What did you learn from your audience feedback?

The feedback received from the audience when we showed them our music video and ancillary products were very positive overall. Everyone liked the video; they thought it was very entertaining and funny. We made a feedback sheet which consisted of 4 questions these were;

1. By looking at our main video and ancillary products, what genre do you think it is?

2. What elements from our video and ancillary tasks reinforce our target audience?

3. What did you like about the video?

4. What improvements would you suggest?

After the viewing, we received the results and started to analyse them.

For the first question, which was about genre, the main response was Hip-Hop, Rap and RnB. We were not surprised by this response because when we first watched Rizzle Kicks’ music video, we thought it was a Hip-Hop genre. Other responses to this question were Pop/Chart music, which is understandable because the song is very main stream with singing in it as well with no explicit language in it. The song actually made the charts in Britain as well so the audience did well to spot the mainstream aspects. Another response from this question was teenage music, which was probably influenced the young actors in the video and the band Rizzle Kicks are relatively young as well, so yet again we were not surprised by this response. Also some people were not sure about the genre which was completely understandable because in our video we didn’t include typical conventions that reinforced a certain type of genre. Overall, for the first question the response was what we expected to be, mainly hip-hop and Rap and like we predicted nobody wrote down British Hip-Hop.

For the second question about the elements that reinforced our target audience, there were a variety of responses which was very good because we wanted to know the audiences’ perspective of our products. A typical fan of our products would be a teenager who studies at college or sixth form and uses the internet on a daily basis to check e-mails, socialise and watch videos. The dress code of the characters were a popular response to this question and we definitely expected this because we deliberately had costumes that represented the mainstream fashion such as the chequered shirts, chinos, short and t-shirts and these elements must have influenced the audiences’ answers. The age of the actors and youthfulness was another big response to this question because our actors looked like they were college students and they way they were mucking around reinforced our young target audience. Humour and comedy were another response to this question which was probably influenced by our ‘drug deal’ scene. We were expecting this response because we wanted that scene to create a lot of humour and it certainly worked. The sunlight effect was surprisingly another big response because we added the effect to add a warm youthful feeling to the video and make it though it was set in the summer but we were very surprised the audience picked it out so credit goes to the audience. The music itself was another response which we were not surprised about because when we first saw the band’s version of our video we instantly thought of the music which represented youthfulness. One member of the audience stated ‘the way in which it was shot, they way in which they acted created a young fresh vibe’. This was a very good and thorough response in my opinion because that was message we were trying to portray that they are young people having some fun and up to some mischief. Overall for this question we were expecting some obvious responses such as the costumes and the age of the actors but the other unexpected responses were an added bonus.

For the third question, which was about what the audience liked, the biggest response was the editing of the video and we were definitely expecting this response because we spent a lot of time and creative thinking went into this. Our purpose was to catch the attention of the audience by using these post-modern editing effects such the text typography, slow motion, lighting effects and the editing of the song and it certainly caught the eye of the audience. The responses about the editing were, that it was very clever and professional and it fitted well with the music and we were very privileged to hear such positive feedback. The audience loved the slow motion part where the man was chasing after the character with the brief case and they found it very funny. Like I said earlier, we wanted this part to be very funny and we knew by using a man with an endomorphic body composition and using the slow motion to see his body parts move was a very funny idea and it certainly worked. The audience noticed that the lip syncing was good because in a mainly performance music video, lip syncing is very important. The audience liked some of the dance moved shown in the video especially my character’s ‘shoulder drop’ which could probably be a trend setter especially for the target audience because the way the character dress and act can certainly influence the audience. The audience also liked the locations used in the video and the digi pack such as the sub-urban estates used to represent the youths having fun around their local estate. Overall, for this question the responses were what we expected because they were the elements we liked about the video as well and the audience seemed to have the same views.

For the final question which was about the improvements, the only response was the rewind part at the end. The main response to this that it went on far too long and when we watched the video again we definitely agreed with the audience. We understood that the length of the rewind might have been boring to watch so if we were to make the video again we would certainly either take out the rewind effect or just speed it up a lot more. The constructive criticism was very helpful and we would like thank the audience for their input.

