1. 1.IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
My media products challenge the typical conventions of demonized youth and the
General aspects of hip hop music videos. The music video puts an emphasis on
young people having fun rather than how the media portray them. In the music
video, there is a variety of young people dancing, free running, singing or doing
athletics which hints at their productivity rather than being seen as scum (such as
in the London Riots of 2011) Also in a typical hip hop music video, the audience
would expect to see expensive cars and strong sexual references from
females, however in this music video none of this is present to empower young
people and send out the message that you don’t need expensive high profile
items to have fun or be successful.

2. 2.HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR
MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?
The main product and ancillary texts have very subtle links. First the headphones
used in the ancillary texts. A pair of headphones are also used in the music video.
The overhead headphones are a recent trend amongst young people thus, the
audience can gain some sort of relation to the music video. Secondly the use of the
main artist is limited in the main product and on the poster he is wearing a mask.
This is to strengthen the idea of young people having fun as a collective rather than
a singular artist receiving all the publicity (which tends to happen in the news; a
young person being misrepresented and thus the whole of young people are
thrown into the same bracket) Lastly the use of colour. The music video is just as
colourful as the ancillary texts which gives off a positive “vibe” for the audience. The
bright colours in the main product and ancillary texts also grabs the audience’s
attention.

3. 3.WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE
FEEDBACK?
I’ve learnt from my audience feedback that some of the colours used in the
main product and the ancillary texts don’t match. The aim was for
consistency and I missed a couple minor points. However, the audience
I asked (from sound cloud and physically showing them on YouTube)
thought the music video sent out a positive message that represented
the lyrics well. Also, the audience believed that the package portrayed
young people very well and enjoyed the message the music video sent
out. Finally the audience enjoyed the music video and were convinced
that they would buy the track after seeing the music video (which is the
main goal for most music videos)

4. 4.HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN
THE CONSTRUCTION AND
RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION
STAGES?

5. THE CDFor the CD I used four simple images taken with a CANON D700 (one of a hat ,headphones , Graffiti from a
wall in central London and a CD that I own) I imported them into Photoshop. After adding all images into
the disc image I set the layer property to “Screen” to give the illusion that the three images were actually
on the disc. Also a bit of colour correction such as the “Curves” adjustment and the “Hue and Saturation”
properties. It is important that the theme of the Cap and the headphones is kept to build a sense of
familiarity and consistency throughout all the ancillary tasks and the music video.
After the main images were dealt with, I added the artists’ name and the name of the album on the upper half
Of the CD using the “Text” tool, using this CD image
as a structure. I lowered the “opacity” of the text to
make it blend in

6. INLAY
The inlay needed to be simple while still representing youth in a positive manner. For this I used a colourful eye catching
background with virtually no negative signs to show a positive representation of “happy” youth and stray away from the constant
demonization of them in the media and even by other youth artists (Most young Hip Hop/ Rap artists adhere to the typical
stereotypes in their music, strengthening the representation of “vile” youth due to the lack of colour)
I added an image that would soon be on the magazine
poster for continuity. However, both shots would be
different. First I used a graffiti image for the
background and added the “Cutout” effect in the
“Filters” tab and increased all the sliders to their
maximum. Then in a separate file, I used the “text”
tool to create the word “Power” (to empower
youth), put the cutout background on top and set the
blending mode to “Screen”. Finally I brought that
element into the main publication, duplicated
it, changed the “overlay” to white and place it just
above the main text. Then the main image. I enlarged
the main image to create a medium shot as this type
of shot was more fit for purpose. I then added the
“Cutout” and “Colour Pencil” filters to it.
12cm
12cm

7. BACK
It was important to have either the cap or headphones in the image because one couldn’t be forgotten for the
element of consistency. The back need to be a complete colour contrast to the saturated front cover the
imply the idea that there are two sides to young people, The front being the typical “Grey” demonized version
of youth and the back which is colourful, fun and vivid. The font is also consistent throughout all the texts.
I added the song names and name of the artist using
the “text” tool and faded the artist’s name as it was
too intruding on the overall product. For the
barcode, I downloaded an extra font called
“Barcode” from www.dafont.com which gives out
free copyright free fonts if they’re not used to make
profit. The image of the cap had the background cut
out using the “Pen” tool to eliminate the green
background but keep the surface. I then flipped the
image and lowered the “Opacity” to give the illusion
of the cap of a reflective surface. I then used some
colour correction (boosted the saturation levels in the
“Hue And Saturation” tab in the colour correction
menu and darkened the image with the “curves”
adjustment to boost the contrast with the other
colours. Finally I added some brush images using the
“Brush” tool of leafs, stars and grass to keep the
consistency (also the image of the record logo which
I took from my old Usb as it was an image I made in
GCSE ICT)
11.8cm
15cm
3cm

