Evaluation Question 1

Production Log (Editing Ancillary Tasks)

Are you on schedule?

I may be slightly behind in regards to my ancillary tasks, this is due to the fact excessive amounts of time have to be spent on 4 pieces of heavily edited pieces, which isn't a quick task. I have collected an appropriate image for my front cover which I have begun and almost finished editing. I have chosen to add lots of effects and have an artistic approach to the editing of my design, changing many aspects of my chosen picture in order to give it a more colourful and outstanding aesthetic.

How is it going?

I am enjoying the process of editing my digipak and poster and I am trying to work quickly, whilst maintaining a high standard. I have had experience with the software I am using so it is possible for me to complete my work fairly quickly.

What are the difficulties?

Difficulties arise when trying to get accuracy in filling colour spots in my design. Often times I will accidently fill in a portion of my digipak in a colour I didn't want, causing me to undo my mistakes frequently.

What programme are you using?

The programme I am using is Adobe Photoshop. As I mentioned, I have had a fair amount of experience using the software in the past, which allows me to navigate it quite easily and to complete my work faster that if I had not used it.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of this programme?

The advantages that come with the programme are that you are able to create many layers to your work, allowing more detail and precision to be added to your work, finishing with a high quality piece of work. The software also allows for a range of effects to be added to your work, ensuring the user is given everything needed for editing the image in the way desired. Some disadvantages are complex editing techniques and amount of tools that are able to be used. I am often trying to find a tool which can be used for the effect that I want, searching through the large number of effect appliers.

Font choices? Where did you get them? Why have you chosen them?

The font choices for my designs have been taken from DaFont.com. This website offers a huge range of fonts to chose from and download, with headings for the style of font the user wishes to search for. For example there are categories for "Sci-Fi", Graffiti", etc. The site also allows for sample texts to be seen in the desired font also, so I am able to preview which font will suite my tasks text the best.

Production Log (Editing)

Are you on schedule?

In regards to our editing, we may be slightly behind as it has taken longer than expected to get all of the footage. Rather than acquire all of the footage first hand then edit, we have done editing piece by piece, leaving small gaps for footage to be placed in.

How is it going? 

The editing we have been completing so far has been up to standard and has been joined together nicely with effective transitions which makes the video flow. The black and white effect spoken about in planning has been used in the clips we have and looks good in my opinion. The slowing down of footage as an effect has been used for a scene where the "black man" character throws money up into the air and it fits conventions of a rap video and the slow motion effect improves it greatly.

What are the difficulties?

The primary difficulties we faced during editing came when we started to add effects and get all of our footage synced up to the music. The process was more lengthily than difficult and it consumed a lot of our time when turning all our footage into black and white and matching up the acting to the music. We did have a few disagreements within our group with how to edit also which created difficulties, however we overcame them and ended with a music video we all agreed was good.

What programme are you using?   

Our editing process is taking place within our school using the Adobe Premiere Pro software in order to complete our final music video with editing.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of this programme?

One member of my group is familiar with the programme and has used it for a similar purpose. This will shorten our time when editing and is advantageous to us as the software is relatively simple anyway. Some disadvantages of this programme were the limitations of effects an transitions. We were looking for a specific transition for our film which was a letterbox style opening to change scenes or even start the music video, however this was not available within the software.

Audience Feedback- Costumes

In obtaining feedback from audiences in regards to the costumes within our music video, I have created a questionnaire to be filled out by my target market of teenagers. The questions I wanted answered in order to find out the audiences opinions were; "Do you think our choice of costumes match the culture the characters represent?", "Do you think the artists costume fits within my genre?" and "Is the costume worn by the artist something you would consider wearing?"

Here is what the questions look like in questionnaire format:

I carefully chose these questions in order to gain helpful feedback from my target audience in the effectiveness and suitability of costumes in my music video. I will have approximately 15 people answer my questionnaire, which is a sufficient number for gaining the majority's feedback.


