Digipak Analysis: Rihanna

This is the 2 disk digipak for Rihanna's album LOUD. This is a fairly unconventional product as there is no visible information, links or anything much at all. Infact is just consists of a close up picture of her on the front and presumably the back too. The inside is a 3 panel long image of her laying in a rose bush. The two discs have also been printed with images of roses on them too.

The most grabbing aspects of this product is the colour scheme, or more the point the copious amounts of red. She has bright red hair and red lipstick this signifies her sexuality and passion. Females are most likely to want this album however the images are aimed at the male audience, most probably because woman would be getting their boyfriends to buy it for them.

There are lots of images of roses throughout, this ties in to the bold red scheme but also roses are the classic sign of love, passion and romance. One other thing however is that they also come with sharp thorns so maybe this is a reflection on her personality that she may appear to be a beautiful flower but she's also got a sharp side.

This red colouring creates synergy as several of the videos released to the songs on the album had a red tint in them and also featured many red objects, uncluding of course her signiture red hair and lipstick.

In the main inlay picture she is wearing a white dress, this would connote virginity and goodness, which is quite the opposite image to the one she usually brands her self with in the media. This is a new branding of Rihanna, a soft, angellic side. The image of her also doesn't really show much cleavage, even this is covered by roses.



By looking at the image above, the cover art to her single "Rude Boy" we can really see what a complete turn around this new branding really is. In the image above she is wearing nothing but boots and a top hat, covering her naked body with a sign saying 'RUDE BOY'.

This re-branding was possibly done because of the drama with Chris Brown. Representing her as an angelic, soft romantic person after what Chris Brown did to her would be much more shocking than if he had done it to the woman in the picture above... Infact with that image it might have even been expected.

This digipak is a very interesting example of how an artist can be re-branded to boost them within the media and gain sympathy and publicity. 



Digipak Analysis: Katy Perry

This is the digipak for Katy Perry's Teenage Dream album. I quite like the layout used, how the front and back cover flow together and then the inside although not part of the same image does look very similar with the candy cotton clouds in the background. The front cover doesn't actually have the title or artist name... This is unconventional in CDs but not unconventional in Digipaks as usually they are regarded as art and a special piece of merchandise. The fonts go with the candy theme of the product and the two discs are printed to look like a doughnut and a large lollipop. The inlay/booklet features a rather bold picture of Katy Perry in an outfit that makes her look like a cupcake with a candy necklace and headdress, resting her arms on two massive cakes, holding a candy wand.

This is a very strange, bold branding of the artist but it goes with the feel of the songs on the album, upbeat, happy and sweet. As for conventions... It doesn't particularly stick to them but a Digipak is a representation of that artist and is really supposed to reflect themselves, for the die-hard fans.

Katy Perry being pretty much naked in these images reflects the theory of the "male gaze", the idea that woman are only in the media to be looked at by men and to support and stand beside men. If a classic feminist were to analyse these images she would most probably be disgusted by it however a modern feminist could argue that she is simply using her attributes and body for impowerment over the male audience, instead of just exposing herself for attention.

I like the idea of linking the images with the feels of the songs, to give an all round brand and sensory experience and the arty feel of it is quite grabbing. I want to achieve the same effect but just not using the same techniques. All in all the product is a very bold one which would certainly grab the attention of any Katy Perry fan.

My Focus Group and Analysis

I feel that my focus group went really well. It was helpful and very effective to get views on my ideas and opinions from people outside of my class. Initially when I played the song one member said the band reminds them of people with "Long hair and leather jackets (1:50)" which I would probably agree with. The actors in my video will be wearing a mix of leather and denim jackets as they're fairly popular around my target audience currently.

I got a response saying "It's the type of music my dad listens to (2:20)" and then "Reminiscing on his mod days." This was a great comment as the mod culture is what I was planning to take inspiration from when sorting out costume for the actors, the other members agreed with this statement too which was very reassuring. So Ben Sherman shirts, Dr Martens, Harrington jackets are other iconic pieces to use for costume.

When I asked them what they'd expect to see in the music video the response was initially, very strongly headed towards a live performance, this threw me off a little as I wasn't really planning to have a performance aspect at all... So I then had to really sell my idea to them, of full narrative. After giving them an idea of what would happen and why they all seemed to side to my idea which was very reassuring. One member then told me that he thought of an all performance video at the start because he was "trying to put a face to the music (4:28)" and then commented "when you explain that I can see where you're going with it". So the narrative stays by unanimous decision.

