Magazine Advert

Final product - CD covers

Final Product - Music Video

Audience and Institution

Which Magazine would house my artist?

View more presentations from freddy1football

My Audience would be aged around 12 - 25 as this magazine is specifically for the youth of today, that have an interest in the urban culture. The audience would be or understand the urban lifestyle and will be able to relate to the music. The audience is niche as not everyone can relate to the artist however the music is gives an uprising feel so does have a wider audience appeal. The target audience would be rebelious and may hold views against the law, this is due to the struggle urban based family go through. As the video is viewable on YouTube this too has opened a wider scale of audience, as the music video is accessible from anywhere in the world if there is internet connection. Overall i believe its difficult to have a specific audience, due to the factors above.

Annotation of CD covers

Annotation of cd covers

View more presentations from freddy1football

For this task we were asked to Analise CD covers to get a better understanding of how to create a digi pack as apart of our ancillary task. This task helped me understand how to incorporate genre characteristics, create layouts which are eye catching and effective. Also i have learnt to use contrasting colour to draw attention of the audience and also what information should be included.

Flat plans of ancillary tasks

View more presentations from freddy1football

As part of planning we were asked to describe what features we will incoporate to distiguish a clear star image or brand identity. This included describing the colour scheme, the images used and the information to be included.

Analysing magazine adverts

Analysing magazine adverts

View more presentations from freddy1football

For this task we were asked to analyze magazine adverts to get an understanding of how to promote our album release, this has taught me the type of font style to use, the type of layout which is effective, the information i should include, the relevance of colour scheme, and essential holding onto a brand identity for my artist.

Footage for my music video

This is some of the initial footage taken for the planned story board, I am happy with alot of the footage, i have taken into consideration of mise-en-scene, through filming the surrounding by panning the camera after the artist has finished his vocals.I have also included a genre characteristic by incoporating a veichle in the mise-en-scene showing wealth. Also i considered different angles to create different effect such as make the artist look powerful from low angle shots.

However I feel the footage lacks direction and the planned story board will be edited, and more scenes will be added. I feel there needs to be a greater emphasise on the surrounding of the artist to give the audience and understanding of the artists background.

I feel some of the footage lacked good lighting and this could be an issue with the proffesionalism of the final product, therfore there are two methods i will use to resolve this, firstly i could film the shots again, which is time consuming or alternatively use the video effect on the editing to increase the brightness of the footage or add an effect and impliment Goodwins principles.

Also I feel i have not incoporated enough footage which will be efficent to use for lipsyncing so i will be focusing on adding extra footage, a scene of a close up of my lips, and me say the lyrics slowly and then speeding up the footage using the editing software to match the vocal on the music. This should if done properly show clear lipsyncing showing lyrics linked to visuals.

Final Storyboard

Final Storyboard

Day five of filming - Last stage

Shots taken linked to final storyboard: 10,14,15,121,24,28,34,35,41,42

Location of shots: The basketball court in The Rec

Today was my final day of filming due to everything going as planned, the whether was beautiful and allowed me to be creative with shot angles and direction of shooting. Also my props were prepared for filming today as evident with the urban clothing they were wearing. I had a few of my props shoot baskets, which took a little while before they got it in (they should of really practiced) so i spent a little while filming this section. However all else went well with a scene of the artist dancing which was the perfect opportunity for linking music to visuals. Whilst recording all 5 days, the artist was lip syncing the music by playing the track on his phone whilst filming. 

Day 4 of filming - Stage 4

Shots taken linked to final storyboard: 4,6,7,18,22,23,37,38,43

Location of shots: on the way to Letchworth, on the way out of Stevenage,  Hitchin town centre and king Georges.

Due to my driver not being available in the previous days, i had to leave the filming of the vehicle till today to show wealth a genre characteristic of rap. I first went out and filmed during the day with the car, driving around the local towns to add to the location shots for my artist. At first it was difficult keeping the camera footage clear when shooting in the car due to the bumps during driving. Eventually though i worked out a way of keeping the footage clear and not jittered, i taped the camera to my right hand and supported the hand with my left arm. Once i completed the shooting i felt that the filming was missing filming at night, which is seen in a large number of rap videos, so that night i went out to and shot scenes on the way out of leisure park in Stevenage. Today the filming went well, everything was successfully filmed first time round.

