The forms of media created for our media product consisted
of a music video, album artwork and magazine advert. These were all based
around the genre of grime, in which our chosen song, ‘Next Hype’ was well
suited as it is performed by grime artist Tempa T. The music video is
primarily performance based while loosely complimented by narrative, following
the generic codes and conventions of the grime genre as well as the
intervention of house music which plays with the basic foundations that are commonly composed in a grime music video.
The main star of our production plays an important role in
our music video as he is the main attraction and label that the audience will
recognise and admire. This is shown through the use of close up and low angle
shots that promote the star as a powerful and influential image.
The artist keeps close eye contact with the
camera creating an impact of intimidation that connects with the audience; a feature that is typical of other grime music video’s such as So Solid Crew’s
‘21 seconds’.
This corresponds with Richard Dyers star theory in which the
vocalist is embodied into an image of power, anger and angst allowing the
audience to be manipulated by the star successfully appealing to our audience
demographic.
Album artworks following the genre of grime usually conform to
the same set of codes and conventions. Our group applied these similar rules to
attract the same audience. For example Wiley’s album ‘Playtime is Over’ uses
similar codes and conventions in his album artwork as we have in magazine advert
and digipak. This consists of the use of dark colours, urban locations and
urban clothing (e.g. tracksuits, hooded clothing) that represent the lower class
and the unorthodox society they follow. This consorts to Andrew Goodwin’s six
point theory in which he suggests there are often intertextual references made
in a music product.
The camera work and pace of editing of our music video relates
to the conventions of our chosen genre as the use of free form camera work changes
between moments of grime and house music, as we used a remixed version of Tempa
T’s ‘Next Hype’. In moments of house music we used a still camera (tripod) to
represent the difference in music genre. The grime melodies of the song are
featured with a free form style of camera to represent the aggression of the
genre,
while a still camera represents the simplistic rhythm of house.
This
relates to Goodwin’s theory of a relationship between music and visuals. By
using these techniques we were able to establish familiar conventions of the
genre of our song in order to contain our target audience, while at the same
time challenging the conventions of our music genre and pushing its boundries.
Our music product also uses conventions of real media products by the use of the similarity in the music video techniques used between our music video and grime artists Wiley. In Wiley's music video 'numbers in action', the use of jump shots filmed by a still camera while multiple Wiley's perform actions in the background relates closely to the techniques used in our own music video in which jump shots are used to show the star moving across the rooms performing different actions and sitting in different positions.
During the planning of our music video production, as a performance piece, the star (Adam) was used as the main attraction of our product, starring in the music video as well as promoting the album artwork with the branding of his image on the digipak as well as the magazine advert. This relates to Goodwin’s Star theory in which he states that the star will be the focal point of the media product presented. Like the music video, the ancillary texts created conform to the genre of grime in which dark, dull colours are used as well the inclusion of urban elements such as brick walls covered with graffiti. This can be seen in our magazine advert as well as the digipak.
The genre of grime is depicted throughout the media texts created. In the music video the locations used summarize the urban features of the lower class life style. This is shown by the use of back alleys as well as the use of council flats in the background of various scenes. In preparation for shooting our music video we travelled around multiple council estates in order to find the location which most typically suited the characteristics of our genre.
Costume also promotes this feature as the main star is seen wearing a variety of hooded clothes and track suits which are commonly associated with urban youth culture. The use of violence throughout the piece relates to the lyrics of the song in which violent nature is demonstrated - ‘Bloods pouring I got stains off the knife'.
Violence is highly depicted in the music video by the use of props. For example throughout the music video the star carries a baseball bat. This was used in order to show how lower class youth assert their dominance in order to achieve credibility throughout the lower class society they live in. This anti-social behaviour is carried out in order to highlight the grime genre in which our chosen song comes from. Violence is also shown by the way in which the star character breaks into a house and then carjacks a vehicle.
