Final Bajan Style music video

Final Bajan Style album package

Front cover

Inside

Back cover

Final Bajan Style magazine promotion

Evaluation

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

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

I believe that the use of synergy works well with my 3 products as both ancillaries have similarities with the main product of the music video. For example, the music video used a lot of colour with the graffiti shots and the flags and the ancillary images both used colours to highlight the Caribbean feature to it, such as the blue and yellow tint to it. Additionally, keeping the flag in the image with the blue and yellow tint also reinforces Cover Drive’s identity, as they are well known as being from Barbados, which is also shown in the music video as there is a lot of repetition of the Barbados flag in the video.

I didn’t want the ancillary images to relate too much with the music video concept, as I wanted the ancillary images to present more Bajan than British and to create less of a fusion in the images. Creating the ancillary images I kept in consideration the use of colours as this would help portray the Caribbean element of the music but I also tried to not over power the image with bright colours. The band name ‘Cover Drive’ I made big so it was eye-catching to fans that can recognise them and kept the type the exact same as Cover Drive’s as it is Cover Drive’s iconography. I needed to make sure the text of ‘Bajan Style’ was smaller than the band name as then this showed that the name of the album was Bajan Style and the band name was Cover Drive. I believe it fit well into the codes and conventions as I kept the type same or similar to the Cover Drive’s album. This is why I kept the band name type the exact same but had a similar type with Bajan Style. For the back cover I used a simple image of my hand holding the Barbados flag, this is because I didn’t want to overpower the flag and I felt that have a whole body image of me wouldn’t look right as it would be too similar to the front cover. The magazine advert I believe fit in well with the typical codes and conventions. This is because I extended the main image, which was the same image on the front cover, to be able to write the information underneath the image, at the bottom of the advert. I used the front cover of album for my main image on my magazine advert as this way it would be easily recognisable to see the album if it was in stores or online. I also had the record company logo in the bottom left corner, as well as the release of the album and featuring hit singles, which is a typical code and convention of a magazine advert.

3. What have you learnt from audience feedback?

There were many ways in which I got my audience feedback. The use of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as comments on YouTube contributed to my audience feedback. I managed to Skype with a few people to see their opinions, additionally meeting up with people. After I uploaded my video to YouTube, I shared it on Twitter and Facebook and Cover Drive shared it to all their followers on both Twitter and Facebook. 

YouTube comments:

The people I asked I made sure there was some variety to see different opinions on the music video. The first person I asked was a girl aged 19 who lives in the Caribbean who is familiar with Cover Drive’s music. I thought her feedback would be useful as she knows about the Caribbean culture and has knowledge on media. Afterwards I met up with two girls who were in the music video, age 17 who lives in London and familiar with Cover Drive’s music but unfamiliar with media. The two girls in London I had asked a few different questions to the girl in St Maarten as from this such as ‘What music video station would you see this on?’ I asked this as I could make sure it met my target audience in terms of institution of music videos. 


                                      

I then asked a male age 17 that I asked on Facebook who was not very familiar with Cover Drive or the genre. This gave me interesting results. By asking a male, I wanted to see if my video would attract more female attention or male.

1. What was your overall opinion on the music video?

“It was pretty good; it had the feel of a professional music video (not too much video of landscape and not too much close up) but a very energetic music video overall that had a good high quality feel to it, well edited”

2. How did you find the concept of the music video?

“Well to begin with, the type of music was very foreign sounding (cant remember which country it was you visited, Barbados?), and the style of video did portray the country and its vibe very well, and both video and music matched very well

The concept of the video is a bit ambiguous, a bit more footage abroad (again which ever country it was) would have been nice, to try and emphasis the way your trying to almost link the two countries and their culture”

3. Do you think the visuals of the video portrayed the song well? Why?

“Yes, the editing matched the music very well. The editing sped up and slowed down in time with the music and kept in time with the music therefore it did all link. Again the music did match the material of the video, as it had the feel of the culture and country portrayed”

4. What are the weaknesses of the video?

“The shot with the graffiti wall got a bit 'same old' after a little while also I think you should’ve worn more brightly coloured clothing to match the culture a bit better”

5. How did the video work well? E.G locations, camera angle/shots, colours…

“Again the editing was spot on. Most of them were quite full of colour the camera angles were very good, as I think each angle was explored also the 'hand held' camera feel worked quite well”

6. How could the video be improved?

“You could have had a slightly larger selection of locations for just 'filling' shots, but I know that’s hard in the UK but most of the locations worked well.”

