The audience feedback on the media product was mixed. 4 out of 6 people said they liked the music video, praising the locations and effects, while 2 disliked that some areas were too dark or blurry. Most felt the video was representative of other hip-hop music videos. All agreed the imagery matched the lyrics well. However, disappointingly, none said the video made them want to explore the artist's other work.

1. EVALUATION OF MEDIA
PRODUCT
Bianca Rahmany

2. INTRODUCTION
In this evaluation of my media product, I will look at how, by working in a group
we created a music video, CD cover and advert. Throughout I will be answering the
following questions:
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
To do this we had to look at real media conventions and analyse them, to find out
what different conventions and features can be seen in a UK Hip-hop music
video, before deciding on what things we would use for our own music video. It was
necessary for us to identify these things, so that our product would be as realistic as
possible and easy for the audience to relate to.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
This question will look at the synergy of all our three final products.

3. 3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback is vital when creating media products, as it is them
that its aimed for. By looking at what the audience wants it gives us an idea
of what our target audiences want from our product, in regards of planning.
Once the product was created, audience feedback gives us the idea to see how
successful it would be.
4. How did you use new media technologies in construction, research,
planning and evaluation stages?
In this question I will reflect on the different technologies that I needed
to use throughout the process of creating this media product, both in regards
to hardware and software.

4. (1)
In what ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?

5. MARKETING AIMS & BEGINNING
STAGES
Before we could begin to produce our media product, we needed to do a lot
of research into music artists from the same genre (UK hip hop), as well as their
videos. This was necessary so we could see what conventions are used in these
videos, and so we would be able to recognise them and used it in our own music
video. We needed to know about our target audience to do this and what market
we would be approaching, so they would recognize and relate to our product.
When we had an idea of what we wanted to do, we drew up story boards so
we had a clear plan of what we would to film and locations of shooting. We also
wrote up call sheets so our teams roles were clear.

6. HOW WE USE CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS:
After watching varies music videos, for instance ones by
Drake and Chipmunk, I noticed a pattern. Artists are usually
seen standing in front of an impressive landscape or
building. This then become one of the conventions we
followed when creating our music video. We had our artists
in front of monuments such as, the Big Ben, London Eye
and House of Parliament. We chose to have imagery like this
in our video, as it is something that is highly repeated in
many hip-hop music videos, also, we were fortunate to have
the luxury of filming in England's capital, London, that hold
many impressive sites which we could have in our shots. Also
this type of imagery matches our lyrics, as the song talks
primarily about London, and politics around the city.

7. HOW WE USE CONVENTIONS OF
REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS:
When doing research, a convention of hip-hop music video that I picked up on, was
that they use different transition effects, that is smoother way of changing shots. One that we
used in our music video, is a dissolve effect, we dissolved in and out of different imagery,
this was done mainly when the artist is talking about a particular topic, and therefore the
visual is a very relevant thing, and intensifies the meaning of the lyrics, to the audience.
We added these effects when we where comfortable using the editing software and had the
song in sync to the video, after this we were able to play with the visuals to make the video
more interesting. We decided to conform to this convention as it works well with our song.
I looked at UK hip-hop group N-Dubz’s video, Ouch, and throughout the video, they have
used several dissolving scenes, as you can see the screen shot below.

8. HOW WE USE CONVENTIONS OF
REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS:
In our music video, our artists wore simple
branded clothing, that can be seen as an urban
style, and that most UK hip-hop artists wear in
their music videos. We filmed during December
and all our filming was done outside, and so
because of the climate, our artists just wore a
puffy coat and jeans.
We conformed to this convention as many it
was most practical, as well as one that many
members of the audience would be able to
relate to, which is a good selling point for us, as
the production team.
In this screen shot we can see UK hip-hop artist
Professor Green wearing something similar that
our artist, Smartz wore in our video.
However, one way we did challenge this
convention, is how we didn’t make the clothing
a huge part of the video, and we didn’t add
extra shots of just expensive clothing's, which is
something that we can quite regularly see in hip-
hop music videos.

