Question 4

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

Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Question 2

We created an R’n’B narrative music video with strong elements of performance. We focused on the artists of Rihanna and Rita Ora in order to create a target audience. We established conventions, which were consistent within R’n’B music videos:

·         Different camera angles changing to the beat of the music

·         Small clothing to show a lot of skin o attract the male gaze

·         Darker colours to in compare to other genres

·         Large amount of make-up to highlight different facial features to look more appealing to the audience.

·         Slower camera movements to symbolise how relaxed the artist and meaning of the song is

Using the above we carried out our filming process with these conventions in mind. This is so our music video fits in with the genre as well as looks visually pleasing for the audience.

The coloursused are very plain with only key colours standing out. This is more evident on your digipak and tour poster. The colour scheme of black and white is showing throughout however, our artist is wearing a orange jump suit, this colour stands out making our artist the focus point. The orange colour compliments her skin tone and small elements of winks and skin on show allows the audience to be attracted to the character. The orange jump suit used is the single costumes used in the ancillary texts, this could also create connection to the popular series of ‘Orange is the New Black’ where they too wear orange jump suits. Since both the TV series and our artist have similar target audiences, the audience may make that link which allow more publicity and larger the audience. The dance moves used throughout the video is a choreographic style of urban dancing with elements of stylistic jazz. The hybrid of both creates and flirty approach to the artists character however the moves still fit in with the genre and beat of the music. We still carried out with our initial idea of using Camden for our location. This setting worked really well when filming our product. The urban area allowed the idea of our artist blending in with the crowd like she is just a normal person, however still having that element of charm when she is looking directly into the camera. For the ancillary texts we used a plain white background which allowed use to edit on, we experimented with a green screen however out of the two options the white screen worked better. In regards to location we used the schools facilities however we used what we had to an advantage as the software program of Photoshop wasn’t at use to us outside of school hours. Our design choses were very similar with our two products of ancillary texts, this was to show the connection between the two and allowing the audience to understand they are advertising similar products. The music video is slightly different however if listening to the song on the radio the video itself doesn’t matter as much therefore the strong repetitive lyrics is what links all 3.

We used a various amount of camera angles from: low angle, to show the artist has power and control; mid-shot, to shows the artists face as well a high angles to show the body shape and gender representation of the artist. These different camera angles make the music video more visually pleasing to watch as its more exciting and keeps the audience engaged.

We have adhered the genre stereotypes of R’n’B whne in comes to representation. We used an Indian actor to adhere to the R’n’B characters, we wanted to follow this main convention as it is an important element within this genre. We wanted our artist to blend in as well as Rihanna and Rita Ora does within the genre therefore our artist fitted with stereotype perfectly. We represented the female character through the use of costume and make-up. We didn’t expose Sara to much within the music video as we felt it would be inappropriate and make the music video to exposed for the target audience however we made up for this within the ancillary texts. Having Sara really exposed attracts the male gaze as well as makes Sara look like a role model for her target audience. The images represent confidents and control over herself which is a positive representation to have on our artist.

We tried following our story board as much as possible whilst filming. However, due the editing process we felt some footage wasn’t flowing and portraying the message we wanted to portraying throughout the video, therefore we made subtle changes in order to create a positive impact on the artist as well as make the music video successful. We had so many ideas for our ancillary texts however we coming up with a final design we followed these strongly.

The synergy of all the products create a positive representation of our artist and hopefully the audience will be engaged with the elements used within all the final products. 

Question 1

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

We have published our music video on Youtube, this is to help advertise the music video. In todays society more and more people are being popular and discovered on social media sites, the top one being Youtube. Having our video on here will allow the target audience to find the video and ,allow it to become more popular and raise awareness on the artist. This however could challenge the artists as so many new artists are trying the same technique therefore our artist could get lost within everyone else doing the same. To make our artist stand out more we could post our video of other social media software such as facebook and Vevo.  

Overall our ancillary texts have been successful in terms of genre and media conventions. We have used inspiration from our research in order to carry out the task to a high standard. We used a range of camera angles and shots to get the image of our artist to become noticed as well as other details such as personal information pages.

Music Video

This is our A2 music video of Man Down. Enjoy!