Final video

Here what our finished product looked like

Final website

http://olitennant.wix.com/lazyrymz1980

Final Digipak

Evaluation task 4- How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages

Tyler: We did various screen tests for our music video to ensure that all of our actors looked comfortable in front of the camera. Furthermore, we wanted actors with a specific look, such as the artist Kelis in the 90’s.

Elisa: This ensured that on the day there were no disappointments in the actual performance.

Ollie: We made sure that there was always direct communication between members of the production team and our actors, which we did through Facebook.

Grace: The outcome of this better organisation was that we ended up with three girls who had the right look and skills for our artist.

Tyler: During the production of my A2 pop video, we had an Ipad on set, which acted as a digital clapperboard.

Elisa: This was extremely useful as it made our jobs in the edit suite much easier because it meant that we were able to sync all of our performance footage from the rush bins on the timeline using the audio queue from clapperboard, which enabled me to create a complex cut of the music video.

Ollie: Furthermore, we had a playback monitor in the form of a plasma screen television.

Grace:  What this helped with was that while one of the members of my group was filming, I was able to look at the monitor to see exactly the shot would look like. This gave us an idea of how much we would have to do in the edit suite.

Tyler: From this I could then call a cut because someone had entered the shot, or if there was a problem with continuity, etcetera. It therefore meant that we had all the shots we wanted, but also that none of the shots were corrupted with any of the things I mentioned above.

Grace: We used two different cameras, a Sony NX5 for the hand held shots because it is light and easy to manoeuvre around the set. We used a Sony FS100 with a prime lens for the rooted, tripod shots when the composition was important. This helped to keep a good quality of shallow focus, as with an integrated lens the focus shifts about too much.

Elisa: I began post-production by starting a lossless copying of the footage to HD on Adobe Prelude.

Ollie: Then I began to sort all of the rushes into a single bin on Adobe Premier. Once this was completed, I worked onto the timeline, syncing all of shots to the clapper board track so cutting the shot with the razor blade wouldn’t ruin the lip sync.

Tyler: This left us with plenty of different layers all in sync to the track. We used the razor blade tool to cut into each layer on the beat, using markers so as to show me where the cutting point was.

Grace: Having done this I was able to drop the best cuts from each one on top of the main performance cut. I created the text animation, where we made a text layer, and began to font scale.

Elisa: We chose the font from dafont.com. To do this, the key frame would start at 0% and end at 100%, causing the font to grow as the computer acts as the inbetweeners.

Ollie: I needed to use the select tool in order for the animation not to be blocked by a moving arm; this masked it out by drawing a line around the object, and then cut it out.

Tyler: I had to chroma-key, animate text and changing the aspect ratio. I used Adobe After Effects to do it all, and it began with myself exporting all desired footage into the programme.

Grace: Chroma keying with the green screen meant matting everything out, then it was easy to replace the black with a still image.

Elisa: We worked on colour with Lumetri Colour Engine, which works inside premier. This let me control the amount that specific colours feature.

Ollie: I worked on desaturating and saturating, this was to get rid of the black colouring in each shot.

Tyler: I desaturated the reds in each shot, which helped to give a 1980’s/90’ muddy and messy light, which propelled it into the period product look even further.

Evaluation task 3 - What did you learn from your audience feedback

Evaluation task 2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts

The terms "pop performer" and "pop star" have become interchangeable — strictly speaking, in media terms they are not the same thing. The study of stars as media texts/components of media texts demands that the distinction be made between those who are simply known for performing pop music and those who are known for being pop stars, who have an identity or persona which is not restricted solely to their musicianship.

• In order to understand the relationship between the industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the roles of music stars.
• The term ‘star’ refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell, the performer to a large and loyal audience. 

• Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars, in film, TV and music.
• irrespective of the medium stars have some key features in common, which are; A star is an image not a real person that is constructed out of a range of materials. (advertising mags etc).// Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.
• Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media (mags TV internet etc) - In order to construct an image for themselves, which can be marketed to their target audiences
• The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences.
• Common values of music stardom - Youthfulness, Rebellion, Sexual magnetism, Attitude.
• Fundementally the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and ‘open’, Dyer says this is because it is based on two key paradoxes 

1). The star nut be simultaneously ordinary and extra ordinary - Lazy Rymz - Urban set - with friends - Costume, sass - DJ set

2). The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer - posters, video, interview - not fully embodied - concert (be with them) 

