1. Andrew Jones

2. The Questions:
 1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
 2.)How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary
texts?
 3.)What have you learned from your audience feedback?
 4.)How did you use new media technologies in the construction and
research, planning, and evaluation stages?

3. Question 1: In what ways does
your media product
use, develop, or challenge forms
and conventions of real media
products?

4. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
1- Dreamers
2- When i was a youngster
3- Round up
4- Down with the trumpets
5- Demolition man
6- Prophet
7- Mama do the hump
8- Miss cigarette
9- Traveller’s chant
10- Stop with the chatter
11- Homewrecker
12- Trouble
13- Learn my lesson
14- Even on a rainy day
15- Perfect day
16- Garden
My music video does try to develop conventions of real
media texts. The song my group chose to do for our media
studies A2 coursework was Rizzle Kicks’ ‘When I was a
youngster’. The song came from the bands
album, ‘Stereotypical’. There are 16 tracks on the
album, When I was a youngster being track 2. The track
list of the album is as follows:

5. Stereotypical Album & conventions
After conducting research into Rizzle Kicks
album, Stereotypical, i found out that the album reached 5th
in the UK album charts, and 1st in the RnB album charts. The
album was released on 28th October 2011, and received
positive reviews. Being the duo’s first album release, it was a
success, and started to raise the profile of the band. The
bands conventions are shown throughout the album. The
album represents their upbringing from the early life, with
songs such as Dreamers, and When I Was A Youngster. The
songs focus on the early life, and what they wanted to be
when they were older. They always focus on how they have
made themselves proud, and the songs can be used as
inspiration for others. The album also focuses on the bad
points such as rainy day, and homewrecker, which symbolises
their struggle to the top, however the songs all focus on the
best points of their career even in the negative songs.
Link to Rizzle Kicks Dreamers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkr
O0ItjrvU
Link to Rizzle Kicks Homewrecker:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
uZAUCROM78A

6. Stereotypical Album & conventions
Rizzle Kicks’ Down With The Trumpets, has caused controversy
within the public as they are not sure what the meaning
behind down with the trumpets is. Some say the song is
about themselves, and introducing them as two
teenagers, and the trumpet signifying their love for music.
Another adaptation is the song is about the drug weed. The
lyric ‘lighter and rizla, baccy and filter’ has made some
question whether the song is about their hobby of smoking
weed. Obviously the pair could not use the word within the
lyrics as it is an illegal drug, and if they did it may restrict
their target audience. Another on of their songs Miss
Cigarette, links in with Down With The Trumpets, as the
girl/woman is used as a metaphor. The song is about the ‘girl’
who he really wants, but is bad for him in every single way.
Link to Down With The Trumpets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i
p8OsExLJs
Link to Miss Cigarette:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=YA_tBIOt8MY

7. Conventions to my groups chosen song:
The song we chose by Rizzle Kicks, ‘When I Was A Youngster’
was is a song about the pair reflecting on their childhood, and
the move to adulthood. The songs meaning behind the lyrics
is basic, and that is they had all the dreams of
being, Firemen, Police Officers, Firemen, and all the dreams
of a young child, but as they started to grow up, they couldn't
be bothered with it, and just gave up. For us to portray our
own adaptations of the song, we went for the meaning of
what we wanted to be when we were younger, to the
stereotypes of the modern world, which links in with the
albums title. In our ancillary tasks, of making the poster, and
album cover, we put theses stereotypes across, by on one side
having the stereotype of ourselves, and then what we are.
Link to When I Was A Youngster:
http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=Rc2iUwMpb8Y

8. Images from official music video similar to Images from our music
video:

9. The lip sync:
The lip sync in Rizzle Kicks official single for When I Was A Youngster, was used about 70% of the way
through the the video. In our music video, we have used lip syncing through about 50% of our music
video.
We open the first verse of the song by using lip sync with Darcy. The official music video also opens the
first verse with lip syncing. We believe lip syncing from the first verse gives a personal response to the
viewer. Lip syncing plays an important part in music videos and although we don’t use it as much as the
official one, it shows professionalism.

10. The Mis-en scene
The mis-en scene is an important part to play in music videos. The mis-en scene is the setting, props, and
clothing of the video. The mis-en scene is very important and has to be over exaggerated to give a clear
perspective of where the video is being recorded. Rizzle kicks use it to the best effect when filming at a
school playground.
The mis-en scene in the photo is used to its
full effect. The effect we are trying to
achieve is a school teacher teaching his
class. The use of the interactive
whiteboard, the pointer, the robe, and
glasses exaggerates the stereotype of a
teacher.
The mis-en scene used in the official video is them at
a park for children, and the use of the swings, and
activity ball in the background emphasises the park
element.

11. Levi Strauss – Media Theorists
Constant creation of conflict or opposition which propels narrative. The opposition can be
seen visually, such as black and white, or conceptual, such as love and hatred.
Our music video uses the the visual effects with the use of young and old, when we change
over from being children to adults as the scenes changes. The characters that change
from adults to children are the four main characters, which are the four group members.

