After all the hard work and effort, its finally finished. Here is our final music video.
Friday 23 April 2010
Eleanor Folivi's Evaluation
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video is a true depiction of the stereotypical bollywood scene with lots of traditional colours, woman doing the native dancing with long dark hair, bindi’s, saris, Bangles, very upbeat and jolly music. All this collaborated established the forms and conventions very well. Another significance of our piece was the comedy which was intended to amuse our audience, with the humorous occurrence of the general public joining in dancing with the main girl in our video. The format was performance which is generally show casing a dance group that the main girl is going to attend. As the main girl is arriving to her dance class late, snippets of the dance class in rehearsals keep coming up.
There were many shots establishing many things such as the first shot when the camera pans the main girl from her shoes up to her face on the phone highlighting her significance. In the beginning when she it letting her dance class know she is going to be late she is at a platform in a transition. Although she do
esn’t mention it was the train delay making her late the mise- en –scene clearly indicates this. We wanted everything to seem normal by shooting in regular places such as the park, the fish and chip shop, train station, school hall. There fore the mise-en-scene remained very basic with the park just being trees and a bin, the fish and chip shop just having the normal counter, workers and customers with seating and food, the train station bombarded with people. All this depicting everyday life combined with the mise-en-scene we used a range of different shots, such as long shots when she is first in contact with them with close ups to emphasise the footwork. Along with the long and close up shots editing consisting of a lot of slow motion helped create a better picture. As in most bollywood scenes things are rather over exaggerated. There were a number of different sounds the first one in out video was the sound of the train approaching along with her Nokia ringtone going off. Then it was the main girl answering the phone telling her group she was going to be late and was going to be there as soon as possible. Lastly apart from the music which begins right after she sits down and puts her headphone in, is the old man in the end saying “Aye beautiful” but pronounced by him as “aye bootiful”.
The one video that influenced us was the “ …” because it had a man walking down a road and suddenly couple by couple people came and joined him…so the idea of someone on a regular day getting people under their power.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The main girl in the video is of Asian ethnicity so we used many things such as her wearing a sari, bangles and a lot of he
nna designs on our digipak and advert. To brand our Digipak and advert our own we created our own logo saying ENC productions which consisted of the first letter of each first name Eleanor, Nilima and Chaiya. Although our main character was an Asian girl we still wanted that multicultural element to it which was normal people of different ethnicities in London joining in. We used a number of different places to film to help represent our brand such as the fish and chip shop, London tube the park and many other areas that spring together t
o symbolise Britain and how diverse it is. The idea of different cultures dancing along with this Bhangra girl to a Bhangra remix gives us the brand of diversity at its greastest.
The digipak is filled with bright beautiful colours and patterns with a beautiful smiling girl on it, with a silhouette of her in a dancing pose. It also has the BBFC rating on it showing it’s a U – for universal showing so that anyone of any age including children are welcome to see it. Also the HMV sign indicates the main source of how to purchase it.
To sell the DVD on the advert was to picture it as the brightest thing on the page and everything else was dark grey and blurred. What we did as a group was go to the HMV store a very popular store that sells music, DVD’s and posters and place our own work on the shelves. We took a picture of it and in-cooperated it into a mind blowing poster that speaks for itself in the sense that it’s a must buy. We put all the relevant details on there stating the title, the artist, the reviews and the date it was out.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The target audience was aimed at people who go through the streets of London everyday. It was for the old, middle aged and young with a sense humour. We have a number of different representations in this video that relate to everyone wanting to have a laugh. Although female Asian woman may enjoy the video the most as it’s about their culture and relates to them most in a number of ways. The target audience research revealed that teenagers aged 16- 18 were mainly interested in either the grime scene or liked a dancing video, that’s why most of the video had dance moves in every scene. We had an old man with one or two teeth
left in his mouth to take part as it was quite funny and proved it didn’t matter how old you were you can still have fun. As a whole there were a variety of things to keep the audience intrigued.
Dancing music videos are the most similar to us in the sense that it showcases peoples dancing talent. To the end of the piece you have 5 beautiful women dancing in a hall with beautiful dresses in a colourful surrounding this is close to the pussycats in the sense their always in a “Vegas” setting, surrounding with lights and extreme dance moves. Although the women in the pussycat dolls are half naked our video showed decently dressed woman with culture.
There were many different ways such as the main girl who is a jolly young character with a lot of energy with no care in the world of what the world thinks. Wearing her traditional clothing and bopping the minute her head phones are in her ears.
The old black and Russian man looked fun and full of life, where as the young black girl was portrayed as flimsy, stuck up and posh as she wore a small tight black dress on a cold winters day in the park. Which is considered quite strange and foolish? The dog was shown as being quite mischievous and out of control because it kept running off. The shopkeepers were energetic and pleasant to be around as they served the main girl chips they seemed professional and hard working. Asian women may look up to the main girl as a role model, the fact that she can express her bhangra passion in the streets of London.
The audience are suppose to be in the position of the main girl dancer whose journey holds a lot of charisma, as she dances her way to her dance class. Living up the moment and having fun. Editing was a huge component in the video because although we had the right shots and sound merging the two and giving it the finishing touches we needed relevant transitions good colouring, the right cuts and the video to run smoothly and logically. Because the shots we used showed everything we wanted to show in time with the music the editing just helped make it that much better by adding glow effects in the relevant places, adding the title in the front as well as making the soundtrack the right volume not too loud or too quite.
4) How did you use media technologies in the research, Planning, construction and evaluation stages?
In the research we used a number of technologies ranging from watching DVD’s and video tapes using VCR’S to understand in great detail the forms and conventions of different types of music videos as well as analysing them. Sky plus was also a good source of technology in establishing what makes a music video because we were able to forward, rewind and pause a section of a music video as much as we liked to get an idea of what we could do ourselves. Internet on the computer was suitable because it allowed us to go on social networking sites to get peoples views and opinions on what they wanted in a music video enabling us to learn from the publics opinions.
Planning was mainly done by story boards, questionnaires, and general research on the internet. When we had concluded all our planning we transferred all our information into our group blog to make it lively by making our picture drawn storyboard’s animated, uploading videos imported from you tube, pictures of us actually working taken of mobile phones and digital cameras and teacher reviews. We used digital cameras to take pictures of our locations and mise-en- scene ideas.
The construction of the work was down to the camera to record our ideas (Canon XM2 and the editing software a
pple’s final cut pro to complete the final version.
When filming was concerned the tripod was used most of the time. It’s only when we needed to do extreme close ups we didn’t use it. One problem we faced was in the hall with all the dancers, the lighting in the room was quite dull and dark but we resolved the problem easily by using the Lilliput’s lights with coloured gels, this then gave it the disco look.
All the equipment the college gave us was to such a high standard that it allowed us to take our ideas and fulfil them successfully. Just the Camera lighting and edit suite alone was enough.
Our music video is a true depiction of the stereotypical bollywood scene with lots of traditional colours, woman doing the native dancing with long dark hair, bindi’s, saris, Bangles, very upbeat and jolly music. All this collaborated established the forms and conventions very well. Another significance of our piece was the comedy which was intended to amuse our audience, with the humorous occurrence of the general public joining in dancing with the main girl in our video. The format was performance which is generally show casing a dance group that the main girl is going to attend. As the main girl is arriving to her dance class late, snippets of the dance class in rehearsals keep coming up.
