Digipack Research 2

Digipack Research 1

Album Cover Conventions

Front Covers
- A simplistic colour schemes
- A simplistic design
- Few or no characters
- Use of a different colour for the band/artist name compared to the rest of the cover
- Hidden meanings
- A title that explains to the audience what the album will be about
- Bold, simple fonts for the band/artist name
- Similar or entirely opposite font for the album title

Back Covers
- Name of band/artist at very top
- Name of album beneath this
- List of song titles, usually centred
- Barcode in bottom right hand corner
- Name of record company
- Copyright and year
-Who owns the copyright material
- Who the album has been distributed by

Insides
- Colour scheme that is the same as the rest of album
- Blank, plain background
-No characters
- Few or no text

Spines
- Name of the record company in recognised font, or logo
- Name of band/artist
- Name of album
- Both in the same simplistic fonts
- Code linking to the record company

Costume research

I have researched what clothes does the artist "Chiddy Bang" wear and what costumes my group should be wearing fir this performance. I have found the official "Chiddy Bang" store where i could buy the clothes perfect for our music video.

The clothes which are presented here have a solid one colour base layer for example red/black and colourful funky writting with some catchy phrase or brand name/logo.

Researching deeper into the rap genre and clothing of rap artists i have found that most artists appear in New Era caps or beanie hats. For example Jay-Z, who is a mainstream rap artist is wearing a shirt with a catchy phrase and a New Era Snapback. This gives me an outline of clothes i could possibly wear for my Music Video.

I have researched Chiddy Bang's costume for photoshoots and concerts and have found simmilar style to what i expected so a New Era cap and shirt with funky colours and writting which is perhaps childish to some extent which can link directly to the title of my music video "opposite of adults".

The potential costumes for the production are; shirts/jumpers with one colour base layer and a big logo or a phrase which is written in funky text. Nike or a major brand footwear and jeans which are worn perticularly low. On top of that some New Era caps to fulfill the rap clothing style.

Daily Update

Today, together with Agata we have discussed the following:
Make-up- Agata will prepare this for all performers in the video
Costume- Everyone has prepared their costumes but the biggest problem is with Theo who does not posses clothes which can be associated with rap genre
Locations- All locations have been planned and visited apart from the location where we could safely and legally create a graffiti for the music video
Casting- In progress, all member are engaged in it and are looking for the right people to perform. Mostly basketball players are needed for the basketball scene
Storyboard- 3/4 completed and will be finished by Friday 29th November

Weekly Update

In todays lesson me and Agata have done a plan for next week!

Audience Questionaire

Schedule for this week

Marketing Strategies

In today’s lesson Agata and I have presented to the class Marketing Strategies for Master ZIG TC. Master Zig TC is an underground rapper, aged 25 with no major achievements. He has couple of good album releases but nothing major. Master has a recognizable pose, which he often uses on pictures and posters to be original and have a USP (Unique Selling Point). I decided to market in many ways under main headings: Web, Publicity, Pirate Radio Stations, and Print TV.

I would use YouTube to promote the star amongst the million web users to show his potential in amateur made clips made by him or even friends. Twitter and Facebook accounts would be created to have contact with the limited fan group, which will follow, zig tc everywhere and also MySpace to put up his track although this media portal is dying out.

Publicity would be used effectively to make the artist the main gossip theme in his local area. I would use good publicity to establish his identity in the local newspapers when the artist would be caught smoking weed, which is fairly controversial. The artist would be a support at big gigs and come on stage before the main rappers, which will also bring him some fame in the mainstream music industry as well. He will do free gigs/concerts for example for charities or just to get noticed, he would attend rap battles.

Pirate Radio Stations would play his music, as he would give out free albums to the radio stations in order for them to be prizes in quizzes or just for the album to be played on the radio. He could have interviews in the radio and his tracks would be high in the underground music charts by promotion in radio.

Print would be limited due to cost. Some small poster to advertise concerts would be printed with the artist in his USP pose. Master would appear in underground music magazines where he would have interviews or be mentioned in an article, which will promote him amongst the underground rappers. Zig would appear in local news papers smoking which will also promote the rapper as well as he would have photos with mainstream rappers in more popular newspapers and magazines to also promote himself.

Goodwin analysis

I have chosen to analyse the song "Survival" by Eminem from the genre i am planning to do my video in which is rap.

