This is the final video. We ended up with this one after we had changed the introduction, a few clips and the pace of the video. the videos before had opening credits but we decided to remove those because we realised it made the video look unprofessional. We believe this final video is consists all the adequate requirements found in hip-hop music videos. We think things such as the colourful silhouettes, bright colour text, flashing images of jewellery and the use of women in the video made this a good hip-hop video. through using colour we were able to appeal to our younger audience and the clubbing scenes were for our slightly older audience. The fashion in the video we believe appealed to both the girls and boys though we had girls in the video as to draw in male audiences. Some aspects of this video have a connection to old school hip-hop but the whole song really fits in with the alternative party hip-hop due to the very catchy chorus. we feel like the video fitted well with the song and the vibrant colours played a big part in helping create the false reality of party hip-hop.
Ferdinand De Saussure and the signifier & signified theory
Ferdinand De Saussure suggested these theories: Signifier Physical form which we can see or hear within the clip Signified The meaning attached to the signifier within the clip Roland Barthes adapted Ferdinand's theories into 'symbolic code' which organises and puts together the signifier of the text, referring to groups of signified. Everything in our music video is there for a reason. 5 Signifiers within our Music Video
Signifier
Signified
Shows a sense of beginning
Shows a stage performance
Props: Jewlewery
Encodes- wealth and high status
Audience are waving their arms around
An indexical sign for happiness
Lift Closes
Represents a sense of ending
Costume and props
Props: Expensive Necklaces, watches
Clothing: Hip hop clothing such as baseball hat, Fashionable and expensive shoes
Background: White, coloured and dark backgrounds, clubbing scene
Editing:fast paced editing
Sound:
Fast paced beat
Syncing to the movement
Lyrics: usually talking about how worthy they are, and how they love women
Use of Lip syncing
Chorus:
Every body put your hands in the air, wave them around like you just don't care.
Every body put your hands in the air, air!
Put your hands in the air.
Josh jen's verse:
Yes i got the drinks man and i got the dough
and haters still scheming cause i'm stunting like a Boss.
Rocking all red man i call it santa claus
My swagger so fresh i deserve an applause
Tonight is on fire man this is how we do
Girls in high heels man i call it Jimmy Choo
My bling made her blind now she feels me like brail
They said that she is tight but i fitted quite well
she came with you tonight she's going home with me
And if you want to fight, thats how its gonna be
Its gonna be a Shuge knight, switch of your on switch
feeling like a champion with this champagne am sipping
looking for a caramel skin tone,
I can visualise her clearly
the fruity type with the cherry lips, heavy hips,
damn girl with dem curves like that you can be my blackberry
Chorus x2
K-kritz's verse
Yeah I guess its my time to shine
Yeah I guess is my time to rhyme
Rhyme, crime I don't give a damn
Cuz I got a sick flow wow, I flow like a boat
See me on the mic, you never see me so choke
Rap ain't joke, swagger to the fullest never see me broke
Am a killer, iller fresher than any other spitter
So put your hands air wave in the sky like you just don't care.
Yeah And am just getting warmed up
see these rappers getting shooked up
getting ready for the club feeling so super clocked on the supra
Put on that Snap Back a little swag booster, booster on another level like a Duplex
Busting heads i Call it Suplex
Drinking till we blackout
Dancing till we fade out
Screaming till we forced out
Like tine we do this till we pass out
yeah we do this till we pass out.
Chorus x2
Just like modern hip hop music the song goes from Chorus-Verse -Chorus-verse Chorus etc
We also followed this pattern in our song as well.
Narration:
It is hard to relate our music video to Todorov's theory.
However, rather than visually, the narration of our music video is constructed in a way that fits Todorov's theory symbolicly , which he states as Equilibrium - Conflict - Resolution. Our music video has symbolisms which represents Todorov's theory, for example when the lift opens at the beginning of the music video, the music starts. This represents the Equilibrium part in Todorov's theory. Our music video consists of many club scenes reappearing over and over again with fast paced editing and different colours flashing, this was done on purpose to give our music video a chaotic effect which represents the 'conflict' in Todorov's theory. The music video ends with the lift closing on the three artist and a fadeout is used at the very end of the music video. The lift closing and the fadeout at the end of the music is used to give the music video a peaceful ending which is representing the resolution part in Todorov's theory. Typical Hip hop music videos usually have a fadeout effect at the end of the music video to show a sense of end of story because Hip-hop music videos are usually based on some sort of story. This is similar to the reason why we chose to use a fadeout in our music video too.
