Evaluation Question 4

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

Research and Planning/Evaluation:

Youtube -

• It enabled me to look at other music videos of my genre for inspiration and guidance when it came to considering the generic conventions I would be maintaining and which ones I would maybe develop or break.
• It allowed me to look up other A2 coursework pieces to see if there were any of a similar genre if not the same music video to see how they have tackled the complexity of the songs themes.
• I was also able to use it to see if there were tutorials on how to do things on some of the other technologies i was using.

Online sites such as blogger, Soundcloud and Dafont.com -

• Online tools such as Soundcloud and blogger have allowed me to present my work to a higher standard. They have also helped me organise my work, into sections such as; evaluation questions, final draft's into sections and then subsections. Dafont.com has helped me to create a unique product as it has taught me about the ability to share and create different fonts online. Dafont was crucial for me as it gave me a much wider range of possible fonts when it came to deciding which i would use in my final pieces. I felt that the pre-installed fonts that come with such software as premier pro and Photoshop were to generic and weren't good enough for an A2  piece, whether that be my ancillary or main production. 

Instagram -

• I used Instagram for inspiration with fashion, as I looked at some clothing labels latest trends and posts. 
• Instagram was vital for me as mainstream rap is about everything that is popular right now. Instagram is a showcase of all things that are considered 'hot'.

Production stage:

Cannon EOS 700D -

• The quality of this camera was one of the main reasons i chose to use it for all of my products.
• it was extremely light weight which was useful for the shots when the camera is moving.
• it could auto focus which was helpful during the video and photo shoots.

Additional Lighting -

• This equipment improved the quality of my products a tremendous amount as it helped to make the shots clearer and was key in making sure you could see event the smallest detail in the shot.

Spotify -

• This enabled me to play the song to my artist and he was able to lip sync during the shoot. i was therefore able to place the shot into my video with relative ease as i could hear the part of the song he was singing and all i needed to do was place the clip and remove the sound from it. also the lyrics software hat now comes with spotify was incredibly useful as it meant he didn't have to keep pausing the song to look up the lyrics we could just turn the software one and continue to shoot.

HDMX JAM -

• I used this as it meant that the increased the volume of the music. this meant i could keep the speaker out of the shot and my artist didn't have to have his phone right next to him when the music was playing. this was useful but one of its major issues was its short battery life as it meant we had to stop filming after about 2 hours just to recharge the speaker.

Photoshop, Premier Pro -

• Photoshop was key in the creation of my ancillary products, I had to use a wide range of its tools including the quick select tool, the guides and rulers, the place tool and altering the opacity.
• the guides and rulers made it easy for me to ensure all of my layers are aligned perfectly. Creating a sleek and professional look to my ancillary products.
• my level of skill on Photoshop greatly improved as I was able to achieve far more complex designs and layouts for my pieces. This was in part due to the fact I had had to use Photoshop far more in my A2 coursework than in my previous AS piece.
• Premier Pro was a completely new software to me as I had previously only used Final Cut when creating a video. The software was relatively easy to use and enabled be to use short clips with the place marker tool. this enabled me to keep my editing fast paced and allowed my music video to keep the interest of the audience. 
• The fact i could use multiple layers whilst editing allowed me to sync up the music with my artist lips as I could mute one layer the finally remove the sound from the recording completely when it came to exporting the video.

Youtube -

• I used youtube to research different tools and conventions when it came to creating my final product.
• I also put my final music video on my own personal account on Youtube.

The technology i have chosen to use demonstrates a high dependence on new media, such as spotify, YouTube and blogger. This demonstrates its importance in the modern music industry. as they allow the producers a direct view into what the audience would like to see in the mainstream rap industry. the use of media convergence, such as the GTA franchise using famous rap stars as their characters, and their tracks on their radio shows demonstrates this use of new media as it shows how the rap genre has forced itself onto the mainstream scene. 

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Final Poster (Ancillary Product 2)

Final Digi-Pack (Ancillary Product 1)

FINAL A2 COURSEWORK PIECE

Annotated Lyrics

Treatment - Mind Map

Qualitative Research

Production Update 5

During the past few days i have finished editing my ancillary products, the Digi-Pack and the Advertising Poster, and have recorded a few more clips that will be used in the final draft of my music video.

My poster and Digi-pack were created by first making a quick mock up of what i was hoping they would turn out to look like and then using these templates to transfer the images i had taken of my artist onto the blank images. This enabled me to see flaws in my plans and also allowed me to edit things such as the brightness of images and small blemishes such as a mark on his blazer or a stain on his shirt.

Production update 4

I have begun to tackle my Digi-Pack, I started this process by creating a template for the album cover both inside and outside. then using web sources such as DaFont.com and Google Images I looked for an appropriate font and Background for my album cover (see potential ancillary product for one example of my work.

After finding 2 texts - one italic and calligraphic style and one bold caps locked stile with a wave through it - i began to place the images i had selected and the texts i had written into their appropriate position. after deciding not to go for a white background i had to edit my images to remove the white background around them. I experimented with a number of different styles of background. including the cartoon skyline (again see potential ancillary product for reference).

I also began taking photographs for a poster, which is meant to be used as a source of advertising for the music video.

Production Update 3

Today i have started to edit the footage together to get the beginnings of my music video. This has included altering the position on the shot to minimize the amount of space above my artists head. have also  had to consider the mise-en-scene of my shots, this has meant thinking about the props i am using, if any, the fashion of my artist, the area the music video is being shot in and the general composition of the shot.