There were many shots establishing many things such as the first shot when the camera pans the main girl from her shoes up to her face on the phone highlighting her significance. In the beginning when she it letting her dance class know she is going to be late she is at a platform in a transition. Although she do
esn’t mention it was the train delay making her late the mise- en –scene clearly indicates this. We wanted everything to seem normal by shooting in regular places such as the park, the fish and chip shop, train station, school hall. There fore the mise-en-scene remained very basic with the park just being trees and a bin, the fish and chip shop just having the normal counter, workers and customers with seating and food, the train station bombarded with people. All this depicting everyday life combined with the mise-en-scene we used a range of different shots, such as long shots when she is first in contact with them with close ups to emphasise the footwork. Along with the long and close up shots editing consisting of a lot of slow motion helped create a better picture. As in most bollywood scenes things are rather over exaggerated. There were a number of different sounds the first one in out video was the sound of the train approaching along with her Nokia ringtone going off. Then it was the main girl answering the phone telling her group she was going to be late and was going to be there as soon as possible. Lastly apart from the music which begins right after she sits down and puts her headphone in, is the old man in the end saying “Aye beautiful” but pronounced by him as “aye bootiful”.The one video that influenced us was the “ …” because it had a man walking down a road and suddenly couple by couple people came and joined him…so the idea of someone on a regular day getting people under their power.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The main girl in the video is of Asian ethnicity so we used many things such as her wearing a sari, bangles and a lot of he
nna designs on our digipak and advert. To brand our Digipak and advert our own we created our own logo saying ENC productions which consisted of the first letter of each first name Eleanor, Nilima and Chaiya. Although our main character was an Asian girl we still wanted that multicultural element to it which was normal people of different ethnicities in London joining in. We used a number of different places to film to help represent our brand such as the fish and chip shop, London tube the park and many other areas that spring together t
o symbolise Britain and how diverse it is. The idea of different cultures dancing along with this Bhangra girl to a Bhangra remix gives us the brand of diversity at its greastest.The digipak is filled with bright beautiful colours and patterns with a beautiful smiling girl on it, with a silhouette of her in a dancing pose. It also has the BBFC rating on it showing it’s a U – for universal showing so that anyone of any age including children are welcome to see it. Also the HMV sign indicates the main source of how to purchase it.
To sell the DVD on the advert was to picture it as the brightest thing on the page and everything else was dark grey and blurred. What we did as a group was go to the HMV store a very popular store that sells music, DVD’s and posters and place our own work on the shelves. We took a picture of it and in-cooperated it into a mind blowing poster that speaks for itself in the sense that it’s a must buy. We put all the relevant details on there stating the title, the artist, the reviews and the date it was out.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The target audience was aimed at people who go through the streets of London everyday. It was for the old, middle aged and young with a sense humour. We have a number of different representations in this video that relate to everyone wanting to have a laugh. Although female Asian woman may enjoy the video the most as it’s about their culture and relates to them most in a number of ways. The target audience research revealed that teenagers aged 16- 18 were mainly interested in either the grime scene or liked a dancing video, that’s why most of the video had dance moves in every scene. We had an old man with one or two teeth
left in his mouth to take part as it was quite funny and proved it didn’t matter how old you were you can still have fun. As a whole there were a variety of things to keep the audience intrigued.Dancing music videos are the most similar to us in the sense that it showcases peoples dancing talent. To the end of the piece you have 5 beautiful women dancing in a hall with beautiful dresses in a colourful surrounding this is close to the pussycats in the sense their always in a “Vegas” setting, surrounding with lights and extreme dance moves. Although the women in the pussycat dolls are half naked our video showed decently dressed woman with culture.
There were many different ways such as the main girl who is a jolly young character with a lot of energy with no care in the world of what the world thinks. Wearing her traditional clothing and bopping the minute her head phones are in her ears.
The old black and Russian man looked fun and full of life, where as the young black girl was portrayed as flimsy, stuck up and posh as she wore a small tight black dress on a cold winters day in the park. Which is considered quite strange and foolish? The dog was shown as being quite mischievous and out of control because it kept running off. The shopkeepers were energetic and pleasant to be around as they served the main girl chips they seemed professional and hard working. Asian women may look up to the main girl as a role model, the fact that she can express her bhangra passion in the streets of London.
The audience are suppose to be in the position of the main girl dancer whose journey holds a lot of charisma, as she dances her way to her dance class. Living up the moment and having fun. Editing was a huge component in the video because although we had the right shots and sound merging the two and giving it the finishing touches we needed relevant transitions good colouring, the right cuts and the video to run smoothly and logically. Because the shots we used showed everything we wanted to show in time with the music the editing just helped make it that much better by adding glow effects in the relevant places, adding the title in the front as well as making the soundtrack the right volume not too loud or too quite.
4) How did you use media technologies in the research, Planning, construction and evaluation stages?
In the research we used a number of technologies ranging from watching DVD’s and video tapes using VCR’S to understand in great detail the forms and conventions of different types of music videos as well as analysing them. Sky plus was also a good source of technology in establishing what makes a music video because we were able to forward, rewind and pause a section of a music video as much as we liked to get an idea of what we could do ourselves. Internet on the computer was suitable because it allowed us to go on social networking sites to get peoples views and opinions on what they wanted in a music video enabling us to learn from the publics opinions.
Planning was mainly done by story boards, questionnaires, and general research on the internet. When we had concluded all our planning we transferred all our information into our group blog to make it lively by making our picture drawn storyboard’s animated, uploading videos imported from you tube, pictures of us actually working taken of mobile phones and digital cameras and teacher reviews. We used digital cameras to take pictures of our locations and mise-en- scene ideas.
The construction of the work was down to the camera to record our ideas (Canon XM2 and the editing software a
pple’s final cut pro to complete the final version.When filming was concerned the tripod was used most of the time. It’s only when we needed to do extreme close ups we didn’t use it. One problem we faced was in the hall with all the dancers, the lighting in the room was quite dull and dark but we resolved the problem easily by using the Lilliput’s lights with coloured gels, this then gave it the disco look.
All the equipment the college gave us was to such a high standard that it allowed us to take our ideas and fulfil them successfully. Just the Camera lighting and edit suite alone was enough.
Nilima Thapa's Evaluation
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video uses the forms and conventions of music videos as it demonstrates particular Bhangra genre characteristics. Like most Bhangra songs, ours is lively, colourful and contains some references to the Punjabi culture where Bhangra was originated. It contains Bhangra dance moves. Some of the moves are famous and easily noticeable that it is a Bhangra dance. The main character, our main focus, is dressed in the Punjabi suit along with the four Bhangra dancers in the studio. The Punjabi suits that the girls are wearing are of mainly yellow, green, red, the colours that are quite popular in the culture. Accessories like Indian bangles and bindis are also shown in the video for cultural references.
Our music video shows no relationship between the lyrics and visuals. In this way, it challenges the general convention of such music videos. In most Bhangra music videos, the artist is performing, usually lip syncing. Often such videos cut between narrative and performance. We decided not to follow these conventions because the lyrics were quite a negative view on women which we feel contradicted with the positive energetic dance vibe. The reason for not showing the artist/singer is because we wanted to challenge the convention of music videos. Our music video is therefore concept as well as performance driven. The idea is that anyone no matter of what age or race they are can still have fun and dance to this music. The main character in the video acts as a medium introducing everyone to Bhangra music and dance. She is giving out happy, energetic vibes making people dance with her as she dances along the way to her Bhangra class.
Like some music videos, ours include brief opening and closing sequences with ambient sound and a little dialogue from the main character at the start and an elderly bystander at the end.
There may be a hint of intertextuality with Bollywood movies and music videos which only audiences who have watched Bollywood movies might recognise. For example the close ups of the bangles and shawls are often shown in typical Bollywood movies when there is a song in a celebration or wedding scene.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our music video contains a lot of cultural elements of the Bhangra music genre. The main character and four other dancers are all wearing Punjabi dresses and accessories. There are close ups of putting on the bindi, bangles and shawl. The first shot establishes the character as well as the Punjabi/Indian culture. The dancer and the main character in our video are performing well known Punjabi dance moves. The colourful lighting used in the dance scenes in the music video is red, yellow, orange and green, which are the colours we have used as a theme in all of our products.
The colour theme of our digipak was inspired by the DVD cover of a hit Bollywood movie “Om Shanti Om” as well as being the colour theme for all of our products. The colours go really well together and symbolises spring. As Bhangra began as a folk dance to celebrate spring, the colours would help establishing Bhangra music. Again the floral patterns would also connote spring and also in the front cover the patterns are in henna colour which relates to Punjabi culture. The silhouettes of different dance poses represent the video as a dance video and also links to one of our shot in the music video.
