Progression of digi pack

For the aucillary task i am doing the back cover for the CD cover, which we are doing as one of the tasks. I am trying to make the back look interesting as it's just as important as the front as we are getting more information about the album and with using interesting colours i will be able to attract the audience.

1. Downloading the brushes.
I wanted to have a certain kind of brush to use for my back, so after looking on websites i found a brush style called 'party lights' after trying the brush out i discovered it wasn't the right brush for my ideal look i wanted for my part of the cover. I looked on another website were i found 'sparkles' and i found the style i wanted.
2. Photoshop

back background (before)

After a year of not using photoshop it took a while to get used to controlling the brushes and knowing when to add a layer. Because i need to have the artist on the cover so i used pen to cut him out from the background and saved it to a file. I then tried my brushes out onto a black background on photoshop and got two ideal backgrounds i would like to use, naming them 'possible background 1 and 2' after few edits i decided to pick the first as it was more symmetrical and looked more effective then the second.

possible Inside background

3.Brushes and how i've done it
using the website i followed the instructions to firstly use white paint on a black background and then adding another layer and use a brighter colour which was green, and placing it on top of the white, this has made the lights appear to glow. I have used repeated shapes in different colours this has made my background look symmetrical.
4. Putting it together
After deciding the which background i added another layer (this makes 7 layers in total used to make the picture) i managed to make the picture smaller and look normal rather then out of shape. with this i then smudged the picture into the background to take away the roughness of the cutting which i have appeared to have done well.

Back edited with artist

How i did the back cover
By using a sky and cloud brush i have been able to make the background appear to be a night sky. I have also used the sparkles brush so i have been able to make the theme party as well as the Cd album theme.

Progress

We spent an extra day in college to complete the video, and after a few more minor adjustment the video will be finished. We finished editing our footage to match with our storyboard and are now adding colour to each clip to get a different party light effect in the video. After we finish doing this this we will be done editing and are hoping to watch the video through fully a few times in order to see if there are any further minor adjustments we can make to make our video better

Feedback

Obviously the big issue is getting your footage edited for Friday and tying to ensure you don't end up with very few production marks. You also need to work on the ancillary tasks. The research is much better but there are still some significant gaps - have you anywhere identified your target audience??? Have you uploaded your storyboard? These also need to be attended to.

Ancillary Task Progression.. ..

We have our pictures and we're ready to go! from the pictures we have taken of our "artist" we have each chosen one image which we like and would like to work with when creating our individual panels. In regards to the front panel which we have all decided to create as a group we've also looked through our collection of images and we've each chosen an image we like but to make it fair we showed 20 people all three images and asked each person which  image they like and we noted down each persons answer and we used the image which recieved most 'Likes'. Creating a panel for our DigiPak panels is a task which fortunately are not having trouble creating as it isn't a task which is too difficult. I myself am lucky in the sense that at AS level when doing coursework, I chose to do the print option which entailed creating a music magazine cove, writing the feature article and creating the contents page for my magazine. In order to do this I was required to use InDesign and Adobe Photoshop. In order to create our panels we must use these two pieces of software, as a group we're finding that it is easy for us to use these pieces of software as they are fairly straghtforward. So far progression DigiPak panels is coming along well and we aim to be done within the next couple of lessons.

Ancillary Task - Research on album colours

Eye-catching and bold colours are what attract attention when looking at album cover colours. They need to have all of the relevant information on the cover such as the artists name and maybe a name for the album, they will need to also make the writing as well as the background stand out. This will make it more attractive and therefore it will be noticed.

Mika


As we can see, there are a lot of colours on this cover which will grab a lot of attention as it is bright, colourful and eye-catching. It not only has a lot of colour but several of images and shapes which looks very appealing from up close and very colourful from far away. From up close you can see a piano, birds, a girl, etc including the face of the main artist from Mika. From this we can tell that the singer is the man in the corner, this is a useful piece of info as we would like to know who sings it.
They have chosen a specific font for this cover which is done in white to make it pop out of the rainbow colours, this makes it clear that the artist is called Mika. Also in small, black, italic writing, there is a title of the album, this is also to stand out from the bright background. This is a good example of an album which has a title, album name, is bright, colourful, stands out/eye-catching and very attractive which will therefore attract a lot of attention and audience.

JLS


There is a picture of all four members of the band on the cover, which will help new customers see how many there are and JLS are. The background is dull and plain yet it has a colourful bar to make not only the band name but also members stand out. Although its dark and plain, its still eye-catching as you get more about the band, their faces and band name, which is vital information we need when looking at albums. This album is different to the other albums which are bright and colourful, which will make it stand out due to it being so unique.







Usher


Again, dark colours are used, in this case it is used to make him seem like a silhouette. We could use something along these lines for our album, as we have a solo artist who should be shown as standing out, being independent, just like Usher looks. Although dark colours are used, the colour red stands out a lot more than it would on a coloured background. This was done to make the artists name stand out from far away,  which will attract attention as its bold and bright. The background although dark and plain, has a faded effect and has a white tint towards the bottom and around Usher. This makes Usher stand out more as he is highlighted, it also makes the background look a lot different to just having a boring colour.