We know the genre straight away when we see the artist moves. The genre is not obvious before the artist starts rapping as it is an unconventional music video which does not introduce the artist first but expects the audience to know the artist as soon as we see him taking the bandana off his face. In this video there are some direct links between the lyrics and visuals but also some indirect links. The projection on the walls of the Call of Duty game being played makes a direct link to the chorus "Survival of the fittest" due to the fact only the fittest survive at wars. There are also direct links where part of lyrics are painted on walls and are shown as the artist is rapping them. Indirect links are also made such as when there is a dog walking across the screen (during the bridge) which is a link to the words "survival of the fittest" as the dog must be the fittest if he survived on the streets on its own. The music relates to the visual by mise-en-scene, camera and editing. The mise-en-scene was well thought about, the lighting was setting an atmosphere as it was not obvious, there wasn't a visible source of light. The settings chosen were mostly places away from humanity so empty, devastated houses, streets, a big parking but also places with a  lot of people like a concert and city center. The settings away from humanity perhaps meant to represent that the artist is "the fittest" meaning he is the best out of all rappers. The crowded settings were perhaps suggesting that the artist was the strongest and the one in control of the rest like "the fittest in the herd" and he is the leader. The costumes helped to distinguished who is in power but also created the symbol, using half of the artists face and the bandana, which then re-occurred on the walls. This all relates to the music by creating a whole sens of the artist being the fittest and ruling over everyone else, showing he can survive everything. There are a lot of shots from different angles but mostly low angle shots are used when the artist is rapping to perhaps create a sens e of the artist being powerful. The use of tracking shots to show the writing on walls is very effective as it creates an illusion that the audience is really in that city and is part of this survival which emphasizes the message the artist is trying to communicate. There was a lot of synesthesia in the music video which matched to the camera movement as well as editing. Editing played a major part in this video to create this atmosphere as there was a lot of animation and after effects used like for example the projection on the walls. The editing was on the beat and fast paced which is conventional for the genre. The effects helped to get a message across to the audience and added some kind of meaning to the whole song of different forms when it comes to "survival of the fittest". The editing matches the music as it adds life to the whole clip for example at 2:58 when the beat starts to speed up and comes to a break and drop the editing changes to match this and there are moments were the editing is ultra fast and a shot is on screan for 0.5 seconds. The nature of close ups in music videos is to show the artist as a brand and to show their face which everyone will recognize but also to show emotions and the perfect lip sync to create and illusion that he is actually rapping to the camera and not that there is a previously recorded track over it. The idea of marketing the star using close up is the reason for such a frequent use of close ups in music videos which was fairly visible in this music video but was not overused as in some cases. This music video did not use the technique of voyeurism or the male gaze at all.

Voyeurism

In this clip the director used voyeurism during Miley Cyrus performance for the male gaze. The director used camera movement like for example in 1:41 where the camera follows the stroke on the leg all the way up in a slow movement. A good example of voyeurism in this music video is at 1:45 when the camera slightly shakes to sides an up to follow the movements of the artist as she touches her body. This makes the artist look like she is a sexual object and uses her sexuality to flirt with the male audience. The same happens at 1:55 when Miley drags her hand across her breasts which is some kind of sexual pleasure to the male audience.

In the clip "Wrecking Ball" also by Miley Cyrus there is a lot of male gaze and voyeurism. At 1:14 there is a clear use of voyeurism where the good looking artist is fully naked and bends back to show her breasts to the camera but not fully which can create even bigger pleasure for the male audience.At 1:23 the director is also trying to communicate that the voyeurism technique is being used when the artist is licking a hammer in slow motion. The use of slow motion creates bigger pleasure for the male audience as the audience can see more then if it was at normal speed,

Favourite Music Director

My favourite music video director is Hype Williams. Hype worked with all major rap stars such as: Kanye West, Busta Rhymes, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z and many others. I have been researching his work and found that he has common stylistic features in his videos which i will mention.

First of all i have spotted that Hype Williams likes to use on screen text to introduce who will be performing in the video clip and also introduce himself. I have seen this in many clips he has created for example "Kanye West- All of the lights" or "Nicki Minaj - Stupid Hoe".

Second thing i have spotted is that the director has a tendency to use bright colours in his music videos meaning that the colour of the background will be really live and bright perhaps standing out a bit. Hype Willams has used this technique in music video called " Empire state of mind".

Another thing i have seen reappearing in Hype Williams' music videos is animation. The director uses a lot of animation to create objects, illusions or just on screen text. He used animation to create insects on the music video called "Why stop now" and in the same clip he used animation to create illusion that one of the artist has incredible strength when he lifted a whole building up. 

Genre Research

Before starting to storyboard my project i decided to research the 'Rap' genre and watch some videos to see if there are any good technique i could use and to make sure that i stick to the genre.

 Rap Genre is mostly dominated by male artist, the videos seem to be very dark and tell a story which reflect the lyrics. For example like in the music video "Lil Wayne and Eminem - No love" where the story of the little kid has a direct link to the lyrics.

