Album poster/advert

 

I think that my second attempt (picture on the top) is more conventional of the R&B genre as it has the recognizable "Roc Nation" label which is known world-wide as an R&B label and I've also kept in theme with the red and black which are very strong colours and have connotations of confidence and boldness. This is typical of an R&B artist as generically they aren't as 'feel good' or fluffy as female Pop artists who perhaps use pinks and lilacs like Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus. I've also put the face of the artist onto the advert which is conventional as the audience are given the opportunity to familiarize themselves with who the artist who is producing the music, especially since they're up and coming and haven't got an established image as of yet. 

I think the audience will definitely be able to relate to the artist as the strong colours of red and black connote edginess which moves them away from the assumptions of a possible bubbly, pop artists and hints at the type of music that'll be on the album if they were to purchase it. The fact that the album cover is also on the poster shows that she is a rising artist rather than established. 

If I were to put this advert into a magazine I think it'd be in one such as the B&S (Blues and Soul) magazine which usually has rising R&B stars on the cover, for example Rita Ora who once appeared on it before the release of her song "R.I.P" which Tinie Tempah also featured on. This choice of magazine would also be conventional because our artist is the typical artist you'd find in B&S which automatically reaches out to our target audience. However, if I could change my advert, I think I'd dress our artist more conventionally, for instance in more "street" or fashionable clothes with jewelry where people can straight away look at our artist and recognize or assume that she's from the R&B genre.

While creating both of these posters I learned a lot of general skills and ideas on Photoshop, for instance I learned a lot about adding glows and shadows to text which helped me achieve most of the writing on both of the adverts. I managed to get different effects like a cracked look and a glow which contributed to the metaphor of contrast between R&B and Pop. Another technique that I learned whilst doing this was the paint brush- not only did I learn how to layer colours on top of one another but I also learnt how to fade them in and out of one another as shown in the top image. Other than that I've also used how to resize and crop images while keeping their resolution as well as placing them where I want to. 

My draft assisted me in improving my second advert/poster because it made me consider my layout and how to make it more pleasing to the eye, since while flicking through a magazine, readers don't want blocks and blocks of texts, instead broken and fragmented lines work better and flow, so that the reader can take in one part of information at a time. I also decided to include the album cover on my second and final poster because it helps the readers familiarize with a rising star.

Digipak Designing.

FIRST DRAFT 

These are my first attempts at creating a digipak. They consist of a front cover, a tracklist and welcome note. I think for a first attempt they're pretty decent but the cover doesn't have enough information on it or an image of our artist which isn't conventional. We also decided that we'd have a solo artist and not a group since we can only hear one voice in the whole song which means it wouldn't look right or realistic on the finished piece.

My Final Digipak 

I think that my digipak is conventional of my genre which is mainstream R&B/Pop with elements of Dance. First of all because I have an image of my artist on the front cover which helps my audience build up a relationship with the artist and understand them more. It also helps the audience and potential fan base recognize the rising star so that when they go on to release future material, the established look will already be there.

Another thing that makes the whole digipak conventional of an R&B video is the colour-scheme of red and black which works in correlation with the "Roc Nation" logo that is known well for it's R&B artists and fan-base  The colours red and black contrast against each other connoting a feeling of empowerment and status which a lot of R&B stars go for as oppose to the stereo-typical mainstream Pop artist who usually goes for a feel good them. An example of this would be my own artist Rita Ora, who is arguably a cross-over artist yet has an image and presence that separates her from mainly "Pop" or mainly "Dance" artists, using colours and designs on her album package to establish her own, individual style.

For the welcome note of my digipak I decided to go for a stamp-like banner which reads "Fairy Tales", layered white and red to keep in theme with yet contrast the rest of the album design. The reason I thought this stamp was appropriate is because since we titled the album "Wonderland" - having connotations of something new, possibly desirable and completely different (in this case, the artists rise to fame) is because Fairy Tales very much ties in with the idea of a Wonderland and even goes broader and relates to our music video which is all about misreading and prejudging fairy-tales without looking at the small print (again relating back to the idea of chasing fame).

On the back of the digipak, the tracklist is wrote in a much more elegant and graceful font, just like the font that "Lost in" and "Nadine King" is written in on the front cover. In contrast to this, the majority of the writing on the welcome note and the text reading "Wonderland" consistently appears much bolder and dominant giving the whole album a dysfunctional and unique look. Once again, I made this decision to relate it back to my overall theme of having two sides to fame - the dreamy side that everyone see's which explains the stars faded in the background of my album cover and then the dark less glamorous side which answers for the cracks in the font on the word "Wonderland" which is featured on the welcome note.
Finally, we modeled the image of (me) the artist so that they were looking into the distance for it to appear as if I was looking into the distance onto bigger things, again communicating to our audience that the artist is new to the music industry and not yet established.

However, if I could change anything about the overall look of my digipak, I think it would be the iconography of the artist - dressing and styling her more conventional to the R&B/Pop genre would help carry the overall image of the album and encourage our target audience to buy into the image of our artist.

Planning the Location

Forest/Field 

We've decided that we want to use a forest/field as the original setting for our music video where the narrative based part takes place since we're going for a theme loosely based around the story "Alice in Wonderland", where Alice follows a White Rabbit into the dream-like land that she originally thought would be more interesting and better than the present one she lives in. However, in our narrative we're going to use one of us to stand in as Alice, but this Alice is oblivious or has false pre-made assumptions about the life and fame that London and the city 'guarantees'. Therefore, we decided that setting the first part of our video needed to contrast as much as it possibly could with London and the attitudes in the song. 

