Blog Reflection - Week 15

The deadline for our ancillary products was this week. With such little time to complete them in my partner and I divided the work. I was responsible for producing the magazine advert and my partner was responsible for the digipak.

The first three lessons this week were dedicated to completing these products, the completion of them also required time after school. In our third lesson my partner and I briefly re-grouped to observe each others progress, we gave feedback to one another so that we would both be proud of the final outcome.

By our deadline on Thursday we had completed our products with great satisfaction.

Final Music Video

Magazine advert

Digipak

Blog Reflection - Week 14

This week was dedicated to completely finishing our music video. Our sole focus this week was adding transitions in appropriate places to enhance the quality of our music video and altering the saturation of shots and changing the colour of each shot to make it even accross the whole music video.

We decided to not include special effects, green screen or bold transitions in our music video because we felt that these would subvert the soul genre drastically. As our song is a mellow love song, we felt that it would be best to include transitions that added a soothing feeling for the audience as the shots moved fluently.

Altering the saturation and finding the most appropriate colour for the shots was time consuming as we had to work with excellent precision when altering the saturation to ensure that the artists skin colour was the same throughout our music video. Finding the right colour for all shots was difficult as we didn't want to make the video look unrealistic and drastically edited. After careful consideration we decided to use a very faint pink tint, as we felt that this suited our song well because the colour connotes the themes in our song of love and romance. Making this tint consistent in all shots was a long process ss we had to make sure that all shots had the same tint manually.

Our deadline was the last lesson this week, my partner and I met this. In this lesson we exported our final music video and uploaded it onto our blogs and YouTube.

Blog Reflection - Week 13

Initially our deadline was the last lesson of this week, but it got extended by another week. This gave my partner and I enough time to act on the feedback recieved from our first draft, re-film any shots that needed to be improved and finish editing our footage. The week started with our peers viewing each others work (music video, magazine advert and digipak) and giving feedback on it.

Here is some of the feedback my partner and I recieved:

In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

- Typical contentions = artists name and album
- Typical digipak = one constant image on the back cover

How effective is the combination of the main product and ancillary texts?

- Synergy = sexualisation of the artist, roses, the colour red
- Use of the rose is consistent
- Clear genre throughout (typical artist)

Strengths of the main product and ancillary texts:

- Clear font
- Layout of magazine advert
- The magazine adverts border is elegant and matches the song
- Good layout on magazine advert = good use of fonts
- Good cutting to the beat
- The rose is a good symbol of love

Suggested areas for improvement for the main product amd ancillary texts:

- Some images are blurry
- The artist should have been dressed up throughout
- The colour white should be used throughout to enhance the synergy
- Don't repeat the shot of artists eyes
- Include more grey in the magazine advert.

Blog Reflection - Week 12

In the first three lessons this week my partner and I's main concern was editing our footage because our fourth lesson on Thursday was when our first draft was due.

My partner and I particularly enjoyed editing as we felt we had understood how to cut to the beat precisely and we really understood how to use the Final Cut software due to previous experience.

The first draft was needed as it gave us feedback on our music video so far and our teachers told us what was successful and what was less successful, also any further improvements that could be made.

We were told that in order to improve our music video thus far we should fix the saturation and colour of all shots to make them the same as the lighting in the shots varied.

Another improvement we were told to make was to add some more transitions in to keep it entertaining for the audience and allow a better flow between shots to match the mood of the song.

my partner and I at times got carried away with cutting to the beat, so when some fast beats would come along we'd have a series of very fast shots. It worked well in some parts of our music video but our teacher said that we had done this too much and therefore made the technique look less effective. Taking this into account we decided to remove a few of these sequences and kept the ones that we felt were most appropriate.

Blog Reflection - Week 11

Lesson 1: Due to illness I was absent in this lesson.

Lesson 2:My partner and I focussed on uploading our footage in Final Cut, this was a very long process as we had lots of footage to upload. Therefore, we were unable to start editing in this lesson due to the fact that uploading footage proved to be extremely time-consuming.

Lesson 3: In this lesson time my partner and I filmed some more scenes for our music video.

Lesson 4: Unfortunately I was ill again in this lesson and was unable to attend.

Blog Reflection - Week 10

Lesson 1: In this lesson my partner and I completed some extra work that we had been doing.

Lesson 2: My partner and I went to get props and then went to my house as we are using a location in my home to film.

Lesson 3: Me and my partner evaluated our idea for the music video and we decided that many changes have to be made in order to meet deadlines and produce an effective music video. Therefore, we spent this lesson reconstructing our idea.

Lesson 4: This lesson was cancelled.

In this week my partner and I decided to change our original idea for our music video, this was due to  the availability of our selected locations and how effective we envisioned them to be. We had planned to use the following locations; a white screen, black screen, my bedroom, kitchen and Kalkidan's bathroom.

Unfortunately we were unable to take advantage of the white and black screen because at the times we had planned to film, our teacher was not there for long enough to oversee us. Also when filming against the white screen we spent the majority of our time trying to eliminate all shadows created by the spotlights. This proved to be very time-consuming considering we had limited time to use this location. We decided to not use any of these locations as they were unreliable and we was wasting too much time doing unnecessary things.

My bedroom, kitchen and Kalkidan's bathroom was available at any time necessary, however, when we was reconstructing our idea we felt that these locations would not look greatly effective in our music video. Therefore we decided to not use my bedroom or Kalkidan's bathroom. We are still using my kitchen in shots of the artist and her boyfriend to demonstrate how comfortable they are together.

