1. Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms
and conventions of real media products?
The song we used for our music video was ‘’Rum and Red bull’’. Our genre for our
music video is dancehall. We start our music video by having a DJ in his booth
announcing the start of the song. This is similar to the video ‘’Dude’’ by Beenie Man
as he also had the radio announcing the start of the song.
In most dancehall videos the women are sexualised for the purpose of the male
gaze. In popular dancehall video’s such as ‘Turn me on‘-Kevin little and ‘Gimme the
light’- Sean Paul the girls in the videos are dancing half naked around the lead
singer. We decided to use that style of presentation in our video but put a twist on it
by having the male and female’s separate. Taking into consideration our youngest
target audience (age range starting from 13 years old) we decided that it would be
too inappropriate to show a half naked woman so we dressed our dancer in a black
lacy top which is still sexy and appealing to the male gaze but still appropriate for
younger audience(Mulvey 1975). We also decided to place the male and females
separate. We had the girl dancing in one scene with the rum and redbull and the
performer in the other scene singing to song in a studio by himself this challenges the
conventions of a dancehall video as you would not usually see this.
In most dancehall video’s you will find big groups of people dancing with the main
performer with a specific dance like the video ‘’ Willie bounce’’- Elephant Man.
However since we decided to concentrate on the concept side of the video rather
than the performance we decided to not add a big dance scene in there.

2. We used conventional camera work tracking shot of the messy pool table in the
party scene. This also works as an establishing shot of the scene showing of what to
come. The messy pool table is also a metaphor of our video as a whole as it shows
that the video is random, abstract and unique. A video that uses a tracking shot at
the beginning is ‘’Last Friday night’’- Katy Perry although this is not a dancehall song
it is still a party song that is similar to our narrative. An unconventional shot we used
was titling the camera as if it has fallen. This is not typical to dancehall videos as they
like to use simple shots.
Whilst editing we added conventional effects like the mirror effect and we also
speeded up some shots. Our shots were quick and snappy synchronising with the
music which matches most dancehall videos like ‘’Nuh Linga’’-Elephant Man.
Regarding intertextuality, our graveyard scene with Michael Jackson was very similar
to old black and white conventional silent movies like Charlie Chaplin and laurel
and hardy. The slapstick chase scene were Michael drops his hat is amusing aiming
to get cheap laughs like the old silent movies. Intertexality is not a common thing in
dancehall video’s as they like to focus on the music and not the actual video as
they like people to dance along which is where the name ‘’dancehall’’ originated
from.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary
texts?
I think the combination of our main product and ancillary texts is very effective as
we have a recurring theme in all of them. Seeing as Redbull is already a familiar
brand and Bacardi is the rum we used in our video the 2 main colours we chose to
represent rum and redbull are blue and red. We use these colours throughout our
video. We have the main character (the Dj) in a blue top, we have the writing at the
beginning and end in red, the writing that says’’ will dance for rum and redbull’’ in
blue pen and more subtle items in blue or red. We tried very hard to get the image

3. of the redbull can and either a glass or bottle of rum imprinted into our audiences
mind. We decided to do it sublimely by having different CU (close up) shots of the
can and next to the glass. We want the audience to think of that image every time
they hear the words rum and redbull this is our brand identity. One of the characters
in our party scene wore a hoodie that said ‘’Jamaica’’ we did this intentionally to
show and remind people where the roots of dancehall came from. The uses of the
colours of the Jamaican flag are used mostly in existing dancehall videos. We
furthered the use of the Jamaican flag by having it in our digipaks.
In the process of coming up with brand idea’s we came up with the idea of using
the colours of the Jamaican flag for our background in our digipaks and posters. We
thought this would stand out from the typical posters that already exist as it consists
of bright, vibrant colours but yet still simple and effective.
For our magazine advert we placed a big
picture of Michael Jackson in the centre. This is
to attract a wide variety of audiences not only
those who are a fan of dancehall but Michael
Jackson fans also. The picture draws audiences
in as Michael is gesturing to come closer. This is
effective as it gives the audiences a sense of
involvement. The 2 artist names are in the colour
of red and blue following the colour scheme of
our video. We have the 2 brand logo for rum
Magazine advert and for redbull. I think this poster is very effective
as it gives you a lot of information about the
video but yet leaving some elements to surprise
the audience.
Similarly the front and back
cover have the same
background colours. We
decided to keep the front and
back cover simple almost as a
teaser to our video. The writing
is in red, yellow and green
following the colours of the
Jamaican flag.
Front and back cover

