Enyinna Ezebuiro

Evaluation Q2:

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

A number of different shots and camera angles were used throughout each production within our media project, whether it is from our CD covers, posters, inlay cards and the music video itself.

This allowed us to build the consistency and variation of all of the shot positions, which ensured that none of our products seemed entirely repetitive from that factor. Therefore it never became stale or boring as the shots were continuously switched up.

Since we attempted to use a great number of shot distances, this also provided a fluentness from our work as no one shot was used too often and repeatedly in quick consecution. Instead within each new design or each new section of the scene, the audience could likely anticipate a new angle of the artist or surroundings to be shown. In effect to this they therefore feel like they are always seeing something almost entirely new, yet corresponding and conforming to the other parts of the work, to a greater extent

The song chosen to be used for our music video is a somewhat of a cross between three genres; being Grime, R&B and Hip Hop. Therefore the video stays conventional to Grime, perhaps to the greatest extent, however it also had to fulfil certain requirements that allowed it to reach out to the other two genres.Therefore within our video, the artist often dresses smart or appears calm and positive, and this reflects well upon the R&B genre. It was important in depicting the tone of the music video, because the video is not about an artist who is aggressive but more so an artist that is infatuated by his partner, and having a fun time with her; and this type of love story is quite conventional towards many R&B videos. If the design presented the artist as being exceedingly intimidating, it would completely go against the video. Therefore it was important to have many designs that were able to subvert a typical sinister looking Grime artist, into a friendly, calm and happy looking one; whilst not appearing to have completely abolished the features that can acknowledge him in the Grime genre.

However the artist still holds and maintains the conventional clothing that is idyllic towards the Grime genre. He still wears many baseball caps, chains, beanie hats, hooded tops, trainers and so his clothing still fits well within the Grime culture.

This type of traditional clothing is greatly apparent in both the music video and ancillary designs, so the conventional features of these types of costume still happens to be consistent among with the subverted smarter attire.

The artist also happens to have a trademark beanie hat that he often wears throughout the music video. And this was useful in endorsing the Grime culture that he has come from and is still existent within him, even if he sometimes switches his style up and subverts into the R&B culture as well through the smarter clothes.

The ancillary designs had to strongly represent and reflect upon the overall tone of the video, and therefore as our music video happened to feature very positive feelings this also had to be emulated from our inlay cards.

For instance, within this inlay design on the left, there is a very positive conveyance of the Grime artist as the colours are very bright and vibrant, and bloom through the design. Vibrant colours and bloom can even be seen in our music video as well. There artist is also glowing, and this gives a sense of purity as he is almost being represented in an angelic form. Something that is not a Photoshopped effect however yet still complements the vibes seen in the Media production is the composition and facial expression. He does not look intimidating at all which is also the case in our music video, and he looks happy and relaxed due to his calm posture. Our music video features the artist being calm, relaxed and happy mostly throughout it, and therefore a strong correlation is built and consistent from the combination of both the ancillary productions and the video production. So as the artist subverts the stereotypical sinister appearance of a Grime artist through the music video, the same thing is happening as well within the ancillary designs.

Within the CD covers the non-direct mode of address endorses the smoothness and slickness of his character, which not only cooperates well with the sleek cartoon-like design, but also fits well with the sleek presentation of the artist throughout our music video.

Throughout the music video the artist does not present himself as being sinister or aggressive and therefore does not adhere to a stereotypical form of Grime artist. Instead by appearing relaxed and smooth as he does within the CD covers he appears composed and this is when great reflection is shown towards our music video.

Within the back cover for the CD album, the artist still looks conventional and perhaps typical towards Grime as he is not showing his face therefore in a way appearing intimidating. However due to the somewhat cartoon style of effect we do not actually feel intimidated by the artist and instead feel more at ease with him, as the effect subtly implements a calmer presentation upon him. This is also endorsed through his relaxed stance by casually leaning his foot against the wall. Therefore we still see a composed character that fits appropriately within our music video, instead of an aggressive one that goes against it.