Day 3 of filming - stage 3

Shots taken linked to final storyboard: 3,5,31

Location of shots: The hill

Moving along I shot some scenes at the top of the hill, firstly to match video to lyrics 'stick to studies linking theory to education', i showed this through shooting the artist in school uniform. Today the whether was considerably better and really helped create clear bright images. Also i shot footage of the location to incorporate in the beginning of my video, to set the scene for the audience. I did experiment with a couple location on the hill but chose to stick with the shots found in the final story board as it really gives an idea to the audience what type of environment the artist is from.

Day 2 of filming - stage two

Shots taken linked to final storyboard: 2,12,13,17,25,26,27,29,36,40,44

Location of shots: the red building situated at The Rec

I was planning to shoot some of these scenes yesterday but i forgot to mention to my props they needed to wear urban clothing to suit the genre characteristics of rap music. Therefore these shots were taken today. I used the camera stand attached to the camera to get some high angle shots of the artist, but had to repeat couple shots as the footage wasn't clear. The weather also played its part with drips of rain here and there, as a result i had to wait till the sun was out as during the day as i was dependent on natural lighting. I did attempt to add extra lighting using four phones with flash light, to experiment whether it had any impact but it wasn't successful.

Diary- shooting stage 1

Shots taken linked to final storyboard: 1,8,9,11,16,19,20,30,32,39

first day of filming:  the first stage of shooting complete, i had decided that i wanted to change the theme of music video from narrative to performance based. The location I shot at was The Rec located near grove road. I had issues with shooting the day before due to rain fall and as a result shots i had taken the day before i decided not to incorporate into my final storyboard, because the lens of the camera got wet and the footage taken was blurry. I am proud of the first stage of filming, and believe it was a success, with a range of shots used.

Location Shots

Location shots

View more presentations from freddy1football

These are images of potential locations i will film my footage, the reason i have used these locations is because they impliment the mise-en-scene of the artists home town, aswell as link lyrics with visual;'i distiguished who i am living on these town streets'. there is potential i will include other location in my footage to give an all round emphasise on the mise-en-scene of Hitchin Town for the audience to appreciate.

Draft Story Board

Feedback from Class on my presentation

I was given the task to present my music video ideas infront of the class, this had to include my draft story board, lyrics linked to Goodwins principles and the track. After i had presented i was given feedback to make imporvements and what went well.

Good aspects of the pitch:

• Good use of Goodwins principles linked to lyrics
• Variation on mise-en-scene
• Good use of natuaral lighting
• Costumes linked to genre
• Genre characteristics matched
• Good use of camera Angles

Areas of the pitch need improvement:

• Alternatives for lighting
• Props
• Location Shots
  
• Help with filming
• draft story board
• notion of looking

How i aim to make improvements in the areas that need focusing on?

Firstly, I have decided i may include some extra scenes in the beginning of the music video, which will require an alternative of lighting instead of the sun as the scene will be filmed at night, so i will be using some portable lighting including mobile apps, and portable lamps.

In regards to Props, I will be using about 10 people all male and they have been informed about my project before filming footage, and i have shown them what ideas i have down on my draft story board which has helped me develop my ideas further.

I have asked one of the props occasionally to help with shooting as i am the artist myself i can not hold the camera at all my angles desired, whilst performing so i have given direct instructions on which angles i need help.

One of the issues with my presentation was that the class could not see my draft story boards which restricted what feedback i could get, this was because i had not uploaded my draft story board onto my blog. But now that the draft story board is on the blog, i can gather feedback on my draft story board.

Notion of looking is included in my draft story board and alot of this includes direct eye contact with camera to show i'm addressing the audience directly as if i was telling a story to them.

Camera work and editing

View more presentations from freddy1football

In the slideshow above, i go over the potential camera angles and editing effects i could include in the music video to create certain effects, keeping the audience interested and entertained visually. I have already considered using alot of the camera angle combitinations to provide different points of veiw for the audience, occasionally making the artist look powerful in some scenes and vunerable and isolated in others, these visual effects will be brillant for focusing on artist, incoporating close-ups to meet Goodwins principle.

Audience Profiling

There are different methods of Audience profiling and i will use each method to give an understanding of my potential target audience for myself the artist.

Using the simplest form of profiling is Demographic, which takes into consideration these factors:

1) Age - As the content of the lyrics are meaningful and require thought to understand, i would base my age range from 14-25

2)Gender - The lyrical content does not address a gender directly so i would say this music is for both sides.

3)Geographical Location - The meaning behind the lyrics means it relates to lives of people that are around on streets, so there is no set location for target audience, but i would assume i would get more demand from areas such as London, Hitchin, Birmingham, Luton, Stevenage.

