EVALUATION TASK 4

HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

EVALUATION TASK 3

WHAT HAVE YOU LEANED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

 

Me and my partner Joe both posted the our music video in facebook and asked our friends to comment leaving positive and negative feedback. Unfortunately, because of the inactivity of aour accouonts, there was no responce. However, as an alternative, we asked people around our school to watch the video and give us a written response about how they felt about the video. We drafted a table where the audience can write their names, leave a comment and give a number rating out of 10.

 

From the feedback, we learnt that the people we asked had a range of views, and each of they liked a combination of different things. This gives us an insight on how in real life, the audience can gravitate towards contrasting elements (i.e. someone can like the editing of the video but not think the setting was suitable for the video). One generic comment which kept coming up in the comments we recieved about how the video suited the target market. This is one strength of the video. However, others thought the plot of the story had some flaws. The avaerage rating for the video was 7.78.

 

Personally, I think that the editing of the video was the strength of the video because we had the advantage of using Final Cut Pro. I think a weakness of the video is the lead up to the ending of the story. This is because there wasn't anything interesting about the car journey until the house robbery.

EVALUATION TASK 2

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?




The video above is a combination of ther media texts I have produced through A2 course. This is an advertisemant for the retail release of the artist's album

EVALUATION TASK 1

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS? (I.E. OF TEASER TRAILERS/POSTER/POSTER/MAGAZINES)

Music video Analysis below:

 DIKIPAK Analysis

My Digipak.

 

I used a variety of hip-hop orientated conventions in the construction of my album art work. To begin with, I already acquired vast knowledge of the hip-hop genre because I've been a devout fan. My digipak features stereotypical hip-hop poses, modelled by my main character (for example, they prayer pose which is symbolic for faith in Christ). This is typical because throughout the genre because rappers make reference to the Christianity as well as wearing jewelry with the holy cross on it. In addition, my use of a city landscape is also relevant to the hip-hop genre because rappers are known for 'repping' (representing) the city they're from. Furthermore, My artwork complies with the genre and target market in terms of gang culture, because on the the CD container, I used the red bandanna. This symbol represents the 'blood gang'. Hip-hop originated from gang culture, therefore there references are made through out the music and the target market are able to identify/relate with them. An aspect of hip-hop that doesn't apply to my digipac is money. Nowhere in my digipak have i made reference to money/jewelry/expensive cars. Also, another thing I haven't made reference to, which is typical in hip-hop music is objectifying women.

 

Jay-Z's Digipak

Jay-Z's digipak is relevant to commercial hip-hop. This is due to the way he insinutes that he makes vast amounts of money. This is also done through his music by the way he glorifies drug trafficking. From Jay-Z's digipak we can clearly that by the way he is behaving, he has self confidence and sees himself as a role model for his listeners. This is because hip-hop is usually a 'self-boasting' kind of genre, therefore we can expect this kind of convention. Also, from the inner booklet, we can see that Jay-Z is wearing an expensive piece of jewelry. This is yet another connotation of hip-hop because is again shows us the genre trend in the artist wanting to appear to have the most money. My digipak lacked the above connotations.



Website Analysis

My Website

 

I don't think my website used as many genre conventions as it could have because there has minimum reference to any connotations of rap besides the artist himself and the  music. I there are no aesthetically striking concepts to do with hip-hop besides the slideshow in the beginning which features the artist doing provocative gang sign poses. As well as, my digipak, my website homepage uses the same city landscape City as the background, which symbolised the artist and how he represnts his City.

 

 

Nas' Website

 

Nas' website isn't strongly representative in terms of hip-hop because there aren't many conventions that apply to the culture. However, the photograph on the homepage shows the artist walking through his neighbourhood. similarly to my website, this element of belonging and representing where he comes from is applicable. 

 





Final Products (Music Video, Digipak and Website)

Music Video




Digipak

Website link

http://rufaro09.wix.com/goodkidmaadcity

MAKING FINAL VIDEO (Final Cut Pro) - Powtoon

Music video Draft

Switching to Final Cut Pro

After making a 1st version, of my music video I realised that I was being limited by the iMovie software because I didn't give me the enough tools, it lacked complexity and it made the combination of clips not look as proffesional as I wanted it to look. Therefore, I started using Final Cut Pro because it was literally a more advanced version of iMovie, as well as being made by Apple. This means that the interface was very similar to iMovie, however, I was now able to manipulate my raw footage to makee best music video I could.