What we plan to happen in this part of the video is the girl who's representing the 'Alice in Wonderland' persona will be reading and settled underneath the tree when she sees the artist past and that's where the journey begins. A lot of this will probably consist of establishing and long shots so our viewers can get an idea of where the story begins and it'll also reflect the emotion of our 'Alice in Wonderland' persona  at the beginning of the video. However, while we feel this is an ideal way to begin our video, we could be limited with the variety of things we have in our shot since in the field we've selected, everything is very similar and there's nothing defining therefore the use of  too many field shots may make our final piece look very repetitive and dull. Also, we can't  predict what the surface of the field will be like when the tripod is on grass and if it's uneven then we'll have to make extra sure that our shot isn't wonky and be sure that we've got a straight and easy frame. 

We'll be moving around the forest/field a lot and it'll probably be one of the most active scenes throughout our video. I think the main health and safety procedure we'll have to take with this is to be sure nobody in the filming process steps on any disguised holes and twists an ankle and avoids things that'll cause injuries (i.e. sharp thorns, loose branches). To make sure that we don't have any of these complications, we'll be sure to check all the places on the field that we're planning on filming properly and carefully so we can remove and avoid all possible hazards. 

If it's to rain on the day we plan to film this will cause problems for us because we need to sit on the grass and possibly run across it as well which again will result in more injuries and we also won't get the overall look that we want for that part of the video. Our back-up plan is to save that part of filming for a day that is dry and if that isn't possible then we're going to have to film in that weather but change the ideology behind that part of the video slightly to fit the connotations of rainy, wet weather. 



London 

The location of London will fill the whole middle section of our music video. This is the destination that'll represent our 'Wonderland' as especially West and Central London have connotations of promise, glamour, dreams and fame. This is where the girl playing our Alice in Wonderland persona will find fame. I think London connotes 'Roc the Life' well because it talks about the glamour of city life and how the style can draw you into believing that you can be a part of it. With help from "Final Cut Express", we hope to emphasize the lights that'll be found in the city to make them that more attractive and persistent as well as create a visual metaphor. It's fair to say that London is where the journey in our music video plays out. At the beginning it's seen as a desirable place as I've said and then as the song progresses, we start to see how it can be deceiving and not cut out for everybody - no matter how nice it looks from the outside. 
Our group is hoping that London will be worth it and create the perfect modern fairy tale that we're looking for, however we realize it comes with a lot of limitations and catches. Since it's a huge city, we're aware that no matter what time of day we choose to film, it's going to be pretty packed and getting the right shot might not come as easily as we hope. Also, we're going to be restricted with the way we film  because Central London has a lot of packed and narrow streets and placing a tripod on them may not be convenient. Following this, there are a lot of Health and Safety restrictions that we should probably also be aware of. For instance, we'll need to be sure to set up filming in a place where we won't clash with members of the public or on somewhere that may cause congestion.

As far as the weather is concerned, it'd be ideal if it was a bright day for the filming of our music video but I think rain or cloudiness could work in our favor as it could be a connotation of how everything (London in this case) isn't how it seems - but a bright day could also help along our theme of "lights" and "dreams" which persists throughout the whole narrative. 

Bedroom 
We decided to consider a bedroom as our back-up option to the field since we'll be shooting in November/December time and it gets dark quickly and the weather gets wetter, therefore making it extremely difficult for us to be able to film and get the kind of quality footage that we're looking for. So we decided that a bedroom would be a good alternative option because it has connotations of "comfort" and "warmth" which suggest how our artist hasn't stepped out into the 'Wonderland' of the city yet and feels perfectly safe with their surroundings.
Also, there'll be no real complications with shooting in a bedroom as it'll be in one of the group members houses and we'll be able to pick a time to film where it's convenient for us. However, we do have to consider that if shooting the bedroom scenes takes longer than a day, when we return back to the location we'll have to make sure everything is as it was and the lighting is the same brightness/darkness to allow continuity editing. 

In Our Video... 

The following screenshots from  my music video are the locations we ended up using. As you can see we visited London which was our Wonderland and we used the bedroom to open up the narrative. I think this worked well since the two contrast and represent two very different sides of the artist. For instance, the bedroom is where we originally see the artist which can connote "comfort" and "safety" as we originally planned but also it had a good light and was a recognizable setting which also was a place the audience could relate to and gradually throughout the video became familiar with. 

On the other hand, our London setting displayed identity and was a lot more packed and busy than the  bedroom. Not only did we want London to be our metaphorical 'Wonderland' and have the connotations of a lot of people going after the same dream and wanting the same life due to the frequent crowds you see in the city, we also thought it'd be a good setting as it's a familiar city that people know of from all over the globe and from a production side of view, it'll therefore help a bigger, more commercial audience who know what connotations Central London (Bond Street, Knightsbridge and Oxford Circus) have. 

Analysis of Digipak

This digipak represents the Pop genre as it has an overall 'feel-good' theme to it with primary basic colours such as bright pinks and prominent blues - this represents Pop as the stereo-typical innocent and conventional type of music that people assume its artists are, it also gives a clear idea of the type of music that's going to be featured on this album. For example the album gives a glimpse of the bubbly, 'candy' like song that have been released as singles including 'California Gurls', 'Teenage Dream' and 'Firework'. The actual design of the CD also reflects this as well since one side is a doughnut and the other is swirls much like ones you'd find on a lollipop, once again conforming to the typical expectations of Pop on a whole. 

Also, we see Katy Perry (the artist) posing in various images featured on the pack. On the one at the top of the image above she's posing with cupcakes and other over-sized treats while dressed in the style of a cupcake herself. Not only does this support the reoccurring theme of her album which can help her target audience recognize the factors and be able to know it's a Katy album but also it innocently refers to the more provocative images that are a part of the digipak but at the same time restores the innocence since a lot of fans of Pop are younger and it could possibly cause controversy if she were to be too explicit. In the pictures where Katy is laying on the cloud, she's wearing red lipstick which is traditionally the symbolism of a provocative or seductive women - once again reinforcing how her audience is perhaps around the age of 17+, even if the colour scheme of her album is pink and blue which are usually more novelty and aimed at younger girls such as 9-12 years old. 

