CCR Production Blog

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IGQz7CVGbILxxn4YxNo2cqUAefn3ofbM0enHyn2R518/edit?usp=sharing

1. 
   

2. 1. How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues? 

   Our product does not really challenge the conventions used in typical in our genre. Rap music videos have a lot of diversity in their shot use. Our video has similarities with others by having similar shots, but they also have very similar shot uses. When rap videos in the past use high angles, they do this by displaying how the rapper is on top of the world. Our video parrels this by also having our rappers at high angles flexing their money. The use of props with fake money is something that we also used that was a normal convention. These conventions that we followed worked in our favor because our storyboard and group ideas aligned with other similar conventions in rap videos, so our videos gave us materials that helped guide us. Our video may come across as a happy going getting which may have been a fault of our filming. Our video is supposed to represent the social issue of poverty. The music video displays an act of kindness which is something the world could use more of. These acts of kindness may seem extreme, but the overall message is that we need to give back to the community through charity. The video tries to show the impact of these actions and how they make people feel and that these small acts can cause an amazing ripple effect. 

   2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

   When discussing engaging audiences our product passes with excellence. We used a well-known rapper who has multiple excellent productions. This allows us to engage the audience immediately by the song choice because it is popular, and the artist is well liked. We also made sure to grab the attention of the audience with some lighthearted humor by telling them to not tell our teacher our budget. The use of our humor makes our video special because not all music videos have this quality. Our directed audience is the younger population and as a group full of younger individuals' people will gravitate to us based on the makeup of our group. Our youth also plays into how we would distribute our product as a real media text. Our generation is constantly on the internet and specifically uses social media to communicate and receive information. This is why we would post our music video on a social media platform, so it reaches young audiences which it is designed for. The media outlet that it would use is YouTube because it would reach the right audiences who want our type of content. 

   3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project? 

   This project was the real startup of my production skills. I had made a commercial which only tested my editing skills. This time I had to learn how to meticulously plan through the use of a storyboard. When planning I had to collaborate with my groupmates on a location. We all had our own ideas, but we needed a place that could withstand weather conditions and give us multiple options if certain scenes could not be made. This is why we would choose the galleria mall which worked in our favor because of its option diversity and how close it was to my groupmates house. When we got to the actual filmmaking process, I had to make sure the camera was in focus and other formalities when filming, but I also expanded my abilities in filming. I had to do many different types of shots like a Dutch shot, high angles, and low angles. All of these I had not done before. Now after this project I feel greatly confident in my skills in how to film all these distinct types of shots. I also feel like my basic skills like trial and error and being flexible were developed more. This is because while we were filming, we completely changed the beginning of the music video because we thought of a better opening. The fact that the group was all willing to change made it a better experience and we ended up with an overall product. When discussing trial and error, I had the idea of making a low angle shot outside and when I tried to make the shot it ended up being faulty because it was terrible lighting. 

   4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? 

   The first piece of technological equipment we used was a phone. Now the purpose of using a phone is a common theme that will show up in later technological uses which is how easy it is to use. Instead of using an expensive camera that would cost us time as well how to use we made sure to just use cinematic mode in our phones. At first the group and I were worried about the quality of the video. This worry would be distinguished by the use of the cinematic mode in our iPhone. The cinematic video produced quality videos with a simple click of a button. This simple click would be our greatest ally because our inexperience would not matter due to the simplicity of our technology. Now that the filming part was over, we went onto our editing process where we would use the software Capcut. Our group would have trouble deciding on the software, which is something in the future I will make sure is decided earlier. Besides the fact that we initially struggled we again would use software that would complement our inexperience by using capcut it made everything much easier. The best part about the use of Capcut is that even though it is not high-end software we did not lose anything by using it. We still had a quality product which was extremely fast to produce. The speed would really benefit us a lot because we did spend more time on deciding what to use so when we had to actually edit it was done in no time.