Final Group Digipak

 

Right: Photo (top),  Welcome note (middle), Disc design (bottom)
Left: Photo (top), Tracklist (middle), Cover (bottom) 


This is the final digipak that we've chosen to use for the whole group as we feel it shows many conventions of R&B alongside Pop which reflects the genre of our artist very specifically. First of all we have the backing track; the "Roc Nation" logo in the right hand corner is in reality an established record company owning the likes of our chosen artist Rita Ora along with singers such as Alexis Jordan and J.Cole well known for producing mainstream R&B music sometimes with crossovers of Pop of their subsidiary "Star Roc" and crossovers of Rap since the founder of the label is the well-known rap artist Jay-Z. When potential buyers of the album take a look at the track list and notice the logo in the corner, if they're fans of mainstream R&B making them fit the criteria for our targeted audience, they'll be familiar with the 'Roc Nation' logo and its connotations therefore encouraging them about the fact that the album of this star (who is rising and not already established) will suit their own personal music preferences.

Another reason I feel this digipak is conventional of the mainstream R&B/Pop crossover genre is due to the consistent colour scheme and repeated appearance of the artists face. Showing the artist applies to Goodwin's Theory and also allows the audience to establish some sort of familiarity with the star. In both R&B and Pop the artist is very present on their digipaks and in their music videos as oppose to genres such as Alternative Rock or Dance and Techno. Not only does showing the artist benefit the target audience but it also fulfills the albums commercial side as more exposure of the artists helps transform them into a brand which is what a lot of mainstream record labels aim to do in order to be profitable. This is where the colour-scheme comes in. With the colour red having connotations of edginess (diverting away from the pink fluffiness of a Pop artist) and the white breaking up the harsh contrast between black and red, the target audience will soon get used to this colour scheme and sub-consciously begin to relate the theme to the artist. When the artist eventually becomes more established they can use this feature as a trademark or promotional feature. In real life, some musicians even use objects as their trademark feature. For example:

• Rihanna and the 'R' - Her initial and 'personal trademark' 

• JLS and their primary colours to represent each member 

Lastly, throughout my digipak I've used fonts from Photoshop that contrast with one another a lot. While some fonts are elegant and swirled others are rigid and harsh. This is conventional of the R&B/Pop crossover because it literally connotes the blend of two genres which would otherwise be completely opposite. Any kind of music fan is aware than even mainstream R&B is completely different to mainstream Pop, for instance if we took two proto-types such as Carly Rae Jepsen for Pop and Mary.J.Blidge for R&B it's almost impossible to find any similarities between the two apart from their occupation. However, with a merge of the two genres we get artists that're possibly more popular as they appeal to more genre fans that just one kind, examples of artists like this are Beyonce (R&B/Pop), Nicki Minaj (Rap/Pop), Taylor Swift (Country/Pop), Adele (Blues/Pop), Justin Bieber (Pop/R&B) and Avril Lavingne (Rock/Pop). While the swirly writing shows the bubbly feel that is often found in Pop, the rigid and shattered font shows the controversy and confidence of R&B. 

I think that our target audience will be able to connect with the artist due to the graphological features analysed above but also because of the sentimental value that's translated through intricate detail in each of the covers/slides as most artists do. For our own personal digipak this is shown in the digipaks 'Welcome Note' as well as the text overlaying the photoshoot images. One of them are lyrics to the song which we're making our music video to - this helps the audience become familiar with the style of music as lyrics can tell you a lot about a song and plus "Roc the Life" is supposed to be the hit single on this track which means people may be mildly familiar with it whether they're a fan of the music or not. On the photo slide (on the left side) the overlay of text is of various quotes from the film "Alice in Wonderland" which not only work alongside the theme of our whole album 'Lost in Wonderland' but also brings some ideology to the whole theme of the digipak connoting a journey into fame or to somewhere that'd otherwise be labelled "out of the ordinary", suggesting the artists music in new and up and coming. Looking at my latest digipak which can be displayed above and my first digipak, I think that this one is definitely most conventional and the one that should be used for our group, especailly because it's more detailed and shows the artists face - unlike my inital draft (below) which doesn't even have a single picture present.