The colour scheme of the digipak ranges from bright blues and pinks along with light pinks for the clouds. Since all of these colours are bright and stereo-typically considered 'opposites' blue traditionally being masculine and pink being feminine, we can see how she appeals to her male audience (her provocative image) and her female image (her actual lyrics and themes). Once again the colour of font is pink and blue, connecting with the rest of her theme and colour scheme which has been featured throughout. The writing is bubbly and bold which adds to the whole 'candy' and bubblegum feel that the rest of her digipak is contributing to. 

However, it's also small and not big enough to the point where it takes away from the overall decor which involve images and the contrasting colours. Also, the name 'Katy Perry' on the image at the top of the picture is written in a bubble font which is patterned to look like candy-canes, not only does this differentiate between the text listing the tracks and information about the album publishing but it also places emphasis on the name of the artist. 

Another feature that really sticks out about the font used on this digipak are the 'O's', while the rest of the font for the track listings are in a pink bubble-gum colour, they O's are filled in with a swirly pattern much like the one that appears on the disc - once again mirroring the kind of  swirl you'd see on candy-canes or lollipops. 

On a whole, I think looking at Katy Perry's digipak has made me consider a lot more detailed conventions such as colour schemes, reoccurring themes and defining features that'll appeal to the genre interests of our target audience and conform to conventions that our audience can recognize as mainstream Pop/R&B and then be attracted to as it's the digipak's that sell and appeal to potential audiences. 

All in all, with graphological features and the way Katy Perry appears on the digipak in general I think it's fair to say that she's represented as a typical female Pop artist of the modern day. Her sexualized image makes her eye-catching but also goes with the stereotypical idea of women being materialistic and sexual objects in the industry. However, this image has clearly been a success because on the front of her digipak, the only font that she has present is "Katy Perry" and the title of her album "Teenage Dream" with the parental advisory in the corner. Since this has been enough to draw in her target audience, we can begin to understand that she is already a hugely successful star in the industry as her name alone is selling albums whereas a less established artist may need to include other information, more eye catching and unique images along with maybe their hit songs on the cover. 

This analysis of Katy Perry's digipak has helped me see how everything from the artist's name to the images help contribute to the stars image and everything should be a direct or subliminal reference to the stars overall image - as Richard Dyer theorized, stars have an image rather than a personality, they are not real people. In the case of Katy Perry, she has became the image of a Pop Queen and established the perfect balance between girly innocence and a sexualized womanly persona and everything in her digipak works in correlation with this image someway or another. When it comes to creating my own digipak, I think it'll help me consider the artists image more so that we can make the digipak relevant to them and almost like a visual aid of everything they stand for and have become throughout their career - be it whether they're at the beginning of their fame or at the peak. 

Analysis of magazine advert

Rita Ora is represented as glamorous and fashionable in this picture as she has an element of prima-donna in her headshot, it is evident that she's wearing lipstick even though the photos in black and white. She also has curled light hair which forms into ringlets which people can closely relate to a figure such as Marilyn Monroe and other classic beauties that have been famous. This also gives her a recognizable and relatable image which her audience can connect to and see as her image. Also, because of the "MTV" icon in the corner of the screen we can be almost certain that she is a mainstream artist - although we're not sure of what genre but because of the bracelets, rings and necklaces she's wearing we could assume that she's of the R&B genre. The main colours on this poster are red and black, I think this has connotations of advertising an R&B event where mainly artists of that genre or a close crossover to that genre play since most Pop genre based artists (such as Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry) usually use a lot of pink and conventional colours that suit the "girly, fun-loving" image which they aim to convey. Red and black however are a lot more harsh and controversial which could hint at the personality and the themes within Rita Ora's music and lyrics. 

There's only three images on the whole page and they are of the artists performing on the "ORA" tour - Iggy Azalea and Havana Brown both have icons on the left hand side of the page while Rita's dominates the entire advert with a huge picture of her face in the middle. This could suggest that she's a rising star in the R&B/Mainstream world of music since she's done enough to headline her own tour. The typography on this advert is simplistic and draws little attention to anything else, the white font contrasts with the black background and is a lot smaller size than the titles "Rita Ora", "Havana Brown" and "Iggy Azalea" which are the names of the artists - following this Rita Ora's name is even bigger and is arguably the title of the advert. This once again connotes how she's up and coming rather than an established star since the title "MTV Presents..." suggests that she still needs some sort of introduction. 

I think this image targets an audience of young mainstream, R&B fans who like going to urban gigs which are aimed more at the R&B, street subculture since the advert is more styled like a gig promotion rather than a world tour due to the graffitied style font that "Rita Ora" is written in and the multiple adverts that have been lined up underneath the details about where the tour is going as oppose to record labels or real venues which are more often featured on advertisements for mainstream artists worlds tours.

Rihanna is styled in minimal clothing for this shoot which represents her as provocative but somewhat glamorous and giving her the materialistic edge that most conventual R&B or R&B crossover stars have. With Rihanna's hair being red and the overall colour scheme of the advert being red, we as viewers get connotations of lust which emphasizes the first conception we get of her being seductive and desirable. Following that the colour scheme of the advert being red and just features minimal text of her name, the album release date and the album title suggests that Rihanna is an established artist with a big fan-base that doesn't need much convincing to buy into her album which goes back to the idea of her being a mainstream artist. The fact that Rihanna is in a field could give her audience the idea that this album is more open and she's putting all of her natural feelings into the song, convincing them to buy them.

