Evaluation - Website

This is the final design of our website that was used to help promote the artist and his single. The link to the website can be found here: 

VIEW WEBSITE HERE

This allowed us to be able to easily create a website design from scratch by dragging and dropping different elements to the page. We made sure that our website gave the correct image about the artist and the colour and design scheme were agreed upon.

You first see a large image of "D-Rail" with a box that alerts the views about his new single. Along with this you can also see links to his Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In this case we link the icons to the official coolios pages instead.

There is also the radio spot on the page, so it  plays when the web page is opened. Is is placed at the top so the viewer can stop it at anytime they want.

After that you get to the section where it shows all the different CD cover images and then to the right the official music video. The viewers have the opportunity to watch the video on  the website and then downlaod it on iTunes using the button below the video.

Then you get all the different photos about the artist and other images that relate to the new single.

Lastly you also get the events section where you are able to book a ticket to go and listen to D-Rail. Also on the right of the page you can subscribe to get the latest information about the artist.

Evaluation - CD Cover

Traditionally a CD cover was used to advertise the contents inside usually a single or album. In recent times however CD covers have been used to convey the emotion of the artist and convey the style and or theme of the artist.

After doing some research on what a cd cover would need, we went onto photoshop ad started creating our cover. We had to incorporate all the different elements that were required to make cover that stands out to our audience and still had all the information that they need.

Here you can see the front cover below. We have made sure that this cover gave the right image about D-Rail. The short story shows the past "hood" life of D-Rail; this is then shown to changed at the end as the audience realises that he was dragged into that life.

We put a brightly lit image of his face on the front cover. This will help show that he is not hiding anything. It again helps portray the idea of how he has changed and how he is helping other people change. 

We have also incorporated the QR CODE into the front cover. This allows the audiences who have the cd cover to be able to connect to the official site. This is used to help our videos to be able to directly connect to D-Rails website and be able to look at upcoming events and other information.

Furthermore we put the title of our ingle onto the front cover. You can see that the "side" is tilted a bit and goes across the top left. The other "tracked" is lower down and goes across the middle

For the back cover he wanted to help it match the front cover. This will help keep all the styles similar and not look out of place or random. In addition to this we have developed another picture that will again help highlight D-rail image to our audience.

There are some copyright information on the lower left and the barcode. The copyright information would be used to tell the audience how they can use the music video. Along with this our business logo is on the other side.

Evaluation - Final Music Video

Evaluation - TV Show

Evaluation - Individual Write-up - Rimoldeen Francis

In what was does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In terms of development, we have incorporated many different aspects of official music videos into out own video. This has allowed us to be able to created a professional standard music video for people to see and enjoy. After doing our research about different music videos and artists products we have been able to discover exactly what was needed.

We looked into different motifs that were used within our music video and many others that we looked into. We have created a slide-share about the similarity within our music video that were used in other professional videos. Here is a list of the different motifs that were easily reconcilable:

Ritual Dancing - This could mostly be seen at the wend where we had a small group of people dancing to a similar beat and main the same movements. Since out video was not as serious as many other music videos we ended up breading the ritual dancing at the end of the music video where each person ended up doing their own moves. This allowed our video to be different from many other videos and challenged the main motifs that were "required" to make a good music video.

Along with this you could also see the main artist, "D-Rail" dancing on his own or with another while he raps. This was main done so we could give more scenes for the viewer to look at and allowed us to give a good image about the artist. This image was then shown through out the whole product range that were created for this artist.

Fragmented small message 

This was something that we debated within he group where we wanted to have an image but we didn't want to go with every other music video that made the message very clear. I would be going into this in the challenges that we made for our music video.

Black and white effect

Furthermore we incorporated black and white images in our music video to help widen the range of effects that could be used to keep the audience engaged int he video. It would be better for our audience to see different images then just the same thing over and over. The black and white videos were mainly used for the chorus where the other rapper was lip-syncing.

Intertexuality 

Lastly you can also see intertexuality within our video where we related to other artists videos.

Along with this we also challenged the way in which a typical music video would have been created. This allowed us to be able to have out own spin and our own image for our artist.

Fragmented story 

Relating back to the story you can see that the message may not have been as clear as you would have expected. In a typical video you would see clips of a fragmented story throughout the whole video. However in our video we wanted to make the audience think about the video and make a message for them. Obviously they would relate it to the lyrics but hey would also see the video where they get to see the artist doing his own thing and living his own life.

The points below helps support the statement that i made about about how the artist isn't seen in the typical way by the audience.

