A2 Media EvaluationMusic video

The World’s GreatestR.Kelly

Media Evaluation

Media Evaluation

A typical RnB music video mainly consists of African American artists telling a story. RnB was a genre of musicmade up by African Americans and that’s why to this day we see so many artists around. Most artists have many ways in which they like to feature in there videos, most of them like the flashy cars, bling and the fancy women to all be included.

In our music video we have kept within the genre characteristics such as have Toby singing in what looks liketo be a recording studio. A lot of videos show artists recording in the studio as part of the video becauseit shows what its really like in the studio and how it is recorded. On some shots we have just Toby singingalone and in other shots we have filtered the shots to be a dissolve where we able to see Toby singing andanother shot over the top with him training. This shot is very affective as you are able to see to shots a oncecomparing the both. Having artists singing in recording studios on there video is becoming really popularin most modern RnB music video so we have tried to do this in our own video. A lot of Rock videos will showthe artists performing on stage with loud music but the RnB genre like to put them in a recording studio orin front of a plane black or white background to have the focus on the artist singing and we have choose toPut Toby into a studio. We have also kept a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as we feel this is very important whencreating a RnB music video. If you listen to the lyrics and watch there is an obvious link between them both,For example when ‘shinning light’ is used we have filtered the video on live type to give off a shine from Toby as he is the main focus in the shot and the video. As the lyrics get more aggressive and

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

Media Evaluation

louder we have made the shots follow this style to keep up with the real conventions of an RnB music video.Toby is also seen in the recording studio doing hand movements to link in with the lyrics such as ‘at the end of the rainbow’ we see Toby moving his arms as if it was link a rainbow.As well as this there is also a link between the music and the visuals as you can see this is made known when we have what looks like to be a producer turning up the volume when the music get louder during the middle part of the song. This is where we cut back to the recording studio and show different shots and not just Toby training all the time. Another way in which we have shown this is when Toby is in the recording studioand he really gets into the song such as projecting his voice more and moving his arms around which you are able to see nearer the ending of the song.As any other record label would want they would like to see many close up’s of Toby during the video so we have tried to do this in the recording studio shots but shooting some close up’s of Toby so the audience areable to get a better picture of him. There is also one of two close up’s when Toby is training but we haveMostly kept with the medium long shots to show him in full training. For example when Toby is punching thepunch bag we have a close up shot of him hitting the bag to show the force and aggression that he is hitting it with, Which shows the work rate of Toby and how much he wants to achieve his dream like thelyrics are trying to say.

This is not a punch bag but shows a close up of Toby hitting the boxing pad with aggression.

Media Evaluation

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

The two ancillary tasks that I have chosen to do are the digital pack and the promotion poster. The digital packis basically a CD case showing the album cover, two inside covers and lastly the back cover. While the promotionposter is there to promote the artist and the album digital pack. It was up to me and the rest of the group to design these ourselves on what we thought was the correct way to link in with the music video.

Digital pack – Album cover.

This is the final design our of album front cover for the digital pack. As you can see wehave gone with the cartoon affect, which was created on Photoshop a program that was on the apple mac book pro’s that we used throughout of coursework. The albumcover has Toby playing R.Kelly as the main focus on the album to promote himself as the artist looking up at the ‘star up in the sky’ which are lyrics in the song. We have also put in the boxing gloves to illustrate the song ‘The worlds greatest’. As Toby is training in the video to hopefully to become the greatest and we have decided to showthis in a boxing concept. The text on the album in big and bold as it is showing the artists name R.Kelly and the album name ‘chocolate factory’, which is actually one of his older album names.

Media Evaluation

Digital pack - Inside front cover

This is the inside cover that will be on the left as you open the digital pack. The design is very simple and shows Toby standing in the recording studio with his hands up high,Which again signifies the lyrics of him looking up to ‘that star up in the sky’. We have also kept it in a cartoon style which was done on Photoshop as are whole digital pack has the cartoon sketch theme. A lot of inside covers don’t have much in terms of writing, but just an image showing the artist or something that links in with the artist and the album.

