Evaluation

Evaluation

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?

The song we used for our music video was ‘’Rum and Red bull’’. Our genre for our music video was dancehall. We start of our music video by having a DJ in his DJ booth announcing the start of the song. This is similar to the video ‘’Dude’’ by Beenie Man as he also had the radio announcing the start of the song.

In most dancehall videos the women in the video are sexualised for the purpose of the male gaze. In popular dancehall video’s such as ‘turn me on ‘– Kevin little and ‘gimme the light’- Sean Paul the girl in the video’s are dancing half naked around the lead singer. We decided to use that form and convention in our video but put a twist on it. Taking in to consideration of our target audience starting from 13 years old we decided that it would be too inappropriate to show a half naked woman so we dressed our dancer in a black lacy top which is still sexy and appealing to the male gaze but still appropriate for the male gaze. We also decided to place the male and females separate. We had the girl dancing in one scene with the rum and redbull and the performer in the other scene singing to song in a studio by himself this challenges the codes and conventions of a dancehall video as you would not usually see this.

In most dancehall video’s you will find big groups of people dancing with the main performer with a specific dance like the video ‘’ Willie bounce’’- Elephant Man. However since we decided to concentrate on the concept side of the video rather than the performance we decided to not add a big dance scene in there.

As the music begins we have a tracking shot of the messy pool table in the party scene. This also works as an establishing shot of the scene showing of what to come. The messy pool table is also a metaphor of our video as a whole as it shows that the video is random, abstract and unique. A video that uses a tracking shot at the beginning is ‘’Last Friday night’’- Katy Perry although this is not a dancehall song it is still a party song that is similar to our narrative. Another shot we used was titling the camera as if it has fallen. This is not typical to dancehall videos as they like to use simple shots.

Whilst editing we added effects like the mirror effect and we also speeded up some shots. Our shots were quick and snappy synchronising with the music which matches most dancehall videos like ‘’Nuh Linga’’-Elephant Man.

Regarding intertextuality, our graveyard scene with Michael Jackson was very similar to old black and white silent movies like Charlie Chaplin and laurel and hardy. The slapstick chase scene were Michael drops his hat is amusing aiming to get cheap laughs like the old silent movies. Intertexality is not a common thing in dancehall video’s as they like to focus on the music and not the actual video as they like people to dance along which is where the name ‘’dancehall’’ originated from.

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

I think the combination of our main product and ancillary texts is very effective as we have a recurring theme in all of them and throughout our video. Seeing as redbull is already a familiar brand and Bacardi is the rum we used in our video. We decided to have to merge the two together to make a new brand for rum and redbull. The 2 main colours that represent rum and redbull are blue and red. We use these colours throughout our video. We have the main character (the Dj) in a

blue top, we have the writing at the beginning and end in red, the writing that says’’ will dance for rum and redbull’’ in blue pen and more subtle items in blue or red. We tried very hard to get the image of the redbull can and either a glass or bottle of rum imprinted into our audiences mind. We decided to do it sublimely by having different CU (close up) shots of the can and next to the glass. We want the audience to think of that image every time they hear the words rum and redbull this is our brand identity. One of the characters in our party scene wore a hoodie that said ‘’Jamaica’’ we did this intentionally to show and remind people where the roots of dancehall came from. The uses of the colours of the Jamaican flag are used mostly in existing dancehall videos.

Whilst re-searching digipaks and thinking of our brand idea’s we came up with the idea’s of the colours of the Jamaican flag for our background in our digipaks and posters. We thought this would stand out from all the other ones in the shops as it consists of bright, vibrant colours.

Magazine advert

For our magazine advert we placed a big picture of Michael Jackson in the centre. This is to attract a wide variety of audiences not only those who are a fan of dancehall but Michael Jackson fans also. The picture draws audiences in as Michael is gesturing to come closer. This is effective as it gives the audiences a sense of involvement. The 2 artist names are in the colour of red and blue following the colour scheme of our video. We have the 2 brand logo for rum and for redbull. I think this poster is very effective as it gives you a lot of information about the video but yet leaving some elements to surprise the audience.