The black and white concept and ‘Colour isolation’ is greatly present within both our ancillary designs and the music video on a whole. It is an effect that is usually conventional within Grime productions, and symbolises the grim side of the artist’s lifestyle or flashbacks within their past.

We tried using a strong combination of both effects to emphasize on the overall thematic conceptions of the Media production on a whole. Therefore the effects become considerably and strongly consistent through all of the production works.

The black and white effect became important for utilisation, as since much of our video was presented in this way, a large amount of the ancillary work needed to also have strong portions of black and white present too.

K Koke – Nobody but us

Screenshot from Music Video needed here of ‘Colour Isolation’ effect used.

The ‘Leave Colour/ Colour Isolation’ effect was effective for both the music video and the ancillary tasks in order to not only increase the conceptuality and aesthetic gratifications of the Ancillary and video productions, but to also emphasize on the artist’s style and image. This is because blue has been used very often in all of the ancillary productions in order to endorse his Grime image more thoroughly yet subtly, and it also is used in the video to highlight the artist’s trademark attire of his hat. And this piece of clothing is also of a blue/purple shade too which reflects upon the artist’s identity and the Grime scene on a whole.

The K-Koke Grime video – ‘Nobody but us’ has ‘Leave Colour’ in effect which highlights red to perhaps symbolise the sadness from the amount of bloodshed that the community has suffered from. Just as our ancillary tasks and music video was also used in symbolic effect to represent the Grime culture and Wretch’s own portrayal on a whole.

The ancillary products and music video were also useful in highlighting and representing the artist’s culture through the surroundings that he is in throughout many of the various designs. This is as many of the images has the artist standing in front of a brick wall, or even a wall full of graffiti, and this is significant towards the background of the artist literally because it is a conventional setting in Grime videos. However is it also important figuratively because the brick wall symbolises how the artist would have typically come from a less fancy and wealthy environment, therefore settings like brick walls and such have been a heavy feature in the artist’s atmosphere. This subtly endorses our performer’s image as being more believable and convincing of a Grime artist on a whole, due to conventional factors and settings being used to represent a part of his identity, both in our music video and in our ancillary productions.

However, just as our music video looked to also somewhat subvert the typical image of a Grime artist through the surroundings, so did our ancillary work.

As the music video featured our performer moving to more grand, exquisite and extravagant areas, so did our ancillary designs such as the one towards the bottom left. This was very useful in highlighting the growth of the artist as through his spouse he is able to travel beyond the areas considered as bad, and go places where it would be considered as nicer and richer, and therefore enjoy the time he is having with her whilst also avoiding trouble.

The only main detrimental point towards this was that we wouldn’t have been able to actually feature his spouse within the any of the ancillary productions, as she is not actually a featured artist in the single or music album but only a performer featured in this one video. It would have been more consistent and reflective upon the music video if she were to have appeared on one of the ancillary designs however only the song is based upon the two, not the whole album. Therefore we kept it as only him on the inlay designs as we still wanted to present the artist as a more mature, Grime artist who reaches beyond his limitations and moves forward to greater motives and destinations.

By the artist moving forward to greater areas he subverts the stereotypical character of a Grime artist, however he still manages to stay true to the genre through maintaining his conventional attire within not all, but many shots. By still wearing the traditional style of clothing to the genre within these newer environments, he ensures that the traits that make him a down-to-earth Grime artist is still there. With this being apparent in both the ancillary work and music video helps more to emphasize upon this.

For the record company logo, we decided to use an image of the performer but present him through an embossed and silhouette style. This allowed him to be easily identifiable through the logo, and therefore audiences would somewhat be easily able to establish the artist. And also easily establish the idea that he is a top and successful musician, which is also represented through the microphone behind his head, instantly when looking at the logo. The feature of the microphone also confirms the artist’s passion for music, beyond all of the materialistic things that come from success with music