1. Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
The music video is based on a multi-strand narrative that is established in the early shots of the
video, it is also very much non-linear featuring various short clips in a back and forth throughout the
video. This style of music video is not too common as far as the genre is concerned with many
dancehall music videos featuring either a performance or a strong direct narrative. This breaking of
conventions will go noticed by the fans of
dancehall music, but as this video is an attempt to
connect people who are unfamiliar to the genre,
the song itself is quite easy to dance to as it has a
generic sound that encourages the listener to get
involved. We emphasise this in the narrative of the
video as the studio DJ is seen dancing to the music.
In fact much of what was filmed in the party scene
at the start of the video was freely recorded with
the actors just improvising to the song, doing
what felt natural, this resulted in a far better
scene than the initial scripted one.
The video aims to provide a comical reading, there is an instance in the video that when we came to
plan we had to take into account how people would react. We dressed up an actor as Michael
Jackson and had him chase a young boy after rising
from behind a gravestone, as the scene was greatly
exaggerated we thought the viewer would
think of it as light-hearted fun when edited alongside the other short narratives in the video. The use

2. of comedy is also featured as a convention of Dancehall music but not as heavily as in our video in
which the comedy served as a way of introducing the genre to an audience that is unfamiliar with it.
For our video to follow all the common conventions of a Dancehall music video we would need many
women willing to dance in exotic, revealing clothing and for there to be a lot of sexual innuendo
throughout the video and implied in the lyrics. This however was not possible as there were no
women willing to dance in this nature without some form of payment.
Use of various camera shots kept the video conventional to the Dancehall genre, however as stated
before the rapid shifting between different scenes brakes the conventions of the linear narrative.
Although as the pace of the edit increases and decreases throughout the video it still keeps to a
relative constant with the pace only increasing whenever a shot of Red Bull, the studio DJ or the
performer comes up. The regular pace of the edit is also a convention in popular Dancehall. The
video sadly does not contain the before
mentioned exotic dancers as this would have
been far harder to organise and very expensive,
this sadly breaks one of the fundamental codes of
Dancehall but this once again goes toward
reinforcing that the purpose of the video is to
introduce the Dancehall genre to an unfamiliar
audience.
The intertextuality in the video goes as far as the
inclusion of Michael Jackson and the studio as
part of the narrative. The music video could be interpreted as a recording of the production process.
At the start of the video we see a party featuring some of the actors out of costume and there is also
the inclusion of the studio, DJ and recording artist in the music video. Taking all this into account the
diegesis created implies that the drinks rum and Red Bull are almost infectious and cause this level of
excitement to break out. All of the production crew is seen lively and dancing, and all the onset
actors break out into partying.
Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Throughout the video there are quick shots of extreme close-ups on the Red Bull can this goes
toward building the brand identity of the video. Although it is using an established brand to do so it
is necessary as this is the named product in the song, as there is
no branded rum in the lyrics the use of a Bacardi bottle is seen
in the party at the start. It was difficult to justify using a rum
bottle in our shots in public areas as we did not want to
encourage any drinking while in view of minors and it did not
seem necessary to as the drink that had to be emphasised was
the Red Bull. The other instance where a sense of brand identity
is built on is including the intended cameo appearance of
Michael Jackson. This tries to refer directly to Michael as there is
the whitened skin and the infamous hat and single white glove
synonymous with Michael Jackson. Using Michael also attempts
to force a connection for the audience making them think of the
song whenever presented with a reference to Michael Jackson.

3. The brand identity that is built up in the video follows through into the poster. It uses both a bull and
a rum keg in the corners of the poster as these are eye-catching from a distance and already carry
meaning for people viewing the poster. The rum keg sharing direct connotations with rum and the
bull is a clear reference to the Red Bull drink, which has gained far more interest over the years since
its establishment as an energy drink. It is now owner of a Formula One racing team and now hosts
the most prestigious of freestyle motocross competitions. There is now a very strong franchise
surrounding Red Bull and the music video can simply ride on the power the franchise has built as
long as it is associated to the company simply through use of the drink in the video and its reference
in the print products.
Also the central image of the poster is an image of the Michael Jackson character, this builds on the
same point, the people viewing the poster already understand the representation of Michael
Jackson and with this there is further reinforcement of the relationship between the music video and
Michael. I understand that there is a risk using Michael for this cameo appearance as there was
controversy when Eminem featured him in one of his music
videos with the same purpose to exaggerate his character.
However, I believe that our use of Michael would not cause
trouble as the likeliness is not accurate and the video does not
intend to cause controversy.
The same branding elements carry
through into the digipak, the use
of both the bull and the rum keg is
present throughout the digipack
on the inside cover and on the
sleeve found in the digipak case.
This functions as the branding element linking all of the products to
the music video concept. What else is used to create a very strong
brand are the background colours, they are commonly associated with
reggae style. Reggae is the root of Dancehall as it emerged as an
adaption of the original music style, this use of simple yet iconic
imagery conforms to the conventions of an independent company’s production. However this breaks
the conventions of the regular dancehall album cover which
would feature star power. The breaking of conventional digipak
construction is used to create
a relatively simple and widely
appealing digipak, this is
particularly important to reach
the large demographic that
the music video is targeting.
The digipak products do not

