2. Roles within our group
Zeeshan produced the ancillary tasks
Zafraan’s role was to edit the music video efficiently
and precisely.
Judah completed the research-
Together we completed the planning which meant
that it was done better, faster, and with a top quality
finish.
Additionally, we helped each other if their was any
difficulties so the overall production was a shared
effort
3. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenged forms and
conventions of real life products?
Before we even started to create a music video we had to
know what a music video is.
A music video is a video accompanying a song. Within the
modern age the music videos have now become a medium,
not only for expressing ideology but also for marketing
and commercial promotion purposes. An artist can gain
fame and influence by simply making a good track and an
efficient music video.
4. Music Video
Music videos are music videos because they contain
moving clips accompanied by music. We used and further
developed this code and convention by using movie clips
within our music video. The images and clips indirectly
signify the power of the artist and the record label, if any,
thus has a strong consequential effect upon the influence,
publicity of the artist and record label, this is due to the fact
that better influential and more famous record labels are
able to attract better artists and sell more albums simply
due to their fame.
5. Plan
But that is not all there is to that, we had to then sort
out the costumes and find the actors to work with us
in our creation of our music video. This was solved
by appointing duties to each member of the group to
ease the stress and pressure upon each of the group
member while shortening the time span of the
production. We had to do this in order to complete
the product and double check for any mistakes thus
making the product more efficient in promoting the
artists. A flawless media product gains better rating
and is a better commercial tool.
6. Costume – Part 1
As we previously mentioned, costumes are an important part of
the music as the codes and conventions of our chosen music
tribe are to be followed and further developed to create links
within our products and their origins within the music. Due to
this ZEESHAN had to selectively choose our clothing to match
the codes and conventions to further interest the targeted
audience. This is because a product which is better efficient at
following the codes and conventions is more likely to attract
attention of the audience because the codes and conventions
are made to increase the profit, thus a controversial product
would only degrade our product.
7. Costumes Examples – Part 2
Certain clothing had to be worn to illustrate
the background and profession of the
actors (if any).
For Example –
Doctor – White Coats to illustrate the
profession as it a typical stereotype of
doctors to wear white coats.
Artist – Have hip-hop clothing
Hitch Hiker – Outdoor Clothing to better
survive.
8. Costume and props (Part 3)
We also used the appropriate costume and make-up to
portray a positive representation through clothing and
behaviour.
Moreover if the costumes of the artist did not match the
codes and conventions of the chosen music tribe, the
entire music video would have been for nothing.
Doctor within a ward holding a baby. This is
represented by the blue background which illustrates
the colours of NHS while the baby in the arms of the
doctor further enforces this notion of the actor being a
doctor. This is because the codes and conventions of
the not the music tribe but the stereotypical hospital
and doctor were followed resulting in an efficient shot.
9. Body Language & Language
Moreover, Body language & Language is an
extremely important part of our chosen music tribe.
This is to identify the Music tribe and differentiate
them from the others. Thus attention to this code
was crucial. JUDAH tackled this problem by
individually researching on it and ended up changing
our way of talking, walking and dressing to gain the
end achievement of creating a traditional music
video which follows all of the codes and convention.
10. Types of Music Videos
Music Video Types are an interesting thing as they define the purpose of the
music video. A concept and narrative based music video will contain a meaning
within the music videos, music or movie clips while a performance based music
video is generally for promoting and advertising the artist, brands, lifestyle and
the record label. Zafraan decided to base our music video on a mix of concept,
narrative and performance, as a mixture of themes always creates a better
music video by having the advantages of all of the themes. This was a crucial
decision; probably the most important because this is was the main factor
within our decision making for what song we will use within our music video.
After careful counsel with the group members, we decided to use Fort Minor –
Right Now. This was due to the meaning behind the song, each of us could
image the music video each time we heard the song. While Right Now carried
significant concept and narrative values, it also carried strong performance
potential; we used this to promote the artist by the use of expressive emotion,
body language and costume.