4. The inside sleeve is double
sided. It has our brand identity
of the can of redbull with a
glass of rum and a heart over
it. We decided to keep this
simple .It also has the same
Jamaican flag colour for the
background. The other side
has the Bacardi rum logo and
the redbull logo. This was
simple as well and is easily
recognisable as rum and
redbull.
The digipak slip contains the
lyrics of the song so you can
sing along. It matches the other
ancillary texts with the
Jamaican background and it
has the redbull logo in the
centre. This is effective because
when you’re reading the lyrics
you still get the sense of the
Digipak slip
redbull.
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
After showing people our final cut of our music video, the most common feedback
we got that it was confusing but very funny and enjoyable nonetheless. I learnt that
maybe a crazy concept to match the crazy upbeat song was not such a good idea
to a simple target audience. After explaining to the audience that the intentional
effect the video had on them was the same effect they would get whilst drinking
rum and redbull they agreed that this was a very clever concept and very unique
also. I learnt that the main characters were very funny and relatable to the our
target audience as they where round about the same age group and they also get
up to the same kind of things. Showing our video to a fellow film maker he pointed
out that some of the camera shots were not still this was due to a lack of a tripod in
some shoots. From this i learnt to always carry the correct equipment to a shoot.
We posted the video on a social
networking site and this is the response we
got.

5. The response we got after showing people our digpaks and magazine add was
mainly positive. They loved the bright colours ‘’ it reminds me of my home time
Jamaica. I would defiantly buy it just by looking at the cover’’- Nelly Camberwell’s.
The only critique we got was that the fonts in the different materials did not match. I
learnt that when we are designing products such as those we should all work
together and go with one set idea rather than working separately as we will end
with completely different products which don’t match.
Overall the feedback was very positive and I am very happy with it. However I feel
as though if we had taken more time to plan the shoots we would have had more
time for the print production. I have also learnt how to compromise. Seeing as I was
the editor in the group I was very worried that the shots the producer and director
would give me would not be enough. So I would constantly remind them of what
they need to do. This aggravated them and soon enough there was a divide in the
group. I learnt to have a little faith in my team members.
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?
Using new media technologies was a big help in throughout the whole process.
During the early stages of the project we used new media technologies for research.
We scoured YouTube for a song to do a music video to. After finding the perfect
song we then continued to use search engines and websites such as Wikipedia to
find research for the codes and conventions of our genre. We then went on social
networking sites and also a website where you can upload questioners to in search
of our target audience.
Whilst filming we used a Cannon XM2 digital camera with automatic or manual
focus / exposure and widescreen capability, plus on-camera mic. This was a very
good camera as it was easy to carry and was very good quality. We used a tripod in
most scenes and also a Lilliput and redhead in the party scene to create a warm
ambience feel as though our camera woman mastered the camera very well and
was able to improvise new shots such as the tipping shot and also film in some crazy
angles. A problem we faced whilst filming with equipment was a broken tripod, due
to this we had to set the camera on tables and chairs to get still shots or try and hold
the camera as steady as we could. The equipment enhanced our ideas by helping

6. us create new dynamic and abstract shots matching the theme of quirkiness
throughout our video. The camera also had a play back button. This helped us alot
as we could see the errors in the shots whilst we were still at the scene shooting so
we could quickly re-shoot instead of having to wait till we got to the edit suite to
then realise we did not have the right shots.
Having used final cut pro before i feel as though editing was the easiest part of the
task. Final cut pro is very simple to use and has very good effects. The main issue i
had whilst editing was the fact that we did not have the right shots i needed to edit
with so i had to improvise some shots and also re-shoot some shots.
Photoshop proved to be very difficult whilst doing the print production as I was not
very familiar with it. After doing a workshop with one of our lectures I soon began to
get the hang of it making it easier to do and producing exceptional digipacks.
Whilst doing this evaluation i found that websites such as YouTube, twitter and face
book where most helpful as we could post our video on there and get audience
feedback.