Making DIGIPAK (Booklet)

 

Firstly, I used the brush tool to create the faded gray with a darker grey around the edges. After that, I got some information about Kendrick Lamar's legacy on the Internet and pasted it into a text box. I made the font similar to American money.

 

After that, I used a photograph from the photoshoot with my main character and turned it black and white by removing the colour saturation. I then used the pen tool to crop around the main character's body and gave it some drop shadow

 

Lastly, I pasted a photograph of the City on a layer on top of my main character's body. Whilst holding 'Alt' I clicked inbetween the two layers. This process makes the city photograph take the shape of the cropped out character. I then erased some of the City layer that was on top of the main character's head. The final result of this was my main character having a body that consists of the city and the clouds. For finishing touches, I made a textbox with 'welcome to my city'

 

Making DIGIPAK (Spine)

To make the spine of my album cover, I used the rectangle marquee tool to crop a long part of a black and white copy of the City Photograph.

After, I used the textbox tool to make 2 different boxes that contained texts with two fonts and rotated the layers so they can be vertically in line with a straight line.

Making DIGIPAK (CD Container)

Firstly, I retrieved an image of a CD container from google images.

I then imported a photograph of the red bandanas we used in the music video shoot as well as the City photo and placed them against each other, whilst overlapping the CD container template. After, I merged the bandana and city photos into one later.

Lastly, I held 'Alt' and clicked in between the CD container layer and the bandana/city layer in order for the pictures to take up the shape of the CD container 

Making DIGIPAK (Tracklist)

To begin with, In the making of my tracklist, I used the same photograph of a city  as my background and I used the lightness tool to reduce the concentration of colour.  

After, I found the official tracklisting of GoodKid M.A.AD City on iTunes and production information and then copied it into a text box. I chose to retain the title font on the front cover because I felt it maintained the theme of the artwork as well as being readable in mass.

Lastly, I imported a photograph of the main character, used advanced blending options to only select the dark shades of the photo and I erased the irrelevant parts around the edge of his body with the rubber tool. I then imported two last images and scaled them to size, the Top Dawg Ent logo and a barcode.

EDITING DRAFT VIDEO (iMovie) #3

Another key feature for my music video is slow motion. I used this tool in clips where I was looking to give the audience more engagement towards the video, whether it be character development or expression in the actor's faces. This was a very easy process because it was 2 clicks away in the menu bar. I also was able to control the depth/length of the slow motion. 

Secondly, there were times where I found myself using the 3 different crop tools. I used the Ken Burns one in particularly when I needed a clip to track/slide in a certain direction. I was able to select the beginning of this effect and the end of it. In addition, the crop tool helped me in terms of when there were irrelevant objects and scenery around the edges of the frame, therefore I could select/zoom in to the part of the frame I was using.  

While editing my video, I realised that I could also manipulate the volume level select parts of the song by dragging across along the audio. This tool was useful when I needed a louder volume in parts of the song they were talking in

EDITING DRAFT VIDEO (iMovie) #2

In order to organise the lip sync around the video, I was able to manipulate the 'Clip Duration' on each clip so that they were in line with the lyrics.  

 In addition, I was able to utilise the video effect tool in order to suit the clip better. For example, If the clip I was using had a background with bright colours that were irrelevant the theme of the music video, I could use a variety of preset filters that alter the saturation of the clip. 

As well as the above, I was also able to manually manage the exposure, brightness, contrast and contrast in a clip. Therefore, in a situation that I had to make a scene pass off as night time, I would simply reduce the expose and brightness of the clip until I thought it was realistic enough.

My Narrative

Beginning - Character introduction
                   
Middle - Car journey

End- Getaway robbery




The narrative for my music video was relatively similar to the one of the music video. However, I made a few changes due to impracticalities in terms of demanding too much from the actors I used. For example, I originally had wished to feature scenes of on-road robberies, giving an insight on the way females are objectified with in the culture, as well as drug trafficking. Therefore, my music video was only limited to the build up of robber, lip-sync, establishing shots and developing the characters.

