Print work photography

Jay decided to take our artist halo to the side for some photographs we could use for the album cover and cd cover.

Completed Video

This is our completed rap music video

We have also posted it on youtube on jays youtube account - Jayhardingmusic

Extra information

Some of our music videos we have researched and spoke about May be American but these videos we researched and watched them and gave us great influences.

These video benefit us because we were able to use similar things to make our video you similar and include typical conventions that would make our target audience want to view/buy our album

Evaluation question 4

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

For my A2 music video this year I have been able to use a variety of technology in order to achieve a successful media product.


The technology I have used consist of a camcorder - Provided by Toff. We used the settings to convert the view to black and white.


Wikipedia - was used for looking up definitions.

IMac - We consistently used an IMac PC which had all the relevant programmes installed - for example Photoshop, IMovie, However we wanted to edit our music video on final cut but we were unable to because of installation problems.

IMovie - Using the programme IMovie was very hard and we were quite limited in the usage and tools on it but we were still able to complete and fully edit our music video with it from scratch.

Google Chrome - also enabled me to access youtube, blogger and wiki for research.

Safari - Safari enabled me to go online to access  blogger where I could update my posts on the process of making a music video. It also enabled me to research other videos on youtube. This was a fundamental part of research for our music video.

Photoshop - editing our cd cover front and back as well as the magazine cover. On this piece of software we were also able to edit pictures. Although it was very challenging we were still able to produce some good pictures.

Blogger - Where we were able to upload & update our progress of the music video process, pictures and information about generic conventions we would follow

Pentax Camera - we used a Pentax camera whilst shooting our music video so that we could upload the pictures on to the blog and also use them as steles.



A theory that would link into this question is the Participatory Media

Participatory media includes (but are not limited to) blogs, wikis, RSS, tagging and social bookmarking, music-photo-video sharing, mashups, podcasts, participatory video projects and video blogs. These distinctly different media share three common, interelated characteristics.

Many-to-many media now make it possible for every person connected to the network to broadcast and receive texts, images, audio, video, software, data, discussions, transactions, computations, tags or links to and from every other person. The asymmetry between broadcaster and audience that was dictated by the structure of pre-digital technologies dictated has changed radically. This is a technical-structural characteristic.

Participatory media are social media whose value and power derives from the active participation of many people. This is a psychological and social characteristics. One example is stumbleUpon.

Social networks, when amplified by information and communication networks, enable broader, faster, and lower cost coordination of activities. This is an economical and political characteristic.

Linking this in with our music video progression what I'm trying to explain is is that contemporary medias is evolving every year the use of computers, laptops phones and other gadgets like iPads are becoming a massive part of today.

Using laptops to make a music video from scratch and being able to broadcast it on to social media sites like Facebook, twitter where the whole world can access these features.

Everybody has mobile phone in today's society, with a push of a button our music video could be viewed by people and shared to friends and family via email, text, whatsapp and other apps like that.

As we go by day by day media and technology evolves and updates in to something more modern.

 The end product to all of the success of this is the money, the more popular each gadget gets the more money the company will get. With everybody having similar technology people can access everything they need by a touch of a button on a gadget. Gadgets are aimed to make things more simple.

There can be some downsides to media and technology though being that not everybody can actually afford it. They can be very expensive an out of people price ranges, however people move on from their gadgets and progress to  different other ones meaning they can sell it on places such as gum tree and ebay

Evalutation question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback

What did you like?

Cyril - What was being filmed, the actual content of the video. the acting, he made it look professional and everyone was behaving professionally towards the video in character.

Shaye - I enjoyed how there was a constant transition between cuts and edits to show a  kind of gritty effect

Megan - I really liked that it is black and white and i liked the different camera angles as they were very interesting. I also liked that the mood wasn't always serious, there were some funny elements in it.

Amy - the way that the camera was rocking/swaying as it created a strong motif for the video. Also how it is all in black and white really links in with generic conventions of this particular genre.

Nicolai - Thought it was going to be rubbish but it turned out to be really good, i liked the close up shot and medium shot. That its black and white. Overall it was better than i thought it would be

What did you dislike?

Cyril - To much movement in the cameras, it was hard to see stuff and it made me a little bit dizzy.

Shaye - There was very little straight shots , there was a little to much moving around.

Amy- After a while the swaying made me feel a little dizzy but overall its a good video compared with the professional ones.

Megan - I didn't like some of the camera angles as they didn't have the artist in the centre frame or even at all.

Nicolai - The camera was very shaky and made me a bit dizzy

Can anything be improved? and what?

Cyril - The Camera work and less rocking of the camera.

Shaye - Improve on previous comment

Amy - The amount of swaying shots.

Megan - better continuity between the shots.

Nicolai - A bit more fast paced, usually theres a story line but this one doesn't have one.

Does it correlate with the specific rap genre?

Cyril - Yes it fits.

Shaye - Yes it does

Amy - Yes really well.

