Evaluation Task No. 4: Media Technologies

Here is a Wix site I have created for this task.


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Evaluation Task No. 3: Audience Feedback

After developing our music video, the digipak and the advert we received great feedback from classmates and people outside of school. The internet has greatly added to this step as we were able to post it on Facebook, YouTube and send it via email.

General Feedback
The feedback received over Facebook and email was that they generally liked the final draft better than the first, with the errors corrected and the montage and lip-sync in place. Furthermore, they saw that the story line has been improved through the montage and the good usage of black & white to differentiate the past with the present.
In addition, the sound was finally clean which many viewers enjoyed as their is no clean version of the song on iTunes or elsewhere in a similar quality as this video. Having cleared out the sound and reduced the amount of long takes was also very pleasing for our management team.
Particularly actors performance went up. Although we miss working with Varun Frei, we had to take on Oluseyi Petinrin on board as Varun wasn't able to perform anymore as our timetables intervened with his.
On the other hand, we also had some negative feedback. Some said that there is a too defined line between the story and the rappers without them affecting each other. Also the long takes we left in the middle of the video were not very popular.
Overall though I think the critics accepted the video as a quite good piece of a media production. By introducing various new elements the average viewer said that it was a great improvement from the last video.

YouTube Feedback
So far we have 21 views from the United Kingdom and 1 from Austria. Furthermore, we achieved to appeal to a younger male audience as 81% of the viewers were male and 69.5% between the age of 13 and 17. YouTube has also made us realize that when we used longer takes the retention fell down by a quite high percentage. I have spotted in several Hype Williams clips that he makes shots last for around 5 seconds until switching to the next in order to keep interest high.
I think after a while we will receive more views, not just from the UK but also from the USA and our home countries: Austria, Germany and Russia.

Feedback from Class members
A little YouTube video about "Hate It Or Love It".

Evaluation Task No. 2: Links to a Prezi

Here is a Prezi about the links between our media products.
Enjoy!

Link:
http://prezi.com/rp4b7ikda68y/hate-it-or-love-it-links-a-cross-the-media/

Evaluation Task No. 1: 3x3 Grid

For this task I have decided to create two 3x3 "art of the title"-styled grids in order to cross-reference.

From top left to bottom right:

Picture #1
This shows the style of showing the artist from various different angles and sides. In our video, Victor "Ekoko" Mukete is viewed from not only the front, but also from the side. This is also seen in the official video of "Outta Control" from 50 Cent.

Picture #2
This part represents the parallel "Story line" that occurs while the artists rap. We have chosen a story about a boxer which - although facing various loses on his way - tries to achieve in his career. A similar idea is shown in the original video fro "Hate It Or Love It", but completely different in content.

Picture #3
In rap videos we often see both artists in the same shot for quite some time. Although nowadays a shot shouldn't really take longer than 5 seconds in order not to lose interest, we decided to add different elements to one longer shot in order to create a similar effect. Our shot can be compared to "Hate It Or Love It"'s 50 Cent and The Game sitting in the private jet, taking turns in rapping.

Picture #4
As it is typical in rap videos, the artists normally likes to show off the riches he achieved doing his line of work. We portray this by showing off with high value assets and the "high" standard coach Oluseyi "Lu" Petinrin sits on. This can be compared to Rick Ross's video "Hustlin'", where he - although in the deprived areas - demonstrates his wealth by a man sitting in his luxurious car counting his money, while he stands outside and smokes a Cuban.

Picture #5
We took some ideas which helped us do the montage from LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out". The montage in this video is fantastic, but less similar to ours. We have created a more "Rocky" styled montage where the music is for a second in the background and the boxer in the foreground.

Picture #6
This represents the close ups of our video. "High Definition" from Rick Ross is a good example of 'real' media as this is all about brands and close ups of them, making it a typical hip-hop/rap video.

Picture #7
A Long take of our co-star rapping. In the original we frankly also found quite a view shots which were long takes. It is very important that the Rappers stay in the foreground as these are the creators of the music and therefore need to not only promote themselves, but gain recognition for their work.

Picture #8
Although indicating that there is a boxer training in the story line, we never show him in an actual fight. We took this idea also from LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" as we saw this as a clever way to conceal our low budget production and our restrictions to film a boxing ring outside of school grounds.

Picture #9
Finally we decided to fade out our rap video. We can see this effect in many hip hop videos, but we went to take this even further by making the effect very long. A similar length might be seen in LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out". This effect is very popular as a story is often told in a video and therefore the effect creates a mystical effect.

The Advert

This is the Advert for the "Hate It Or Love It" Digipak.

The official advert.

