Advert & Audience Feedback

Here is the first 'JaeSwift' advert the group and I have come up with, before I say anything I'll first show the audience feedback from the 20 people asked, here are the questions and answers:

1) Do you think our Advert reflects the genre?

All those asked believe that this advert as a whole do think it reflects the genre of the album, the use of the font as well as the black and white image gives a dark and modern hip vibe.

2) Do you like the use of the artist JaeSwift as the background?

All those that were asked this question all agreed in saying that they liked the fact JaeSwift would be a part of the advert, I agree with this and think it will increase the chances in fans purchasing the album because they know who JaeSwift is and therefore are more likely to remember the advert as they already know who he is.

3) Do you like the use of the font style?

The use of font for (12/20) people asked works well with the rest of the advert yet for the other 8 people they don't feel as though it fits with the rest of the advert. Personally I think that the image of JaeSwift is used at the back with quite soft lighting and editing effects to make the font seem much more important to remember, its as though the people should feel as they must know the date of release and where to buy the album as well as the artist and albums name.

4) Does our advert look professional?

The majority of the people asked (15/20) think that this advert is of a professional standard. Apparently the use of the centred font as well as the image as the background all look to be of a professional standard. Apparently to those who disagreed think that the 'Blackmail Records' label does not fit with the advert, I personally agree with this yet the label uses these colours and so we did not want people to mistake it with different labels by editing the colour.

5) Where do you think you are likely to see our advert? i.e Shop windows, Magazines etc.

the entire audience all said that they were most liekly to see our advert in a magazine rather than a Shop window or leaflet because it looks smarter and more professional to be advertised through shop windows. People said that the size of the advert also makes it good for the magazine, especially a music magazine that has a variety of music genres or one that concentrated mainly on Dance, rather than Rap or Heavy Rock because the genres rarely ever sound similar.


6) Looking at this advert what 3 thoughts first came to mind?

Here there were a lot of varied opinions, they included:
Contrasted colours from the album and advert
good use of the image of the album in the advert (promotes album)
Conventional dance fonts, relate to genre
Simple black and white background of the artist in a suit adds to the star image of JaeSwift being smart and always professional

7) What 3 points do you like from our advert?

The most popular answer was the use of font, as a lot of people said that the font reflects the genre most as being a dance album which is correct as it is drum and bass mixed in with a small bit of rap. The second was the use of main colours, people liked the black, white and grey background with the pure white font to stand out in front of the audience. Lastly, the audience said that it was a good idea to include the album front cover as it promotes not only JaeSwift but his album as well including all his songs.

8) What 3 improvements for the advert would you suggest?

 Firstly, the blackmail record label does not fit with the colour scheme being as it is a light blue, maybe edit it to make it slightly darker. Secondly, some people think that only the 'JaeSwift presents Drowning' should be used with the 'Avengeance Heroic Avenger' font style and the rest should be a more normal/ traditional font to match the image of JaeSwift in a traditional smart suit. Lastly, People think that perhaps the 'Blackmail Record' label can be changed slightly in that the font could be changed to make it fit better with the rest of the text.

9) Does our advert fit codes and conventions of the genre?

The people we asked believe that the codes and conventions are being followed as the advert is quite dark with little bright and childish colours making the advert seem more for young adults and teenagers. Also the font style fits well with the Dance genre of music as often other fonts like this are used which are modern and very funky/ stylish.

10) Does our advert fit with the album sleeve?

Lots of people thought that the advert fit with the albums inner pictures as there are similar colours and images yet with the album front and back cover there were a mixture of thoughts, some thought it did still match and correlate yet others thought that the advert and album cover did not match due to the font style and difference in colours.



