A2 Music Video (Final Cut) Anoop & Matt

Started From The Bottom- Drake (Anoop & Matt) from Matt Conlon on Vimeo.

This is the Final Cut of our A2 music video, Started from the bottom- Drake. We feel that this has been well strategically promoted to our targeted audience, fulfilling all of the conventions of a rap genre video, also expressing personal qualities of the artists life experiences.

Enjoy viewing. 

Evaluation 4

Evaluation 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?


Research and Planning
As there was only two members of our group communication was easy as well as regular meeting in school, also technologies like our mobile phones, IPad and Laptop to keep in constant communication. We maintained this communication mostly by phone calls and text messages  this is particularly convenient as we both keep our phones on us at most times in the day. As we had use of an IPhone it made lots of tasks very simple for example when we wanted to know the weather for the next week, we asked Siri, which accurately finds a suitable and accurate answer to the question you pose from the internet in seconds. Weather was a key issue in the planning of filming our music video. As we wanted to promote the artists wealth and fame, sunny weather is associated with more positive look. This app allowed us to keep regular check on the weather and when it was best and convenient for us to shoot.Which also made our decision making quicker, again as we both had phones it was easy to stay in touch. This was essential to portray the right image across, no famous artist would stand out in the rain and record a music video, it would of looked amateurish.
The IPhone was also very good because as it allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted to, where ever we wanted to. We were even able to take behind the scenes footage of what happened behind the cameras, when they are switched off. This is an effective as many artists write blogs or maintain video blogs to keep in constant communication with their fans, as it is them who are promoting them. It is very easy from an IPhone 5 to take and then upload to any social networking site an image or video. Also as you can upload the media to any social networking site it is in the public domain, millions of people access the internet and even more are on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook. This means that millions of potential fans and customers will look at whatever is on the general display (The Wall). By uploading Behind the scenes footage it instantly creates a buzz for the next promotion the brand promotes.
A problem we faced when we went to film up London is that it is a heavily populated small area and is sometimes confusing on the roads to figure out how to travel to places. Before we decided to travel on the train we tried out the IPhone maps on the quickest routes to the locations we wanted to film at. A feature of this function is that it gives additional travel information, like toll charges potential road works and speed cameras. These car expenses and risk factors lead us to the decision to us public transport which turn out cheaper and easier to commute.
 Another problem we faced however when deciding to use public transport is that we wanted to know the times and prices of the trains on the go whilst shooting, so we could decide when extraneous variables out of our control arose on the day, like too many people standing or walking in the desired location, of like in our music video when there would be skate boarders in South bank and how to get there for the time that they were performing.
It also kept us updated with the train activity and delays. This way we could work around any problems on the tubes and over grounds. Purchasing day travel cards online allowed us to travel all around London to our locations. As a group online booking supplied us with student discounts. Once again this aided our budget. A map of train routes was also supplied to us on the national rail website to guide us.
Google was used predominantly as a search engine. It is what the preloaded web browser on all the computers we had access to, it is very easy to use and also uses many features, such as Google maps. We used Google maps to work out predictions of potential travel expenditure around the various London locations. Also tools like Google image enabled us to get a quick and detailed look at all of these locations with out hoping they look right for the general themes of the music video and film, we knew accurately and currently what they looked like and could therefore easily picture how it would look in shot.

Vital to making our music video realistic we had to ensure that it would of kept with the same general conventions as official Drake videos.We used DrakeVEVO page to view the whole portfolio of his videos, it also had news topics and links to other sites relating to the artist, for example there was a link to go onto Amazon and purchase any merchandise from YMCMBA, this is the brand that Drake and other famous rappers like Lil Wayne andNicki Minaj as recognised with.
This allowed us to understand how different artists marketed their products in different ways. Understanding the layout of an artists website also gave us ideas of how to lay out our blog. This included colour scheme, labeled links, and also the set pattern followed throughout the site. Predominantly featured on the websites were the artists names. Displayed in different fonts inspired us ideas for logos, titles, and other font used throughout our project.

These pictures all show an aspect of Drakes life, from the bottle of alcohol the the 'xo' in cocaine and the attractive female. This shows how Drake is a rapper and part of his life is the party scene, which is also the main conventions of rap life and is often what is portrayed in rap music videos. However the difference between the convention and Drake is that his wealth and name is through hard work and not drug dealing. His lifestyle is supported by him working hard not being a 'Gangsta'.

 

Construction of the Music video
Progressing from last year as a group, we knew that by using more new media technologies we would gain higher marks as the quality of our video would be higher. We were able to show off our technical skills in a variety of aspects, for example in the filming and editing. We used professional software and equipment to create a high quality final piece,we have built on our editing skills from last year, allowing a more realistic finish. 