Question 1 Results-
14-YES         1-NO

The concluding results were counted with the majority agreeing with the fact the choice of costumes were well chosen and suited the cultures they were representing. One quote in favour of the costumes match the cultures stated "The costumes look like the people from the cultures would ware them". This cements the fact the costumes are effective within the music video. The one negative comment received was in regards to the "shoes worn by the Asian character". I can understand why this comment has been made, as the characters foot ware was relatively modern in relation to the rest of the outfit. 

Question 2 Results-
15-YES      0-NO
It is certain that the costume choice for our artist within the music video represented the character as part of the rap genre, which is exactly the effect we were aiming to achieve in order to make our video more suited within the rap genre. The bomber jacket, jeans and chain were paramount to the success of this costume and it is proven to work by the feedback.


Question 3 Results 
11-YES      4-NO
The votes were more split on this question as not as many people may relate to attire shown within the rap genre. However, the majority still voted that they would ware this costume, meaning the goal of targeting our audience worked as planned.

Audience Feedback- Poster

In obtaining feedback from audiences in regards to the poster used to promote our music video, I have created a questionnaire to be filled out by my target market of teenagers. The questions I wanted answered in order to find out the audiences opinions were; "Do you think my poster fits into the rap genre?", "Do you think my poster is conventional and has conventional aspects of the genre?", "Does the poster hold a meaning in your opinion?" and lastly "Would you be inclined to look up my artists album after seeing the poster advertisement?"



Here is what the questions look like in questionnaire format:

Question 1 Results-
14-YES        1-NO
The positive feedback allows me to evaluate the effectiveness of my poster advert and leads me to the conclusion that it is effective. From the fact 14/15 people said my poster fits in the rap genre, I can tell I have done a good job of appropriating my poster to the correct genre. My album would also get the correct recognition from audiences who are interested in the rap genre, causing more publicity for my artist and his album.


Question 2 Results-
13-YES      2-NO
Less agreed on my second question, with 2 opting that my poster didn't use conventional aspects in the rap genre. I feel this is due to the fact my artists face is not clearly on display, which ties in with the ideology of rappers being very charismatic. My approach followed more along with the crime associated side of the rap genre, showing my artist being in the process of an arrest. This seemed to work as the majority voted yes on this question.

Question 3 Results-
14-YES      1-NO
14 of the 15 people asked stated that they saw the meaning within the poster advert. Whilst creating the piece I tried to incorporate a meaning as if the poster was telling a story, with the artist being arrested. This technique would help in advertisement as the audience would want to get the album to see how the message and story plays out.

Question 4 Results-
14-YES       1-NO
Question 3 and 4 link to each other in that the message and story told within my poster advert seemed lead my audience into hypothetically viewing my artists album after seeing the poster.

Audience Feedback- Digipak

In obtaining feedback from audiences in regards to the digipak used to promote our music video, I have created a questionnaire to be filled out by my target market of teenagers. The questions I wanted answered in order to find out the audiences opinions were; "Do you think my digipak fits within the rap genre?", "Do you think my digipak follows convention of rap CD cases and discs?", "Do you believe that my digipak holds a certain meaning?" and lastly "Would you pick up the digipak if you saw it in a shop?"

Here is what the questions look like in questionnaire format:
Question 1 Results
15-YES   0-NO
With my inclusion of worn out writing, forest/urban locations, etc. I have tried to appropriate my digipak with the rap genre, which recipients of the questionnaire seem to agree with according to the results.

Question 2 Results
12-YES   3-NO
With this question, I wanted to see if my digipak fit into peoples ideas as a rap album, through comparing it to conventional aspects in other rap albums. People seem to agree with the fact I have included conventional aspects within my digipak with my artist being the focus of the album and being displayed in many places.

Question 3 Results
12-YES   3-NO
By asking my audience if my digipak holds a certain meaning, I am checking to see if my imagery placed onto my album speaks to my target audience, and also portrays a message that they can understand. From my feedback, I can tell that the digipak has a message my target can understand making my album art more effective.

