Audience Feedback

What we learned from Audience feedback main task:
Positive:
- They thought the cinematography was effective, and professional
- They said the settings were effective in conveying the idea that these were middle, class bourgeoisie characters, such as the lavish houses in the background and the sports we played such as golf and bowls. This was very pleasing as we were worried we wernt communicating this idea as well as we’d liked.
- They said it suited the style in that:
- Our Target Audience was clear and they felt it was appealing to a teenage audience, in the costume and the persona they were trying to achieve, as this is an idea a lot of teenagers have today.
- They also said that it suited Dizzee Rascal as an artist, as his songs are generally quite comedic and humourous, and humour is often used in his videos, seen in such videos as Dirtee Disco. This was again pleasing to hear as this was something we planned and it was good to see it came through.
Negative:
- The Lip Syncing – they said was sometimes out of time and generally in places a bit unclear. This was something we realised would be difficult as rap music involved talking at incredibly high speeds, so we did find it difficult to keep up with the fast pace as amateurs. If we were to do this again this is something we could build on.

What we learned from Audience feed back (ancillary Tasks)
Positive
- Suits Target Audience, bright vibrant colours make it stand out in a shop
- Suited typical conventions of an advertisement
- Information was useful on the advertisement
- Names on the digipak ‘theodore’ ‘cornelius’ were effective in conveying the message
Negative:
- Font colour choice of orange they questioned, they felt it was an odd choice on the advertisement and didn’t reflect the ‘gangster’ effect the boys were attempting to achieve
- Positioning of some of the shots, Kate felt that it looked slightly unprofessional in places due to a lack of symmetry in the advertisement with James out of shot slightly.
- More about Dizzee Rascal the artist in the digipak, it looked like we were the artist.

Discuss how your advertisement uses typical conventions of a layout - Martin Woodhatch and Joe Jones

Below is an annotated version of our advert:


We researched a number of advertisements before eventually constructing our own. To do this we researched different types of advertisements such as Florence and the Machine's advertisement and also UK rap sensation Tinchy Stryder. After our research, we included the following conventions:

Comments from Newspapers and Magazines:



Details of the record release:



Clear display of the artist name and song title:




An image or picture that conveys the mood of the video:



We feel that you get a real sense of the mood of the video, the intimidating expressions and the low angle shot, suggests a threat and dominance, however, this is juxtaposed with the young, fresh faces that sport them.

Evaluation Activity 1 - How does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?- Joe Jones

Editing continued -
Slow motion - this editing techniques is prevalent in a number of music videos, including the 'rap' genre. We decided to employ the slow motion in the chorus 'singing' scene, as we felt this was an appropriate place to use it. We essentially parody the use of the slow motion tool, in as much as instead of the usually dramatic, tense scene depicted, we use it in a comedic sense; having our actor, James singing his heart out.
Cross-Cutting - Again, a common convention in many successful music videos, where the action cuts from scene to scene and does not stick to a strict linear narrative. Originally, we had a series of scenes in a chronological sequence, in a very ordered fashion. However, upon relfection, we felt the video would be far more effective cross cutting between the action at regular intervals. An example of a cross cut is scene below:


Performance -
We decided to employ performance aspects into our music video, as we felt the general point of our video was to give the impression that these wealthy, upper class schoolboys are genuinely under the impression that they are 'gangsters', and the best way to convey this, and create comedy was to have us performing the track as our own. Furthermore, it is not often that artists are themselves completely exempt from the video and in the case they are, would not have someone else performing the song. Some songs do this, for example, Canadian rock band Nickleback's video to 'Rockstar', which has a series of random of people mouth along to the lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmeUuoxyt_E&ob=av2el

How the video suggests the music genre of the track -
Even though we were essentially parodying the genre, this meant that we had to use the conventions of a quintessential rap video in order to mock them. So, our music video uses the following conventions of the 'rap' genre:
- Costume: Baggy clothes, hoods up etc, taking influence from credible rap artists such as Eminem in his choice of attire, seen below.


