Saturday, 16 April 2011

Production blog

MY blog is almost completed all that is left is to finish my evaluation which i am steadily working on and to go to school to finish the video as there was problems saving it.

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Evaluation 4

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Tuesday, 5 April 2011

Evaluation question 3

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?



We had a presentation evening where we had a focus group watch our video and give us feedback on what they thought we did this to help further our marks. Potentially make changes as well. Other groups also gave us criticisms on our video and ancillary task and what we could do to improve this.








Monday, 4 April 2011

Evaluation question 2

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Question 2

more effective product if we made a tv ad

Sunday, 3 April 2011

Evaluation question 1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products?

Wretch is a grime artist who has tried to become more recognised as a hip hop artist. In our video we wanted to make our narrative very clear as it was a hip hop track with a message which we wanted to deliever through a story. hip hop videos normally have women just for show the male gaze. Female 'eye candy' is jus in the video to help the video appeal to male audiences more. Examples of this are 50 cent , lloyd banks, snopp dogg etc. Also these video shows cars which symbolise wealth. We didnt want to adhere to this type of video. Plus it wasn't suitable for our track and the image we wanted to portray of our artist. I felt subverting stereotypes in that sense would make sense for our video. Subverting the connotations of hip hop videos meant that we could try another approach. Which was to produce a narrative. There a various hip hop videos that do this.

what we definitely didn't want to portray although wretch is from the grime background.

  • a grime video by giggs
  • Very tpical grime just a load of guys with friends making lyrcis at times women may appear
  • not really any sort of narrative.


Challenged forms and conventions



This video was a great sterotype as the women didnt have anything to do with the lyrics itself as sometimes it does.
the opening of the video shows an extravagant location of a mansion with girl candy shop is relevant saying he has a choice. Showiung image s of locations was used in our videos but not to represent the feeling that 50 cent is showing in this video.
sterotypical hip hop video every element is included e.g women on display showing their bodies. They appear there as eye candy and nothing more artist are wearing explicit jewelery, base ball cap



ADHERE to FORMS AND CONVENTIONS.



Our music video developing forms and conventions of real media products.








Nelly Feat. Kelly R. - Dilemma by Potitus






Even though this video is pop not hip hop it is an excellent example of why black and white is used in music videos. It can be represented to show deep emotion. In the first 20 seconds we see a man who looks unwell as his skin looks dehydrated and appears not to be looking after himself as he eating canned beans. A women is sitting in a shop and is very lonely and in deep thought. This applies to the homeless person as he is wanting money and possibly attention. These 3 individuals attract audiences into deep thought as they may feel sorrowful for them. In the 18-22second we have a close up shot of the homeless person looking for attention or possibly being jealous. From the opening i have gained a strong reading from the video. The narrative could be guessed at this point in time plus the title of the song 'STRANGER in MOSCOW'. These people are lonely, needing of attention a possibly care. Plus the cold weather is relevant to these feelings the effect used on the video shows deep emotion. black and white is normally used for this and to show memories from the past, deep emotions and to give a gentle feeling to the video. This was incorporate in to our video at the start to show a flash back to help with the narrative. Just like this video but not a flash back. The last half of the stranger in Moscow it starts to rain which has strong connotations of sadness but we also see signs of better things to come as the homeless person, the man in window and the lonely lady embrace the weather.



To conclude...

Gender Stereotypes in Music: Current Reasearch Findings

  • Men engaged in significantly more aggressive and dominant behaviour
  • Men represented as independent, adventurous, unemotional and competent
  • Stereotypical gendered occupations ( i.e males as firefighters/mechanics women as Cheerleader/Waitress)
  • Women engaged in significantly more explicit, sexual and passive behaviour
  • Women represented as objects of sexual advances or as eye candy
  • Sex role stereotyping sand negative attitudes towards females
  • Women more likely to be presented in provocative or revealing clothing
  • Women portrayed as decorative objects that dance, pose and do not play instruments
  • Reasearch findings not only restricted to the hip hop genre


This was information in my findings of the hip hop genre.In my reasearch in music videos i got alot of sterotypical information which is conventional of hip hop music videos. But our music video didn't show this side of hip hop.

how we adhere to real media products

Technical codes

-lots of two shots can be used to show the two people (Boy and Girl) together

- tracking shots and performance of the artist towards their "lover" in the video is

also generic

Symbolic codes

-interactions with the other model who is playing the part of the lover such as; touching, holding, deep stares into their eyes and a common generic symbolic code is when a male/female holds their partners chin and gazes into their eyes.

Generic conventions

-Objects such as rings, bangles and necklaces's are all generic for a R&B/Hip-Hop video

-Dark colours are often used to portray negative feelings of the artist

-Bright and vibrant colours are used to show the artists positive feelings

-R&B video's tend to be performance and narrative based .

Generic conventions

- Items of Mise en scene such as rings, bangles and necklaces/ expensive jewellery are all generic for an R&B/Hip-Hop video

- Clothing will range from stereotypical attire for the main grime artist, his spouse and other minute characters in the video in order to fit into the conventions of the genre appropriately and aim at our main target audience well. However the costumes will also have a sense of casualness to them, that can illustrate a less intimidating and more sophisticated/ laid back feeling to the performers and the video on a whole, which will be useful to subverting the conventions because of the romantic tone that the video will possess.

- Dark colours are often used to portray negative feelings of the artist (through the grime genre and somewhat stereotypical portrayal of artist from a Marxist perspective)

- Bright and vibrant colours however will also be used to show the artists positive feelings, which will connote well towards the song as it is meant to be positive and uplifting, and therefore also subversive to the genre.

- R&B video's tend to be performance and narrative based

We see this in the neyo so sick, common - come close, Nelly and Kelly dilemma eminem toy solider

Friday, 1 April 2011

production log

I have managed to complete my...


  • CD cover front analsyis
  • CD cover back analysis
  • CD cover inlay card 1& 2
  • a4 poster
  • All of these will be refurbished if need be as our group is still consulting each other on possible change and producing two more inlay cards and cd

Currently I am now continuing with the following...
  • Evaluation question one to four
  • History of music artist three tracks of an artist
  • screen shots from music video with analysis, visual codes , conventions and camera angles explained

All inlay cards (ancillary task)