Here is the JaeSwift advert the group and I have been working on, we used the same image of JaeSwift as the one in the albums inner pictures. The image acts as the background while the font stands out in front as bold modern and unique text the font is called 'Avengeance Heroic Avenger'. At the bottom left is the 'Blackmail Records' that we thought would be good to use as it is a small music company. The image of JaeSwift is quite soft with a black and white edit which in contrast with the font looks soft and relaxed. It contrasts with the font because we wanted the text to stand out to those reading it. Also fans that are known to JaeSwift will recognise the image of him which will more likely stick in their minds. The text gives clear and easy to read information such as 'Available for download on iTunes & Amazon' as well as 'Available to purchase in store at HMV & any major superstores' this gives understandable and obvious information on where you can download and purchase the album from. All the the text that has a slightly increased font size is to hold the readers attention such as 'JaeSwift' which is obviously the artist and '12/12/2012' which to those in a rush will stay in their mind the longest due to the clear importance of the font.

Digipak

Here is the albums inner pictures:

Inside of JaeSwift Drowning Album

As you can see it includes a photo which Jaeswift gladly gave to us as well as the lyrics for the drowning song, the lyrics are in a italic modern font called 'Optima', it defines the song and artists as being sophisticated as well as the lyrics importance. Being as the album name is called 'Drowning' like the song title we thought it was appropriate to include lots of water based pictures, there is also a picture of the artist 'JaeSwift' who sent us a picture.
There will be a fold where the images link together, the images will be facing each other folded together and then where the black background meets the images there will also be a fold. The CD will sit on top of the bottom end of the lyrics, this is just to keep the whole album compact with little empty spaces.


Here is the album front and back images:

This will be the front and back artwork for our album. We used a simple white sans serif font in both images to keep consistency with the album and too match conventions of the genre,  In most cases drum and bass/ dance songs are often seen to be in the present day or futuristic, by having a sans serif it portrays  the album as new and 'cool' to the younger generation.

There is a bar code that we managed to replicate in order to make the album look much more realistic, we researched where most of the codes are placed on an album which was the bottom right corner, out of the way of the image. We included the website just as most albums have information relating to the artist/ album. This is where potential customers could research JaeSwift or preview some of his songs before buying them. Like most albums we also included the Record label, we decided on Blackmail Records as JaeSwift is currently a member of this label and so it was only fitting to add the label. JaeSwift is not a well known artist just like the record label so choosing Blackmail records rather than a popular commercialised label like Universal records was much more appropriate.

The images are very important as it represents our music video 'Drowning'; due to the location being a beach which automatically implies that the album artwork is linked with the music video. We are also hopeful that we can use these images in our music video so the two can be related, it also means that  fans have a reference from the music video or the album which they already know about, It may even incite in buying the album.

Rough Cut Feedback

Today was the day where our rough cut video was shown to the rest of the class. I will upload my groups video so far to my next blog. Overall we got a great amount of feedback, we were given constructive criticised comments which included our strong points as well as what we could do to devlop our music video.


Some good points said included:

• Most of the lip synching was in time with the music
• The black backkground worked well
• Good use of close up shots with the main character
• Good visual effect with the Dubstep
• Fade ins worked very well
• Enjoyed the chimes being in time with the tempo and shots
• Lip synching
• Use of various Shots
• Good use of edits with the dubstep part
• Good use of star image

Some weaknesses or impovments we could use include:

• Use more locations for the background
• Could make use of the green screen (use as multiple background images)
• Lip synching
• Use a different variety of shots
• Possible add another focus
• Perhaps a few of the close ups were too long
• Overlay some more of the shots like we did

Here there were some mixed feelings with our lip synching and use of shots. I think we will definitley be using a wider variety of shots other than close ups and extreme close ups. If we use a different location then we will definitley be able to use a wider range of shots including shots like high and low angle shots as well as pans. We could also get a shot of the girl walking along the location like a beach or climbing some rocks at sea. Another devlopment we will do is add some more overlay shots, it seemed like the class liked the first overlay we used so we could do a few more similar ones like the girl looking into the camera singing with an overlap of a close of her mouth.

