Evaluation and Feecback of the Video

Rap and Hip Hop music video's often follow conventions of the genre's which work well with the style of the music. Many videos of this genre use short shots of up to around 2seconds with many cuts. This works extremely well with the beat of the music and the lyrics as they are often fast paced and exciting, keeping the video conventions relevant to those of the song. However, some music videos do not have a direct link to the lyrics, some are purely performance based and some are a mixture or performance and narrative. Tinie Tempah's video 'Pass Out' is a key example of a performance based video concentrating on the words of the song rather than what they mean through narrative. This video is shot in a dark room using a single spotlight in which the artists walk into the light and perform and then walk out of it when they are not, the lighting is the important effect in this video, creating the mood for the video.This is the example of the artists switching positions from singing to not singing.

Relying on lighting can be quite difficult but if it is done well it can look very effective, which is what my group and I were aiming to do. Many Rap/Hip Hop videos are filmed in places that you would expect to hear the type of music such as a club, neighbourhood or in the street. Our aim was to make an urban feeling video with a feeling of being in a club at times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzvGKas5RsU – 'Pass Out'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMGd3mAfl-0 - 'As We Enter'

These are some screen shots from the video 'Pass Out' illustrating how lighting is important to this video.

My video uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products in many ways. My video uses forms and conventions of Hip Hop as the costumes used are similar to other Hip Hop videos as well as the way in which the song is performed in quite an aggressive and dominant way. The importance of lighting in our video is another way in which it uses conventions of Hip Hop videos as this is key in many videos. An example of the costume and lighting is from the video 'Pass Out', here is a screen shot of it.

An example of the aggression and dominance is from the video 'As We Enter' by NAS and Damian Marley which is in the Hip Hop genre.

The use of the torches pointing at the camera is intimidating and conveys the males power as well as this image of Damien pointing right down the lens at the viewer.

However, my video mostly develops and challenges forms and conventions of Hip Hop music videos, as our idea is to challenge the stereotypes of this genre and make a point about them by switching the stereotypes around. Firstly the characters in my video are blonde, middle class, young woman which is very much the opposite of the norm in Hip Hop. Although the young woman are blonde which can be a stereotype in itself of the 'dumb blonde', they are representing all woman and how they can be just as powerful and dominant as men in Hip Hop. By putting the characters in male clothing my group and I are making a social comment on how Hip Hop and especially Wu-tang Clan tend to be sexist, we wanted to turn this around and make the public realise that they accept this stereotype all the time without realising. The fact that the characters lip sink to obvious male lyrics creates a comical humour but at the same time still gets our serious point across to the viewer. I feel my group and I have managed to reach our aims very well, working very hard together and on our own to complete this project.

I feel that my promotional pack project has been very effective in working as a package as well as all of the different elements working well on their own. I feel that my promotional pack suits the Hip Hop genre and the group Wu-tang Clan very well, using many different elements to make it work such as, colour schemes, layouts, images, costume and figure expression. When I compare my work to other promotional packages I feel that the different elements work very well together just like a real one. The digipak, advert and video all have an obvious connection and have continuity throughout which is vital when creating a promotional pack, the viewer needs to be able to make connections instantly looking at the different elements of the package. An example of a successful promotional package is when the video looks like the digipak, like this example of Florence and The Machine.

For audience feedback I have used the social networking site Facebook and created a group featuring my Promotional Package asking members of my target group to make comments on my work. I have also created a questionnaire asking my target group various questions about my Promotional Package such as 'Does it look professional?'. I have also interviewed and filmed a response from a member of my target group and a fan of Wu-tang Clan to hear his point of view.

I have learned a lot from feedback from my various different methods, I feel I have collected a good variety of different forms of feedback. I feel my feedback technique has been satisfactory but I feel if I had more time I would have been able to carry out more in depth research and feedback to find a much more accurate reflection from the artist's audience. Based on the comments and feedback I have had I feel I would probably have done questionnaires and asked for feedback earlier on in the process and then after receiving it I would make changes if I needed to and then re-do the questionnaires and asked for more feedback as I feel this would help me in the later decision process on choosing colour schemes etc. I have received mostly good feedback which I am very pleased with as I have worked very hard on my Promotional Package in all areas, I have found it a great challenge but an enjoyable one at that. I think that the feedback I have received is a good accurate portray of Wu-tang Clan's audience. This is the link to my Facebook grouphttp://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_164000423656748&ap=1 .