Rihanna


This album is very bold and eye-catching, its bright red which stands out against Rihanna's bronze coloured skin. Her hair and lips look highlighted against her face which creates an effect to make her features such as her closed eyes also stand, out. This means that we're not focused on the coloured parts of her album but also the other bits such as her features. This is effective as her bright coloured hair and lips, which stand out, highlight her eyes and nose which makes the artist stand out. 

Nicky Minaj


Baby pink all over the front cover is a bit too much, however it is  bearable to look at and it stands out. Although it is all pink, you can see the main artist stand out, even though she blends in at the same time. The artist is on the front cover along with her name and album name, this is useful to those who are new to this artist as they will receive all of the vital information. This album is very eye-catching although it is very plain and simple, however it has that look that makes you want to look closer at the album.

Gwen Stefani

This album has a white background which then makes the colours added on top stand out a lot more than it would on a coloured background. As well as having subtle colours, which have a smudged effect, it stands out and makes the main artist stand out. Again this is useful to those who don't know or have never heard of this artist as they can see the artist as well as her name and album name.





Overall, we have come to see that the albums that have bright, eye-catching colours yet are still subtle, are the ones that are most looked at as they stand out. Also by having a picture of the artist, their name and album name, it helps give the audience brief information about the artist and maybe some of their personality. We will take all of this into consideration when making ours.

Ancillary Task - Research on album/CD cover fonts

Ashley Tisdale - Guilty Pleasure 


The font for this Album/Cd cover is typically girly for the name of the album which appears to look like a signature. The font which they use for the name of the artists which is bold, this is a typical R'n'B and dance type of genre.

David Guetta ft Akon 


This is a dance genre, this font is more like a paint brush writing
the font is big and bold which makes the album look more noticeable,
which is quite good as it captures the attention of the audience.

Chris Brown - Kiss Kiss 




This CD/album cover is almost depending on the font as the background is plain. The writing is Bold and over powers the white this makes the background less plain.

Ke$ha - Tik Tok




This album is different compared to the others, the writing isn't  bold, how ever has a $ sign in the middle of the name which makes the writing stand out more. Which is effective for the Album.









Fonts we could use in the album... 

• Star Avenue

This could be used for the artists name on the front, this font looks more useable as it's neat bold and big.

• Jellyka 

This font, appears to be a signature which could be used in the inside cover because it's showing audiences the signature of the artists so they feel like they know him a little. 

• Chaparral Pro (in italics) 

This could be used for the listing of the songs as it's not overpowering but will look attractive on the back of the album 

• Riesling

This appears to be handwritten and it can be made to appear to be the artist signature, which means the artist looks more like a star.

Fonts taken from Dafont.com 

Ancillary Task - Research on type of shots we need

Progression of Editing

So far editing has been going according to plan despite the fact that before we got started neither I nor Jess or Saliah new very much about how to use Final Cut Express, however as time went by we all have found that it is becoming considerably easier for us to use. We've made a lot of progress since we first begun editing. I'm quite pleased to say that I feel i my skills have grown a lot from what they were when we did our training on Final Cut Express, to what they are now that i've spent a lot of time editing the video and using the software to its fullest extent.

We hope to have our video finished and edited within the next week or so. For now that its all.

Progress.. .. ..

Fortunately for us since our last progression update we've had much more luck as we finally got our party footage. Though Jess wasn't feeling well we decided together that we should press on and get our footage despite her absence, this meant that i was filming on my own as Saliah plays the role of our leading lady in our music video. At first the thought of handling this responsibility didi phase me a little and left me unsure of doing it but as we got into it i found i was ok doing it and I am pleased to say that i feel i managed it well. However all did not go as planned as we did not get to use the lighting equipment which was alittle let down however in retrospect I think it may be good that we didnt as it our footage is clear and it gives our "party" a realistic look as we wouldnt see a party funded by students using professional lighting equipment at a house party. Now all we have left to do is do our last bits of filming with the Green Screen, this may prove to be more difficult than it should be as for us its a matter of timing as we are not all free at the same times so this is definitely something we are working out as we feel that as long as either myself or jess are present to film and saliah and imtiaz are present (lead actors) we should be able to get this done. Editing is proving to be a tricky task as myself, Jess and Saliah are new to Final Cut Express but we are determined to master it and create a video which shows our skills and ideas in the best light. With that being said editing our footage will be easier than getting the Green Screen footage as we can all stay back during workshop hours to edit it which would suit us as then if we need any assistance it will be easier for us to get help from Mike or Nikki (our colleges Media Technicians).

Equipment and Technologies

In order to produce our music video we will be using the following equipment and technology.

• Motion Camera (possibly also a Tripod)
• Final Cut Express (for editing purposes)
• possible use of Green Screen and Chroma Key

Considering the basis of our music video is a party I thought it may be a good idea to use some professional party lights and possibly a smoke machine in order to make our party scene look more authentic. we figured this wouldn't be a problem as we knew where we could get our hands on this equipment. Lucky for us I happen to know someone very closely who owns this equipment and is generous enough and willing to let us use this equipment. We are aware of the safety precautions we'd have to take that are involved with the usage of this equipment and we all acknowledge that we would have to be careful so that neither of us get hurt nor our actors when maneuvering around the set. As a team we sat and discussed the prospect of us using these aforementioned equipment and together we decided the smoke machine would be too much and wouldn't give our scene the ambience and atmosphere we want it to have. we came to this as when we thought about it we realised that if we'd have used it it would make it difficult to film our footage as visibility would be poor even on the lowest setting. I know this from experience as i have seen first hand how poor visibility is despite the smoke machine being on the lowest setting and not generating as much as it would on the medium or even high setting. Taking all this on board we have decided not to use the smoke machine however we still hope to use the lights.

