Final Music Video

This is our final version of our Music Video which we believe is of a high standard. The Music Video shows the two different artists experiencing traumatic events that have occurred to them and their friends in their lives. This can be seen in the non linear narrative in the Music Video, the narrative is in black and white as we wanted to create the sense of the characters remembering back to what has happened to their friends, almost like a flashback as it is a past event. we have also chosen to have children in our video because we wanted to create the fact that it is never too late to change your life and send the message to the youth population that if you do decide to change your life, you could be prominently rewarded for it as you are doing something positive.

Evaluation

1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?

Our media product was inspired by a music video that has a similar story line, similar camera shots and an urban genre. The music video we got inspiration from is 'Many Men' by 50 cent, just like our music video it has a gritty non-linear narrative showing shocking clips of memories he has witnessed through his own eyes. The media product of our Music Video is similar to 'Many Men' by 50 Cent in a way of the clothing being alike, the clothing in the Music Video makes the media product more realistic as it represents the characters personalities.

The picture on the left is an image from the Video "Many Men" by 50 Cent, this image shows the clothing that 50 Cent is wearing. He is wearing a red and white hat, white T-shirt, big red jacket and a chain, 50 cent may chosen to wear these clothes and accessories to create a more urban image within the Music Video which would trigger the audience to pay more attention to the character as they would look the part and it would be more professional as the sense of realism would kick in at this point. The colour red in his clothing represents "blood" that he is out to murder.

The picture on the left is an image of Lil Wayne and The Game from our Music Video product. The clothing in this image is very similar to the on above as The game is wearing a chain and a similar coloured jacket however Lil Wayne is wearing a blue jacket which contrasts what The game is wearing. We chose to do this because we wanted both colours to be represented as one and signify the same thing. The target audience for our Music Video would expect something like this in the clothing of the characters because it is appropriate for the genre.

Our music video broke away from the average Hip Hop/Rap conventions as we tried to portray and weave a positive message within the narrative, breaking stereotypes of so called 'gangster rappers' who are consistently shown by the media as being negative with there videos showing guns, drugs and violence. Instead we used children, the younger generation who must learn right from wrong. We also revealed footage of red and blue bandanna which would shock most people as they are sworn enemies, but wanted to reunite them for a positive cause and stop the violence. Furthermore we shown footage of the fire which denoted the fire as a life, like a candle in the wind, it can easily be taken however it can be saved depending what path you chose to take. Our Music product challenges the thoughts of the audience as it moves away from negative aspects in life to more positive things in life, like in our Magazine advert we have chosen to go with an awards ceremony theme what shows hard work in the real media it also shows that if you choose to do right you will get noticed and rewarded for it. The Music video challenges conventions of real life rap products as it sends the message and value that young children should do the right things in life if they want to be successful.

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

Our Music video, Magazine advert and CD case features the same elements of house style expressing the same ethos throughout. These different products link together to make them work effectively in our project. As we used the same effects and fonts consistently throughout the ancillary texts. We designed both the Music video and CD products with urban effects such as gradient dull lighting and urban locations, all the three products also have the main performers in to show who is sending a positive message to younger males, rather than what our message is about. The magazine page sells our product as it is a advising campaign showing our most disputed debut single 'My Life'. In the Music Video we have chosen to represent adolescent males that have done negative things in their lives but send a positive message. Through the non linear narrative in the video for younger children not to choose the wrong path in their life. In the Music Video we have chosen to include black and white flashbacks of a crime scene. This effects our product as it represents the fact if you do choose to pick the wrong path in life there are consequences. In our CD Case we have chosen to carry on the same message the Music Video has, we have chosen to add a quote from the artist "change your life before it's too late" representing and selling the product of changing your life from a young age and if you don't it might be too late and you could get caught in the gang life. In our Magazine advert we carry on the same themes but we have chosen to have a red carpet awards ceremony as it reinforces that if you choose the right path in life you could get rewarded for it and achieve big thing. For our Music video we have used the marketing technique of a test screening, this is an advantage as the audience would tell us what they don't like which we could change to make it more effective. Another marketing technique we used is viral marketing for the Magazine advert, this would help sell the product and make the audience more aware of when the product is out and what stores it will be available from. The CD Case makes it more easier to sell the product to people that can relate to the issues in the song and video as The Game and Lil' Wayne are sat on swings with them in colour and everything else in black and white, this reinforces that if you choose to do bad things you will be on your own and it will seem that the world is against you.

The effectiveness of the combination of our main product and ancillary texts can be seen below as the continuity flow in a similar style .