4. contain any intertextual references as this also conforms to the simplicity of the product.
Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From our audience profile we knew that there was a large number of male listeners that were aged
between 16 and 19 and were mostly into hip hop and R’n’B style music. We also tried to find out
other key information that would help to construct a music video. We found that the audience was
more interested with the star appeal in music videos which is reflective of the hip hop and R’n’B
genres. So we decided to go out on a risk and take on a wider demographic comprised of all teens
aged 16 to 19 that show an interest for hip hop and R’n’B, our song choice had to be appropriate to
the demographic so the generic sound of Rum and Red Bull seemed fit. We had discussed that
although none of us were actual fans of dancehall we had all heard and liked Rum and Red Bull
before. Also through studying the genre conventions we knew that a lot of modern Dancehall is a
fusion of Dancehall and either hip hop or R’n’B.
The video had to have a general appeal so that the whole of our demographic would be satisfied by
it, to do this we decided to make the video more comical than anything else, as a comedy it could
appeal the a broad sense of humour and work toward gaining the audience’s attention with more
peculiar scenes and placement of the shots. There
was no emphasis on gender or ethnicity so as not
to define who we are representing, we tried to
show off that the aspects of the music video may
be experiences that the audience are familiar with
when drinking or drunk, particularly the party at
the start of the video. The only thing stressed was
age and that all of the characters represented
were an age that met the demographics. We as
teenagers find that often you are most at ease
drinking with people your own age and are
generally a group of long time friends.
The position of our audience while watching the video is taken from afar, they are not immersed in
the scenes as whenever there is a transition we are shown a shot outside of the multi-strand
narrative, referring back to the studio or to close ups of rum and Red Bull.
This is done to show the audience the power of this song, when the studio is at work while the song
is being played on radio, people cannot help but get involved in the excitement.
The general feedback was very positive, our audience liked the music video and when asked about
how they feel on our take of the genre the reply was unanimous, all of them had enjoyed it but they
also admitted to not understanding conventional Dancehall. Many commented on what they had
liked in particular, with the most popular results being the party, the studio and the Michael Jackson

5. scene, from this I know that the emphasis on the comical side of the genre is a much easier way for
us to target our audience and the most efficient because the money spent on production of the
video was minimal.
In relation to the answering of the questionnaire I feel that many of the people who returned it
answered with the intent to please us. There was very little criticism of any of the products when
results were analysed, many agreed with the most desirable answer opting to say yes to video and
print product quality and professionalism. Our group understood that the quality of some shots in
the video were lacking but through editing we could play with these shots and construct a non-
linear, multi-strand narrative. That was another question answered quite poorly in the
questionnaire, most people said that they have never seen a dancehall video but when asked about
their likeliness to our twist on the genre everyone complied. To me this would suggest that many
people answered what they thought was expected of them, but it also give credibility to the video.
To resolve this problem in future I would administer the same questionnaire but have it more
structured and include a qualitative in-depth portion.
Finally considering the audience feedback to the professionalism of the end products I would choose
to appeal to a major record label. On the other hand, the choice of song reflective of the
demographic was our first risk taken, this suggests that as we have not appealed to a major fan base
selling the product would require heavy advertising, something that we could get with a major
record label but only with the promise of a
large pay off. Therefore I would choose an
independent label but make use of what was
described as the particularly comical features
like the Michael Jackson to advertise the
music video, this also provides the
intertextual reference that will attract some
fans. Also we would need to use the brand
identity built up through the Red Bull power
house and our own use of colours in the print
products to create some fan merchandise.
Q4. How did you use new media technologies in the research, planning,
construction and evaluation stages?
Media technology has helped greatly in all the stages of the coursework, from the start when we
were getting initial ideas ready we were using search engines like Google to do casual searches and
using Facebook simply for the ease in contacting each other. As the project moved on we began to
use these more in research, using refined searches in Google and Facebook in order to contact
interviewees for our audience research, email also proved useful in this for people we could not

6. contact through other means. General access to Microsoft office was a problem at the start as some
group members had compatibility issues with their software, this was eventually overcome.
During filming the technology really came into play with the use of our camera. One group member
was specifically given the job to learn all the functions on the camera and become the main camera
recorder. We were given an additional Senhauser gun mic for voice recordings, it did not receive
much use however as we only needed to record some sounds and one opening and closing
statement for the music video. We were also given access to spot and flood lights but these once
again received little use as the only scene that needed extra lighting was at the start of the video
when filmed at night. The fact that our group had access to a green screen room sparked many ideas
simply so that we would be able to use the room, sadly all our ideas were overreaching and would
break the flow of the video.
The technology continued to be of great value when we went on to editing. As we had access to
Final Cut Pro it made the whole process of working within windows very easy also our edit suite
setup was done for optimum visual and audio capacity. My only complaint with the editing suite
would be the need to use Apple, which I still find less user friendly to windows thankfully our group
had an expert in the use of Final Cut Pro who was there to perform the majority of the editing with
group members to oversee and dictate what needs editing. The other members and I were able to
use the program but were not as efficient as our editor.
Having access to Microsoft Publisher was necessary to design the poser and Adobe CS4 Photoshop
was necessary to produce the poster, both of which I had access to at home and at college so this
made the construction of the poster quite simple. There was no need to go out and shoot for an
image for my poster as there were already appropriate pictures taken from the filming. The fact that
I had access to Adobe CS4 Photoshop meant that I could quickly produce the intended poster as I
have had much experience using the program.
Finally there is the use of online technologies for the deliverance of the coursework in which we are
using a blogging website to publish the work and we also used a file sharing website to publish some
of our work. Some new discoveries were found when our group was informed that we could find
prepared backgrounds and their code online. So using one of those pre-coded backgrounds, we
applied it to make our blog unique to the rest of the Harrow College blogs.