       

                       

History of the music video

The Late 1970's

The late 1970's was the era for the famous British music show "Top of the Pops" where artists would go onto television, perform their singles alongside a countdown of the most popular tracks that week. Broadly, this could be argued as one of the first modern ways for music videos to be known as slightly relevant and something of fashion to watch on the BBC. Up until this period, music videos had mainly and still were to some extent performance based videos of the artist with footage of them performing at one their concerts or gigs but even then still used the familiar frames such as long shots, mid shots and close-ups. Examples of videos like this that were used and streamed on to Top of the Pops were "The Kinks" with their song 'Apeman'.



While performance based videos were the main type of thing to be seen in the 1970's period there still was some exceptions of artists who began to advance their videos slightly making them more eye-catching and intriguing to their audience since they'd only been seeing concert/gig videos up until this point. One of the first videos that were mainly performance with possibly a hint of concept  is Queens "Bohemian Rhapsody" and even so, the whole thing was shot and edited on videotape making it no where as near as technically advanced as the videos that're streamed onto channels such as MTV and Kiss today.

However, videos such as this one had an effect on the history of music videos as it began to show signs of how artists, their record labels and the rest of their team had started to realize that there was more than one way of drawing an audience and catching attention other than just the music alone, being different and new was clearly a way to encourage artists audiences to buy into their music, hence making more profit for the company. This is a technique that is still used by audiences today as I've recognized from my research into more modern music videos.

1981 - 1991
After Top of the Pops and the music video slowly being brought to fashion, the whole idea of visuals to aid a song went mainstream and the British public weren't just tuning in to watching music on Top of the Pops. In 1981 MTV (a US Network) aired the likes of "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles and "Holiday" by Madonna which caused a rise in the want from the music industries audience to see various music videos from their favourite stars. This quickly made music videos an extremely important part of music marketing and was relied on heavily by big stars to create that extra buzz for their material. This doesn't go to say that the videos of this period were still not half as technical or advanced as they are now. Using Madonna as a prime example, music videos began to help artists establish their image. Madonna was very much like a sex symbol in the 80's as oppose to her industry equal Kylie Minogue who portrayed that much sweeter and more family friendly look - quite like the comparisions made between ex-Disney stars Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez in their music videos today, showing that image has always played an impact on the audiences impression of the star.
(Modern day music industry "sweet heart" Selena Gomez (right) and 'good girl gone bad' ex-Disney Star Miley Cyrus (left) proving that image still sparks different assumptions from similar target audiences in the modern day) 

In the 1981-1991 era, recording studios and sets had access to high quality colour video cameras which the majority of music videos from this generation were shot on, these pieces of equipment were fairly inexpensive and pretty easy to use for video directors and camera men. 

However, the following music video is the reason why this era was probably one of the most revolutionary for the history of the music video and that is 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson released in 1983. It $500,000 to film and was was almost 14 minutes long bringing it up to the equivalent of a shot film. Not only was this US stars music video considered to be on such a high budget compared to the standard music video of this time but it was also the first of its kind to have a clear and obvious narrative that Michael's audience could follow. Of course this opened up ideologies that I've researched earlier in the blog such as visuals matching lyrics and music and the image of the star overall. "Thriller" saw the rise of narrative based music videos and set the standards for new and innovative ideas from other artists to come and really draw in the attention from fans of music everywhere.

1992 - 2004 
Despite the 80's opening the window for the image of artists such as Michael Jackson, Madonna and Kylie to develop, the 90's and early 2000's were the years where directors began to get more recognition for their work and so forth were listed onto the credits of music videos which hinted the early signs of a merge happening between the music industry fans and the music industry itself.

 Before technology and the growth of music it was virtually impossible for any aspiring singers to record themselves a demo because it was too expensive to hire a studio for the period of time needed to get a track of standard to hand to a company. This was the same with directing a video. It wasn't until technological convergence and people being able to access affordable and usable cameras and software that people began to have a shot at recording their own music videos as aspiring directors staring out by filming music videos for amateurs at a not too expensive price to allow them to bring it to a record label in order to be signed.