The theme of lower class urban culture and the corresponding violence is pursued in the artwork of the magazine advert as it highly demonstrates an uncaring and lower class area. This is shown by the litter on the ground surrounding the bins within the image. The irony of the litter surrounding the bins shows how little the lower class are devoted to decent living standards or care for the place and environment they live in.
The editing of this magazine advert has been used to create a dirty and unsettling effect on the location demonstrated by the shadowy effects across the wall which creates an evil and disturbing atmosphere. Anti-social behaviour is followed through into the magazine advert and album artwork. For example the star of the music video is edited onto the magazine advert to create the effect that he is part of the graffiti on the wall. This represents how he is judged as a person by the area in which he lives. The main star lives in a neglected place, therefore, he himself is neglected from society and acts out in a violent manor. The red eyes represent the violent and evil nature of the main star.
The album artwork continues to follow the same attributes of the main product. Grime is associated within the digipak by the use of dark and dull colours that represent the basic and unappealing lower class life style. The backwards lettering on the front cover is used as a metaphor to express the backward state of the lower class living standards and social life. The digipak is made up of single close ups of the main star. This is done to exaggerate the anti-social behaviour of the main character which relate to the violent lyrics of Tempa T. The album name ‘The Decline’ was derived from the idea of a lower class society as the word decline represents the grime genre of the album perfectly since it annotates that the lower class people are declining lower in society, resorting to violence and law breaking and refusal to follow the basic rules of society, which is demonstrated throughout our music video.
I feel the main product and ancillary texts were combined effectively to produce a specific brand and ideas that relate well to the genre of grime and the specific background details it originates from.
After choosing our song we began to focus on researching our target audience in order to possess a wider idea of what should be included in our music video. From research we gathered that audiences who listened to Tempa T also listened to grime artists such as Dizzee Rascal, So Solid Crew and Wiley. From the research we found from other grime artists it became apparent that grime music videos are mainly made up of performance (such as Dizzee Rascal's 'Fix up, Look Sharp'), which are usually well-received by their audience.
Therefore in order to please our target audience we decided to create a performance based music video, however we also included a steady amount of narrative to keep our music video exciting and original.
Our research also told us that the approximate age of listeners in our target audience we discovered, averaged between fifteen and twenty five years old. Since the grime genre originated from the East London area, our target audience would most likely revolve around inner city areas such as this where violence is common. This genre, we found appealed more to males as they can easily relate to lyrics of aggression and violence from personal experience in the area in which they live. To appeal to this audience, violence was included in the music video to keep our target audience entertained. The use of urban clothing was also included into the production so that the main star of the video appears to resemble the average audience listener, increasing the chances of artist to audience relation. The locations of alley ways and council flats made up the majority of the music video scenery. This was done in order to appeal to the suburban youth that make up the wider percentage of our audience. As they would typically come from a lower class area, the audience would be more comfortable with this location as it resembles their natural habitat. This is a location shot of what we thought our target audience would be able to recognize and relate to:
The audience is set in the position of spectator as the main character of the music video composes the song as well as commits acts of violence. As the scenes change from performance to narrative, the audience receives a satisfaction that they are safe from the acts of the main character and are also in league with him after seeing the performance scenes. This is done by allowing the audience to reach the star past the anti-social behavior and allowing them to receive his lyrics as if listening to him personally. Therefore when the main character of the video attacks and robs a man’s vehicle, the audience are resistant to feel fear, but instead feel in league with him.
On the first screening of our rough cut music video to our target demographic, we found the music video was well received as we gained much positive feedback from questionnaires including comments on things such as the successfulness the flow of the fast paced editing had in correspondent with the music. However we also had negative feedback including comments on lack of use of different camera angles. A variety of comments received are displayed bellow.
'Need to use a wider range of camera angles'
'Liked the CD cover, and fast cuts'
'I liked the locations'
'The editing was really precise and i liked the concept of the still camera shots. It looked really different and it was very effective.'
'The adverts looked very professional'
We took these suggestions on board determinedly and managed to effectively include a much wider variety of camera angles in our music video such as the ones used bellow.
