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 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 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.