This is an example of the questionnaire I asked 10 people to complete.

This is the interview with a fan of Wu-tang Clan.

I used many different media technologies during the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of all of my products. I feel this has given me a great insight into the different sections of media production that are possible as well as given me confidence in using software or researching into a subject matter.

During the research and planning of my coursework I used the internet, music videos, music magazines, album covers and digipaks as sources to help me research into my idea as well as gain an insight into what is already in the media industry. I found this very helpful and inspiring which gave me a good starting point for my project.

In the construction of my project I used various media technologies such as Adobe Photoshop, which I had used before but using it to create an advert and a digipak was new to me and quite a challenge that I really enjoyed stepping up to, I feel I have managed to accomplish what I set out to do and I am very proud of myself for getting so far. When learning and practising shooting our music video we used XM2 cameras, tripods and learnt about using clapper boards and storyboards which are a few examples, we first re-created the video 'Teenage Dirtbag' as a whole class. We learnt how to do time-lapse filming which I found really interesting and thought it was a simple yet clever technique to use in a music video. We learnt how to use the auto and manual settings on the filming cameras which are very important in controlling what your footage looks like. I learnt how to change the white balance on the cameras as well as the exposure, adjusting the focus manually and practising hand-held and tripod mounted filming.

When we shot our own music video's in my case Wu-tang Clan we learnt about production filming and practised it, for our video we shot in wide-screen (16:9 ratio) as we felt this would have a more professional look to it. We used eye line matches in many of our shots to make sure the viewer was engaged in the video as if the subject was addressing the audience as well as using close up shots to give the audience the impression of being close to the performers. We also filmed many cutaways to give us creative options when editing.

When shooting the 'Teenage Dirtbag' video we were shown how to use a clapper-board which is very important in the editing process in working out what footage is what as well as learning how to use a shooting script to monitor the result of our filming as we went on. As well as being behind the camera I learnt skills in being a good director by using words such as 'Speed', 'Action' and 'Cut' which are communicative words between the director, camera operator and the actors, enabling the shoot to go smoothly as well as learning to liaise with the camera operator to check if the footage is of high quality or if we needed to do another take.

In the post production- editing stages of my project I learnt to work on the programme Final Cut Express, which I found a great challenge but I really enjoyed learning how to edit. When we got started on our editing we set the project settings to PAL. This is the European editing standard which means in this part of the world we shoot, edit and watch programmes at 24 frames per second. In other parts of the world such as America NTSC is used which is 29 frames per second, if we had got this setting wrong we would have experienced problems when capturing back the footage. As we were digital editing it meant that it was non-linear, which means that unlike traditional editing with film, you can structure a sequence in any way you like, changing the order of the clips with ease. This allows much more freedom and fluidity when editing as you can build a sequence in stages.

Once we had set up the project correctly on Final Cut Express, the next stage was to capture the footage back onto the computer and file it away ready to use, this is called 'log and capture'. To do this we connected the Mac computer to the camera using a 'firewire' cable. We then played the footage back and at the same time, using 'Timecode', transferred it to the computer. 'Timecode' is a unique number for each frame of the film that we shot.

When editing we were advised to have 3 stages: 1 being the 'Assembly edit' which is a rough version where we select all the good footage from all of the tapes and place them roughly in order on the Final Cut timeline. 2 being a 'Rough edit' which is when you cut all of the clips together to create a smooth flow and synch it in with the soundtrack. The rough draft should show how the edit echoes the tempo of the track. 3 being 'The Final Cut' when you add any effects or graphics. It is always better to do this at the end as it is quite time consuming.

To conclude, I feel I have gained a lot of experience behind the camera, as a director and I have experienced what it can be like to be the actor. I have enjoyed shooting and directing the video the most as well as editing it all together to create a finished product. I am very proud of myself and my group for creating a music video out of scratch. I am very pleased with how my Promotional Package has turned out. If I had more time I would add to the music video as I feel we had to rush towards the end of editing as we ran out of time. I would add a more varied background instead of just the green screen although I do feel that the bright colour compliments the genre and idea for the video. I would also add some more cuts to go with the beats of the music. Other than that I am very happy with my outcome.