I then asked about a soft opening, which was something I thought of just before the session started. The whole group were against this and I was more than happy to discard the idea as I only wanted to get a quick opinion on it.

I told them about the legal research I did in to public nudity which made them all laugh. I wanted to see what they would think could replace the idea. It was suggested to dress up in animal costumes then during discussion I brought up the idea of dressing the guys up in drag as this would still be comical and shocking and wouldn't have the same risks attached to it so this is something I'm going to look in to further.

I showed them the video to "Sirens" by The Bracknell.  They didn't really rate the video very well so I'm going to detach any big ideas I got from there originally.

Thongs were also brought up, that we could have semi-naked people running through to be a little more conservative. Also the issue that I couldn't film in the initial location of Romford as it's private property so I asked if they had any ideas for alternate locations... They responded with the High Road or possibly somewhere like Brick Lane. They also said that'd would have to be busy otherwise it'd be boring. I like the thought of filming it in Brick Lane as it's not a shy place and there's lots of interesting places around there to get some good footage.



So I'm going to think over the weekend about the possibility of dressing in drag or possibly thongs. Also I'll go up to Brick Lane and scout some locations to post recci shots of possible locations.

Fact-Sheet For Ideal Audience Member

Age: 16-26
Location: Urban; Main cities.
Mainly London, Liverpool, Bath, Manchester, etc.
Likes:  Vintage/Trendy Clothes, Music, Festivals, Drinking.
Dislikes: Staying in, Pop Music, Reality TV.

 

Will deny being stereotyped as a "hipster" but has many traits of one... Going out in Shoreditch, following trends they see on Tumblr or LookBook.

Quite in date with technology, maybe has a blog and likes to think of them self as a shepherd to their peers.

Likes to boast about all the bands they've seen live and will take any chance to go out to a gig. Also probably has several wristbands on at all times from the different festivals and events they've been too. My ideal audience member would probably take a fair bit of pride in their hair, with the girls dip dying or fully dying their hair a strange colour. Lots of skinny jeans, denim jackets, upturned jean legs and short denim shorts for girls. For the girls too maybe a necklace or two and for both genders several rings. Tattoo's would probably be an aspect of their lives, maybe only a couple right now but plans of getting many more. Has Twitter and Instagram and complains that Facebook isn't good anymore.

Analysis Of Magazine Advert: Kasabian

Open publication - Free publishing - More advert


This is quite an effective advert. It follows the conventions of a magazine advert and the genres conventions too. It has the name of the band, title of the album, what it is and what's included, the official website, the logo of the record label, release date, reviews and a main image. The image is actually a larger version of the album cover.

The image is of the king of a deck of cards expect this king is holding a naked woman in his arms, it's set on a white background and generally has a nice clean layout.

The font used is the bands signature font used throughout their career, this is important with anything that's being sold that their brand identity is clear and the audience can relate to the band as soon as they see even the font used. 

The fact that the album is called "Empire" is nicely linked with the image of the king and the regal colours; Emerald green and luxurious red. They've clearly wanted to create quite an "epic" feel to this album as one of the reviews agrees they have done.

Like most bands in their genre they don't have an actually image of themselves. I'm probably going to stick to this convention when it comes to designing mine... Maybe have an iconic image that would be able to brand the rest of their products that they could keep for the entirety of their career. 

Analysis Of Audience Research

Nearly half of all people clicked Indie music as one of the 2 genre's they listen to most. This is good as the song I'm using is classic Indie. Next was Pop, this is understandable as the meaning of pop is that it's popular, my song isn't a pretentious indie song, I feel that it falls near the border of pop too which is great as they were the two most picked.

17/18 people said they watch music videos online, everyone of them said they use YouTube for this. The reasons that they gave were mainly similar; that it's easy, quick and has a very wide range. YouTube is where I'll be posting my video, YouTube is great for sharing too, it has integration on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger... Literally compatible with every social networking site. One issue that this brings up is that the first few seconds of my video have to be exciting and grab the audience's attention as on YouTube if you don't like something straight away you can and will click straight off it.