Digipak Analysis

Today I have been looking at more digipaks and advertising for singles and albums of many different artists which may not relate to our artist and song genre but will definitley help with determining what to put on our poster/ digipak.

This is a page or poster in a music magazine. The font for the words 'don broco' are very new and stylish, it does not symbolise traditional or old music but rather the newer generation of music. The grid of squares is often what the group use as their signature logo, this means that those who know of or often listen to the group will realise that the logo is for 'don broco'. the image underlapping the grid is of the group performaing to an audience in some sort of festical or gig. The lights used here are quite bright with a mix of purple and blue. This grabs the attention of the audience as they are quite bright and youthful colours which is what the groups target audience are set for. The information on the image is minimal, it contain s the record company, the management, website, quotes from magazines and a couple of the songs available on the album. For this advert I think that my group and I will include the record company, management team and website as well as quotes, websites and stores where the potential buyers can buy the album.

This is a very strange poster as it uses very bright almost pop art style colours for the picture of London. There is a zeppelin floating in the sky which often is linked with World War II, especially with the spotlights in the sky seeking out any bomber planes. This seems to be a completley random and abstract image as the bands doesnt have any kind of relation to the WW2. However saying this, the World War 2 is probably the most well recognised war ever, so I feel a lot of people will look at the poster and feel kind of knowing and understanding towards the image. The font for both the group 'Led Zeppelin' as well as the words 'Celebration Day' are especially strange, there are no serifs on the words yet it doesnt look modern or stylish. It looks a lot more wild and entangled with each of te letters.

Risk Assessment

Although filming seems safe, there are often many risks which can cause pain and injury to those on the set. All risks below are from when we filmed in Suffolk One using the green screen.

Product/ Substance	Hazard	What could go wrong	Safety Procedure	In case of injury...	Risk, HIgh, Medium or Low
Light Bulb	Blindness or burns	When turned on it could cause temporary blindness or injury if touched	Always have the cover over the bulb to block some of the light, do not stare at light and do not touch light, if you have to wear gloves or leave to cool down.	Clean the wound with running cold water, wash eye and keep eyes closed, if it is extreme then call 999 and seek medical help.	Low
Lighting Stand	Could be the cause of tripping over. Could fall on someone	Someone may trip over the stand or cables attached. The stand may be hit or the stand may not be tightened properly, resulting in it falling down.	Always screw the taps on the stand to stop if falling down. Ensure that the stand is not placed in a busy well used place. Ensure everyone knows where the stands are placed in the room. Do no run in the setting, only ever run.	If the person is concussed from the injury, put them in the recovery positions and then call 999. If the injury is less major then check the wound and wash it with cold running water, if needed. Put a cold object on the bruise.	Low
Green Screen	Could cause obstruction and may cause the other stands to fall down.	The weight of the green screen could cause the stands to fall over. The green screen itself is very large and can be a hazard when on the floor	Ensure when the green screen is not being used, keep it in the bag that it came with. Ensure the stands are tightened correctly.	If the injury is a cut then wash the wound with cold running water for several minutes. If the injury is a bruise then place a cold object on the area.	Low

Mood Board

Here is my mood board, it includes a lot of the images which we could involve for out digipak, I found as many images I could that relates to the urban lifestyle and links between the genre of music as well as some abstract art like the chimp image. I also included some images that links with our song 'Drowning' as it will be the main song on the album. From looking at the images nearly all of them look very gritty and truthful, In places like London this is where some people have to grow up with, it relates to them as well as those who like urban rap/ grime and urban dance/ Dubstep..

Existing Album Cover/ Digipak analysis

As well as editting with my group we are beginning the tast on designing and developing the digipak for our artist. To gain inspiration I will be analysing similar artists or artists that are from the same genre or those that try to sell to the same target audience.