I have mainly focused on making sure my artists lips are synced up to the track. This is arguably the most important part of the music video as if they aren't synced it can completely ruin a music video for the audience as it makes the video difficult to watch. This has been helped by the fact that my artist is an aspiring rapper in real life as it has meant his is great at keeping himself in time with the music and making himself look absolutely believable in the music video.

Production Update 2

Today is the first day in which i have shot footage of y artist in his power clothing. the dinner jacket and bow tie. I have changed the location of my shooting to enhance my lighting and the position of my background.

Production Update 1

This is my first day of filming with my artist. i have decided to film part on a white background as it is conventional for there to be a number of shots where it is just the artist in the shot. I have decided to play around with lighting effects as I want to see the effect this has on my final product.

I have also taken a few photo's to start to formulate me idea's for both of my ancillary product. this has mainly been close up profile shots of the artist as well as long medium close ups and medium shots. I have made he pose in a number of different ways to see if there are any poses of changes in fashion that i decide would look good on my products.

Ancillary Product Possibility

Although this idea is very unique it does conform to many conventions of the Digi-pack, for example it has copyright messages, a track list, the website of the artist, the website of the record label, the record labels logo and the artists logo. I like the colour scheme as there is not too much of one colour. I have done this on purpose as sometimes if the album cover has too much of the same colour it wont catch the eye of the customers it is aimed at.

THINGS TO CHANGE

• The text used for the artists name and the albums title - I would like to change this as i feel it has too much of a military feel to it. Also it doesn't strike me a conventional to the Rap/Hip Hop genre.
• The background image used - Although I like the fact that the background image used has different colours than the image of my artist I do not think this will be the final image I will use as it isn't very eye-catching, something that is vitally important for the digi-pack  in order to entice the target audience.
• The layout of the track list - Firstly I will need to include more tracks as most albums do not usually consist of only 13 tracks, I also think that the track list needs to be positioned differently as it doesn't look right central. Finally I think that the text is the wrong type face for the genre I have decided to use.

Storyboard

Research for Ancillary Products

Digi-Pack 

The first Ancillary product I will produce is the Digi-pack for my chosen song 'Power Trip' by J.Cole. I will have to be extremely careful when creating my product due to the fact that many of other Digi-packs within my genre are extremely simplistic looking. This will be a problem as I will have to ensure that my product isn't so simple that it is uninteresting and doesn't catch the attention of my target market. There are quite a few generic conventions that go with Pop-Rap Digi-Packs such as Close ups of artists face, chains, snap-backs, images of the artist and they usually are kept relatively simple yet striking.
The Song I have chosen is a fairly generic song as it talks about many of the key themes within the genre such as women, money, cars, fashion and sex. Therefore it would be unusual for me to create a Digi-pack that does not follow many conventions for the genre of Pop-Rap.
The style I have chosen to go for will be similar to the G-Eazy Digi-pack  (bottom row 2nd from the right) as it may seem simplistic but is extremely eye catching. To ensure I create the most effective Digi-pack I will need to ensure that it is simplistic enough that it doesn't look like there is too much going on but also there needs to be enough going on that it doesn't look boring.

Promotion Poster

 The other ancillary product I will produce is a promotional poster for the album and Digi-pack I will produce. Promotion posters for Rap music are fairly unconventional as they usually do not promote their music in this way, instead they usually make posters for their tours or just they are usually just merchandise. Therefore I am going to have to look use their merchandise posters for inspiration whilst looking towards other genres such as pop to look for ways to promote my album using this method of advertising. Rap will usually use social media sites such as Twitter and Instagram as their predominant way of advertising now. Equally music channels such as VIVA are just as essential for Rap artist when it comes to advertising their product.

Pop is a genre that has arguably the highest degree of success when it comes to using Posters as an advertising product. Artist such as Justin beiber have used Posters do advertise many of their albums and singles. This has made them household names as their names are plastered over walls and billboards reinforcing their brand to their target audience.

This is why I have decided to use a combination of the Hip Hop style merchandise posters and the Pop advertising posters. combining the exciting style of Raps posters with the effective nature of pops advertising campaigns.

Krept & Konan - Freak of the Week

Drake - Hotline Bling

Fashion

The fashion I will be looking at for my music video will be typical teenage/early adult male clothing.  This will include things such as skinny Jeans, Timberlands and Nike Shoes as these are all in fashion currently. the clothing has to not only be aspirational clothing such as Yeezy's which are expensive but also have to have an affordable appeal to them as most of the target audience will look to my artist for fashion inspiration. Things such as hairstyles will be up for interpretation as there are many current hairstyles that are considered fashionable. for example the idea of having short sides and longer hair on top is extremely popular at the moment.

the girls fashion unlike the male artists fashion will depend upon who is used for my filming and what kind of environment I am trying to portray with my shots. the artist will probably be wearing a snapback or some form of cap as it it quite generic for the artist as it is fashionable. The clothing of the artist is key as it represents the type of artist he is, if he is wearing fashionable and expensive clothing, such as Versace and Louis Vuitton, then they are portrayed in a certain way. Equally if the artist is dressed as scruffy or untidy they will be portrayed in a different way.


I have additionally decided that for some scenes my artist will be dressed in a dinner jacket and bow tie, this is in order to play on the word power which many people associate with rich people, fancy cars, posh dinners and dinner suits. I have therefore decided to fashion my artist in a powerful manor to show that he feels more powerful when he is around the girl that has stuck by him through the ups and downs of his life.