Digipak 

• Using different backgrounds 
• Bright and vibrant colours
• Outlining the girls and making them stand out- this also creates a retro hip-hop 90’s look.
• Positioning of the girls- canted angles- adhering to stereotypes

Website

 we also had to use the star image theory on our website, we realised that we had already got across the serious aspect of our groups image, with links to female independence. So for the website we kept this but we wanted to show there was another side to their image, which is more fun side, we helped get this through using a lot of colourful design within the website, for example the front page of the site, is the three girls looking serious, but surrounded by a load of abstract colourful lines, which is a similar style to something that KidnPlay used to use.  Also to get the image across on the band page, there is a little back story to each of the girl, all of which highlight the classic background that RnB artists would come from in the 90’s. This is further shown within the gallery of photos, especially by one which shows the girls standing over the city of Brooklyn. 

•  bold image
• Sense of sass and attitude
• Bright vibrant colours
• Different shapes and patterns
• Clear layout
• Youthful and fun description of the girls. 
• Urban vibes

Music Video

Through using Richard dyers theory of star image we were able to construct a group that we thought matched what was needed. Using both the lyrics and visuals within our music video we were able to portray our artists, as a group of strong independent woman, which was a common theme within 90’s RnB with reference to examples such as, independent women –Destiny’s Child and girl talk by TLC. An example of the shot which arguably highlights would be when the main artist is sitting on the sofa with everyone, in the centre of the shot, holding on her lap the boombox on her lap highlighting that she has control over it. Moreover, as a 90’s RnB group to fit the star image of this genre, we used a lot of bright and flashy colours within the video, such as the gel screened panels as one of the sets. Also the girl’s costumes, all of which were brightly coloured helped get this part of the image through, and you can see a similar style of costume used in Destiny’s Child music video for the song Nasty Girl. Through the use of star image, we were able to create a both successful and creative music video, which allowed us to achieve our desired 90’s RnB themed music video.

Evaluation task 1- In what ways doo your media products use, develop or challege form and convention of real media products

A form: elements of structure which give media texts its 'shape' and meaning
A convention: elements of content which are recognisable from similar texts









One of the conventions that we used throughout our video, was using bright colours to highlight our 90's theme. In nearly all of our sets there were bright coloured lights, which also helped highlight our artists. These kind of colours both with clothing and lighting were used constantly throughout the 90's. For example in Destiny's Child - Nasty Girl

Furthermore we another thing that we used was, a boom box which were really big around this time. This worked really well as it helped convey our 90's image and it went really well with the song choice as well. This is due to the fact that ghetto blasters were a big thing during the 90's and highlighted black street music and the rise of hip hop in the 1990's.

Another convention that we used, were strange and mixed up shots throughout the video. For example, we had one shot of one of the Dj's that came from over his head. We used shots like these as we felt after looking at many videos based around these times, from people such as Salt n Pepa themselves that shots like this were used very often within these videos and worked well and helped come together to create the 90's image.

Furthermore, arguably our video has a small bit of narrative in it, which could be considered as the main girl looking for the boy in the club who she wants which is ongoing through out the video with the phone number etc and this shot

This wasnt portayed as well as it could of been but we werent really looking for that within our video, but still decided to try an incorporate a small bit of it in. A good example of a video that uses a narrative would be James Lawson- Wasn't expecting that, which throughout the whole video is a narrative of the man losing his wife.

Another convention that we used within our video was the DJ decks, which were a big theme of the 90's with an increasing number of MC's. We used this in our video to try and encapture more of a male audience as this would appeal to them

Another product that uses a DJ to entice the audience is That's not me -Skepta feat JME, the us of the DJ on screen helps the audience see how what they are actually listening to was actually created.





An example of a form that we used would be the use of many close ups, referring again to the way that we used camera within our video. The use of these shots helps to both build up that star image of our artist and help the audience identify what genre of music our video was. This is a familiar form to be used in literally any music video and has been used within music videos for the majority of the time that they've existed

Our Digipak shows they playful side of the band and highlights the 90's RnB theme with the use of many bright colours. We got inspiration for all the colours from album covers such as the one seen below from Kid N Play-

We also tried to highlight the image of the girls throughout the digipak, trying to get across the strong independent black woman image, using their attitude through the photos to highlight this

Furthermore we also had to consider the website design as well, again we went through with the theme of using colours again, which throughout the 90's in reference both RnB and the hippie movement. here are a few screen grabs from our site.