At first you see him in the graveyard where he is seen to be rapping about someone that he has lost. Then you get the flack-backs of him smoking on his own and the green-screen. However later on int he video near the end you end up seeing him as a changed man. He is seen to be walking away with his friend into the distance. You don't see him advertise bottles of alcohol that you way see in a typical video.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

Our main video went together very well with all the other secondary products that we ended up creating. The website and the video gave the correct message about the artist. when we put the video onto the website it fitted in very well with all the other elements on the page.

For the CD Cover we wanted to give a bright look to it, this would have allowed us to be able to target directly to teenagers who like to see eye catching covers. While doing that we also wanted to put in things that you would have seen in other CD Covers. For example the image of the artist face and a text going across.

One thing that i could say that would have been better is if we had the website in similar colours as the CD Cover. This would have allowed us to be able to keep the same housestyle  throughout the whole piece. 

3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For our audience feedback on the planning, we had a clear message on exactly what the audience wanted and what people liked.

- More male - The first question asked about the gender of the person answering the questions. We found that more males liked rap videos then females and this allowed us to know exactly who we should mostly be targeting towards. This also perfectly fitted in with the demographics that we found previously.

- Teenagers - Secondly the age groups for the rap videos were mostly between 13 and 19. This showed that teenagers were most likely to enjoy our music video then other age groups. The props and scenes that we had to use were meant to relate back to teenagers.

 We asked other questions that would help us find different things that they enjoyed about the music videos and exactly what they wanted to see within it.

Some of the questions we asked were:

- How they watch music video(Youtube)

- What people enjoy watching

- Asked if they preferred a story

- Shopping habits and hobbies

We also did the same process for our evaluation after we finished out whole video. The results were very good and allowed us to be able to see what we needed to improve on or what we did good at.

Lip sync was perfect
The lip-syncing was said to be done very good and were said to be spot on. This showed that the editing was done extremely good.

Eye catching video/appropriate sets and props
They also stated that the video was eye catching and all the different scenes were very good. this helps us know that we met the needs of our target audience from the planning.

Wide range of shots
After a few looks at the music video the saw that there was many shots and angles that they found.

Clear product placement
We also asked them about the different brands that they saw in the music video. The views were easily able to identify the different brands that were shown. this allowed us to know that the product placements were done appropriately and effective.

Dancing memorable parts
Lastly you would be able to find that the most memorable aspect of the music video was the dancing towards the end. This was said by many of the people that reply to the audience feedback.

4 - How did you use media technology in the construction and research,planning and evaluation stage?

For the planning and research we used different software to help keep track of the different thing that we got from our future audience. The technology that we used was the internet to help connect with our audiences. this allowed us to be able to get feedback from people that watch rap videos. The main website that we used was called "Survey Monkey"; this program allowed us to be able to create questions about rap videos that we can then sen out and get feedback. This allowed us to directly find the things that we needed to do in our music video to help attract that audience.

- Celtx - We used this program to created our storyboard in line with the
drawing that we created. we scanned the images and then put them onto this program to allow us to easily see the different steps that we had to record. Furthermore we also created a catalog of the different thing that we needed.

- Photobooth - This was then used to create podcast of the whole process from the start to the end.

For our construction we used many other technologies to help create, edit and finalise our music video. These were all used for different parts of the construction when one was finished we moved onto the next stage.

- Camera / Tripod - This was used through out the whole process of the construction where we created the whole music video. The camera was used to get all the different shots and the tripod was used to help get stable shot where we needed the camera to be steady.

- Green-screen - The green-screen can easily be spotted within he music video where we got the black and white image in the back drop rapping while the other version stood in front dancing.

- Premere - This was the main program that our editor used to help edit the whole music video. This had all the different things that we needed to create a professional and industry standard music video.

- Garageband - Lastly this program allowed us to create the dub of Aaron and then put it onto premiere so we could use it as the actual voice.

For the evaluation we used similar programs as we did with the planning and research. We again used Surveymonkey to get audience feedback of what they thought about the music video. Along with this we also used Youtube and Blogger to get all the different podcasts and interviews with target audience done. 

Evaluation - Individual Write-up - Aaron Marshall-Sinclair

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions of music videos are common features that can be exhibited throughout all music videos. I have researched these conventions in an earlier presentation, some include close ups of the artists face, dancing, ritualism and exotic locations. All these are utilized to keep the audience’s attention and to make the music video more eye catching and attractive. For my music video we chose the genre of rap, which advocates aggressive, illegal behaviour conventions; unlike other genres.