 

In our video we used a Cannon 600d to shoot the footage. One of the issue that we were faced with last year in the production of our thriller, was the poor quality of the camera, they were not as good as some of the other groups and there were hugh differences in look in comparison. Their videos looked more professional. As we knew that to sell this video to the targeted audience we wanted it to look as realistic and professional as we could. This camera is HD ready and a 1080i, meaning that the frames per second is quicker, meaning a more fluent picture. The camera was lightweight and portable with a long battery life, also it fit to the tripods that were provided by the school, thisa made it easy to use and it was a better quality. Luckily at the time that we shot there was not problems with light as it was in the middle of a spring day, and light was good. We also used this camera to take some of the photos for the Digipak and the magazine advert. As the quality of the pictures was higher, we were able to edit the pictures to a better standard than last year.

Once all footage was complete using an apple laptop we uploaded our footage. I-photo stored all our images and videos in a specific folder that was easily found, Called Anoop and Matt Music video. We were also careful about when to put work into the folder, as unfinished work will not flag up, and be seen easily meaning we may half finish work.

 

Final Cut pro was the editing software we decidied to use. Last year we used Pinnacle HD, this was fast and simple editing, however it wa slimited in the functions in which were available in filters, cuts, effects. Final cut is used by many professionals within the music industry. This took a bit of getting used to. As it was such a leap from our editing software to this professional software we had to take some time to familiarise ourselfs. After experimenting around with the magnitude of effects and the corrector tool, we were able to change the contrasts, brightness, saturation ect. We managed to find a tool that matched the setting off all the same clips and were able to sustain a set effects scheme to look professional.

We also used Photshop pro, although one of us did not know how to use it fully, we learnt together to create the digipak and magazine advert from the pictures we took when filming. Although the pictures were high quality we had to add different filters, fonts and other information to make sure to it looks like an advert and not just a picture. This was hard as Photoshop takes some time to understand what icons mean what and how to use them to gain to best effects such as blending, over laying and cloning. One feature that we enjoyed to use was the retouch tool. This allowed us to remove any unwanted blemishes to make the artists look flawless, this is important to look professional. 

Evaluation/Feedback
As we both has access to face book, twitter and the frequent use of Youtube, made our evaluation tasks easier to promote and compare with other videos from around the world from a variety of artists. After we had promoted our video, we wanted to gain feedback, not only from our interpersonal interviews and questionnaires, but also from a mass index of participants, there is no better way to do this but to used social networking sites. We carried on the brand that we has used last year 'SwagStar' media productions to upload recent activities of the group and artist and information about release dates. All feedback was taken into consideration for any future projects. Although we wanted to used Youtube to upload the video, we couldnt as we would usffer with copyright issues as there is already an offical music video for started from the bottom, this created some problems as we still wanted the video to accessed by a mass audience. After research into the most accessed uploading site apart from youtube and Vimeo arose as the most popular.

Social networking is global and therefore allowed people to share our video to others around the world. We were constantly able to update our followers on facebook as whatever we posted would be automatically visible on their timelines whenever they logged onto Facebook. We used twitter for uploads and to keep the audience updated with news and to keep fans interested. Although new twitter is expanding rapidly, with the amount of celebrities logged on and twitting, to their fans or about information that fans will want to here, to follow this convention we set up our own twitter page.

Evaluation 3

Evaluation 2

Evaluation 1

Evaluation Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or change forms and conventions of real media?

Throughout our music video and the promotions of the artist, we have wanted to maintain some conventions of a rap video, but also as Drake is a new artist and also raps different to other famous rappers. He incorporates vocals, melodies and harmonies. In the same way we wanted in the video to highlight his new and different style in the video differently. Most rap Videos contain violence, scenes of a sexual nature, drug use and derogatory insinuations of women and lesser men to the rappers. The title of the song we chose is 'Started From The Bottom' the idea behind this song is about being thankful and rejoice with your good loyal friends, your love for them and how you would be nothing without them and vice versa. We a conventional way to shoot this video would have been to have a staged party, with a crew behind our characters of friends pointing at the camera, alongside with footage of the artist singing different parts of the song in different locations. Although this works for world famous rappers, we did not have the budget to gather a group of people who would have taken it seriously and made it look effective. Therefore we decided change the conventions in our video slightly. We shot at various London attractions like embankment, london eye and big ben,
The music industry is a very competitive industry and is hence why artists have to stick out, and offer something new, a new way of performing and listening to music. Drake offers this, and therefore we have decided to play on the audiences memories. The front cover and back cover displays pictures of London. This is a famous City and the landmarks are known throughout the world, especially in the UK. When you look at pictures you create an instant association to how you know what it is or how someone has told you. This attraction will be a unique selling point and help Drake also to stand out as the covers are not of himself of his face, another way we have adapted the usual conventions of a music video, it also links in with the lyrics of the song of being a journey. 