Our new idea is to have the artist walking down the road singing as one of our performance elements, whilst she is doing this we will cut to shots of her and her boyfriend to show some narrative. These shots will signify how much the artist appreciates her man and that the love is real and mutual. We will also cut to shots of the artist performing in a different location - in front of a garage with graffiti on it to connote that she was born and raised in an urban, rough area but her costume will signify that she is trying to move out of these areas through the success of her music.

We wanted to have the artist performing in less glamorous locations out on the street as we felt that as an independent artist the mise-en-scene signified the lifestyle that she is trying to leave behind best.

Call Sheet 3

Call Sheet 2

Call Sheet 1

Blog Reflection - Week 9

Lesson 1: In this lesson my partner and I completed the production schedule (http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/production-schedule.html). We planned the dates and times in which we were both available to film and when our actor - Jason Brathwaite was available. We also planned in this schedule when we would take the photographs needed for the magazine advert and the digipak. The call logs for when we will be filming were also made.

Lesson 2: In this lesson I started to draw out the magazine advert flat plan. 

Lesson 3: I devoted the first 10 minutes of this lesson to finish drawing my magazine advert flat plan for my artist - Kim King's album. I then completed the flat plan by colouring it in (http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/magazine-advert-flat-plan.html). My partner also completed the digipak flat plan (http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/digipak-flat-plan.html). 

Lesson 4: In the final lesson of this week of production I organised my blog, making sure that all of my pre-production work was complete and done to my best possible standard. I made any necessary amendments and double checked that all work was published.  

Magazine advert flat plan

Digipak flat plan

Production schedule

Blog Reflection - Week 8

Week 8 of production was half term week. But in this week my partner completed the shooting script (http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/shot-list.html), whilst I completed the location recci (http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/location-recci.html) as we have been completing the tasks that we assigned to each other in our job allocations blog post. During this week we also met up to complete some extra work specifically about the mise-en-scene of our music video. Individually I completed some extra blog posts. One of these is about our branding inspiration. This is about the artists we felt were similar to ours - Kim King and how we used these similar artists to inspire the branding of Kim King. I also done an artist profile, this is a fact file of information about Kim King.

Shot List

Blog Reflection - Week 7

Lesson 1: In this lesson my partner and I finished filming our vox pop and then completed it by editing all of the footage together.

Lesson 2: Individually I completed the treatment (http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/treatment.html).

Lesson 3: In the third lesson we started our shooting script. This required a lot of thought from both me and my partner as we had to think about shot types, angles, graphics that may or may not appear, the duration of each shot and what exactly is going to happen in each shot. We also had to consider any cut away's that we plan to include. My partner then completed it at home.

Lesson 4: This lesson consisted of me and my partner discussing our magazine advert flat plan and our digipak flat plan. We planned them out, gaining inspiration from album covers of similar artists to ours (Kim King) like; Mariah Carey and Ciara. We also gained inspiration from an existing flat plan of Rihanna's as we could see how clearly branded her products were through the mise-en-scene including; the colour scheme, costume and make-up. From this my partner and I decided that our artist would be branded by a specific colour scheme consisting of white, black and red. Also that her make-up would be both natural and extravagant to portray both her normality and the more urban glamorous side of her. 

Blog Reflection - Week 6

Lesson 1: In this lesson we planned the questions that we wanted to ask people in our vox pop (http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/vox-pop-and-analysis.html). We thought about these questions very carefully as we wanted to gain as much useful feedback as possible, feedback that would enhance our ideas and increase the enjoyment of the target audience when watching the music video.

Lesson 2: Unfortunately I had a migraine and was unable to attend this lesson. 

Lessons 3 & 4: All of these lessons my partner and I dedicated to mapping out what was to be written in the treatment and then I made a start on it (http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/treatment.html).

Location recci

Bedroom

We chose to use my (Lorelle) bedroom as it is a good size for filming, this allows us to easily obtain good shots, movements and angles. Another reason we decided to use my room is because it is local as it is less than 5 minutes away from school and is always available for use. This set can also be manipulated to maintain our colour scheme of white, black and red.

Bedroom Corner

The bedroom corner is made to look like another location in our music video but it is just a corner in my bedroom. To achieve what seems to be a separate location we will move the bed and film against the cornered white wall behind it.

Kitchen

We have also decided to use my kitchen because it is spacious which gives us the ability to produce more creative shots as we will be less restricted with camera positioning. This will also allow us to enhance the composition of the shots, as there will be more space to place the artist and her boyfriend. This particular location in the home emphasizes the couples relationship and how much they are in love, especially because they will be cooking together, play fighting and taking pictures with/of one another in this location.

Bathroom (Bath)

We have decided to use Kalkidan's bathroom as her bath is bigger and because it is her house it's available and only takes 15 minutes to get to her house by the bus from school. In this location the artist will be enjoying a candle-lit bubble bath, scattered with red rose petals. We chose this location because we felt that if we had the artist in the bath and created a romantic atmosphere it would produce an element of sex appeal through fragmented body shots of her legs in the water yet still signify the theme of love. However, we still want to make the action in this location very appropriate, therefore we will ensure that there are lots of bubbles in the water to protect our artists modesty.

Black Screen

We are using the black screen in the media department at school. This location is very easily accessible because it is in the school and if we pre-book it for the necessary dates it will be made available. This location is only going to be used for various close-ups of the artists eyes and lips. We chose the black screen in particular because the colour fits our planned colour scheme of black, white and red.