An example of a director who got his break this way during this time is Hype Williams who now at the height of his fame has directed music videos like 2Pacs "California Love", Ke$ha's "We R Who We Are", TLC "No Scrubz", LL Cool J's "Control Myself". Some would say that the growth in video directors during this time period contributed to the original concepts and ideas that we see in music videos today.

2005-Present 
In the most recent years, music videos are almost compulsory whenever an artist releases a single whether they're Marilyn Mason, Robbie Williams or One Direction. With influences from the internet with the earliest video streaming site such as IRC groups who recorded videos off of the television and then uploaded them all the way to certified businesses such as VEVO on YouTube who hold some of the most viewed music videos of the modern century including "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga, "Baby" by Justin Bieber - a singer who was discovered on the site and viral internet sensations Psy with "Gangname Style",  music videos are now highly anticipated by target audiences and often act out as the best promotional methods for singles when they release trailers via internet.

Examples of teasers from modern day artists include:
                                                  Katy Perry and her teaser for "Wide Awake"

Beyonce and her teaser for "Run the World (Girls)" 

One Direction and their teaser for "What Makes You Beautiful" 

In this post I have learned to respect where music videos have come from and what it's taken to reach the products that we see today streamed on to our televisions and on the internet. This will help me with my own music video because it'll encourage me to look at the bigger picture and consider the type of director that the genre of my video would want (established or amateur) depending on the stars genre and it also helps me bare in mind how concepts change and develop overtime and how something that's "in" and tasteful now might not be considered as on trend in anywhere as long as 50 years to come or as short as 2 years to come. The process of the music video is ever changing. 

Photoshoot

I think a photoshoot was essential for the use of our digipak and album covers because like all artists, they need to establish an image which is something their fans can connect to. Since our track and album is R&B/Pop crossover it's important to get over the particular conventions that fans will connect to and be able to recognize so that we can capture that initial attention that fans show in artists before being fully loyal - if our artist was to show signs of what our audience likes then they might feel more comfortable with giving the album a try and listening to it - this is especially important to artists that aren't already established in the music industry since their target audience won't already know a lot about them.

The majority of pictures that we took we were able to use for digipaks and adverts although I think that the digipak pictures would've been better with close-ups as their smaller and they allow the audience to get a more personal look at the artist, connoting the emotion that's probably been put into their songs and work. However for adverts, it's probably best that a long shot is used to help pull together the overall image of a star and carry those elements in the whole advertisement, since the main purpose of an advert is to promote and almost sell the star. 

Three pictures we decided not to use 

While this close-up could have possibly made a good front cover for our digipak with the right editing and with the correct text and colour scheme conventions, we decided that the image we went with had more potential since this image only shows a snippet of the artists face. Even though it looks artistic and could be intriguing  it's best for rising and less establish artists to always show their face as it helps their audience connect further with the artist and get to know their image - encouraging them to buy them into their material. However, we could use this image for the inside of digipak where there will be photos alongside this one where you get to see more of the artist and get to know her better.


This shot taken is high angled so that the audience are looking down onto the star which is pretty unconventional for an album cover or an advertisement photo. After studying a lot of photographs on R&B and Pop digipaks, I found that they mostly picture the artist face on or from a low angle. Plus, in this photograph our artist is in a knitted cardigan which isn't generic of R&B or Pop who usually wear much more "in fashion" and urban street styled clothes. Although it sometimes pays to go against conventions, I think that it's important to abide by some conventions as the audience needs to recognize certain features of a new artist and connect them to their favourite genres so that they have appeal.



While this close-up is much more conventional with the artist looking glamorous and made-up as well as looking straight down the camera lens, I feel as though the background of the shot is too busy for a magazine advert so possibly with the right Photoshop editing, the main image of the artist could be used on an album cover or within the digipak.









Before and After 1 

This is an example of how I've used photoshop to make the photos on my photoshoot look more appealing, generic and conventional of the R&B/Pop genre. During editing I've used a black and white filter for the actual face in the image followed by 'Brightness and Contrast' which has made the face much lighter than the hair and a cutting tool which allowed me to move the face in my photo onto a different canvas where I wanted it. The other image I moved from one canvas to another was the swirls which resembled a vine from the copyright free website 'Brusheezy'.