We feel that by using the above equipment and technology we can achieve our goal of creating a good music video which be-fits our genre and entertains our audience. We agree that from using this equipment and technologies we will be able maximise our performance and our work.

by using the green screen we hope to create a scene in which our leading male (Imtiaz) gets what he wants and finally reaches our leading lady (Saliah). We feel Final Cut Express is the best editing software for the job of editing our footage as it is better in all aspects in comparison to iMovie as it has better tools and also there's a lot more which we can do with it.  Though we may not use them, there are much more SFX available to us for use. also we feel Final Cut Express is better to use due to it being more sophisticated than iMovie also I personally feel it is easier to use despite it being the more "complicated" piece of software.

Filming - schedules, roles and responsibilities

Schedules

Our set date was Sunday 21st and Monday 22nd to film our party scene, however due to illness and a family problem with the others in the group we were only able to use the Monday, which unfortunately didn't go to plan. Due to updating a status on Sunday 21st saying that the party was cancelled, extras believed that 22nd would also be cancelled and therefore nobody turned up.
We learnt that by informing everyone to their faces and getting confirmation, it would make it easier to see who we need to expect to turn up. We informed 15-20 people who all agreed that Thursday the 26th at 4 o'clock was an ideal time, it helped because we could all walk down together and so nobody would have any excuses. Although we were planned and focused about this date and time, last minute Zaibaa realised that we would only have 45 minutes to use the location and shoot the footage as she had a doctor's appointment. This then had to be again informed to the extras and we then decided that Monday the 29th at 4 o'clock would be our last and final date and chance. We have about  20-25 people wanting to or definitely attending this party and so we know that there will be enough extras.

Roles and Responsibilities


Camera - Zaibaa
Location - Zaibaa
Extras - Saliah
Green Screen - Saliah, Imtiaz (main character), Jess and Zaibaa
Editing - Zaibaa, Saliah and jess

Zaibaa - make sure that the location, her aunties house, will be free and if her uncle will set up his DJ decks, lights and smoke machine. Also needs to book green screen for a suitable time where we will be able to attend without lessons getting in the way.

Jess - Read through the storyboard and take a look at the kind of shots we need for the party scene, e.g. caned angle, close ups, mid shots, long shots, etc.

Saliah - make a note of the people who want to attend and get them to sign next to their name if they have attended. Also to make sure that the extras know what they will be doing in the scene and for how long. Giving them a job and a timing. Need to inform them about any changes or delays.

Green Screen

In our video we are using green screen at the end of the video. We have done the green screen, training so we are aware of how the lighting works and safety use of the Green green and the lighting sets. During the practise we did struggle with the placing of the background, however, we have figured out the use of the background and we have learned how to change the colour of the subject. This could be used to make the artist and love interest pink to symbolise 'falling in love,' maybe using the background to change to a love heart or having them appear on the background to ensure the audience knows that the artist and the interest is suppose to be falling in love in the end scene.

Planning of Costume, Make-Up and Shots

We decided to make the main character wear dark jeans, a smart yet stylish hoody and trainers. The main girl in the video, being me is going to be wearing a sparkly tiger-print dress, leggings, boots and will have her hair out. At the moment we have not decided whether she will be wearing make up or not as we don't know about the lighting and whether it will be visible. However we will have make-up with us on the day in case the lighting turns out brighter than expected. Other guests will be wearing plain dresses, jeans, plain hoodies, tops, shirts, jackets, flat shoes, not much or no make-up, etc. This is in order to make sure that our audience will see that our main characters stand out not only because they will be seen a lot but because they look a lot dressed up and better looking than the others.

We aren't having a particular dress code at our party scene, as we believe that it will look more realistic if we didn't do fancy dress or so over the top that it will be in contrast to the crazy, wild party we will be having. Also we need to fit the scene with the music and so if we were all dressed up smartly ( i.e - suits), it would look a little odd and out of place.

The shots we need in this video are;
Long shots - to show the party, the main characters and the people around them.
Mid-shots - to show how busy the party is and to show people distracting our main character.
Extreme/Close ups - of main characters - reactions and emotions.
Canted angle - showing the craziness of the party. (will be done in slow motion to add effect)

Progression..

Unfortunately for us luck hasn't been on our side so far. We aimed to film the majority of our footage over the weekend just gone, as we thought this would be more than enough time to get our footage as we had a 3 day weekend due to monday being a study day for us also we figured it would be a practical, productive and effective way for us to use our study day. (20th Nov - 22nd Nov).  however we were faced with a set back from the very beginning as on the sunday neither Jess nor Saliah or I were able to film on Saturday due to prior commitments which we did not see as a problem as we still had Sunday and Monday. However we were set back once more as on the sunday Jess and I were not well. By monday Jess had not recovered however I had and so me and Saliah were prepared to continue as planned but we were unable to as our actors did not turn up therefore we could not film anything. however we didn't waste our day, we sat and thought of our back up plan. We plan to get our footage this coming thursday and monday as those are the days when we are all available at the same time to get our footage.. and thats is pretty much it for now.

