Evaluating Photoshop as a post production tool

Photoshop is a creative tool based around layering and photo manipulation. Through our use of photoshop i was able to promote Affie in the style that i wanted, (an urban inner city member of the Grime genre). Our audience is cemented by the use of street pictures and the manipulation of Affie, towering over the city. Text was also applied to our photoshopping, enabling us to be creative with our direct comments towards our audience. Photoshop also allowed us to combine our promoting tools with online media by encorperating a blackberry bar code that can be recieved through the poster itself. Affie's website is also available through photoshop.

Feedback on Director's Commentary

Affi

Hector, Jake Karis and MiMi

Sound and considerate understanding of the technologies used in production of the video, for example in terms of set design quality and the use of FCP to create ‘earthquake’ effects.

There are evident links between creative decision making and use of technology on both productions of the video using professional digital cameras and in the post production editing process – in discussion of match of action, lip syncing and graphic matching – in glitch effects and blinder lights in production. This is sustained and thorough and accurate in discussion of the branded themes of the MV of urbanism and a social realist feel.

The commentary shows a discrete awareness of the use of new media technology and uses discriminating examples really well, particularly to selection and construction of narrative, using masks and editing techniques, such as cross cutting and the pacing used. Excellent command of terminology and well presented – understands and discusses convergence really well if implied in the commentary.

There is sustained justified decision making links between the technologies used the product and audience reception in terms of the Grime genre. Recognises the need to account for errors in the post production stage.

This is a well considered documentary, well done and Well presented work.

Photoshop

Photoshop, the image manipulation softwere tool was used to create our ancillary texts (poster and digipak). We took photos of our character and manipulated them to make Affie accepteable for the Grime scene. His 'bad attitude to society', prison lineup idea was created through layering his photo over a real prison lineup. we made his face transparent through effect tools and changed the colour saturation to black and white to create a mysterious persona around Affie.

Task 4 - Technology in Pre- Production

Technology played a major part in our pre production stage of coursework. Starting with gaining permission to use the track itself, we emailed our artist Mikill Pane to tell him of our intentions for his track to be used. older methods such as writing a letter would have taken far too long to send off and reply to, so the new technologies made this proccess much easier.

When creating our storyboards, new technology helped us create anamatics, creating a much more similar product to what our end product will look like. This was an interesting take on the common storyboard idea which could only have been possible with the Sony NX5 cameras we used.

Youtube is an online video streaming site which was heavily rellied on for ideas and concepts which inspired us. This and Internet research helped inspire our videos and start our creativity, seeing similar products to what we wanted ours to look like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yazztvxF4lY - Mikill pane origional track.

E Blogger was an online technology which enabled us to keep tracks of our processes, leaving our thought trace of every idea we had and considered. This is a clever way of being able to recall past ideas.

http://www.blogger.com/home

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_resource_locator - The definition of a 'URL'

Focus group

Feedback -evaluation Task Three

This is very good blogging Jake.  I feel that you clearly understand audience feedback in your comments on the You Tube postings and the questionnaire feedback.  This has helped inform you what is positive and what is critical of your music video.  Further you are able to relate this to Hall's reception theory and apply this to the star image of your artists Affi - well done with this.  You do need feedback on the Cd digipak and poster.  Perhaps you could post some focus group feedback or interview a couple of students re your campaign.

Reception Theory

Stuart Hall's reception theory which is based around the denotative and connotative readings is easily applied to our product and ancillary text combination promoting Affie. What we gained from the feedback was what we hoped, an audience who was quite happy to understand Affie's intentions of becoming more of a top seeded 'Grime' artist, spreading out into the mainstream. Affie's fashion sense would be a clear denotation that people would take away, creating a noticable fanbase. Affie reads well as a youth who is repelling society's law and order. He is also noticably seen as an anti-hero from the feedback we recieved. Affie is being read as a bad member of society but more importantly, one who sections D and C1 of the JINCARS scale can relate and aspire to be like.

An Alternate interpretation of this is that Affie is not part of reality at all, and he is not trying to reach out to the working class innercity segment of our audience. Teenagers in such a state as those in the video for example could be seen as having gotten into that situation by the acts that they have done themselves, a view that we had not seen until our audience had exploited it. This prooved an interesting take, not one we believe Affie should persue, but one that stands out itself as a morally adequate reading.

Questionnaire

1. Do you beleive that our ancillary texts support our video in promoting Affie?

Sarah : 'yes definatly, its quite interesting because it seems as if Affie is aiming for more than a 'top spot' in the grime scene. he could branch out more, perhaps into the mainstream'

George : 'Affie seems like a character that will influence a younger generation to dress like him. helped by the ancillary texts, promoting his style as 'cool'.'

Patch : 'Affie's poster and Digipak show his 'street' appeal, making his audience quite obvious'

Will : ' I was not too sure about the girl in the video. Affie is promoted well with the ancillary texts aswell, but the girl seems to take a back seat. Is she an actress or part of the band?'



2. Who do you think the target audience would be from viewing all of the media products of Affie?

Sarah : 'Inner city middle class'

George : 'working class and teenagers'

Patch : 'rebels'

Will : from the JINCARS, section D or C1.