The music video we have created challenges these conventions of rap. Although the original music video of Gangster’s Paradise displays serious issues of relative deprivation and gang violence, we do not follow these ideas. Our video is more of a parody compared to this one. We wanted to include humour to make it more enjoyable for our audience. We hoped to have put across the humour by the scene of us dancing in the graveyard.

Not only have we tried to add humour here but also we have created a controversial scene for are audience to remember are music video. However, comparing to other music video conventions we do deploy similar camera shots angles including close ups and low angle shots.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

As part of our A2 media coursework we were asked to create a music video as well as two ancillary texts, which include a website for are artist and an album cover. Firstly the album covers helps portray a further image for are artist D-Rail, as well as advertising our product. This is a traditional use of a music video however; some covers can convey emotion and different ideas. We have created these ideas by the types of shots we have taken. D-Rail shows two different facial expressions for the front and back.

The front cover can connote a sense of loss or a struggle due to the facial expressions; in contrast to the back where we see the artist more relaxed.

In addition, it also creates an image in terms of the artist symbol. We developed the letter D with a multi coloured background. The letter D is easy to recognise and the colours help attract people to the symbol.

This further reinforces how the album cover helps promote the artist and the product. Moreover, the website similarly allows further advertisement of our product. However, the website also allows the artists fans to interact with D-Rail himself and other fans.

The website is connected to many social media sites. These include Facebook and Twitter and we have made them clear to see on the first page of the website. Furthermore, the image of the artist is advocated as the website is an expression of how he wants to be viewed. The house style and organisation of images are purposely placed to emphasise the artist himself. The images we used are mixture of serious and comedic showing how the music video is a parody of something that was originally done to give a message. Ultimately both these products together benefit us in promoting and exhibiting are artist to our audience and creating an image for him.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We have shown our created music video to a random group of people that fit our target audience. We asked them to give us feedback on our product in the form of an interview. Their responses indicated to us what was successful in our video and also what was not. A common trend amongst are responses was the quality of the lip syncing. Everyone thought it was perfect and they found no faults in this aspect of the music video.

This was a likewise response to the special effects we utilized as well. Most agreed that the effects, props and locations used were deployed and shown at appropriate times and were very good. This includes the green screen background and the filter effects of the change to black and white. However, some criticism was shown to the lightning effect. They thought it looked a bit out of placed and didn’t match what was happening in that scene of the music video. Overall the responses were very positive and it concludes that we did make a successful effort in making this music video.

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

At first, to research music videos the most pivotal part of technology is the Imac for the internet.

This allows us to look at other music videos for our planning and construction stage. Youtube helped a lot in terms of giving us access to watch these other music video examples. We looked at videos within our chosen genre – Rap. First we did watch the original Gangster’s paradise just to see it as an option to what we can do. We had also used blogger at this stage to document are progress and ideas. The Imac also provided us with software’s such as premiere and Photoshop which was the catalyst to the editing of are filming. The many tools it consists give us the best possible effects and ideas we can input onto our music video. Furthermore, Photoshop created our album cover and allowed us to manipulate text and images to create a product.  Another piece of technology used was a camera. Once we had our idea we were able to film and construct our video at will. For the evaluation stage, we needed to get feedback from our target audience. So we utilized the social networking sites such as Fcaebbok and Twitter in order to gather this information.

Twitter allowed me to share my video and questionnaires to all my followers at once. In addition, twitter allows people to respond and comment back to me what they thought about our music video. This was similarly used for Facebook where my friends can look at my posts and gain access to questionnaire link and the music video.

Evaluation - Individual Write-up - Eric Chima

I have created a various media products in my project. The music video uses various conventions of media an example of this can be seen in motifs exhibited within it. One Motif in the music video is ritual dancing which can be seen in the final scenes of our music video.  Ritual dancing is a common convention used in music videos and me incoperated it in my own music video makes my video look professional and more like other media products in the same category.

Another example of me following standard media conventions was theough the use of mise en scene. Thw mise en acene used in the video mimics that of other music videos of the hip hop genre. An example of this can be seen in the costumes of the artsit as well as the actors. The costumes are standard urban wear which through our research is what is popular amongst our target audience who would be familar with this sort of attire.

Although I followed most media conventions I also challenged a few. An example of this is the slightly comical nature of music video. This goes against atandard media conventions since the artist is rapping about serious issues like life and death and pverty and I jucxtaposed it with the playful attidude the artist and actors have and thus creating a parody of the genre.