9. HOW WE CHALLENGED CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS:
Many hip hop music videos these days, put the title of the song and the artists
name at the beginning of the video, in a styled way. This makes the video look
prestige and also tells the viewer who and what they are about to listen to. We
decided to follow this convention, however at the same time challenging it, by
putting the name of the artist and the track in one shot, and by having it at the
beginning of the music video as well as at the end of it, we also added the names of
our production team.

10. HOW WE CHALLENGED
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS:
Now a days most hip-hop artists, whether from the UK or
USA, always seem to feature a flash expensive car as part of the mise-
en-scene, whether it relates to the song lyrics and story or
not, producers today are always able to fit it in. I think this is because
it’s what the target audience want to see, and gives them this idea of a
glamorous lifestyle, that they could aim to be part of, as inevitably, an
audience will always look up to their favourite artists.
We challenged this convention, by not having any cars in our music
video, as it wasn’t relevant to our lyrics at all, so therefore we didn’t
find it necessary to have that sort of imagery.
Another huge convention of hip-hop music videos, involves girls.
Majority of hip-hop artists usually have a glamorous woman by their
side, sometimes dancing in the video, and other times they simply
have them just by their side.
Once again we choose not to conform to this convention as it was
unnecessary and had no relation to the lyrics of the song, so
therefore that sort of imagery would have been out of place, and
could be distracting as well as confusing for the audience.

11. (2)
How effective is the combination of your main
product and ancillary texts?

12. ANCILLARY TEXT
 For our ancillary text, we had to produce a digi-pak to go with
our music video. This involved a CD front cover and back, and a
CD booklet as well as an advert for the CD.
 We had to do a photo-shoot to have images for the this, as we
chose to not take the images on the same location of our filming.
 We also had to research into other artists, CD’s that were from
the same genre of hip-hop.
Drakes Take Care
album covers

13. PHOTOSHOOT
We took our photos for our CD covers and booklet
on a separate time and location to where we shot
our music video. This in my opinion was a good
choice, as when filming it was very dark and streets
were busy, so by having a separate photoshoot we
were able to have more professional and brighter
photos. These images were still shot in an urban
location, which fits in with the genre.

14. Clothing is Fonts for the writing
typical of a hip- was created using
hop artist, and www.dafont.com i
the pose of the FRONT COVER chose to use different
image see the fonts for the album
artist making title and the artists
eye contact with name, as have a more
the camera and urban font for his
inevitable the name makes it seem
audience like a logo, which
gives the artist a
higher title status.
Adding a parental The photo focuses
advisory logo, as on the artist, and has
some lyrics are the background
explicit, and for blurry, the pose he
marketing strikes represents his
purposes, it can CD and company.
bring in an The blurry
audience who background makes
recognise the logo him more prominent
and realise what and important in the
music the album image.
may contain.

15. Image colour had
I had the been edited to be
conventional BACK COVER the same as the
song lyrics front cover, this
down the left creates synergy.
hand side of the The background
album is dark which
makes the artist
stand out. It is
also an urban
looking
I added the background that
artists name follows the genre.
and title on the
sides of the I added the
album edges as conventional
this were it barcode and
would fold in, ‘hip-hop
another village’ logo as
convention of it can be seen
a CD. on all hip-hop
albums

16. I used a image
were the artist
strikes a similar
CD BOOKLET
pose to that of
the image on the
back cover, to
have a link to
them all, the
colouring is also
similar to the
front and back
cover.
On the right page of
I added a small biography on I added Smartz twitter the booklet I added
the artist in the booklet as well page and company the track list again,
as a quote of the artist. This is website for with the producers
a convention found on many advertisement names under each
hip-hop album booklets. purposes. song.

17. I used the same
fonts as I did on
ADVERTISEMENT the CD covers so
the audience are
Putting a red able to link the
background under the two.
artist name and when
the album is out makes
it stand out and is what I added a small
the audience would image of the CD
focus on cover to have a link
to the actual music
and so the audience
I chose to use this image, would be able to
as the artist is striking a have that connection
similar pose which adds
synergy. The image is Adding the names
composed with him being of where the
central in the shot, and music in a banner
looking directly in the gives clear
camera, giving him an indication for the
authoritive look audience

18. (3)
What have you learnt from
your
audience feedback?