4)Class - This music relates to the middle and lower class, so would have more of an impact on them.

5)Economic status - There are issues surrounding economic status, even though i believe that the lower and middle class people will appreciate the music more, there is no telling whether they would choose me over a well known name such as Lil Wayne, this is where establishing my brand identity is essential to lead the audience into trusting my material. Once i believe i have created a name for myself i think the lower waged will buy my music however with the online revolution having both positive and negative effects it has meant piracy has increased.

6)Religion - Even though the track that i have used has no relation to any religion, there will be following tracks which will link Islam into the lyrics so would be addressing Muslims, however this does not mean that it is my audience is restricted to Muslims only as i believe if a consumer feels the lyrics have a moving effect on them, it would not stop them listening, even if they are not followers of Islam.

Psychographic profiling - this categorizes audience in relevance to their needs and what motivates them.

My music is uplifting and inspiring so i would assume my target audience would be motivated by this music as it meets their needs of feeling confident and good about themselves, as well as a sense of drive and determination

The music also relates to street culture so the audience that i am aiming at will appreciate the lyrics, and understand my position, as they experience life through the same understanding because of the street culture.

Cross-Cultural Consumer Characteristics - categorization people in relation to their personal aspirations.

Mainstreamer - This relates to the people who only put their trust into music which has a well known brand identity, providing mainstream music. This is not the consumer characteristic, my music would draw attention to because i am not mainstream and definitely not known well enough to have a established brand identity.

Aspirers - These are the people who seek to improve themselves and take away the ideology from the product and adopt the values through the message. This is the consumer characteristic for an artist like myself to target, because i believe there is deeper meaning to the music, which the audience will take away.

Succeeders - These people feel secure and in control, usually in positions of power so by brands which bring back the feeling of control and power. This would not be the consumer characteristic for my music as it does not offer the audience that feeling of power but more so tries to relate lives of people.

For this section i have explored the methods used by artists to get a better understanding of the target audience they are aiming at, this has helped me personally develope my own stratergy for the target audience of my artist, helping me clearly define and group my potential target audience.

Collage of Target Audience

Target audience

View more presentations from freddy1football

This is a collage linked to my Audience Profiling, showing a visual refrence to the target audience i am aim for. Each image represents a different area of my audience profiling, the benifit I have gained from this collage is i personally have an understanding of my target audience, therfore when i make my ancillary task, the language I use will be suited for the audience and the images will draw the audience attention as i have made it essential to relate myself to the audience.

Costume ideas

View more presentations from freddy1football

Above is a collage of the potential outfit combinations i will use in the music video incoportating genre characteristics of rap, such as baggy jeans, flat caps, big face watches, showing wealth and urban style sense. I may choose to add to this collection of outfits, by including some jewlerry to add extra emphasis on wealth. I have used vibrant colours to make the artist stand out and attract an audiences attentions. I have also specifically incoporated the colours black, white and red to create a brand identity which i will also include in my cd covers and magazine adverts as house colours.

Lyrics Annotation linked to Goodwins Principles

The image above shows how i aim to include Goodwins principles with my lyrics, the lyrics which relate to Goodwins principles will be incoporated in my music video, there are different principles linked to the lyrics to a variation. The benifit of this is that i include all the relevant effects to the music video, so it can clearly be distiguished as a rap music video.

Album Cover Research

Album analysis

View more presentations from freddy1football.

Choosing The Artist

I have chosen to use myself to be the artist, as i am very keen on music and would like to create a music video for one of my music tracks. My artist name is Fresha and the track that i will be using is called Freestyle. As the artist is myself I have not got into contact with other artists, due to being extremely excited to make a music video for my own material. If however i was not creating a video for myself i would have chosen an artist through myspace, with a niche appeal such as a unique voice or a distinct image motif which makes them stand out from other artist. I would of made it essential that the artist i would of chosen to be producing music in the genres: Rap, HipHop and R&B.

Magazine Advertising

Adverts

View more presentations from freddy1football.

Branding - Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne is a successful artist known for his unique rapping style and voice. He is referred to by two different names 'Lil Wayne' & 'Weezy' but still maintains a high brand identity. With over 30 million Facebook friends it is clear that he is a well known artist and has used branding to its advantages to gain so much publicity.

First of all, the artist used his tracks through his lyrics to set a brand identity, by introducing himself in the track 'Weezy F Baby' this occurs in predominantly all his tracks. The impact this has on the audience is that his unique voice in his music is linked to his name, so when someone puts on one of Lil Wayne's tracks and recognize the unique voice they will link it with the artists name 'Weezy' as it is a constant name used throughout his material.