The Rap Genre is also dominated by young people around 20-30 years old. The videos are normally aimed at people of that age and younger and in order for the audience to have a link with the artist he needs to be around the same age so the audience feels perhaps equal to the artist in terms of what they have been through.

The Rap Genre mostly uses artist performances over dance routines as well as most of Rap Videos have a story which is parallel to the artists performance (at the same time) or is a flash back of the artists life.

I have found a rap video called "Sulin - Jeden w maratonie". This is a rap video made in Poland and it uses a great technique of multi-screening. The creators of the video smartly used the screen dividing it into two parts and then just simply putting two different shots on making it look like one but not exactly like one to make the technique obvious to the audience. There is not much of camera movement but simply just the artist performing.

In the music video "Eminem - Berzerk" there is a good use of playing the footage from back to front making certain objects disappear. This is very effective as well as easy to create which can be useful for my own music video.

Intertextuality

In the music video 'Eminem- Mockingbird' the director uses intertextuality using a news programme which has been emitted in the past. This is used for an effect to show the audience how much of pain this has caused to the artist and his family making life really hard for them. This has an effect on the audience making the audience feel more sympathy for the artist and makes the whole music video much deeper than it was from the start.

Successful music video analysis

This music video is one of the most successful in my eyes as it follows the key points to a successful music video. In my opinion it is complete and is not missing anything.

Starting from the first point of a successful music video and in my opinion the most important is uniqueness. This music video is like no other for many reasons which combined together make a controversial and very unique clip. First thing that makes it unique and at the same time is the second step to a successful music clip is a story-line. In this clip the story line is not like a real life story as all of it is shown as a shadow. This adds mystery to the whole clip and along with that audience interest. Secondly the director does not feel confined for the lyrics to match the visuals as for one moment in the clip  (0:31) the artist stops rapping where as the music flows on. This is effective as it breaks some conventions and also the audience feels surrounded by the music perhaps not seeing a way out of the situation other than keep watching. This though brings me to the third point answering the question, why this music video is successful as it leaves a long lasting impression. First of all the stop in lip sync and last but not least the ending of the clip. It is very controversial leaving the longest lasting impression as it shocks the most seeing a man hanging himself. Although it was only a shadow the audience imagined a real life situation like that and have been shocked the most by this image. On top of that the captions written on the rappers hand are very strong like for example the word "kill" shocks the audience and also is part of a mystery which makes the audience want to stay till the end to see the mystery solve itself. The use of mise-en-scene especially the lighting was very effective giving the whole clip that one more push towards success.

This all combined to make one, very successful music video which makes the audience come back to it many times.

What makes a successful music video ?

Music Video 6

I like the way multiple screens are used at the same time to create the artist. This is very interesting and makes me stay until †he en. There is performance only so i could learn a lot from it and this ispired me to perhaps try the same technique in my music video. I have learnt that generally music videos tend to have a lot of hand gestures when the peformes are working. I think i should be aware of the amount of costume i use in my video as this could be problematic but the director of this clip has used this well and everything was correctly placed and synced.

Music video 5

I like the use of an image similar to Charlie Chaplin which adds humor to the whole clip. I like the use of captions on screen to add speech to the story which inspires me to do something similar in my video. I think creating setting like this would be too much of a challenge for me and i think i will avoid this kind of settings (less natural or harder to find).

Music video 4

in this music video i like the way the artist uses a dance choreography in the chorus which makes the video more interesting and also makes me watch it until the end. The use of lighting and colour saturation inspires me to pay more attention when i will be doing my music video as this changes the whole atmosphere and sets a specific mood for the audience which is very important. I think i should avoid using explosions in my music video as this is too dangerous when performed by not experienced students.

Music video 3

I like the effect of the lens being shaped differently than conventional and making the performers look closer than they really are. The inter-cutting between the performers and a story made me stay until the end. This inspired me and made me more aware of how to do this correctly without ruining one or the other. I think i should avoid using special effects like in this music video when the artist lifted the bus up as this might be too hard for a student to do.

Music video 2

 I really like the use of make up in this clip to show different classes like for example a poor man (homeless) has a lot of make up representing dirt and physical unhealthiness. The different settings make me watch the music video until the end as they are very different and unconventional for a music video. What inspires me about this music video is the move of camera rather than the camera being set to one point keeping the same frame which inspires me to do the same in my music video. I think i should avoid using heavy make up as this is a very hard part of preparation and requires a lot of skill to do it correctly.

Music VIdeo 1

I like the use of comic drawings changing into a real life situation. The use of different colour gradients like green for example makes me watch the video until the end and the use of words on screen matching the lyrics is a very interesting technique which i could also use in my own music video. I think i should avoid doing the animations as this might be too complex for a student.

Test

Test :)