Other techniques that were used in the finishing touches of the photo was an "Outer Glow" on the image of the face which took away from the jaggedly edges and helped the main attraction stand out from the monochrome background. Also, I used a variation of opacity which abled me to make the text running over the top of my image more transparent which allowed the text to have a fusionend effect but prevent it from taking away from the overall image.

As well as learning about the basic tools on photoshop for editing photos, I think I learned about the process of making a photograph a lot more conventional and suited to its purpose, even though originally the photograph may be seemed as unusable. This makes me think about photographers and artists are flexible and work together to make basic material they have attractive to the artists fans in attempt to make their digipaks and other photographic material seem more appealing that similar artists on their platform.

Before and After 2 


Following my point about manipulating a basic image to make it more conventional and attractive to the target audience, this is the same photograph as used in "Before and After 1" but manipulated to have a more 'Street' and 'Edgy' feel to it without using drastically different editing features. All I used was a basic filter, text insertion, an opacity change and a zoom to make the close up an extreme close up. So that our photos were conventional of the R&B and Pop genre we decided to vary the use of text from "Before and After 1" which was more swirly giving a fun, girly kind of feel like the Pop, this text resembles graffiti in a way, appealing to the R&B side of the artists overall sound.

All in all, I think if I had more time than the amount set for this task I would've experimented with a variety of shots such as long shots and mid-shots in a basic, raw formation to see if manipulating them would have the same effect - giving me an overall control of the feelings and themes that I translate to the audience in the final piece.

Group Magazine

NADINE'S MAGAZINE ADVERT 
The two of us as a group looked for inspiration for our own original posters from our chosen artist Rita Ora who had a good tour promotional advert which had all the right conventions of an advert with the same kind of visuals that we wanted to create for our album promotion. Lauren and I both sat down and considered our posters looking at how they conveyed to the R&B/Pop genre, taking different features from both and then went forwards to actually go and make them. 

I like that this magazine advert has a colour scheme that reflects the music companies logo as well as the albums cover which has connotations of dominant females in R&B as well as having the overall theme of a Wonderland which mainly appeals to the Pop genre (Katy Perry had a theme like this for her Pop album 'Teenage Dream') but then the black and mysterious glow that borders the majority of the elements on the page gives it the edgy R&B theme which gives it the edge that artists such as Rita Ora have, all in all making it an R&B/Pop cross over advert which is conventional to both halves of the genre.
Another thing I like about my magazine advert is that it has the cover of our actual digipak featured on the poster and they're very similar. I think this works because the theme on both of them are similar which means that there's a constant theme that the audience can connect to. Of course because this album we're promoting is "debut" it helps that the picture of the cover is actually there so that the audience know what to look for if they decide to go into stores/online and buy it. Next, I think that the varieties of font I've used on the magazine advert have had a positive look on the whole overall look since I've used a variety of italic and swirly fonts blended with a mix of bold and more controversial fonts that aren't necessarily as pleasing to the eye. This works because it's "urban meets girly" which is almost metaphorical for "R&B meets Pop" which is the genre of our artist.

However, to improve the whole look of the advert I think that the text could deal with being spread out a bit more to make it easier and less effort to read as it's only an advertisement that's featured in a magazine, the audience won't want a big block of text to read. To achieve this, I'd make the "Roc Nation" logo smaller along with the word presents and move "Nadine King" down and keep it the same size. "Wonderland" would move further down into the centre and the hit songs would possibly become smaller and closer to the bottom of the page. I also think that I'd separate "Roc the Life" as a hit single as it's conventional for a lot of album promotions plus it's the actual song that we're using for our music video which will create the illusion that it's actually been released.

LAUREN'S MAGAZINE ADVERT 

This is the second magazine advert that was produced for our artist to promote their album. Once again the inspiration was taken from other Roc Nation artists who stick within the genre of the label. As noticeable, both magazine adverts took the idea of a range of different fonts along with a mild theme of black and red which is the Roc Nation colour scheme, as after doing some research on the label, we've noticed the artists are quite proud and outspoken about being a part of the Roc Nation brand and label. In my opinion, I think that this advert is good because it has an image of the artist which again is conventional of both the R&B and Pop genre which is what we were aiming for from the beginning and the layout of the text makes it easy to read as we guide it down the page.