Another method used by Lil Wayne to establish his brand identity is the exploitation of the online revolution, This was extremely necessary measurement taken by Lil Wayne whilst he was in jail, to keep his audience upto date and occupied with the his life. Whilst in Jail the artist created his own website called 'Weezy thankx you', this website offered a range of different services including; behind the scenes recording, which has close-ups of Lil Wayne, which invokes the audience to remember his face and be able to recognize it anywhere. Also available on the website for downloading is desktop backgrounds which have images of Lil Wayne with his name creating a brand identity, as the audience will remember his face and link it to his name, so when they hear someone speaking about Lil wayne, their initially thought would be link the name to the picture of the artist thats on their computer desktop.

Facebook has also had a continued effect on the brand identity of Lil wayne, allowing fans to get as close as they can to Lil Waynes life, the impact this has is that millions of the artists fans look at his images and link it to his name, so wherever an image of the artist or his name appears, the audience know who its linked to. The fact that Lil Wayne has a distinct voice, look and style, helps emphasize and expand the reach of his brand identity to the fans and audience.

Consistency is also another factor which has established a brand identity, The idea that Lil Wayne has released 9 solo studio albums, 5 collaborative albums, and 11 mix-tapes, proves to the audience he is consistent in producing material, so his name is always heard in regards to mainstream music. Also if the audience like Weezys albums and believe the material is good, they are more likely to prefer to purchase Lil Waynes new album instead of a different artist because they know from experience that Lil Waynes material is consistent and so the new album would follow the same path.

Finally other business ventures such as branded clothing has helped Lil Wayne establish his brand identity, by selling clothes with his image on them, so that when the audience see the image of him they will link it to the artists name. Also the benefit with this venture is that it also works as a form of publicity, as the fans will wear the clothing when out, so others members of the public will see the image and may consider looking up the artist, helping expand Lil Waynes customer base.

With this artist I explored the nature in which the artist establishes himself to the global market. I explored how he uses different promotional techniques to help get across his brand identity as i have explained above. He refers to him part of a large well know group called Young Money, which is a record lable that appears as a logo with material assosiated with the artist, this too is a image motif for the artist.

Having a 'niche'

A niche is a characteristic which defines one artist from another, Its is essential in todays generation with the expansion of the online revolution, that artist can define themselves as unique to another artists

Lil Wayne, this artist has his own niche appeal, this is down to his unique voice, which is deep and sounds slightly 'croacky' and how he mixes genres in his material, linking rap with rock. This seems like an unusual combination but as Lil Wayne has shown it can be successful if implimented well. Also his image motif includes wearing bright coloured jeans, tight t-shirts with a waist coasts, which is unique to any other artist in the market. Lil waynes tattoos on his face of tear drops and fear of god, add another difference as they have deep meaning behind them from his past, which some keen fans would have researched.




It is evident that if an artist cannot establish their own brand identity, they will struggle to be successful in the mainstream industry as the number of artists trying to impose themselves in the market is ever growing, this has made it difficult for labels to sign talented artist with niche appeal because of the long selective process that needs to take place, so it is esstential that artist make sure they stand out.

Britney Spears Class Remake

For our preliminary task, the class was set the task to recreate the video to Britney Spears song. This was quiet an amusing task seeing as in a section of it, i was given the role of Britney myself, which was extremely embarrassing but compensated by how halirous the task was.

How did the preliminary task go?

I believe considering the class had very little knowledge of how to create such videos and linking it to Goodwins principles, the task was a success. Looking at the footage it is clear there is relationship between visuals and music with use of fast cut montage and also use of lip syncing, which i thought was impressive seeing as all this was new to us students.

How do i move forward?

I think this preliminary task has given me an insight into what to expect from this coursework and has made me realize there is a lot of small details which pull together to create a proffesional music video. I hope to further develop my restricted skills with editing and also aim to get a better understanding of how the music industry works.

The Online Revolution

The online revolution has had a huge impact in how we as an audience interact with artist and their material. It has in simple terms made engaging with the artist music material a lot more easy and open to the whole world of people connected through networks. The benefit of this for the Artist is that it has extended their reach the a mass population without a costly price to pay as they can freely upload music onto sites such as Youtube and Myspace to establish their own unique (niche) identity. The only downside is that, there are so many thousands of artists now taking advantage of this free advertising and promotional services that it has made it extremely difficult to be seen by labels looking to sign artists, however if an artist builds a sustainable fan base then labels do look into the artist profile.