The feedback we received from class mates proved to be a massive help as well as a confidence boost in creativity as not everyone enjoys this genre of music, however our audience seemed to enjoy our music video as well as our digipak and magazine advert designs in which class mates commented on the impact the edited effects had, such as the dark lighting on the magazine advert. This allowed us to further develop our designs with the confidence that lack of colour would not displease our audience.
During the research stage of our production we used YouTube in order to search
for grime artists making it possible for us to view their music videos and
capture an idea of what grime music videos generally consist of.
We also
browsed through Myspace, Facebook and Wikipedia in search of Grime artists and
its genre so that we could better understand its origins, audiences and
background. Throughout our whole media project we used a website called Blogger
to post our work allowing us to track our own progress. We had no trouble using
Blogger since we were taught how to use it in our previous year during AS media
and so we were able to post each individual piece of work displaying everything
he had thus done so far. We also used Wix, a website creator, in which we made
websites in order to display our projects and evaluation answers. I had trouble
using Wix at first as I had never used this type of software and found it
difficult to upload video’s or create menus.
Part of our planning included the video-editing software Final Cut Express,
which we used to create an animatic version of our hand drawn storyboard. We
created this by taking pictures of our story board using a Nikon D40 digital
stills camera and then uploading the photos onto Final Cut Express. This task
proved to be relatively easy as we had previously used the Final Cut Express
software in AS Media.
We also used Adobe Photoshop CS4, the photo
editing software, which allowed us to create our album artwork and magazine
adverts. Photoshop took a while to get used to considering we hadn’t had the
need to use it in AS. We were having slight problems adjusting the font on our
magazine advert to suit the grime genre. However, after some research we
discovered fonts could be downloaded into Photoshop allowing us to find the
perfect font to use in our magazine advert.
After filming the scenes we needed for our music
video on a JVC High Definition camera, we uploaded the footage onto Final Cut
to edit. Live Type was used to create our production brand logo while the sound
playing over the animation was created on Garage Band. In order to create
jump cuts the star of our music video was filmed with a fixed camera in three
different locations and then layered on top of each other. To create the stop
motion sequence within our music video, over 100 images were taken on an SLR
camera and then uploaded to Final Cut to create a moving sequence. Aspects of
real album covers and magazine advertisement material were introduced to our
product with the use of critic quotes from other magazines such as ‘Mojo’ as
well as ‘explicit content’ warnings on the cover of our album.
The media products my group made were a music video, album artwork and a magazine cover. The soundtrack to the music video was ‘Next Hype’ by a grime artist called Tempa T. The music video conforms to the codes and conventions of the grime genre in which the soundtrack is based. Setting and mise en scene crafted carefully to achieve an authentic Grime music video. Usually grime videos would include some sort of dark grimy setting to correspond with the violent lyrics that are usually present. Costumes would usually contain some sort of intimidating attire such as hoodies and weapons. A baseball bat and two different types of hooded jackets were used in our music video and some of the performance part was performed in an alley which conforms to the conventions of a Grime music video. The music video is mainly performance driven, with little concept of a narrative. Some scenes in the video follow the expectations of a Grime music video, whereas other scenes deviate from these expectations. This deviation occurs because the soundtrack is a combination of the Grime and Funky House genre.
However our music video challenges conventions of a Grime music video as there is a dance sequence combined with jump cuts which corresponds to the funky house instrumental backing the grime lyrics of Tempa T. The combination of the two genres inspired our group to make an unorthodox grime music video. Just like real music video’s we used a variety of camera shots and locations to ensure the authenticity of the video, and maintain viewer’s interest. The use of coloured lighting conforms with conventions of a funky house music video. We used colour correction to un -saturate the colour in certain scenes in the video to make the setting seem more dark and grimy. We also shot the grimy scenes of the video on a rainy day. This technique is called pathetic fallacy intertwining weather with the mood of the video. Other performance scenes were filmed in a drama studio, with coloured chairs piled on top of each other. The use of mise en scene was important to follow the expectations of a funky house/ Grime music video as coloured lighting and weapons were used to combine the two genres.