Health and Safety

With regards to health and safety, during filming we had to take several precautions in order to avoid any breaking of the law,  injuries and danger.

To begin with, in the opening scene when the car is parking, a character in the passenger is seen to be holding a gun. Although it was realistic, the prop we used was a toy BB bullet gun, therefore it wasn't capable of causing any serious damage, nor was it loaded during filming. We obtained those item from a friend's dad who was willing to let us use it.

Secondly, in the beginning scene also, it appears as though the main character is smoking cannabis. When in fact, we used roll up cigarettes, which consists of rolling papers and tobacco.

Thirdly, in the burglary all the main characters were seen to be breaking and entering into a house, as well as, beating someone up in the living room. The reality was, we asked a friend to use his house as the burglary victim's house in the video, therefore we had permission from the residents to do so. Furthermore, when we filmed beating up the victim in the living room, the actors performed this slowly, because when editing the video we simply sped up the footage so it looked more realistic.

EDITING DRAFT VIDEO (iMovie) #1

To begin with, to start creating out music video, we uploaded all of our raw footage into iMovie.

Then started to piece the relevant clips from the raw footage to the music video sequence while strongly basing it on my storyboard, however alot of trial and error was involved in this process because not everything i planned to edit necessarily looked good.

As well as putting relevant clips in to the music video sequence, inbetween these clips i used a small range of video transitions between some clips where i saw fit. I didn't use the majority of the transitions on imovie because it would've made my music video seem cheesy and cliché. I used the 'fade to white' transitions to put more emphasis on the following clip. I used the 'cross dissolve' and  the 'cross blur' transition frequently to give the music video more flow and there were immediate cuts through out where I saw suitable.

Making website

I used Wix.com to help me to construct a website for my artist. The website has a very simple and easy to understand layout that lets my add essential features to my website such as menu bar, photographs (with captions), a photo gallery, text boxes and a website theme.  

This is where I named and organised the arrangement of my pages (Home, About Us, Music, Store and Tour Dates)

This feature of the website enabled me to set a photograpgh of New York as the background to my entire website from uploading it.

 

 

This feature enabled me to import a number of pictures so that they could be part of a gallery that lets the viewer scroll through some promotional pictures for the website. 

 

This feature let me be able to set a particular image (social network/logos) so that its visible on every page.

 

 

Website printscreen

HOME PAGE

ABOUT PAGE

ARTIST MUSIC

ARTIST STORE

TOUR PAGE

Website link

http://rufaro09.wix.com/goodkidmaadcity

Final DIGIPAK

DIGIPAK research

This is a good example of a Digipak from the genre of Hip-hop.

This is 2Pac's album entitled 'All eyez on me'

 

The front cover has several features that all album covers should have:

• Parental Advisory logo
• The artist's name
• The album title
• An indication on the number of CDs
• Artwork with reference to the artist (i.e. photograph)

 

The inner CD of the digipak features:

• A clear edited photograph of the artist
• A decorated CD artwork
• Red and black colour scheme (behind the CD)



Within the second opening of the CD we can see:

• The record label's logo
• The second CD

 

On the back of the album we can see:

• The track list
• A bar code
• The record label logos
• A list of the credited people (i.e. executive producers)
• Name of the artist and album

Making DIGIPAK (front cover)

 

To begin with, I created a new blank canvas with an area of 21cm by 21cm. Then I pasted 2 copies of a secondary source image of a city skyline. I changed the Hue & Saturation on the top layer picure to make it dark and using the soft rubber tool to create the light to dark gradient from top to bottom.  

 

 

 

I pasted an image from the artist's photoshoot

 

I then used the polygon lasso tool to colour fill shapes that take up the artist's main features in order to create a cartoon effect on the artist

 

 

 

 

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Each feature has its own layer

 

 

After tracing the photo of the artist, merged together the shape of the artist's jacket with a coloured version of the city background

 

 

 

 

Lastly I got a picture of the parential advisory logo due to the explicit content of the album, I got a picture of the artist's recordlabel's logo. I also wrote the name of the album on the top of the cover and included the artist's name just under it. I put a coloued copy of the background and merged it with the title of the cover.