Final Video

Below is the final video. We hope you enjoy it!

CD Case

Below is the completed CD case which turned out very well.

Evaluation 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?


We made a questionnaire asking what people thought of our music video. They have said that it was original, they hadn’t seen anything like that before. They were shocked by the horrifying scenes but at the end they really understood the message we tried to send and I’m really happy that people said that because that’s what we were aiming for. One person said: “It was incredibly unique and a brilliant performance”. I’m unsure whether or not it was the performance from the singer they were referring to, or a performance of the actors.

Many of the viewers were impressed by the amount of special effects on our music video and they thought it was “amazing and looked real” but some said the CGI was not realistic enough for example we used to much blood for when one of our actors gets attacked. I was happy that we did get a few negative feedback about the editing because now we know what to add or remove next time we start another project and it helps us get our future results as natural and real as possible because audience feedback is crucial to the media and music industries. It allows producers, directors and even the artists to reflect on their work. It outlines the flaws and what is needed to improve, and it can also encourage people to work harder. Positive feedback allows producers to acknowledge their success, so they know what they're doing right. It also helps in terms of research for their target audience.

Below is video feedback from Roni Size which we have found to be quite useful and has him telling what he thinks of the video. In the video he says that he was confused about the purpose of the masks in the video and thought that we could have implemented the meaning behind the masks in a better way, although he got the gist of what it was. The feedback we got was favourable which was very good as we thought that we had done a good job although he had said that the editing could have been tighter, which we do agree with but it was taxing to do due time restrictions. The consequences of ignoring the earlier audience feedback would have been quite large because I think that the effects add a level of grit to the video making it more urban and realistic suiting the theme of violence better. In the context of the industry it would be costly because they wouldn't know what the customers would react to and might lose customers due to them not gettin what they would expect from an established artist. I think that the scene referring to ‘Taxi Driver’ wasn’t clear enough because most of our audience didn’t get it maybe due to it being an outdated film.

Evaluation 2

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

Our music video campaign is based on the song "No More" by Roni Size are linked by the masks that are featured in the music video as they are an integral part to the theme of it which is being hidden form society and then being redeemed from their wrong doings. The mask is featured on the CD sleeve on the front and back cover both with a half of it. The poster and inside the CD sleeve all feature images from the music video itself which shows the cohesion within the campaign. One image of the music video was featured in both the CD sleeve and on the poster because we found it to be an effective image and something that could be well remembered. We did this by transferring the image onto photoshop and edited it using different methods such as zooming in and adding black and white to make the masks stand out and pop. This was done so that if a person was to see the poster they could automatically link the images if they were interested in buying the album.

Cohesion is important because if the product is not recognisable from the different advertisement methods used it will not reach the target audience's attention which would not be good for sales as there wouldn't be any reason for potential customers to be paying attention to the marketing around the product. The image created for the artist would be a different one seeing as the campaign is quite a gritty image that is not the usual for the artist and is quite unusual for the Drum and Bass genre. Seeing as the artist is already established it really only reinforces or remakes the artist's image.

I find the combination to be effective because all parts of the campaign are cohesive and stand out due to the grittiness of the subject and video.

How did you use media technologies in the production stage? /CD Sleeves and Poster Completion

During filming we have used a video camera so that we could actually film our footage, and for our editing process we have used iMovie HD on an Apple Mac. A member of our group Ali also used Photoshop to stylize the footage we had taken. The editing process took a while to do due to us having over 20 minutes of footage which had to be cut down a lot. This meant that we have discarded a lot of footage that is not needed. During this process we had to make sure that all of our scenes were matched with the music we had which was quite tedious. After we had finished the matching editing Ali then had to take it home and edit it further adding effects to the video making it more stylized and unique.