12. Tzvetan Todorov – Media Theories
Tzvetan Todorov’s media theory was based from narrative theory, however he also added his own
interpretation of film texts.
His theory is split up into parts. The first part of his theory is, the fictional environment begins with a
state of equilibrium. His next part is that it then suffers disruption also known as disequilibrium. The
final part is that new equilibrium is produced at end of the narrative.
In my music video, Todorov’s theory is expressed by:
Equilibrium. The flashbacks to being a child and on the swings and imagining life in the future, as an
adult.
Disequilibrium. Being an adult again, and realising any hopes of being a childhood dream have faded.
New Equilbrium. The pair have done well for themselves by making it as musicians.

13. Intertextuality:
Intertextuality is the relationship between different sorts of
media technologies. Intertextuality exists within media
technologies and usually the audience are made aware of the
relationship as it will exist as part of the main part of scenes.
In rizzle kicks’ video they did not use any form of
intertextuality. In my music video we used two forms of
intertextuality. The first form was the interactive whiteboard
used for the teacher scene (the first picture on the left). The
second form of intertextuality was when I myself was using
an Apple Mac as seen in the second picture on the right.
Intertextuality is important as it shows a more modernised
way of portraying life, which our music video is doing.

14. Question 3: What have you
learned from Audience
feedback?

15. Audience research:
Audience research is an important technique needed when creating a
music video. The music video is being created by amateur
production teams, such as myself and my group. We needed to
determine where would be best to throw our product out there
and who too. Audience research, also known as target
audience, helps the distributor get an understanding of what the
public want. By using audience research you can estimate
views, and also preferences.
Prior to the creation of our music video, we decided to film a group of
sixth formers, to get an understanding of what they expect out of a
music video, and other questions such as if they would actually
watch an amateur music video. Audience research isn't just only
what you do well in, it is also a way of using critical analysis, to
make your creation better. By being able to accept what you do
right and wrong, it makes your product better in the long run. You
can conduct your audience research in a number of ways. The two
main ways are with a focus group, or a questionnaire. We had a
focus group, as well as a questionnaire.

16. The Questionnaire:
This was the questionnaire we made as a
group. The questionnaire asked the basic
questions at the start from how old are
you, and the gender, to more complex
questions such as what they expect from a
music video, and question 10, the most
important question. The tenth question
was the most important, because if they do
not watch music video remakes by A-Level
students, they would not be interested in
our production.

17. The Results:
Are they male or female?
Here we can see there
was a slight majority
in male volunteers.
How old are you?
In this analysis we can
see the majority of our
volunteers were aged
15-17.
What genre of music do you prefer?
In the result to the right, we can see most of our
audience prefer pop music.

18. Results (cont.)
What do you expect to see in a music video?
From the result to the left, we can see that the result
was close. The majority of the volunteers prefer
relation to lyrics within music videos, however in
closely in joint second, the volunteers also like
relation to music, the artist, and CGI.
The result from the left shows that most prefer
story lines to dance routines.

19. Results (cont.)
Do you watch mainstream or independent
videos? As you can see, most of the group watch
both mainstream and independent videos.
This enables us to target them as most will
watch an independent video.
Would you watch a mainstream remake
created by A-Level students?
Thankfully for us, the majority of our audience
would watch a remake of a mainstream video.
After conducting analysis into the questionnaire results, i have seen that the
results have been to our benefit. Most of what we predicted to use in our music
video, was approved of by the group. The benefit of using the audience research
was to our benefit though, as if we didn't use it, and was wrong, we wouldn't get
as many fans as possible.

20. Question 4: How did you use
media technologies in the
construction, research, and
planning stages?

21. Cameras:
Making all of my products, from the ancillary texts to the
actual music video, our group used one camera. The
camera we used is called ................................ The camera
is Francesca Sarno’s camera. We had the option of using
a camera the school was going to supply us with, however
after last year and the poor quality of them, we decided
using Francesca’s would only benefit our aim for a good
music video. The camera to the left was a similar one to
the one offered to us.
Francesca’s camera that we used can be seen to the left.
The camera is a professional camera, and i believe this gave
us a slight advantage over other groups. Another advantage
was that we did not have a time limit until we had to
return the camera.

22. Apple Mac’s
The software we used to create our product music
video was an Apple Mac. The Apple Mac’s are able
for use in school, however we need a teacher to
supervise us, and when studying for A-Levels, we
need to be flexible when editing, and making the
ancillary texts. Luckily for us, Francesca also has
an Apple Macbook Pro. We was able to use the
mac, and edit, as well as make the ancillary
texts, at any point of the week, whether it be a
weekend, or after school.
The software we used when on the Apple
Mac’s was IMovie. IMovie is a program
used on Apple products. It is a basic movie
making system for amateurs such as us.

23. Blogger:
When i started this year, and creating my portfolio for the
second year, I once again used Blogger. Blogger is a
webpage that allows anyone to blog for free, run via
Google. I used the blog to update everything that I
have done throughout the year, from filming dates, to
problems, to the finished article. My blog carries all
the research I have gathered, and any single idea I
may have thought off. I have benefited from the free
blogging website, as otherwise I would have to have
kept a written diary of everything. Keeping everything
on paper would have meant there would be no way to
back it up, unlike the internet.