Friday 9 December 2011

Dan's Evaluation answers

1)
A stereotypical convention of a Hip-Hop music video involves appropriate locations, for example the hip-hop artist 'Wiz Khalifa' includes trendy, expensive settings such as parties and clubs, used to show off their wealth and power. A lot of less mainstream hip-hop is set in the streets of more urban and 'gritty' locations, shown to represent where they have been brought up and where the genre was originated. Our music video for the Nextmen 'My Way' meets the 'street look' convention as the lyrics and beat suggest quite an underground approach to the music industry.
Another convention of hip-hop videos are the props used; these include the use of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes used usually to attempt to give off a rebellious look for the artist, to represent the artists visual symbol. Our group decided to develop this convention and replace these props (in this case drugs) with a microphone, a prop that is frequently mentioned in the lyrics of the chorus. By developing this convention, we have brought more clarity and meaning to the lyrics, as well as linking the video with the song in an effective manor. We believed this also added a twist to the entire significance and understanding of the song, challenging the conventions that are expected to be feature in a hip-hip video. This also makes the video more engaging to watch as it is different and original, with an element of depth included.
We incorporated appropriate and exciting camera angles and shots to satisfy and affiliate the action that features in the video, to give the audience a clear understanding of the narrative. The conventional camera shots used for music videos are close ups/extreme close ups to illustrate feelings and emotion, and long shots to display the trendy settings. We made use of long shots and mid shots to display the scenery and setting of the characters, however generally avoided use of close and extreme close-ups as we were not looking to promote the faces and characters within the video, however to promote the narrative and genre of the song. This challenges the conventions of Goodwin's points. Our music video aims to demonstrate genre characteristics by creating a relationship between the music and visuals in an illustrative way that amplifies the lyrics. We believe that this approach will sell the artist and song in an original way which will grip and draw in the audience.
The narrative of our video follows a storyline, not a genre. This was inspired to me by the music video producer; 'Jonathon Glazer', who we researched and discovered that he makes videos that come across as a short film, which very strongly links and represents the lyrics and genre of the music through the powerful atmosphere that he creates.

 2)
Our magazine advertisement and DVD cover both display the same text font and colour which demonstrates positive continuity and a consistent theme, making them work together as a promotional package. The font and colours used are suitable to the hip-hop genre as the graffiti background symbolizes and illustrates the artist’s stereotypical background and setting they are brought up in. The graffiti background used on the Digi-pack and magazine advert was retrieved from the location where Martin (our group member) lip synched in, also creating continuity throughout the 3 products.
We have continued the urban underground theme using graffiti in the background, which runs throughout our 3 product promotional package (music video, Digi-Pack and Magazine advert). This features our 2 main props; a microphone and money, to represent and develop our storyline. However, this means that the faces of the artists are not displayed on the covers, creating a more mysterious effect and end product. This keeps the audience intrigued as the they are not having every element of the artistic talent and style thrown at them, however it is left open for them to interpret the music with their own imagination, with only the music video to illustrate the artists appearances. This also draws in the audience to research and discover more about the artists themselves. I believe this attracts the audience in a different and dramatic way, separating our style from the mainstream commercial act of the majority of modern day music.

3)
We learnt a lot of valuable information from the feedback we received, including compliments and constructive criticism. The initial feedback from the class regarding our rough cut was positive in some areas, however highlighted certain areas that needed polishing and further development. As a group, we felt that the feedback suggested a slightly cheesy and unoriginal effort that simply followed the conventions and action of a stereotypical hip-hop video. This included selling drugs and having fights, something that conventionally occurs in a hip-hop music video. Therefore, this made our product to appear tacky and cheap, a look that we very much wanted to avoid. We also received feedback commenting on how the video did not clearly match the lyrics, therefore seeming somewhat irrelevant, increasing the risk of losing the interest of the viewers.
We made sure to address these issues immediately and developed some ideas to make them more interesting to watch, and also more original and related to the lyrics. We decided to replace the concept of drugs with microphones, creating the effect that selling microphones is also illegal which not only make the audience have to think more deeply about the narrative, but also links the lyrics well with the storyline. To ensure that we engaged the audience we also edited in various special effects and transitions such as black and white and split screens to clearly represent the genre and the storyline.

4)
We used various media technologies such as final cut express, Photoshop and blogger. We used blogger throughout the year to blog our planning and ideas for the production of our music video. We used blogger effectively as a place to note down all our variations and changes of ideas, as well as a place to show the research we did and keep track of the progress we have been making.  Final cut was used once we had finished the filming of our music video and video commentary of the evaluation responses. I became rather fluent of the use of final cut express and managed to bring out the most of our videos to give them a professional edge and add quality and clarity throughout them. I incorporated editing effects such as black and white, slow motion and split screen, as well as professional transitions in between shots to improve the continuity of the video. Photoshop was later used once the final music video had been finished. We used Photoshop to create our Digi-Pack and magazine advert. I found this software difficult to use, and it took a lot of time to apply different effects and fonts, however I managed to get used to this after some practice and feel satisfied with the Digi-pack, as it matches the look and style of the other 2 products. However due to the time it took to get used to the layout and use of Photoshop, we did not have enough time to complete our magazine cover, which I believe to be at a satisfactory standard, however could do with a final touch some improving. We used HD cameras to capture the footage of the music video and the video commentary. The HD camera was also used for still images which were later projected onto our magazine advert.









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