After the construction of the music video we conducted some post market research in order to gain audience feedback to the completed products. Upon completing this research I have learnt a few things about my media products and I will highlight a few:

It was found that I used a multitude of camera shots and angles in the music video which aided to keep the veiwer in the video also advertise the artist as a product since veiwers told me that there were many close ups on the artist that made it clear he was the star.

Another thing i learnt from the audience is that alhough individualy my products have been completed to a proffesional standard, as a whole the products lacked a distinctive design theme which led to confusion between the link of said products.

I used a variety of technolgies to aid me during all the stages of the product and I will list the ones frequently used in each stage.

Planning: We used survey monkey to construct surveys in which we could easily send to members of our target audience elecronically via social media. The advantage of this is that it allowed us to have a larger sample size but also analyse the results in a quicker more efficent manner.

Construction: Adobe premire pro was my video editing software of choice. It allowed me to organise all clips from filming and stick them together in a cohesive manner to give me a conpleted composotion. It also allowed me add effects to clips like a black and white filter and even more advanced techniques like greenscreening.

Evaluation - Final Podcast Reflection

Evaluation - Music At The Start Of Final Podcast

When we created the final podcast we decided to go on Garageband and create an intro music. Here you can see use creating it. 

Evaluation - DUB Evidence

When we were creating the music video we thought about how we were going to make the whole thing. One idea that was brought up was to get rid of Coolios voice and get Aaron to do a dub over it instead. This would have help make the music video a lot better then it would have been if we didn't. We check this after creating the video, we play them both multiple times and released that the dub was industry standard and was worth putting on YouTube.

We focused on the voice dub at the end of the whole music video; this meant that we had more time to focus on the dub itself and get it perfect. We recorded Aaron (D-rail) rapping to the music while we recorded. 

We then went on to GarageBand and imported the rap onto the program. This showed us the whole music and all the different parts of it. This help us to edit and change different areas that were not needed. We focused on keeping the sound the same and as close to Aaron voice as possible,  however at the same time making it sound professional and clean.

We wanted to amke sure that there was no mistakes on the creation of the dub as it would have meant that the time to finish would have been longer.

This last screenshot show that we put the dub after onto the timeline of the music video.

Evaluation - Surveymonkey Results Podcast

Evaluation - How Does Your Project Challenge Real Media Texts?

We believe we have created a music video that challenges the cliche conventions that other music videos offer within our genre. Most videos within the genre of rap are represented as aggressive or involve illegal behaviour and serious issues. This is prominent even in the original music video to Gansta's Paradise by Coolio. 

This video brings across a serious nature advocating serious issues such as cultual deprevation and gang culture. This is exhibited with the various shots of urban streets and poverty. Unlike our video we do not mimic these aspects, we take a different approach. Our video is more of a parady compared to this one. We wanted to include humour to make it more enjoyable to our audience, it doesn't follow the status quo. We utilised the controversial scene of dancing In the graveyard as a convention to create a response from the audience. Other artists  have also tried there luck with paradies and have been successful. But these artists use over the top humour to poetry there genre.

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This artist apitomisizes the closet set of conventions to our music video. The humour infused with the quick shots and variety of angles presents a close representation to our video. In addition, this video was very successful with our target audience and gathered a lot of hits on YouTube.com. The conventions that we copy from this video will benefit us for are target audience as well. 

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This is the music video we created. Visibly you can see the relation of conventions exhibited from the other music videos I have shown. Ultimately we believe that our video was a success in terms of getting the message across that this is only a parady.

Evaluation - Showing Our Music Video To Target Audience / Interview

Evaluation - Getting People To Do The New Survey

We posted the links to the video and the survey onto our social media to get more people to do the surveys. This also benefited us as they were our target audience.

Evaluation - Survey Monkey - Results

Theses are the results for the questions that we asked so far. we posted the link on Facebook and we have slowly been collecting the responses onto the survey money website. This allows us to be able to see what we need to improve on and what parts we did good and or bad.

In general, everyone thought that the lip syncing was perfect and that there was no mistakes that they could find within he clip.

Just like before everyone was in agreement to yes for this question. This was just asking if the elements within the music video caught their eye.

This was the last question and it was asking in general asking what the audience thought of the music video. So far everyone has given positive responses to the video and no one was said it was bad.

Evaluation - Research

What method did you find the most successful in attracting your target audience?

