Question 1 -In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In
the brief it was stated that we had to create a three piece promotional package
to construct or build upon a meta-narrative for an existing artist. This
included making a music video for a
single currently without one, a digipak for an album, and a magazine advert for
said album.
Throughout
the project we used conformities of the genre as a foundation for development
and more complex meanings – as to fit the image of Hawk House as a collective
themselves. They use the conventions and common scenarios of hip hop music but
not to illustrate their expected aggression. Instead, social issues are touched
upon and authentic artistic integrity explored – looking more into how people
can grow out of the bad situations they are in as opposed to be angry in them and
do nothing. This is a main theme that we intended to showcase throughout each
product in slightly different manners, using typical signifiers and providing
them with a completely polarized meaning by placing them parallel to almost
contradictory connoting signs – as to challenge common ideologies and codes. Each
aspect of our promotional package are intended to feel very real, believable,
and gritty. Because of this, we avoided any visual effects other than slow
motion – and even then that is to raise significance and understanding of those
shots in particular. We felt if we used any elaborate effects then it would
detract from the realism of our piece and make it simply less believable and
gritty. We ensured costume and location was consistent within our three media
products, and that our locations (which implied urban council housing,
associated typically with the working class) were representative and adherent
to the genre as a whole.
VIDEO
In
our music video we conformed to a few aspects of the umbrella genre of Hip
Hop. For example, it contained quite a
heavy aspect of performance, with the depicted artist using a first person mode
of address in lip syncing straight to the camera. This influences the audience
in creating a more emotional link with the artist, and it heightens the sense
of authenticity in what they are saying. We also used very similar styles of shot and
locations in our artist’s performance – for example the artist walking towards camera in an
underpass used in our piece and one of our inspirational pieces below (P Money – Slang Like This). We used a
range of shots in showing our artist’s performance – varying distance from
medium long shots to close ups, this is also conforming to the norms of the
genre, with (Professor Green – Upper
Clapton Dance) demonstrating a similar range of shots of lip syncing, and also cap. Whilst the genre also includes some videos
with loose narratives – as seen in the above videos, the way in which we
depicted a story line very literally to the lyrics is very rare. There was a
direct link between lyrics and visuals, and whilst some signs were ambiguous,
when put together it is very obvious. We filmed fairly close to the characters
in order to suggest you are looking in on their lives, and seeing a true,
verisimilitudistic response; although, some distance was maintained as to not
evoke sympathy as such – we weren’t intent on positioning you with the
characters as such. We included some narrative fuzz as to a degree there is no
conclusion – you see what happens to each of our characters but there is no
suggestion as to what happens next. There are also some other unknowns in the
video – particularly in the form of absent characters: they have a huge impact
on the action itself but are never actually seen. Moreover there is a
mysterious aura surrounding our performer/artist’s presence, whilst he is in
shot and literally there in each of the three lines of action, he is clearly
isolated from them and his lack of impact on each of the scenarios illustrates
his actual absence from the stories. It is as if he is just telling the stories
as they come alive around him.
DIGIPAKOur digipak also conforms
to our artist and the genre to a degree. We included a front pane which has
more of a metaphoric meaning to it, almost illustrating the message of the
artist – as their previous two album covers have done. The other panes both simultaneously identify
the genre as Hip Hop and signify the artists’ metanarrative.
(pic of whole digipak)
We were inspired by
several aspects from our research in creating this pane – most significantly in
terms of the framing of the artist themselves being in the picture, the NVC
translated, and the general style of graffiti displayed in both ‘Take Care’ and
‘Doris’seen below. This means that the pane itself adheres to the conformities of digipaks
in our genre, yet the fact it isn’t a cover and is only an internal pane shows a
development from this.
As you can see, our back pane also conformed in several
ways. We included a bold text colour to maximise legibility, and we included a
barcode and the correct record label as to heighten legitimacy, moreover, the
tracklist itself is very central – a theme we saw a lot in our research.
However, we again develop the concept further – as you can see both of the back
panes primarily used for research of style are both plain black: whereas ours
has a picture which cements the digipak in the location and themes of our
album’s wider concept and artist’s metanarrative.
MAGAZINE ADVERT
In creating a promotional magazine advert we considered both the conventions of the genre as a whole and our artist on a more individual level. We created an advert to run in Clash Magazine, as this suits our artist particularly strongly: it targets the shared audience of a fairly niche and young audience, whilst also reaching into other demographics and challenging dominant ideologies and viewpoints held by these audiences. In our research, we found that Hawk House have in fact featured in Clash Magazine - not in an advert as such but as the focus of a 'Next Wave' section: in which up and coming or obscure artists are written about and promoted. The image used of Hawk House is partly where we got the inspiration from for the body language of our artist in our magazine advert - whilst it is originally of the three together we have depicted our main artist only: as we have almost remarketed them in the other medias as a solo artist.
As you can see, our artist is portrayed in a very similar position, however it is shot from a further distance. Costume is representative of the current genre, with dark colours and puffer jackets being fairly common on the scene. We further conformed to the artist in the sense we included the label that they are signed to in the bottom left. Moreover, we kept to the orthodox way Clash Magazine rates music - out of 10 as opposed to out of 5 stars.
Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Question 3 - What did we learn from our audience feedback?
Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Please note, for an unknown reason, in uploading the presentation to SlideShare all the text boxes have moved up slightly - leading to some overlap between text and image. See original layout examples below:
LUCA: In one shoot we filmed the action for the first narrative line involving the character Rachel. I had several roles in the shoot - firstly I was performing in front of the camera once again as my role as the star in our music video. I was then also in charge of ensuring our actress was dressed appropriately for her role and positioned correctly for each shot. I took a lead role in time management and also assisted Jack with some of filming, however in this particular shoot he took the lead role in filming. In the second shoot..........
JACK: I ensured that on both shoots we filmed footage from a range of interesting angles. We filmed the same action in a variety of places - which ensured that the best framing was selected and technical excellence can be achieved. Luca and I both collaborated with ideas, also suggesting alternate views; in the case of a disagreement, we filmed both so that we can see which sequence is better aesthetically and contextually with the rest of the action. Luca and myself both provided props that were integral to the action, including some items of clothing. Moreover, I considered lighting in the frame, ensuring that the intended mood was created.