The colour of the name of the song is in similar colour to the Punjabi dress the main character is wearing so people can link the two. The colour theme follows on to the inner sleeve of the digipak. It contains information about Bhangra and Dr. Zeus and also has the original plus the translated version of the lyrics to the song so that people have better understanding of our product.
Since the magazine advert is intended to sell the digipak, we thought of taking a picture of the actual digipak on the table or with other digipaks. After drawing few drafts we thought of a picture of the digipak on the shelf amongst other hit albums in a music store. This tells the audience that it’s out there to be bought and connotes that our music video is as worth as the other featured popular music videos next to it. The main focus is at the centre of the picture where our digipak is. Our digipak is in colour where as the others are in black and white to put more focus and attention on our digipak. The texts are similar to the ones on the DVD cover to establish it as the brand. The colour theme is also kept similar to link all the products together.
Overall, we used the main character with her particular pose at the end of the music video to be our brand image and we have this image in all of our ancillary texts. The colour theme is in all of our products.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Our target audience is possibly everyone who enjoys listening to new kind of music and likes to dance especially who are living in Britain. We do not have specific age range because we do not want to narrow our target audience market and we want to show that Bhangra is for everyone. We conducted questionnaires on 30 people and took one on one in-depth interview of 6 people all together. The results concluded that they prefer brilliant storylines and feel good factors in music videos. They did not like voyeurism in music videos as it gives negative impact on children and repetitiveness is found boring by the audience.
Looking at the target audience research, we thought of making the music video fun by adding bits of humour because we found that they do not like seeing depressing and boring videos. We have used lots of quick cuts between the shots to keep the audience attentive to the music video because in our audience research we found that they do not like repetitiveness because it’s boring. The lighting in the dance studio is colourful and funky giving a good energetic effect on the dance moves making it more groovy and enthusiastic because our audience wanted feel good factors. Since our target audience are people of all races and age, we have represented most of them in our music video like the two kids looking gleefully at the main character dancing along the street as well as the middle aged black woman and older man. The settings in our music video are places that are familiar to our target audience for example fish and chips shop. This sense of familiarity helps the audience relate. This is appealing to the audience because in our research we found they like watching videos which they can relate to.
Our audience feedback which we gathered from Facebook and YouTube and also group viewing in the class, was mostly good. Most people liked the whole concept of the video and were entertained by it. They said it was close to a professional level. This was before we coloured the video. We used basic warm effect to colour the video so to make it look professional. They liked the editing and camerawork. They also had good response to the scenes for example they laughed at the park scene. This is a good sign because that was the exact reaction we wanted for that particular scene. They complimented on how well we managed to get the public to be in our video and how well their reactions were caught in the video.
We had good feedback on the digipak as well. The audience said it was edited at a professional level. They said the images used were good representation of the music video. They liked the silhouettes and the floral patterns because it goes with the theme. They all link to the Punjabi culture and with each other. They also liked the composition of the digipak. The magazine advert was improved with the help of audience feedback on the two drafts. The writings on the drafts were not too clear and the picture was very busy and not too focused on the digipak.
4) How did you use media technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages?
In our planning stage, through the internet particularly YouTube we got ready access to watch two music videos (per person) of our choice to analyse them. We looked through different artists and songs for our music video, listening to songs through CD players and YouTube, MySpace, and several other websites. Also using the internet search engine (Google), we also searched the background and history of the genre of our music video and wrote up a subject matter analysis where we also analysed few other music videos related to our music genre which were also available in the internet. We did this to make sure that we got the correct background information and to receive some ideas of the forms and conventions of the specific genre music video. We searched the lyrics of the songs in the internet and tried to find its translation in English since the song is in Punjabi. Although we found the translated lyrics of the original song “Aa ne Kuriye” over the internet, the lyrics seem to be a bit different in our song which is a remix so we requested someone who is a Punjabi to help us translate it. We also under took an in-depth interview asking the audience’s view point of a good music video. We typed up the results of the interview and their analysis in Microsoft Word and put it up in our internet blog at http://www.blogger.com/ .
In fact, we have put up everything to do with our production work up in the blog in order to keep a record. The blog is a very efficient technology to keep record of our work. It allows us to do anything from typing our work to uploading a video. It is also organised, it has label clouds which like a book marker gets you to the exact page you are looking for. Since some things are better recorded with images, we have also uploaded a lot of pictures which we took while working on the production.
Before doing a storyboard, we went on a recce. We took few pictures of the location so it is easier to visualise different shots and angles.
As the director, after doing the final proposal I sketched a storyboard of our music video. Blogger also enabled us to make a video of our own so I scanned each frame of the storyboard separately and uploaded it on the blog and combined our song to the storyboard. This enabled all the other people working in the production visualise what I had in mind so they would understand my directions better.
For shooting, the camera we used was Canon XM2 digital camera with automatic/manual focus/exposure and widescreen capability, plus an on camera microphone. This modern technology made the quality of the music video to a high level. For the shots in the dance studio, we used 2 redhead flood/spot lights and coloured filter papers to give colourful lighting which added fun effect on the shots. As Chaiya our main character was originally assigned as the camera person, as the director I had to take over the role as the assistant camera person her sequences. The park scene was very difficult but with the help of tripod we overcame. We had few other difficulties too but we overcame them as well.
Eleanor was assigned to be our editor and she did most of the editing for the video and we were also in the editing suite while she was editing most of the times to help. We used Apple’s Final Cut Pro to edit our music video. This software was not too different to the one we used last year so it went smoothly. We used lots of reverse and slow motion effects which made the music video look funny. We used the sound mixing effect to make the sounds at the beginning and the song blend together.
For the DVD cover, we organised a photo shoot, the camera used for this was Sony DSC-H10. This made the quality of the pictures to a high level. Then, we used Adobe CS4 Photoshop to edit the cover. Photoshop is a latest technology for professional editing. The software helped us editing the picture that cannot be done in other editing software. For the magazine advert and the inner sleeve of the DVD we used Microsoft Publisher. For the audience feedback, we uploaded a rough cut version of the video in YouTube and Facebook asking people to comment on it and also showed it to a group of 24 people in a class for direct feedback. This was really helpful as we could improve ou products and get feedback from people all around the world.
Overall, we had great experience through this project while having fun and working really hard at the same time. I think the music video is done at a professional level and so are the ancillary texts.
Our music video uses the forms and conventions of music videos as it demonstrates particular Bhangra genre characteristics. Like most Bhangra songs, ours is lively, colourful and contains some references to the Punjabi culture where Bhangra was originated. It contains Bhangra dance moves. Some of the moves are famous and easily noticeable that it is a Bhangra dance. The main character, our main focus, is dressed in the Punjabi suit along with the four Bhangra dancers in the studio. The Punjabi suits that the girls are wearing are of mainly yellow, green, red, the colours that are quite popular in the culture. Accessories like Indian bangles and bindis are also shown in the video for cultural references.
Our music video shows no relationship between the lyrics and visuals. In this way, it challenges the general convention of such music videos. In most Bhangra music videos, the artist is performing, usually lip syncing. Often such videos cut between narrative and performance. We decided not to follow these conventions because the lyrics were quite a negative view on women which we feel contradicted with the positive energetic dance vibe. The reason for not showing the artist/singer is because we wanted to challenge the convention of music videos. Our music video is therefore concept as well as performance driven. The idea is that anyone no matter of what age or race they are can still have fun and dance to this music. The main character in the video acts as a medium introducing everyone to Bhangra music and dance. She is giving out happy, energetic vibes making people dance with her as she dances along the way to her Bhangra class.
Like some music videos, ours include brief opening and closing sequences with ambient sound and a little dialogue from the main character at the start and an elderly bystander at the end.
