Evaluating Photoshop as a post production tool

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

Feedback on Director's Commentary

Affi

Hector, Jake Karis and MiMi

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

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

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

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

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

Photoshop

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

Task 4 - Technology in Pre- Production

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.blogger.com/home

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

Focus group

Feedback -evaluation Task Three

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

Reception Theory

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

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

Questionnaire

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

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

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

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

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



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

Sarah : 'Inner city middle class'

George : 'working class and teenagers'

Patch : 'rebels'

Will : from the JINCARS, section D or C1.



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

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

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

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

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



4. Is Affie's digipak appealing?

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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



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

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

Patch : ' He would definatly set a clothes trend'

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

Audience Examination

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

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

Audience Feedback

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

Response To The Combination task of Ancillary Texts And Video

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

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

How Effective is the Combination 0f the Main

Teacher Feedback

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

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

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

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

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

Forms and Conventions

Evaluation of Digipak

I believe that this Digipak succesfully conforms to the persona that we are tying to Give Affie. Starting with the front cover, the plain black and white colour scheme reminds us of the 'old school' era that Affie's background is from. This combined with the album title 'Return of the Flattop' sets the scene of the late 80's and 90's with artists such as 'NWA' and 'Wu Tang' sporting this style. Affie is taking something which is old and classic, and reafirming it into the 21st centuary by linking old school hip hop to the relatively new, 'Grime' genre. We have also used the 'Flat top' hair style to create a tie in with the album, working as an extra movement which would set Affie away from the crowd. The idea in our video of Affie being from 'out of this world' is also represented in the Digipak, With a translucent effect being used on Affie giving him 'abnormal powers' (much like a superhero). This is continued through to the back cover where shining stars are the only coloured visual on the Digipak. This visual gives a subliminal story, telling us that Affie's home is far way and he doesnt belong on Earth. He is suposedly super human, hence his unbeatable lyric choices, beats and flows in his tracks. On the back cover, we also gave a Blackberry Messanger Barcode and Website, keeping with the current media technologies and making it quick and easy for listeners of the album to access more information about Affie and his music. We also used Tempa T's 'Next Hype' single cover to place him in the correct genre and therefore attract the correct audiences (preferably neiche and not mainstream as these are more suited to his lyrics and genre). Finally, the middle covers again are simple images, directly representing the audience he is targeting. the lighting shot gives the impression of a show about to start, or Affie's carrer to start.

Final poster and digipak

screen shots of process of digipak and promotional poster

Feedback

Can you blog a rough cut of your video edit?  Also you need to consider the structure to your posts, perhaps use two or three rather than just one entry.  What you have posted is sound, but in the last week you have done much more that what you comment on!

The Rough Cut

We felt that it would be a very good idea and beneficial to create a 'rough cut' to simply map out our ideas in a visual language. Creating a rough cut allows us to plan our order of our shot selection process and recognize more effective orders of introducing the different sets. As a group, we recognized that the blitz light set had the most impressive impact at the first drop of the bass line (a key part of the attraction to the video), so we decided to use the blitz lights as the first set, starting the video off with a hard hitting visual. having integrated Georgina's Blitz light shots into the start of the video, we then introduced the more subtle thrown scene which focuses mainly on the stature of Affie and pushes his 'out of this world' reputation. I realised that just having the Blitz lights the whole way through the video would be too much for an audience to keep there attention throughout, and there for loose interest, therefore the thrown set gives a nice contrast, with very little lighting effects being used. The street scenes were then integrated into the thrown scenes to make sure that the video in this part is not taken up by the fairly static shots of the thrown scene. Having the street shots of Georgina integrated with Affie, it ballances the movement out, with Affie not really walking around very much and Georgina'a shots based around her journey along side the banks of Guildford's streams. After making the rough cut, we decided that the quickness of the cuts were too slow, therefore not really matching the feel we want Affie to be giving out (unexpecting and 'off the streets'). this is where my idea for short, abstract shots came into place, making Affie's screen presence much more unexpecting, therefore inticing the audience to continue watching wilst they are drip fed little pieces of information about the mysterious grime artist.