7. Do you think the album cover portrays the genre of music? How?

“YES!!!! It’s very colourful, and portrays the colourful culture in the music video. The floral patterns are also quite foreign and exotic. Also the flag gives another big hint! But I also like the graffiti style of text, as it was featured in the video a lot, also graffiti is also typically found in types of foreign countries portrayed in the video”

8. By looking at the magazine advert, how does this show that it is a magazine advert for an album?

“Because it says 'in stores now' and 'single' i would have guessed it was a album especially 'hit single' other than that, there is not much on it to say that its anything else”

His feedback was very useful as he made comments that I wouldn't have thought of and was very honest. 

Lastly, I was lucky to Skype with Cover Drive to ask them the questions to get their feedback. Unfortunately they didn’t want me to film them so I wrote down what they said.

1.     What was your overall opinion on the music video?

Amanda: I really loved the video, I think you did a great job! You filmed it so well!

2.     How did you find the concept of the music video?

T-Ray: We really loved the idea because that is what our music is about and we’ve spent so much time in London and we’re from Barbados so I think it worked really well.

3.     Being the artists of the song, if you were to do film a music video for Bajan Style, would you have a similar concept or something different?

Amanda: Well, we would have it more heavy on Barbados because its very Bajan but as you live in London you managed to pull it off. But it was a really good idea, we could never think of anything like that.

4.     What are the weaknesses of the music video?

Amanda: well I think just adding a bit more fun because we’re all about fun but of course you were quite limited. But for us we would add in shots of us hanging out and by the beach and things like that but still think everything you did was really good.

5.     How did the video work well? (strengths)

T-Ray: the colours were great because we’re a very colourful band. The flags looked really good, the mural…

Amanda: it was very urban and you gave a lot of attitude, it was really good! It was like a Urban Caribbean video.

6.     Does the video aim to its target audience? How?

Amanda: our target audience is very broad, it ranges from like ages 12 and up like we also have fans who are at University so it varies

T-Ray: even grandparents!

Amanda: but yes you definitely aimed towards the target audience.

7.     Do you think the album cover portrays the genre of music? Why?

Amanda: I loved it! The colours were very Caribbean and the pose you did was really cool with the flag! It was cool and sexy.

T-Ray: you looked like an island girl! 

After gathering all this feedback, I have learnt different things about my music video. It seems that the music video overall was successful to people who were familiar with the genre and the song and people who were not so familiar with it. The strengths in my music video seemed to be the location of the graffiti mise-en-scene with the use of colours and the editing as well like the cuts on the beat and the overall concept. However what I learnt that I could improve on would be a change of scenery every few shots rather than just the graffiti and the mural for the whole video of my solo shots. This is because people may have found it to be a bit boring as it got closer towards the end and could have had some more shots in another place where I wouldn’t have to mime to the camera. So this way I could show a more fun side of the video. To the male viewer, it seems that it was harder for him to understand the music video as he wasn’t very familiar with the genre. His feedback was very useful as it showed that people who weren’t too familiar with the genre found it harder to pick up the differences in the countries as there weren’t too many shots of Barbados and London to show that sense of fusion. Cover Drive’s feedback was very useful as they seemed very impressed with the music video and what I accomplished with my limited resources. They overall liked my idea of the fusion of cultures but for them, they would have just filmed it strictly in Barbados. In comparison to Kristen from St Maarten, who thought that filming it in London was a good idea as it is encouraging people who are not Bajan to do it ‘Bajan Style’ as to her, filming it in Barbados wouldn’t make much sense. So I have mixed opinions on the location of whole music video but overall, I got quite a lot of positive feedback.

In terms of ancillary products, my album artwork and magazine advert seemed to have been very successful as everyone I asked thought it looked professional and was creative. They all liked the colours that were used as it wasn't too much exposure on the blue and yellow but had a small tint of colour on the main image. They all felt that the album cover portrays the genre of music because of the colours and the simple background. For the magazine advert, the typical codes and conventions were used and therefore people were able to recognise that it was a magazine advert for an album cover. For example by having the record label logo in the bottom corner and the release of the album, it shows that the advert was advertising an album.