+ =
11. Effects
Finally, the effects and transitions used within our music video can
reflect reality and emotions of the artist. For example a Grey scale is
usually a symbol of a memory, thus the use of grey scale to illustrate
memories makes the music video more efficient as it follows the codes
and conventions much more competently, while a cut can represent a
sudden change of mood, while also signifying and depicting an event
similarly a fade can illustrate the vice versa; a gradual change of
emotions and life.
Thus the effects Zafraan created were important as the correct use of
effects could mean the difference between the efficient and successful
music video and a failed one.
Pixilation was a problem we came across as the resolution of the
camera could not be fixed. However we then used this pixilation effect
to our advantage as this portrays the uncertainty in life as the camera
blurs the shots which enforces the uncertainty in life.
12. Camerawork and editing
We used various angles such as High, low, and tilted, and extreme shots- e.g. long-shots or
mid-shots to follow action and offer new perspectives of the narrative.
Additionally, we used Subjective or objective camera work for our Moving image. For example,
a series of quick shots which energy and lots of things happening.
Adding on to this, Zafraan used transition techniques we used such as a cut/jump cut between
2 sections of the text and edited for some type of transitions, for a desired effect.
Consequently, the use of editing creates link between characters, music and the movie clips
within the music video.
Lastly we used the notion of looking we learnt within our AS and progressed it within our music
video and other products (Promotional Magazine & DVD Cover) to make the audience
relate with the artist much more easily as they feel at the centre of attention when the artist
in the Music Video/Promo/DVD Cover look at them.
Rhythm and pace
Throughout, the video we kept a Steady rhythm which keeps audience content and reassured.
13. Urban Street Area
Setting/location
For mise-en-scene we used various scenes within the
city to offer a real perspective to the audience
The setting changed depending on the scene to show
transition of not only the scene, but life and narrative.
We used a variety of Colour to convey meaning to give
a realistic, not an abstract view of the video.
As well as props, other aspects have symbolic
importance and represent a positive Ideology to our
chosen audience
14. Doctor with a traditional White
Coat
Characters
The characters are wearing correct clothing to help the
audience relate.
The way they move, speak and appear, have all been
relevant to the song with open body posture. The
only closed body posture was in the promotional
cover when Zeeshan was crossing his arms to show
dominance and control.
Especially to each scene, the actors are presented as
belonging to setting and the stereotype of the actors.
15. Narrative
Our music video has a Narrative
With various action Actions and events
With 3 uses of time within it:
Discourse- time taken to narrate events
Story time- real time of events
Time- summary- fades
We also used Ellipsis- which establishes discourse time rather than story time. The
Viewer assumes what happens between cuts such as walking in the apartment
then a cut to looking out for where the car went.
Various scenes are a realistic convention to captivate audience.
Additionally, we used Stretch which is longer discourse time to show emotions. The
use of Zafraan’s Flashbacks for the chorus was a change linear progression of
the text-; therefore moving away from realistic convention to allow audience to
judge or gain perspective on events through flashbacks
16. Critical theory links
Judah made sure the product fulfils the Uses and gratifications
theory as it is a Diversion from everyday problems,
The product creates meaning as the reader will read the magazine
and create their own Personal identity by constructing identity
from the characters in this media text. The song itself is about
change which in itself is a powerful word indicating that life will
never be the same.
Therefore, by reading this the viewer will be reinforced of personal
values, models of behaviour, gaining insight themselves and
challenging their own behaviour and values.
17. SOUND
The song used within our music video
contains the potential to create a music video
based on narrative, concept and
performance.
Moreover the Non-Diegetic sound (music)
had a rhythm just like any other song, thus
the movie clips were planned to fit the rhythm
and the lyrics.
19. Box Out
The box out is the fishing line of the both
magazines and promotional cover. It advertises
various freebies to the targeted audience due
to the usually bright colouring and placement of
the box out. ZEESHAN, however used the box
out to advertise the artist and bands we were
promoting thus developing the codes and
conventions of the promotional cover. We
found this during JUDAH’S research.