Question 4 Results
14-YES   1-NO
My last questions relates to the sales of my album and how attractive I have made it. The majority of people asked mentioned that they would in fact pick up my digipak to view in stores.

Audience Feedback- Editing

In obtaining feedback from audiences in regards to the editing within our music video, I have created a questionnaire to be filled out by my target market of teenagers. The questions I wanted answered in order to find out the audiences opinions were; "Do you think our editing within our music video is appropriate for our genre?", "Do you think the editing for the music video appeals to you?" and "Do you feel the editing within the music video conveys a certain meaning?"


Here is what the questions look like in questionnaire format:

Do you think our editing within our music video is appropriate for our genre?

Yes               No

Do you think the editing for the music video appeals to you?

Yes                  No

Do you feel the editing within the music video conveys a certain meaning?

Yes                      No

Question 1 Results-
15- YES        0-NO
This overall positive feedback tells me that the effects, transitions, etc. used within our video were received well. The cuts placed in time with the beat and a black/white filter was used just to name a few. This was taken from our similar texts videos, where we looked at other rap videos we could take inspiration from, which seemed to pay off.

Question 2 Results
15-YES       0-NO
A main focus for us within our music video was the editing, and it took a large amount of time in order to achieve our final music video. The recipients of the questionnaire seemed to enjoy the editing as all the answers were "yes".

Question 3 Results
14-YES     1-NO
Our original idea behind making the video black and white was that it would negate colour which related to the songs lyrics and stopped us judging the characters by their skin colour. This may have resonated within our target audience as the majority of feedback was positive.

Audience Feedback- Mise en Scene

In obtaining feedback from audiences in regards to the mise en scene within our music video, I have created a questionnaire to be filled out by my target market of teenagers. The questions I wanted answered in order to find out the audiences opinions were; "Do you feel the mise en scene within our music video fits within the rap genre?", "Does the mise en scene of the music video create a meaning?" and "Does the mise en scene of the music video please you as a viewer?"


Here is what the questions look like in questionnaire format:

Do you feel the mise en scene in our music video fits within the rap genre?

Yes                               No

What meaning do you feel the mise en scene of the music video create?

Yes                           No

Does the mise en scene of the music video please you as the viewer?

Yes                               No

Question 1 Results
15-YES       0-NO
It seems the inclusion of stereotypical props and settings for the rap genre, such as guns, chains, money and streets has lead to the positive feedback given by our recipients. These are often seen in other rap videos and are seen as ideologies.

Question 2 Results
13-YES      2-NO
The immediate results from the question show that people do feel the mise en scene has meaning within our video, as the majority circled yes on the questionnaire. Everything within the frames of our music video adds towards the meaning or our music video, which people seem to comprehend.

Question 3 Results
13-YES    2-NO
I can view these results positively as the majority of the people viewed as my target market agree that my mise en scene is appealing to them as they watch the video.

Rough Cut of Music Video (Draft 1)

A2 Media Music Video I Kendrick Lamar - Untitled 3 from Diego Nuccio on Vimeo.

Production Log (Filming)

How did it go?

The filming process for our music video dragged on longer than we had anticipated. As we began our planning during the holidays, we faced difficulties when we realised that people in our would be alternating when they weren't available due to holidays, being busy, etc. other than the timing issues with one and other, the actual filming process could of gone slightly better with the preparation of people in the group being sub standard, however we finished with footage and recordings we were proud to use in our final music video.

Did you change anything from your planning?

We primarily stuck to our planning from our blog posts such as lyrics planning, character models and storyboard planning as we thought that if we were to change any of those elements, we would not get the same effect we wanted from our music video. We tried to stick with what we planned to minimize time taken filming too as if we were changing things around we would be less productive and take longer when going out to film.

What were the difficulties?