There may be a hint of intertextuality with Bollywood movies and music videos which only audiences who have watched Bollywood movies might recognise. For example the close ups of the bangles and shawls are often shown in typical Bollywood movies when there is a song in a celebration or wedding scene.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our music video contains a lot of cultural elements of the Bhangra music genre. The main character and four other dancers are all wearing Punjabi dresses and accessories. There are close ups of putting on the bindi, bangles and shawl. The first shot establishes the character as well as the Punjabi/Indian culture. The dancer and the main character in our video are performing well known Punjabi dance moves. The colourful lighting used in the dance scenes in the music video is red, yellow, orange and green, which are the colours we have used as a theme in all of our products.
The colour theme of our digipak was inspired by the DVD cover of a hit Bollywood movie “Om Shanti Om” as well as being the colour theme for all of our products. The colours go really well together and symbolises spring. As Bhangra began as a folk dance to celebrate spring, the colours would help establishing Bhangra music. Again the floral patterns would also connote spring and also in the front cover the patterns are in henna colour which relates to Punjabi culture. The silhouettes of different dance poses represent the video as a dance video and also links to one of our shot in the music video.
The colour of the name of the song is in similar colour to the Punjabi dress the main character is wearing so people can link the two. The colour theme follows on to the inner sleeve of the digipak. It contains information about Bhangra and Dr. Zeus and also has the original plus the translated version of the lyrics to the song so that people have better understanding of our product.
Since the magazine advert is intended to sell the digipak, we thought of taking a picture of the actual digipak on the table or with other digipaks. After drawing few drafts we thought of a picture of the digipak on the shelf amongst other hit albums in a music store. This tells the audience that it’s out there to be bought and connotes that our music video is as worth as the other featured popular music videos next to it. The main focus is at the centre of the picture where our digipak is. Our digipak is in colour where as the others are in black and white to put more focus and attention on our digipak. The texts are similar to the ones on the DVD cover to establish it as the brand. The colour theme is also kept similar to link all the products together.
Overall, we used the main character with her particular pose at the end of the music video to be our brand image and we have this image in all of our ancillary texts. The colour theme is in all of our products.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Our target audience is possibly everyone who enjoys listening to new kind of music and likes to dance especially who are living in Britain. We do not have specific age range because we do not want to narrow our target audience market and we want to show that Bhangra is for everyone. We conducted questionnaires on 30 people and took one on one in-depth interview of 6 people all together. The results concluded that they prefer brilliant storylines and feel good factors in music videos. They did not like voyeurism in music videos as it gives negative impact on children and repetitiveness is found boring by the audience.
Looking at the target audience research, we thought of making the music video fun by adding bits of humour because we found that they do not like seeing depressing and boring videos. We have used lots of quick cuts between the shots to keep the audience attentive to the music video because in our audience research we found that they do not like repetitiveness because it’s boring. The lighting in the dance studio is colourful and funky giving a good energetic effect on the dance moves making it more groovy and enthusiastic because our audience wanted feel good factors. Since our target audience are people of all races and age, we have represented most of them in our music video like the two kids looking gleefully at the main character dancing along the street as well as the middle aged black woman and older man. The settings in our music video are places that are familiar to our target audience for example fish and chips shop. This sense of familiarity helps the audience relate. This is appealing to the audience because in our research we found they like watching videos which they can relate to.
Our audience feedback which we gathered from Facebook and YouTube and also group viewing in the class, was mostly good. Most people liked the whole concept of the video and were entertained by it. They said it was close to a professional level. This was before we coloured the video. We used basic warm effect to colour the video so to make it look professional. They liked the editing and camerawork. They also had good response to the scenes for example they laughed at the park scene. This is a good sign because that was the exact reaction we wanted for that particular scene. They complimented on how well we managed to get the public to be in our video and how well their reactions were caught in the video.
We had good feedback on the digipak as well. The audience said it was edited at a professional level. They said the images used were good representation of the music video. They liked the silhouettes and the floral patterns because it goes with the theme. They all link to the Punjabi culture and with each other. They also liked the composition of the digipak. The magazine advert was improved with the help of audience feedback on the two drafts. The writings on the drafts were not too clear and the picture was very busy and not too focused on the digipak.
4) How did you use media technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages?
In our planning stage, through the internet particularly YouTube we got ready access to watch two music videos (per person) of our choice to analyse them. We looked through different artists and songs for our music video, listening to songs through CD players and YouTube, MySpace, and several other websites. Also using the internet search engine (Google), we also searched the background and history of the genre of our music video and wrote up a subject matter analysis where we also analysed few other music videos related to our music genre which were also available in the internet. We did this to make sure that we got the correct background information and to receive some ideas of the forms and conventions of the specific genre music video. We searched the lyrics of the songs in the internet and tried to find its translation in English since the song is in Punjabi. Although we found the translated lyrics of the original song “Aa ne Kuriye” over the internet, the lyrics seem to be a bit different in our song which is a remix so we requested someone who is a Punjabi to help us translate it. We also under took an in-depth interview asking the audience’s view point of a good music video. We typed up the results of the interview and their analysis in Microsoft Word and put it up in our internet blog at http://www.blogger.com/ .
In fact, we have put up everything to do with our production work up in the blog in order to keep a record. The blog is a very efficient technology to keep record of our work. It allows us to do anything from typing our work to uploading a video. It is also organised, it has label clouds which like a book marker gets you to the exact page you are looking for. Since some things are better recorded with images, we have also uploaded a lot of pictures which we took while working on the production.
Before doing a storyboard, we went on a recce. We took few pictures of the location so it is easier to visualise different shots and angles.
As the director, after doing the final proposal I sketched a storyboard of our music video. Blogger also enabled us to make a video of our own so I scanned each frame of the storyboard separately and uploaded it on the blog and combined our song to the storyboard. This enabled all the other people working in the production visualise what I had in mind so they would understand my directions better.
For shooting, the camera we used was Canon XM2 digital camera with automatic/manual focus/exposure and widescreen capability, plus an on camera microphone. This modern technology made the quality of the music video to a high level. For the shots in the dance studio, we used 2 redhead flood/spot lights and coloured filter papers to give colourful lighting which added fun effect on the shots. As Chaiya our main character was originally assigned as the camera person, as the director I had to take over the role as the assistant camera person her sequences. The park scene was very difficult but with the help of tripod we overcame. We had few other difficulties too but we overcame them as well.
Eleanor was assigned to be our editor and she did most of the editing for the video and we were also in the editing suite while she was editing most of the times to help. We used Apple’s Final Cut Pro to edit our music video. This software was not too different to the one we used last year so it went smoothly. We used lots of reverse and slow motion effects which made the music video look funny. We used the sound mixing effect to make the sounds at the beginning and the song blend together.
For the DVD cover, we organised a photo shoot, the camera used for this was Sony DSC-H10. This made the quality of the pictures to a high level. Then, we used Adobe CS4 Photoshop to edit the cover. Photoshop is a latest technology for professional editing. The software helped us editing the picture that cannot be done in other editing software. For the magazine advert and the inner sleeve of the DVD we used Microsoft Publisher. For the audience feedback, we uploaded a rough cut version of the video in YouTube and Facebook asking people to comment on it and also showed it to a group of 24 people in a class for direct feedback. This was really helpful as we could improve ou products and get feedback from people all around the world.
Overall, we had great experience through this project while having fun and working really hard at the same time. I think the music video is done at a professional level and so are the ancillary texts.
Chaiya Varsani's Evaluation
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media texts?
Our music video demonstrated particular genre characteristics such as dance routines and it presented the traditional Bhangra and multicultural society. The use of narrative format, structure and style of presentation was followed as being a performance based video. We produced a fragmented and mixed video, leaving the viewer with the desire to see it again. Our music video cut between the performance dance sequences and the narrative shots. The choreographed dances were a part of the main stars performance. We did deviated the forms and conventions by not adding the artist in the performance based music video. We also changed the narrative concept from the lyrics, making it more entertaining for our viewers. The music video allows more access to the artist and performer than a stage performance would. As we did not follow these codes, we were unable to show the close-ups on the artist, which would not be possible in a live concert.
