Question 2

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

Our coursework is based around the brief to create a music video and 2 ancillary tasks to promote the video and artist. We chose to design a magazine advertisement and a digipak for the Artist we represented in our main task; the video. The artist is the main focus which makes it important that they are portrayed to compliment or emphasise their individual star image.

We were not just designing a paper and video based product, our idea was to create a brand for the artist and the record company that will attract fans and create a style that our target audience can relate to.

As soon as we decided on Pieces by Chase and Status and Plan B, we knew what the concept and the style had to be. As I began to research the target audience I realised that the collaboration of Plan B and Chase and Status works perfectly as they are both so different in who they appeal to. I found that what really distinguishes yet links the two artists is the fact that their fan base spans from

Choose a fanbase...Urban Hip hopDubstep lovers to IndieRock Fans

Both Chase and Status and Plan B are much anticipated acts at festivals all over England, Plan B is the only popular British rapper who creates his work with his guitar, giving it a rock style and developing the appreciation of rock fans, for his music.

Listening to the lyrics of the song gave us the idea to create a narrative, using the artist as the 'story teller' as well as 'acting it out'. The slow pace in music gave us the chance to show the story whilst the fast drum and bass pace allowed us to speed up the video and express the artists emothion using the strobe lights along with the mise en scene which worked perfectly.

We knew we had to use the mise en scene of the artist and incorporate it in the video, advertisement and digipak. There is a continuous colour theme that runs through our tasks, of black, dark reds, white and grey, together with which makes a statement, that you can't not notice, about the style of the music without even listening to it.

It is clear to see the continuity of the imagery in the video, advert and digipak in this side by side image.

The dull, dark images of the artist in our ancillary tasks represents his lack of happiness in his relationship and also in life. The lack of colour also represents lack of emotion. These moods have also been shown in the video, digipak and the magazine advertisement.

The facial expression of the artist symbolises the mood of the song/video. The video portrays the emotions of anger, depression and fustration which correlates well with the fast pace music and the drum and bass. Therefore we felt in order to contain consistency between the three products it was essential that these emotions were presented in the album cover and digipak.

Throughout all of our products from our video to the inside of our album we tried to maintain a brand identity. A brand identity is to represent our artist's values, services, ideas and personality. A consistent and well-positioned brand can do our advertising, it can generate loyalty from your customers.

Wouldn't you think of brand identity as just a logo?

Maybe that's how it starts out for most companies across all different types of businesses but for us it goes way beyond being ‘just a logo'. Obviously, there can be a logo, a distinctive font and colour scheme, but it's how we choose them and pull them all together that sets us apart.

We aimed to create this brand identity for our artists through all our products. I think we have done this as a team making sure everything relates; we used our target audience for feedback.

When showcasing our final cut to our target audience we asked the audience to fill out a questionnaire. One of the questions asked 'Do you think our ancillary tasks linked to our video?".

Overall the audience stated that their was a clear brand identity between the three products.

Question 1

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

After our video was finally completed we uploaded it to our blog and gathered everyone in our media room to watch it. As far as we could see they were all enjoying it and they all commented on how professional it looked.

When researching we looked through music videos to look at the forms and conventions of music videos today to help with ideas and find key features we need to include. When researching as a group we looked through the statements made by Andrew Goodwin's theory of music videos. His statements pointed us in the right direction of what to include.

Andrew Goodwin

Relation between the visuals and the song - thought beats, seeing the sound. Close ups are essential. Music videos create and enhance star image. Technical aspects.

The conventions that we used in our video are;

Technical aspects
Star image
A narrative performance

In conclusion I think music videos would not have the power to attract without:

Lip syncing/ close ups/ accurate editing/ camera movements that enhance the music/ a clear interpretation and amplification of the lyrics/ iconographic mise en scene.

How have we achieved this??

I am going to look at some of my favourite shots from the video and analyse how we encorporated these conventions into our final product!

Correlation between lyrics and visuals
As you can see from the printscreens below, we aimed to correlate our video with the name of the song, 'Pieces'. Throughout our video we based it around the idea of 'pieces' of a puzzle, where our main character would find the pieces and put together a puzzle which he solves to discover his lover is cheating with another man, his bestfriend.

When we created our storyboard for the music video, we considered what the lyrics meant as a group before deciding what the music video was even going to be about. Therefore, it was important for us to emphasise the name of the song in the video.

Editing

In this particular part of the music video we have desaturated the shots because the shot is meant to show an activity of the past. The shot shows a photo which by changing the shot to be in black and white it makes it seem dated. We also added a flash and changed our moving film into a still image.

Throughout the video we ensured that the audience are 'hearing what they're seeing'. Therefore we made the editing of the video show this. The song 'Pieces' has changes of pace throughout which meant the pace of the editing changed dramtically throughout. The begining of the song presents a slow place, therefore the use of dissolve transistions such as cross disolves empasised the slow editing. The cross dissolves when the song commences suggests the shot is a flashback.

However the postion and body language of the characters indicates that his memory only allows him to remember the less happier times of their relationship. The quick short cuts created a intense situation, this is also emphasised by the use of the strobe light.