The advert is bordered with a misty red fog and her font in capital letters which are attention grabbing but don't clash with the rest of the advert. The idea that all the font is in capitals and washed out slightly with a white colour imitating the idea of "name in lights" which could suggest how she's already in the limelight and is at the peak of her fame, which for the overall album gives the idea that this is yet another one of her creations that dedicated and new fans can anticipate. There's also an insertion picture of Rihanna's actual album cover which again features a close up of  her face as the main attraction which once again suggests how people are already familiar with her face and her image as a star. If this were a rising star or someone not quite as famous as Rihanna then maybe they wouldn't be able to get away with having their face as the main feature since their hoped target audience probably won't be able to relate at such early stages. All the text on this poster is very declarative, there isn't any sentences or persuasive techniques used in a typical advert. This is good for a magazine advert as most people just flick through magazines and don't want to stop to read paragraphs and paragraphs, especially when the thing they're looking at is an advert. 

I think this image attracts her target audience of young, mainstream R&B fans that are into stars who perhaps have more of a name for themselves and are established in the music industry since its minimal layout doesn't give away too much which is what established and big stars can get away with considering fans are going to anticipate the album despite what the advert says it's going to consist of. Also, the colours and conventional features all combine to clearly tell the audience from first glance that this radiates Rihanna's image before even having to pay too much attention to the contents of the album advert. 

This analysis of adverts is going to support me when making mine because I now understand in more detail the elements it takes to make a successful advert and how to apply it to the type of star that I'm advertising. For example, if I were to be advertising an established pop-star, an image of the star and some conventional features that their already loyal fans can recognize them by (i.e. Red and Rihanna, Katy Perry and candy, Beyonce and the "4") but if I were to be advertising a rising dance musician then maybe an image of the star might not be as important, but conventional features such as a clubbing scene with bright colors contrasting against a dark background will be. With our track being a mixture of Pop and R&B, I think an advert of our own would work well with an image of the artist and it'd be necessary to have the artist name on there also.

Planning Artist Image

For our video, our artist is going to be represented as fashionable and confident. Since our chosen artist Rita Ora is of the Pop and R&B merge genre, it's expected that she'd be dominant and confident for her target demographic to be able to remember and relate to since within those genres, females are becoming more iconic and having images for themselves that differentiate them from other artists in their typical genres.
We want the artist to come across as someone to look up to image wise, since a lot of young females from around the ages of around 16-21 begin to become a lot more fashion and image conscious.

For instance, Rita's fans can recognize her edgy and urban style quickly when they see her at public events and at concerts - however, they don't feel to threatened by her and she still comes across very realistic. An example of an artist who maybe has a style that's a bit more intimidating rather than relatable to their audiences are Lady Gaga and Katy Perry as a lot of their fashion include statement pieces which are almost considered out of reach to the average member of the public. Overall, I think that our target audience will be able to build a relationship with the artist because she'll appear ordinary in the clothes that she's wearing because they're in reach for the audience to purchase themselves but will still look good and fashion forwards on her, plus the confidence of the artist will contribute to this. But at the same time the confidence will work and help make look our artist untouchable which follows and conveys to Dyers Star Theory.

Clothes being used in our music video
Since we're using different styles of clothing in our music video to represent two different personas, we need to make sure that our audience can define between the two characters we've portrayed. For the girl who we've made as the "Alice in Wonderland" persona who discovers London and gets to explore the city, we've decided to make her look a lot more innocent and naive. Her clothes won't nessecarily be out-dated or unfashionable but we'll definitely make her look less manipulated by "what's hot" in the modern fashion world putting her in things that connotate fairytales - such as a puffy, short dress with maybe army/military like boots which will contrast between the girly image giving it an R&B edge which will help us become more conventional and conform to the expectations of R&B/Pop crossover with edgy yet mainstream appearances from the stars featuring in those types of videos.
Our second main persona featuring in the music video is our 'White Rabbit' - in the traditional story Alice follows the rabbit into Wonderland while in this story Alice follows the more fashionable dressed girl into the woods and discovers the culture and fashion of London. Since we want our 'White Rabbit' to be the guidance into London, we think that she should be dressed fashion forwards and in modern clothes that our audience will recognize as "in" at the time of the music videos release and something that connotes the unique and vibrant styles of London. Items of clothing such as; creepers, leggings, wet look trousers/leggings, bomber jackets and hipster like jewelry.

An idea I had for the artist when they supposedly follow the "White Rabbit into Wonderland" or London, as it will be in the video is a Guns 'N Roses T-Shirt. I think this will be fitting because it contrasts with the image that the audience have seen our artist in, in previous parts of the video and therefore will emphasize and highlight the change in attitudes and glamour when it comes to fame.
Also this will bring some intertextual reference into our video which we'd noticed was generic of the R&B genre. While Guns 'N Roses may not be a band that my target audience is familiar with, over the years because of their legendary legacy, they've also turned into a brand that've been fashioned on T-Shirts by all sorts of influences in the Pop culture.

 I decided that I liked the idea of our artist wearing a knitted jumper or some other kind of knitted clothing for the narrative where she hasn't gone into Wonderland because I think clothing of this kind goes against R&B conventions and definitely doesn't form to the materialistic, glamorous lifestyle the genre often promotes. This can connote to our audience the ideology that our artist hasn't actually been exposed to the "high life" again and instead is kind of at the same naive level as the audience are, not knowing about the fine detail of the life of fame. Therefore suggesting innocence and premature as a star, which ties in with the whole concept of our artist being a rising artist, yet to be established.

I thought that having the artist to our music video in a black dress would be ideal when they're singing to the camera and creating the performance based parts of the video. This is because it's different to the two items of clothing that are going to be shown in the narrative and is a lot less statement making. Therefore it won't distract our audience from the two characters we're creating with our audience in the narrative (pre-fame and post-fame) but at the same time the dress isn't completely random as well, it still has connotations of glamour, taking care in presentation and builds more of a neutral look which is less bold than the two items that'll help create certain looks explained above.