We followed the conventional music video through technical, symbolic and cultural codes. This was shown by the use of camerawork movement, by accompanying the performer as she dances. We also used many close up on different angles of the dance sequences, to create a sense of intimacy for the viewer. We especially emphasised the Bhangra tradition in the video and the performance through the dance sequences. regarding the camera work we used lots of close-ups and lighting with the use of gels and dolly lights, being focused on the stars face. Some music videos transcend genres, whereas our music genre style is easily categorised, as it is a Bhangra and RnB remix.
The soundtrack was a remix with Sean Paul “Temperature” and Dr Zeus “Aa ne Kuirye”, with Punjabi lyrics music and lyrics. The track starts with Sean Paul which then follows through to a traditional ‘Dhol’ beat drum and Dr Zeus’ voice himself. This remix is different to many of his original Bhangra single tracks, for example “Kangna”, "Sahiba bani prawa di" and Par langa de veh, which are his original Punjabi tracks.
Music promos are frequently drawn up on to spark recognition by the audience easily. Regarding the music video forms and conventions show that we research many performance based videos, under Bhangra artist, with our own ideas added too. We also looked at popular artist and singles, such as “Jai Ho”, by the 'PussyCat Dolls', which also had performance and the traditional Asian theme, with the public dancing too. During our research and planning stage, we searched for different ideas and looked at many different types of music videos showing other concepts. Such as Cia, F.C Kahuna, Michael Jackson, Christina Aguilera and many more.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Regarding the music video, we adapted the principles of branding, such as brand image, by creating our own production logo; ENC Productions which we decided would represent us as a production group. Other branding elements where represented by the locations, for example public transports and the Fish & Chips restaurant, were advertised. We also covered other cultural difference, for example Bhangra and Bollywood. By expanding this and using members of the public, it became more multicultural.
Regarding the Digipack we also
added our own production logo ENC Productions.
We also decided to take our photo HMV store, surrounded by other Digipacks, with different genres. We added the HMV logo to support this.
We challenged the forms and conventions by not adding the artist image to the digipack; instead we branded the artist by advertising his name and the single. We followed the forms and conventions through the image presented on the digipack using the stars image, representing the traditional Indian identity. This reaches the target audience for the genre of the music, Bhangra.
Regarding the technical codes the picture of the main star is centre framed to make her stand out. He face is cropped fro shoulder upwards and her pose shows she is mysterious yet representing the traditional Bhangra theme. Above her we presented the single name and the artist Dr Zeus. Through the symbolic codes her facial expression and pose presents her mysterious and exciting character. The main stars make up and hairstyle, all show her feminine and Indian/ Bhangra representation. The silhouettes show her character, being a dancer and cultural performer.
With the background we decided to follow the traditional conventions of Bollywood and Bhangra. The colours orange, green, pink and red are mainly featured and added to the bright backgrounds and patterns. Finally regarding the lighting, we had to redo the photoshoot using a better camera. This was in order to achieve better lighting on the main stars face. This was important to do, as it was a main feature of the digipack, which stands out.
Text wise we used on the digipack includes the important features of the single name ‘Aa ne Kuriye’ and Dr Zeus the artist. As we went against the forms and conventions we added to the front on the digipack ‘Featuring Chaiya’, which was the name of the main star. On the back cover we added different tracks also presented on the DVD and what it also includes on the inner leaflet. This was important for us to do, as we had a wide target audience, we needed the lyrics and translation to the track and information on the tradition and background of Bhangra.
Intertexuality through the use of form and conventions, indicates we were influences by other digipack designs for example Bollywood digipack covers, with use of colours, patterns, ideas ad designs, which we as a group thought would be good to use.
Regarding the magazine advert, that branding elements that we followed through were that we advertised a website ‘www.kuriye.com’ the text and captions were also presented to add a sense of urgency, to advertise this entertainment, “sensational mix of western and eastern music…will keep you on your feet dancing”. We used this quote to present in words the main theme and idea of the music video. we advertised a logo ‘NME’ with 5 stars, to show the rating of the video, advertising the entertainment of the video and Dr Zeus’ phenomenon remix.
We followed the forms and conventions through choice of imaged by showing the digipack surrounded by other DVD’s; these were all different genres and styles. We decided to use the faded and black and white effect on the rest, keeping the colourful effect on our digipack. This made it stand out clearly; the colour gave our DVD in particular a warm and exciting video, looking entertaining and advertising. The photo was taken in the HMV store. We deviated from the forms and conventions of advertising Bhangra digipacks and singles, by adding our digipack around others, to show its status against the rest. We did not present the main artist face.
We research other magazine adverts by Dr Zeus, many of his advertisements for his singles and concerts, presented his face and information only. We challenged this by having a different way to advertise our digipack compared to others, using the main stars photo.
3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
With the initial target audience research, our profile under age was targeted against all ages, as we decided to feature children, teenagers, elderly people and middle aged.
The representation of young people would be easy going and fun. They look like their do anything not to be bored. They have no barriers or limits and will do as they wish just to make their lives that little bit more exciting. They would be wearing jogging bottoms, hoodies and typical street clothing. Lastly the older people will be seen as grumpy and cautious of everything and get annoyed by the young people screaming and shouting. They would be wearing the average knitted jumper and stereotypical old people clothing. we decided having a range of ages, would make the video more entertaining for everyone, reducing effects such as scenes to restrict people from seeing the video. The best idea was to present many people in the video dancing and having fun, in a Bhangra music video.
We are going to have Punjabi dancers wearing traditional clothes and dancing, this will represent them as talented people who have a lot of colour colourful and are not ashamed to show off their traditional dancing in the public eye. They would be very fun, energetic and outgoing. With using members of the public we used all genders, ages and black and white and a range of ethnic groups too.
Regarding gender, we use a mixture of males and females in the video. Looking at voyeurism the traditional roles of men is to be more dominant and women are seen as powerful and controlling gazes. We decided to go against the views of women being seen sexually, with a lot of flesh seen in music videos. From our target audience research, our audience stated that a video would be better without this. We had a role reversal, instead of the male being powerful; the female was able to spread the ‘dancing disease’, to members of the public. Finally ethnicity, we too mixed this in the video, having an equal amount for all viewers to feel that the entertainment in Bhangra is for everyone. After looking through our audience feedback, we took these points into account and with these elements we built them into our music video, to appeal to our wide target audience.
When we presented our video, which included feedback from facebook and youtube, to our target audience with a range of ages and races, we found that they were impressed with our cast, using member of the public, which was very effective. Also the humour and dancing was what made the music video entertaining, this had met our planning and research ideas. It looked very professional with the dancers and enjoyable which highlighted the community, it was capturing and engaging. The narrative and performance were very realistic with excellent camera work, lighting and editing, which was smooth and effective. The choice of the song was important as we had to represent the traditional Bhangra culture, but adding a twist of a multicultural society for a target audience to become broad. This was successful to our target audience due to the feedback we received.
The digipack follows the trend in the music video. The girl posing on the front cover is a very good brand image for the music video. The silhouettes of dancers are also very cool. The colours add to the fun aspect of the music video and since it has bright colours and flowers it associates with spring and happy feelings. The font for the name of the music video goes really well with the whole theme. The swirly design makes it look classy. The composition is also very good and clear. Although we did have some negative feedback. The green colour did not suit the yellow and orange. The pink is too bright compare to the other colours. This however, makes the silhouette stand out.
Regarding feedback on the magazine advert, the audience stated the advertisement is edited really well. Comparing the final to the first draft, the fonts and the digipack stands out really well in the final one. The main focus is on the digipack and the writings saying “out on 21st February” and the digipack is on a shelf in a music store which is good because people will remember it next time they go to a music store. The colour theme is simple and safe and linked with the digipack and the music video.