Short Shot Idea

To keep with the unsuspecting feel of our artist Affie, we decided to include some short shots of abstract images and tonal lighting, adding an artistic element to our video and therefore identifying a neiche market. In the scene with the blitz lights, we zoomed into shadows and shapes made by the lights on the floor and on Georgie and Affie's clothes. We thought it would be a nice idea for the audience to work hard in understanding what some shots are of, therefore, they are not expecting the next progression in the video, much like Affie's appeal that we are trying to convey. An explanation for abstractest ideas in art also is given below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_art

Feedback

Excellent blogging.  I feel that you have really captured the spirit of your shoot day.  Also in the critical reflection you need to consider the star image you were trying to construct with the set design and technical equipment, for example you mention lighting in the blog, but be more specific - you used a high key and fill lighting with a Starcloth to focus on the stylization of the artist, compared to the directional blinder lighting of the latter shots, connoting a more sinister side to the artist - just food for thought.

Magazine Advert

In our Magazine Advert, we decided to make the most of the set we designed. a tilted hero status shot gives him aditional power aswell as the royal red throw and the golden thrown which automatically gives him 'worship' status. The Font used is quite a futureistic almost 'alien' idea highlighting how his album 'Return of the Flat top' is not available yet, but also gives the audience the idea that knowone has ever seen anything like this young, lyrical assasin. The BBM barcode used identifies the target audience as the teenage section who are up to date with all the latest technology, with the Blackberry phone being at the forefront of the new era of mobile phone technology. This and the website make the poster very simple and easy on the eye as people can find out more information by simply using these new media technologies. By looking at this poster and 'Be Ready' being the final thing which is left with you, you get the feeling that Affie is coming from another planet to take over the world of Grime/HipHop.

Photo evidence of second and third set and surrounding.

Photo evidence of finished set.

Photo evidence of finished set.

Photos evidence of set building.

Account of Shootday

Overall, i believe our shoot day went to plan and was highly successful. we began the day by perparing our actor and actress in the desired costume that we thought fitted the situation. we dressed Affie in an 'old school' buttoned up chordroy shirt with tan trousers (being careful that his outfit diddn't clash with the red thrown scene). Georgie was dressed in a high waisted skirt and also a buttoned up shirt to keep the trend and highlight the target audience. we began shooting the most outlandish set of the three, the thrown scene, having affie sit on his chair and making the most of the royal set around him, sticking to midshots, establishing shots and slow, establishing tracking shots, flaunting the design of the set. with our lighting in this scene, we kept it rather simple. apart from the obvious star cloth we used, spot lighting was used to create interesting shadows on his face. I thought as a team we performed really well in this set, with a nervous actor, we displayed what we needed from him (directing) wilst taking it in turns on playback, filming and assistant set direction for the specific shot that was being filmed. Personally, i enoyed the directing and camera work, so i stuck to these things as much as possible for the thrown scene.

After Lunch, we then switched the set around, now bringing into play the full beam plane lights, giving a really nice siloutte of Affie and Georgie as they stood infront of them. I realised that the brightness of the lights could be used to our advantage and could pulsate to the beat of the bass of the track, so i enjoyed the lighting side of this scene. i also directed affie to make a large and abrasive movement once the lights are turned on fully to give the full effect of the powerful visual we were aiming for. affie throwing his arms in the air and jumping backwards as the bassline kicked in for the first time was the perfect action. As a team we used the tracking shots to our advantage helping eachother to create very fast tracking shots, indicating the pace is picking up. I also like the effect we thought of when the lights go completely off, and are turned on full bore.

Lastly we travelled to Guildford and set up camera where we thought would be interesting locations. we found an interestng canal area which we thought was interesting. we managed to create some nice square shots and off centered shots with Georgie with some publice stairs and walls we found.

Although i thought the shootday was very successfull, one thing i would change if i could do it again would be the timings we got into Guildford to shoot the street scenes. Although we got in in good time, because we were shooting in November, the darkness crept up on us quite quickly, so our time in Guildford was shortened because of loss of light. Luckly we did get the shots we wanted, but it would have been nice to fully cement the shots we needed aswell as have time to film so extra ones just incase. Below are some of the evidence of our shoot day in all different scenes.