Music Videos of Different Genres

When we think about music videos, we think about the story lines that link to the genre. We also think about the artist being involved in the video, being the main character, having plenty of shots of them.
Most of all we think about how the song relates to to the lyrics and sound of music.

Dance genres, for example, are always linked with having parties/clubbing and having a good time. It relates to the sound and therefore this is our typical response to this genre. They are always shown as being a lot of fun and just enjoying yourself. They are never shown as being stressful or angry, only about haven a good night out. At times they are shown as being tricky when the story line shows a boy looking for the right girl but its always shown as working out right. Many dance songs are to do with love and are only shown in music videos, as they don't have many lyrics but you can get an idea about the video from the sound given e.g being slow yet has base or the title of the song.




On the other hand, R&B is a very hard genre to figure out, it's mainly love songs but with a hint of dance. When people think of R&B they think about the artist rather than the video. For example, when people listen to Rihanna's songs they think about her as a person because a lot of her videos are based on her personality. She has a quirky yet dark edge which is shown in her videos, therefore we find it typical for her to do something different/random and out of the box. Her song "Take a Bow" was very emotional as it was a slow love song, however because it was about breaking up she made the video about leaving a guy.



This linked to the video, however in her other songs such as "Rude Boy" and "Only Girl", we see her relating to the lyrics, however, she has her personality added in, as she is the main character in all of her videos.

Camera Angles & other

I am going to look at the camera angles and how the camera is used to gain a clearly idea of how to make the artist to look like a real r'n'b/hip hop artist. So I am looking at Eminem and Rihanna.





Eminem - The Way I Am



We see a lot of close up's to Eminem and medium shots to him. But we get the high angle were we look weaker then Eminem for a bit. The fact we get a close up of him in different places we can see he is the important one and we should listen to what he says. We get the camera shot of the building passing as it appears he is falling out of the window. At the start the Camera appears to flicker through his life though a cut transition to them. We get the pan shot of him sitting down with the dust flying which shows that he is wanting to be on his own and left, which is the theme of the song.






Rihanna - Russian Roulette


With the camera, we see the medium shot of Rihanna, from being in a room with police to her being on the floor. We get an over the shoulder look of her sat in the chair, she has the most lighting on her which shows she is the artist in the video. With the video we see the jagged effect of her hiding in the corner showing the disturbing sight she had seen which is the fact she saw someone shoot themselves in head. We get a fading effect of her holding his hand to her being on her own in a room.

Brief
As it is expected we see the typical close ups and medium shots, and hardly any of the long shots, so we are definitely getting a closeness with the artists and are aware of the artists emotions and who they are. We are definitely using this method in our video, as the brief effects used to match the artists feelings this could be used on the music video.

Appearance of the artist

For the artist we are hoping to achieve the typical r'n'b/hip hop artist. To get Ideal option i am looking at the  appearances of known artists Jay Sean and Eminem.

Jay Sean 

From this picture we see that he is an important person because he is in a darker colour to the white background. With the dark out sunglasses he appears to look 'cool' and with the fact he is wearing a top which means we can see his muscles we can see that he is 'powerful.'  The chain appears to be a repeat use for the r'n'b artists, to wear.

Eminem

Eminem is a famous Hip Hop artist which has got a reputation of being full of attitude by the way he looks and moves, the movement of an artist is important as well as the appearance as it makes the artist who he is. Eminem wears the chains and has tattoos and in his older videos he would wear caps/hats and would wear baggy clothes. 

Combining R'n'B and Hip Hop to create our artist

Looking at both artist ideally we would like to use the R'n'B style of clothing as it looks a lot better for the music we are using which is a song about trying to get the girl. However, with the attitude Eminem has we could have it so our artist appears to be stronger and more attractive as he is acting 'hardcore.'  So using the style of R'n'B artists and the attitude of the Hip Hop artist we can get the tough smooth talking and looking artist which is what we was aiming to have with the chosen artist.

Our filming location...

In regards to choosing a location for our video, as simple as a task it is, it's not been easy for us to actually get one. Since we chose our song we have brainstormed all our possible ideas and we've narrowed it down to one. When finding our location we had a specific idea in mind of what we want out location to be like, what we want the atmosphere of our location to be like etc. this made it easy to come up with ideas of where we'd like to shoot our videos for. Initially we thought of filming our video in the main hall of a local community centre however when inquiring about whether it was possible for us to do so, our luck ran out as it was unavailable till january. Fortunately we had a back up location in mind and so I asked a family member if we could shoot our video in her house. It pays to be the favourite as now we have our location! Hurrah! (pictures to come)

Progress Of Location

We have talked to people about the location shots of the music video, talking to the drama teacher about the using of the theatre room, we have discovered it would be impossible to get enough shots for the video. We have planned to look at different locations for the green screen section of the video, it has been decided that we would use a house for the main part of the video. This has actually worked out for the better because we can use the theme of the house party that we analysed from the Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas video and it would look overall better at the end. We have discovered that using the house would mean we can use less people in the video and have more of a crammed full party feel.

Currently doing:
To ensure that we have a good idea on the location we are hopefully using, we have borrowed a camera and tripod so we can get shots of each room. Hopefully this will show a clear indication of the set out of the party from the placing of the artist and love interest to the DJ and DJ equipment. We are also in the process of finding an appropriate location for the last shot were we will be using green screen.   