Therefore, technically and essentially, our media products and video were successful in representing the key genre and traditions of Bhangra and meeting the OCR
brief. In comparison to professional products, our video is overall well presented and edited towards our target audience, but is still not the standards of professional music videos, using less technical equipment. I feel with this it would be ideally promoted by a smaller, independent label, targeting a niche target audience market. This is because the genre and style of the video and music is a part of an independent label. Finally i feel that our music video does not really present a USP (unique selling point) but it may provide some lucrative opportunities for spin-off merchandising, for example traditional clothes presented on the main star and the dancers, which could appeal to a wide range of our audience, but mainly Asian.
4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Using technologies such as the Internet and Youtube to look at music videos, where we were able to complete two detailed textual analysis on music videos of our choice that is similar to our research. For example videos by ‘FC Kahuna- Hayling’- “The Machine Says Yes” and ‘Cia’- “Breath Me”.
For extra research we were able to expand out ideas by using internet search engines such as, Wikipedia. We found information we needed to base our ideas around the tradition of Bhangra. This contained vital information which we developed towards our research. Other sites such as Google, were important in helping us find images that would be suitable for our Digipack covers. We were able to expand our search by looking into the options section, which contained sites where these images would also be found. These links were ‘Videos’, ‘News’, ‘Blogs’, ‘Youtube’, ‘Books’ and ‘Discussions’… it also contained sizes of the pictures, colours and types, for example ‘face’, ‘photo’,’ clip art’ and ‘line drawing’.
We finally settled on a song, “Aa Ne Kuriye” by the artist ‘Dr Zeus’. The song was remix with “Temperature” by ‘Sean Paul’, through the copyright clearance forms we sent an email to the owner of the track on youtube’s different ideas for this Bhangra video.
When we began shooting it was great using the Cannon XM2 Digital Camera, with automatic focus/ exposure and widescreen capability, which we had to set to befire shooting or clips. Plus the on-camera mic/ external Senhauser gun mic, which was important for the beginning of our video, with the use of diegetic sound. The tripod, which is a safe set up, with pan and tilt controls, which we also had to use during the shooting to keep certain shots steady. Following the plan on our first shoot in South Harrow, we managed to successfully get members of the public to participate in staring in our video. We shot in many different locations with much of the public in the background, showing reactions and dancing. From South Harrow station to the park, on the train, on the streets, in the chip shop, which we had to receive permission from the owner in Sea Pebbles, Hatch end.
We had interior lighting with the dolly lights and coloured gels (reds, blues, yellows and greens), which was important in the dance sequence scenes at Whitmore High School. We had to make sure we had shots with different angles to edit with in different locations. During the first shooting of our dance sequence at Whitmore we had a few technical challenges on the shoot, trying to handle the dolly lights, with the coloured gels. Also managing time with the hall and fitting in all the dance sequences, with different camera angles. We were able to create a constructed plan for the second dance shoot and we managed to successfully create some great shots, experimenting with the coloured gels.
Finally after shooting, during the editing stage we had to log and capture all our useful shots, paying particular attention to the time counter, description of the shots that were captured/ not captured and the sound. We then constructed our captured shots on to ‘Apple’s Final Cut Pro’ to capture and edit our shots. We experimented with effects such as changing transition durations, using the motion tab, multi-layered dissolves etc… we also had to correct and adjust the audio levels and add our original diegetic train audio, adding sound fades into before the track began. Other techniques such as colouring, fast/slow motion, glowing effects and rendering were used whilst editing our music video. Using these effects, we were able to enhance our ideas, making the shots look more effective. When experimenting with the markers, we felt that we had edited a lot of our shots to the beat of the music, therefore using the markers made us lose and cut out important sections in the video.
Before we constructed the Digipack and magazine advert, we had to take photos for our print products, using the FinePix S6000 Digital Stills Camera. We had to re-shoot our pictures of the main star, as the lighting was not effective; we then decided to shoot our photos against a clear white wall. Once we chose our images for our Digipack, we edited the cover on ‘Adobe CS4 Photoshop’ and ‘Adobe Illustrator CS4’ using typography for the heading and titles. We decided to make it colour following the traditional Bhangra/ Bollywood colours and using prints for the website, www.brusheasy.com, edited on Adobe CS4 Photoshop. All the research and construction of the products were all put on the blog, with label clouds and links to the main headings. We also decided to take photos on the set, during the planning and research stages and recce, creating a picture diary on the blog.
Our music video demonstrated particular genre characteristics such as dance routines and it presented the traditional Bhangra and multicultural society. The use of narrative format, structure and style of presentation was followed as being a performance based video. We produced a fragmented and mixed video, leaving the viewer with the desire to see it again. Our music video cut between the performance dance sequences and the narrative shots. The choreographed dances were a part of the main stars performance. We did deviated the forms and conventions by not adding the artist in the performance based music video. We also changed the narrative concept from the lyrics, making it more entertaining for our viewers. The music video allows more access to the artist and performer than a stage performance would. As we did not follow these codes, we were unable to show the close-ups on the artist, which would not be possible in a live concert.
We followed the conventional music video through technical, symbolic and cultural codes. This was shown by the use of camerawork movement, by accompanying the performer as she dances. We also used many close up on different angles of the dance sequences, to create a sense of intimacy for the viewer. We especially emphasised the Bhangra tradition in the video and the performance through the dance sequences. regarding the camera work we used lots of close-ups and lighting with the use of gels and dolly lights, being focused on the stars face. Some music videos transcend genres, whereas our music genre style is easily categorised, as it is a Bhangra and RnB remix.
The main star is represented as being Asian, although we did decide to use a range of cultures and ages to achieve a wide audience, being able to entertain everyone. These features were presented in the music, The costume showing the traditional ‘Kurta’ (sequined long top), The 'Chunni' (long colourful scarf) and baggy trousers. The dance performances follow the traditional Bhangra and Bollywood theme, the performance idea and the editing and lighting, which was colourful and entertaining, is also an important feature in this tradition.
The editing we followed, associating with the music video promo, is the cuts, slow pace and gentler shot transitions, which establish the dance sequences in beat with the song. Using the marking phase, we practiced using this against the background music. This pace against the music is an original part of editing for the traditional Bhangra music videos presented by various artists. We used special features to change the look of shots, with sparks, blending effects, diegetic sounds, adjusting lighting and colourisation. This was to give the audience different moods, to be able to capture the humour and entertainment in the video.
Bhangra music videos would traditionally represent dancers, clothes, instruments and even the artist. Furthermore in our proposal ideas we decided to use multicultural society, with the main dancer as the star, instead of the artist. We followed the forms and conventions presenting the mise-en-scene including colourful and traditional clothes, using studio lighting- dollies, and colourful gels. Costumes, dance routines and locations were the main source of entertainment.
The editing we followed, associating with the music video promo, is the cuts, slow pace and gentler shot transitions, which establish the dance sequences in beat with the song. Using the marking phase, we practiced using this against the background music. This pace against the music is an original part of editing for the traditional Bhangra music videos presented by various artists. We used special features to change the look of shots, with sparks, blending effects, diegetic sounds, adjusting lighting and colourisation. This was to give the audience different moods, to be able to capture the humour and entertainment in the video.
Bhangra music videos would traditionally represent dancers, clothes, instruments and even the artist. Furthermore in our proposal ideas we decided to use multicultural society, with the main dancer as the star, instead of the artist. We followed the forms and conventions presenting the mise-en-scene including colourful and traditional clothes, using studio lighting- dollies, and colourful gels. Costumes, dance routines and locations were the main source of entertainment.
The soundtrack was a remix with Sean Paul “Temperature” and Dr Zeus “Aa ne Kuirye”, with Punjabi lyrics music and lyrics. The track starts with Sean Paul which then follows through to a traditional ‘Dhol’ beat drum and Dr Zeus’ voice himself. This remix is different to many of his original Bhangra single tracks, for example “Kangna”, "Sahiba bani prawa di" and Par langa de veh, which are his original Punjabi tracks.