Audience Feedback

Below, is a list of comments from the feedback we got when we showed our final products to an audience.

Genre	Target Audience	Likes	Improvements
	Fun, youthful, comedy		Last minute bit repetitive
Hip Hop	Sex, drugs, rock n roll	The geeza who ran after you	More cowbell
Hip Hop/Rap	The actors, clothing and dancing	The sunny effect and the words on screen	Re-wind went on a bit long.
Rap and lots of fun thrown	Teenager and young adults	I liked to see the fun and comedy throughout	None
Hip hop	Costume	Slow motion
		It was very entertaining. Hilarious, good use of effects.
Rap Hip Hop	Sunlight mod	G’s shoulder drop	Get off my phone
Hip hop	The age of actors	Amazing	None
R&B Pop	Loved it – humour, sun blush tones, clever and innovative editing
Pop-Chart music	Funny	10/10
Hilarious so gooood	Jihad is beautiful	Well done fantastic
Hip hop	Fun colourful	Just banter innit	Not make the rewind bit as long at the end
Hip hop	Actors clothing	It all fitted in so well music etc.	No improvements needed.
Hip Hop Teenage Music	Mise en scene, Music, dress code and characters	Editing effects syncing
Not sure	The way in which it was short, the way they acted created a young fresh vibe	Looked very professional – They guys, location and the way the video was edited	It was really good to watch.

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

For the research and planning section, we used the website Youtube quite a lot to look at existing music videos in order to get our ideas for our own music videos. We also used Youtube to look for tutorials in how to do text typography which was very useful because we created we managed to create a demo text typography video. We also used Youtube to actually upload the demo video and our music video. We used social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to upload the videos and get some feedback from our friends and followers. So for Facebook, we uploaded our draft video and we let our friends to comment on the video to see what areas we need to improve on in terms of camera angles and locations etc. We didn’t get as a big response on Twitter for our draft music video due to the fact that the majority of our friends do not have a Twitter account. We also uploaded our final music video onto Facebook using the same process as our draft video. For our filming/producing section we used the Sanyo VPC WH1 Waterproof HD video camera. We used this camera because it films in 720p HD, which will appeal to the audience especially if they are watching the video via Youtube because the Internet now can host HD videos. Personally, when searching for videos onto Youtube, videos that can be viewed in 720p are more appealing than videos recorded in just 360p/480p. So hosting a video in HD will not only be more appealing to me, it would be more appealing to a wider range of people. We were well aware we needed to use a camera that produced high resolution results in order to make it in tip top HD. We used other equipment to help us with our filming such as a tripod which allowed us to keep our shots steady and a stills camera which allowed us to produce the photos we used in our ancillary tasks.
To edit our main task, we used video editing software called Sony Vegas 10 mainly because we were comfortable with the software and it produces professional results. We also used Adobe after effects for the text typography in the video and the use of colours with the fast cuts. Adobe after effects was also used for our creation of the digi pack with the sunlight effect etc. For our poster we used Photoshop as it is very professional software and we used it to cut out the background of certain images etc. A software called cinema 4d was also used for the text of the poster.
We created our own blogs using blogger to show our research, planning and production of our media products.