Planning of Location

We have planned for our video to be based in the drama theatre room, we are hoping to get the light effects and the open space for the dancing, and the narrative plan, we are in process of asking the drama teacher and the drama technician about the use of the rooms. We are hoping to use the room because it's spacious and we will be able to move the camera and artist in more places. We also planned to do use a hall near a church but due to prises and the space that would be left over we decided to try and use the drama theatre because it is smaller and free.

Feedback

You have made some progress on the research front but still need to add to this. Work through past posts and ensure they reflect on what you have learnt and how it affects your product - Jess's last two posts have got the hang of this and are much better! There is, as yet, no evidence of planning and I need to see some of this for next week. Work through the tick lists in your booklet and ensure that everything is included.

Album Covers

For our auxiliary tasks we are doing digi packs. I have decided to look at a typical album cover for the Hip Hop/R'n'B/Dance genre, in hope to get a good idea of how to design our album cover. I have decided to look at a Basshunter album cover for Dance, N Dubz Album cover for Hip Hop and Rihanna album cover for R'n'b.

Basshunter

Looking at this album it appears to have a green screen effect of a tempo effect background we get a CGI of yellow lines surrounding the artist. We get a direct address of the artist and he is in the centre of the album. we get a theme of Yellow gold/ brown and white. The Writing is block and distinctive, this could be good to use as it would be noticeable on shelves and be noticed by our target age group.

N Dubz

We get a richer colour album cover with this, as we are getting Black, gold and purple. We can see that the background is green screened in and we can see the bands symbol 'N Dubz' graffiti writing. We get the same direct address from the artists. This design could be used for our album cover as the colours are inviting and powerfully rich.


Rihanna 

With this R'n'B cover we see a strong red colour from her hair and lips which makes her stand out. The basic layout is of just her face, however we do not get anything else. Rihanna's eyes are shut in this picture so we do not get a direct address, however we see the typical 'beautiful' woman on the album cover. We see ever aspect of her and feel closer to her. However this couldn't be used as an idea for our artist as we want to be able to show that he is important in the video, even though this shows she is we don't get the same attitude showing look.

Brief On Album Covers
Each Cover had the artist on the front in a direct address we get colours which stand out from the rest and we can see that they are the important people from the CD. Whether from a simple being present to the close up of the artist and only them. We could use the Basshunter and N Dubz style, however the Rihanna Album cover is more for artists that are already well known in music business and have a steady fan base, rather then a new artist on the market.

Branding ~ Music Brand

A brand is the particular make of a product. It works for an artist as well as products. H.I.M is an alternative metal 'love metal' which as the branding of the Heartagram, [heart and pentagram joined together. Brand defines an artist and there meaning, from graffiti writing for 'N Dubz' to the Heartagram from 'H.I.M.' Branding leaves an artist signature on an album, song, video.

Heartagram

 The heartagram, is a symbol which is used to represent H.I.M. It is frequently used on their, merchandise, videos, albums, concerts and website. Heartagram is developed from the faith Wiccan's symbol the pentagram. Can be linked with 'Satanism.'  The symbol is shown on the album cover 'Dark Light' and the song 'Wings From A Butterfly.'

The way the words H.I.M is written is part of the symbolism and branding of the band, fans instantly know that this is H.I.M by the writing of the words. We always see this type of writing, in the albums, videos and on the website. With the bands symbol being a 'religious' and a 'love' symbol mashed together we get a feel that the band is dark but has love aspects in their music.With the corners being a love heart it shows the band is more towards love. The songs have a dark aspect but has the romance aspect. So audiences know they are going to get a romantic lyric filled album but with it being dark as well as romantic. Which can be seen as 'gothic'

Hip Hop Style Branding

N Dubz branding is a Graffiti style writing, which shows the Hip Hop attitude. with it being in gold it makes the band appear to be like royalty as gold is seen as a rich colour, which shows the band is of high importance. 

 A symbol which has become linked with the band is one of the band members 'Dappy' constant wearing of hats.Even though this may not been intended the band is known for the fact of the hat, which has got the band noticed and known by the people who listen to music. This shows that the simply wearing something distinctive can make a band/or artists known by people audience targeted or not.    

R'n'B Style Branding
R'n'B is always known for having a sexy model, whether it's the love interest or the artist singing. We always know an R'n'B music by the video and by the lyrics, which are always about love. The location is always very beautiful such as LA, or New York city The man are always covered in chains, where as the girls are usually wearing hardly anything and are dancing. The album covers are always in blocked capitals, which shows they want to be noticed from the rest.

Dance Style Branding

There isn't a single person who hasn't heard of Lady GaGa. She makes herself known with her outrageous clothes and her music videos which are different to any of the music genre Dance videos. Which shows, that being different, standing out and showing a repeated symbol makes the band stand out uniquely from the rest.

What I Have Learned About Branding 

Bands and artists, use branding whether it's symbols, being completely different from the rest or a simple repeat of wearing an item. This makes the band stand out completely, this suggests that to make our artist different we could possibly use a certain font to introduce the artist in each music video like H.I.M and N Dubz.   

Target Audience...

The audience is from the ages of 15 to the early 20s, we would want the video to be appropriate so we won't be having sexual suggesting scenes, but we are using a love interest so we can  have the realism theme of an r'n'b/dance/hip hop genre.