Megan - Yes definitely

Nicolai - Yes

What features are similar to a typical rap video?

Cyril - Artist solo shots, the rap artist always has his crew with him.

Shaye - Artist rapping, Constant cuts to irrelevant things

Amy - The way it is in black and white and the amount of people featured in the video itself.

Megan - The fact that the whole video is filmed in black and white and there is obviously a main artist surrounded by his crew.

Nicolai - It was like a typical video showing the rough parts

Would you buy the Rap video if it was on sale?

Cyril - Yes, if i was into rap.

Shaye - Yes

Amy - yes if i was into this genre

Megan - Sure

Nicolai - I dont listen to rap

Audience response

The group and I showed our responses to a few random people for target audience feedback. We asked them to give us their honest feedback on what they thought was good and bad and also what could be improved 

Viewing all of these responses I can clearly see that are music video has had some positive features but also some negative feedback. I am pleased with the feedback we recieced, the negative feedback is good, it just means we can improve the video and satisfy the audience. There's always room for improvement.

The positive feedback we got was  that they way everyone acted in the video was really professional, everyone behaved and no one started messing around trying to ruin the video. Another positive response we received was how we edited the transition between cute,.. On e person liked the unique effect of turning the whole video to black, white and grey, as notany music videos are like that. 

The down side the some people mentioned towards our video we took as good feedback, in order for us to make our music video even better we will take the advice into consideration for improvements. Something that was mentioned was the swaying of the hand held camera. We knew that the camera had to be hand held and not on a tripod and this is what we did, however we may have exaggerated it abit to much and started moving the camera around a lot to make it look even more hand held.

We have learnt that no music video can be perfect especially ours as it is clearly ameteur, we have earner that making a music video does take a lot of time and effort and even when you have the full outcome of the music video you are not going to please everyone. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. 

  

I have also learnt that to make a music video planning is a big feature, that you also need clear and concise ideas in your head. Another main thing you most definately should think about is your target audience and who you aim it at.

I am pleased with the out come of the video. I think it is safe to say that the music video we made for a first ever video was quite good, although that is my opinion I think others would agree that we did our best.

A theory that would link into this would be the discourse theory. This is about how the media has the power to change people and the specific groups of people. It's bout targeting the audience with their preferred genre. 

The video can be percieved in different ways by different people and that the media has the power to shape people's opinion and the way they view say a music video. They have their own interpretation.

The spectatorship theory also links In with this. This is because it's about what the audience thinks about the video There are three types of spectatorship

Preferred reading

-Takes up the intended meaning/doesn't question the text/ accepts the messages and values/ associated with pleasure.

This basically means this audience member will accept the media how it is without questioning it.

Negotiating spectator = active spectator 

-Give and take/ retains own views but also can interpolate ourselves somewhat into the film/ ie viewer is both 'inside' and 'outside' the film; a mature and competent response 

This is a person that identifys faults but also positive features

Libertarian spectator = active speaker

-rejects intended purposes/believes that there are many different 'readings' of a film as there are viewers; this response is mostly associated with displeasure

So this person questions very critically

I believe our audience involves the negotiation spectator as we go some positive feedback Aswell as some faults  that could be improved.

Evaluation question 2

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

What are the visual motifs/elements that link your music video/CD cover and advert?

Well as you can clearly see we have attempted to use the same fonts and colours throughout so that the products have consistency and all link in together as one product.

The fact that everything is black and white is consistent to keep a clear theme of how we wanted to present our products. Consistency is key for success in this area.

All the images relate to our rap video.

Why is this Cohesion important?

From the marketing point of view all the products need to be similar so that you can identify each of the products together. If say we had the magazine advert in colour, it wouldn't match and it wouldn't look like it was for our same product would it.

Creating an image for our band means that there needs to be a consistent them throughout.


In a marketing perspective the audience plays a vital role. A theory that I think would link with this is the UGT theory.




Uses and gratifications theory is an approach to understand why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience-centered approach to understanding mass communication. Diverging from other media effect theories that question 'what does media do to people?' UGT focuses on 'What do people do with media'

The driving question UGT is: Why do people use media and what do they use them for?
UGT discusses how users delibeately choose media that will satisfy given needs and allow one to enhance knowledge, relaxation, social interactions/companionship, diversion, or escape.

It assumes that audience members are not passive consumers of media. Rather, the audience has power over the media consumption and assumes an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. Unlike other theoretical perspectives, UGT holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their desires and needs to achieve gratification. This theory would then imply that media compete against other information sources for views' gratification.

In summary this is all about the audience

• being active
• the audience has the power of their own interpretation
• their own understanding

The steles we particularly chose because the picture represent different shots we did during the music video, it also gives a representation of our them of being black and white and the props we had to include, such as bikes & skateboards.