Revising the Plan

We tried to stick to the plan as good as possible. We chose to keep the title and the release date in the same font as seen on the Digipak. Furthermore, we decided to put quotes in a normal font so it easier to read and taken more seriously. "A-Cross Media presents" is also designed differently in order to differentiate it from the   rest of the advert. We have "americanised" the date to bring it closer to the original.

Advert Ancillary Task No. 4: The Flat plan

This is the flat plan for the advert.

We have decided to use one similar artwork from our digipak in order to promote it. We will keep similar elements in order to make the digipak easier to spot and recognize. The production studio will remain present in order to help recognize further investors the producers of the video. The quotes from prestigious magazines, etc. are also indicated to enhance sales. 

Advert Ancillary Task No. 3: Print Advert

Print advert is advertising by means of printed media such as newspapers, magazines and posters. It is one of the oldest ways of promotion and most of our older relatives use and accept only this way of promotion. Nowadays the print media still reaches a lot of people:

The (Japanese) Yomiuri Shimbun - Most selling newspaper with around 14,067,000 circulations

I think that this type of media is still very popular as this old, easy and cheap way of informing the masses is widely used around the world. It still has a large influence on people, but the convergence with the internet and the widened use of the computer and smartphones which can access the internet provide large difficulties to newspaper firms which basically survive on this business. The only way print media tries to evade this is by providing more information on the non-digital newspaper and promotes it's healthier and greater overview assets.

Advert Ancillary Task No. 2: Photoshop Cream

This Task asks us to utilize Photoshop in order to copy an advert for a CD cover. I chose to copy the new Cream Club Anthems 2012 advert.

The Copy.

Although Copying the "Cream", HMV and NewState Music signs, the shade, the writing and the background have all been done with the tools provided by Photoshop.

The Original.

Advert Ancillary Task No. 1: CD Advertising

This is a basic outline of CD advertising, taking Jay-Z's Album "The Blueprint 3".

The Digipak

We can finally present to you the Digipak to "Hate It Or Love It".

The Final Digipak, by Max Proksch 

Top Row (L to R):

#1 - One extra panel with artwork.

#2 - The background for the soft hub spot of the CD

#3 - Panel with the lyrics in front of the road were the Boxer does morning runs.

Bottom Row (L to R):

#1 - Another extra panel with related artwork.

#2 - Back of the Digipak showing the rapper from the video.

#3 - Front of the Digipak. This indicates the main rapper and the title "Hate it Or Love it".

Revising the plan

We kept to our plan up to 2/3 of the actual expected. This was the result of counselling and opinions we gained from showing the flat plan to colleagues. Although keeping the artworks and the background of the soft hub, we decided to enhance the lyrics panel with the background we would have used in the front and threw away the idea of having both rappers on the front and the boxer running on the back panel. Instead we wanted to enhance the superficial dominance and therefore we put Oluseyi "Lu" Petinrin as The Game on the front cover while Victor "Ekoko" Mukete as 50 Cent adorns the back. This refers to also that the "core" is the story as when you open all the artworks and the lyrics stand out.

Digipak Ancillary Task No. 7: The Flat Plan

This is our Digipak Flat Plan. Drawings by Lukas Kreimeier and Max Proksch.

• Front: This page of the Digipak will show both of our rappers in the foreground, looking arrogant and showing off while we see our "Underdog" Boxer running on the street in the background. This has a similarity with the actual album of "Hate It Or Love It", were The Game leans on a lowrider, therefore he is in the front and the story in the background.
• Back: We decided to use the same road and the same position of the Boxer running as this gives a nice 360* Degrees feel to it.
• Backside of the Front: This will show the lyrics of the song.
• Plastic tray spot/1st & 2nd layer: These will view snapshots from our music video. Partly they will be in B&W. 

________________________________

*With 360° we meant another view of the shot from behind.

Digipak Ancillary Task No. 6: Selling CD's?

For the sixth consecutive year in the UK, the sales of CD's and albums have been falling as seen from a study of the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI). But the question remains: How did the popular product first introduced in the 1980's enter it's stage of decline?

As in the age of convergence that we are in at the moment, the internet and comfortableness have been brought together. Online Data bases such as iTunes and various P2P servers now make it possible for the consumer to download the wished song or album with one small click. No more running into music shops, one might exaggerate the situation, but indeed, CD sales are still very high. Artists are still trying to earn their money through sales, but now they can sell their products to a much larger market virtually. The problem of piracy does still remain, but nowadays it is far easier to make a larger profit as so many people own a personal computer or laptop with an internet connection. Furthermore the artists create revenue through diversifying and taking on different jobs in the media, such as acting, etc.

Moreover sales of physical singles also have fallen from 2.5 million to 1.9 million in 2010.