Music promos are frequently drawn up on to spark recognition by the audience easily. Regarding the music video forms and conventions show that we research many performance based videos, under Bhangra artist, with our own ideas added too. We also looked at popular artist and singles, such as “Jai Ho”, by the 'PussyCat Dolls', which also had performance and the traditional Asian theme, with the public dancing too. During our research and planning stage, we searched for different ideas and looked at many different types of music videos showing other concepts. Such as Cia, F.C Kahuna, Michael Jackson, Christina Aguilera and many more.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Regarding the music video, we adapted the principles of branding, such as brand image, by creating our own production logo; ENC Productions which we decided would represent us as a production group. Other branding elements where represented by the locations, for example public transports and the Fish & Chips restaurant, were advertised. We also covered other cultural difference, for example Bhangra and Bollywood. By expanding this and using members of the public, it became more multicultural.
Regarding the Digipack we also
added our own production logo ENC Productions.We also decided to take our photo HMV store, surrounded by other Digipacks, with different genres. We added the HMV logo to support this.
We challenged the forms and conventions by not adding the artist image to the digipack; instead we branded the artist by advertising his name and the single. We followed the forms and conventions through the image presented on the digipack using the stars image, representing the traditional Indian identity. This reaches the target audience for the genre of the music, Bhangra.
Regarding the technical codes the picture of the main star is centre framed to make her stand out. He face is cropped fro shoulder upwards and her pose shows she is mysterious yet representing the traditional Bhangra theme. Above her we presented the single name and the artist Dr Zeus. Through the symbolic codes her facial expression and pose presents her mysterious and exciting character. The main stars make up and hairstyle, all show her feminine and Indian/ Bhangra representation. The silhouettes show her character, being a dancer and cultural performer.
With the background we decided to follow the traditional conventions of Bollywood and Bhangra. The colours orange, green, pink and red are mainly featured and added to the bright backgrounds and patterns. Finally regarding the lighting, we had to redo the photoshoot using a better camera. This was in order to achieve better lighting on the main stars face. This was important to do, as it was a main feature of the digipack, which stands out.
Text wise we used on the digipack includes the important features of the single name ‘Aa ne Kuriye’ and Dr Zeus the artist. As we went against the forms and conventions we added to the front on the digipack ‘Featuring Chaiya’, which was the name of the main star. On the back cover we added different tracks also presented on the DVD and what it also includes on the inner leaflet. This was important for us to do, as we had a wide target audience, we needed the lyrics and translation to the track and information on the tradition and background of Bhangra.
Intertexuality through the use of form and conventions, indicates we were influences by other digipack designs for example Bollywood digipack covers, with use of colours, patterns, ideas ad designs, which we as a group thought would be good to use.
Regarding the magazine advert, that branding elements that we followed through were that we advertised a website ‘www.kuriye.com’ the text and captions were also presented to add a sense of urgency, to advertise this entertainment, “sensational mix of western and eastern music…will keep you on your feet dancing”. We used this quote to present in words the main theme and idea of the music video. we advertised a logo ‘NME’ with 5 stars, to show the rating of the video, advertising the entertainment of the video and Dr Zeus’ phenomenon remix.
We followed the forms and conventions through choice of imaged by showing the digipack surrounded by other DVD’s; these were all different genres and styles. We decided to use the faded and black and white effect on the rest, keeping the colourful effect on our digipack. This made it stand out clearly; the colour gave our DVD in particular a warm and exciting video, looking entertaining and advertising. The photo was taken in the HMV store. We deviated from the forms and conventions of advertising Bhangra digipacks and singles, by adding our digipack around others, to show its status against the rest. We did not present the main artist face.
We research other magazine adverts by Dr Zeus, many of his advertisements for his singles and concerts, presented his face and information only. We challenged this by having a different way to advertise our digipack compared to others, using the main stars photo.
3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
With the initial target audience research, our profile under age was targeted against all ages, as we decided to feature children, teenagers, elderly people and middle aged.
The representation of young people would be easy going and fun. They look like their do anything not to be bored. They have no barriers or limits and will do as they wish just to make their lives that little bit more exciting. They would be wearing jogging bottoms, hoodies and typical street clothing. Lastly the older people will be seen as grumpy and cautious of everything and get annoyed by the young people screaming and shouting. They would be wearing the average knitted jumper and stereotypical old people clothing. we decided having a range of ages, would make the video more entertaining for everyone, reducing effects such as scenes to restrict people from seeing the video. The best idea was to present many people in the video dancing and having fun, in a Bhangra music video.
We are going to have Punjabi dancers wearing traditional clothes and dancing, this will represent them as talented people who have a lot of colour colourful and are not ashamed to show off their traditional dancing in the public eye. They would be very fun, energetic and outgoing. With using members of the public we used all genders, ages and black and white and a range of ethnic groups too.
Regarding gender, we use a mixture of males and females in the video. Looking at voyeurism the traditional roles of men is to be more dominant and women are seen as powerful and controlling gazes. We decided to go against the views of women being seen sexually, with a lot of flesh seen in music videos. From our target audience research, our audience stated that a video would be better without this. We had a role reversal, instead of the male being powerful; the female was able to spread the ‘dancing disease’, to members of the public. Finally ethnicity, we too mixed this in the video, having an equal amount for all viewers to feel that the entertainment in Bhangra is for everyone. After looking through our audience feedback, we took these points into account and with these elements we built them into our music video, to appeal to our wide target audience.
When we presented our video, which included feedback from facebook and youtube, to our target audience with a range of ages and races, we found that they were impressed with our cast, using member of the public, which was very effective. Also the humour and dancing was what made the music video entertaining, this had met our planning and research ideas. It looked very professional with the dancers and enjoyable which highlighted the community, it was capturing and engaging. The narrative and performance were very realistic with excellent camera work, lighting and editing, which was smooth and effective. The choice of the song was important as we had to represent the traditional Bhangra culture, but adding a twist of a multicultural society for a target audience to become broad. This was successful to our target audience due to the feedback we received.
The digipack follows the trend in the music video. The girl posing on the front cover is a very good brand image for the music video. The silhouettes of dancers are also very cool. The colours add to the fun aspect of the music video and since it has bright colours and flowers it associates with spring and happy feelings. The font for the name of the music video goes really well with the whole theme. The swirly design makes it look classy. The composition is also very good and clear. Although we did have some negative feedback. The green colour did not suit the yellow and orange. The pink is too bright compare to the other colours. This however, makes the silhouette stand out.
Regarding feedback on the magazine advert, the audience stated the advertisement is edited really well. Comparing the final to the first draft, the fonts and the digipack stands out really well in the final one. The main focus is on the digipack and the writings saying “out on 21st February” and the digipack is on a shelf in a music store which is good because people will remember it next time they go to a music store. The colour theme is simple and safe and linked with the digipack and the music video.
Therefore, technically and essentially, our media products and video were successful in representing the key genre and traditions of Bhangra and meeting the OCR
brief. In comparison to professional products, our video is overall well presented and edited towards our target audience, but is still not the standards of professional music videos, using less technical equipment. I feel with this it would be ideally promoted by a smaller, independent label, targeting a niche target audience market. This is because the genre and style of the video and music is a part of an independent label. Finally i feel that our music video does not really present a USP (unique selling point) but it may provide some lucrative opportunities for spin-off merchandising, for example traditional clothes presented on the main star and the dancers, which could appeal to a wide range of our audience, but mainly Asian.4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Using technologies such as the Internet and Youtube to look at music videos, where we were able to complete two detailed textual analysis on music videos of our choice that is similar to our research. For example videos by ‘FC Kahuna- Hayling’- “The Machine Says Yes” and ‘Cia’- “Breath Me”.
For extra research we were able to expand out ideas by using internet search engines such as, Wikipedia. We found information we needed to base our ideas around the tradition of Bhangra. This contained vital information which we developed towards our research. Other sites such as Google, were important in helping us find images that would be suitable for our Digipack covers. We were able to expand our search by looking into the options section, which contained sites where these images would also be found. These links were ‘Videos’, ‘News’, ‘Blogs’, ‘Youtube’, ‘Books’ and ‘Discussions’… it also contained sizes of the pictures, colours and types, for example ‘face’, ‘photo’,’ clip art’ and ‘line drawing’.