Our Video... 
Not only did we style our artist literally with planned clothes to represent different things, we also planned our audiences image in a metaphorical way. For instance, where our artist was filming the performance side of the video I made sure that our artist was styled in a neutral way that wasn't too complicated so that our audience could understand and relate to her without being too distracted by anything she was wearing/fashioning. However, the leather jacket and white top symbolized a cool and casual way of life which is conventional of an R&B artist to an extent.



However, towards the end of our video when the narrative unravels and we find out that the 'Wonderland' isn't as nice as it appears, we decided to represent our artist as 'broken' or 'controlled' metaphorically by giving her streaked make up and messy hair. This created a kind of post-primadonna effect almost showing the side effects of the dream that we'd been glamorizing for so long throughout the course of the music video. Doing this helped us express our stars ideologies about fame and her values which is what we found real stars in the industry do after researching Dyer's Star Theory.

Planning Lighting and Colour

What styles of lighting are you using & why? 

Natural: Where a lot of our video is narrative based and we're setting it in a neutral location, we want our lighting to be natural and fit in with the story. Since we're having parts of the video based in busy and familiar locations such as London we have to consider how shadows, areas that are darker and areas of the city that are brighter due to lights that may already be in the location and the weather. If we have a variety of dark and light lighting when we're filming the story, it'll make it look more realistic. 

High-Key: We want to use some high-key lighting to compliment the effects of "dreams" and a "fantasy" which is how we want the London life to appear in our music video. I think this will work best when it comes to the editing process so we can alter the contrast and the brightness of our original shots to make them look more surreal. Lights such as shop signs, general lights from traffic and street lights will be better emphasized so that we can make London look more like a 'Wonderland' which is what we're aiming for. 

Low-Key: Since the final outcome of the actresses opinion on London is negative, we want the 'Wonderland' and the impression of London being glamorous and high-class to change and evolve into it being more sinister and foreboding and therefore Low Key lighting will work best for this bit. Also, we're setting the beginning of our video in the forest where low key lighting will work well since we want to create a sense of mystery and keep our viewers wondering what the outcome of the narrative will be.

The main lighting style in our Music Video 

Natural: Natural lighting was the main lighting style used in my music video as a lot of narrative was used and we wanted to keep the shots looking consistent and avoid unnatural lighting changes especially since a lot of the narrative all appeared in the same setting. Setting the narrative in a house meant natural lighting was probably the most realistic choice which added to the relatability and realism for our viewers as oppose to using something like low-key lighting which may have caused problems in the viability of our shots and also doesn't compliment a "house" or "bedroom" setting. On a metaphorical level this also represents how the bedroom is the artists 'norm' or day to day life as oppose to the London scenes which are done in a different style of lighting to show the comparison visually. 

High Key Lighting: As we didn't have any access to lights to adjust the videos we took first hand, we edited our chosen frames of London with the effect of 'Glow' on Final Cut Express. We decided to contrast the London shots with the bedroom shots by adjusting their lighting style because we wanted to create the idea that London was desirable but also dream like, meaning not many people get what they want out of the big city. Also since the London shots were on the chorus of the song, it placed more emphasis on the more defined parts of the song while reflecting the energy. High key lighting helped support how certain shots came to life with the help of the music as well as reflect the beliefs and messages of the song and artist. 

Planning Cinematography

Long Shot 

In our music video, we'll use various long shots that show different locations such as the forest and London. This will help our audience get a good look at the setting around us and where we're based. We'll also use long shots when the artist is performing directly to the camera - this gives the artist the opportunity to show their fashion and style which shows the target audience what the artist is all about and help them decide whether the look of the star is conventional to the usual genre that they listen to/watch. I think lyrics in our song such as "My way through London, Americana" could benefit from long shots as they're all about scenery and build a visual of a glamorous, fast paced location in listeners minds that we want to come to life in our video. Also, the chorus of "Roc The Life" may also be complimented with long shots as this is where we're currently planning to use the majority of our jump cuts and therefore we'll be able to clearly show we've moved from one location to another. "Roc the li li li la la la li li life" is repeated a lot throughout the song and with the beat also in mind, cutting from one long shot to another may help us create that image of a busy, fast paced life which is also full of glamour and modern day fashion.


Close Up 

Since our music video is partially narrative, it'll help for us to have close-ups as our audience can see how our artist and other actors feel about what's happening throughout the story and how they're reacting to it.
Hopefully this will also result in placing more emphasis on certain lyrics and verses of the song and convey emotion from the song onto our audience. I think that the use of close-ups also makes the atmospheres that we're wanting to create easier as the emotion of the artist and other extras can be read easier. "Write my name on the stars, so you can see it, wherever you are please believe it" are the opening lyrics to the bridge which are arguably a lot more heart felt than the rest of the song which is why close ups would be the best for capturing the emotion of the artist and allowing the target audience to connect to them on a more personal  level. We also want to use close ups for our performance side of the video for the same purpose.

High Angled/Low Angled Long Shot 

High and Low angled long shots also work the same way as our usual long shots, they give the viewers a better look at the surroundings and what's going on. However, the difference between the long shot and the high/low angled long shot it that the angle places the viewer in either a position of authority over the character in the frame, or make them feel inferior compared to the character in the frame when the angle is low. As in the paragraph on close-ups, "Write my name on the stars" might be a good line to use a low angled shot as stars are high in the sky and it'll give an effect that our artist is also on a level with them which makes a direct connection between lyrics and visuals, which supports Goodwins Theory on music videos.