White Screen

We are also using the white screen in the media department at school. Again this location is easily accessible because it is on the school premises and by pre-booking time to use it, it can be made available. This location is going to be used to have the artist performing, looking glamorous and surrounded by spotlights. We chose to use the white screen because it also fits our colour scheme of black, white and red.

Treatment

 Artist

The artist we are working for is named 'Kim King' from Philadelphia in the USA. Kim King's passion for music became apparent at the age of 11 when she realized she had the ability to sing. As she matured she faced many challenges such as her mothers death at the age of 21. She states that her mother was her 'best friend' and through this heartbreaking experience she found a way to channel her emotions through her music and I quote her music is, 'real and from the heart'. Kim King's music solely revolves around the genres of Soul and R&B as she has been raised listening to artists such as Jill Scott, Boys 2 Men, Musiq Soulchild, Jasmine Sullivan and Will Smith, from whom she has gain inspiration as they were also born and raised in Philadelphia. All of these artists appear to be Kim King's role models as they also once experienced the hardships of living in this urban environment and they have all managed to escape it and have been able to thrive in the music industry. Therefore Kim King aspires to be like these artists in the sense that she can make it too and is striving to accomplish the American dream for the sake of her 3 children.

Kim King is represented as a classy and respectable woman through her soulful music but she also has an urban vibe, this is evident through her more R&B styled music such as songs like; 'Getcha money girl', 'Fuck outtah here' and 'Get on my level'. Kim King can also be viewed as a role model to many females, because even as a single mother she is working hard to gain a stable career within the music industry without neglecting the needs of her children. She is also very independent and clearly has a great deal of determination, this appeals to many females because they will aspire to also have these qualities.

Audience 

Kim Kings target audience is predominantly females ageing from 18 to 35. Our artists music solely appeals to
women of or within this age range because they can personally identify with the topics she sings about, the main ones being love and romance. Women that are of these ages are able to identify to Kim Kings songs as they are more likely to be engaging in romantic relationships and or may be in love, therefore they can understand what is being sung about. Where as females that are under the age of 18 are stereo-typically less likely to know what true love feels like and therefore probably have not experienced it yet. They also may not have engaged in a more physical romantic relationship yet so they wouldn't be able to identify with what Kim King sings about as it would have no personal appeal or relation. Women that are over the age of 35 are typically currently in long term relationships and dominant ideology in society is that the love in these relationships is more dull and less obvious as each partner doesn't make as much effort to maximize the pleasure of their partner like they would have in the early stages of the relationship. However this does not mean that the love no longer exists but the romance wears out making the love less clear to see. Therefore these women may not enjoy Kim Kings music as she is celebrating a relationship full of romance and these women simply can't relate to this. The women within Kim Kings target audience are of various ethnicity's, because love and romance may be defined differently across cultures but it is experienced in   different ways through all ethnicity's. This target audience are interested in reading, fitness and art. These women enjoy reading romantic poetry as they will find it inspiring and influential when reflecting on their relationships. They will also like to read gossip magazines, including; Ok, New and Now as they find entertainment in the lives of celebrities. These women are interested in fitness as they are still young and want to stay fit and in shape for their own personal health. They also maintain fitness in hope of preventing their partners from looking elsewhere as their partner is likely to be of a similar young age and stereo-typically young males find it hard to remain faithful. Art also interests these women as they find it very therapeutic and good for the soul. So they may regularly visit art gallery's or exhibitions as well as constructing their own pieces of art in the home environment.

Knowing some of the target audiences interests, we will try to appeal to them as much as possible in our music video. Firstly by casting our artist as someone who is within the target audience so that they gain basic identification and also a female that is in good shape to connote that the artist is also interested in fitness, this will cause great appeal for the target audience. We will choose locations that can be related to such as the home. We will include elements that portray a very calm, relaxing and therapeutic feeling similar to the feelings that art gives this audience. For example we may have our artist enjoying a bubble bath with scattered rose petals and lit candles to appeal to the audience.

Our vision

Our plan for the music video to Kim Kings song 'Amazing' is to have the artist singing about her love in various ways through different locations and a mixture of both performance and narrative styles. As the song is soulful we feel that it is important to include performance elements to show how strongly the artists feels about her boyfriend and to highlight how passionate she is. To do so we want to set most of the music video is the home, but through a variety of locations including; the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. In each of these locations there will be different things happening. For example, in the bedroom the artist will be laying on the bed singing to the camera at birds eye view whilst touching her body clearly thinking about her boyfriend. This is to portray the more sexual/romantic side of her relationship. Also on the bedroom we will have the artist writing a letter to her boyfriend, the letter will consist of the lyrics she is singing at the time as they are relevant to him, we wanted this to happen as it shows how serious and committed she is to this man and that she does really want to keep him. In the kitchen as narrative, the artist will sit on the surface whilst her man is cooking and he will feed her food. We believe that this highlights the love within their relationship and how comfortable they feel with each other and we think it's important to portray this because of the context of the song itself. We wanted to use the bathroom as another location is our music video as we want to have the artist in a candle lot bubble bath with rose petals to again connote the romance in her relationship and to connote a more mature theme of sex within her relationship. There are two more locations outside of the home environment that we want to use which are a black screen and white screen in the media department. The black screen will be used to solely take close-ups of the artists features including her eyes and lips, objectifying her body to show the more glamorous side of her as she will be wearing a lot of make-up. The white screen will be used to show our artist again performing, but dressed very elegantly surrounded by spotlights. We hope that all of these locations together will create a great music video for a song within the R&B/Soul genres. 