The primary difficulties we faced when beginning to film were the organising of multiple people as I began to state in the first paragraph. Trying to co-ordinate our actors and group proved difficult, as communication through a group chat meant at times, not everyone saw a message and were left confused as to what was going on. The main problems were down to human error in organising and not within the filming process itself. The camera at times did prove to be an obstacle as the SD card we used to begin with was not large enough to deal with the camera we were using and meant it stopped recording after certain period. This stopped being a problem when we got another SD card.
 

Equipment

Equipment 

The camera that we will capture all of our footage on is the Canon 600d. This is the most important piece of equipment, as without it we would not be able to get high quality footage with better angles and movement. We plan to have tests with the camera and try to film and get used to the camera before we actually do our music video filming. This will allow us to get familiar with the functions of the camera, making filming quicker and allow us to get the best shots.

The next piece of equipment that we will use is a tripod. The function of a tripod is to hold the camera as still as possible in a fixed position. This is essential for filming a scene with no movement as if we were to just hold the camera, the filming would be shaky and look unprofessional. The tripod also allows for pan movement with the handle shown on the side, which is useful to get a smooth camera movement from left to right whilst it is at one height.  

The piece of equipment that I plan to edit and do most of my blog posts on will be the Apple iMac. This piece of equipment is readily available to me as the school has a suite full of the computer. This will allow me to easily complete blog tasks that require PowerPoint or a lot of typing. I have had experience with Mac's in the past, as my AS Media tasks were completed using the same device.

 

Costumes

Costumes

The costumes for our music video have to be planned out before we go out to film our video. We have many characters which need suiting costumes as they are all main characters, which are shown as certain cultures. For us it is important to get the costumes specific to each culture and accurate, as the audience will pick faults with the costumes if they aren't accurate. It is important to pre plan the costumes before we go out and film as we will need to bring appropriate costumes with us to film.

The first character that the costume will need to be planned for is the Asian character. Our initial ideas for this characters costume is a traditional Chinese style costume, such as a robe. This way, the character gets a traditional look to compliment the subject matter of the rap, talking of traditional Asian views. This keeps the audience in the music video as they wont pick apart the errors within the characters and costume, and will piece the character, costume and lyrics together.

For the Indian character the costume chosen will follow more modern ideals of Indian clothing, as shown in the picture. This costume will make audiences see that the Indian character is more traditional, as also stated in the lyrics of the song, and uses more stereotypical ways of getting the audience to see this through costume.

For the next character, "the black man", there is a clear persona that we need to uphold, and this can be done through the characters wardrobe. A stereotypical rapper will wear stylish and expensive garments, to show that they are wealthy and get paid. This is also shown through the wearing of chains and jewellery. These things will be worn by our black man character. The attire also is more fitting to our target audience of teens, with clothing such as bomber jackets, hoodies and jeans being a common outfit worn by teens. This makes our main artist and protagonist more relatable for the audience, as they identify with the character more through costume.

The white man character is going to be represented as the antagonist within our music video. With this, his costume is a contradiction of sorts to the main character of the black man character. Often with our target audience of teenagers, they seem to view older business men as villainous in society, which is exploited through out casting and costume choice of a suit, something not many teens can relate to wearing. In turn, this causes the audience to view the white man character a negative in our music video, through his costume.

Props

Props

Another factor we need to take into account when planning our music video is the props that we need. Props are a part of mise en scene and are needed in creating a more authentic scene. In this task I will be listing the props we will use for our music video. This will help us as by planning in advance we will know what to bring to each filming session and will no waste time searching for props.

A convention in the rap genre is the artist showing their wealth through possessions or physically showing the money they own. Often times the money in the video is thrown around and not looked after to give he illusion the rapper has so much money that it doesn't matter. For parts in our video where this happens, we will use printed money, like an image of money on paper. For the close of money we will use real money as it is easy to tell money is fake close up.

The inclusion of jewellery in our music video also adds to the illusion that the artist in our video is wealthy, as it is common knowledge that chains are an expensive item. This allows us to get the message across that our artist is wealthy and powerful- a convention in the rap genre, without stating it outright.