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Having an audience feedback has helped our group see what we have done well and what was not done well, how we could improve and what footage we could of used more. In our audience feedback someone mentioned that one of our backgrounds to our greenscreen was not very effective. From this feedback we decided to change this greenscreen background to something that suits that part of the song better. We did the audience feedback by getting a random group to watch our Music Video and giving them an audience feedback sheet to give us back some positive and critical acclaim on our Music Video. From the whole process of an audience feedback we have learnt that taking the audiences advice on board is very effective as they are not involved in the project and could spot any limitations that could be turned into very powerful strengths. During the audience feedback we received a suggestion for improvement on the lighting since our Music Video is about negatives lifestyles that could be turned into positives, this would mean that the audience wanted to see more dull scenes rather than bright as it would match in perfectly with the generic features of the theme in our Music Video, which would create a more effective impact on the audience for our Media product. Most of the audience that viewed our Music Video said that the locations in the Video were spot on and matched the song which emphasised the generic themes what the performers were talking about. we used locations such as a bridge, subway and a park, we thought of these locations as we knew that it would engage the audience to the video as the locations were very gritty which reinforces the urban side of the song. From our audience feedback we have learnt that it is very critical to stick to normal rap/hip hop conventions as that is what the audience expect to see, by following the usual rap conventions increased the sense of realism as the mise en scene would fit in with the rap song. The clothing of the two performers would also emphasise the sense of realism as usual rap and hip hop videos seem to associate the performers with big baggy and colourful clothing.

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

Before getting into the camera work and editing we planned our genre and what song we all wanted. Our group all contributed ideas, although as we all like the same genres it wasn't difficult to choose Rap/HipHop. Once we had chosen our genre, we went through many songs to decide our final one, we used youtube to look at different videos that wanted to do a Music Video on. Once we had chosen our final song, we used many different website to find out about the video and artists for our research. For our construction stage we used different media technologies such as Final Cut Pro, Tricaster and hand held camera's. We used the hand held camera's to film around Hulme, and we used Tricaster for our greenscreen footage. Then we used Final Cut Pro to edit our Music Video and Photoshop to create the print based items which is the CD case and Magazine advert. For our evaluation stage we also used the hand held camera and Final Cut Pro to record and edit the video's of our audience feedback and another video to explain media technologies is shown through the directors commentary below.

Directors Commentary (My Life)

Production Treatment E1- 10 Group 1

The Music Video we have chosen: The Game Feat. Lil' Wayne - My Life

Duration: The Length of the Music video - 3:54

Audience: Our video is not targeted at everyone, it is targeted at young males aged between 15-30. It is not suitable for anyone younger than 15 as they should not be watching the violence and be listening to such explicit lyrics.

Resume: The narrative of the song is a couple young males that are going down the wrong path in life. In our video we show some shots of one of the young males getting caught and sadly killed. We want our video to be an inspiration and to warn young males of the dangers of taking the wrong path therefore, our aim is to help these young males change their path and thrive in life.

Genre: Rap/HipHop/2step

Suggested Elements:

1) Performance - Alonzo and Mohammed will be performing throughout the song, with fast cuts, cutting to the beat with Mohammed on the chorus and Alonzo on the verses.

2) Costumes - The costumes were planning to use are typical rap costumes like baggy jeans/combats and vests this is because it will fit in with the genre we have chosen which will create a more realistic atmosphere when the audience will be viewing our music video. Alonzo will also be wearing a chain in some of the scenes.

3) SFX - Throughout our music video we will be using numerous editing transitions and post production effects.

4) Key Locations - The locations we will be shooting on will be rough, urban parts of Manchester to reflect on what the song is about to give our music video a sense of originality for the audience.

Recording Days: Approximately we will be recording for 6 days, day and night to have a change of scenery and weather. We will be recording each scene more than once to get different angles which will then be effective as we will have more footage to choose from. For editing we will take much longer, around 10 or more days to finish everything, leaving a bit of time to 'polish' our music video, this is simply make sure there is no mistakes or if there is anything we can add to improve our work.

SHOT LIST

This is our opening shot list for about a minute for our Music Video that we hope to stick to.

• Two shot
• Establishing shot
• Long shot
• Medium close up - Two shot
• Close up
• Zoom in shot
• Panning shot
• Medium wide shot
• Two shot - Wide shot
• Wide - shot
• Medium close up shot
• Wide shot
• Medium close up shot
• Wide shot
• Medium close up shot
• Wide shot
• Medium close up shot
• Close up shot
• Wide shot
• Medium shot
• Wide shot
• Close up

Analysis Of A Music Video

50 Cent - Many Men

50 Cent - Many Men

The reason for choosing to analyse this video is because it is very similar into what we are trying to produce. The storyline of this video is that 50 Cent has been in his past has thrived through the wrong path and his enemies are after him.