Our magazine advert and digipak will be branded using the colour scheme of white, black and red. We wanted to use a very bold, bright colour (red) against two very basic colours (white and black) to make our products grab the audiences attention. We decided to use red in our products as we feel that this colour best connotes the themes/topics that our artist sings about in her album, which are love and romance. We also chose to use the colours white and black because our artists album 'From the heart' consists of songs that are about the good times and bad times in her relationship. We felt that the white signified the good times in her relationship as it is a light colour that connotes purity and happiness and the black signified the bad times in her relationship as it is a dark colour that connotes the sad, unhappy moments. The red is present to connote that although the artists relationship has many ups and downs the love is still there, the red is a constant reminder of this throughout the branding of all products. These colours will also be transferred into the music video, to leave the same meaning. But because the particular song 'Amazing' is one of many on there album that focuses on highlighting the positives of the relationship there will be less black present in the music video and more white and red. 

We plan to have the artist on the magazine advert laying down from a birds eye view, dressed in all white on black bed covers holding a single red rose. This is to connote that she is a nice person with a pure heart that is in love but there is trials in the relationship that test the love of both her and her partner. 

The digipak is going to consist of multiple images including a rose covered disc, three panels will be long shots of the artist looking cheerful, the front cover will be a close-up of the artist and the back cover will be a mid-shot of the artist playing the piano. Like all of the other products, the only colours being featured will be white, black and red. All of these images together will connote that yes the artist experiences ups and downs in her relationship but in the end they are always alright. 

The artists brand will be heavily represented through the mise-en-scene in the music video as the locations will not be glamorous, we will not see mansions, pools and clubs as we have subverted these typical representations of music videos within the R&B genre, instead we will see the artist in more basic locations like her bedroom, kitchen and bathroom to make appeal and identification for the audience possible. This is because she is branded as a classy, respectable role model therefore we feel that the audience need to be able to relate to her in order to look up to her. We didn't want to make our artist look materialistic, as they commonly do with other R&B/Sole stars so we have tried to not include many possessions and just have the artist singing. 

Technology use

When in production we will be using video cameras on a tripod and sometimes hand held to film all of the footage needed for our music
video. 

When editing our footage we will use iMovie to cut and order the shots and add transitions. We will use Live Type to create our graphics and Final Cut to edit our graphics into our music video.

We will use a camera to take the pictures needed for the magazine advert and the digipak. 

We will exploit technology available to make the most of each device in order to produce a high quality music video.

Logistics

We have casted Kalkidan Brook as the artist because her availability is much more than others considered. We will be filming in lesson time in the media department using the black and white screen to do certain shots and we will also film after sixth form at my house (Lorelle Thompson) as it is local and frequently available for filming. We didn't need permissions for either location which is why we chose the sixth forms facilities and my home facilities. 

Vox Pop and Analysis

What do you typically expect to see in an R&B/Soul music video?

•  Dancing &singing 
•  Attitude & emotion 
•  Crazy fashion 
•  Half naked girls 
•  Good music/beats/environment 
•  Artist goes back to their roots 
•  Girls dressed provocatively 
•  Cars/money/drugs/parties/flashing lights 
•  Sophisticated & relaxed
•  Narrative.

Our intended audience seemed to picture more of an R&B/Hip-hop music video rather than R&B/Soul as they mentioned the typical conventions that would appeal in a hip-hop video such as money, cars and naked girls rather than a more emotional, meaningful and relaxing music video. Therefore when it comes to making our music video, we will ensure that we use memorable elements within the mise-en-scene to connote the themes as well as the soulful side of the genre. For example, we will use a romantic setting where the artist is situated in a candle-lit bubble bath covered in rose petals.

What interests you about music videos within the genres R&B and Soul?

•  The dancing: if male artist the girls dancing and vice versa 
•  The glamorous scenery
•  The story. 

Our audience seem to like both performance and narrative styles within music videos. From this we have manipulated our idea to ensure that we include a bit of narrative but it will mostly revolve around performance, for example our artist will be performing in front of a white screen surrounded by spotlights. The artist’s body language in these shots will be very expressive to signify a sense of passion to connote our theme of love for whom she is singing about.

 How should we portray our main theme love in our music video?

• Candles & roses/rose petals 
• Show the couple’s relationship, their ups and downs and have them together in the end 
• Only one girl & one boy in the relationship 
• A girl and boy declaring their love for one another  
• An obstacle between the pair, but they break through it in the end. 

The audience suggested romantic elements that they thought should be included in our music video, this was very useful feedback as we have incorporated some of these suggestions such as; roses, rose petals and candles to enhance the romantic atmosphere. This feedback also inspired our branding across all three of our products (music video, magazine advert and digipak) as we decided to use roses because we realized that this is symbolic of love. Along with this symbolic feature and colour we have accompanied it with black and white as we feel that these colours in combination signify an experience of ups and downs within the artists relationship.

What do you think of our chosen song, ‘Amazing’? 

•  ‘Yeah that’s really good’ 
•  ‘Yeah I like it’ 
•  ‘Yeah man it’s nice'. 

We gained 100% positive feedback from our target audience of our song choice, this puts us in a good position because this is the audience we are aiming to appeal to. The fact that they enjoy the song in encouraging.

After listening to the song, what do you expect to see in the music video? 