The inclusion of a prop gun in our music video will validate the area of the song where the subject matter shifts to another culture. A key element of rap videos is the protagonist being portrayed as powerful. A gun is a symbol of power as it has the ability to take a life in an instant and anyone with a gun is immediately made more powerful just by having one.

Within the rap genre, there are many videos which include cars, this is another attempt to show the wealth of an artist and in turn, his power. With our artist, he is a young man, so the use of a car makes him look even more impressive as it is rare to be young and own a car.

Locations

Location

It is important to plan out our locations for filming in our case as this will save valuable filming time. This will allow us to quickly go out to our planned locations and not waist time searching for a good location. We have several scenes that need to be in varying places and require very different settings.

Setting 1

Our first setting I have decided is within a house. The house we will be using for the filming belongs to the parents of Diego Nuccio who is also in our group for the filming. This will be used for all of the indoor filming as we have access to it almost at all times and it is closest to all our group members. It also possesses the aesthetics needed for the scenes where the "black man" character is being chased by the "white man" character. It gives the feeling of invasion of privacy where we will have the white man enter the house of the black man and try to force his ideals upon him like the song depicts.

Setting 2

The next planned setting we have chosen will be for one of our outdoor settings. We need an urban looking area in order to accompany a section for the verse of the black man. The urban environment links to the modern ideals spoken about in the song. There is an ideal setting, including graffiti and brick work to add to the urban feel of the setting. It is relatively close to the first setting also so it will minimise the time for moving from scene to scene. Our audience of teens can relate to locations such as these, and will see our main protagonist situated in this location, and form a bond with him as they can relate to the location he is in.

Setting 3

The third setting is a more grassy scene, however it still upholds the urban feel with the inclusion of houses and garages within the background. This setting fits within a section of our video where in the black man character references a jungle. This is a sort of visual representation that still links to the subject matter and an urban rap song. 

Setting 4

There will need to be some scenes shot in a field or grassy and agricultural looking area. The area will be needed for the majority of the Indian characters verse as his message in the song is in reference to the value of land. This is easy to come by in my area and can be done in a selection of places, such as Russell Park, Bedford Park, Priory Marina, etc. 

Casting/Actors

Casting and actors

It is important to plan out the actors who will appear in our music video and extras for the filming. This will make the filming an planning of the whole easier as the actors will know their parts and will be prepared for the role. The casting of the roles before filming will also allow the actors time to learn their parts for lip syncing. It is also a good idea to pick specific people appropriate for the roles in the music video, especially for the music video we have chosen. With the specific lyrics referring to certain cultures such as Asian, black and white it is essential that the roles of each character are filled properly by actors with the right criteria for the role.

The role of the Asian character will be played by Hakeem Hussain. He fits this role aesthetically as he has an Asian appearance and can be used as an actor to fill the role of the Asian characters lip syncing roles. This will make the audience more immersed in the music video as they wont be picking faults with the video.

The role of the Indian character will be played by Gurpreet Shubh. Being from Indian decent, he is perfect for the role of the Indian character. His character will be a more traditional Indian character. It is important to include relevant actors in certain roles for continuity and to keep the audience focused on the story of the music video.

The role of the 'black man' will be played by Kyle Bell. He fits this role as he possesses the looks that we need for this role. His character will be a rapper type character, with generic hip hop personality traits, such as charisma and a tough demeanour. He will be the protagonist of sorts, and will need to be portrayed as likable and relatable to the audience.

The role of the 'white man' will be played by Diego Nuccio. The character he is playing is a dominant person and will be representing a corporate businessman like person. He has a fitting appearance for this role. He will be shown as an antagonist as such, trying to profit off of the black mans earnings. This will mean his acting and scenes will need to portray elements which show him as bad to the audience, with angry facial expressions and low camera angles to get the effect that he is more powerful than the audience and they should be weary of this character.