Typical hip-hop music videos do not have story lines this is why it is hard to relate them to Todorov's theory. A better theory is Brecht bolt's 'Epic structure', this can be related to our music video a lot more because our music video has a fragmented structure and all the scenes in the music video do not connect together.
Binary opposites: Claude Levi-Strauss
Our Music video is not based on a bad guy vs good guy but it still follows Levi-Strauss's theory because or music video is an example of Stylised vs Realistic. Stylised is exemplified through dark silhouette. We were not trying to create naturalism but we were trying to create our own world. To make this possible, we chose used a number of different colours in our music video.
The representation of Women:
According to Laura Malvey, women appear in music video to slow down the narration of the music video. So we decided to make sure that our music video followed this stereotype. We tried to achieve this by making sure that the girls in our music video were just standing there without playing a major part. We tried to follow some typical stereotypes of women by making sure they are in the video but not playing any significant roles. For example they were not even singing along to the music, they were just in the video to slow the narration down.
Media Producers use some aspects in the ‘Real world and Society’, which they then transform to suit the current situation in the society that will help them to make profit from their media product which they produce. For example, Media Producers use stereotypes in music videos because they are quickly and easily recognized by the audiences. Media producers usually use women in their music video to appeal to the viewers which are usually male, because they are more likely to buy or watch the product if they are attracted to the women in the music video. For this reason we chose to follow that convention as-well so we also used a few women in our music video. We chose not to completely challenge this convention because we are trying to play it safe and also trying to sell our product to the typical Hip-hop audience.
Women are usually objectified in music videos for example; they are usually wearing provocative clothing which is usually revealing their womanly assets such as Hips, Legs, Breasts and Bottoms. Although we broke some of the conventions in a typical Hip- hop music video by not showing scenes of any of the women wearing provocative clothing and being extremely sexually objectified through camera shots this has slightly pushed our genre into the Alternative Hip-hop genre because the music video is not completely conveying with the representation of women in hip-hop. However, we used some close up shots on the lips and face to put a similar idea across. Extreme close up on the face and lips were done to make women look like they are only needed in a music video because of their sexual features.
Women were not extremely objectified in our music video on purpose because we did not want our music video to be extensively explicit due to the age range (14-21) of our targeted audience. Having a sexually explicit music video will not be appropriate to the younger audience that we are trying to target. And by not having any sexual references in the music video, we would not be targeting our older audience very well. So we had to use enough sexual references that will be suitable for all our audience. And we achieved this through a few scenes and through the lyrics of the song.
Women are also shown to be cheap and weak and only useful for sexual benefits and if they do not fit into the specific stereotype, they are not seen as normal women. For example the image above shows the main artist wrapping he's arm around the woman. The effect of this is to show a sense of ownership. By belittling the woman in the scene, the main artist is made to look like he is in control.
There is a contrast between the woman in the blue tint and the woman in the yellow tint. The woman in the yellow tint looks self-sufficient, while the woman in the blue tint looks a bit more inferiority.
We could not use this clip in our music video because of the clothes she was wearing. For example the leather jacket that she is wearing shows a sense of in dependency and superiority which is against the typical stereotype of a woman. We had to remove this clip so that the stereotype of women that we are trying to follow is will not be broken.
Laura Malvey argued that because the media production company is heavily dominated by men, a narrow view is put across the media. As a result women are always shown to be second class citizens, powerless and inferior to men. The objectification of women is so popular in music videos that every time you are watching a music video you are automatically expecting women to be portrayed negatively, even women expect these themselves when they are watching a music video. This idea was put forward by Laura Malvey in 1975, which is known as the ‘Male gaze’. This means that women watch music videos through the eyes of men and are no longer entitled to their own opinions but rather the opinion of male viewers. Women are passive in music video, they are made to behave in a sexual way like licking their lips, lollipop or finger and as a result the audience are being forced to turn into voyeurs through the scenes that are presented to them. Laura malvey also stated the idea that women are there to slow down the narrative because they grab the audience attention and do not push the narrative forward. Since quick, fast paced editing are usually used in music videos women are used to slow it down. We also used fast paced editing in our music video the convey with stereotypical Hip-hop music videos. We followed some of the convention by using a female's lips to suggest seductiveness and to suggest sexual references and slow down the narration of the music video.
DigiPak:
We analysed this Digi-pak to show the similarities between a professional Digi-pak
and our Digi-pak. The colour of each arrow is connected to the coloured text.