Mid-Shot 

I think Mid-Shots are going to help us with our narrative when we want consistency. For example when the 'Alice' persona is following the fashionista through the forest, we want the editing to look persistent but not have too many things in the frame that'll distract our viewers.
Following that, since mid-shots are consistent and help tell a story, we'll benefit from these because our video is partially narrative based. While it's hard to pin point any specific lyrics in the song where a mid-shot will work well, we're planing to show the journey of discovering London and it's culture in our narrative based side of the story so lyrics such as "I'm off the chain, you gotta love it, I can't express enough, how bad I want it " may be a line where a mid-shot may come as  beneficial because there will be a lot of cutting between actors walking through fields and forests so we want the editing to be straight cut so that it seems realistic and the narrative moves along smoothly.

Camera Shots used in our Music Video 

Extreme Close-Up: I used an extreme close-up to film the mouth of the artist lip-singing the words "Roc The Life" which were used just before the chorus during the track. I chose to do a close-up as this didn't only work with the performance aspects of the video but it also placed emphasis on those lyrics which is also the title of the song. This means the viewer may remember these lyrics more than others and therefore remember the title of the song. Also, it eliminates any possible distractions from other things in the frame leaving the audience with no over choice but to focus on the words of the song.
Another example of an extreme close up is when we zoomed in on the messages on the stars and within the novel, like with the lips, it gives our audience just a snippet of what's in the overall setting which leaves a lot to the imagination. This keeps interest in our video and helps the narrative unravel nicely without bombarding the viewer with too much information which would make watching the video not as enjoyable.


Close-Up: The Close-ups in our video were used on various shots in the narrative but more specifically of the performance aspect when the artist is singing directly to the camera. Doing this creates a bond and understand between the audience and the artist. This helps the audience make a connection of the artist and become familiar with them which is important as our artist is a rising-artist and isn't established, so their face needs to be memorable. We decided to do this after researching many other videos of the Pop and R&B genre such as Rita Ora, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Flo-Rida and established that this was a very popular technique in all of their videos.

Mid-Shot: While mid-shots weren't as obvious in our video, they still appear during the narrative when doing a shot reverse shot between two characters, for example when the White Rabbit appears on the stairs. Mid-Shots were used to enable the narrative side of the video to flow consistently and naturally without any extreme close-ups in the shots used which may have made it look odd, off frame or give it bad continuity editing.

Long Shot: Long shots in our video were used a lot to capture location and various settings that we decided to use within our group. Long shots came especially in handy when capturing the London shots that we wanted to use, which were later put in the chorus for the most part. Long shots complimented the London scenes best as we wanted to capture the life and vibes of the city and the best way to do that was by getting as much as we could in the frame as long as it was relevant to the kind of glamorous and high-life theme that we wanted to capture. Therefore we took a lot of shots in the likes of Bond Street and Oxford Circus to get the most out of the long shots that we'd chosen to take.

Planning Iconography

The Alice in Wonderland Novel 

At the beginning of our music video one of the actresses who plays the modern day or our version of Alice is going to be reading it because our video is loosely based on the concept of that story (i.e. The girl being led into London and blinded by the 'high life' which is spoken about in the lyrics of the song).
I think this will also help us give a subliminal message of innocence and dreaming since some of the themes of our story is how young/innocent minds are manipulated by the "dreams" that cities seem to promise.

The Vogue Magazine 
The Vogue Magazine we use which is also at the beginning of the video will appear when the Fashionista who in Alice in Wonderland terms stands in for the White Rabbit walks into the forest. The girl who was originally reading the Alice in Wonderland novel gets intrigued by the person passing through the forest and the evaluation of the book changing into the magazine hints at what's ahead.
Vogue is also targeted at a fashionable female audience which is the kind of clothes we want our fashionista to be wearing - this helps us out with Artist Representation as well as the Genre Conventions of R&B and Pop which stereo-typically have the artist wearing beautiful and desirable clothing which gives them status and makes them appear more attractive.


Walk of Fame Stars 


We're going to use stars in various shots throughout our video to
represent the journey to fame and success. We'll probably use them at vital parts in the video to show how our characters are getting closer and closer to fully being drawn into their dreams and going full in to achieve them - since the majority of our narrative is a girl who's not known anything about fame getting a glimpse at the less "simple life".

However, at the end of the video the 'Alice in Wonderland' persona will run away and backtrack on herself, moving further away from the journey of fame until she eventually ends up back in her simplistic life with her Alice in Wonderland book in the forest where we originally began for the setting.

Iconography in our actual video

In our music video, a vital piece of iconography that we used was the Alice in Wonderland Novel. Our initial aim was to make direct connections between the book and the theme of the video but as filming progressed and our editing developed, we've actually used a series of close ups and tracking shots placing emphasis on some of the important words an images. For example, I've extracted the key scene of Alice chasing the White Rabbit into Wonderland for the ideology behind our whole video so we've also included shots of visual images to connote this alongside words that relate to what our video is showing.
On a connotative level, it also shows the contrast in innocence between the scene the audience is used to seeing the star in (her bedroom) as oppose to the city of London which is much more open and in our video is portrayed to be dazzling yet confusing. The Alice in Wonderland book is mostly shown through close-ups to actually allow words from the story to actually capture the viewers attention first hand, highlighting some of the obvious themes throughout the narrative.

Another example of iconography was the gold star that was also included throughout the narrative. The first example of where it's seen is in various places in the artists (Alice's) bedroom such as on the wall, the mirror and the door. Each time it appears it displays a different piece of writing working in sync with the shots of the Alice in Wonderland novel to emphasize the theme to our audience.
The first star reads: "Once Upon A Time" which is classically how all fairy tales begin and also signals to the audience that the video has a story to it. However, it also goes against the conventions of an R&B video as the typical video in that genre would usually focus on maturer content such as expensive jewelry, both women and men in designer clothing and other materialistic objects of that sort such as cars, big houses and even money first hand. Meanwhile, our video is focusing on the negative sides of fame and that's what the iconography of the golden star focuses on. Towards the end of the video, the star appears again but this time being held by both the characters appearing in the video. They all have the advantages and disadvantages of fame of them while the two characters act as though they're being photographed in a police station which connotes how fame is almost like a jail sentence and restricts freedom. These ideologies go against the conventions of both R&B and Pop as they're not glamorizing a materialistic lifestyle nor do they have an upbeat feel to them as Pop videos often have.

