Our video develops on many of the conventions of real media products, especially conforming to many of Goodwin’s theory. There is a strong focus on the music artist throughout, being the lone character in almost every shot with many close ups to ensure full promotion and recognition of the artist much like a record label would demand from a real music video. Also coinciding with Goodwin’s theory, is how the video demonstrates various genre characteristics, such as urban hip-hop music, to be set in an urban setting and to focus on the artist’s humble beginnings as he walks around an urban run down area. As well as the costume of the artist is typical of the British hip-hop genre, to be wearing a hoodie and jewelry. There is also a lot of solo lip-syncing performed directly at the camera, typical of the hip-hop genre, not likely to have live instruments being played, common of the rock genre. There is also a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, another one of Goodwin’s music video conventions, as the artist raps about being signed to a record label, to simultaneously having a shot of him signing a contract. As the video focuses on the artist’s humble beginnings, the flashy lifestyle typical of the hip-hop genre is absent in the video, challenging Goodwin’s convention of voyeuristic treatment of females, as the artist does not live a glamorous appealing lifestyle to attract many women, slightly challenging the conventions of a real media product. There is also a relationship between the music and the visuals, as the beat makes transitions musically, so does the video visually in transition cuts.
This highlights the difference between our artists humble beginnings, in comparison to the artists of he same genre who have progressed further into the music business who are living a rather flashy lifestyle. This therefore challenges the conventions of our genre.
This shows our artist as a lone character, which is shown throughout the video. This is typical of the UK hip-hop genre, as seen in another video from the same genre. This gives evidence to suggest we also have scenes in which he do stick to the conventions of our genre.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represents the working class social group and particularly men, striving to improve their living standards and making much like the song title, a “transition” to a better life style.
Both artists are dressed typical of the british hip-hop genre, wearing hoodies remaining to conventions, however it can be possibly argued that both are Caucasian males subverting the conventions of a predominantly afro-Caribbean race genre. As main artists they are also both heavily featured in the music video with many close ups and mid shots of the artist walking to signify the importance and give strong recognition to the audience.
3. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The combination between the video, digipak and magazine artwork allowed me to create a strong identity for our artist.
We felt it was important to create a strong link between all 3 texts. This can be seen firstly through the clothing which the artist is wearing. On the front cover of the digipak, the costume that the artist is dressed in is the same as that seen in the video. this creates a strong link between the 2 texts. The same can be said for the inside cover, which has a message from the artist to his fans. This also sees the artist in a similar style. Also, the same text that was used in the video was used at the head of the album cover.
In addition, the idea for our front cover allowed us to link the title of the song to effect seen on the image itself. The transition of the face of the artist growing stronger and stronger links well with the songs title 'Transition'.
The back cover of the highlights the classy lifestyle which the artist is striving to achieve, despite his humble beginnings. The artists ambition is to obtain wealth and material goods to show for his musical achievements. It gave a suggested elegance to the artist, suggestive of the classy lifestyle he strives to lead.
The font that we decided to use was known as 'Hand of Sean'. This was a graffitti based text, and this fitted perfectly with the style and genre of the artist's music. Once we'd added this text, we gave it a glow that made it stand out. This was so it would stand out at first glance, which is important as it catches the eye of customers. This is particularly essential to artists who are new to the market.
4. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Before comment can be made on the feedback, the demographic that we targeted with all of our media texts needs to be understood.
Our first demographic was that of young males, particularly between the ages of 11-21. This is the age group that is most heavily associated with the UK hip-hop genre. Due to the fact that the artist is of the same age group, it means he is naturally an aspirational figure to this demographic. From seeing this artist in the charts and on their screens, coming from a similar position as what they are in currently, it will lead them to delve into the artists music, turning him into an idol.
The second demographic that it could be targeted to is female generations of a similar age. This may be the case as they may have a teenage crush on the artist, especially if he is in the limelight regularly. This target audience is promoted to by the artists 'cheeky' personality, but also can be shown through his flashy celebrity lifestyle, with the references to jewellery etc.
To gain an idea of whether we had been able to appeal to these audience, we organised a focus group to see how they reacted to our project.
Female aged 17
"The Transition music video is very good for a number of reasons. Firstly, the pace that the video possesses allows for an exciting and engaging viewing. The message of the rising star from the streets is portrayed well, with the comparison of the flashy artist with the rough background. It could lead him to be an inspirational figure. The image that has been chosen for the artist gives a real representation of the culture of the public at the same age group, which makes him extremely relatable to the audience. One thing that could be improved however would be to include other people with the artist as well, which would show more realistically the life he used to lead."
Male aged 18
"I enjoyed watching this music video; I particularly liked the way the camera tracked the main artist as he was walking through the estate because it linked well with the message the track was trying to portray. I think that the blinking transition also added to this and was integrated into the video well. Although I enjoyed the video I think that the image of the artist used on the poster is not very prominent and could have been enlarged to capture peoples' attention."
What have I learned from the feedback?
One thing that I discovered from the audience feedback was that people largely enjoyed the relationship between the visuals and the audio, which was done through specific selection of transitions between shots and links between the visuals on screen to the lyrics in the song.
What was also seen as a good effect was the studio shot, where the artist is seen recording the song itself. This related to young males as they saw what the artist has done with very little resources, and turned him into an idol, as they feel that they can achieve the same results. This shows that we have manipulated our video to target our demographic well.
However, what could be improved is the amount of people we had in the video. The audience felt that seeing the same persons face over and over again became slightly repetitive, and made them lose some focus while viewing the video.
5. How did you use media technologies in the planning, research and evaluation stages of your project?
This project, reaching over 2 years has led to me personally being able to learn new skills when working with technology. This was only enhanced through practice and 'muck-up' projects which allowed me to familiarise myself with all the equipment that I would be using for my official final piece. The technologies and devices I had to familiarise myself were:
Apple Mac
When editing our footage and creating our ancillary texts, we used the editing suite on Apple Macs. The techniques and skills that we had developed from the project in the previous year made using this software a lot more easier than the previous. However, we had to adapt to using a new editing software, Final Cut Express. Once we had toyed around with the software and familiarised ourselves with it, we were able to use it effectively to create a professional media text.
We also had to use Adobe Photoshop in order to create our ancillary texts. Personally, this was my first time using Photoshop, so I had to learn the controls. I did this as seen through my early album cover trials, where I experimented with lots of different effects. This allowed me to be more in control and have great capabilities when designing and creating my ancillary texts.
Camera
When filming, we used a Panasonic HD camera. This allowed us to film our footage with very high quality. It also has a 'SteadyCam' option, which can help to edit out any shakiness in the footage after it has been filmed. This allows for a finer image. We had used this camera for my AS Level project as well, meaning that we were competent in using the equipment.
Green Screen
This was our first time using the green screen. We had never used it before, so it was all relatively new to us. The green screen effect allowed us to take an image of our artist, and then insert a background of our choice to fit in with the message we were trying to portray. We used this for the creation of our ancillary texts. This gave us the opportunity to create a background that we wouldn't physically be able to create in real life.
Internet
As most media students are, we were very competent in navigating our way around the Internet. This allowed us to gain information when researching our project. The use of YouTube allowed us to watch music videos that are already in the spotlight, with the intent to take some advice on board. We could also use this to find tutorials on any software that we were unable to work out ourselves.
Furthermore, Blogger was of a big help as it allowed us to project our thoughts and findings into one specific area. This allowed us to collate our final piece of coursework together.
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