The continuity of the baseball bat and hooded jacket ensures the authenticity of the video and conforms to the Grime genre as shown in other Grime music videos where violent weapons are brandished. This low angle camera shot gives the impression that the artist is in a position of power. The stance in which the artist is standing combined with the camera shot correlates to the intimidating tone of the lyrics.
Prior to the development of our music video, extensive research and planning took place to ensure the authenticity of our final product. I researched established music directors such as Colin Tilley, Spike Jonze, and Hype Williams. I analyzed music video's that they had produced and used certain techniques, such as fast paced straight cuts of the artist in different locations in our final product.
There is a similarity between our music video and that of an established Grime artist named Wiley. His music video ‘numbers in action’ displayed him performing his song in one still shot whilst other shots of him carrying out certain acts in the background were superimposed. Although we didn’t use this exact technique, the jump shots depict the same sort of comical element to the video that brightens up the dark tone of the lyrics and the video. We used a JVC HD video camera fixed in one position on a tripod and filmed the artist in various positions dancing to the Next Hype soundtrack. This section of the music video conforms to Dyer's star theory which states that the artist will be the focal point of the music video as they are what is being marketed and the star is what people spend money to see. The artist maintains eye contact with the camera throughout the music video which creates a connection between the artist and our demographic audience. This eye contact puts across the feelings of anger that are reflected via the lyrics.
Question two: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Prior to creating our CD cover and magazine advert, various advertisements and CD covers were reviewed and analyzed in order for our group to create an aesthetically pleasing product. We took inspiration from UK grime artists such as Dizzee Rascal and Ghetts and incorporated themes and ideas that were used in some of their album covers into ours.
The back of the CD cover conforms to the conventions of the grime genre as it depicts a picture of the artist holding a baseball bat against a brick wall. However the image has been edited so it looks like the artist has been spray painted onto the wall. This is similar to Tinchy Stryder’s album artwork for Third Strike.
This depicts that the album artwork my group has created conforms to the genre of real media products. The front of the CD cover depicts the artist in the motion of swinging a baseball bat which correlates to the violent lyrics present Grime music. The artist is at the centre of the cover which conforms to t Goodwin’s six point star theory that states that the star will be the focal point of the media product presented. The music video also conforms to this theory as the ‘star’ is in every shot and is in the centre of the screen ensuring that the star gets the viewer’s full attention. Close up shots are used to ensure the audience get a clear view of the star.
The Magazine cover pictures the artist standing in front of a dumpster in an alleyway. His attire and the background is shadowed and eyes are coloured red which connotes the theme of darkness and Grime. To ensure continuity in our media product a baseball bat was prevalent in the music video, the magazine cover and the album artwork. This was done to create a recognized brand of the artist. Whenever the baseball bat is seen it is related back to the artist. Quotes from newspapers at the bottom of the cover, barcodes and store names make the magazine cover more authentic and ensures it looks like a real media product.
We created two possible magazine advertisements, however we decided the one pictured above was more effective as the setting and mise en scene was more fitting to the Grime genre. The image of artist is the same in both versions however they have been placed in different locations. The Graffiti on the wall of the chosen magazine advert conforms to the expectations of the Grime genre. The media portray Grime music in a bad light and associate it with anti social behavior such as vandalism.
Branding has played a major role in the production of our media products. A baseball bat has been used throughout the music video, CD cover, and magazine cover to create image viewers will instantly recognize. The production company is presented at the start of the video and is present in the CD cover and magazine cover. The gritty distorted font that the album title is written in connotes the same themes linked to the Grime genre.
Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The target demographic for our product was young adults aged from 15-25. There is no specific ethnicity aimed at, however the people more likely to be interested in our product would live in inner city areas and will more likely to be males. However we created a fictional character which our products would appeal directly to.