On Tuesday we went to the CLC at the Orchard School so that we could create our CD sleeve and our poster for the CD campaign. To do this we used Photoshop which enabled us to use the pictures we had originally taken at the time of filming and edit them so that some of them looked stylised. At first we had to download our original images from our Hotmails for edting and then we had decided to go for a black and white look and so enhanced all of our images so that they were cohesive. We originally hadn't planned for the front cover to be black and white but for the sake of cohesion we did. For the inside of our sleeve we decided to input the details of who would have produced, arranged and mixed our album if it had ever been released into stores. Two of our images inside were of two of the criminals as they are a main part of the whole campaign and these two images were stylized using "Dark Strokes" on Photoshop which made the contrast brighter and made it look more like art although still showing realism and grittiness. For the other side of our sleeve we had chosen to do the same except without the se of effects. Lastly for the inside we chose to write on each picture a small phrase relating to anti-crime such as "walk to the light" which is written in red so that they are noticable and emphasised immeadiately. To keep with the cohesion of the artist we had to find the logo used by Roni Size and add it to our sleeve, which was placed on the inside in the top left corner. We also changed it slightly so that it would fit our style. For the front cover we had an original idea which is shown below which featured our four characters (now three) under a tree and a bright sky. It also had on it a knife and a flower symbolizing the contrast between the two. This had changed for a more minimalistic look with the title and artist shown in red in the top right corner and just a mask in the middle removing the knife and flower. We also put Roni Size logo on the bottom of the front cover and mirrored it. We also added the website and record company to the cover to make it more authentic. Lastly for the poster we had chosen to use an image from the sleeve of me walking but only show the right side as we found it very effective. We also put on it the details of the album and some accolades from magazines saying how good the album was.

The images we have taken and the finished product are shown below parallel to each other to show the difference between the new and old versions. Our inspiration for the style of the sleeve inside and the poster was the film Sin City which related to our campaign because they are both portraying gritty urban themes. (Click for full resolution)

Music Video Influence

The music videos have shown me that they can be very focused on the story and have the artist tell it like the Trapped In The Closet part 2 which is a very narrative video. The Jesus Walks video was also quite narrative as the lyrics reflect what is going on in the video but it is not completely related, and it is still quite effective. The effect this could have on a viewer is that they could be more inclined to watch the whole video to find out what is going to happen at the climax of the video as the music gets higher tempo. They could also be very minimalistic to focus on the emotion of the artist so that the viewer feels connected with artist as shown in the Michael Jackson video.
Lastly the Brown Paper Bag video is very abstract and doesn't realte to the music at all, as it is purely just a lot of footage with effects used to make it more interesting and there are some images that make it a visually arresting video and cater to those who enjoy something that peaks their interest visually. The type of video we will choose though is the narrative because those listening to the music can relate to the video as it partially explains what is going on in it.

Filming Last Day?

Yesterday we managed to film what might be our last day of filming unless there is anything else that we can add to the film. We had decided to film the last scene of our music video which involved a policeman who was played by Joe Bono. He was involved in acting out the rapping part of our song which was given as a speech to the criminals showing them the errors of their ways. For this scene we took a variety of angles to make it more arresting such as some over the shoulder shots, close-ups and the like to make the scene more arresting and fast paced. I think that Joe did a good job of imitating a policeman and also learning the verse to a good standard on such short notice. For the policeman costume we had him wear quite typical things such as aviators and smart casual clothes which take reference from such films as "Heat" and "Miami Vice". During the speech which is being rapped the criminal characters start to feel remorse and they begin to stop their ways. this is shown by them first removing their hoods and then throwing their masks away. The inspiration for the masks came from the idea of identities being hidden and that people are most scared of what they don't know. So I thought that having masks involved would make the ending theme more effective in the long run as when the masks are removed they are automatically less feared due to them having an identity. Also at the end of our video we have made our characters dance as a way of showing them being happy with themselves. This makes the video seem more post-modern as it wouldn't be expected by audiences. We also had to film the very beginning of our film which will be edited accordingly to great effect.