Moreover, we found that magazines are
stacked on shelves with only the left third of the
magazine viewable. We believe this makes a
significant place to place our box out, and as
we embedded this code and convention,
Zeeshan has created a much better promo with
a higher rate of promoting the artist and selling
lifestyles to the targeted audience. Similarly to
what we have mentioned before, this continues
the use of house style colour palette which has
enabled us to create a better magazine as a
repetition of these colours created a stereotype
within the minds of the readers which
automatically related these colours to our
promotional cover.
20. Typography
Mast heads and Strap lines are basically for
further interesting the audience into buying the
Magazine which in turn advertise the artist as
they have been featured within the magazine
promotional cover. Furthermore, as we have
found out a well placed Mast Head (which is
mostly at the top of the magazine) followed by
a strap line, this is enough to interest the
targeted audience into buying promotional
cover and thus the album. We developed this
by finding a relevant font and built the mast
head according to the genre chosen. We
believe the font chosen is relative to the genre
as it is interesting while still looking ‘heavy’ and
‘fat’ ( both words mean really nice [slang
term]). We used the Mast Head and strap line
to relate the promotion cover not only to the
artist but to the magazine which sponsored the
promotion. This in turn increased the publicity
of both artist and the magazine.
21. Also, other than the mast heads, text such as
website addresses Zeeshan placed upon the
magazine to promote the artist as the target
audience will be tempted to find out more
about the band, thus the provided
information makes it easier for the audience
to reach the artist which effectively increases
their public relationship from such a small
feature within the promotional cover.
22. Moreover, we developed the codes and
conventions of the promotional cover by making
the name of the artist band the large text upon
the promotional cover which made the text more
eye-catching, thus increasing the probability of
the targeted audience reading the promotional
cover. Furthermore, the large text used the
correct colour to match the house palette. This
made the promo more effective as the codes
and conventions were matched to increase the
efficiency of the cover. This will consequently
make the promotional cover much better at
attracting the audience and promoting the artist.
During this, Zeeshan also used a simple font to
increase the readability of the magazine,
making it easier for the targeted audience to
read the promotional cover. Due to this
simplicity the correct messages were conveyed
about the ideals and intentions of the artist while
the simple nature of the text made it more eye
catching as it can easily be read thus increasing
the publicity of the band and increasing the
amount of the in turn from the promotional cover
sales.
23. Furthermore, the cover lines and puff pieces
are for marketing the artist and their albums.
We followed the codes and conventions by
creating the cover lines and placing them
within the left third of the promotional cover,
increasing the probability of the targeted
audience reading the promo and buying the
album. However we developed & challenged
the puff piece code and convention by using
the logo of the artist to attract the audience.
The colour variation of the house style
palette made the typography much more
interesting to look at thus increasing the
chance of the audience buying the album
due to the promo.
24. Images
The main image of the
endorsement is the image of
the main band or artists,
more the placement of the
featured article artists or
band images placed on the
promotional cover. Judah
found this as he looked
through some magazines of
our chosen genre and of
other genres. For example,
Hip-Hop Connection.
Zeeshan used the main
image of the promotional
page to further enforce the
ideals of this artist portrayed.
However much research had
taken place by Judah within
the images of the
promotional cover as they
have to reflect the chosen
music tribe by the correct
clothing and body language.
25. This information helped us take
the correct images containing
the correct codes and
conventions which related to the
chosen music tribe of hip-hop.
Moreover, due to the fact that
the codes and conventions were
followed efficiently, the
promotion of the artist to the
targeted hip-hop music tribe
increased immensely as the
targeted audience were able to
relate with the artist much more
easily.
27. Images
Similarly to the promotional cover,
size and proxemics of the images
extremely important, Zafraan
learnt this within his As Media and
the research enforced his ideas
about how we wanted to portray
our artist to the public. The light
also played an important part as
we wanted to portray a relaxed
happy artist. Thus the use of high
key lighting within the
photography was completely
essential. This also makes the
public image of the artist
admirable as the light can reflect
the sought after spotlight, thus
artist and readers will admire and
relate themselves with the artist.
This is the desired result of the
DVD production.
