Time Evaluation (REECE)

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
After analysing professional products from similar artists to ours, it became clear what type of product/video we were going to have to generate. Most videos were very visual and had a lot of significant objects and images which related to the lyrics. With this in mind, it seems like we have created a very good product for the genre we were given. In the video the artist makes references to many things in the lyrics and we definitely managed to portray this visually.
We used Goodwins Theory to try to produce a very effective music video. One of the points in the theory is to establish a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics - which we already have done because this was a convention of the genre music video also. We did manage to create a relationship between the visuals and music as well. We created a well paced video with the shot duration working with the beat of the music to make sure it was fluid and engaging. The video didn't become boring or repetitive because we used a variety of shots and continuously changed the shots with different locations. I feel the audience would've been expecting the shots to change on the beat of the song, and it could've looked strange and out of place if the shots didn't change regularly with the song. I feel the mise-en-scene did suit our genre well (rap/old school hip-hop). For costume we used basketball tees, flat caps, baggy tracksuit bottoms and hoodies which we felt the audience would associate with our genre and so they would understand where the artist is from. Obviously the location and props helped with this portrayal. The urban locations such as a skate park, basketball court, alleyways and deserted car parks we felt would add a great feel to what we were trying to show the audience and defiantly developed the conventions of old school American hip hop and rap.
Lastly, after research into similar products, it seemed that the artists had to put in real emotion when rapping the song and it would need a lot of close up shots to show this to the audience. We did show this convention throughout our video as we felt that it would enhance our product and the audience would recognise this as a rap video because of it.

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The three products we have created definitely combine to become a great set of products to advertise and promote the artist we chose. We felt that we should use and ongoing theme throughout our products and we felt it suitable to choose the theme of basketball - which we felt would be the most iconic choice. I think that because it is such a big game out in America and we wanted to show that the artist was perhaps living in an urban part of the USA, it was a very wise choice to use basketball. The song is also about the lives of children and I feel that many young children enjoy basketball as a hobby in the US. The basketball we used in the video had very strong colours (red, blue, white) and therefore it was also another great reason to use the ball with our products. 
The basketball was used for our magazine advert and I felt it was a great iconic object to use to communicate the colours relating to the artist we were promoting. I think after the audience had seen the advert, they would instantly recognise the digipak or music video to be Kyle Rapp's video because of the strong colours and image (this could obviously work the other way around too). The basketball was also used throughout all our products which should stimulate some links between products produced. The digipak we created used separate photos from a private photo shoot, however we did try to create the same mise-en-scene from parts of the music video. We used a shot from the basketball court with the artist in costume, however we decided it was not necessary to show the face of the artist. The iconic location, colours and ball should be recognised from other products that it was this artist's product. We also did extensive research into similar cover's of artists and we did find that not many had a close up of a face of an artist or even references to the artist. The back cover we felt needed to be something different and I think that it really looks effective - using the iconic costume and props from the video really meant that there was no need for any other references to the artist.

3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I feel our initial pitch hasn't changed that much from our final product we created, however the changes we did implement were down the audience feedback we received.
At our pitch we did initially have the idea of filming the artist constantly walking and rapping, and the feedback of the audience was good for this idea - however they were concerned it would get repetitive and slightly boring. The response of adding cutaways throughout the music video (which is a convention used in most videos) was taken on board and we hadn't thought about it until then. This was very usual for the production stages of our product as we knew we had to make sure we filmed other shots with little or no lip syncing in it. The audience approved of our locations, costumes, props and general theme that ran through all our products and felt it would attract the target market we were aiming at (16 - 25 year old males). With this feedback taken into consideration we went ahead with our initial idea from the pitch.
After producing a rough cut, we then received more feedback from peers and teachers to get an idea of what we needed to add to make our video more appealing and professional. The audience were happy with our start, but felt that there was little rapping and walking that we talked about in our pitch and that the performance from the second artist was not great compared to the first artists performance and lip-syncing. Again many enjoyed the concept of the video and liked the mise-en-scene and editing we had done in the rough cut. One issue raised was that there was a lack of different scenes and locations - we did 2 main locations and used a few other ones once or twice. It was felt by some that there should be another good location to regularly use throughout the video. We took this on board on our next shoot and managed to get lots of shots in a deserted car park. Although the majority of our peers enjoyed our video and were engaged throughout, it was also criticised that there was a lack of cutaways from the performances. We had obviously felt that we'd done enough, however compared to more professional pieces we research, there was still a lot of cutaways we couldve added. We listened to the feedback again and shot more cutaway in our second shoot.
After the final product was nearly finished, we were given more feedback which was to add colour filters and colour correctors to our film to give the video a neat and professional look. We did this and it certainly did make the video look more like a video and less like lots of shots edited together.
Overall many liked the final cut of our video we produced. Our peers were happy that we had improved the second artist's perfomance, produced a lot more cutaways and edited the video to give it a better feel. Because some of the feedback was coming directly from the target market we were aiming at, it was definately worthwhile to listen to the comments and correct the parts they felt needed to be done. Without this great feedback our video would of definately not have been as good as was when we finally produced it all.

4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Throughout all of the stages of creating our products we used media technologies. One of the most important parts of our production was the research we did to make sure our product was industry standard. The internet allowed us to search and find videos from the same genre and with the same theme as us, as well as mise-en-scene research and possible locations. Without this we wouldve been very unprepared for the planning and construction stages of our project.
When constructing the video we used a great variety of media technologies. The HD video camera we used for our filming was easy to use and provided us with excellent picture quality and attention to detail.  We used a tripod for the video camera to make sure the shots we produced were steady and level throughout - if we didnt use one then it couldve made the whole product look poor and unprofessional. We also used a dolly for some of the moving and rapping shots, however we definately felt that the picture quality was effected when we did this. Because of the uneven surfaces on the basketball courts, the shot was quite bumpy and blurred when we used the dolly. This meant that for the other walking and rapping shots, we chose to go handheld - obviously this was a dangerous choice but with a steady hand and good communication we managed to pull off a more effective shot.
Final Cut Express was the program we used to bring all our footage together and to edit each piece into place. The program allowed us to edit with mili-seconds of the lyrics, and it was easy to swap and change shots if we wanted. We worked in layers with out shots, so that each synced piece of footage ran under each other simultaneously, meaning we could choose which piece of footage worked best for a certain part of the song. This was really helpful and meant that editing was smoother and simpler than it couldve been if we didnt use this technique. We were also able to add colour filters and colour correct our footage to add a greater effect and look to our project - this was reccomended by feedback we collected and it definately did enhance our product.
We used photoshop to create our ancillary products and the program meant that we could add 3D effects to object and brighten up the colours in our photos to create a more vivid image. The photos instantly became more appealing and noticable, which was important for the magazine advertisment imparticular.
Blogger was very important throughout our project as it allowed the whole group to constantly update and plan the work ahead. We could conduct research, post it on the blog and everyone else in the group could read and use this research to help with the construction of ideas. It allowed communication between the group members, which resulted in a more efficent and effecitive construction and production of the products.