Digital pack – Inside back cover

The inside back cover again is very plane as it just shows Toby in a hoody and boxing Gloves. This image was taken when we filmed Toby under the spot light in the dark room and we thought it would go well inside the digital pack. Toby is wearing the red boxing gloves to signify the he is a boxer trying to become the worlds greatest as shown in our music video. For continuity as you can see we have gone with the cartoon affect.

Digital pack – Back cover

This is the last page of our digital pack and it shows Windsor & Eton bridge lit up at night time, which we took a picture of and then filtered it with the cartoon affect. We didn’t expect it to come out as good as this and we was very impressed with the final outcome. The white lights link in with the lyrics of the song such as ‘shinning light’. The song list is also on the back page and instead of having them in a list we have changed them around to give it a different look.

Media Evaluation

Effectiveness

I believe that our digital pack and our poster are very effective and there is a good combination between the music video and the ancillary tasks. Both ancillary tasks follow the cartoon theme and link in well with the music video for many reasons. They both tie in with the video and the lyrics such as having a shining star on the album cover and shinning lights on the back of the album cover. Not many RnB artists have used a cartoon affect to promote there album cover but we thought it would be different and a challenge as it is a big risk. I believed it would be more exciting to use a cartoon affect as it could open up to a new target audience as they may find the cover interesting.

Poster

This is our groups final design of our poster that promotes the album that features the Song ‘The worlds greatest’, which we done for of music video. As you can see we haveToby in the Bottom right in big so he is set to be the main focus of the poster by pointing up towards the sky linking the lyrics of the song to the visuals on the poster. We have also put on there the album cover as the main point is to promote the album and belowhave written how its available and when. The album cover image is the only colourful image on the poster and this is so it will attract the audience who are looking at it and get them fixed on the album. Lastly we have R.Kelly’s name in big across the top so it hits people when looking at the poster so they know that R.Kelly is the artist.

Media Evaluation

What have you learned from your audience feedback ?

For our audience feedback we went around and asked different people on what they thought of our final film. we asked another media group on what they thought, we asked Toby who plays the main part in the video and we also asked a group of young people in our school who are into RnB music and the genre itself. On thewhole there has been mixed feedback from our audience that we have asked, people have praised our workand also gave us tips on where we could improve on certain parts in the video. I believe this is good as it givesus as a group an idea of where we could improve it next time and give us a chance to look at our strengths and weaknesses.

Media Group Feedback

We decided to ask another media group as they will be able to give us good feedback as they have also been making a music video so they have a good idea of what its all about. Such having good preparation will most likely give off a good final video. The group liked our outside shots that we filmed as they believed it lookedlike we really thought about the positioning of the camera and the shots, which they put down to good planning.The visuals and the lyrics had a good connection between each other for example ‘shinning light’ was mentionedfrom the group feedback. They also gave us some criticism and said that there should have been better shots in the recording studio,such as the background and the way Toby was dressed . They also weren't to keen on some of the gym shotslike when Toby was doing the sit up’s it went on for a bit long and we maybe could of have a different shotin between and the cut back to the original shot.

Media Evaluation

Toby Feedback

As Toby was our main actor through out our whole video I thought it would be good to ask him for some feedback as he has seen it come together from a different perspective. Toby was obviously part of thefilming but he had no involvement when it came to putting ittogether on the computer such as editing, but I believe his view andfeedback will come to good use. Toby had many positives to say about the final piece but some negative points that could be improved, which as a group is what we want to hear. The overall feedback was good as he did like the video and the Meaning behind out ideas, which again is good as he is saying he likes the work we have produced.Positives:Toby liked the start of the film where we see him running, which looks to be like early morning and then progressing through time as the video went on. His favourite bit was the boxing scene with the trainer wherewe see Toby punching the pads in the same sequence 3 times, especially when it cuts from slow motion backTo normal speed. Another part he liked was the ending when we see what appears is Toby himself getting ready to go out and fight, he mentioned the flashing lights with the dark background really give off a goodaffect and a true atmosphere.Negatives:The singing parts that we filmed in the recording studio were the bits Toby pointed out that let the video down.Some bits he said he was looking down a lot and should have had his head up focusing one something, but therewas some positives such as his arm movements when singing the lyrics. He also mentioned that we could haveDressed the recording studio better to make it seam more real.