 

Feedback

A proficient presentation of the CD digipak design and the importance of album covers.  I feel that you could have developed research more into the conventions of Album digipak's and addressed layout and design more closely.  Excellent initial design's into CD covers for your group artist and good consideration to target audience. 

This is what the set up of my Digipak would look like, thinking about the Enigma of old school meeting new school. A king sitting on his thrown has been transformed into a Grime Artist sitting on 'the world' (you could say). The Gargoyles are also a nice touch i believe, giving the set an old, horror or fairytale theme making him mysterious and fits him into the underground society. The ink and quill font works well, linking with the kings and queens theme. i thought this worked really nicely, contrasting with the modern fashion of Affie which is clearly shown on the front cover.

This is an idea for our set that i also drew out, but found faults with. I believe that having the fire near to the star cloth and thrown is a real saftey hazard that will put our set in danger. the natural light of the flames would also not pick up with all the artificial light being used on the walls. so, i thought that the oil canister can be used in the girl scenes where there is actual, natural light, and in the studio, we can focus on the thrown, adding the gargoyles for extra effect. I believed that by me drawing out the set, i could realise the faults visually and fix them.

Feedback of pitch

For our feed back, i asked questions to students and friends whom would enjoy listening to the grime genre. my questions included..

1. Do you believe 'Affie' is fashionable?

2. Does the artist in his appearence and act do the 'grime' genre justice?

3. Is the video captivating, with the lighting ideas?

4. Is the woman make you interested in continuing watching the film?

5. As the bassline comes in, does it create a poweful image?

6. Would you buy the album?

After sending 'The Movement' an email asking for concent, we were delighted to recieve back the following email, saying that our request has actually been passed on the Jake Gosling 'Mikill Pane' himself.



I have passed on your query to jake@themovement.uk.com

Best,
Sarah

My digipak idea

My digipak idea

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Cast members and costumes.

Cast and Costume

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Letter of permisson to 'The movement'.

We are now awaiting for a repsonse in order to be given permission to use this track for our Pop Video.

Digipack Design

Looking at the various 'Grime' artists around, and how they use their digipacks to sell themselves to the Grime Market, i created this digipack cover to introduce Affie himself, as well as perhaps a fun and jokey style that he could represent. this is shown by the cropping of his head, only showing his eyes, forehead and haircut. i also decided to create an 'ugly' caricature of Affie, which would perhaps appeal to a niche, artistic audience who would listen to the underground genres. The Album name 'Return of the Flattop' shows how he has a retro style which will appeal to the younger generation who are into the latest fashionable icons. i believe that the niche audience that we are targeting will like this cover because of its 'retro' links and clearly fashionable, minimalistic style, wilst also promoting our artist and getting his face in stores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro_style
This is a link, showing exactly what the retro style meens. the 'out of date' and vintage idea is currently increadibly fashionable.

Feedback

The animatic is proficient- there is no casting on your blog and some what an over reliance on group presentations.  It is difficult to identify and credit your own ideas I know that you worked fruitfully on the animatic and your comments are noted.  But, is there an area for development with your own evaluation  - perhaps you need to see me about this, to help identify your work - I know you have completed quite a bit!

There are gaps in your most recent blogs  these are blank with no information on - please complete these posts as soon as possible.

Lighting Ideas

Prop Research- Thrones.

Prop research- throne.

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Shoot Day Plan

In order to be extra prepared, we decided to create a schedule of our shoot day. Having two locations is another reason to plan our time, as travel time also comes into our shoot day and wastes time out of the short time we have already.

9 00 - makeup and costume, Georgina will get dressed into her appropriate costume, and get her makeup and hair done either by Karis or Mimi. Affie will be dressed by Hector or Jake. Arrival of Throne- delivered. Unpackage thrown, set up into place.

9 30 – Check all props are in place, and the set is perfect. Rehearse Georgina and Affie, with background song playing- like the screen tests.

10 -00 – 11.30- Shoot Affie's shots in film studio

List of shots

10.00- 11.30

–        Shoe

–        Mid close up of the face.

