Millie Bevan

MEDIA STUDIES A2 EVALUATION – MUSIC VIDEO & DIGIPAK

QUESTION 1:‘ ’ IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP

OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS? ’ ’

As you can see comparing a very popular rap artists music video to ours, the conventions follow the same effect on the audience. The direct eye contact and performance is very popular in these types of videos as rap artists usually want to assert dominance over the viewer. I find the direct address of the audience would help appeal to them more and it is known for this to improve the sales of music. If a rap music video is not purely based around the performance there is usually a loose narrative to it too, this we have carried through our video by incorporating the areas of childhood for the artist as she re-discovers them relating to the way in which she reflects on her younger/less experienced years when she was just starting out – following the lyrics. The performance based videos that I analysed early on in the course all drew that they contained the artist in real life situations and usually in places that relate to the lyrics, whether that be in a garage, field, rooftop, club etc. For example The Lana Del Rey video that I analysed (Ride) was a performance and she spent most of the time during the video in a landscape or on the back of a motorbike, which therefore links to the name of the song itself.

We also have put context behind our digipak covers, using a shadowed room that presents the silhouette of a basketball court with a net to the right of the individual follows and develops the conventional and stereotypical idea that rap music mainly comes from the suburbs of America and is widely populated by black or coloured groups. We challenge conventions as you see them in the below album cover of J Cole by not making the name of our album directly link to the images shown as he does. This makes us step outside the box and create a wider target audience. Using a female artist and a name that has connotations of power, challenges generic ideas about rap and sexism within rap. ‘Throne’ appeals to females completely as they will be drawn to the strong and confident ambience the artist gives off through the album cover. As you can see a hugely

popular rap artist has also incorporated the theme of sports onto their album cover, however he presents this because of the title of his album ‘the warm up’ referencing a game of basketball, or a metaphor for his first album being the ‘warm up’ to his music to come in the future – creating anticipation.

‘ ’ I N W H AT WA Y S D O E S YO U R M E D I A P R O D U C T USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENT IONS OF REAL MEDIA P R O D U C T S ? ’ ’

‘ ’ I N W H AT WA Y S D O E S YO U R M E D I A P R O D U C T USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA P R O D U C T S ? ’ ’As you can see most back covers of albums contain a standard outline as to what should be included. Either situated in the centre or to the left usually comes the order and names of tracks that are played on the album. We have chosen to situate ours in the centre as this immediately catches the eye of the audience and leaves not as much blank space on the back as it would another way. The comparison below of our album back and a professionally made album that has gone into sales is very similar. Both contain barcodes, logos of partners associated with the artist and record label. The main image behind both our album and Tim Curey’s album are simple, containing no body/head shots, just shapes that relate to the context of the genre. Neither background takes up the whole of the space, this leaves more clarity for the audience, also doesn’t bombard them before they have even bought the album. With the addition of the text you don’t want your background image to be too overpowering and take away from the track list. Like other albums that are being sold on the market, we first literally just had our track list, barcode, label logo and that was it. After some more research into real media products we realised they had a lot more going on, for instance in the image below of Tim Curey’s album you can see that at the bottom of the album back, in the middle he contains some more information on the record label, for instance the address, email of the company, also who were the producers of the track, company executives names etc. We decided this was a good element to add to our album back as it made it look much more realistic, as well as this some audiences would find this information necessary to know.

‘ ’ I N W H AT WA Y S D O E S Y O U R M E D I A P R O D U C T U S E , D E V E LO P O R C H A L L E N G E F O R M S A N D C O N V E N T I O N S O F

R E A L M E D I A P R O D U C T S ? ’ ’

Keeping within the theme as I mentioned before of the burgundy colour. The background image I also mention in question 4 is presented on both the front and back inlay sleeves. This consistency seen through this gives the audience an idea of comfort. Usually real media texts carry this through their inlay sleeves alike, giving them maybe the same background image or same elements/similar pictures which links them both together to create a cyclical like structure for the whole digipak. The artist again appears on both of the inlay sleeves – somewhat developing conventions. Keeping her present in the whole digipak is important for the audience as constantly reminds them of what they are/who they are buying into. As you can see below the inlay sleeve I am comparing ours to, almost looks as though it is all one image that has just been stretched across – this gives a nice simplicity to the digipak. We decided to use the same background image as we believed it somewhat still mimics a simplicity. Instead of using a plain image with nothing placed over the top I think the concept of having the artist in two different scenarios overlaid the background reiterates the power of the artist and the influence they have over the music.

‘ ’ I N W H AT WA Y S D O E S Y O U R M E D I A P R O D U C T U S E , D E V E LO P O R C H A L L E N G E F O R M S A N D C O N V E N T I O N S O F

R E A L M E D I A P R O D U C T S ? ’ ’

Using the same setting and carrying on through two different shots allows the audience to believe that the cameras are in two places at once, this allows the narrative to be presented effectively. By using continuity with the setting allows the audience to take in with and become familiar with it, therefore following the narrative (if there is one) better. In real music videos often the setting will change every 20-30 seconds or so, in which we have tried to incorporate In our video. However challenging conventions we sometimes have the settings flick more frequently than mentioned, yet switch from more of a narrative to a performance, for instance in our video where the setting changes from outside, the artist just walking along the street, to inside, where the artist is singing and dancing to the track.

‘ ’ I N W H AT WA Y S D O E S Y O U R M E D I A P R O D U C T U S E , D E V E LO P O R C H A L L E N G E F O R M S A N D C O N V E N T I O N S O F

R E A L M E D I A P R O D U C T S ? ’ ’

As you can see our music video follows a theme that is applicable to very popular music videos in the industry – especially rap. Drake is an international artist and his very popular recent video ‘Hotline Bling’ is known for its wackiness. The video starts off in a call centre around lots of female workers (narrative) and then switches to Drake himself performing against a plain background that keeps changing colours and dancing. I think this interaction with the audience is definitely a convention we see in most if not all rap videos, the eye contact with the audience and the coming alive of their song. As rap artists mostly write the lyrics themselves they feature a lot during their own music videos in which we wanted for Lil Simz too. Usually a rap artist would wear really blingy and stand out clothing in which we challenged conventions and decided not to do for Lil Simz. We kept her in minimalistic plain black clothing so that the audience could depict her in a way they wished and represented her normal life – she is not yet rich and famous as she is a new artist.

Imessage/ instant messaging serv ices to organise people within the product ion of the video (show screenshots of messages)

Microsoft office; word – schedule, shooting p lan. PowerPoint – product ion log (pr ior to adding i t to my b log), textual analys is , presenting audience research results, in i t ia l ideas, evaluat ion

Photoshop – edit ing images for a lbum covers, creat ing the poster , in lay s leeves, edit ing parts of the video before import ing into premiere pro, creat ing reader profile, typography analys is as wel l as tr ia l and error ing pictures/backgrounds for a lbum covers etc .

Premiere Pro – vox pop, construct ing music v ideo YouTube – finding background music for vox pop, uploading drafts of music

video, uploading vox pop, researching real media texts (music videos) profess ional and previous students, finding the track we were going to use for the music v ideo

Google Drive – access ing documents our teacher shared with us (progress reports etc) , shar ing documents with our peers/partner, keeping al l our documents in one place, automatical ly saves, has a lot of storage space

Google forms – creat ing the audience quest ionnaire Sl ide share – implant ing Microsoft PowerPoints into blogger Blogger – present ing al l my finished work Iphone camera/ Sony camera – filming the music video

QUESTION 4:‘ ’ HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE

CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?’ ’