Lyrics Analysis

Roc The Life - Rita Ora: Lyric Analysis 

Overall the song 'Roc the Life' by Rita Ora carries the consistent theme of living 'the life', having big dreams and succeeding publicly. We get indications from this with lines such as 'The persona, it's primadonna' and 'Maybe one day, I'll be there. Beyond the stars, like a zillionaire'. When listening to the track, I also got the feeling that the song is told from the perspective of the artist to somebody else (i.e. Rita guiding her listeners through the journey of fame and the commercial yet glamorous ideology associated with that path). Due to this, my group has come up with an 'Alice in Wonderland' based concept where the artist leads the viewers or a dream-like journey into London where stereo-typically "dreams are made". 

My way in London, Americana
The persona, it's primadonna

These lines immediately bring the idea of fame and the high life style to light when they're sang by Rita. Straight away in the first line we get the mention of 'London' and 'Americana', two infamous cities which are known to be desirable, wealthy and full of atmosphere. This supports and suggests a modern and up-tempo feel to our video when we come to make it and gives me the idea that the performance/narrative has to be fast paced and modern as well as interesting (i.e. the London twist of Alice in Wonderland that we've considered in previous lessons of planning).
The song then goes on to speak about the persona being 'primadonna' which translates in simple terms to the 'leading lady' of a show or more modernly a Diva. This could be the first hints that our music video is in fact aimed more towards the female gender rather than male - however this isn't completely official and when making the video we'll still have to bare in mind that we don't want to exclude anybody who may fall under the broad R&B/Pop 'target audience' that we're reaching out for.
Since these are the opening lines, a camera shot such as a close up of an artist or an establishing shot could be used to get the audience familiar with either the setting of the video or the artist. It introduces vital parts of the music video straight away in order to make the music video relatable and familiar to the target audience. This is important so they can pick up certain themes, looks and connotations in the initial stages of the video - it sets the scene for them and says a lot about the song, its message and its genre.  

Kick a zillionaire to the cizzurb
You think you crazy, I'm berserk
"Kick a zillionaire to the cizzurb" also has suggestions of the whole 'primadonna' and rise to fame and success feel since 'kicking a zillionaire to the cizzurb' suggests that the aim is to kick someone who's already made their money from being successful off of the top place and to presumably replace them. Rita then goes on to sing "you think you crazy, I'm berserk" which again emphasizes the idea of taking risks and being hungry to get to where the artist wants to be. This fuels the idea of showing power and representing our artist as a dominant and stylish female.

 I'm off the chain, you gotta love it
I can't express enough, how bad I want it
Maybe one day, I wanna be there
Beyond the stars, like a zillionaire
The lyrics "Maybe one day, I wanna be there. Beyond the stars, like a zillionaire" clarifies the dream of wanting to become a 'zillionaire'  and earn her place at the top spot. Supported by the concept of "maybe" which contrasts with "how bad I want it" as it emphasizes that even though her desire for success and to live the London/Americana life is strong, it's still a dream as it is for a lot of people. "Beyond the stars" also suggests how this dream of hers is almost out of reach - which gave us the idea of basing our video around the journey to fame rather than an actual celebrity who's already made it just showing the typical conventional features such as cars, clothes, money and other luxury items. 

I brought my clique up in here
Put them diamonds in the air
You can hate this all you want
But we gon' take this everywhere

Don't pay them, no never mind
You're just a waste of time
They be watching from the sideline
This section of the song is almost contradicting that feeling of the London style being out of reach and gives us a snippet of Rita's feeling of empowerment and the idea that even though what she wants to do may be impossible, she's going to go for it anyway.  The final three lines "Don't pay them, no never mind. You're just a waste of time. They be watching from the sidelines" gives the impression that the artist is also describing how they're aware and comfortable about leaving people behind to watch and she rises and succeeds in what she wants to do. Again, Rita's stressing the image and representation of her being an independent and self-assured women giving her the 'primadonna' edge which ties in with the initial points about London style itself. 

While I roc the life li li la la li li life
While I roc the life li li la la li li life
While I roc the life
The chorus is pretty self explanatory, 'While I Roc the Life'  following from 'They be watching from the sideline' talking about how Rita doesn't mind living and fulfilling her dreams while people sit back and watch, somewhat giving her listeners the impression that it'd even give her satisfaction for people to do so. When we come to film our music video, I think it's important that we make sure our artist is represented as powerful and independent as well as push forwards the dream like, wonderland feel that we also want to be present and not want to lose throughout. 

I see the lights, see the money
Super glamorous
Fresh off the runway
Wanna be infamous

Notorious as directed
According to us, whiskey nights
Gettin' it in to tear blowing money fast
Get it again
The first four lines in this section "I see the lights, see the money. Super glamorous, fresh off the runway, wanna be infamous" once again presents the idea of dreaming and a sense of 'want'. This is where I think the possibility to make our setting of London City to look as desirable as possible, including shots and frames of the most glamorous parts of it in order to relate the music to the visuals. Following this, the second lot of lines are almost insinuating that Rita already possess the fame and lifestyle she wants - or it could be perceived as what she'd do when she finally reaches her goal. Either way, it's selling the lifestyle to her listeners. 