In our group we've always decided that the overall genre of our artist and the music video we'll be creating is R&B, Pop crossover. The conventions of the R&B genre are usually a lot of iconography as I established in earlier analysis of other videos along with materialistic values (i.e. flashy cars and big houses). While neither of our posters really show any of this as we've used the same photograph and the artist isn't wearing any kind of clothing to suggest she is an R&B artist, I feel that the top advert is more conventional as the red in the background connotes a desire or lust for the advantages that come with fame, such as the iconography seen in a lot of established R&B star videos like Chris Brown, 2 Chains and even Nicki Minaj. The bottom advert has more of a bubbly and 'feel good' factor theme to it that is more conventional to the Pop genre. The typography appears dysfunctional which could conform and hint more slightly at the R&B edge the artist has as well.

Overall, we decided to use the first advert I analyzed as it has more consistency with a chosen colour scheme and features the album cover which is quite vital for a rising artist in the mainstream music industry. Also the overall layout is more conventional to the Pop and R&B genre as the more vital pieces of information such as the artists name and album title are in a bigger font, which are the most important things for the audience to remember. However, this poster has the "Roc Nation" logo in a more convenient place that doesn't take up enough space but still is noticeable so that the audience will know what kind of genre the artist is and whether their from a mainstream or independent label as that is a big factor in choosing whether an audience is attracted to an audience or not. But overall, I think that the main improvement is that the poster needs a set colour scheme to make it appear more generic as well as consistent. In the end we decided to use advert number 1 as it overall meets the needs to a rising artist as well as abides by the conventions of R&B and Pop simultaneously.

Film Schedule

A filming schedule is important to have since it helps us move through our process efficiently without wasting time on random shots that aren't going to be used in the final cut or  don't need to be as time consuming as they're turning out to be. Also, it helps us work effectively since it lays out what shot we're meant to be shooting and when, this way we can get as many shots done as possible without missing any out and having to backtrack into another day to film that one frame or shot which will then lead to further problems with continuity ending and so forth. Not only does it help with the actual shots but it reminds us of the equipment we need and the iconography as well as costumes so that we can gather everything and bring it prior to leaving to travel to our filming location. Overall a filming schedule will help encourage us to move through the process efficiently and more organized, knowing what we need and don't need at certain times. 

Did you follow the schedule while filming, or did you make any changes?

When we physically went out filming, we stuck to the basic formation of shooting our shots (filming the London scenes first and the Debden fields second) but we didn't managed to film all in one day due to season difficulties. Since it's Winter and it gets much darker quicker, when we finally arrived from filming in London it was far too dark to film and pick up any decent footage on camera so therefore we had to divert it to a few days afterwards when the weather was suitable along with the light. Other than that the sequence of the way we filmed out shots were the way they appear on the shot list and it had the benefits to my group that I expected it to have.

Risk Assessment

It's important to consider risks before filming because there may be some factors in our location or parts of our props that may come as a hazard to our actors/film crew and even others that are around us but aren't necessarily a part of our filming process. For instance if we were to use our sparklers and then just leave them in a field once we're finished, we'd run the hazard of a member of the public touching them and getting burnt or them over heating. It's also important to write out an actual risk assessment so that we've had dedicated time to think of all the possible risks and hazards that we'll face while out and filming. Since we've taken our time to write out a risk assessment, there's more chance that we've carefully thought through everything possible so that we're more likely to be aware of the dangers we're inflicting on ourselves and to members of the public, which all in all will make our filming process run more smoothly as well as safely which is the main priority.

The risk assessment will assist my group with filming because we've got reminders of all the potential hazards listed out and not only that but it's helped us consider what it is we have to do to make sure that we're safe and can film our music video successfully. It'll benefit us in the long run because even though preventing these risks may be more time consuming, it'll make the process much smoother without any interruptions or disturbances from where we've caused inconvenience to ourselves and people around us.