Most people said that they would watch videos by searching for them themselves, I found this quite surprising as I predicted many would say they discovered music videos by following links posted by friends. The reasons for this i think are answered further in Q10.

The majority of people said they regularly shop in Topshop/Topman. This is exactly as I predicted and if you look at my pinterest post you'll see that the fashion pins are pretty much all from Topman or Topman inspired which will give the audience a base to relate to the artists on screen who's costume will follow the same trends as that on my Pinterest. River Island/H&M/Vintage shops all got an equal amount of clicks, all these shops are very similar and I expected them to all come top.

Not everyone said yes to this question, as was expected. The people that did say they had a style icon chose people like Alexa Chung, Bip Ling, Noel Fielding... All very stylish and original, most of the people around Hoxton and East London have taken some sort of inspiration from these people. That again fits with the fashion question above.

Most people chose "other" as their make of phone. I think this maybe because when I wrote the list I didn't include BlackBerry, which is one of the most common phones within the teenage group. Six people chose Apple which was expected as more and more people are buying iPhones.

The majority of people said they use Facebook... Which was obvious as I asked all of them on Facebook to do the survey! Next up was Twitter then Tumblr, the audience I'm going for aren't the typical Tumblr Hipsters, but a few bloggers is never a bad thing when getting a music video discovered. Facebook is an amazing medium for online distribution, videos can go viral over night and gain thousands of views from just being posted on Facebook. Twitter though not as prolific can still have near the same effect.

Glastonbury and Reading got equal amounts of clicks with V Fest coming in 1 click behind them. The main two are the typical festivals of the Indie crowd as the performers match their crowd and interests the best. V Fest I thought would be top, mainly becuase most of the people I shared it with live within half an hour of where it's located. This is a good result as if I were to imagine the band I'm using at a festival it would most probably be Reading.

Everyone that answered said they had seen someone live, a few gave specific answers where they'd gone to see certain people at their own shows but the ones that have listed a lot of acts would have seen these at a festival or at clubs (for the DJ sets).

Some people simply said they watch music videos to listen to the song! But quite a few people said that they watch music videos as they are interesting, one person said they can be as iconic as the song itself, another said they're like short movies. I got a lot of positive feedback following the idea that music videos are important and the song is bettered by watching them.

Analysis Of Magazine Advert: The Stone Roses

Open publication - Free publishing - More roses

The advert for the 20th century edition of the selftitled debut album from The Stone Roses.

It follows all the conventions of an advert- Release date, reviews, where to buy, record label, title, logos and website and also follows the rock genre convention of not showing the actual band. The image is actually the CD cover, a John Squire piece influenced by Jackson Pollock, entitled "Bye Bye Badman". This was used, as the cover was voted in the top 100 covers of all time according to Q magazine and the lemons became a significant image and logo for the band, which refer to the 1968 riots in Paris where the rioters used lemon juice as an antidote to the tear gas. This intertextuality to Jackson Pollock and the artwork refering to the Parisian student riots add a depth to the band and signify that they aren't just another meaningless group from Manchester.

There is a three part list which uses alliteration at the bottom "Re-Mastered. Re-Packaged. Re-Discovered" which is a classic rhetoric selling technique in advertising. This is also in the red white and blue featured on the stripes at the side of the advert, another significant image for the band. Whats also interesting to look at is how the reviews are placed on the advert, the text has been insterted on images of badges as badges were a big accessory in the late 80's and 80's amongst the Brit-Pop, Indie rock audience.

This CD is for fans of The Stone Roses from back when it first came out, therefore, by using the familiar images and colours, this would spur the relation of the audience to the CD, creating nostalgia for what was one of the most influential albums in British music history.

Amalgamtion Of Ideas: Pinterest

This is the link to my Pinterest board for the lifestyle of my audience.

Lifestyle- These are some pictures that I found on Pinterest that sort of give an idea of the representation of my audience, the drink and drugs (though not necessarily) and the humour (banter).

This is the link to my Pinterest board for the fashion of my audience.

Clothes- This is a general representation of the clothing I would expect my audience to where, not hipster but more towards indie... Quite commercial but trendy too. This image will be reflected in the costume for my actors.



Some music I'd expect them to like are as follows:

Analysis Of Music Video: Sirens

The Bracknall - Sirens

This is a classic example of an extremely low budget, typicall indie video, done in one take.