Name: Jamal Williams
Age: 22
Ethnicity: Black Caribbean
Area lived in: Brixton
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Favorite radio station: Choice FM
Favorite music artist: 50 Cent
Preferred genre of music: Grime/ Hip Hop
To appeal to this audience violence was incorporated into the video. The focal characters attire was that of ‘thug’ which would appeal to the target audience. The events that occur in the video depict the artist as being violent towards another person. These actions correlate with the attire he is dressed in. The hood over his head combined with a baseball bat suggests he is going to do something sinister. These sort of themes attract the interest of young males in inner city areas as it reflects the lives many of them live day in day out. The audience has been positioned in the perspective of the violent focal character that breaks into a man’s home, attacks him with a baseball bat and then drags a man out of his car before stealing it.
However the audience does not see the events from the perspective of the victims which may glamourize these acts, on the other hand; they are entertaining and attract the attention of the targeted social groups. The final products of the music video, the magazine advert and the CD cover were aesthetically pleasing to the viewers whom gave very positive feedback even though they were the complete opposite of our targeted audience.
The first point of contact for our music video was our peers. Each person was given a questionnaire to fill out. One art of the questionnaire asked viewers to rate the video, CD cover and magazine advert out of ten. Another part of the questionnaire was blank as we asked viewers to write down what they thought of it. Quotes from the comments are bellow.
'I liked all the fast cuts'
'Liked the CD cover, and fast cuts'
'I liked the locations'
'The editing was really precise and i liked the concept of the still camera shots. It looked really different and it was very effective.'
'The adverts looked very professional'
'Lip syncing was very convincing'
'The locations fit with the genre'
Research into which real life points of media would advertise the release of our music video. After extensive deliberation it was decided that 'Choice Fm' would advertise it on the radio, the video would be aired on an independent UK music video channel 'Channel AKA' and the magazine article about it would be found on ukgrime.com which is an online magazine dedicated to Grime music.
Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages?
During the research and planning of our product, we practiced our editing skills using a variety of techniques including the correct use of markers to edit various images and cut them so that they were in time to the Pink Panther soundtrack.
The new techniques that were learnt helped when creating the storyboard for our music video. Pictures of different scenes were drawn onto small pieces of paper. They were then photographed individually and laid out in chronological order on Final cut. The images were then cut to match the beat of the soundtrack by the use of markers. Key framing was used to represent movement in the final video on the storyboard drawings.
Also, before filming our final product, I individually filmed and edited two music video's starring myself. They were songs that I had written and decided to create music video's for them. The editing skills progressed from the first video I made to our final product. The two music video's I created gave me the practice I needed to make our final product as professional as possible.
To create these products a wide variety of media technologies were used. A JVC High definition video camera was used to film the video. The footage was then edited on the widely used editing software called Final cut. To create the jump cuts depicted in the music video, the artist was filmed in several locations in a drama room filled with various colourful props with the camera in a fixed position. The artist then performed six times in six different locations around the room. Although the camera was in a fixed position, a variety of camera shots were incorporated including a close up shot, a medium shot, and a long shot, to ensure the fluidity and entertainment value of the video. The performance started and ended at the exact same time to make sure the movements and lip syncing was on time with the music. The footage was then layered one on top of the other in the editing software Final cut. Markers were then laid down to match the tempo and beat of the music. Then sections of each performance part were cut away to create jump cuts that corresponded with the timing of the music. We was then going to superimpose some of the footage to create the illusion of the artist multiplying but after consideration we decided that jump cuts were more effective.
To create the branding images that appear at the start of the music video, software called Live Type was used. Our group name and the song title were typed into the software and it generated different animations that can be imported into Final cut.
The sound effects that play alongside the brand simulation were created by software called Garage Band. Different samples were copied into the sequence, combined and cut to the specific length of time that the animation lasted for. The volume of the sounds were set higher at certain points where the animation is bolder. These sounds were then exported out of garage band and then imported into Final cut alongside the animations.