–        Puddle and Affies foot

–        Lips

–        Blackout

–        Establishing shot of the chair and Affie

–        Close up of Affie

–        Lips

–        Close up

11.30- 1.00

Shots outside at Beatrice Webb, abandoned playground- barrel being lit Barrel- oil can outside

–        Over the shoulder view of the girl and the barrel

–        Girl hands over the barrel

–        Establishing shot of the barrel

–        Extreme close up of the fire coming out of the barrel

1.00-1.20 -Lunch

                                                                                                                                                        

1 .30-2.00- Travel to Guildford

2.00-2.30- Find the location of chosen shooting area, and set up.  Off licence Shop

2 30 - 4.30

List of shots

- Girl going into the shop

- Outside shot of the girl buying a drink inside.

- She walks out the shop

- Girl continuously walking down a street

- filming her from behind

-filming her from in front

- Side on angle shot of girl walking

- Feet shot of the girl walking

4 30 - 4 50 - travel back to school

Animatic in Process

Video recording of editing process

As a group, we edited the storyboard in order to cut our chosen shots to the rhythem of the beat. we worked together, all having our own ideas we had to narrow down as to which shots to use and where.

Shot ideas, design elements

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The pitch

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Props and costumes lists

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Evaluation Of Animatic

What i believe a storyboard does:
A story board provides an accessible, visual tool with common, understandable codes, particularly useful when persuing media work in groups.

From the animatic, i learnt that there is such thing as a powerful shot, at a powerful part of the song. Our example of this is when the bass line comes in and we first hear Affie's voice, an Establishing shot is used to fully see the effect on the set that the oil canister in flames has. We also used a sudden blackout before the powerful bass comes in. This was an experiment that we soon realised enforced a huge amount of focus onto the next shot. This we believe gives the audience a 'WOW' factor when introduced to our star for the first time.

Some areas, i believe may need to be addressed are the shots that are repeated. Some of the shots are actually the same shot but from a different angle (especially of the girl on the streets), or with a different background. Exactly the same shot is much easier to achieve in the scenes with just Affie in because the scenery around him shall be basic and easily replicated (a pure black background with reflected flame light).

From the Editing process it's self, i learnt the real problem of holding a shot for too long, as i did not realise just how boring a video can look when shots are held for too long (we feel long shots suit our 'off beat' video, but we had to know the difference between a nice long shot one that is held for too long). I also learnt the easiest place to cut two shots together. When a loud snare or kickdrum is heard and the noise levels rocket up to the red section, this is the ideal place for a cut, keeping on the beat and rhythmic.

Feedback

Excellent. Detailed links real media products to achtual. realises the concept well and seeking to develop this.  Can you identify the traget audience accrding to their VALS and use and gratification?
Can you also sort the image - which do not show properly.  Try using scribd http://www.scribd.com/
or Google documents - sign up with a free email.

The fellow grime and underground artists such as Affa use star image to show their niche market audiences by not having their faces on their album covers. this attracts people who simply want to listen to music and not follow a celebrity like many of the mainstream artists of today. A lot of the artistic covers especially with grime artists seems to be rather aggressive images. These images would appeal to the teenage clubbing   scene as the dancing used to enjoy grime and dubstep music is normally very aggressive and abrasive, with people bouncing off of one another energetically. You could say the star image of these artists is to be quite 'tough' and 'hardcore' as in the young people nowadays it is seen to be cool if you are scary or intimidating to others. again, this rebellion era is being pushed forward by these artists and loud and abrasive music. It could also be said that the types of people that listen to this kind of music, also find themselves in  trouble with the law at one stage or another, as the aggression seems to be ingrained into them by their idols.

chase and status

Tempa T

skream

Devlin

Kano

Wu Tang Clan

Research and Evaluation of the Institution and Context of Our Artist

When researching record labels for Affa, i took into consideration the position in his career that he would be at when making 'Party Animal'. i discovered 'Def Jam' records firstly, a prestigious hip hop record label catering for the likes of Ghostface Killa and Kanye West. but, i feel that Affa is not quite well known enough at this point to be signed to such a world wide label, so i  found 'Tempa'. Tempa is an up and coming underground label based in the UK, producing not only grime music but also dubstep and club music, certainly up and coming genres aimed at the younger generation of people. www.tempa.co.uk
We would hope that this minor record label, not being a subsidiary of any larger company, could give Affa the push start he needs to get into the larger record labels such as Def Jam, and be noticed worldwide.