G - the typical main audience is mixed, however the female audience are more likely to be appealed to the artist as the artist is male.
R - this is for every kind of race as the music genre is popular around the audience age, which means there would be a large amount of people who would be attracted to the artists music.
A - to the ages of 15 to early 20s as these are the typical ages of people who like to party and be social so are more likely to hear this music at clubs or other places of entertainment such as bowling, ice skating etc..
S - people who are socially active and will more likely be out partying, however may not be drinking a lot so the music video doesn't have influences of drink.
S - will more likely be still in education whether it's college or university they may have Saturday jobs to pay for a social life at night.

Research on Institution

Our chosen genre will be enjoyed and familiar with people/fans who enjoy music from Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Usher, Black Eyed Peas, etc.
We believe our chosen song sounds something on the lines of what Usher would do, a fast paced love song. We plan to make a video along the lines of what Usher would do.
e.g. - DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again was shot in a club, surrounded by beautiful girls, having fun partying and finding that special someone there.



His label, La Face (owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment) was founded in 1989 by Antonio Reid and Kenneth Williams. They are based in the US and they work with many artists with varying genres. Such as Pink, Outcast, Cee-lo, Ciara and many more
      

Our chosen song has a very r&b, dance/party-like tune/genre which is the genre Usher is linked with at the moment. I believe that his record label would work with and distribute our song, as well as us having a similar style video to Usher's.

Music and Lyrics...

In regards to choosing a song to which we wanted to do create a music video for at first we found it a little difficult for us to fins a song which all of us liked and were willing to create a music video for as at first we all had quite deifferent ideas and we each liked a different song. However our luck changed when we came across a website called Jamendo. Jamendo is a website on which you can find the songs of a vast number of different and unsigned artists. When browsing the websit we had the option to browse songs through genre tags, and so we seacrhed songs by clicking on the tabs which applied to us. When doing this we came across many songs, some of which did not belong to our genre however those which did when we listened to them a few were quite different and were quite good however we found one which did appeal to us all. The song was called Sex Light by Marcc Gregory.

When we first listened to this song we all liked it and thought we could make our music video for this song. We all felt that the artist had a nice voice and that the song fit with our genre.However it then ocurred to us that we would not be able to create a music video suitable for the song as we felt the song was a little too "out-there" and we didn't feel quite comfortable making a music video for this particular song. After much thought we decided to change our song but sticking to the same artist (Marcc Gregory) in order to get the same sort of sound, as he specialises in our fusion genre. We went back on to Jamendo to see what other songs Marcc Gregory has and after what felt like a long long time we finally found a song which all 3 of us agreed on as a group.The new song which we have chosen to create our music video for is "I know - Marcc Gregory". this song is fairly similar in regards to the genre of music, we feel it fits in better with our chosen genre as it has more of a R&B sound to it.

And here are the lyrics:

oh oh oh

oh oh oh

ohh ohh

I know

that you want me babe

that you want me babe

CHORUS 

I know that you want me babe,

you want me babe,

I know,

cuz I feel you babe.

I see you talking to your friends

looking

at me, then

I know, cuz i see you babe

see you babe.

VERSE 1

Lady i see you looking at me over ther,

in my mind tellin myself that i want you,

to come over her.

you giving me the eye, let me know that i'm

that guy that you're looking for,

so why dont we get on the dance floor, no need to waste no time no more.

BRIDGE

the night is young and i'm up for some one on one

you knoow, when i sing baby.

ther'es only just once for me and you, this has

just begun.

we can take the night so slow yeeah

CHORUS X2

VERSE 2

So i came right in yes i got mad money to spend,

and some for me to just offer you,

So what you wanna do?

cuz baby cool I ain't got a prob buy drinks for two,

we linked up tonight just the way i want to, me you,

loving your style cuz lady, you,

on the dancefloor looking so beautiful.

BRIDGE X1

CHORUS

I know that you want me babe,

(I know)

you want me babe,

(cuz you want me baby)

I know,

cuz I feel you babe.

I see you talking to your friends

(I see youu talking)

looking

at me, then

I know, cuz i see you babe

see you babe.

(see you babe)

I know that you want me babe,

(iiii...)

you want me babe,

I know,

cuz I feel you babe.

I see you talking to your friends

looking

at me, then

(i see you baby)

I know, cuz i see you babe

see you babe.

Come over here, I wanna know you better,

we, can work it out, oh

I know that you want me

(I know)

I know that you want me

cuz i want you too

and i want you too

I really really do baybay

I know that you want me

(I know)

I know that you want me

cuz i want you too

and i want you too

I really really do baybay

oh oh oh

heyye-ey

What do people look for in R&B and Dance Genre?

When we hear about R&B, we link Artists such as Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Usher, etc.
Dance on the other hand being artists such as Cascada, Tiesto, Inna, Katy B, etc.
However, when we look at artists who make both genres of music, together, being dancehall/r&b/, they named artists such as Usher, Rihanna, Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Loick Essien, etc.

Target Audience & Listener Profile

Before choosing our target audience we took a look at chart activity of the past month or so as this gave us an indication of first of all, whether songs of the genre we've chosen to focus on chart or not and second to see what age group listens to music of the genre we've chosen to study. Thankfully we found that songs of our genre do chart.
I then went onto looking closely at the lyrics of a handful of songs in order to get a look at what age group is likely to listen to this genre of music as the lyrics of the songs would give us more or less a clear indication of which age group. From doing this I found that the age group which is most likely to listen to our music is people between the ages of  15 - early 20s.