Media Evaluation

Feedback from a group of people in the RnB genre

Lastly we decided to gather some feedback to a group of people in the school who were into the RnB genre and see what they thought. This feedback is very important as these people are into the same genre andwatch music videos of this style often so they will have some idea of what the RnB theme is about. None ofthese people who we asked have any experience in the media subject and are just random people who areinto the same style of music.

Positives:

They also liked the outside running shots at the start of the film especially as it starts off in the early morning. One of the best bits of the video that they enjoyed was the boxing shots in the gym where we see Toby hitting the boxing bag and then sparing with the pads with what looks like to be his trainer. The shot where it went from fast to slow to fast again was really affective. They also liked one of the last shots where we see Toby under the spot light in a dark room as everything is focused on him because of the spot light and the zoom in shot at the end was really effective because it puts more focus on him.

Negatives:

Again the singing in the recording studio was mentioned for being not the best panned out shots. Some were very good especially when Toby is doing all the hand movements but sometimes they thought Toby needs tobe looking up a bit more and not focusing on the lyrics so much. They would have also liked to have seen more shots in the recording studio such as maybe showing a producer working on the track to make it lookmore real.

Media Evaluation

How did you use media technologies in the Construction and research, planning and evaluation stage?

Throughout the whole construction of our music video we used many media technologies along the way. Themain two have been the camera and the apple Mac book pro, which has let us film the footage and thenup load it onto a Mac and then edit it. Without the media technologies we wouldn’t have been able tocomplete out coursework as they played such as huge role throughout.

Apple Mac book pro:

The apple Mac has many different programs on that allow us to complete our filming such as final cut express,photo shop and live type. These were the main 3 that we used the whole way through to complete our music video. Final cut express allows us to load up our footage onto the Mac and then edit in in terms of adding ortaking footage out, adding in affects and playing around with the filters so see what we get. Photoshop is a program that allowed us to design our digital pack and our poster as seen below. The program is full of different tools, which allows us to play around with filters as well to give the designs a better affect such as thecartoon theme we used on our ancillary tasks.

Media Evaluation

Internet/Blogs

The internet played a huge roll because it let us do a lot of research on the artist R.Kelly and the song that wehave done for the video ‘The world’s greatest’. Before we started doing any filming work we had to researcha bit about himself and we came up with a PowerPoint about himself, which is on my blog. All the videos thatare on my blog are helped by the internet and therefore become a media technology that helped me achieveour music video. The blogs have been a part of the music video all year because anything that was done wasuploaded onto the blog as evidence for part of the coursework, such as research, textual analysis, risk assessment,clothing and props etc. The blog could come across like a diary for the year because all the times and dates are on the blog so people can see when I uploaded posts and what my plan was to do next.

My Blog - http://www.wbsmediagroup1adamm.blogspot.com/

Camera

For filming we used a high definition camera that the school supplied us with to go out and shoot. The camerawas very good as it was HD and had really capture on it while filming. We went out about 6/7 times to filmfrom the start of the project to the end of the project and was able to capture all the footage we wanted. The camera was obviously the most important in the media technology as it was the only thing that allowed us tocapture the footage we wanted.

Spot lights and light control

When filming in the dark room we had someone come in and help us with the light controls. We wanted onespot light on Toby for a shot and then we wanted some colourful flickering lights to create a more real affectFor when we had Toby going out to the ring ready for the fight. The lights were pretty essential as they gave offthe more real affect when filming.