• Champagne 
• Flowers & hearts 
• A boy madly in love with a girl.

Again the audience have suggested ideas that connote the themes of love and romance in our music video. We have incorporated the idea of a boy being madly in love with a girl. We see this through a scene in our kitchen where the male is feeding his girlfriend. This also subverts the stereo-typical view that men do not carry out what is stereo-typically viewed as womanly household duties as we see the male cooking.

Which location would you prefer to see; bedroom/dance studio/stage? 

• All said bedroom – more realistic & appropriate.

Originally we had planned to use a dance studio to show an emotional soulful dance done by the artist. But none of our target audience seemed to like this idea, therefore we removed it in order to increase their viewing experience as they all preferred to see the bedroom as the main location.

How would you expect our artist to dress; glamorously/classy/sophisticated?

• Glamorous 
• Casual (more popular).

Although we hadn't stated ‘casual’ as an option the majority of them said casual because they felt it best suited the locations in the home environment. This has influenced our costume choices as we was planning to have the artist dressed glamorously in the bedroom scene, but we have now opted for a more casual look as our artist will be wearing her boyfriend’s shirt. But they did want to see some glamour therefore when our artist is performing in front of the white screen she will be wearing an elegant dress, emphasizing the powerful and meaningful lyrics.

What do you think of our idea? 

In the verses our artist will be in her bedroom laying on her bed dressed in a sexual way singing to and about her boyfriend. The boyfriend will not appear in the music video. In the chorus’ the artist will be performing a choreographed emotional dance that expresses her love for her boyfriend. 

• Boys think it’s sexy when a girl wears their shirt and the girls will aspire to be like the artist. 
• Its good, it symbolises love 
• It explores their relationship and how their relationship is
• It really good, it shows the emotion between the man and the woman.

Our target audience enjoyed our idea but they gave us some improvements. From this we have changed our idea and it is now influenced by the feedback given. Our new idea is to have our artist in various locations situated in the home setting including the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. As well as having the artist positioned in front of a black and white screen for the more glamorous shots of our artist. We have now included the artist in the kitchen location as the audience wanted to visually see the relationship between the couple as the song lyrically revolves the artists love for her boyfriend.

Music Video Analysis

Digipak Analysis

Magazine Advert Analysis

Audience Profile

Survey monkey - Audience questionnaire

The survey was answered by both females and males of different ethnicities who were aged 15-23. The variety within our sample means that we can cater to our target audience’s needs, using their feedback about their interests and ideal artist as help to make products they will enjoy because they can relate to it.

The most popular genre of music seemed to be R&B as well as Pop and Rap. This makes sense as these are the genres that get the most attention within the music industry – they are the most recommended on music platforms such as iTunes and YouTube etc. Therefore the audience know of it and listen to it. Furthermore, my sample is quite young and young people are typically known to favour mainstream genres such as R&B because it’s fun, upbeat and they can personally relate to the artist(s) as they sing about issues that the audience may have experienced, for instance themes such as love. This works in our favour because our chosen artists music solely focuses on the genres of R&B/Soul, therefore Kim King will appeal to it target audience as she produces similar music.

Male artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Drake, ASAP Rocky, Miguel and Chris Brown seemed to be the most popular, whilst Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Sevyen Streeter, Aaliyah and Keyshia Cole were the most popular female artists. These artists focus on either the genre of R&B, Rap or Pop. Furthermore the target audience is from the UK but interestingly, American artists seem to appeal to them more then British artists. This works in mine and my partners favour as our artist Kim King is American and is also an R&B/Soul musician – our artist fits the criteria of our target audience’s favourite artist as she is very similar to the ones which they mentioned.

The female audience seemed to prefer shopping at places like Topshop, River Island and H&M, whilst the male audience liked shopping at places such as Superdry, JD and Footlocker. These are all high-street brands therefore when dressing our artist we will make sure she wears clothing from the high-street. This may appeal to the audience as they will recognise the clothing and therefore buy it because it’s affordable - they see her as a fashion icon and may want to aspire to be like her.

The target audience have many outside interests. Females seem to like activities such as shopping and males like sporting activities, specifically football.  When it comes to making our music video I will try to include these interests so that the audience have something they can personally identify with. For example, I may have Kim King (my female artist) going shopping or even just chilling with her friends. Alternatively, I could I have the artists love interest playing sports while Kim King is watching him on the side-lines. Doing this will make the audience think ‘oh, I play sports too’ or ‘wow, she loves shopping so do I’, therefore they will connect with the artist as they have common interest.

The target audience preferred watching music videos on their phones and on platforms such as YouTube. Since my sample is young, it is not a surprise that phones seem to be the most popular option to watch their content on. Additionally, in mine and my partner’s idea we plan to include a scene where Kim King talks on the phone to her boyfriend.

The female audience watched music videos approximately 6-8 times a week and the male audience watched music videos 0-2 times a week. These results are very surprising especially the males. Therefore when it comes to making our product, in particular the music video, we have to be very creative and unique so that the male audience will really want to see the video for out chosen song ‘Amazing’. This will be difficult as our chosen song highlights themes such as love and romance which males might find sappy. Therefore we have to steer away from the cliché love music video and make sure that we think outside of the box.   

The theme of romance was popular amongst the female audience and partying was favoured by the male audience. This is not surprising as females are known to be hopeless romantics and males are typically known to live the fast and exciting lifestyle. In order to satisfy both genders interests, we may include flashbacks of when the couple first met at a party and how it was love at first sight, therefore appealing to both genders of out target audience.