We finally settled on a song, “Aa Ne Kuriye” by the artist ‘Dr Zeus’. The song was remix with “Temperature” by ‘Sean Paul’, through the copyright clearance forms we sent an email to the owner of the track on youtube’s different ideas for this Bhangra video.
When we began shooting it was great using the Cannon XM2 Digital Camera, with automatic focus/ exposure and widescreen capability, which we had to set to befire shooting or clips. Plus the on-camera mic/ external Senhauser gun mic, which was important for the beginning of our video, with the use of diegetic sound. The tripod, which is a safe set up, with pan and tilt controls, which we also had to use during the shooting to keep certain shots steady. Following the plan on our first shoot in South Harrow, we managed to successfully get members of the public to participate in staring in our video. We shot in many different locations with much of the public in the background, showing reactions and dancing. From South Harrow station to the park, on the train, on the streets, in the chip shop, which we had to receive permission from the owner in Sea Pebbles, Hatch end.
We had interior lighting with the dolly lights and coloured gels (reds, blues, yellows and greens), which was important in the dance sequence scenes at Whitmore High School. We had to make sure we had shots with different angles to edit with in different locations. During the first shooting of our dance sequence at Whitmore we had a few technical challenges on the shoot, trying to handle the dolly lights, with the coloured gels. Also managing time with the hall and fitting in all the dance sequences, with different camera angles. We were able to create a constructed plan for the second dance shoot and we managed to successfully create some great shots, experimenting with the coloured gels.
Finally after shooting, during the editing stage we had to log and capture all our useful shots, paying particular attention to the time counter, description of the shots that were captured/ not captured and the sound. We then constructed our captured shots on to ‘Apple’s Final Cut Pro’ to capture and edit our shots. We experimented with effects such as changing transition durations, using the motion tab, multi-layered dissolves etc… we also had to correct and adjust the audio levels and add our original diegetic train audio, adding sound fades into before the track began. Other techniques such as colouring, fast/slow motion, glowing effects and rendering were used whilst editing our music video. Using these effects, we were able to enhance our ideas, making the shots look more effective. When experimenting with the markers, we felt that we had edited a lot of our shots to the beat of the music, therefore using the markers made us lose and cut out important sections in the video.
Before we constructed the Digipack and magazine advert, we had to take photos for our print products, using the FinePix S6000 Digital Stills Camera. We had to re-shoot our pictures of the main star, as the lighting was not effective; we then decided to shoot our photos against a clear white wall. Once we chose our images for our Digipack, we edited the cover on ‘Adobe CS4 Photoshop’ and ‘Adobe Illustrator CS4’ using typography for the heading and titles. We decided to make it colour following the traditional Bhangra/ Bollywood colours and using prints for the website, www.brusheasy.com, edited on Adobe CS4 Photoshop. All the research and construction of the products were all put on the blog, with label clouds and links to the main headings. We also decided to take photos on the set, during the planning and research stages and recce, creating a picture diary on the blog.
Magazine Advert
Audience Feedback
Positive feedback: The advertisement is edited really well. Comparing the final to the first draft, the fonts and the digipak stands out really well in the final one. The main focus is on the digipak and the writings saying “out on 21st February” and the digipak is on a shelf in a music store which is good because people will remember it next time they go to a music store. The colour theme is simple and safe and linked with the digipak and the music video.
Nilima Thapa
Digipack
Audience Feedback
Positive feedback: The digipack follows the trend in the music video. The girl posing on the front cover is a very good brand image for the music video. The silhouettes of dancers are also very cool. The colours add to the fun aspect of the music video and since it has bright colours and flowers it associates with spring and happy feelings. The font for the name of the music video goes really well with the whole theme. The swirly design makes it look classy. The composition is also very good and clear.
Negative feedback: The green colour does not suit the yellow and orange. The pink is too bright compare to the other colours. However, this makes the silhouette stand out.
Nilima Thapa
Music Video
Audience Feedback
The interviews we realised what audience would prefer and what would make out music video more appealing, by including and excluding certain things. In order to make a music video eye catching it would need dancing, colour, talent makes it entertaining and unique. The storyline has to be interesting so it’s east to understand the music and video. The music itself has to be great quality and entertaining if it is edited in interesting way, this makes it fun to watch and exciting. The actors and people in the video should be reasonably good, acting in certain areas to express emotion or a story. The shots shouldn’t be repetitive and depending on the music, different cuts and shots would be really. I think that each video should have a special aspect to it that everyone will be able to remember. This aspect should resemble the song.
Things to exclude from a video would be showing less shots of women represented in a sexual way, too much flesh shown, short clothes or sometimes hardly any, are seen a lot. Sometimes the use of inappropriate physical contact can be dangerous and have a bad influence on viewers, especially if they are young. Also depressing and boring themes with repetition can put people off.
The type of music for example heavy metal/rock videos have to fit well with a good video, meaning having more extreme idea compared to having a slow video, with peaceful shots. Random videos, without meanings can be irritating and awful to watch sometimes, which ruins the song.
When we presented our video, which included feedback from facebook and youtube, to our target audience with a range of ages and races, we found that they were impressed with our cast, using member of the public, which was very effective. Also the humour and dancing was what made the music video entertaining, this had met our planning and research ideas. It looked very professional with the dancers and enjoyable which highlighted the community, it was capturing and engaging. The narrative and performance were very realistic with excellent camera work, lighting and editing, which was smooth and effective. The choice of the song was important as we had to represent the traditional Bhangra culture, but adding a twist of a multicultural society for a target audience to become broad. This was successful to our target audience due to the feedback we received.
Chaiya Varsani
Production Design
Costume Design:
The main star-
Through out the video she wears the traditional punjbai outfit, which includes...
Jewellery- Bindi, Bangles, Earing, Ankelt and Necklace
Props- Bag, i-pod,
Clothing- Kurta (long top), Baggy tousers, Chunni (Scarf)
Hair & Makeup- hair left down, with accesories, makeup using bold eye makeup.
The Dancers-
They all wore similar styled Kurtas and Punjabi outfits, which were colourful. They also wore Bangles, Bindi and jewellery which are very important in a Bollywoodra/Bhangra dance performance...
Set Design (setting, lighting & colour design):
The main set we added more colour and effect to was the dance sequecne, which was filmed at Whitmore High School. We used Dolly lights and colourful gels to create an excititing background, whiclst the dancers performed for the music video.
The other locations were held in public places, such as the park, train station, with exterior lighting. We also had to shoot at the Fish & Chips restaurant, which origianlly had different interior lighting, such as blue and red signs.
Chaiya Varsani
Thursday 22 April 2010
Characterization
Main character:
Chaiya
Female (18-20 years old)
Punjabi/Indian
Good Bhangra dancer
Bubbly character, energetic, friendly and pretty, main focus on her as she is dancing on her way to her Bhangra class.
Four dancers:
All female (18-20 years old)
Good Bhangra (Bollywood) dancers
Chaiya’s friends in Bhangra class, dancing in the dance studio.
Other characters:
Male/female
Ages varied from 10-70 years old
All races/ethnicity
Outside the train station, traffic lights, street, fish and chips shop and in the
park
Nilima Thapa
Chaiya
Female (18-20 years old)
Punjabi/Indian
Good Bhangra dancer
Bubbly character, energetic, friendly and pretty, main focus on her as she is dancing on her way to her Bhangra class.
Four dancers:
All female (18-20 years old)
Good Bhangra (Bollywood) dancers
Chaiya’s friends in Bhangra class, dancing in the dance studio.
Other characters:
Male/female
Ages varied from 10-70 years old
All races/ethnicity
Outside the train station, traffic lights, street, fish and chips shop and in the
park
Nilima Thapa
Thursday 15 April 2010
Research on Bhangra magazine adverts
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These are different ideas we decided to develop from for our magazine advert, using the main stars photo, instead of the artist.
Chaiya Varsani
The Digipack inner Sleave- Final
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