- Gestures: We often found that in rap music videos the artist would aggresively thrust their hands in the direction of the camera, pointing and waving frantically. We attempted to emulate this in our music video, seen in the shot below, as I rap agressively into the camera.

- Car: Although in a rap music video, this is usually a 'pimped out' 4x4 with tinted windows and gold plated rims, or a grotesquely large limosine.
The use of vehicles in rap videos dates back to the earlier rappers such as Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg, in which the 'low riders' used to feature.

However, the modern day rap video sees a very different approach. Now, the run-of-the-mill vehicle used is something like this:

However, instead of the ostentatious and gaudy cars used in these videos, we mocked the use of such automobiles, and opted instead for a Toyota Yaris.

"Fix Up, Look Sharp" video

Examples of Music Adverts - Joe Jones

Above is an example of a music magazine advert for "Second Coming" by The Stone Roses. This advert displays the date on which the song will be released, which is a convention seen in many a music magazine advert. Furthermore, there are images of the band members, which can help with the audience recognising the artist with just a glance. The name of the band can also be clearly seen at the top of the advert, again allowing the reader to understand who the advert is for, again with just a look. A review can also be viewed upon this advert, from Q Magazine, a renowned music magazine. The colours seen within this advert are again representative of the band and artist, which is another convention of music magazine adverts. In conclusion, it can be said that while this magazine ad for a song subverts and other convention, it is generally a normal music magazine ad for a song.

Digipak Planning - Joe Jones

These are the slides from our Digipak plan. As you will see in the next post, we did try and stay as true to the outline as possible, despite the drawing not being of the highest quality!

Week beginning 13th December - Joe Jones

This week, we started to bring the image you see below to life, and design our Digipak.
Firstly, we got a camera and ventured out to take the still shots we needed for the Digipak. We had intended to leave the school grounds to get these shots, but as time was running out, we managed to get the shots done effectively in the school and the surrounding areas.
Secondly, we uploaded the images and started to edit them with the 'Adobe Photoshop CS3' tool. In using this we encountered a number of difficulties:
The dimensions of the images - We had strict dimensions set as the Digipak must be a certain size and shape to fit into a standard CD rack. However, we found that every time we tried set the Height to 5, the Width would be automatically set, and vice versa. We eventually discovered this was due to the dimensions of the camera we used, which produced images to a certain ratio. To get around this problem, we had to get as close as possible to the correct height and width, and then crop the image.
The image size- Also, whenever we tried to set these dimensions, the picture looked incredibly small, which lead us to believe that there was a problem with the software. It transpired that the zoom setting was low, which caused the tiny image, however the dimensions were correct.
Appropriate font - We had a particular kind of font in mind, a sort of street style 'graffiti', in order to convey not only the genre of music, but also to emphasise the 'ghetto' attitude the boys take in the video. In using that kind of font, with the comical images of us attempting to recreate 'gangter' poses, we effectively put across the crux and concept behind our video, which hopefully the public would want to see more of. However, the school laptop had no font which we felt would be appropriate, so we started to search the internet for some. Most sites seemed to want some sort of payment for the font, which we couldn't do on the school computers, and so we tried sampling the fonts and then copying and pasting the results. However, a white background was always behind the words, which looked sloppy and amateurish on out front cover.

Creativity and The Filming Process; An Evaluation - Joe Jones

We made a late decision to change the concept behind the music video, from a tender love story to a rap 'spoof'. Creativity was essential in coming up with a whole new set of ideas and shots and events.
We started to watch a mixture of serious rap videos from 'classic' gangster rap groups such as Public Enemy and N.W.A and also a a number of spoof videos, from artists such as The Lonely Island.
But this videos could only take us so far, and we embarked upon a sort of 'devising' process, where basically there was an open discussion and all ideas were entertained and thrown into the melting pot.
We managed to condense down the vast range of ideas thrown in and eventually arrived at an idea we all agreed on. The video would follow a day in the lives of 3 posh, middle class lads, and their attempt to act 'gangster'. From here, we just started to think about things that would make us laugh personally, and so we hoped would make our classmates and hopefully yourself feel a similar way. But from this we had to think about the following things:

Costume:
This was fairly straightforward, we decided we would sport some ghetto clothing, but in a more modern sense of the word. We were going to perhaps wear clothes from the 90's period of rap like the videos we watched, but eventually we decided a more modern approach to the costume would be more relateable to Dizzee Rascal's target audience, which is teenagers and young adults.
We needed to create the effect that of course we were not in fact actually gangster. Luckily, we could not have looked more ridiculous in our new clothing, and as this sort of clothing is not something we would wear often, the comedic effect is created effectively.
Also, when we put forward the idea of playing golf in one of our scenes, we talked about wearing a golf glove, as a signifier that we belong to our gang. In America, gangsters would often sport a certain colour to represent the gang the belonged to, so we felt that using a golf glove would be appropriate as it communicates an attempt to be 'street', but also denotes wealth as golf is considered a rich mans game.

Events:
We also started to think of the events that would take place in the day in the lives of the three boys. We needed to come up with things that would create comedy, but also convey the message of the middle class. We wanted to draw clear parallels between our video and the quintessential idea of a rap video, so we wanted lots of loitering with our gang, rolling out in the 'pimp wagon' etc. But we also wanted to juxtapose these events with ones that would show us being about as gangster as Prince Phillip. For example, we came up with the ideas of playing bowls in the park and wine tasting etc, so as to reiterate the boys as Middle class and thoroughly 'ungangster' as it were.

Locations:
This is the part of the creative process that we found most challenging. In the creative process, coming up with ideas for locations was relatively simple, we put forward the idea of filming in a local public school, typical middle class settings and parks. Also, as myself and Ned work at Waitrose, this was an easy location to use. It is also regarded as a very 'middle-class' supermarket, so we felt it was appropriate.
However, in this field, we suffered a lot of setbacks. Practicality delivered some blows to our creativity, For example, as Martin has mentioned in an earlier post, the famed English weather delivered some setbacks, as a great deal of our shots were planned to be outdoors. Also, the local public school prohibited us categorically from filming on their grounds.
Consequently, we had to think on our feet on a number of occasions, and draw from our creativity to come up with some new locations we could film in.
However, another problem we faced was that every time we came up with a good new idea, people were often reluctant to let us use their property or land to film. We tried Woodford Bowls Club, Prezzo's, and a local Wine Bar, all to no avail. This was incredibly frustrating, as coming up with ideas was often difficult, and so when we did come up with a good idea it was extremely annoying to be told you were not allowed to film.
But, ultimately we did come up with some new locations, like the driving range and the very first location in the video was one we found in Chigwell after Bancrofts declined to let us film.
In conclusion, creativity was vital in the process of making a music video.

3rd Day of Filming- Joe Jones

As we had some decent weather on this day, we decided it was an appropriate time to head out and get some of the footage we had planned to have outdoors. Firstly, we had planned to have some shots outside some gaudy and flamboyant houses, to effectively convey the idea that were a couple of middle to upper class lads who were trying to act as though they were in the 'ghetto'. So our first destination was outside the house of none other than Lord Sugar! Unfortunately, you can't actually see the front of his house, only the garden, and the idea was that we would rap in front of a large, posh gate. We wanted to do this as we felt a lot of rap videos featured Prison (in the lyrics or the video itself) and we felt it would be an appropriate ironic twist to have us rapping outside some ostentatious gates, although it were a prison. A problem we found was obtaining permission to film, as many residents did not wish their house to be viewed, but luckily once we had stipulated that it was purely for educational and not recreational purposes, one man let us film outside his house.
Next, we decided to film some of the 'car shots' we had planned. Rap videos often feature a blacked out 4x4 with flashy rims and a cream leather interior, but we decided to use a Toyota Yaris, in order to create comedy, as there is nothing much 'gangster' about it to say the least. We needed a secluded area to do these shots as we had a number of close ups of the wheels and the numberplate etc which would need a few takes and we didn't want the distraction of other cars. So we went to the carpark of Chigwell School, and filmed our shots there.
Finally, when we were at the carpark, a large field was situated next to it. Perched on this field were hundreds of Seagulls. James jokingly remarked that we should chase after them, and purely on a whim, Ned suggested filming it. When we uploaded the footage, the shots looked incredibly funny, as it looked as though we were trying to intimidate the birds, and then we ended up running away from them. So, although most of our footage was created through extensive planning, if an idea came to us whilst we were filming we would at least film it and then take it back to the editing suite.

