ilford.

--lighting: this is key in music videos, as lighting can either be manipulated or left natural, and in grime videos, its natural, because most grime videos are "home made" meaning that artists just want to focus on their lyrical genius, not show off the budget they spent on making the video! or trying to use lighting to make scenes look better, as they're really just rapping in their home streets!

--cutting rate: this wasn't in time with the music, i just wanted to have loads of shots put together to keep audiences interested, and i wasn't trying to tell the story and for it to go with the music or anything, just wanted to keep it fast paced!

What are some conventions of the Grime genre?

--having the artist as the focus of attention: as grime artists are trying to make an impact on the grime scene with their acting and lyrical genius, the camera is always on THEM only, so audiences can learn to appreciate them.

--street costume: is typical of the grime genre, all artists are street-born, they all endorse sports clothing and swagger it out, this is a common trait in MANY videos included newham generals' ARD.

--location: its ALWAYS located in the streets! and studios if any of them have their own studio

--camera movement: for some reason..its not always still..this is probably because artists want to emphasise that they are again, home grown artists that aren't willing to make a hit on people through how much money they have, or how glamorous they are, just that they have lyrical genius!

--not to follow a narrative structure: they dont tell stories in their music videos! they just simple spray their lyrics at the camera, and whatever we see is either them spitting, or them in their hometowns.

Where have you followed these conventions? why?

--to be honest, i followed ALL these conventions, so that everyone knows its a grime video when they see it! it typically looks like a standard grime video, not RnB, not hip hop as there aren't any backstage dancers or anything, or any other genre, its just one artist, doing his thing in front of the camera, the location is his hometown, ilford, and the areas i chose are just similar to ones ive seen in alot of other grime videos, again mainly newham generals' ard.

Where have you not followed these conventions? why?

--i didn't challenge any convention of the grime genre, simply because me and my artist decided to keep it within the grime genre, and not to try make anything different, we wanted to make an impact in the grime genre, not in any other genre! so everything is typical of this genre!

Question 2: How effective is the combination or your main product and ancillary tasks?

What is the image of your artist?

-he's a typical grime artist, like the main "black" ones, but asian, just trying to make a name for himself in this type of music, his music style is to "keep it real" and not to rap about anything that isn't relevant to his OWN life, so he is purely about what most grime artists are about, jus spitting bars about what their own life is like!

how does the digipak, website and video link together?

 For the tasks in which we were given, we chose to create a music video to 'woos dat' by Kingsta. From this, we also had to complete 2 ancillary tasks that would support the music video and the band in which we decided to promote. This meant that our ancillary tasks had to be created, designed and made to the same standard as our music video. To accompany our music video, the ancillary tasks in which we decided as a group to create were a Website Homepage for the artist, as well as a Digipak.

Both of these products, as well as our music video had to somehow all link together, so that they become believable that they were promoting the artist. The way in which we felt this was best achievable was by creating a coherent grime style which would then be displayed within all of our 3 products.

In order for our products to create a maximum effect, it needed to target and meet the needs of the target audience. However, for our products to meet the target audience's needs, we needed to research further into what kind of things our target audience enjoy and do.

understanding that the artist is a product in the music industry as well as the fact that marketing is done so for profit was a key factor in understanding what ancillary texts to create as well as how to do so. One of the ancillary texts as well as our chosen medium to support the given task is a Digipak. This can be seen as an effective combination with the main production as it serves its purpose in delivering the artists music on a Compact Disc as well as presenting pictures which link to the music video. The ideologies chosen are effective in promoting the concept of creating a marketing package as well as linking this with the main production, particularly on the front cover which shows the artist looking directly into the camera and so also straight at the viewer.  

here are just a few ways that i made all 3 products fit together!

--colour coordination: all the colours work together, most of them are primary colours, there aren't any random colours thrown in, and if you put them all next to eachother, you'd see the resemblance!

--image stlyes: all images are "styled" the same, they aren't glammed up, or made to make the artist look sexy or anything, they aren't made to look purposeful for any other genre but grime, all the images in the website, digipak, and even the way the artist looks in the video are almost identical, there isnt much difference!

--grime logo:the grime logo is featured on the digipak and the website!

--poses in images: in the website, and on the digipak, kingsta has that same facial expression you see him using in his videos, there isn't any differences here, he keeps the same "grime" look about him too!

--locations: they all have some element of "street" in ALL images in the website, the entire video, and even the digipak has endorsed some "street-style" through the graffiti i put on the back cover!

--themes:the whole grime theme is constant, you can even tell that the products originated from a grime scene form the way the font is done, the pictures are taken, the costume etc..