Skream's post dubstep genre was produced by Tempa.

Benga, also like Skream, was produced by Tempa and now is seen as the Dubstep mecca by a world wide audience.

Feedback

A well presented blog so far which deals with the initial concept well.  You do need to post the treatment of your song.  You also make very good points about the image and the concept, which can be supported further by academic ideas/ quotes on the music video and star image.  Your research into exiting acts could be extended further and linked to your concept.  Excellent work through sustained blogging with all homework’s completed in detail.  You make use of different blog tools and are able to link ideas to real media concepts.

Well done! 

Research into real and similar artists

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Proposal for a New, Popular Music Artist

Name: Jakey shotinthemouth Jefferson

Genre: Grime, Party music, Witch house electro.

Type of Act: a crowd warming, high energy MC. Always performing live, not using any backing tracks or auto tune. a natural performer designed for the independent scene.

Star image: strictly independent. sees mainstream music as the enemy, rapping about social concerns and polotics. making people think about the problems people face in day to day life. the feeling of aknowledgement that people are in the same boat as them, will attract the correct audience to this particular artist.

Choice of Track: the track should be 'punchy' with throbbing bass lines and fast rapping. a sort of anarchist view on the subjects he is rapping about in a poet like form. it is important for the audience to realise that the artist has a strong link with them.

Narrowing Down Your Ideas

Ghostpoet's video of 'cash and carry me home' inspired us to create a deep and dark video, designed to unsettle the audience. The design elements used within this video has given us an idea of the theme that will run through our video and the sort of minimalisitic prop type we will be using.
After watching this video we have come up with a list of possible props/ideas to use-:
- oil canister (set alight)
- see-through glasses
- a cardboard cutout of the innards of the body.
- large heads placed on small bodies- puppets
- clear bottles, jars, hanging up (fluorescent liquids in the bottle)

-setting - blacked out studio space (minmal)
- using the natural light created by the flames of the oil canister
- possible spotlights focused on the props
- floorlights

characters- Afalabei will be our main guy who will play the part as of the grime artist in question.

My Proposal

With the song being 'Party Animal Remix' by Mikill Pane, i was hoping to create a dark and unsettling video, using one main character to rap over the harsh dubstep backing track. the genre is commonly now known as 'Grime' (being an aggressive and dance like track). Our lead artist will be encased in a blacked out room with simply a canister in the middle. Starting with artificial light, he could be lit from the floor and half way through the song he lights a match and throws it into the canister, creating a blaze, light enough to light up the room naturally. Other props that could be used enclude a makeshift replica of the innards of a human. Looking obviously unrealistic, at one point of the video, the body can beat. it is not suppost to look realistic, but a rough, working copy of the body. The 'Star Image' is very independent and creative, with the origional video of Party Animal Remix basing it's self around the black communitie's independance and importance in a voting scene.




A Black community feeling screen grab

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(classification_of_human_beings) - the definition of race and different class groups and why a video would want to focus on a particular racial group.

Research of Real Artists of The 'Independent' Type

I will be focusing on the independent band rather than the materialistic type as it interests me more as a young director. i believe i can be more artistic and darring with these sorts of videos, and eventually create something that will interest others and hopefully make people think.

Foals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK9iyQJuFGg&ob=av3e

(4 PIECE INDIE BAND FROM ENGLAND)NATURAL STYLE

Fleet Foxes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT-dxG4WWf4
(FANTASY FOLK BAND)

Wu Lyf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yW73ENT3w0
(WITH THERE 'CULT LIKE' FOLLOWING, WU LYF'S FACES ARE HARDLY SHOWN AND THEY BASE THERE MUSIC AROUND WORLD ISSIES AND POLITICS. DEEP AND DARK 'DRONING' SOUNDS MUCH LIKE SOME OF RADIOHEAD'S MUSIC)

Introduction To Advanced Portfoilio

The Brief : A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the three options..

a website for the band
a cover for the digipack (cd or dvd)
a magazine advert for the digipack

all meterials are to be produced by the students accept for non-origional sounds or images from radio or video work. permission from the artist will be asked before using their music.