28. Typography
Typography plays, without a
doubt a Major Part in the
Persuasion Procedure,
Making the Typography
Bold and Eye Catching is
very essential, but it must
be balanced out from the
Others like features, and
Codes on Conventions on
the Page. It Should Not
‘Steal the Show’ but
simultaneously be Very
Enticing. Furthermore,
Zafraan’s use of different
fonts allowed us to link the
Font with the Title of the
DVD Cover
29. Structure/Layout
The Layout is Very
Important as it gives the
Final Look a
Professional one, if the
Layout is all over the
Place, The Whole Piece
comes apart. Thus the
proxemics of everything
is extremely essential to
make the layout work.
Layout is also a Way to
link the Different
Components on the DVD
Cover together, for The highlighted boxes above show how individual parts of the DVD
example the images can Come together to make a single, spectacular product.
be placed close to the
text to compliment the
text
30. Colour
Colour is essential as it can
denote meanings within the
text and images. Colours are
essential in the codes and
conventions of the DVD
cover as a colourful cover is
more likely to attract the
audiences and sell the
promotion. While a black and
white typography is less
attractive than the colourful
text. We however believe the
fonts used with the black and
white text can create an
interesting yet simple effect
which is also efficient at
attracting the audience.
31. Logos & Accreditation
Logos are important as they relate the
DVD to other institution such as 20th
Century Fox; this can help the publicity
of the artist and can help with the
marketing and advertising of the artist.
Moreover, Zeeshan believed the use of
logos can further advertise the actual
companies themselves thus increasing
the public images as wealthy companies
can represent the artist’s influence and
power.
The accreditations are a crucial code
and convention of the DVD cover.
Judah wanted famous star personas &
directors within our DVD cover
accreditations to increase the fame and
ratings of my product, which in turn
makes it much more efficient.
32. How effective is the combination of
your main product and ancillary texts?
The purpose of a music video is to promote the artist
through the song of choice while promoting the
actual music video. Zafraan believes this
combination is effective because each of the text is
supporting a single band using various codes and
conventions of completely different products.
33. Music Video –
The music video is efficient at creating the public
image of the artist through the use of effects, movies
clips and music.
Movie Clips & Music within the music video are an
individual and unique contribution of the music video
within the combination of the main products and
ancillary text. This is due to the fact that the text and
interview magazine will go so far, while a moving
image will depict much more of the artists' attributes.
Zafraan believes this makes the contribution leads a
much more effective combination of products.
35. Promotional Cover
Use of Movie clips is a single matter, colours
fonts and images a whole different matter.
The promotion is extremely essential
because the back bones of any artist are the
promotional work done for him, this is
important as the construction of the correct
public image is essential. Judah wanted the
promotional cover to contribute to the mix by
the use of typography & images.
36. This font illustrates graffiti
tagging, which is quite
common within the hip-hop
culture Graffiti Tagging is
done by a spray paint, and is
mostly use to illustrate ones
Hip-Hop Tag Name, thus the
name of such an action is
Tagging.
Typography
The Typography is important due to the fact
that the right font is essential in relating the
promotional cover and the artist to the
relative music tribe. We were successful at
this due to the research taken by Judah. This
helped Zeeshan create a better promo as the
Fonts, Colour & Language could directly
relate to the targeted audience.
37. Font The Artist name in Graffiti Font, typical of the hip-hop
subculture
Fonts used within the promotional cover are
important as we have mentioned previously,
Zeeshan however had to ensure that all text upon
the promo was of the relative music tribe while
keeping the size relative to importance. The sizes
were different to illustrate the importance of the each
individual text. This helped by making the Artist
name more eye catching through the combination of
font, size and colour thus making the promo much
more efficient at advertising the artist and the articles
within.
Artist Name
38. The colour signifies
the fading memory of
Tupac it is the same
colour as the
background and the
main image
Colour
Colours of the font were equally important as the fonts themselves.
Colours are essential codes and convention of the promotional cover
as the denote meanings, thus had to be related to the music tribe while
also conveying the correct meanings and message to the audience.