Star image and close ups

Throughout the video we aimed to make the camera privilege the artist by the amount of screen time he has. Although our narrative story is told throughout, the camera emphasises the main artist, this is demonstrated by lip syncing.

Desaturation of our opening shot at the beginning of the scene emphasies the mood of the artist, creating a dull atmosphere. The lighting was a techincal aspect to our music video; the use of the strobe light, linked with the pace of the music, creating a frantic atmosphere.

Plan B

Benjamin Paul Ballance-Drew (born 22 October 1983), primarily known as Plan B or Ben Drew, is a British rapper, singer-songwriter, actor and film director from Forest Gate, London. Plan B first emerged as a hip hop artist releasing his critically-acclaimed début album Who Needs Actions When You Got Words in 2006. His second studio album The Defamation of Strickland Banks (2010) was a soul record and went straight into the UK album chart at #1. He has also collaborated with other artists such as Chase & Status most notably on the top ten single "End Credits" (2009). Drew has also had a successful film career as an actor, with roles in Adulthood (2008), Harry Brown (2009) and 4.3.2.1 (2010). In 2011, he will release Ill Manors his first film as a director.

Genre:

Hip Hop: an urban youth culture associated with rap music and the fashions of African-American residents of the inner city.

Grime: is a genre of urban music which first emerged in Bow, East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop.

Acoustic: Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means.

Soul: a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues.

Plan B believes that the public are wary of approaching him after viewing his violent film roles. Speaking to FHM about his villainous part in 2009 British crime drama Harry Brown, the 'Prayin' singer said: "It's my job to make the audience hate me. And it's much easier to make people hate you than like you." He added that critical reaction to his first album, 2006's Who Needs Actions When You Got Words, had contributed to this perception.

"People find me unapproachable and are intimidated by what's written about me. It's just playing on that, it's f**king easy for me."

However, the rapper also believes that the mainstream success of his second album, the platinum-selling The Defamation Of Strickland Banks, has helped soften his image by appealing to numerous demographics.

"I've had grannies and all sorts coming up to me," he revealed. "What's great about the new album is it's old music that dads and grans and s**t can be into, but also kids and teenagers because it's got rapping in it."

Plan B recently stated that he wasn't interested in becoming a role model or acting responsibly for the sake of his fans.

Chase and Status

Chase & Status are an electronic production duo from London consisting of Saul "Chase" Milton and Will "Status" Kennard.




Chase & Status have had three number one tracks on the UK Dance Chart in 2007 with the double A-side "Hurt You"/"Sell Me Your Soul", and in 2008 with "Take Me Away"/"Judgement (Informer)". On 5 October 2008, they reached number 70 on the national singles chart and number one on the UK Dance Chart again with their single "Pieces" featuring vocals by Plan B.

In 2009, they made number 45 with "Against All Odds" which featured UK rapper Kano.
Chase & Status' first album, More Than Alot, debuted in the UK album charts at number 49 on 19 October 2008 and entered the UK dance album chart at number 2.
Their album More Than Alot received the Best Album Award at the 2009 Drum and Bass awards, Birmingham, UK.

Following the success of their last album the band wanted to gain a more global success. After meeting with a long time favourite of theirs, Cloud9, they decided to move in a different direction. Together they agreed that the band should do more pop collaborations in order to achieve a more mainstream fanbase. Soon afterwards they quickly began working on the album. On 8 November 2009, the duo entered the UK Top 40 for the first time with the track "End Credits". The track was released on 2 November 2009 and featuring British musician Plan B managed to reach a peak of number 9 on the UK Singles Chart. The single was written for the movie Harry Brown, which also starred Ben Drew, aka. Plan B.

Genres:

Drum and Base: is a type of electronic dance music which emerged in the mid 1990s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats (typically between 160–190 bpm, occasional variation is noted in older compositions), with heavy bass and sub-bass lines. Drum and bass began as an offshoot of the United Kingdom rave scene of the very early 1990s. Over the first decade of its existence, the incorporation of elements from various musical genres led to many permutations in its overall style.

Breakbeat (sometimes breakbeats or breaks): is a term used to describe a collection of sub-genres of electronic music, usually characterized by the use of a non-straightened 4/4 drum pattern (as opposed to the steady beat of house). These rhythms may be characterised by their intensive use of syncopation and polyrhythms.

Dubstep: is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South East London. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals".

Liquid funk (alternatively, Liquid Drum & Bass or Liquid): is a sub-genre of drum and bass. While it uses similar basslines and bar layouts to other styles, it contains fewer bar-oriented samples and more instrumental layers (both synthesized and natural), harmonies, and ambience, producing a calmer atmosphere directed at both home listeners and nightclub audiences.

Magazine Adverts

CD Back

CD

This is our final inside left cover of the CD. We decided to keep the backing of each part of the cd the same to create a house style. After researching the inside of cd covers I found that most contained either images of the artist or information of the record label. We decided to go for showing the record label as it looks professional and does not make the cd to overcrowded with images.

We used the same background for the inside right cover as well as the left cover so that the background appears continuous to the user, giving it a professional look.