Both performance and narrative were liked, however when taking a closer look males liked performance more whereas females seem to like narrative more. Our idea consists of possibly having the artist dancing in a studio (performance) this was inspired by the music video for ‘Halo’ by Beyoncé and at the same time there will also be a story through the use of flashbacks (Narrative), which was inspired by Keyshia Cole’s music video for her song ‘Trust and Believe’, which also uses the technique of a flashback effectively.

When asked to describe their ideal artist in five words, words such as cool, young, fashionable, diva and fun were very common. I have to consider these words when constructing my artists brand as this is what will attract the audience to Kim King. We will also attempt to further connote these words in our products, in particular through the mise-en-scene, for example our chosen artist will be very fashionable and will be positioned in vibrant settings which are exciting and cool. Moreover, the performance will establish the artist as being a diva as her body language and facial expressions will connote her fierce personality.   

Pinterest

https://www.pinterest.com/kalkidanb/amalgamation-of-artists-brand/

Job Allocations

Blog Reflection - Week 5

All lessons: In all of the lessons of this week our teachers allowed us to continue the pre-production work we have been doing with our partners, including; our magazine advert analysis, digipak analysis and music video analysis.

Magazine advert analysis: http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/magazine-advert-analysis.html

Digipak analysis: http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/digipak-analysis.html

Music Video analysis: http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/music-video-analysis.html.

Pitch Focus Group and Evaluation

Evaluation

From the focus group I gained a lot of positive feedback and constructive criticism to motivate, inspire and improve my idea for the production of my music video.

My peers said I had a good idea and they liked the song I selected. More specifically they liked that I wanted to cut between the artist chilling out with her friends and the artist with her boyfriend or on the phone to him. Another one of my peers said that it's good me casting the artists friends of various ethnicity's it allows for wider relation in the audience. One of my peers mentioned that they liked the dance element in my idea because she thought it was conventional of a music video within the genre of soul. Another peer said that it's good that I am incorporating the artist singing in the music video rather than have someone just singing over a scene. Another strength that was stated is the use of more than one location.

A suggested improvement or potential development of my idea was to have my artist just singing with a mic against a plain background with camera movements - in particular panning from left to right because it is conventional of the soul genre to allow all of the focus to go on the artist due to the basic background. Also
to improve the performance element in my idea a peer suggested that I have the artist singing on a stage in a glamorous outfit with the back-up dancers behind her rather than in a nice park performing. They also said that by improving my idea in this way it will help to develop and showcase the classy representation of the artist.

After gaining this feedback I have decide to alter my idea and instead of having my artist perform in a park, I will have her either performing in front of a plain background with a mic or on a stage.

My Music Video Pitch

Blog Reflection - Week 4

Lesson 1: In this lesson my partner and I produced a questionnaire using Survey Monkey, including a series of ten questions in an attempt to learn more about the target audience of our artist - Kim King. I then created an audience profile. This contained information about what a typical audience member would be like(http://www.blogger.com/blogger.gblogID=78077553130801058#editor/target=post;postID=5674079126151335342;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=16;src=postname).

Lesson 2: As a class we learnt about the conventions of magazine adverts, including; pack-shots, main image/focal point, action line, reviews etc. We looked at various magazine adverts and answered the questions; what is being advertised? Who is the advert targeting? What stereotype is being used? And what message does this give to the audience?

One of the magazine adverts we studied was Britney Spear's advertising her perfume 'Believe'. The advert is targeting females ageing from 16-30 because the artist herself is young, connoting that the perfume is better suited to females that are within this age range. The advert has signified that the fragrance is sweet due to Britney Spear's innocent facial expression and it is likely to attract the attention of young men also within this age range. The stereotype of young, white, blonde haired females being beautiful and seductive is being displayed in this advert. This is evident because Britney Spears is very attractive as she looks naturally pretty and she is being portrayed as seductive due to the lack of clothing, the positioning of her hand on her face and her eyes piercing the camera. This gives the audience the message that this sweet perfume may perhaps have a seducing effect on the opposite sex.

Lesson 3: Whilst my partner learnt more about the conventions of a digipak, I started an analysis of some magazine adverts.

Lesson 4: In this lesson we watched three music videos, a performance, narrative and conceptual video.

• Performance: Jay z & Kanye West - Ni**as in Paris

• Narrative: Frank Ocean - Thinking About You

• Conceptual: Massive Attack - Teardrop

We also looked at the music video to Rihanna's song 'Pour It Up' and discussed what it signified as a class.



As a class we decided that this Music video subverts the typical representation of women because Rihanna is represented as a domineering female that is in control as opposed to the typical representation of women being weak and defenseless. This video connotes that having money is power and Rihanna clearly has lots of it as she is throwing it around, also connoting that she doesn't need a man to provide for her she can do that all by herself.

Pitch Powerpoint

Blog Reflection - Week 3

Lesson 1 & 2: These lessons were spent presenting our music video pitches to our class and then holding a focus group to gather feedback from our peers about our ideas. To view my music video pitch and focus group, click on the following links: http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/my-music-video-pitch.html & http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/pitch-focus-group-and-evaluation.html.

Lesson 3: In this lesson I created a blog post evaluating the feedback I gained from the focus group - http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/pitch-focus-group-and-evaluation.html.