This idea of sound and image branding stemmed from an internet music video channel hosted on YouTube called 'SBTV' which plays a short animation and theme music at the start of every video which is a key identifier of the brand. People recognize who the video was filmed by without seeing or hearing the music video.
Photo shop was used to transform pictures taken on a digital SLR camera into the magazine advert and CD cover. The pictures of the artist were taken in front of a brick wall whilst he was holding a baseball bat dressed in a 'thug-like' attire.
These images were then imported into Photoshop and we began creating draft CD covers. Two were created and after long deliberation the one below was chosen.
The Magazine advert started off as a photo of a wall with industrial bins in front of it. We then imported a picture of the artist to make it out he is standing in front of the wall. Text, branding and logo's were then incorporated into the magazine cover, and the artist's eyes were coloured red and face shadowed to add to the dark sinister tone of our product.
Conventions of real magazine adverts and CD covers were incorporated into our products by the use of branding images such as ‘explicit content’. Theories such as Goodwin’s star theory inspired the creation of the CD covers as the main artist is at the focal point of the covers. A combination of video capturing and photographic capturing were incorporated into the final music video. Stop motion was used in the video by taking over 100 images on an SLR digital camera and then imported into Final cut. The images were then placed in chronological order and then the frames per second in which final cut plays video was altered to increase the speed at which it was played which made the images look like a video.
To make the artist move backwards the shots were put into reverse. The reversed stop motion sequence was combined with the regular stop motion sequence to create the effect of the artist moving back and forth in time with the soundtrack. The desired effect was for the artist surf along grass on a mattress and move without moving his body. This made the video surreal and comical which correlates to the funky house genre which is present within the music.
Overall the products made were successfully done and were aesthetically pleasing. The products conform to the conventions of the Grime genre and to those that are used in mainstream media. Although many aspects conform to the expectations of the Grime genre certain aspects challenge these conventions and push the boundaries to what classes a music video to be Grime.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge and conventions of real media products?
Our music video is for the song Next Hype by Tempa T therefore it is within the modern day Grime genre.
The genre is essentially a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip-hop. Grime is illustrated by complex 2-step, 4X4, and breakbeats, generally around 140 BPM and constructed from different Synth and String sounds.
Some of the characteristics of a grime music video would be to expect to see is Jewellery, Urban Clothing such as hoodies, caps etc. Grime videos usually tend to have forms of aggression shown often between the characters or sometimes towards the audience due to the aggression in most lyrics and/or music within Grime music.
Therefore in our music video that we have created as A.S.A. Productions we have followed the typical genre characteristics by using the conventional mise-en-scene, which was done by using urban style clothing such as tracksuits and baggy clothing, which is what we have used for our main character in the music video. We have also chosen locations, which suit the grime genre in our video as they are in urban locations such as streets and alleyways, which are commonly used in grime music videos.
As the song is of a Grime genre it typically is a fast pace song and has a high BPM rate therefore we have used fast pace cuts in the editing to match the pace of the music. This improves the appearance of the video as it becomes more eye catching and each scene becomes shorter therefore the audience are less likely to become bored whilst watching the music video as of the fast, constant cuts. The fast pace editing was inspired by the music video 99 problems by Jay-Z as it has many cut edits throughout the video. The theme of the narrative in our music video was inspired by the original music video for the song Next Hype by Tempa T as there is some violent nature in the content of the video.
The video is a performance video as the character lip-syncs, miming the lyrics but also it has narrative as there are scenes in which the main character in the video breaks into someone home and begins to attack them which also shows use of Goodwin’s theory as the lyrics to the song Next Hype reflect on the video. Also the sound of the music has an aggressive nature to it and this is also shown in the video by the violent scenes in the video, which is again using Andrew Goodwin’s theory where the music matches the music video. In our video the artist who is the main character is shown right throughout the video which is asked for by the record label to show the artist performing the song, which is also part of the branding as the audience put his face to the song and can recognise the artist.