We broke some typical hip-hop conventions of a Digi-pak through the use of our chosen outfits. Usually on hip-hop album covers or Digi-paks the musicians are often wearing sunglasses, a hat or at least some jewellery. We chose to go against this convention because we wanted to use our digi-pak to put forward that our artist is intelligent hence the glasses, shirt and blazer. This is what modern Hip-hop artist try to portray nowadays but they usually portray this through magazines.
We didn't want to completely break the conventions, so we decide that props such as the microphone and the location where the photo is shot(studio) would give-away the genre as it is quite a typical thing to see in Hip-hop digi-pak covers.
Magazine:
We analysed this Magazine to show the similarities between a professional Magazine
and our Magazine. The colour of each arrow is connected to the coloured text.
Each coloured arrow is linked to the coloured text table.
Intertextuality:
Just like typical hip hop magazine there are usually taglines of relevant topics on the magazine. We followed the conventions by doing that also in our magazine. We based our music video on many lyrical references for example: The use of pop arts and words within the music video matched with the lyrics. Fast paced editing were used and it also connected to the beat of the song. These are what typical Hip-hop music videos usually have.
I think the combination of our main product and ancillary task worked effectively together because the use of synergy helped to promote our product.
The main source of synergy of our product is the close up shot used on the main artist. Through out all of our products from our Music video to the print products, the face of the artist consistently appears. The use of close up shots on the main artist is to promote him, so that he can be easily be recognised by our audience. We used a black and white image for the digi-pack of the main artist because we wanted to make him look intelligent which is also represented by the glasses and the suit the artist is wearing. The celebration text on the cover is in turquoise blue because it is the colour we chose to represent the main artist. We chose this colour because the colour represents communication, clarity and idealistic knowledge. EVALUATION Q2:How effective is the combination of by joeking122 on GoAnimate
We used a variety of fonts such as impact, Calibri and Times New Roman only because we wanted a simplistic font style that people could easily read. The cover consists of five headlines including the main story about Josh Jen's 'Celebration' album.
Furthermore, we focused on codes through out our three task, we made sure that all the codes were representing similar ideas through out the three products. For example, the props and costumes featured in our music video and magazine cover is similar. Sunglasses was a dominant prop in our music video and magazine, in both products it represented the same thing, how 'cool' the artist is.
Other props such as jewellery and money were similarly used to represent wealth and class and the black and white colours used in our digi-pak our magazine cover and the cover-lines such as 'The power of money' and lyrics; "If you got the money if you go the dough" all relate to the same connotation and meaning.
Furthermore, we took to account Ferdinand Saussure's theory about semiotic codes. We used props such as reading glasses on the cover to signify the intelligence of the main artist. By using reading glasses for the Digi-pack cover we were able to create our own representation of what we wanted the main artist to be seen as and this image was also supported by the clothes he is wearing. In connection with the video, there were a few scenes on the chorus were the artist was also wearing a blazer, this was done to create a connection between the digi-pack cover and the music video.
The music video consists of a lot of bright vibrant colours which we used to make the video suitable for our chosen, young audience. As the video featured three musicians, we allocated three different colours such as red, blue and black and white, to each of the artists to make the video look more interesting and to separate the three verses in the video and the different colours represented the artists individually.
As Josh Jen was the main artists, in this scenario the colour that represented him was the turquoise blue, this is why the colour is featured in all three of our productions and since he played the biggest part in the music video, we made sure that the blue turquoise colour was dominant over the other colours thorough out all of our products. The way our main artist is represented through out our products was derived from Roland Barthes Semiotic theory( The signifier and the signified).In This case the blue colour is the signifier while Josh Jen is the signified. So even without having a close up image of Josh Jen, by just having the turquoise colour alone, he can still be represented. The Signifier
The Signified
In addition the three main colours and fonts which we used in our music video are also the three main font and colours we used for our magazine front cover and digi-pak. This was done on purpose to keep consistency and to encourage synergy,for promotional reasons and to make it easier for our audience to be able to identify all our products.
Another connection between all three of the three products is the text and font style. For all the of the products we included an impact font style because it is the one we thought would be more effective in making people read the text and also eye catching. The text used matched with the spoken lyrics this was done to replicate professional hip-hop music videos. For example s it was in the video it is on the magazine cover and Digi-pack. Throughout all the production we carefully selected codes and symbols we found would present an accurate representation of a hip-hop artist. The coloured texts which we used were similar to the ones in our music video. Furthermore, within the video we had a few black and white scenes that represented our magazine cover image visually. The main things that connected all three of our products together are the black and white images and scenes, the colour codes within the projects and the use of text and font style in all three projects.