Batts cultural myths links in with our music video in the sense that we are trying to sell a package and by using traditional ways of thinking it can be what people enjoy, for example our music video is about a young black artist in Bristol the myths of a rap video would typically be a young black artist not really the wealthiest person but also growing up maybe in quite a rough area. The artist can be seen as being quite a rebellious character

Evaluation Question 1

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

The rap video my group has made features a Solo Bristol artist AKA Halo. We have made a music video containing different features and generic conventions. With this music video it should contain similarities to other professional rap videos. We have made three products, a music video, a CD cover with inserts and a magazine ad. Our rap Video contains generic conventions such as a camera angles, camera shots and mise en scene in a nitty gritty kind of urban way.

The genre of the music featured in my music video is Rap. Other music videos in this genre tend to have song lyrics about life, money, cars, sex, girls and alcohol. Our music video has this similarity of the lyrics talking about a life of an urban teenage boy. We did this to follow the typical conventions of a rap video. For example Eminem’s rap videos talk a lot about his life. Another example is the Wu Tang Clan with their song C.R.E.A.M.

Our intentions for the music video was to create and eye catching video that would get the audience/viewers to like it. Instead of our music video being in colour we challenged the normal typical conventions of a rap video. We used the settings to make the video black and white. There is an artist that influenced us to do this. ‘ When the sun goes down’ by jimmy Johnson where his video is fully black and white using car headlights. We did attempt to use the car headlights on my car for our video but we were unable to recover/upload the footage for this. Another Convention we used for our rap video would be the camera angles. Typical conventions for a rap video in the area of camera angles is that they tend to use low angle  shots. Low angle shots are used to make a subject look strong and powerful. They use this in rap videos to make the artist look big and intimidating. We used this feature in our music video as 1 of many shots. Using this feature would give our music video another similarity.

Breaking the fourth wall is very typical in a rap video. It is where the artist looks directly into the camera whilst rapping. This use is essential for engaging with the audience its shows confidence and can be confrontational. This feature is important because it is used in most rap videos. The setting used for our music video is set in bristol at a place known as 'Loyds' in the centre of bristol. We used it as an urban area where there are high buildings in vansinity. I feel this aspect is fairly typical in relation to the rap genre and its conventions. In relation to the rap genre mise en scene is used throughout relating to typical conventions in a rap video. Mise en scene - The clothing in a rap video is usually baggy clothing with caps/hats or Durags are usually worn however some artists have their own clothing line brands so they often wear them to promote their own merchandise. In our rap music video we used similar clothing that was quite dark just like jimmy johnson's mixtape'When the sun goes down'. The clothing was black and white and in order to get the effect we wanted we had to film in black and white as well.  This would compliment each other. We did challenge the conventions, this was to do with the camera angles, we used a range of different shots further than what a typical rap video would use. We used some high angle shots in the footage. It may not be evident in the completed video but it is evident in the filming process/footage. We also used long shots in our music video and lots of close ups showing the artist expressions and emotions. Cuts are a major factor in a rap video.In a typical rap video you would most definitely come across a cut atlas every 3/4 seconds. This is because rap videos do not stay on one particular shot for over 5 seconds, meaning that different shots can be seen in a short space of time. This is evident in our rap video. Cuts generally link to different things going on within a video.

 In a rap video in relation to typical conventions a camera would always be hand held and not on a tripod. In our music video at the start initially we used a tripod but it wasn't the same as a rap video. In order to make it the same as a rap video we had to remove the camcorder from the tripod. Typical conventions relating to our CD cover and inserts. We have produced a CD cover for the back and front also including some steales inside. Our front cover of the CD you will see an enlarged image of our rap artist on the right, this shows who the artist is and what he looks like but also as a way of selling himself as an artist for recognition. The artist name is typically the biggest font of text with the album name bait smaller underneath. The CD cover also includes a logo of iTunes which indicates where it can be purchased.

A barcode is also placed on the back of the CD for scanning purposes when purchasing product. Finally the back of the CD will include other songs/tracks that have been done.

All these points are essential typical things that you would find on a rap CD case. Although we have challenged a convention. We have not included the explicit lyric symbol. We were recommended to use it but being that our lyrics did not have any absurd words we decided not to use it even though most Rap Artists have it regardless.

A CD cover that influenced us was the CD of Nas with his album of Illmatic. Using these conventions allowed  us to be on track for a typical/similar Rap CD case that would appeal to our target audience. 2pac's all eyes on me album also influenced us.


Our magazine advert also includes some typical conventions(generic).


The magazine advert contains relevant information to advertise the artist/album. The magazine page should include information such as..


The Artist name being the biggest piece of text as well as being the most important is the biggest and most bold.

It contains a large image of the artist

Shows you where it is available for download

Links to contact and get more information on the album/cd

 Andrew Goodwin's theories come under this.


His 6 features for music videos


1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routines for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip-Hop).


2. There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. The lyrics represented with images (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).


3. There is a relationship between the Music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music  (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).


4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).


5. The is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.


6. There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).