The camera language is purposely amateur and shakey, they didn't want a well finished, polished product, they wanted something stupid and funny and obviously homemade. It looks like it's been filmed with a HD camera, possibly a DSLR with video recording capabilities. Even though the quality doesn't look that great, I believe they've rendered it this way for a more amatuer feel. All the camera work is handheld and most probably improvised around the directors vision. This is something that inspired my video, the amateur, imature filming of boys being "boys".

There isn't a narrative, just a guy in a policeman's outfit, stripping to the music. This is a simple idea which has good 're-watchability' as it's just plain funny. The video is mainly for the friends of the band as they're only a small figure, this increases the humour as most of the people who watch the video know the guy in it. But even without knowing him, there is still an undeniable, simple, humour.



These are the 6 main events of the video

                                                                                                                                       

 

The mise-en-scene is very effective to, the run down room with the plug fixtures/wires showing and the scruffy carpet connotes the cheap, rough indie brand. The lighting is simple too, I'm sure they would have had front lights facing him too but on the key props on set is the big backlight in the centre of the shot, it creates an exciting visual effect and provides backlighting to make the shot seem a little more "arty".

As for editing... Well, there isn't any. The whole video is just one long shot.
The only editing that would have needed to be done would have been:

The band name and title of the song at the start.

The download link and links to social networking sites at the end.

The censoring of the gentlemens phallic regions.

  

And possibly a filter over the whole thing, then import the song, export them together and there's the final product! I won't be using this minimalistic shooting and editing technique as it only works well when it's applied to a certain, simple idea. Plus my bands song is a little more commercial and so wouldn't be entirely conventional of the genre.

   This video is typical of the real indie genre and the cheap, rough 'rockstar' feel, the performer obviously doesn't have much shame and is up for a laugh, you wouldn't really see 50 Cent striping out of a policeman's costume for his next release.

     This represents the band as a really fun, carefree outfit, who don't really care how stupid they might seem because they're just in it for the laugh. What's interesting also is looking at the male gaze in this video, as it's a man stripping down it's seen as comical and open but if it was the same with a woman then it would be seen as sexual and the woman might even be looked down on for doing it.  

Blog Reflection: Week 3

So this week I did a lot of research into the legality of public nudity and... Well lets say it wasn't to the best outcome.


So initially I thought that if caught at any point during filming that the naked actors would be cautioned and let off with no problems... Much to my dismay I actually found of that the sanction for this is being a registered sex offender for life and possible jail time/fine. Given this I think I'll be steering quite clear of that.

So right now I'm just thinking of new ideas, keeping the same narrative but maybe having them wear a silly outfit or something instead of being naked!

Dam.

Analysis Of Music Video: Pork Pie

Dirty Dike - Pork Pie

This is an amateur video, made with only one camera, probably a HD video capable DSLR and all shot in one day with barely any planning or direction.

 This matches the song completely and the persona of Dirty Dike. There are a lot of cuts, conventional of a music video, always to some action/movement; this is because the video is edited to the beat. Dirty Dike is performing the whole way through, lip syncing and performing to the camera. There is no narrative which reflects Dikes life, no structure, he just walks through doing what he wants, which is what he's preaching in the song.

      Every shot is shot with a fish eye lens which is typical of street/amateur video, fairly retro also (late 80's-90's) which is what this song is a homage to. Fish eye lenses are most common in skateboard videos such as this:

Fish eyes are good as they give a wide angle whilst adding style to a shot, which is needed for skating videos as you want to get as much of the action in as possible. However they are also good for street music videos where the artist is trying to represent a very real, true persona. This is because of the fish eyes relation to the 90's, which is when Dike grew up, so he's trying to pay homage to that era. Much like the video to Beastie Boy's "Shake Your Rump" which was actually the first music video to be shot entirely with a fish eye lens.

The whole video is just a representation of Dirty Dike, hanging out in music shops (00:26), eating (00:21), roaming about the streets being a nuisance (00:31), in gambling amusements (1:21) and generally being high on something at all times.

     The video sums up what Dirty Dike wants his persona to be and does it very well. Where as in real life he's actually quite sensible and VERY intelligent you wouldn't believe either of those when watching this video. And also he has a little comedic break at (01:43) which shows his humour and satirical nature by asking a sainsbury's worker "Where are the pork pies?" filmed on a covert camera on the end of his trolley. 

