In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

To make my final products look professional I had to follow certain forms and conventions of exsisting products, in particular those of the hip-hop genre. I achieved this through things such as mise-en-scene, which for my music video was to feature the artist in his day to day settings such as in his house as this was what I found was the trend between most UK hip-hop videos, such as Dirty Dike's I analysed earlier. I also built on the conventions of mise-en-scene by featuring smaller objects such as alcohol bottles within the shots which don't stand out but help to build upon the day to day setting within his home. I also selected that the clothing be typical of the hip-hop genre making sure the actor was always wearing a flat peak cap and baggy hoodie.

For some of my products I decided to feature the artist smoking, which I felt was a way of developing the convention of having the artist in his day to day setting as most UK hip-hop artists have at least one scene in their videos where they are smoking. I decided to develop this further and feature it across both my digipak and final video as smoking is something that they will do regularly and on a daily basis so felt it fitted well.

 One way in which I challenged conventions was to not have a picture of the artist himself on the front cover of my digipak. Throughout pretty much every hip-hop CD the artist is on the front cover, where as I felt by challenging this it made the finished product seem far more unique and therefore more appealing to the audience. In addition to this I felt that having an image of a microphone on the floor links in with how Dr. Syntax is just a man with a microphone, there's no band or instrumentalists, so he is as alone with his music as the microphone is on the floor.

For my magazine advert I followed conventions such as having one dominant image across it all which imediately draws the eye in and then having text and smaller images around the outside to provide the viewer with extra information. I am happy with how I have used conventions with my products as I have used them enough to allow my products to be recognisable to what they are, but have also challenged them enough for my products to be origianl and unique. This I believe is perfect for the audience as products need to be recognisable, but also unique so to stand out and make them want to buy it.

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

I believe that the combination of my main products and ancillary texts is effective as they all have similar features to tie them in together, and yet are all unique in their own ways. To begin with they all have the same actor as the artist which will allow the audience to build up a relationship with the artist and make it so they recognise him. In addition to this the digipak and magazine advert  both feature a microphone on them and have the same two fonts on which builds a sense of continuity between the products and also gives the artist and the song track "Subcultures" their own ability to be instantly recognisable. Also the digipak and magazine advert follow a colour sceme of black and white.

In comparison to my products here is the same products made for the UK hip-hop artist Dirty Dike, along with a print screen from his music video, from these you can see how they are similar to my own products:

From these you can see that they kept the same image for both the album cover and the poster, I decided to do the same as it gives the products a sense of continuity and makes them instantly recognisable to each other. Also from the digipak you can see how he is in a usual day to day setting which is the same as my final video as I decided to follow this convention of UK hip-hop videos. Basically there is blatent similarities between the poster and CD cover such as images, colour scheme and font types - which the same can be said for with my products.

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

I have used various technologies throughout my project, the main of which has been Blogger which has recorded everything I've done from research and planning to evaluation. It has allowed me to record my progress step by step, along with being able to go back and edit and bits that I have felt necessary. On top of this it has meant that I have been able to access all of my work and build on it from anywhere that has an internet connection, which these days is pretty much everywhere.

For my research into similar products the internet became particually useful, and I used such websites as Google, Google Images and Youtube to find these. Youtube has grown vastly in the past few years and has become a great source for finding video based information.

Along with this I also used Hotmail as a way of transferring files for me to use else where, as well as using the college's intranet to access files to use such as log sheets.

I used Microsoft Office throughout my work as well. I used Word to create my questionnaire for my initial audience research and then used Excel to create graphs so to better display my findings.

For the editing of my lighting/test shots I used Windows Live Movie Maker which is very basic in comparison to Final Cut Pro which I used for the editing of my final music video. The difference between these two softwares really helped to show the difference between home editing and editing for industry standards which is a lot more complex and professional.

For the creation of my ancillary products I used Adobe Photoshop which allowed my products to really look professional as it has a large array of editing tools for still images. I also used it to edit my photo's before adding them to my ancillary products so to ensure they looked the best they could.

Finally one of the big differences between the technology I have been using has been the constant swap between using Mac's and PC's which has meant that I have had to become used to using both of these and ensure that all files can be read by both of these.

Audience Feedback

Final Product - Music Video

Final Product - Digipak

Final Product - Magazine Advert