19. GAINING AUDIENCE
FEEDBACK
Audience feedback is very important as part of creating our media products, as we
need to know if our products would work and be sellable in a the market we are aiming
it at.
Quickest and easiest way to aim this information was to create a survey and ask
people we know from our target audience to answer the question, so the responses are
accurate.
We create a survey using www.surveymonkey.com, however it was not so
successful and we didn’t responses like that, so I simplified the questions and asked
people face to face.
To get the feedback I asked 6 people, in our target audience age range, to respond
to a selection of questions, after watching the music video, and looking at my CD cover
and booklet. Their opinion is what is most important. Feedback was mixed, which tells
us that there are some improvments we could have made, and things we could have
spent more time on as a group.

20. SOCIAL NETWORK & PROMOTING
MUSIC VIDEO
We uploaded our final music Other members in my
video onto the video sharing group choose to promote
website, YouTube. After on Facebook, uploading
uploading the video, clearly the video there to gain
we needed to promote it feedback. After several
some how so we could get months of the video
the word around about it. being up, we have had
Myself and another member nearly 600 views on it.
of the production team, This form of promoting
chose to use the social clearly proved successful.
network site, Twitter to We got a bit of feedback
promote, I tweeted a link to from comments that
the video, and tagged our viewers had left on the
artist in the actual post. He video on YouTube.
then retweeted the post to Although considering the
all his fans and followers, amount of views it got, I
which meant a very much would have expected
larger number of people more.
would have been able to
hear about the video.

21. QUESTION (1)
DO YOU LIKE THE VIDEO?
This chart shows that 4/6 of the
people we asked said that they did
4 like the video, and 2/6 said they did
3.5 not. I asked what is was that some
3 liked about the video, and they said
2.5
the locations, as well as different
2
effects in the clip.
1.5
I then asked those who said
they did not enjoy the video, why
1
that was, and they expressed that
0.5
they felt it was too dark in some
0
areas, as well as blurry at times.
YES NO

22. QUESTION (2)
 This chart shows us that a
Do you think the video is grand part of the group
representative of other Hip-
Hop music videos? felt that the video was
representative of other
YES Hip-hop music
NO
videos, which is a very
positive response, as it
 I asked what it was that they felt made the video
shows that are video
representative of other hip-hop videos, the response
followed the conventions
was that the urban looking location, as well as the
dissolving effect in clips, were factors that made the that were very much like
video like over hip-hop ones. well known videos.

23. QUESTION (3)
WHAT MUSIC CHANNELS DO YOU THINK
IT WOULD BE SHOWN ON?
I asked the group, out of these music channels, how likely is it that our music video
would be shown on them.
 Audience felt it
wouldn’t be  Audience stated that
that likely to  Audience said they they could see our
see our video  Audience said is felt the genre of the music video being
on this channel was highly song was grime, and played on this
as although it unlikely that our this music channel channel, as they play
broadcast RnB video would be wouldn’t play the videos from some
and Hip- shown on this video as they don’t unsigned act, also
hop, they are channel as our play music of this they play music
videos from artist is an genre. from all types of
more unsigned act. genres.
mainstream
well known
artists.

24. QUESTION (4)
The response to this was
Did you feel imagery match the
extremely positive, all members of the
lyrics? audience said that the imagery and
lyrics were very well match, one thing
they all picked up on was the news
clips at the beginning of the
video, which went well with the begin
of the track, which is a news report.
YES
100% NO
This proved to be a very successful
part of the video.

25. QUESTION (5)
This response was pretty
Does the video make disappointing, and in my opinion
you want to look into
other pieces of the extreme. When asking the reasoning
artists work? behind this, they explain that the song
itself would make them want to listen to
4
3 other songs by Smartz more than the
2 actual video. Others said that they don’t
1
know the artists, so they wouldn’t know
0
YES NO what other piece of work they would be
looking to find.

26. QUESTION (6)
WHAT IMPROVEMENTS COULD BE
MADE ON THE VIDEO?
Main improvments our audience pointed out that we could
make in for our music video
 LIGHTING: Majority responding that lighting was too dark throughout
the video, which made the video difficult to follow, although others stated
that they liked this fact about the video, as it gives the video edge and
keeps it looking authentic.
 BLUR: Some of the audience said that in parts of the video, the film
seemed a bit blurry, which makes it look a bit unprofessional, and that
could be improved by using different more advanced technology.
 LOCATION: Our audience felt we could have used more urban locations
when filming, as it would have gone well with the lyrics.