My first digipak I will be analysing is by the artist 'Devlin' and his album called 'bud, sweat & beers'. As you can see by the album cover it gives a very urban/ grime appaearance with the 'rough' and worn brick walls behind the artist. The image also shows the artist which some album covers don't which I think is a good idea as a lot of the audience will want to see the face of the person behind the music. I believe a urban style to the digipak will appeal to the listeners and buyers because it relates to the style of new generation music. The font used to spell 'Devlin' is a good font style to use for ours because it is a san serif font which is a modern, new style which is informal.

This is a album by Chase & Status who produce a very similar genre of music (often drum and bass as well as dubstep with a backing vocalist). The image is quite simple yet still represents the band to be quite urbanish and informal as well. Looking at this image I would get the initial impression that the band creates a dance music like drum and bass or dubstep, so if we want an impression of our artist being urban and new then we too need to use some sort of san serif fornt like that in the above.

Another Chase & Status album called 'No More Idols', Now this image is of a british bulldog which has nor relvance to ther music at all, it seems to be completley random and abstract. the font is also san serif giving a new modern vibe, the font is yellow long and bold which along with the dog could be associated with the feeling of threat and danger making the audience or buyer feel as though this album will be intense. I chose this to analyse to show that we do not need anything stereotypical to give a good impression to the buyers, it could be completley random and abstract with no relevance to the music at all, however I do feel as though using a relevant font style is very important.

The next album is by Professor Green, it is called 'Alive Till I'm Dead'. I chose this to analyse as Professor Green often has a Dance like beat in the background, it may be Dubstep or electronics behind his rapping. Although this song we are making a music video for has no rap 'JaeSwift' does often rap in his songs. As the Digiak is an album and not for just one song this will be a good analysis for his Rapping songs. This shot is of the artist at a low angle, this makes him look much more powerful and dominant, as if he is good and the best at what he does. The font is a serif font which makes the album seem traditional, this may be because Professor Green wants buyers to feel as if this is true rapping, like it was before. The lighting makes his features much more softer making him seem like a powerful yet young man who appeals to his target audience of teenagers.

Lighting Plan

As some of the filming will be done using a green screen it should be easier lighting the character in shot as well as the screen itself, for the green screen my group and I will be using two lights as well as a reflector. these two lights were positioned to take the role as key lights which is the brightest of lights which casts a prinaryu shadow, the other light is positioned to take the roll of the fill light and the set light, this fills any shadow given from the key light as well as illuminates the background whihc is the green screen. We then used the reflector to reflect the light from either of the two lights to bounce and fill any shadows such as underneath the chin and the nose.

 

 

With the shots in the bedroom with her friends in the house the lighting used will be different from that in the above, instead of using quite bright and harsh lighting we will be using soft lighting to relax the viewers and mnake the whole scene look very relaxed, soft and normal, to do this may use backlighting as well as key lighting and fill lights to ensure there is no harsh bright lighting and all the features of the character and her friends are soft. The above lighting is made to be bright and harsh to give an affect of pain and a sort of searing emotion.

Filming!

Today was the day where we began filming on the green screen, we did this because my group and I live in very different areas of Ipswich and so going such a journey can be very difficult with all three of us. So what we decided too do in today's lesson was familiarise ourselves with all the lighting and green screens, Once everything was set up ( a green screen, a reflector, tripod and camera and the two lights) we began testing the lighting and camera angles, a problem which may occur when we edit in a background could be that the screen/ sheet was very creased, we tried our best at straightening the sheet out but we had to leave it be. Once we were satisfied we got the girl who will be our main character and began getting mainly close-ups of the girls face, eyes and mouth whilst the girl was lip syncing to the music in the background. We also got a few shots of the girl facing towards the green screen at an angle as the background once edited will be the depressing beach..
Here are a few images underneath of us setting up the area for filming.