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

By looking at our main video and ancillary products, the viewers can instantly tell that there are two different types of characters in this band. Tom (singer) is supposedly the 'stupid/funny' character with his funny faces and poses. In contrast to Tom, Jihad (my character) is supposedly the 'cool/laid back' character with his serious faces and poses. The two different personalities are shown throughout the music video especially at a scene in the second verse where Tom is wearing fake bling, sun glasses and a hat which does not suit him at all because he looks like an idiot but it represents his character as he does not care what he looks like and he likes dressing up for fun as he is bored. On the other hand, Jihad sticks to his laid back character by not over dressing himself with bling and hats etc even though it would suit him but he tends not to as he does not want to express his inner self. Both characters seem to have something called a ‘Bromance’. Even though they are both best buddies< one character is embarrassed to be with the other. On the front cover, Tom really reinforces the target audience and young people in society today with what he is wearing. The fact that he is wearing mainstream clothing represents what young people wear today with the chinos, chequered shirts and flat shoes etc. Because the artists have dressed like this, it would attract a specific target audience especially the younger generation.
Our products also link well together in terms of narrative. The video, digi pack and the poster clearly indicates that there are two bored young men out on a warm evening in the sub-urban estates and up to some mischief. This will appeal to the target audience because it is likely that this is what they did when they were younger or they may be still doing that now. This boredom is justified in the digi pack on the inside front cover where you can see one of the artist pulling a funny pose and a face and the other artist being laid back and looking slightly bored.
For our video we decided to go for locations with bricks, houses, estates and sub-urban settings and for our digi pack we chose a brick themed layout so they link in together very well. We chose this layout because we thought it would reinforce the sub-urban demographic of both the band and the target audience. Also the bricks can be very useful, for example, the back cover where we used the bricks to add text on it through the middle of the two artists. The bricks makes the audience feel that there are two young men hanging around in a warm, late evening, sub-urban estate which fits in with the target audience because they might have brought up in the same way as the band did. Our poster does not really fit in with this theme because we decided to make it much more vibrant to appeal to the viewers/audience.
We used postmodern editing in our video to catch the attention of the audience for example, our transition shot where both performers sit on a bench and it cuts to another location where they are sitting on another bench in a different location. Another example in our video would be at the other transition shots near the end where one performer leans against a wall and then it cuts to the other performer leaning against the wall.

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

The first impressions when viewing our media products, the audience would think that the genre of it was Hip-Hop. However, the actual genre of our media products and Rizzle Kicks is British Hip-Hop. We challenged Hip-Hop conventions by not using typical hip-hop conventions in our media products. We didn’t use conventions such as money, fast car, an abundance of bling, half naked women, drugs, alcohol, violence and city estates. However, we did use a little bit of bling and manipulated a drug deal scene. We did use other hip-hop conventions such as the characters wearing flat peak hats, hoodies and sunglasses. We decided not to use vast amount of hip-hop conventions because the artists we were studying were Rizzle Kicks and we wanted our characters to represent their genre which is British Hip-Hop and we developed it by wearing, chequered shirts, summer shorts, plimsoles, polo tops, chinos and other mainstream British fashion clothing. We used real media products to help create our media products. We firstly studied the Kanye West – Good Life music video and were fascinated by the use of text typography throughout the video. The video influenced us to use a bit of typography in our music video with the words popping up in sync with the lyrics. Before we implemented the typography, we produced a demo by using the good life song to see how it looked and we thought it looked quite good, so we used it in our own video. We also studied the Wiz Khalifa – On My Level music video because that was a music video, which consisted of typical hip-hop conventions, and we liked the use of cuts in time with the beat at the start of the video. We used this idea for our music video in the second verse where there is a small section where the beat of the song is emphasised, so we used cuts to match the beats in time. We also used the official Rizzle Kicks – Down with the Trumpets music video because firstly, this was the song we were using in our music video and it would give us an idea of what we should use in terms of mise-en-scene such as the mainstream outfits, suburban locations, camera shots and ideas. For the locations sections, we studied the locations Rizzle Kicks perform in their video and tried to find similar looking locations in our town. They used some alleyways in their video and there were plenty of alleyways we used in our video. Also they used a location, which consisted of vibrant coloured buildings/houses, which looked like the Port Marine vicinity of our town. We used their music video to pinch some ideas but we interpreted them in our own way. One example was at the start of their video they used a cassette player to start their song so in our own video we used the same proposal but instead we used a vinyl record player to start the song. We used the vinyl record player idea because it looked quirky and retro and it was kind of cool in a geeky way. Another idea from the official music video we used in our video was the ‘drug deal’ scene because we thought this was the most important part of the narrative of the video where the trumpet is introduced so we thought we would use this scenery in our video but we interpreted it in a different way to make it our own.