27. QUESTION (7)
The response from the audience was
Does the layout and
design of the CD cover mixed, those that said the CD booklet was like
& booklet remind you those of todays artist said it was because they felt
of those by todays
the layout seemed professional, and the same as
artists?
CD’s you would buy in shops.
Those that didn’t think the CD cover and
YES booklet was like those by other artists, stated it
NO was down to the design, being the photo editing as
well fonts and colours used, although the images
were taken with a professional camera, on a
planned photo-shoot.

28. (4)
How did you use new media technologies in
construction, research, planning and evaluation
stages?

29. RESEARCH
New media technologies, such as the internet, social networks, and
YouTube, were all things we used for during our research stages of creating this
product.
During the beginning stages of creating this product, the first thing
we had to do was research into different artists, to find one that we felt we
would like to work with and that had a song we would like to create a video
for. Luckily, someone in our group had a contact for our artists and after
looking at his work on YouTube, we felt he would be a good artist to use.
YouTube proved very necessary for our research. We used the site to look at
videos by artists from the genre Hip-Hop to gain ideas on what we could do
for our music video. Using internet sites, like Twitter also helped me gain an
understanding of what the artist was like, in terms of genre, and style.
Looking at his previous music videos also gave us an insight on his work, and
gave us ideas on what we could do for our own video.

30. PLANNING
When planning our music video, we didn’t use much technology, most
of the planning was done by writing ideas out for the video. We did
however use the internet to get ideas for location, and gain knowledge on
camera techniques for filming, as well as researching into music video
ideas via YouTube.
EVALUATION
To present the evaluation of me work, I choose to do it on a Power
Point presentation. To add to my evaluation I used images and logos that I got
from google.

31. CONSTRUCTION
When filming on site…
When constructing our music video, we used a film camera, Canon XM2, to
shoot the video, as well as using a tripod. This was the first time I had been involved in a
filming anything in this way, and I believe as a group we did quite well, we didn’t have
any problems filming, nor with the camera. Whilst filming, I used a Nikon D60 SLR
camera, to take photographs of the scenes to use for our CD cover and advert.
Filming took place over two days, first day we just filmed shots in central
London, around Westminster and Piccadilly Circus, this was done as in our video some
of the sequence does not have the artist in it.
Second day of filming we had the artist present and film him rapping to the
song, which he played on his iPhone at the same time, so as to sing in time of the actual
track which helps when editing the film.
The trouble with filming in such busy areas was that we weren't able to get some
shots we wanted, people would move away from us, as they thought they were getting in
the way when we actually quite wanted them in the shot, to add realness to the film.
We filmed at night, which gave us problems with lighting, as we weren't able to
take any lights with us.

32. CONSTRUCTION
When editing…
To edit the footage we filmed we used final cut pro, on a mac computer. This was the first time
any of us had edited using this software, and did find it a challenging process. We encountered some
problems with it, when saving the work, and did loose what we had done at times, and had to repeat the
edit, which made editing longer than anticipated. To edit, we had to log and capture all our clips from
filming, and also decide what shots to use and where to fit them in.
We made these decision by deciding where our visuals best match up with the lyrics of the
song, so that the film made sense to the audience. Syncing the music with the film was the hardest part
of the editing and took several hours, to get it just right.
Once we were comfortable with using the editing program we began to use fades, to fade in and
out of different clips. We also sped up some of the footage in one particular clip, to show the busy
streets of London.
In opening part of the song, we hear parts from news reports about the London riots, to keep
relevance, we used news footage from the time of the riots and collaged them together for the opening
of the music video.

33. CONSTRUCTION
When creating CD booklet and Advert…
To create my CD booklet, I used the
software, Photoshop. I have had a lot of previous
experience with Photoshop, so I found this process
quite simple. I manipulated the original photos
colours to begin with, then added text, that I had
got from a site called www.dafont.com , I used
different types of fonts, and added them onto my
work, after changing their size. I also used a
parental advisory sign, that I saved from Google
research, to add authenticity to the album, as rap
music is generally known to have taboo words and
subjects in them.