Animatic Storyboard - Joe Jones

Conventions of the Music Video - Joe Jones

The video I have chosen to analyse is 'I'm on a Boat' by The Lonely Island. I felt this was appropriate as they are a rap spoof group, so the sort of videos they produce will be something similar to the idea we are trying to create. The video itself follows many of the conventions of a typical Music Video; including aspects of performance and narrative and also a 'hook'.
Firstly, I will focus on the performance elements. They lip sync to the music and combine narrative and performance, although the narrative itself isn't much of a narrative, its simply that they get a free boat ride. Also, they use conventions of the rap genre and parody them, this is seen in the high angle shot below, showing the two men rap into the camera, with lots of vigorous hand movements, a shot seen commonly in rap videos over the years.



Again, the idea of humour and comedy is something we are very interested to incorporate in our Video, with a view to spoofing the Rap genre. Below are shots again of this high angle shot where the Men rap aggressively into the camera lens, but they do this wearing sailor outfits, thus simply but effectively making fun of this kind of shot seen so often in Rap videos.



Also, a popular convention of a pop video is to have some sort of dance routine or arrangement. This is used in a way in the video, however they dance is intentionally disjointed and unorganised, in order to create comedy. The dance scenes show the awkward situation as the two men from The Lonely Island literally lose themselves in the song as T Pain stands there moving slowly and coolly. This contrast highlights the ridiuclous movement of the two men and helps to create humour.

Rap Conventions - Joe Jones

We then started to observe and note down common themes and conventions to create the quintessential idea of the 'rap' video. This is what we concluded.



We traced rap and hip-hop back to its earliest forms and watched the videos of the influential groups such as Public Enemy and N.W.A. We started to notice some patterns in the videos; firstly, performance is always incorporated directly into the narrative of the song i.e. they are not separated. Secondly, there is always a headstrong gang behind the main rapper in all of the videos we watched. This is something we are certainly keen to emulate. Thirdly, there is a lot of aggression and passion with various hand movements towards the camera. We will attempt to do something similar to this, but we will exaggerate it heavily in order to create comedy, as this is our intention.



In this video by the Beastie Boys, they portray a quite hilarious narrative following the night of three geeks who decide to throw a party. The party gets gatecrashed, and the cooler, lower class citizens invade the vicinity. The idea of humour in a rap video was something that appealed to us greatly and also this idea of the suburban and the 'ghetto' clash, as this it is a humorous concept, and one we are very interested in, as residents of middle-class areas.



Finally, we looked at this video by Puff Daddy, Bad Boys For Life. In this video, again we see the stark contrast between the middle class surburbs and the 'Ghetto' so to speak. The video depicts a Bus offloading the 'gangsters' in a stereotypically middle class American suburb and they interrupt the peace and tranquility of the area and make it their own. As i've already mentioned, this contrast between the Ghetto and the Suburbs, however we are going to change it slightly in that the Middle Class are going to try to be 'Gangsters', to questionable success. This will form the crux of our Music Video.

Music Video Idea - Joe Jones

The song we are covering for our coursework is "Fix Up, Look Sharp" by Dizzee Rascal.

