Evaluation question 4- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

During the creation of our project we used various different pieces of technologies. We also experimented with different methods and pieces of equipment in order to create the shots that we wanted during the creation of the video itself.

In terms of the research to our video we mainly used websites such as YouTube. This is where we researched lots of existing music videos so that we could look at the typical conventions and things you would expect to see. This was extremely useful as we applied these codes and conventions to our own video so that it looked to be a more realistic video. We heavily utilised internet search engines such as Google as well to research videos, digipaks and different artists. This was essential in creating our artist and deciding what we wanted our video to be like. We also used Blogger to convey our findings from our research and our ideas for our artist and video.

When we were planning our video we used Final Cut Pro to make an animatic of our storyboards. We started by planning every single shot with our storyboards, then edited it all together on Final Cut to the song. This showed our ideas for our video and also allowed us to use technology in a different way to aid our planning. It also gave us more of an idea of how we were going to make our actual video and allowed for some feedback from our class and teachers. This actually turned out to be very useful for us as many people had feedback for our video which really helped us. We were unsure at that point exactly how we were going to make the video and this was evident throughout the animatic. The feedback from our classmates and teachers helped us get a clearer picture of what it was that we wanted to do with our video.


In terms of the creation of my digipak, I used Photoshop to create all 6 panels individually before placing them all onto one template. I used pictures that we all went out and took of our artist in various different settings, many of which we would go on to film at when it came to making our video. I also used Photoshop to create my magazine advert, which advertised my artists' album and digipak using a picture of the artist, links to his social media, places where you can buy the album and even a picture of the album front cover to let potential buyers know what they should look for.



When filming the actual video, we decided to use Ghanshyam's camera as we felt the quality and focus was better on his than the school ones. We used a Canon SX710 HS to film the entire music video and we were very happy with the quality of the shots we got from this camera.In addition to this we used a dolly, tripod and shoulder mount to help us with our shots.



To edit together all the shots that we took for our video, we used Final Cut Pro on the Macs at school. This is a software that we have become accustomed to over the last 2 years as it is the software we have used on all of our past projects. Although we had just one main editor, we all came up with suggestions and feedback of what the edit could look like.

Evaluation question 3- What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Evaluation question 2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation question 2 from james Covill

Evaluation question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our music video both conforms and challenges to the codes and conventions of music videos in general and hip hop music videos. The typical conventions of music videos include a number of close ups of the artist. This is to let the audience know who they are listening to. It also suits the demands of record labels. In addition to this, the editing of most videos is in sync with the beat and pace of the music. For example, fast paced music usually warrants quicker cuts and shorter shots.

Conventions of hip-hop music videos include lots of portrayal of wealth. Our video showed that by making the artist wear designer clothes. These clothes are a significant portrayal of the artists' wealth and highlights his journey from "rags to riches".





Power is also a key feature of hip hop videos and in our video we showed this by using low angle shots of our artist to make him look more dominant and more powerful than the audience. As the hip hop genre is quite dominated by male artists, the use of low angle shots makes them look more powerful. Also, shots of King J looking over at the city from a high angle represents his journey to the top and suggests he is now one of the most powerful people in the country as he is almost looking down at the place he grew up in.


In addition to this, party or club scenes are very conventional. We also incorporated one of these scenes into our video. We recreated a party scene in our video by using party lights and a smoke machine with some extras. However, as a way to slightly challenge this convention we made it so that the main artist King J was clearly not enjoying it, with everyone else around him enjoying themselves.

We would say that we have successfully conformed to the typical codes and conventions of music videos in general and also hip hop videos. However, we also set out to challenge the codes and conventions by making a whole sub narrative of King J being unhappy and attempting to escape from his past life instead of solely focusing on the successful career he has built and the expensive lifestyle he now has. 

Improvements made to digipak

In between the creation of our music video I have made significant improvements to my digipak and magazine advert. One real positive was that all the pictures that we took were usable which meant we didn't have to go out again and take some more. I feel I have made a considerable amount of progress on my first draft which looked like this:

For example, I coloured the background of the CD panels, coloured the spines, created two of my own spines and got rid of a lot of text to make it simpler to read and understand.

Here are some more examples of past drafts for my digipak and some of the progress I have made:

Day and night theme

As our music video is called "Day n' Nite" we decided early on in the planning stage that we wanted to combines shots in daytime and night time. However, one part of the feedback for our final draft was that everytime the artist said "day n nite" in the song we could transition to a night shot. This was a slight issue as we hadn't filmed the scenes with this in mind so we would have had to re-film everything which wouldn't have been possible considering the lack of time we had at this point. Instead, we used some extra shots such as ones where King J is simply dancing or acting to the camera. We also included a lot of shots of him admiring the settings of the video as one common theme is his rise to the top and where he was "Born n Bred" which is the album name.

Final music video- Day N Nite