3. Does Affie fit well in the 21st centuary?

Sarah : 'if anything he is pushing the 21st centuary forward'

George : 'Definatly. the blinder lights continued in the Digipak is a new technology'

Patch : 'His clothing throughout the products suggest he is part of the modern fashions so yes'

Will : Affie being part of the 'Grime' scene is definatly a part of the 21st centuary.



4. Is Affie's digipak appealing?

Sarah : 'It would certainly appeal to teens who listened to Grime music.'

George : 'The whole prison line up idea works well. fans of Grime like to think that they are bad members of society'.

Patch : 'He seems quite mysterious in his digipak, which could have an effect on young woman with the black and white feel'.

Will : 'The shot with his converse shows his street credit, which would appeal to the working class i think'



5. Do you believe it is quite a male oriantated set of products?

Sarah : Yes it is, but girls could find that quite attractive! so the appeal could spread

George : 'The lyrics are very male oriantated with the cursing, the poster could also catch the eye of a guy that like's how Affie dresses'

Patch : 'Yes its definatly male oriantated. I cant really see how girls come into this genre'.

Will : 'the darkness of the Digipak would certainly appeal to boys. hes quite a scary character so boys would assume hes aggressive.



6. What is the relationship between Affie and his Audience?

Sarah : 'People may be quite shocked by his manner, but that could equil a shock factor which would make him popular.'

Patch : ' He would definatly set a clothes trend'

George : ' His clothes trend could spark a cult following. it could be seen as 'cool' to own an Affie T-shirt.'

Will : ' People from the working class may see him as inspirational to people like them.'



7. Does the Poster intice you to find out more about Affie the artist?

Sarah : 'There is a good range of media technologies which many can access. The blackberry one is a great idea as people can access information about Affie on the move'.

Patch : 'Because of the mysterious Digipak and video, i think people would be really exited to see some information on Affie that they can access'.

George : Its good how you have conformed to the 21st centuary techniques of finding out about things

Will : ' The gig date would be a huge hit, because of his mysteriousness, i beleive that people would really appreciate seeing him live'.

Audience Examination

I believe that an Effects model 2 audience will be more prominant than a model 1, when it comes to Affie. His star image of being a 'normal innercity, working class rapper' will appeal to those who are much like him, therefore having long term effects on these audence's mindsets. The clothes he wears are designed to become a fashionable trait, his arrogance in the music video is a tried and tested way of being a succesfull Grime artist, and with the genre still being a mainly underground hobby for innercity youths, the actions are copied and seen as a 'cool' persona to emulate.  I suppose you could say that much like the likes of Run DMC, glamorising the statement 'Fuck the Police', Affie is glamorising the persona of being a disrespectful citizen, claiming that if you do so, you will be above others in your field (shown by the 'space' theme and his thrown). Stuart Hall's intelligent communities will be highlighted when Affie's products are shown to the public.

Blumler and Katz's research in the 50's shows that audience's take pleasure in the products they consume, also selecting pleasurable parts out of the products which they feel neccesarry. Our products could spread the idea that it is 'ok to be working class and not rich', with the digipak showing off Affie's shoes, emplying that he is accustomed to 'street life', like most. A surveillence is used over all of the media products to show what is happening in the Grime scene and how it should move into the mainstream, therefore reaching out to a larger audience, like Affie is trying to do. Affie's audience, although niche, is also segmented into C1, C2 and even D on the JICNARS scale, stearing clear of higher classes, and stearing towards those who need hobbies to conform to because of the lack of jobs on the market at this point of time. our teenage VALS would be rebels and Trendies, craving the attention of there peers through surface confectionary but also wanting to create a 'movement', and more importantly, be a part of a global social wave.

Audience Feedback

This Feedback was taken from our Youtube page that we created for our video. We shall be creating a focus group of people who have never seen the video before to give live feedback on the video.

Response To The Combination task of Ancillary Texts And Video

In response to the task set, I believe that I have branded the Grime artist Affie succesfully over all three media texts. His image is the perfect for the music genre he is about to enter, and due to clever poster placement, subliminal hints to a certain audience and makreting schemes including guest appearences in other Grime artist's albums, Affie will attract the correct audience needed to make him sucessfull in the Grime scene, but also setting up the movement of 'Affie' which i designed to break him away from the many other artists whom clog up the scene. Affie can be succesfull in not only the UK niche scene, but he can go global.

Philip Kotler describes an Artist's campaign as a 'media mix', which I truelly believe that Affie has got the perfect ballance of. I believe that Affie follows Kieth Negus's view of artist's who stay true to there backgrounds and who have there 'feet on the ground' as being 'an organic act'. This for me is what makes the appeal of Affie so great, cementing his audience.

How Effective is the Combination 0f the Main

Teacher Feedback

A creative and imaginative way to present the conventions of the music video. However I feel that further evaluation is needed to assess how you have used those conventions.  You can do this by further post entries which:

1. Make more explicit the conventions of music video's and digipaks

2. Use of a wider range of examples - linked to real media

3. Fuller evaluation - what have you used and developed/ challenged.

Can you please extend evaluation task 1 to add more detail to your response.

Forms and Conventions