The best way for use to reach the target audience was the use of social media. This was very important to use and every useful. Since we all had friends on these networks it allowed us to be able to reach out to more people and get them to help with the survey. Along with this, since our target audience were teenagers this was very useful as a lot of teenagers uses these social media websites like Facebook or Twitter.

What aspects of the target audience research did you find most challenging?

The be honest the most challenging part of the research was getting people to complete the survey. We were about to send out the links however not everyone wanted to participate in the research. so we had a small sample that we had to work with early on.

What have you learned about your target audience?

From our research that we did, we gathered a lot of information about our target audience. This has allowed us to be able to incorporate different elements into out products to help direct target these people. Firstly we could that a large amount of males watch rap videos rather then females. Like we said above teenagers were the biggest age group that watched these music videos and most of them said that they watched it on Youtube and the Internet. We also asked them what they enjoyed watching, their shopping habit and what they get up to every day.

What are the expectations of your target audience?

The expectation of our target audience is very high as there are a lot of other rap videos out there that are of a high standard.

Which pieces of the coursework did your target audience favor the most?

The music video was the most favor able as it was the best part of the project.

Which aspect of the video were the most successful in attracting the target audience?

The most successful was the dub that we did for the main rapper. It was the actual voice of the person rather then Coolio. along with this the audience said that they liked the dancing at the end of the video and they really enjoyed watching it.From the survey that we did they also said that the lip-syncing was really good and this really made us proud of our project.

What aspects of the video need work or should to attract your audience?
To be honest the video wen really well and went as we expected. However if we had to point some things out, one would be to get more clips into the music video so the audience has more to look at. We did talk about this at the start but since it was a rap video we didn't need the clips to be too long.

Evaluation - How Is Your Media Project Similar To Other Media Texts?

Evaluation - Artist Image - Podcast

Evaluation - Technology Used In The Music Video - Podcast

Evaluation - How Well Do The Media Texts Go Together In Your Project?

The media text in our projects go well together. They all consist of similar elements that can be found within the music video,website and cd cover.

The website utilizes a colour scheme that contrasts from its dark house style. In particular the text consists of three different colours - red, white and green. These colours represent how the artist is moving away from a delinquent lifestyle and advocates a sense of hope. Linking this with the music video, the genre is prominent that this is a parody. Through are controversy graveyard scene the artist is depicted in a better light.

This reinforces the effect that the website has created and the link between the two projects. In addition, the website also advertises our video with the pictures we have deployed emphasising his new song that he has made. One of the pictures specifically shows the artists within a graveyard - which is mirrored within the video. Furthermore the website provides the fans a place to view and keep updated with the artist. This is done through the links between social networking sights and posts of new music. Ultimately this provides a accessible way for the audience to view our music video.

Similar techniques are exhibited with the cd cover. The colour scheme is parallel to  the website. Through this we have created a consistency that makes are product more professional and links in with other products.

Moreover, the image on the cd cover is also on the website which shows how both products are current in the artists work. The hoodie the artists is also wearing is seen within the video and likewise with the back cover, the artist is performing the act of recreational drugs and this displayed also within the first few sevens of the music video.

Evaluation - Technology That Was Used In The Project

http://prezi.com/embed/xlxrj-fhjma1/ (Just incase it doesn't come up)

Evaluate - Survey Monkey

With these questions we hope to gathered evidence how well we created this music video.

The first question is arguably the most important. The lip syncing is the catalyst this music video project. If the lip syncing is accurate then it will make it more easier to watch and more professional. 

The second question as well provides us with the information of whether it was enjoyable to watch. Having an eye catching music video is important to contain the audiences attention and makes the video more memorable. 

Question 7 assess whether we used good effects in the right situations.  We have incorporated a variety of different effects in order for it to stand out to the audience.

The final question answers what was the best part of our music video. Our purpose was for people to remember what we have deployed in the video.the answers given will ultimately tell us what we have done well in general.  

Construction - Green Screen

Construction - Editing Tutorial

After we wanted to add some effects onto the music video. so we added a lightly at the back on the screen while Aaron was rapping.

This was a screenshot of the clip before any change was made to it.

The effect that we used was called "Lighting Effect", this allowed us to implement exactly what we wanted. We did try other effects to see which was better however we did decide on using this instead.

These are the settings that we ended up using for that part off the clip. It originally wasn't in the right location or going where we wanted, so we had to make sure that it didn't go off the frame like it did when we put it in.

(How the clip looked with the effect)

We after changed the setting and found that we could moving the lighting. This allowed us to make the lightning strike look a lot better and actually make it strike down using key frames.

(How the clip looked with the effect)