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

For research and planning, the use of Blogger played a huge role in my research and planning as I was able to put up all my work as I could always come back and refers to what I have done in the previous days. I first researched a few different genres of music videos using Wikipedia to give me more details about the genres and how it originated, with music videos. It was convenient to post videos from YouTube and insert images/screen shots in to Blogger to help visualise what I was saying. It also helped visually with deconstructing music videos as part of the research and using Photoshop CS6 to create animated GIFs to help show certain shots or mise-en-scene I was trying to describe, as only blogs work with animated GIFs. I knew my band through social networking sites such as Twitter as well as knowing a few of their songs in the British charts. I was fortunate as they knew who I was and therefore it was easier for me to get their permission to use their song, which I had managed to get through Tumblr. After choosing the song ‘Bajan Style’ I decided to look up music videos that had a similar genre as well as analysing and deconstructing Cover Drive’s previous music videos. I researched these music videos using YouTube. This helped me start planning my own music video as I could see typical codes and conventions that were used such as typical mise-en-scene, the use of colours and camera shots/angles. By deconstructing previous music videos, not only did it help me consider codes and conventions of that particular genre, but it also helped me consider ways in which I could attract my target audience. I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to meet Cover Drive one day during filming time (thanks to connections on Twitter) so they could be in my music video for a few seconds.

For my ancillary tasks, I created a digipack and a magazine advert promoting the album. I researched into many different album artworks that were similar to my genre for example researching into solo artists like Rihanna as well as bands such as No Doubt. Wikipedia helped me with researching these singers and bands as it gave me information about the album itself and the music that these artists make. After researching other artists/bands, I then had a look at Cover Drive’s album cover as well as their single covers. I feel that their single covers portray their genre of music more than the album cover. This is shown through the use of colours, for example the single cover for their song ‘Lick Ya Down’ is very colourful. Likewise with their single cover ‘Twilight’

 

Twilight

Lick Ya Down

where I had researched using Google images, this has palm trees on it, which could reference to the Caribbean.  I kept this in mind when thinking about my own ancillary tasks as I wanted to create a product that portrayed the Caribbean element of their music. 

The construction of my music video, I used a HD camera to film and edited it on an Apple Mac using the Final Cut Pro software. Final Cut Pro made the editing process quicker and easier. This is because I was able to import all my footage from the camera to Final Cut Pro without running out of space. By having all the footage in one location on the Mac, I was able to look through all the raw filming before choosing which footage I wanted to use thanks to the two screens on Final Cut Pro, as one is for viewing the raw footage and the other is for the footage that has been dragged into the timeline. The uses of markers on Final Cut Pro were necessary in this project as it helped identify beats that would be useful for cuts and edits to make it a lot easier. Additionally, I used Color to help highlight the colours in my music video as I felt this would work easier as the options are more broken down, in comparison to Color Corrector 3-Way on Final Cut Pro. This is because on Color I was able to look at primary and secondary colours and adjust different contrasts and brightness’ whereas with Final Cut Pro’s Color Corrector 3-Way I was limited to the adjustments of colours as they are all combined. 

Color

Ancillary tasks I had made on Photoshop CS6. Making the ancillary tasks was a bit easier for me as I know Photoshop CS6 quite well. After taking images, I felt that these photos were good and I was ready to edit.  I chose this particular image from the shoot as I feel that the pose looked quite dominant for a female character and the use of the flag wasn’t too much.

I started working on the digipack, starting with front album cover. After looking at Cover Drive’s previous single artworks and the album artwork, I decided to keep the type of Cover Drive as it is in a way their brand identity. I believe my Photoshop skills were a huge contribution to succeeding my overall ancillary products. This is because I was familiar with certain effects like using PSDs and textures. As I have stated before, I used a PSD on top of the main image, then afterwards adding on top a blue and yellow texture, which I then multiplied into the main image to get the concluded image. Similarly with the back cover, I used a simple image of my hand holding the large Barbados flag as I thought this was quite simple and not too much exposure on the flag. The research of other album artworks helped me understand use certain codes and conventions of album artworks to make my product look more professional. Such as the back cover, I added in a small print, bar code and the record label logo as well as the track listing. If it wasn’t for those few things, my back cover would not have looked like a real back cover of an album package. Likewise with the magazine advert, after researching other magazine adverts I could identify what made the magazine advert look like a professional advert and added what I needed to make it look like a real advert such as release, website and record label logo.

In terms of evaluation, I shared my music video on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr as well as it being uploaded to YouTube. After sharing my music video on Twitter, Cover Drive had seen it and shared it on their official Facebook page as well as their Twitter. This gave my video a lot of attention, which made it easier for me to get some audience feedback. Additionally, I used Skype to get audience feedback with a girl who lives in a Caribbean island of St. Maarten, which I filmed using an Iphone as well as a Skype call with Cover Drive in Barbados. In the end, I use Blogger to present all my work.