Zafraan chose colours such as Gold and Red to denote certain
meanings. Gold signifies wealth and power which illustrates the
exclusive status of the artist depicting their rise of power and influence;
this was chosen as it fit in the hip-hop music tribe conventions of
‘Bling’ (Slang for Jewellery). While red on the other hand meant
resilience, this colour indicated the struggles and hard work the band
underwent. This was exactly the image we were trying to create and
were successful due to us following the codes and conventions which
furthermore increased the ratings of the promo and heightened the
fame of the artist.
‘Bling’ illustrated through the Gold and Silver colours used.
39. Images
Images within the promotional cover are one of the core codes
and conventions of the promotional cover. Images were used as
they illustrate a thousand things, thus this philosophy was used in
combination of costume, body language and proxemics to create
the perfect pictures to illustrate the artists individuality. Judah was
successful at this to due the fact that the previous research and
planning lent us a hand in the creation of the final promotional
cover. Zeeshan chose the costume and proxemics were helpful in
illustrating the belonging of the artist to the hip-hop music tribe
while also promoting a life style to the reader.
Images within the magazine also have effects of saturation and
hue; this is to make the images more interesting they appear to be
faded. Zafraan came to do this because he saw the beneficial
attributes of this effect as it made the artist someone who other
artist looked up to. Moreover, the colour fading effect also conveys
the idea of the artist fading away without an equal which further
promoted them within the music industry. This in turn made the
promo much more efficient in attracting the targeted audience.
41. DVD Cover
The DVD cover is an interesting
piece of work as it represents the
individual artists themselves. This
is due to the fact that the imagery
created through effects and filters
are extremely efficient in
attracting the audience which is a
compulsory code of the DVD
Cover. Judah followed this code
through the conventional way
through manipulating images of
the artist themselves and a piece
of work Zeeshan contributed to
the group, which made the DVD
cover much more authentic and
interesting.
42. Images
The Images used within the
magazine were chosen through
the collaboration of the group and
picking the images through the
quality and concept of the image.
This in turn made the image
much more than an image,
resulting in the artist becoming
icons of the music industry due to
the correct meaning illustrated
through the right image and the
right effect on the image.
43. Image Effects The crimson on the and text and the capes of the Spartans
relates the colours to the battle of Thermopile.
As we mentioned before the
saturation and hue effect had
really interested and attracted
Zafraan, this resulted with
most of the images containing
the mentioned effect.
Moreover we tried to create a
link within our ancillary text
and music video to further
make the promotion a success
as the targeted audience will
easily relate the promotional
cover to the DVD and the DVD
to the Music video.
44. Typography & Logos
Through Judah’s research we found out that
logos and text are as important as the
images in the DVD cover. The narrative
summary was used by Zeeshan to attract the
audience into buying the DVD cover, while
the text was simple and plain, it was easily
read by any member of the audience and the
group. This made it more efficient in
illustrating our meaning.
45. Logo
Zeeshan created the logos which attracted the
audience through signifying the institutions involved
within the production of the DVD. For example the
fame of a company such as Fox 20th Century
Institution could help better promote the DVD as they
are well known for block busters and classics. This
helped the DVD cover gain publicity within the
targeted audience, while other logos such as 1080p
HD logo further signifies the quality of the DVD
making the marketing process of the DVD much
easier due to better value of movie clips.
46. What have you learnt from your
audience feedback?
We have learnt that Audience feedback is extremely important in
determining the outcome of each product. Audience feedback is
important due to the fact that certain flaws within your works and
designs can only be spotted by other while the variation of answer also
increased the quality of our product. This is due to the final products
being suited for a wide range of targeted audience thus increasing the
product sold, which indirectly and directly increases the fame and
publicity of the artists.
Moreover, audience feedback is also crucial for Judah’s research as
he learned what is within the minds and hearts of the modern
audiences, this helps in the creation of a better product because the
product will be made to specific specifications thus resulting in a
product which is popular and sought after.
47. Audience feedback
DVD cover Most critical, “The overall effect
was great and my first initial impression was
that it was a professional and an official DVD
cover due to the main codes and
conventions addressed as well as the logo’s
which are very realistic. Great cover 5/5!”