    This is a great example of a low budget, effective music video. There really isn't any narrative, it's just a camera following the artist about, letting him be who he is and capturing it. There are around eight different locations throughout the video, this is something that I'm going to look in to for my video.

In a gambling amusements.

       
                                                         Being a nuisance in Sainsbury's

Eating fast food in the back of a record shop

In a room full of CD's and records, wearing a random outfit and swinging around a plank of wood with a nail in it (?).

Walking down the high street spitting and throwing pork pies, beer and generally being a nuisance

Flicking through records in a record store.

Sitting on the stairs of a record store.

The editing is very clever though, it saves the video from being repetitive and boring, there are a lot of cuts, roughly 120 which is equal to a cut on average every 2 seconds. Also every shot has action in it, Dike is always moving and very expressive in his performance. 

I personally think his persona is quite loveable, cheeky and he seems like the kind of guy that everyone likes within their social group. 

Blog Reflection: Week 2

I want to have quite a bit of humour in my video, hopefully I'll be able to use the nudity idea but I think there may be some issues around that so I'm starting to think of alternatives.

It looks like I'll be working alone on this project as my partner left the sixth form (idiot). However I'm quite pleased with this as I don't really mind working alone and it'll be a good experience! 

I hope to pull off something that shocks the viewer, something that has good "rewatchability" and spurs some emotions. I do fear that at times the work load will get a bit overwhelming as I'm working on my own but I'm aware of this so hopefully there won't be to much pressure when it does. 

My Survey on Audience

Click on the link below to view my survey.

Click here to take survey

I will now share this around my School friends, post it on my Facebook and Twitter.

Allocation of Jobs

I'm working on my own for this unit but this is a list of the jobs I'll have to do over the term.

1. Conduct a piece of audience research which will allow me to develop a clear audience profile.

2. Analyse two existing music videos, digipaks and an A4 magazine advertisement. 

3. Conduct a focus group with my target audience to get feedback on my ideas.

4. Write a final treatment for all three products.

5. Produce flat plans for the digipak, magazine advert and a shot list for the music video.

6. Create a production schedule for the campaign.

7. Produce call sheets/ Recci images for each production session. 

8. Film all shots in the shot list.

9. Take photos on set/location with a still camera for use in the digipak/advert.

10. Write out the copy for the digipak and advert. 

11. Collect together the photos wanted for the digipak and advert.

12. Edit the shots for the music video together.

13. Edit and manipulate the images and text for the digipak and advert. 

14. Finish off and polish each of the products. 

15. Render and export the final Music video and upload to YouTube, embed on blog.

16. Export the digipak and advert and upload to blog.

My Pitch: Presentation, Video and Feedback

Here is the powerpoint that I made for my pitch. I would say that my pitch was fairly unconventional. I didn't want to bore people or overload them with information so I only had pictures and symbols accompanying my explanations. I feel that the pitch should be something to grab peoples attention and intrigue them and then in the feedback they can ask any questions they might have. I think this worked well and I think that this style of pitch matched the feel of my song too.

Open publication - Free publishing - More music

Below is the recording of my pitch to the class.





This is the recording of the feedback I received on my Pitch and ideas.

Permission to use the song "No Paradise"

This is an E-Mail from my nephew who is the lead singer of Shotgun Amigo. 

Please excuse his eccentric nature, it would be impossible for him to send me a sensible permission E-Mail!

This sort of humor is a representation of how the band are, which is the direction that I'm taking my video.

Blog Reflection: Week 1

This week we worked on the mash up videos... I learnt a fair bit from my own video, given animation I straight away worked on ideas for stop motion and it's best friend; Play Dough. I chose to do an illustrative animation so when he sings "I love youuuu" I made a man with a beating heart, pointing at the camera then when he says "I am the milkman of human kindness" I shaped the man in to a bottle of milk.



This was very rushed as we had a very limited time to record and edit it but it gave me some ideas for my video, although I don't think I'll be using animation in mine.


One of the best things about the task though was seeing what everyone else did and then seeing it all together. Some of the shots actually worked well together strangely enough (others... not so much).


As far as advancements in technical skills I didn't really explore anything new but it was a good experience.

Mash Up Video: Animation

For this task we all had to pair up and produce a section of a music video, following the style we were allocated.



I was given animation.