We decided that this would be the best target audience for us as our song as our song more or less runs along similar lines to these songs i.e the story line is familiar, as is the actual music. 


In order for me to define our target audience I have crated our Listner Profile. I've done this so that it's easier for me to show our idea of our ideal audience members. We feel it is universal universal therefore applies to all members of our audience.


Listener Profile:

Gender: Male & Female

Age: 15 - early 20s

Musical Preferences: Listens to namely R&B and Dance but also Soul and New Jack Swing. Likes artists such as: Usher, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Tiesto, Armand Van Helden, 112, Benny Benassi, Ginuwine, ATB, Shai, Jagged Egde.

Dress Sense (Female): Cool and casual; bagg/skinny jeans, long/short t-shirts, Boyfriend cardi/ zippy hoodies, trainers/flat ballerina shoes, stylish but one-of-a-kind coat. Always carries something to listen to music on but  not always listening to it.

Dress Sense (Male): Cool and casual; bagg/skinny jeans,  T-Shirts, cardi/ hoodies, trainers/ pumps, stylish but one-of-a-kind coat. Always carries something to listen to music on but  not always listening to it.

Interests: Music(durh!), reading, going to concerts (but only on the odd occasion), Video games, Comedy TV & films.

And there you have it our Listener Profile! It may seem a little specific but that's becasue in order to make it easier for me to build our listener profile, i've looked at those around me who, besides myself, enjoy music from our fusion genre. I noticed that most actually do dress in this way and do have these interests therefore that is how and where i derived our Listener profile...

Feedback

You appear to have added very little to what was here before, although I know Jess has added some excellent material to her post on Hip Hop/ RnB and I know you have been planning a bit in class. However, you need to get the rest of this done as a matter of urgency.

Research - still nothing on your Target Audience or Institution or Branding or the Ancillary Tasks - split these tasks up and get them done this week please.

Planning - you need to get this on your blog, as well as your music and lyrics.

Feedback

Here is some more feedback on your research:

• Earlier posts already commented on - Jess - why don't you combine the 3 posts on Lady Gaga and Black-Eyed Peas and the comparison together into one - it would flow better? Can be done via cut and paste - see me if you are unsure? You could then add the "what I have learnt" comments right at the end... Also, try to tidy up expression and grammar a bit...; Saliah - You need to clarify your focus at the start of the posts on Rihanna and Usher - are you looking at how music videos work within the RnB genre? If so, put a sentence to this end at the start of each post and at the end, state what you have learnt about music vids in this genre and what you may need to bear in mind... you could also tie this in to Goodwin's ideas about music video codes and conventions to see how RnB videos reflect this or not....
• Jess - Music Genre - this needs a sentence at the start to tell me why you are looking at this and what you hope to learn from it. Possibly state after the definition of music genre that your group hope to work in the RnB genre; then add the bit about what RnB stands for and where it started - i fits under the music genre section and you could then add a bit more detail about the expected style of music - types of instruments; mood of the songs; type of vocals and  type of things the songs are about. Again, check over expression for accuracy and clarity.
• Zaibaa - you need to be more specific at the end of the Bieber analysis - what things might you like to emulate from this video? You need to hurry up and complete the second analysis.You also need to state what you are looking for in this video - how rnb operates or how music videos operate, in which case you should apply Goodwin?

Overall - this is nowhere near where it should be - Zaibaa and Saliah, I need to see much more from you. You still need:

• to state clearly what genre  of music you are going to explore - it seems to vary from r,n,b to hip hop to dance....
• to identify more conventions of this genre - Jess has started to look at the type of music we link to r'n'b but you need to think about what the artists look like (costume/ clothing/props), locations, song contetn (what do they sing about?), what kind of performances do they give? Use album covers/ images of stars... consider what implications this has for you?
• to identify and describe your audience - use GRASS and psychographics... consider Uses and Gratifications - do your own surveys and consider what this means for your product
• Who would fund/produce your video in real life? How would it be made????
• research into your two ancillary products
• post on branding

This should all be done by now - it all should be done before your planning. It all feels a little aimless - I'm not sure from this what type of music you are going to make a video for or what you are exploring in each post and why. If there are no improvements of a drastic nature soon, you will be in danger of not completing your work.

Music Video Analysis...

One of the videos which i have chosen to analyse is Justin Bieber Ft Usher - Somebody To Love.

 

 I've chosen to analyse the video for this song as i feel it fits with the genre which we have chosen our video to focus on, which is a fusion of R&B and Dance. We chose this as from looking at recent chart activity it is becoming more often than not that we see songs of this fusion genre entering high in the charts and remaining there for long periods at a time e.g. Usher's "DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again".

Another reason why I've chosen to analyse this video is that like Usher's song, this one also entered high in the charts and reached the number one spot for a solid three weeks. Justin Bieber focuses mainly on on R&B music however in the short time between first appearing before us with his hit single one time and now his music has since evolved slightly. Bieber now infuses Dance with R&B as we see in this single and in the video.

Bieber's "Somebody To Love" has a rhythmic, dance hall, club/party feel to it. It's very uptempo and as most say it's a song you can move to.