Lesson 4: In the final lesson of this week my partner and I created a PowerPoint of job allocations (http://lorellefayethompson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/job-allocations.html), labeling all of the tasks that need to be done in each of the three stages of production for our music video. We designated who would do each task to allow us to organize our time to the best of our ability and make sure that all of the tasks are completed effectively.

Beachcombing

Keyshia Cole - Heaven Sent



This is a great, soothing song by Keyshia Cole and I enjoy it even more when watching the music video as it matches the lyrics and the feel of the song perfectly. A female audience ageing from 16-40 is targeted by this music video through the costume, narrative, style and conventions.

A female audience with ages ranging from 16-40 is targeted through the costume. Keyshia Cole wears long, brightly coloured dresses throughout the music video. The length of the dresses really appeals to this target audience as they are in fashion and are most commonly worn by this age group, more specifically by the older women in the age range as they like to keep their modesty. Therefore females aged from 16-40 can personally identify themselves with Keyshia Cole as they have something in common and will therefore most likely enjoy the music video more. The bright coloured dresses appeals also to this age range, in particular the younger females in the audience as they like to wear bold colours like yellow and pink as they are very pretty and girly. The colours of the dresses also suit the song and the song title because yellow and pink are very innocent colours and reflect a heavenly feel on the audience.

The narrative targets this female audience of 16-40 year olds also as it is about women that cant help who they love and want their love to think that they are 'sent from heaven'. This narrative targets women of these ages as they tend to be in romantic relationships from the age of 16 until the age of 40, therefore they can personally relate to what Keyshia Cole is singing about. The narrative is reflected in the music video as the sole focus is on heaven. The locations used in the music video are very natural, earthly and beautiful locations connoting what heaven looks like and that God's creation is perfect.


A performance style has been used as we see Keyshia Cole throughout the whole music video singing in a heavenly atmosphere. This is to emphasise the heavenly locations used including; beaches and waterfalls and her presence in front of them to show that she can be a piece of heaven for her love. This is to show the target audience that they too can be heavenly for their man.

The audience is also targeted through the camera conventions as we see a lot of long shots and close-ups which are typical in music videos. Especially the use of close-ups to show Keyshia Cole's passion and love for her man as we see her lip syncing the lyrics. There is also a lot of camera movement rather than cuts to follow Keyshia Cole and to track over the sea and the beautiful islands etc. In addition to this there are a lot of dissolves used to show Keyshia Cole's face over the beautiful scenery to show the audience that she is a part of this heaven, literally.

The mise-en-scene in this music video gave me a lot of inspiration for my music video, as it was constructed very well and all of the elements in the mise-en-scene lead to deeper connotations about the preferred reading of the song. Proving that the music video was well thought of and planned in pre-production, therefore I need to make sure that when I am producing my music video it must be planned to the best possible standard.

The Isley Brothers - Busted ft. JS



This is one of my favorite music videos as it tells a good story. I feel that this targets an audience of both genders of the ages 20-35 and this is done through the costume, narrative, style and conventions.

This audience is targeted through the costume because the way the females are dressed in this music video is very modern, slightly provocative and youthful. This allows an audience of 20-35 year olds to perhaps personally identify with their costumes. However, the men in this video dress more sophisticated in suits and ties connoting that they may be of an older more mature age which appeals to a more mature audience.

The narrative in this music video is that a man's girlfriend has been cheating on him with another man. After returning late home one day her boyfriend starts questioning her of her where abouts and she doesn't stick to one story as he had called her friends the ones that she had claimed to be out with. Realizing that she has been lying and is cheating on him, he kicks her out and calls her a taxi to leave the house. This narrative can relate to this target audience of both genders that are 20-35 years old as they may be able to personally relate to the situation as they may have cheated on someone in a relationship or may have even been cheated on.

This music video is a narrative performance. This style has been used so that a story could be told in the music video whilst the artists are singing it, to allow the target audience to really understand the situation and empathize with the man who is being cheated on as we can see and hear his anger.

The conventions demonstrated in this music video are plenty of long shots, to show the artists body language, so that the audience can see their emotion. In this music video in particular there are lots of conventions suiting the R&B/Hip-hop genre, including; mansions, expensive cars, jewelry, designer bags, etc.

I love the narrative performance element in this music video as it helped to highlight the themes of the song. This inspired me because I want to use an artists song that fits into a similar genre as this one (R&B/Soul), so after seeing this music video it has made me consider using a narrative performance styled music video as it is very interesting and entertaining.

Floetry - Floetic



This song is by a female vocal group called 'Floetry', their music video for the song 'Floetic' is very interesting as it involves some animation, some that is relevant to the song and some that is irrelevant. An audience is targeted in the music video through the costume, narrative, style and conventions.

The costumes that the artists are wearing lead me to believe that an audience of both genders with ages ranging from 30-50 are being targeted because the clothing being worn by the artists protects their modesty and they are dressing very age appropriate as they too are within that age range, so little skin in being displayed. Therefore an audience interested in this R&B/Soul genre music would perhaps personally identify with the artists through their costume.

There is little narrative in this music video as it is full of random action from people on the street and some performance from the artists themselves. By filming what seems to be everyday people dancing on the streets of America, an American audience is targeted of both genders between or of the ages 30-50 years old. This will uplift the hearts of the target audience as they will still feel young and vibrant. The action of all of these people dancing together connotes a strong sense of unity between people of different ethnicity's, cultures and faiths. This is connotes a representation of America and London today as the artists state that they are from London when giving a postcode, so they are trying to signify equality.