Write my name on stars
So you can see it
Wherever you are
Please believe it
I'mma take it all
Ain't gonna stop
Until I fall fall fall fall

This bridge almost comes across in a prayer like style, it's much more raw and broken down than the rest of the song and the beat gets heavier. I feel like it's almost the climax of the song and if we were to look at it in relations to the video, it could possibly be the make or break of the dreams that have been sung about throughout the song or even more so, the make or break of the person trying to make the dreams a reality.

Micro-Elements we've considered using

 Since "Roc the Life" is an R&B track it'd be conventional to make the music video a performance styled video which is what we plan to do as it is also the easiest way to show the artist and her style. However, after analyzing the lyrics in further death, I think it'd be really nice to add some narrative as the lyrics in the song are often covered up quite a bit by the dominating beats yet the lyrics really do have deeper meaning, going past the materialistic glamorization and Rita's rise to fame, so I think with some more brainstorming and further analysis, we could come up with a narrative that emphasizes them well to our target audience. Other micro-elements I think I want to consider are:

• Making women look the more powerful/dominant - as seen in videos such as Rita Ora's
• Materialistic Iconography to an extent - i.e. clothes and jewelry
• Some metaphorical items to unveil the hidden meanings - Alice in Wonderland book, Star, Mirror, etc...  

California King Bed - Rihanna: Lyrics Analysis

After analyzing "Roc The Life", the song that we plan to do our music video to, as a group we decided to analyze the song "California King Bed" by Rihanna - an artist Rita gets compared to a lot. While the two are often classed as 'similar', this song by Rihanna is a lot more heart felt and the lyrics talk about how Rihanna is close to the subject of her song physically but emotionally their seperating and how she's not prepared to let the distance win just yet. 

Chest to chest, nose to nosePalm to palm, we were always just that closeWrist to wrist, toe to toeLips that felt just like the inside of a roseThe opening line of "California King Bed" describes how close Rihanna is to the subject of her song literally. From these lines we can pick up a clear physical attraction for instance from the lines "lips that felt just like the inside of a rose" which is a simile for how it feels when the two of them kiss. These opening lines also establish that the song is a love song as once again we pick up the themes of being close physically as well as the reference to a "rose" which has connotations of romance. 

So how come when I reach out my fingerIt feels like more than distance between us?This line goes on to contrast what Rihanna's been saying about closeness in the first verse and throws a rhetorical question to the audience and possibly to the man she's singing about signalling that she senses something wrong in the relationship. While the first part of this section of the song says "reach out my finger" which suggests that she doesn't have to stretch that far to physically touch the man laying besides her, the emotional mentality and state of mind between the two lovers have a distance that's much bigger and emphasizes that while they're still together, problems have caused them to grow apart - adding a tragic and sad emotion to what started out as a love song. 

In this California king bedWe're ten thousand miles apartI've been California wishing on these starsFor your heart on me, my California king"California King Bed" in the chorus once again emphasizes the fact that these lovers are romantically involved with one another hence the "bed" and that Rihanna is comfortable in the relationship, also the "California" possibly suggesting how they're in exactly the same state and are in reach of one another when looking at the relationship from a literal and physical point of view. However, the line that follows "We're ten thousand miles apart" gives the ideology that "California King Bed" could possibly have different meanings to what we originally thought. For instance, California being a big state just as a "king size" is also big - acting as physical metaphors for the space between Rihanna and the subject in her lyrics. She also refers to her lover as her "California King" which suggests that even though there is distance and complications between them, he's still special to her and doesn't want anybody else. 

Just when I felt like giving up on usYou turned around and gave me one last touchThat made everything feel betterAnd even then my eyes got wetter
This part of the song which is also known as the bridge describes the turning point in the story of the relationship that Rihanna's lyrics have been describing. "Just when I felt like giving up on us, you turn around and gave me one last touch" once again brings in the physical references with the word 'touch', reminding the listeners that this man is still very much in her life but followed by the line "that made everything feel better" suggests that the 'touch' she sings about could possibly be the two of them becoming in touch with the others mentality and states of mind for a split second which fuels the faith she originally had in the relationship that was hinted to at the beginning of the song in the first verse. "And even then my eyes got wetter" insinuates that she'd been crying before hand possibly due to recognizing that things weren't working out, but now she's crying more tears of happiness because the two of them have made that connection again. It could be fair to say that the bridge is the climax of the narrative in the lyrics, where the song goes from a sad message to a more positive turn out. 

So confused wanna ask you if you love meBut I don't wanna seem so weakMaybe I've been California dreaming
The interesting part about this second half of the bridge is that Rihanna goes back on herself within the meaning of the lyrics. While in the first half she was talking about restoring faith into the relationship, she's now going on to express her confusion and how she's not sure if what's happening is legitimately the resolution to their problems. "Maybe I'v been California Dreaming" goes back to California being a big place which consists of places like Hollywood and Los Angeles known to be desirable which connotes how her hopes for their romance rekindling could possibly just be hopeful dreams that will more than likely not happen for her. The bridge on a whole helps listeners evaluate and see both sides of Rihanna's feelings when talking about the subject. 
Summary 
Comparing "California King Bed" to the lyrics of our selected song "Roc The Life" has helped me realize how it is vital to capture and emphasize key meanings in lyrics within the visuals of the music video and to take care when picking whether the music video will be concept, performance or narrative. For instance, while "California King Bed" is very much an emotional and personal story incorporated into lyrics which may make some assume that it's best to use a narrative based videos, analyzing the lyrics shows that there's a lot of emotional metaphors within the song and since these are hard to physically show, maybe it'd be better and more appropriate to use a performance based video to give the opportunity for a lot of close-ups so that the audience can see the emotions of Rihanna during the song. Arguably, Rita Ora's "Roc The Life" is the reverse - while the lyrics to this song are a lot more bold and materialistic, there are a lot of key themes and ideologies behind the lyrics which are accessible for our group to play with and possibly come up with a narrative which fits these concepts, however a performance based video could also work well with our song too.