Ancillary Task - Digi Pack

The target audience can be clarified by looking at some of Rizzle Kicks' interviews as they use language such as "big up" which may suggest that they are looking to reach out to the younger generation, by trying to use the same mode of address. A typical fan would be a teenager who studies at college or sixth form and uses the internet on a daily basis to check e-mails, socialise and watch videos. Rizzle Kicks' costume and dress code appeals to the younger demographic because of the mainstream fashion they express.

For our digi pack, we decided to go for a brick theme throughout the pack. So bricks are included in the front, back and the inside covers. We chose this layout because we thought it would reinforce the sub-urban demographic of both the band and the target audience. Also the bricks can be very useful, for example, the back cover where we used the bricks to add text on it through the middle of the two artists. The bricks makes the audience feel that there are two young men hanging around in a warm, late evening, sub-urban estate which fits in with the target audience because they might have brought up in the same way as the band did.

By looking at the digi pack, the viewers and we can see that there is a narrative going on which are two bored young men out on a warm evening in the sub-urban estates and up to some mischief. This will appeal to the target audience because it is likely that this is what they did when they were younger or they may be still doing that now. This boredom is justified in the digi pack on the inside front cover where you can see one of the artist pulling a funny pose and a face and the other artist being laid back and looking slightly bored.

On the front cover, back cover and the inside cover, the viewers can instantly tell that there are two different types of characters in this band. Tom (grey t-shirt) is supposedly the 'stupid/funny' character with his funny faces and poses. In contrast to Tom, Jihad (black t-shirt) is supposedly the 'cool/laid back' character with his serious faces and poses. The two different personalities are shown throughout the music video as well especially a scene in the second verse where Tom is wearing fake bling, sun glasses and a hat which does not suit him at all because he looks like an idiot but it represents his character as he does not care what he looks like and he likes dressing up for fun as he is bored. On the other hand, Jihad sticks to his laid back character by not over dressing himself with bling and hats etc even though it would suit him but he tends not to as he does not want to express his inner self. On the front cover, Tom really reinforces the target audience and young people in society today with what he is wearing. The fact that he is wearing mainstream clothing represents what young people wear today with the chinos, checkered shirts and flat shoes etc. Because the artists have dressed like this, it would attract a specific target audience especially the younger generation.

By listening to the song of the music video, the audience can pick out a clear genre. Rizzle Kicks' music is classed as British Hip-Hop with one artist rapping and the other artist singing. However, looking at the way Rizzle Kicks dress and how the two artists in the digi pack dress, the audience may feel that it is not a Hip-Hop genre as they have different conventions of a Hip-Hop character. The conventions of a Hip-Hop genre include the characters wearing bling, sports cars, half naked women, champagne, the use of drugs etc. If you compare Rizzle Kicks to a modern day Hip-Hop band such as G-Unit, they are completely different in terms of their dress code, audience and what they rap/sing about. The genre of G-Unit is clearly American Hip-Hop/Rap and it is justified by their dress code with the American Football tops, flat peak hats and their abundance of bling. G-Unit seem to rap about money, women, drugs, ghetto life, crimes and alcohol etc, in comparison to Rizzle Kicks who have an obvious British touch in their lyrics talking about everyday life and the fun things they get up to in Britain. The element of 'fun' is shown throughout the original music video and our music video and our ancillary tasks. I think a sub-genre is needed to describe the music of Rizzle Kicks as I think British Hip-Hop is not the best genre to describe them as. I did a bit of research and asked my friends that if i said British Hip-Hop what artist do you instantly think of? I had very similar responses and my friends came up with artists such as Dizzee Rascal, Professor Green, Tinie Tempah and Giggs. These artists are in the Grime scene and brought up in the ghetto estates of London where they rap about the tough lives they have lived with drugs, prison and stabbings. Rizzle Kicks are nothing like this, they are more upbeat, raised in Brighton so they cannot really rap/sing about a ghetto life and this is why a sub-genre is needed to describe Rizzle Kicks.

When looking at the digi pack, it is clear that one character is from a different ethnic background. This will widen the fan base of the band on the digi pack and it represents a multi-ethnic society and a multi ethnic-band.

Costume