--Fonts and colours: i chose to use red and white old school graffiti for ANY font i would use in ALL the productions so it worked together! 

To what extent are you creating a marketing synergy?

a synergy, in general, may be defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.i think i created a marketing synergy VERY well as all three products functioned extremely well together! they all sold the artist well and i don't really think i could have done this any better, purely because i spent alot of time trying to get all of it to work together!

Question 3: What have your learned from audience feedback?

audience feedback was a key ingredient in producing the final pieces for each product, i gained constructive criticisms from for target market, which helped me to make adjustments to my work and then make final pieces that i was very happy with! i found my target market and the people i would use to get audience feedback from, by sending out questionnaires in the first month of this production to find out who is very interested in music, especially grime, as these would be the people that would give me the best criticisms, out of about 20 people that responded well, i picked 10 so i can focus my attention on them, and made a fair sample out of them! i kept coming back to them after my initial concepts, first drafts, second drafts etc... until everyone was happy with what i had produced!

..in your initial concept strages for digipak, website and video

--when i first came out with my ideas for these 3 products, i wrote it was a heading on a piece of paper, and handed it out to people to get feedback on!

--when doing audience research with my class (which was convenient as they were my target market!) i passed a sheet around the classroom with my initial ideas and concepts, and people gave me new ideas and told me what ideas of mine i should scrap, which helped me come to a judgment of what should be my final product and what i should start to feature!

some feedback i got here was:

"the panels on the digipak don't work together"

"the front cover looks childish! its too much, make it more simple"

"why not a picture of him in a suit in the inside front cover?"

"why is your website looking so tacky? why not just a picture in the middle with tabs around it?"

"the 3 products won't work together, as the colours will be too different"

"the idea for the video is TOO typical! why not alter some scenes, throw in at least 2 unique elements"

"take a better image for the website instead"

..First draft of digipak and website

--these are what i made after the first wave of audience feedback, and upon feedback i found out that people always have different views on what's hot and what's not! so i found out from my audience alot of things, and what they find appealing, and upon this i based my final conclusions on what i should include in my drafts!

some feedback i got here was:

"looks good, but make the back cover just red and white graffiti to match the front"

"change the back inside cover, make it the grime logo"

"it looks rubbish! change the whole thing"

"too simple..not creative enough..i wouldn't buy it"

"make the inside panels one theme...and the outer panels another theme!"

..developing concept for videos

--this was the point in which i had a good idea for what should be in my video, and i would have made a concept sheet, then people would give me more criticisms and tell me what ideas of mine are rubbish (without being too harsh)

some feedback i got here was:

"its too typical, why not a parody?"

"dont have other people in the video, its not typical of the grime genre"

"keep the focus on kingsta always"

"keep it in time with the beat"

"make sure its synced"

"need more locations"

"re-think costume"

..feedback on initial photography, what changes did you make and why?

this was key! as this was where the most important product was taking shape! so i had to show my work to some people and get feedback for it, and people were saying things like

"the lighting is poor"

 "you're cutting his head off in that scene"

 "that shot shouldn't come before that shot as he has a cap here...then he has no cap..then suddenly his cap comes back out of nowhere!"

"Re-take that shot, the camera's too shakey"

i had to make most these changes, and make shots more steady, AND redo everything as the lighting was poor! this was a must as most people were saying that the lighting was poor in many shots!

 ..post-production, what did you change? why?

this was basically the editing stage of the production, the bit where i had done all my filming and would be making transitions, effects, text, cutting rates etc.. changes to my filming, and based on what my audience were saying, i managed to create a pretty good piece of work in the end of the day!

Question 4: how did you use new media technology in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

..in research: compared to AS level, i had WAY more access to the internet, watching videos from across the world on different sharing sites, including big ones like facebook, viral videos, and listening to music on Jango airplay etc..in AS i didn't really look at other work on the internet apart from one track that i had on my own computer! when researching i was using the internet as an extensive library which really proved to be highly useful to me! and i was keeping a record of all my research on blogger!

..in planning: i was using BlackBerry messenger to keep intouch with my group and artist, using my phone to keep track of things, using blogger to track my plans, if im keeping in time with everything.

..in evaluation: its quite obvious, the way i had to video myself evaluating my work! which was MUCH MORE DIFFERENT THAN IN AS LEVEL where i only used a powerpoint to evaluate my work! this was much more easier to do, as i just had to video me evaluating my own work! only one problem was that the video wasn't too clear.

..digipak construction: i used photoscape to edit each image that would go on each panel, photoshop to put each image ON the panel, a HD camera to take photo's for everything too! this created a MASSIVE BRIDGE BETWEEN AS AND A2 as i was using way more technologies compared to then!