In our video what we are trying to create is a similar type of theme but sending a much better message. We are hoping to send a message to young teenagers not to be easily influenced to join gangs or any type of activites which are wrong. In this video there are some very effective camera shots, there are a lot of close-ups used for the performer 50 cent to interact with the audience, there are also some very important camera angles used when the camera would pan from 50 cent to the person he is having a conversation to this is more effective as there wont be cut to the next character confusing the audience. some of the shots of 50 cent are framed in an effective way of it showing to the audience that he is trapped in a tough and violent lifestyle. the technique of the rule of thirds is also included in this video, this would reflect on the audience to pay more attention to the video and what the concept of the video is actually about.

Furthermore this music video has a illustrative narrative, we noticed this as the video is literally telling a story with performance taking place for e.g. with the police officers and forensics at a crime scene, however the editing effect on the illustrative narrative at the start of the video goes back in time revealing previous events. More so 50 cent lip synching his lyrics on the chorus"MANY MEN...".

There is an even balance between the narrative in the video with the aspect of the performance, the video tends to cut very fast between the two aspects cutting to the beat, the editing in this video has a fast cut rate which reinforces the fact that they are going through heart pounding experiences. This video of 50 cent is a typical rap video as it is shot in urban locations setting the ethos of a rap/hip hop genre, the mise en scene also emphasis's the hip hop/rap theme as the clothing represents the rap star image in the characters. The props such as the cars, weapons and jewelry also implicates the negative lifestyle throughout the narrative relating to the song. Throughout most of the video it has dark lighting signifying that the characters are in a negative atmosphere.

Use Of The Camera

Shots Used

The use of this extreme close-up is really effective; it symbolizes the true Christianity of 50 cent 'An eye for an eye'. You can see the reflection of his enemy; it shows in his eyes the revenge he is seeking. His enemy is centred in his eye showing he is the main person he is aiming for.

This is a close-up shot, it shows his expensive clothes and the fast food he just bought. This shot has a contrast as he is wearing expensive jewerely and just bought some cheap food from a corner shop. It can also show that the 'thug' life isn't as good as it's visioned.

This is a wide shot showing what happened after he left. He left wounded and with his blood on the floor. This shot shows the police at a crime scene. The police men in this scene are white and the people surronding the scene are black.

This shot is only focused on one of the two men, this shows the effectiveness of the shot and the detail used to shoot this scene. It maybe symbolizes the one focused is the main perpetrator, this scene gets really intense and leads up to the shooting in the video of 50 Cent.

This low angle shot shows him falling after he has been shot. In every shot of him being shot it is low angle. Even though he has been shot, the use of low angle shows he still has a high status. This shot also shows the location, a building of flats.

This is another close-up 50 Cent performs, he is looking up to the sky as if he is looking for a answer from God. Most people moving out of the 'hood' are religious, most of them find an answer from God and lead their life differently which makes them feel they are in a safer position.

This is a two shot, very simular to a medium shot, this one just includes 2 people. The people in the shot both have police badges on to show who they are. This shot is slightly low, again showing that they have a high status.

Magazine

Here are some examples which will influence us on how our we want our magazine cover to look, we have looked at a variety of magazines but these 3 examples stood out the most.

Example 1:

The reason for choosing this magazine is to show what kind of musician Lil' Wayne is, it shows he is dedicated to his work and works along side famous DJ's. All the colours used on this magazine are all male colours to represent this is a male magazine. This has given us the idea to use male colours in our magazine to show that our target audience is males. This attracts our target audience of 15+ males.

Example 2:

We chose this magazine cover because it has a variety of colours which makes it more interesting. It has a different theme compared to the others we have chosen as we are looking for different type of magazines. This magazine also shows a group which we thought resembles our group.

Example 3:

We chose this magazine cover because it was different to the others options as this one has a white background, the theme of this magazine has two colours and the background is white, different to the previous covers we have talked about. On this artist's cap, it has a picture of an Eagle with wings which relates to our music video, as it symbolizes freedom. This magazine cover looks more about fashion even though it's about a music artist.

Our Magazine Cover
We chose to have an award theme for our magazine, this is to show there are positive outcomes of becoming musicians. This would influence our target audience which are young males to choose a different path and become a success in life rather than a failure. To be winning awards show you have the support of other people around the world and this support will give you the confidence to do anything you want, artists feel they have much more freedom

CD Cover

Idea's for CD cover

Drake - Thank Me Later

This CD cover of Drake was our first idea because a lot of his songs talk about life. We chose this particular CD cover because he is looking up, as though he is looking for an answer. On this cover it says 'Thank Me Later' which is on a few of his CD Cover's, this showing that it's his quote. We could use a quotation of our own for our CD cover.

Lady Sovereign - Public Warning

We chose this CD cover of Lady Sovereign because this gives her a rebel image. This was an idea because her name stands out clearly and the image of her on the right is very big. On our CD cover this gives us the idea that we could have the 2 main performers, their name's or the title of the song standing out.