Elvis Presley an American Singer of the 1950's, was an artist which had to use the tradition method to establish his identity. He started singing from a very early age and was known to have talent at the age of 10 in school. He officially started his career by recording his first track at Sun Records Memphis Tennessee in 1953 for his mothers Birthday. This Track was broadcast across on the radio and from there demand for his track increased and after 6 months he was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records.

A band which have been particularly successful with The online revolution is Artic Monkeys,they came together and established a band in the year 2002. This meant they were able to take advantage of the site Myspace, which has the option to upload music and other material. This gave the the publicity and promotion they required for them to establish their identity in the music world. The advantages of this site allowed them to build a fan base without the requirement of a label and all this was done without them having to spend a penny,this meant that they could comfortably compete against artists who were signed to a label.

Target Audience of The Game

Jayceon Terrell Taylor more commonly know as The game an American rapper from LA, a part of the G unit team is an artist which aims to revive the West coast hip hop scene, this give an implication that he is possibly aiming at a particular audience who listen to hiphop music from the west coast. It is clear that he is not aiming his music at a mass target audience, even though his sale implicate otherwise. He's deep meaningful lyrics about his life, expressing gun wars, drug trafficking and living in area's with gang violence implicate he's music is aimed at an audience with similar backrounds. He often speaks about the gang war between creps and blood, which only people who have knowledge of this subject or experienced this violent war would understand, therfore having a niche appeal. Alot of The games music is narrative and links in with Andrew Goodwins principle.

However like Eminem, The game has extended his reach to a mass audience by linking up with other artist such as members of G unit and Chris Brown who is more of a pop artist aimed at both females and males in the age group between 12-25. The game ft Chris Brown - Pot of Gold (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xaO1rGEQ50)

Target Audience for Eminem

The target audience for an rap artist such as Eminem, with his comical and conflicting real life lyric would implicate that he is aiming at a mass audience of predominantly young male teens in the age range of 15 to 25. I believe this to be the case because he seems to open his world out to the audience, aiming for them to understand and appreciate he's struggles of life, as if they may have been through similar struggles,this is his unique selling point or niche. However seeing as he has made tracks with other artist this may have extended his reach to even females, An example of a track which implicates this is 'Love the way you lie' which features Riahanna
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uelHwf8o7_U&ob=av3e).

He is signed by Dr. Dre a well known artist and label director, who has helped Eminem establish his identity as well as other artists such as snoop dogg who has millions of fans across the world implicating that eminem in following the same path.

Andrew Goodwins 6 Principles on Music Videos

Goodwin's Theory Linked to Rap and R&B

Introduction

The purpose of this blog is to research, plan, create and evaluate my own Music Video and as apart of the digipak will include a CD cover and back for my music video, also a magazine advertisement for advertising my material.

For me to define the term music video, we would have to look into its purpose of it, which includes marketing and promoting and accompanying a music track. A music video is usually the size of a music track with the odd occasion of it being longer for example in a narrative video (which i will further explain in this blog). A music video incorporates ideas and values of an artist, this gives a visual understanding of what the artist is speaking about, also usually the video has the artist themselves starring, having a more personal impact on the audience as they can visually see the artist and his body and facial expressions accompanying hear the artist which has an added value to the track.

A music video is beneficial to the artist as it can essential help advertise and promote material of the artist or label to the public, using sites like Myspace or Youtube or alternatively through the TV using programs like MTV or 4 music. The other impact of a music video includes marketing other products, for example advancing of fashion including clothing designs, architectural designs along with technological designs such as new mobiles, watches etc. This helps increase demands in certain products by the audience an example would be recent SBTV videos on Youtube have artist wearing Ralph Lauren Clothing and I have noticed more and more people of my age group who watch these videos in my local area purchasing more and more of this clothing label.

The Three Types of Music Videos:

Narrative - This tell the audience a story an example would be Thriller by Micheal Jackson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA&ob=av2n) This tells a story of how the artist turns into a monster and scares his girlfriend after leaving a horror movie which turns into reality.

Concept - This has a running theme throughout the video an example would be Last friday Night by Katy Perry (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlyXNRrsk4A&ob=av2e) The theme of this is an American style party.

Performance - This has the artist/band performing in the video an example would be American idot by Green day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkmEZs_Kcms) They are performing in front of a live audience.