48. Audience feedback
Promotional cover. Most critical, “The advert
is brilliant and interesting and as a Hip hop
fan I am very interested to find out more
about this band Fortminor. The cover was
sleek, stylish and captivating and I can’t wait
to visit the website and see the DVD and
music video”
49. Audience Feedback
Music video. Most critical, “What can I really
say? WOW it is sooo good. I mean the
scenes are really realistic and the narrative is
really interesting with the unfortunate stories
how people are dealt with life- which in reality
is unfair and the music video perfectly
depicts and reflects that.”
50. How did you use new media technologies in
your construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
Technology is now at the heart of our every
day lives, from mobile phones to computer,
similar to this every stage in our construction
contain use of media technology ranging
from softwares to hardwares.
51. During the Construction stage of our products Zafraan used the
internet surfing technology to get inspiration from other
professional media producer whose product matched or criteria.
He did this to further widen our thoughts and ideas and this is a
sort of audience feedback but instead the audience feedback is
in the actual products of the professionals. Internet allowed us
to use other facilities such as search engines, video sharing
websites etc to help Judah’s research and help Zafraan and
Zeeshan produce the products. However we kept our hands
clean of plagiarism and used the internet as a mean to gain
knowledge and information which helped us progress further.
52. In addition soft wares such as InDesign and
Photoshop eased our burden while creating a
product such as a promotion cover. These soft
wares allowed Zeeshan to manipulate images to
such his desire and design a product which all of the
members of the group contributed towards by
creating smaller pieces which connected into a
single large product. We also used the previous
mentioned technology and new technology such as
a word processor to create audience feed back
questionnaire to maximise the products likeability
within the targeted audience.
53. Moreover in the productive part of each stage, technology such
as Green Screens and Lights helped us create much more
dynamic images simply by clicking the camera.
The green screen helped us during the editing within
Photoshop by allowing us to easily manipulate images; this is
helped as such techniques decreased our production time.
While the light set the mood by decreasing or increasing the
brightness on the character illustrating happiness or sadness.
Moreover, Zafraan used new digital cameras allowing high
resolution images to be created simply by clicking a button.
This increased the overall quality of the image and of the
products as the clarity and quality of the image reflects the
qualities and attributes of the artists themselves.
54. Similarly, the technologies such as Microsoft
PowerPoint created a more creative and interactive
perspective of evaluation, this software allowed us to
manipulate text, colour, placement of text and
relative images. As we have mentioned before, the
interactive perspective of the PowerPoint allowed a
more interesting and creative effect as the
examiners can simply link all the information
together, simply by clicking the mouse or pressing
space.
55. Further more, because we used technologies such as In Design
within out As Media we decided to use the technology again to
illustrate our progression in skill and ability. Also the abilities we
gain within such softwares are a perk, which helps us reach the
summit of our ability. Similarly the use of blogger within the As
Media is exceptional however to progress is to gain knowledge
and new abilities with which we can present our work much
more easily. We decided to use the Word Press to illustrate our
coursework for our A2 Media. Thus illustrating our progression
as we developed from Blogger to Word Press, which
consequently further demonstrates our abilities and skill.
56. Uploading Video
We decided uploaded our music video on YouTUbe. This is
because YouTube is a casual video sharing website. However
due to heavy copyright restriction in Youtube we had to give the
rights to the owners of the music (Fort Minor) to stop YouTube
from deleting our videos.
Furthermore we installed two links within our blogs to the music
video in case once stopped working and the link was dead. We
also had a hard DVD copy of the music video made in case non
of the links were working.
This planning helped us overcome obstacles which might be
present in the near future.
57. Finally, the use of technologies was simple, to aid
students such as us in reaching the heights of our
abilities, to push our imagination out of any barriers
which may confine it. We believe this will help any
student and examiner have a more enjoyable time
working and marking. Moreover as technology
evolves from time to time, the adaptive capabilities of
students are shown. We believe all this can be
reflected within our work.