Radiohead Lotus Flower

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOa1a8hYP8

A typical idea of an artistic video, based around the star image of Tom York (a different star image to say One Direction who are manufactured.). Radiohead left BMG (one of the big 5) to retain more control over their music. AN act that One Direction for example, would never do.

What I Have Found Out About Music Videos

firstly, independent and major record labels are very different in idea and target audience. but, as Keith Negus said, ' there is a web of major and minor labels.' they all help eachother in the market. the music video's are also an extended advert for the artist and record label. seperating the independent labels to the major labels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopoly
Oligopoly is a selection of companies that own and/or control a an area of the market. an example of this would be the 'big 5'..
1. Sony
2. Universal
3. BMG
4. Warner
5. EML
 These labels own 76% of the Brittish music market with the Independent labels only owning 24%

."Music video is not primarily a commodity form but a promotional one" (Andrew Goodwin, 1992)
. "Music videos now provide pictures for the songs in our heads" (Joe Saltzmanhttp://www.riprense.com/Dailynewspagesaltzman.htm ) 

Evaluation of prelim video shoot.

I believe that our section we filmed was successfull because of the teamwork we used. with me directing for most our time, everyone was focused on what was going on and their jobs were done proffesionally. using our story board, we all thought that the quick shot technique we were using worked well to describe the fun and playfull nature of the band. (ironically called Jane Doe (a dead unknown woman) and the undisirables). i believe that we could have experimented more with the shot choice, but we4 decided to stay to the 'safe' option of midshots and close up's showing their expressions, appealing to their audience. using a camera stand gave the the chance to move the camera from musician to musician without shaking, giving me confidence in what i was doing.

Jane Does and the Undesirables image

the image of Jane Doe and her band influenced our video dramatically. the fun sound they produce needed to be matched with a quick video which was easy on the eye and that doesnt stay in the same shot for too long at once. the backing set was also easy on the eye with a plain and traditional curtain vail masking the 'backstage area'. this helped us produce an easy music video that bounced around from character to character.







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storyboard - my prefered way of visual forms

Narrative analysis

the music video for Foals's 'Spanish Sahara' is the exact opposite of Dyer's theory of 'pop stars' as the lead singer of the band seems very natural in the surreal, frozen landscape. there are no backing dancers revolving around him. it is simply him on his own. it is more of a an indie video with the character closely linked with the landscape.

another band i am interested in is Radiohead. they share the same melachony music that i love with my art background.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melancholy

. as a group, we focused on the middle art of the music video.
. we made sure that the cuts were quick and snappy, giving each member of the band equil amounts of camera time.
. because of the fun loving essence of the song, we chose to focus on the musicians expressions, quickly alternating between each of them.

Evaluation of Shoot Day

my single cover.

in our shoot day with our unsigned band, my role in the making of our section of the video was to choose camera choices Taking the role of a videodirector: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_director 

I also keep the play back in sinc, helping the band keep in time with the track being played, and therefore making the video realistic. our close ups of the drumsticks and guitar necks kept the backing band in shot and not just the three main woman singers. we worked well as a team, putting everyone's ideas into use. the overall result of the shoot day was very similar to the ideas we had on our story board that we had made previously. the happy and 'fun' cuts in the editing make the video very easy to watch and enjoy. it is a light hearted video which introduces all members of the band, but also shows off the main performer of the group by reffering to her again and again. i believe the style of the track is rather pop oriantated, targeting the teenage audience aswell as the younger audiences. the video links with this and is an enjoyable view.

Audience Feedback

Task 7 - Looking back at Your Preliminary Task, what do you Feel you have Learnt in the Progression from it to full Product?

over the shoulder shot in the prelim is used to show the conversation. 

close up is used to show the facial expression, we encompass this close up shot into our
singular tracking shot in our thriller

We achived the same mid shot as the prelim but we encompassed it into our
singular tracking shot.

Our thriller proved more in depth than the prelim as we condensed the shots used in the prelim into a singular tracking shot. Although the thriller was more complicated, it could be seen as simplified.