Andrew Goodwin had a theory about music videos. Goodwin stated that there are 7 key conventions of music videos:

• A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
• A relationship between the music and the visuals.
• Particular genres of music having their own video styles and iconography.
• Close ups of the main artist(s).
• The artist(s) develop their own iconography.
• Likely to be a reference to voyeurism.
• There are likely to be intertextual references.

Justin Bieber is essentially an R&B artist however however like his mentor, Usher, he too is now creating music from a different angle. Bieber and Usher both are now beginning to create music which fits in with our fusion genre. In terms of intertextual references I myself don't see any visual references to any other media texts. however i do think that the general theme of the video i.e lots of dancing, synchronised routines etc it is similar to other media texts such as: "Ne-yo - Closer", "Usher - OMG" etc. The video doesnt fit in with the lyrics of the song, it is completely unrelated to the lyrics, it is focused on the dancing talent of the artists and the extras. In regards to the genre having its own style and iconography from looking at other music videos of this fusion genre and I've noticed that songs of this genre tend to be up beat, catchy and have good lighting and have memorable lyrics. This song most definitely ticks all of those boxes, I feel the lighting is extremely good ad has been used in the best and most effective of ways. The song itself is catchy and memorable  and the music is upbeat and has a good tempo. The video has been edited to the pace of the song and effects have been put in place which at first glance aren't as noticeable e.g. in the beginning of the video a girl appears behind Bieber and disappears behind him when he moves revealing that nobody is stood behind him. In the video we see many different shots have been used, there are close ups, medium close ups and also long shots of the main artist and also the featuring artist.

I feel the video fits with the vibe of the song and synchronises well with the tempo of the song. It shows Bieber's fans what he's like as an artist and it also reflects his youth. For the listener it creates a party/dance mood as the beats are fast the kind of music we expect to hear when watching a quick-step dance routine. Simply from hearing the pace of the music makes it easy for the listener to comprehend which genre of music Bieber has chosen to follow, however this isn't a one off we see Bieber sticks to this fusion genre in other songs too such as "Baby" and "Love Me", both these songs also have a Quick-Step feel to them.

When the video starts off at first we don't pick up the party vibe, as in the beginning Low Key Lighting and Spot Lighting has been used, it first appears to be the typical scene we would see at a dance off, the low key lighting and spot lighting being used for dramatic effect along with the smoke. However as the video progresses we begin to get more of the party vibe due to the Strobe Lighting used making it very bright and signifying energy. In the video it is visually subtle that Bieber has gone for a party vibe in the song however the sound makes up for this subtlety.

This particular video was shot in a studio however a green screen was not used at any point, I personally do not see this as a bad things as the video relies on the talent of the dancers and the artists to keep the audience entertained and interested. It gives an idea of what fans look for in music videos of songs like this one when listening to this fusion genre. Even though a Green Screen hasn't been used to create the video or even bits of it, there are certain effects used many times in the video e.g. at many different points in the video the artist walks across the screen and the dancers in the background disappear. We can see that people like to see dancers, dance routines that people would see in dance-offs at a party, lights, things that don't completely fit, which in the case of this video would probably be the fire. All in all it shows us that people like to see things that make them feel good and want to get up and join in dancing.

In this video we see many different shots of Bieber and Usher, mainly long shots, medium shots and close ups. I feel this is effective as the video focuses mainly on dancing and showing off talent despite it being unrelated to the lyrics of the song. We see close ups of Bieber frequently throughout the video mostly when he's singing the chorus saying things which he'd say to a girl like the promises he'd make to one e.g. "I don't need nothing else, I promise, girl, I swear, I just need somebody to love". When we see the close up of him singing these lines, he uses a direct mode of address; looking right into the camera, i makes it look like he's speaking directly to a girl in the audience thus showing the emotion behind the song. When the medium and long shots are used they are used to show the artists while they're dancing showing they're dancing talent, the long shots also show the background dancers and their routines fully. We also see in the video that a number of different angle shots have been used for example at one point in the video we see a shot of Bieber from low angle shot with him looking down on the camera. 

In this video we see conventions of music videos which are typical of both R&B and Dance. for example in regards to Dance quite obviously we have dancers and as the main visual focus, after the artists of course. Typically in Dance videos we see that the lighting is a key component of the video i.e. in a number of dance videos which I have studied for example "Firestarter" by The Prodigy, the setting itself is quite dark but it is illuminated purely by singular scattered lights. In this particular video in the first half of it the setting is dark and spotlighting has been used to illuminate the artist and dancers. It is only in the second half of the video in which more lighting has been used, a number of strobe lights have been strung across the ceiling to illuminate the setting. I feel this is a good element of the video as I feel it is quite creative, also I like how in the very beginning of the video the spotlights come on one by one to reveal a different dancer.

This video has elements which i feel are quite inspirational e.g. the dancers and lighting etc. In our music video we hope to have elements such as the ones specified as we feel they would make our music video that much better. I particularly am very keen on the idea of having multiple dancers in our music video as this would link the dance side of our fusion genre into our music video. Though i have not discussed it in my analysis i find the costumes to be quite inspirational as they could give us an idea or two in regards to what our actor(s) will wear how, what props, if any are used, they will use. This video has been extremely popular, it's been edited in ways which reflect the artist's personality and talent. It has a catchy and memorable beat and well choreographed dance routines. We hope to create a video which is both entertaining and creative, which captivates and interests our audience, just like this video does.