Todays lesson

Today Ben, james and I began our storyboard, we also began speaking about filming at felixstowe this upcoming sunday, we just need to find a cast who will be the characters in the video and then were all good to go. If however we haven't found a cast then we can always shoot the scenes where there aren't any characters in the shot such as the tides crashing roughly on the beach.
Here are the images of our storyboard, I may go back and redraft it all to make it look a lot more neat with more detail.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Initial Planning Proposal

Today was the day we presented our pitch proposal to the rest of the class, here are several print screens of the presentation, we also spoke over the slides giving additional information and allowed the class to watch the video from the link.

After the pitch we asked some questions to the class so we can gain some feedback which could potentially improve our coursework grade in making the video better and more suited to the audience. I will now show you a print screen of the questionnaire we gave out to each of our classmates and then i will sum up the feedback underneath.......................................

Research task- Locations

For our location of the video we have decided on a beach, mainly as with the right edits and shots, it can set an isolated, desolate location which seems abandoned and depressing. Also with English weather as it is, we could probably use the grey, dull skies as a good feature, if we film at the right times. We are thinking of Felixstowe as the main location, this is because it is not to far away to travel to and is probably the closest place to a seaside that is close to Ipswich. Not only is it close but there are some good areas we could use to our advantage especially at the ‘old docks’ at Felixstowe where there are few people and lots of debris like  planks of wood, small boats and lots of seaweed and algae. This would definitely add to the scene and would relate to the girls feelings of being cold and alone.

The other location will be a house, more specifically a bedroom where the girl and her friends are enjoying themselves and having fun, things which normal girls usually do, the bedroom will probably be quite girly with pink in the background and posters of various artists and bands which are popular amongst her age group. The bedroom will be well lit with a soft edit creating a much more calm and normal mood as opposed to the beach which will be completely opposite, being dull and having quite a bright ‘Harsh lighting’. The debris and isolation on the shore is a juxtaposition of the other location in the bedroom. We may also have one more location just of a high street, the girls will be walking along laughing and talking amongst themselves, it will take up a very small amount of our video but it adds to the wonder of this mysterious ‘situation’ that the main character has been through.

This would be an ideal setting however there may be a lots of risks
and precautions which we must be careful of. However the background
would be an excellent feature to have, the audience will feel as though all
life and people to care for this girl is far away in the distance.

A bustling high street near some shops will give and impression of a stereotypical
girl spending her time having fun with her friends and shopping in a popular area.

Something like this photo above would be a good bedroom to use
as people can relate to popular references like the posters
and colours etc. The friends could be laughing and giggling amongst themselves
to brighten the mood and setting even more.

Research on JaeSwift

This post will contain all background information on the artist my group and I have decided to create a music video for. I will also be evaluating my thoughts on his other songs and be comparing it to our thoughts on the music video ideas so far, including the genre, target audience and style of video.

Matthew James Baker also known as 'JaeSwift' is an English rapper born in Blackburn, 1988. He is a member of the Lancashire's 'MobScene' crew. Not only does JaeSwift rap, he is also a singer, producer, vocal engineer, vocal coach and DJ. \

The song we have chosen is one where he doesn't sing or rap at all, JaeSwift has created the music but the singer is a female, JaeSwift created the music instead of sung it. The song we have chosen is a slow paced drum and bass song with a small amount of Dubstep. We decided this would be a good song to produce a video with because the lyrics can be easily
JaeSwift has released 11 albums and mix-tapes as well as produced a small film called 'A day in the life of a Lancashire rapper'. Matthew has also founded a record label alongside fellow rapper 'Effektiv', the record label is called 'Blackmail Records' under this record label genres are mainly hip- hop and Urban music from similar small time artists and rappers.
Here is a link to youtube that will play the song that we have chosen to produce a video for, there currently isn't already a music video for the song and so we can create a video without worrying how similar it is to any other.