Lil' Wayne CD Cover

This CD cover of Lil Wayne was a good idea because of the use of colour. Lil Wayne has specifically chosen purple and red as the colours to stand out. Red being danger and purple being wealth. The way he has 'Fear' on one eye and 'God' on his eye's makes him look like a strong man as he is giving a powerful message.

2Pac - Living In Paradise

This CD cover of Tupac Shakur was our last idea as he died in 1996 he was an inspiration to many. This CD cover is very powerful as he is no longer alive, him looking up to the sky and the cover saying 'living in paradise' is now contradicting the fact he can no longer do either. But this cover can tell people that by taking the right path in life you can end up in paradise, which relates to our music video as it has a lot to do with taking the right and wrong path in life.

Our songs original cover

This is the original cover to our song, although it does not have a picture of Lil' Wayne on it, it still mentions the song is featuring him. We chose not to do something familiar to this because this gives of a bad message compared to ours, as it uses dark colour's and red writing. The colour red represents danger, evil and death. There are some similarities from this cover to our video as most of the background is black, showing an urban affect, the only lighting in the cover is on the main artist.

First Front Cover Draft

This was our first draft of a CD cover, to create this photo we downloaded a still image from Google. With this image, took it to the green screen and we positioned ourselves on how we thought would be appropriate. With the use of the equipment we had, the way we positioned ourselves was due to the television in front of us that showed us how the picture would look. The picture is in a graveyard in which we are standing/sitting, beside an angel looking for an answer from God. The reason we took this picture off Google was because we decided as a group it would be disrespectful actually going into a graveyard and taking pictures of other people's loved ones.

Second Front Cover Draft

This was our image for the second draft of our CD cover, as a group we chose and decided that the first draft for our CD cover was too basic and that we could produce another one with more meaning into the image to reflect back onto our music video. We only believe this to be a much effective picture than the first draft because this was actually taken in real-world settings. The first draft was taken in green screen which we thought looked artificial. Also it has a lot more lighting and just looks more efficient for a CD cover.

Final Front Cover

This is our final CD cover, we decided to not use the previous drafts because it lacked originality and didn't really tell a story whereas this CD cover represents the theme of 'children', this type of retrospective theme is used to bring back memories from when the artists were kids, thinking back on how things could've changed. Also most of the image is in black and white but the actual artists in colour. We done this to make sure us artists stood out. We have also sized the cover by it's professional size which is 12 by 12 cm. What also is professional about this cover is that it has the 'parental advisory' feature on it.

Final 1st Inner Cover
This is our final inner cover, we have decide to use the background picture as a road symbolising the 'road of recovery' and how The Game turned his life artound into the right path. We have also inserted a lyric from the song to link it with the picture. To add, we have inserted a quote from 'The Game' himself, the quote is a positive one which teenagers may listen to as he a role model.

Final 2nd Inner Cover
This is our final second inner cover, we have used exatcly the same theme but a quote from Lil' Wayne. Another difference is we have re-arranged the picture of the artist, we have inserted him on the right hand side to be different.

Final Back Cover

For the back cover, we decided to keep the theme of retrospectivechildren memories. This picture shows how us artists are creating an image of 'looking back at our lives' and thinking on how 'crazy' life was in the 'hood'. We also kept the black and white/colour theme which makes us stand out. We have given this a professional look by adding images at the bottom such as the labels symbols, the copyright information and the barcode.

Location

Locations

We took this picture of Hulme bridge to symbolise that most of our filming is in Hulme. We chose Hulme because it has many different locations that we could use to show our video is about lower class. Some of our filming took place on the birdge this picture was took on.


This is another picture we took of Hulme, we chose this because there is footage at the start of our video of cars on the motorway. On Final Cut Pro, we edited this part so the cars went at a higher speed, we created this effect to send a message that 'Life is too fast'.

We filmed our narrative in the Hulme subway, the picture above shows this. We chose this location because it shows the urban side to our video. The graffiti on the walls also show that this is more of an abandoned area. Some of our footage shows the subway is blocked of by the police, this shows we have used a location that has a lot of crime in the area. When we edited our narrative in Final Cut Pro we made all of it black and white to create a gritty atmosphere and to show it was a past event.

We took this picture of a park in Longsight because we wanted have children in our video playing in the park. The children are seen in the playarea as this is where you are most likely to find children. We also edited this to black and white to show this is a past event of our narrative.


We used the greenscreen as another location so we could have a choice of any background. This image shows what the greenscreen looks like. In our video we had two different backgrounds, a cemetry to show our target audience that if you choose the wrong path, this is where you may end up. Also there's a fire effect to show there's always a sense of danger no matter where you go.