2. Before the actual filming process begun, together as a group and individually we had to do appropriate research to ensure that our product would fit the genre. In this Evaluation I will answer the following four questions: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? What have you learned from your audience feedback? How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? These series of questions look at different aspect of my final products, critically assessing and comparing them to real media products, highlighting both similarities and difference and also how I have challenge codes and conventions typical to the UK Funky genre.
3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? The first step, in order for our media product to include, as well as challenge forms and conventions typical to a UK Funky genre, was to research, about the genre. Finding out information on where it originated from, how long as UK Funky been on the scene and what genres inspired its development. Our initial research led us to explore other artist, starting with the Funky house genre as UK Funky followed closely behind this. I began by looking at video’s of music artists such as Fish Go deep, Donaeo, Kyla, crazy cousins. These are all Funky House artist and there music al talent that brought about the start of UK Funky. Both Genres are very similar. Some of the Funky House video’s I watched are listed below: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v = UnHcvtYgPVk http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =0YHC69wa9JA http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =kQyGCS8gx0c&feature=related Having watched, video of Funky House, I then began to look at UK Funky Video’s by artists such as : Gracious K, K.I.G, Dotstar, Tribal Man. Some of the video’s I watched are linked below: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =zNnBa2wyvMo http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =JvkrnPHzv90 www.youtube.com/watch?v =2qtShEs5LQs&feature=related
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5. I noticed that one similarity in all three genres is close up on woman. There would be close ups on their : lips, bottom, legs, breasts. This reinforces Laura Mulvey’s theory of “The gaze” that men as the dominant group have been the looker (the subjects; women the objects). Close up of woman biting her lip, this is seen as a sexual connotation. Shot of Girl in tight dress, a less obvious sexual connotation.
6. From my research I also noted that there are a lot of cutaways, from the dance scene, to the bar, somebody drinking, to the Dj, which then creates a montage of clips which gives the over all hype atmosphere, which compliments the quick tempo and beat of the Funky music. Close up of DJ Decks Close up of the Bar Close up of girls having a laugh Girls dancing on the street
7. In Our music video we aimed to include this convention: Close up of DJ Decks Close up of girls at the bar the Bar Girls drinking Girl dancing
8. We also noted that in the same way woman, are used to attracted men, as well as using this ideology we also decided to use a range of cars in our music video as this also interests men. Another thing we noticed about UK Funky music video is that the majority of the artist are young people, and thus young women and men are used in their music video’s.
9. From watching K.I.G’s Funky Music video – Head shoulders Knees and Toes, we noted that he had film in a numerous public locations in London to film. I.e. outside pubs, train stations, high streets. Thus we took a similar approach and used a variety of public locations to film. Below are some of our filming locations : We filmed at other locations such as Gladstone Park, Train station, High streets, however we did not include this footage in our Music Video.
10. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Our music video, is generally about, going out and having a good time at the club with you guys and your girls. It also talks about the process of getting ready and also buying new outfits to go. It also raises issue, that young people pick on i.e. people standing around not dancing, arguments and confrontation. It also comments on the styles and types of clothing people wear i.e. mentions a few designers. I feel that our Music Video is successful in conveying messages and meanings expressed in the lyrics and its also produced the happy, hype vibe that supports the rhythm of the song. The Digi- Pack and advert When it came to designing the Digi-pack, I research other artist single covers and also album covers. The CD covers I looked at are below:
11. I decided to keep the simple design for the front cover, using a close up image of the artist. Using Photoshop I edited the image to create my desired Cd cover. My CD Cover is shown below : I feel that the combination of both my Cd cover and my avert works well together as I used a similar image of the artist and also I kept the same colour seem using the same colour, and background photography for my advert as I had for the Cd cover. I also used the same font and similar design. My Avert is shown below:
12. Who is our target audience The majority of UK Funky, listeners are Young people and thus our product mainly targets young audience, who are interested in Uk Funky genre. Although the artist is a black male, we have used a number of girl of different ethnicity's, so our product will target all cultures and backgrounds. The artist is male but we have included both males and female actor and actress , and this enables are product to appeal to both sex. During the editing process I began to gather information, from friends, family work colleagues, and some of my sister friends the following to questions: How old they are ? Do they listen to UK Funky ? The results are shown in the chart opposite. This information reinforced my decision about who our target audience was, and also who our music video would appeal to.
13. What have you learned from your audience feedback? RESULTS All the actors and actress involved in the Filming were happy with the outcome, said it was very enjoy able and was also amusing to watch themselves performing in the video. They too received feedback from their friends and family who they had passed the video on to. The results are shown in the chart: Having created our music video, and once up on YouTube, part of our he assignment was to gather audience feedback. As I was very excited about the finished product, and also the actors and actress who had participated in the footage were very keen to see it, so I sent the link around to them and also asked the to send it on asking everybody who were keen to watch, what their option on the video is? and how could it be improved.? Audience feedback is important as it allows the artist to have and idea on who is consuming their product, as well as allows both negative and constructive criticism stretching there products in the future. Name of Actors/Actress/others Positive female Feed back Negative male feedback Negative female feed back Positive Male Feed Back Tyrone III IIIII Rachelle IIIII I II Nicole II I IIIIII Paige IIII Moe I JJ IIII Aisha III II I Chante IIIIII II Other IIIIIIII I IIII
14. Having received feedback on our music video, I then began to ask for feedback on my Digi- Pack. I showed my final deign to numerous amounts of people. I not only asked them whether they thought it looked attractive, but would they purchase it in the shop? Feedback You have used an eye catching image of the artist who is looking directly at the camera so it looks like he's looking at you, this intrigues me and would tempt me to pick it up of the shelf In the inside you have not used to much text, but have explained who the song is produced by and gives a few details on its production. You have also included a thanks section, thanking not only your producers and family but also you fans. You have realised that without your fans, success can not blossom. On you Digi- Pack you have included that you get a free Poster of the artist with every purchase, this will attract mainly females, however it’s a good marketing technique. Having received audience feed back on my music video and design, my next step was to ask my audience whether they would buy my product in a music store. The response I got was not surprising, the majority said they would not purchase my product. This was not a surprise as today, albums and Cd are less brought as consumers are able to download albums, music videos and songs of the internet on sites such as Bee Buzz and Lime wire, and this is having a detrimental effect on this part of the music industry.
15. From the audience feedback I receive,. The majority liked our music video and my Digi back. From the negative feedback I was also able to see what could be improved and what could be changed if I were to do this task again.
16. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Media technology was vital for this task, without the use of media technology the basic start to the music video would have been impossible as we used media from the very begin to begin the research. To find our artist we used search engines such as yahoo and Google to search for unsigned artist. We also used face book and twitter to communicated with the artist and actors/actress as well as our mobiles phones, texting and blackberry messenger. Blackberry Smartphone, was very useful, as it allowed us to communicate with each other, scheduling shoot dates and also changing and details or meeting locations at the last moment. I used blogger.com to upload all the process of this assignment, uploading images and video’s to be marked. Final cut pro was used to edit the video. At first I found using final cit pro difficult as I had only used this software once before and was more familiar with I movie maker. As I do photography I own a Digital SLR which I used to photography my artist for the images contained in my Digi pack. We also used a video camera to capture footage. One I had photographed my artist I used Photoshop to edit the photographs that I was going to include. I have used this software many times before so this was not a challenge for me. I used Adobe Indesign CS3 to create my Digi pack and also my advert, as I have used this software before I was able to manipulate my image adding a range of text colours and images to aid the design of my Digi pack.