8. FRONTThe front cover was the basis for all the other ancillary texts. Everything in the others needed to include some
front the front cover to bring a sense of familiarity and genuine continuity that make people feel more enticed
to buy. The mostly saturated front cover is supposed to contrast with the back giving a “genuine”
representation of young people through a colourless front cover, however the hat and headphones are in
colour to exemplify a “signal of hope” and that stereotypes are one dimensional and every young person is
different.
The paint type effect is a variant of the “Brush” tool
I used set to the colour black. I then put the image
of the cap and headphones under the brush layer
and boosted their saturation levels in the “Hue and
Saturation” adjustment. I then added a “Curves”
adjustment boosting the “Blue” colour channel in
the “RGB” drop down menu. To finish off the main
element, I set the brush layer to “Screen” to give
the illusion of the two other images being painted
on the cover. I then added the album name and
artist name on the bottom right of the canvas and
rotated them slightly (I took the name of the font as
this would be a consistent font throughout all the
ancillary texts which was “TW Cen MT Condensed
Extra Bold”) For the album title to stand out more, I
changed the colour to white and added a black
“Stroke” in the layer properties and set the
thickness to 3. Finally I chose some other variants
of the “Brush” tool like the grass, stars and leafs
and put them around the canvas and then added a
“Bevel” to the entire canvas to create the spine.
12cm
12cm

9. MAGAZINE ADVERTI chose not to use my initial poster as the saturated colours weren’t very attractive to my target audience (Given to 10 people) So
the theme needed to be changed drastically. I then decided to take a photo of some graffiti near central London to exemplify the
View of creative young people making outstanding pieces of art that represent them.
Initial Poster
To start off with, I placed the model in a
position on the canvas and resized it. I
then added the image of the CD cover to
the right of the canvas to let the audience
know that this is an advertisement for an
album. I then added some text at the top
right using the “Text” tool to add some
information about the album title and
artist name. I also added text at the
bottom of the canvas including
information such as, release date, other
singles included and the record website. I
added the graffiti background behind the
image of the model and boosted the
saturation level using the “Hue And
Saturation” tool. I then added a slight
“Tint” effect to make the image of the
model blend with the background.
Finally, I used the “Brush” tool to create
the grass and stars around the image to
keep some consistency with the other
ancillary texts (the main model is also
wearing a pair of headphones) Finally for
the grass above the release date
information, I added a 5 colour “Gradient
Map” to match the colours of the graffiti
background.

10. MUSIC VIDEO

11. For the music video, I primarily used “Adobe After Effects” I ordered the clips in “Adobe Premier Pro” and synced
The music in “Sony Vegas” and imported the projects into after effects. After adding the clips, I added the “curves” e
To give the video contrast and then the “video co-pilot's twitch” for the blur and lighting. After this, I rendered the v
and uploaded to YouTube. I was familiar with all the editing software used as well as the uploading process on YouT
Sony Vegas

12. SHARING TECHNOLOGIES USED
Used to easily order all the information and
present them online. This is the easiest tool
for this and allows users to use a variety of
sources to post media products such as
embedding videos, power point docs or
importing Photoshop documents. Also very
intuitive to use.
Used to
communicate with
people for the music
video (such as
gathering them and
updating them on the
dates of shooting
Used to upload power point
presentations to the web to
then embed them into the
blog. Fast and easy and
allows flexible options for
changing the documents.
Used to upload the music
video and initial vox pops. A
mainstream video sharing
site that works very well
and also allows the
embedding option
To get the audience
Feedback for the third
Question as it is an efficient
Way to get feedback without
Writing anything down

13. SOFTWARE USED
Used to stabilize track
motion and also adding
specific effects and lighting
to the video.
Ordering Clips in cohesive order.
Adobe is the market leader for
Creating special types of media so
I felt this was appropriate for
Ordering clips rather than Sony Vegas
Editing software with
Advanced lip syncing
Capabilities (greater
Use for the waveform
Audio)
Creating ancillary texts
Such as front cover or poster.
Top end industry software.
Adobe After effects cs5.5
Adobe premier pro cs5.5
Adobe Photoshop cs5.1
Sony Vegas Pro 12