Click here to be sent to the link: JaeSwift Drowning Video


Not completed

Star Image- Professor Green

In this post I have decided to do my research on Professor Green mainly because I have been noticing him on many adverts and labels now like 'Relentless' which is an energy drink. Professor Green is a 29 year old English rapper. He is signed with Virgin Records which of course is a pretty major company that tailors to a wide range of audiences and age group, it is not a niche record company. However being a young rapper from Hackney you can imagine that he is not stereotypically suited for the older generation, because his lyrics involves slang and words which younger generations use. The music is usually quite upbeat and either electronic or sometimes music with a lot of bass, therefore I feel he is more targeted at the younger generation. The types of clothes he wears also match his image as being quite a cool yet ‘hard’ young rapper from Hackney, which in one of his videos explains as being a very violent and aggressive place. In the video ‘Jungle’ his facial expressions are never truly happy, more cheeky and aggressive, it seems as though he is looking at you with a scowl. All this as well as his lyrics add to his overall image  of being a ‘Hard living’ man who has gone through certain personal situations which he includes in his lyrics. Professor Green also comes across as being quite cheeky, his personality during interviews and in his lyrics there is often something humorous being said. Professor Green I believe is not always led by the record label, he wears his own clothes which also are considered ‘popular’ now days with the teenagers and young adults age group. Although he is under a record company, Professor Green doesn’t seem to hold back on what he feels needs to be said, on twitter he stated,  

“I just can't help but question why some people have jobs. All I do is work, so I get extremely pissed off when people don't do theirs. Dignified silence is pointless. A rushed second single, the Remedy video a month late and now similar problems with the Avalon video unfold. How would you feel if a company taking 25% of your earnings weren't doing their jobs properly? Would you pay someone not doing their job?”.

Often Professor Green includes a fragmentation of performance and narrative, although it is mainly performance and of course, he is always in view. He is often under the limelight and includes himself often with many women or men in hoodies and baseball bats etc. depending on the beat and lyrics of the song. For example the song 'Jungle' is a song of how violent Hackney can be and so the video included many 'hoodlums' in the video fighting and staring at the camera. Whereas in others this is not always the case.

Wearing clothes that are considered fashionable in the younger
generation, therefore he mainly appeals to young adults and teenagers
due to to his lyrics, type of rap music and his clothing.

'Hard Man' looks and attitude gives an image of a young man who
has been through a lot in his life. This also gives people a reason to look
up to him as inspiration and as a role model.

Popular hairstyles with obviously expensive clothing makes him
seem 'cool' to the younger generation, they admire him.

Music video Analysis

In this post I will be explaining and analysing 4 music videos of my choice, I have chosen Chase & Status- Let You Go for my first video as there is a lot of key terminology involved within the music video.

In this video the focus is on mainly one man, this man is obviously a famous man by the way people seem to greet and look at him, automatically creating an aspiration to the man where viewers would wish to have his fame. Despite this during the first 45 seconds he constantly has his back towards the camera, if not then his face is shadowy creating an atmospheric mysterious figure of a man. it is only at 45 seconds where we first see this man, to which there is a low angle shot to make him look more dominant and authoritative.

However as the narrative progreses through along with the song we soon find out that this man is just as bad or even worse than those that he judges on his 'Jeremy Kyle' type show. The lyrics in no way have any relation to the actual video, it isn't contradicting but it doesnt illustrate the lyrics yet as the singer gets louder and the music pace increases, he amplifies  he begins to find hismelf losing control, taking drugs, sleeping with woman and crashing his car. The image of this man is portrayed as being kind during the beginning and the audience soon warm to him but after his show it's like he changes completely into a monster, who is a angry, selfish and wreck-less man.

During the ending of the video there is a slight twist which would annoy and anger viewers because after all the wrong he has done his makeup artists make him look normal again and there he is beginning his show once more, it seems to be an occuring thing what he does each night only to be idolised again at the end.

First Post

Hello!
This is my first post towards my second Blog, I'm just informing those who are to read my blog :).
This year we will be focussing on music video and the next post will be me analysing a music video of my choice.