 We have been inspired by a number of music videos and even films, these insiprations allow us to come up with orginal ideas for our music video. one aspect we were inspired by is the film Project X there party scenes created an image in our heads for some of the lyrics in our song with people dancing and jumping in slow motion, this inspired us, however we wanted it to be more formal than the character of this film, so during the embankment scene we got Anoop to dance to kind of replicate this.


Also the music video of headlines inspired us where he raps and its with his whole crew, we want to mirror this but use the location of an urban ghetto like setting so we used southbank skate pack which was filled with graffiti. Also another one of drakes video inspired us the video Marvins room where clips of Toronto are shown and are colour graded in purple which gives of a very aesthetically pleasing image, we were inspired by this imagery which allowed us to develop our ideas to create something like this by filming traffic in london.


In this music video we what to emphasis the character, showing how they have 'made it', they have reached all of the goals they set out in life. In the music video there are many moving shots of Anoop rapping , this conveys a suggestion of the popstar rock and roll lifestyle, in the industry this is shown by always at the biggest parties, with the most attractive woman, and showing to everyone how much money they are worth which we wanted to go against. In this video as we want to convey Drake as different shooting the scenes as a 1st persons view, what Drake is seeing through his eyes, this eliminates a boasting reference. As the Title of the song is 'Started From The Bottom' which is the love that you have with your friends, showing your loyalty and commitment and showing that no matter the fame and success you remain humble.

 

The car scene of Anoop rapping in the back of the car has reference to Drakes official video 'Headlines'The idea of going up is shown physically in that video in the elevator, this represents Drakes stuggle to success and struggle in the industryto the top shows success, wealth and fame. We wanted to depict this by the sports car being a luxuray way of travel, as famous people are always current and update. The charcter in the frame  adds to the feel of fame with the reference to how they are always in the spotlight no matter where they go.

As the song already has a music video this gave us some ideas, which we could addapt and create new ones. we had to interpret official music videos by the artist prior to starting ours, to make it realistic it has to suit some of the general conventions of a rap video. The Settings and Locations were carefully thought of before filming to ensure they were conveying the image we wanted, for example it would have been out of place to have an artist we want to convey as famous and wealthy in a small quiet town, it would look out of place and not effective for the target audience. 

Change in song

Originally the song we were going to use was 'Crew Love' by the artist Drake, we did three days filming for the music video but unfortunately the other participant in the filming couldn’t film due to other constraints. We could have cast another person to fit his character but there were no suitable people that we felt portrayed him well and also looked believable not only to us but to our target audience. After a discussion we decided that we need to change our song. The song we chose to change it too was by the same artist Drake and was called 'Stared From The Bottom' we felt that this song would be much better and portrays a creative piece of imagery. As a group we could be more creative when brainstorming ideas for a storyboard rather than the one we used for Crew Love.

Magazine Advert final draft

In our first magazine advert, although we liked it, we also thought that the colours in the background were too bright and distracted the audience from the artist, and the song which are the most important factors in advertising. We then went back to the drawing board to try and think of another idea. We had photos left from our original footage from the song we were going to do originally. We also looked at more advertisements in magazines like The Source, another common trend is the artist is placed although in the middle, the shot is further back to give more of an image of the surroundings. We took this photo on the side of the River Thames, Chelsea Embankment. This is an iconic and prestigous place in a world famous city, this enables the audience to link Drake to fame, wealth. power, prestige and status. We also thought that it would boost this image of fame if he was seen with a fellow rapper, hence why in the picture we have Matt (The Weeknd). Although this artist has nothing to do with the song being promoted, he is a close friend and because of there previous song history they are associated closely together, this also broadens the audience and market share of the promotion. Although one of features we wanted to include was brightness of the colours, we actually in this placed a Amaro filter over the picture, which gives this dusty effect, this was edited on photoshop pro and also insta gram (a portable app, when the picture is taken is loaded for editing on the IPhone). A five-star rating is included to display the success of the single in hope it will attract the audience. Moreover, it is printed in red to stand out from the rest of the advert as it is a major selling point.
The title of the song 'Started from the bottom' is in a clear black 'Fresh' font found on Dafont.com,  which matches the background but also stands out enough from the picture to be recognised and imprinted in the audiences mind. Before the title of the song it staes in the same font that it is a 'debut single' and 'out wednesday' these are two vital peices of infromation to display. The audience will firstly be intrigued by the fact it is a debut single, this interest will be spoken about and therefore the promotion is working. Secondly 'out wednesday', this means that the audience will know when they can view or purchase the single, this is vital as the only reason for promotion is the sell the product, or in our case the debut single. Further more we have added a quote from a well repected and known magazine brand. This certifies to the audience the track, as they are up to date with good music in there industry area, this reassures the audience, at the same time further intriguing the audience.