Similarly the front and back cover have the same background colours. We decided to keep the front and back cover simple almost as a teaser to our video. The writing is in red, yellow and green following the colours of the Jamaican flag.

Front and back cover

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After showing people our final cut of our music video, the most common feedback we got that it was confusing but very funny and enjoyable nonetheless. I learnt that maybe a crazy concept to match the crazy upbeat song was not such a good idea to a simple target audience. After explaining to the audience that the intentional effect the video had on them was the same effect they would get whilst drinking rum and redbull they agreed that this was a very clever concept and very unique also. I learnt that the main characters were very funny and relatable to the our target audience as they where round about the same age group and they also get up to the same kind of things. Showing our video to a fellow film maker he pointed out that some of the camera shots were not still this was due to a lack of a tripod in some shoots. From this i learnt to always

carry the correct equipment to a shoot.

We posted the video on a social networking site and this is the response we got.

Inside sleeve

The inside sleeve is double sided. It has our brand identity of the can of redbull with a glass of rum and a heart over it. We decided to keep this simple .It also has the same Jamaican flag colour for the background. The other side has the Bacardi rum logo and the redbull logo. This was simple as well and is easily recognisable as rum and redbull.

Digipak slip

The digipak slip contains the lyrics of the song so you can sing along. It matches the other ancillary texts with the Jamaican background and it has the redbull logo in the centre. This is effective because when you’re reading the lyrics you still get the sense of the redbull.

The response we got after showing people our digpaks and magazine add was mainly positive. They loved the bright colours ‘’ it reminds me of my home time Jamaica. I would defiantly buy it just by looking at the cover’’- Nelly Camberwell’s. The only critique we got was that the fonts in the different materials did not match. I learnt that when we are designing products such as those we should all work together and go with one set idea rather than working separately as we will end with completely different products which don’t match.

Overall the feedback was very positive and i am very happy with it. However i feel as though if we had taken more time to plan the shoots we would have had more time for the print production. I have also learnt how to compromise. Seeing as i was the editor in the group i was very worried that the shots the producer and director would give me would not be enough. So i would constantly remind them of what they need to do. This aggravated them and soon enough there was a divide in the group. I learnt to have a little faith in my team members.

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

Using new media technologies was a big help in throughout the whole process. During the early stages of the project we used new media technologies for research. We scoured YouTube for a song to do a music video to. After finding the perfect song we then continued to use search engines and websites such as Wikipedia to find research for the codes and conventions of our genre. We then went on social networking sites and also a website where you can upload questioners to in search of our target audience.

Whilst filming we used a Cannon XM2 digital camera with automatic or manual focus / exposure and widescreen capability, plus on-camera mic. This was a very good camera as it was easy to carry and was very good quality. We used a tripod in most scenes and also a Lilliput and redhead in the party scene to create a warm ambience feel as though our camera woman mastered the camera very well and was able to improvise new shots such as the tipping shot and also film in some crazy angles. A problem we faced whilst filming with equipment was a broken tripod, due to this we had to set the camera on tables and chairs to get still shots or try and hold the camera as steady as we could. The equipment enhanced our ideas by helping us create new dynamic and abstract shots

matching the theme of quirkiness throughout our video. The camera also had a play back button. This helped us alot as we could see the errors in the shots whilst we were still at the scene shooting so we could quickly re-shoot instead of having to wait till we got to the edit suite to then realise we did not have the right shots.

Having used final cut pro before i feel as though editing was the easiest part of the task. Final cut pro is very simple to use and has very good effects. The main issue i had whilst editing was the fact that we did not have the right shots i needed to edit with so i had to improvise some shots and also re-shoot some shots.

Photoshop proved to be very difficult whilst doing the print production as i was not very familiar with it. After doing a workshop with one of our lectures i soon began to get the hang of it making it easier to do and producing exceptional digipacks.

Whilst doing this evaluation i found that websites such as YouTube, twitter and facebook where most helpful as we could post our video on there and get audience feedback.