I found story boarding with out dialogue much more interesting as I could use non diagetic music to add suspense and feel to the thriller, instead of having to focus the audience on someone talking. Although there is a small section of dialogue in our thriller, the music still effects the thriller, we were not able to use music in the prelim because of the focus being on the dialogue. Eye line matches and over the shoulder shots were not used because of the lack of dialogue between the characters, we built up the thrilling feeling by focusing on minimal objects. i found this much more interesting as not so much dialogue had to be captured to make the sequence run smoothly. The use of camera has changed dramatically since our prelim task. As we used no cuts in our thriller, we captured everything that needed to be seen in one long tracking shot. This helped us to not use unnecessary shots such as the over head shot used in the prelim, which didn't actually make sense. we broke the 180 degree rule in order to make our tracking shot work, eye-line matches were not used, and close-ups were zoomed into as and when needed. framing was important as it helped differentiate between what needed to be seen and what was just in the shot for the busy effect we were trying to create. we felt it was harder to frame in our thriller than our prelim because of the amount of background movement, but we felt it worked nicely. In sound, we learnt how to create the intended crowed sounds by adding layers upon layers of different cheering noises as well as our own we recorded. we also distorted our ambient sounds to get the feeling that the crowed and music can be heard but not perfectly from that room, so the sound was 'blurred' to create that  effect. he demonstrated our ability to master new technology such as Final Cut and After Effects to create our thriller and make it more professional than our previous prelim task. This showed a more sophisticated Thriller.

Task 6 - Annotated Thriller Sequence

Task 5 - How We Attracted And Adressed Our Audience

How we attracted and addressed our audience

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Task 4 - Who Would Be the Audience for Your Media Product?

My target audience would be the teenage audience between 15 and 30. As all teenagers are interested in the latest music and the vast variety of genres to listen too, the stereotypical rock star image has become a fashion look for the younger generation. Films such as ‘The Doors’ and ‘Walk the Line’ have been about some of the most famous musicians of all time, the people who started these fashion statements. Our product would continue this trend, but hope to bring a new angle on the cliché documentary about your favourite band. The audience should feel regret, that they did not see more of the rock star, but should feel interested to continue watching, as our main character (the reporter) delves deeper into the life or a rock star in order to find clues for his murder.

Because both male and females teenagers enjoy the rock and roll music genre, our product would attract both sexes to watch it. Our rock star could be seen as attractive to a female audience, and quite ‘cool’ to a male audience, whilst being able to play guitar and sing in a band is seen as a popular thing to do anyway. I would attract these audiences by advertising on social networks (facebook and myspace) because the younger generation use these networks in there daily routine as well as their lives at school. I would also advertise on musical channels such as NME and in-between popular teenage TV shows such as ‘Skins’ and ‘Misfits’

Task 3 - Vertigo Studios Institution

We decided to use the institution Vertigo because of their previous musical films they have supported. Other films they have made prove that the main target audience for Vertigo is a male audience. Films such as ‘Stoned’, ‘Football Factory ‘ and ‘Strummer Ville’ all prove this. they do make low budget films for first time for first time directors. Marketing our film will be mostly DVD sales, seeing as our band is fictional and not a well know band with a constant support. But, with the male market Vertigo are aiming their films at, the rockstar idea would also influence the male market to go watch it. So advertising in television would also be a good idea. Blogging would be useful also as the male fans of Vertigo films will read the blogs and see the film.

Task 2 - How Does your Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

The social groups in our media product are the ‘musician’ and the ‘music lover’. Because more people can relate to loving music, the film follows the reporter who noticeably loves the music on show at that concert. The rock star is very briefly in the opening sequence because not many people can relate to them.

Our Rockstar as he briefly walks infron of the camera.



our backstage crew. all have a similar interest in music which
makes them an easier to relate to as a social group.















Another film in which a rockstar and a fan of music are portrayed is 'Dig', directed by Ondi Timoner and produced by Ondi Timoner. following the two bands 'Brian Jonestown Massacre' and the 'Dandy Warholes', the film shows the lives of a touring band of drug addicts. winning the 'Sundance' award, it was successful because the bands were so hard to relate to, that it was interesting looking into such a chaotic lifestyle, one of which many would never wish of having.

The band are clearly confident with there approach and prehaps experimental in their lifestyles.