In our music video for this song, we will attempt to parody the rap genre through numerous methods.We will almost caricature rappers in our video by taking their most identifiable characteristics and exaggerating them before adding a posh, upper-class taste to them. For example, the "ghetto" seen in our music video will in fact be a very affluent housing area. The video will see the group involved in various scenarios where they will attempt to act hard but will instead fail rather miserably. There will also be a performance element. This will involve the group performing to the camera in a "gangster"-like way, a convention seen in many a rap video. We will once again exaggerate the actions on rap stars who perform in their videos, but over-using our arms and moving our bodies excessively.

In the first chorus, we will be lip syncing to camera whilst walking out of a private school. The in the first verse, we will be wandering around the previously mentioned affluent area doing 'rap' actions with a posh boy twist. For example, we will be drinking Ribena from wine glasses instead of swigging alcohol from a bottle. Then we will revert back to the lip syncing in various locations for the chorus before starting the second verse, which will involve the group again carrying out 'gangster' actions in far from 'gangster locations'. We will use a variety of shots ranging from extreme close-ups to extreme long shots. Each shot and angle will be specifically thought out in order to obtain the maximum meaning for the video. or example, if we were looking to show some form of intimidation then their would be little point in using a neutral angle.

Music Video Analysis- Here it Goes Again by OK Go - Joe Jones

The Music video i have chosen to analyze is OK Go's rather infamous video 'here it goes again'.
The video features the band performing a dance routine on four treadmills. It breaks a number of conventions in that:

. There is only one shot used in the entire video; a long shot depicting the band frolicking on the treadmills
. There is no dramatic lighting used whatsoever.
. There is no narrative/storyline at all

What I like about it is the sort of 'Home Video' effect it has, which makes it incredibly endearing as a video. It doesn't take itself too seriously and essentially almost mocks itself, all part of its appeal. Also, the four machines are nicely positioned facing each other so that the video has a beautiful symmetry to it. All of these factors made it very accessible and relatable for a working class audience and contribute to make a superb music video, and this is it exactly why it is one of the most watched music video on YouTube with over 50 million views!

Conventions of a Music video - Joe Jones

During today's lesson, our group discussed the key concepts of a music video from any genre. These included a variety of shots within the music video; deciding whether the video should contain a narrative, a performance or both; ensuring the video follows the song in terms of mood, genre and timings; and, most important of all, making sure the video covers the full length of the song. After discussing these key concepts, we as a class watched several examples of music videos that had been filmed as part of a group's A2 coursework. Whilst some of the videos were a success in terms of including the key concepts of a music video, others were an unmitigated disaster. It could be said, therefore, that music videos that contain the key concepts are more likely to score higher when marked than those who didn't. We then watched a variety of music videos across several genres and tried to identify some common themes and patterns. After doing this, we compiled a list of what we perceived to be conventions of the music video;Lip syncing - imitating saying the lyrics. Performance - lots of the videos had the band/artist performing interspersed with the narrative of the videos.Costume - often ties in with the style and genre of the music.Visually AppealingFast Cuts - synonymous with the beat and pace of musicProvokes a reaction - quite a few of the videos we watched intended to have a lasting effect on the audience, for example a video we watched by the Aphex Twins called Come To Daddy, aimed solely to shock and frighten the life out of its viewers. Lack of lyrical context - often the themes in the video do not directly match the lyrics of the song.Narrative - Most of the videos we watched had a narrative/story line.Locations - appropriate locations to match either the style or genre of the artist or the narrative of the video."Hook"- A lot of the videos had a 'hook', which is a idea or theme that makes the video memorable and thus promotes the song. For example, in Michael Jackson's 'Thriller', the hook is the idea that Michael Jackson's character is a zombie and transforms into one and dances with the other zombies. Humour - A few of the videos we watched brought elements of humour to their videos, to make the audience laugh and to entertain. One example is the song 'Jizz in My Pants' by the Lonely Island, which is a spoof. The video is, I think, hilarious, and helped greatly to promote the song, with over 8.8 million views on YouTube.

Practice Music Video