Further interesting websites:

Sales of Albums in the UK: 

http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/54449

A historical slideshow of musical sales in America (Recommended - Don't miss this!):

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/081611thirty

Digipak Ancillary Task No. 5: Photoshop

In this task we were asked to re-create a digipak with the use of Adobe Photoshop. These are the results:

This is the front of the Digipak we have tried to copy via Photoshop. On the left is the copy, on the right the original.

The back of the Ministry of Sound Digipak. On the left the copy and the right the original. Mrs Black has allowed us to cut down to only two cds. The original is a bit overlighted, probably because of the flash settings of the camera. 

Digipak Ancillary Task No.4: Star Image

Here's a little Prezi about Star Image.

The Link:
http://prezi.com/bi_tlvxba205/star-image/

Digipak Ancillary Task No. 3: Digipaks Vs. CD Cases

Research the difference between digipaks and CD cases. Discuss why you think there is more value put on a digipak. You will need to design a 6 panelled case.  Come up with a list of things you are going to need to include in your promotional package.


When analysing the differences of Digipaks and CD "Jewel" cases, we came up with the following definitions of these two different types of CD save keeping:



The Digipak - It consists of a card stock outer binding or a gate-fold paperboard, and with 1 or more plastic trays, able to hold CD's and DVD's. Digipaks became immensely popular with record labels and artists in the early 2000s. They were the first 'real' alternative to the CD "Jewel" cases.


Pros

• Hub or "Soft Spot" instead of hard plastic.
• More value as it is an appealing case and storage space which perfectly fits to the genre and the artist of the specific music.
• Might be more information involved than with A CD case.
• More stability compared to CD cases.
• More room for creativity and diversification from the artists.

Cons

• Most likely to be more expensive than CD "Jewel" cases.
• Take up more space.
• Hard to repair as it is almost unable to replace the Digipak.
• More damage through water.

The CD "Jewel" Case - The Three-piece plastic case was first introduced in 1982. Its origins, according to Philips, comes from reflecting high quality compared to early attempts. Designed by Peter Doodson, it was found 'virtually perfect', therefore being called "Jewel" case. Doodson though said that as he used "specified polished ribs as they pick up the light and shine" the case was praised because of the appearance.


Pros

• Less to no damage made through water as it consists entirely of plastic.
• Possibly cheaper.
• Easier to store as it is smaller than the Digipak.
• Easier to repair/replace through the use of other CD cases.
• CD cases snap shut, therefore the CD is less likely to slip of the hub and fall, creating more damage.

Cons

• The case is hinged on two arms, therefore making it easy to break.
• Less information than on the Digipack.
• Less freedom and creativity from the artists as the size is much smaller.

Therefore we can see that there is more value and time spent on creating Digipaks as these aren't as easily replaceable and the artwork is part of it, instead of being loose paper. When creating our own Digipak, we have to include the six following things:

1. Powerful and appealing artwork that attracts possible consumers
2. Information concerning the music.
3. Several frames to complement the amount of information and CD's that have to be included.
4. The artists and their names have to be included on the front, as this is used throughout the genre.
5. Lyrics of the songs
6. Small Quotes, Biographies or anything related to the Digipak from the artists.

Digipak Ancillary Task No. 2: Test, Test!

In order to decide which fonts to choose from we orientated us with the actual Digipak cover of "Hate It Or Love it" Here are some examples of possible fonts that we might use on our Digipak:

Hate It Or Love It 

Hate it or Love it 

Hate It Or Love It

Hate It Or Love It

When searching the font we identified certain criteria which we had to follow if we want to create a similar Digipak such as the original:

1. Utilize stereotypical music genre ideas: Font has to 'look' like graffiti, Rapper's name has to be on the cover. 
2. Stick to the setting as a background and as a font: The font has to look luxurious if the rapper promotes the 'bling' movement.

Digipak Ancillary Task No. 1: Market Research

We have chosen 50 cent to research on how he promotes his musical career. Nowadays Rappers have to stand out from the crowd in order to receive attention from likely consumers. There are a lot of different old and new ways to promote yourself in our time, but one very effective path to take is new media. By creating YouTube channels and blogging on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace rappers such as 50 cent can promote themselves to a profitable extent as the internet is used for almost anything nowadays and very powerful with teenagers and young adults. It isn't only very cost effective, but also brings in cash: 50 cent for example promoted shares on Twitter and earned 8 million US Dollars. Careful attention also have to be placed on TV adverts as celebrities tend to promote themselves together. The Clip from Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Floyd Mayweather junior and Mike Tyson below is a great example of this and product placement. we have chosen this clip as their are similarities in the characters between this short film and our music video.

First Draft

A first draft is now available on youtube. It does say incorrectly final, but this is still unofficial and there will be a few changes made. Enjoy!