..website construction: i used wix.com, a website buildier, compared to GCSE where i had to make a website on powerpoint! lol.

..video construction: i used a HD camera, Final cut pro on Mac (version 2), which was WAY MORE DIFFERENT TO AS as this was new more improved software and hardware which was also more extensive and beneficial to me when filming when producing!

OVERALL..ive come a VERY long way since AS and my skills have highly developed in a variety of areas, i think i did very well in this production, and the use of new technologies helped greatly! if i was to do this again, i would use a better camera for my evaluation! and use a wider audience for feedback, as i realised how essential audience feedback really is!

Post-production analysis

challenges faced: 

when i put up all my work to Finalcut, i found that MANY scenes had poor lighting! and the framing in alot of scenes was very poor! so i had to go re-shoot so many scenes to make it look better! which was a huge problem as the deadline was drawing closer!

another challenge i faced when editing was getting everything in sync! there were many scenes where the music was playing just fine, but the lips were moving at different times! so i had to carefully cut every scene to the music! which felt like it took forever!

effects used and why

i didn't use many effects, just a couple where i had to brighten it up a bit because some scenes were too dull, otherwise it just looked like your average grime video! another effect i used was nearer to the end of the video, where i put 4/5 frames onto the screen at the same time, just to keep audiences interest constant at the video draws to a close

transitions and captions

i didn't use a single transition in my production for two reasons, 1) i was running out of time! 2) in my research..i found that grime videos always use jump cuts! im not sure about the reason for this, but there was only jump cuts in the videos i saw! so i just kept to that trend

development of concept during post production (how has it changed from storyboard version?)

since my first concept, it felt like EVERYTHING had been changed based on audience feedback! my initial idea was to have the artist against a black screen just rapping, and now its become a case where the artist is out everywhere in different locations doing different things! this was purely based on audience research, this is what people wanted to see! but still..i'm very happy with the final outcome!

video production - Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film medium used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications in various media, performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete output.

After the production stage (gathering ALL my footage after audience and artist feedback) i had to go into the editing rooms and import all the footage and edit it! this was a lengthy process and took at least 2 hours minimum every day spent in the schools editing room, and sometimes even more! (closer to the deadline i was working at least 4 hours in there including lunch hours!)

the software i used was the newer version of final cut pro, which was different to what i used in AS LEVEL as this had more features and i found more straightforward to use (maybe because i had already been using it before!)

i could use transitions, effects, captions, cut down shots, re-frame by zooming in and out, filters and all sorts to change my footage into a full on music video!

 What would i have done if i had another chance at editing:

time keeping! i would have spent WAY more time in there editing! and receiving feedback along the way!

how was this different to AS production and any other production i may have done?

simple, there was MORE work being demanded, i had to make an ENTIRE music video! and in AS i only didn't have to worry about the cutting rate being in time with the music as much as i did here!

The Edits i made to my footage! 

when i walked into the editing room at school, the first thing i had to do was transfer everything from an SD card onto the computer, so i had more than 30mins footage to edit down into a 3minute clip..which..if you think about it..makes things easier! (this was AFTER i re-shot everything after i found out that the lighting was poor in my previous footage) so each clip was to last about 3-4 seconds, some being a bit longer, some being a bit shorter! 

1) the first thing i ensured, was that the shot..ended after a beat, so i edited in time with the music! for example, when kingsta says "you aint seen me when im vexxed bro" straight after bro there's a break, and the shot changes over , i keep this theme throughout the entire video!

2) some scenes were made brighter (the one in the studio) to make it look better

3) i didn't use transitions..because i was running out of time after reshooting, and i spent ALOT of time trying to sync the sound and get the cutting rate just right

4)nearer to the end i got all the shots coming onto the screen together, just for something the audience can enjoy!

5) some scenes were tilted, then the background was filled with the streets of ilford, because i didn't want the background to be plainly black after tilting the scenes around!

6) i put a fade at the end of the video to fade out the music so it sounds good!

7)i put text at the start saying "K.S.K productions with KINGSTA 'Woos DAT' underneath it! in white text (to make it stand out and make it easy for the audience to read!

HOW WAS THIS DIFFERENT TO AS?!

-well, in AS i didn't have as much footage to edit! and i wasn't in such pressure to make something like a music video! which had WAY more scenes than a title sequence (my AS level production) i mean, i didn't have to sync the music, i didn't have to worry about cutting rate really, or framing as much as i needed to in music videos!

-in AS i managed to get everything done quickly, because in a title sequence you just have to cut up shots, put the next to eachother, then lay the music on top!

-this production was WAY more demanding, because at the same time i had to make a website too!