Overall I think the combination of our main task and ancillary task was very effective because it helps to promote our product. The message our Music video was promoting was enjoyment, happiness and partying, through the use of pop arts and vibrant colours across our three media productions I think that our message got through to our audience. By having a house style in all of our products helps to promote our products through it's consistency. This consistency is effective because our audience are continuously being exposed to the same colours and font styles over and over again, therefore all our products will be easily recognised by our audience.
Do you think the Music video appeals to people your age?
Do you think that we objectified women in this video and to what extent?
What do you think about the editing and the use of colour in our?
This audience feedback video consists of seven respondents aged from 16 to 24 which include the age range we listed as our audience. From doing this research we found that most of the audience we had intended for the video were impressed by it. Through doing this research, we found that the thing our audiences were mostly drawn to the video were the different vibrant colours and special effects. We used a lot different colours in this production because we wanted to make a video that would appeal to teenagers and people in their early 20s. We also found that the quick pace cuts and the use of text made the video more fun and interesting to watch. The narrative in our video was limited because we wanted to create a video that fitted in with Bertolt Bretcht's theory which is about an epic structure. The theory is about editing a video, movie or in this case a music video by joining in separate clips into one. Opposite to the Todorov theory - start, middle and end, the Bretcht's theory applies to our video in that we used a variety of different clips including shots of props such as sunglasses, jewellery and money.
Looking at the video the thing that one of the people we interviewed thought should have been done differently was the fact that we all wore sunglasses throughout the video. her point was that due to use covering our eyes under shades we couldn't really connect to our viewers though we did this because we were following the conventions of the hip-hop genre. We showed the respondents all the other videos we had firstly edited before making any changes and these are some of the things we had to change. Questions we asked: What do you think about the magazine cover and the digi-pack? Do you think the prints appeals to people your age? Do you think that women were represented in these covers and to what extent? What do you think about the editing and the use of colour in it? Any improvements?
For this audience feedback we used two students from our school to see what they thought of our print productions. Looking at the points they brought up we found that the colour scheme similar to the video was the most effective tool in making them like our products. The respondents thought that the use of black and white images as the main covers proved effective because it made the texts and colours standout. when making prints, our plan was to create covers that fitted the genre but also challenged aspects of it for example the layout of the magazine cover. We chose to tilt most of the story lines on our magazine covers because it separated the story lines more. Another tool we used in challenging the conventions of hip-hop covers was the image we chose to use for our main digi-pack cover. the image is of Josh Jen wearing reading glasses and a suit rapping into a microphone. We used this image because we wanted to create a representation of intelligence as apposed to what we did for the magazine cover where we made Josh Jen look like a typical rap artist. Through tempering with the conventions of hip-hop album cover we were able to widen our target market and not limit ourselves to rap fans only. We feel like the prints fulfilled their purposes though one of the people we interviewed thought that the colours on the digi-pack cover looked a little dull. The reason we chose those colours were because we wanted to keep in with the theme of all three of our products though we could have maybe added more colours on the cover to make it look more appealing.
This was the introduction clip we had of fireworks in the beginning. We removed this clip because it didn't really connect well to the narrative of the song and the video and also the quality of it was really bad so we had to replace it with a different clip. at first we chose to use this fireworks clip because it represents joy and celebration which is a fitting topic to what we wanted to create. the main we chose not to use this clip is because we couldn't find any other outdoor places to film them as the clip was taken from the internet. we took it because we wanted to explore the idea of a big celebration but then found that we didn't have the equipment to film them at night.
This is an epilepsy warning sign we had to include at the beginning of the video due to the bright flashing lights it has. We had to use this sign as to warn the people suffering from the illness and just as a safety precaution.
These are screenshots of the new opening scene we added in the video. we thought adding a clip of us walking out off and into a lift would give the video a narrative. when editing this clip into the main video the plan was to apply Todorov's theory about the start, middle and end. we used the lift door opening as the start of the narrative which then gave our video a little more edge and interest. the middle or conflict in the video is the club scene because it is faster and more chaotic than all the other parts of the video and the end is the part where we walk back into the lifts resembling the ending of the night though this theory only applies to our video symbolically.
This is a screenshot from the old video we had. we had to remove this clip due to the brightness and low quality of the clip. the clip had too much exposure and the brightness that if we had kept it the video would have looked more amateur. Another issue we had with this clip is that I wore a blazer in it and it looked as if I wore different blazers throughout the video which atypical of hip-hop music videos.
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