The Style used in this music video is performance along with some animation.This targets an audience as they are entertaining them through the performance element of the music video to engage the audience as they'll feel like they are singing directly to them through their screens. The animated elements within the music video also provide great elements of entertainment for the target audience as it expresses creativity and uniqueness to separate this specific music video from other mainstream videos within the industry today.

There are a lot of typical music video conventions used, especially within the camera language. There are a lot of close-ups used when the artists are singing, this is to highlight their passion for the song and the lyrics that they are trying to convey to the audience as we see them closing their eyes whilst singing at times. There is also a lot of camera movement, more specifically a lot of pans when showing the other people in the music video standing on the street.

This music video has inspired me as it is unusual for a song of this R&b/Soul genre to use animation, but they have and it looks creative not tacky. Therefore, it has opened my eyes to more potential ideas for my music video which will be of a similar genre because I know that there are no limitations as to what styles can be used in a music video of this genre now.

Aaliyah - One In A Million



This is one of my favorite old songs, by Aaliyah. An audience that are particularly interested in the listed themes; love, romance, partnership, dancing and acting are being targeted through the costume, narrative, style and conventions of the music video.

Throughout the majority of the music video Aaliyah wears crop tops, this hints a theme of romance as the outfits are quite provocative as they reveal a lot of skin, targeting an audience with the interest of romance through the artists costume.


No narrative is really being shown in the music video as the selected style of it avoids revealing a narrative. However, a man does feature in the music video whom the artist dances with suggesting that he is the man she is singing about who's love is a 'one in a million'. This targets an audience with the interests of love, romance, partnership and dancing as we see the pair dancing closely together proving all of these themes existence. Therefore the audience may be able to personally identify with this music video because of the portrayal of these themes.

The style of this music video is performance, but not wholly as it is mixed with elements of dance and acting to signify the main theme 'love' in the song. An audience is targeted through the dancing and acting in the music video as the audience will enjoy it for both entertainment and personal identification purposes. As they will like watching the artist and her partner dancing and they may in fact identify with the dancing because they themselves are dancers or just dance as a hobby.

The conventions of music videos are clearly evident in this music video as we see a lot of camera movement, from tracks to pans. One example of a track used in this video is when it tracks Aaliyah whist she is singing from her legs to head. A lot of close-ups are also used of her face and body whilst she is dancing and standing making small movements performing. The music video includes a lot of transitions in the editing, especially dissolves, which are very common in music videos. For example from 3:17-3:43 there are lots of dissolves from one shot of Aaliyah to another.

This music video has inspired me as the editing is very good as it has been thought of and mapped out really well. A lot of the conventions of a music video within the editing field have been used which make it well structured.

Lauryn Hill ft Bob Marley - Turn Your Lights Down Low



I love this music video because it is very culturally relevant, although it narrows down the target audience, coming from a Caribbean background I enjoy it a lot. A black, Caribbean audience is targeted in this music video through the costume, narrative, style and conventions.

The costume in this music video targets a black, Caribbean audience as the people in it are wearing very bright, bold colours that are representative of the Caribbean islands like; Jamaica, St.Lucia, Barbados etc. These colours are also representative of the Caribbean islands as they connote summer and in these tropical countries the weather is typically always hot even if its raining and the sun is shining for the majority of the time.

There is some narrative in this music video as we see a man take Lauryn Hill out, they seem like they like each other and as they're riding on a motorbike the song sings 'I want to give you some good, good loving', connoting that they are lovers or soon to be lovers. This targets a black Caribbean audience as the pair are black and seem to be riding through a Caribbean island, therefore it is likely that black, Caribbean's will be able to relate to the narrative and song better.

This music video is styled so that there is a lot of narrative showing along with some performance from the artist/s. This is to portray a story to the audience, or the message intended in the song or even to reveal what the song is exactly about. In this music video, the narrative targets young, black Caribbean lovers as that seems to be the main theme in the narrative - sex but in a romantic relationship as it is sung about subtly and respectfully.

The conventions of a music video are used in this one as there is a lot of camera movement, more specifically pans from left to right into the next shot. There are also a lot of long shots to show the people featuring in the music video and the mise-en-scene to really develop a feel for the Caribbean within the audience.

This music video has inspired my ideas for my video as it puts a lot of emphasis on the mise-en-scene, which really helps audience members to understand the song better in a narrative styled music video.

Lyric Analysis

Kim King - 'Amazing'

Lyrics:

[INTRO]
Amazing, Amazing yeahhhhh
Your love is amazing, amazing yeahh

[VERSE 1]
He's so masculine anything I ask of him
I got it, even if I don't need it
He's the sole reason that I'm sprung
And I wanna show recognition for all you are
He's so sweet to me, boo the way you speak
Make me wanna just push aside everything I'm doing
To get beside my knight and shining armour

[CHORUS]
Baby your love is amazing (your love)
Taking me high to places I've never seen before
And I need your loving more and more and more (more and more and more)
Baby your love is amazing
Don't know how to come down off this high I feel
Cos boy your love is surreal surreal surreal

[VERSE 2]
Boo it's like you flew in and saved the day
I've been waiting so long for a man so strong
Who can pick up everything I put down
For a girl he holds it down
...... whenever I call him
And yes its all him...
And I won't trade him for nothing

[CHORUS]
Baby your love is amazing
Taking me high to places I've never seen before (and I cant help it)
And I need your loving more and more and more (more and more and more ooh yeahh)
Baby your love is amazing (your love is amazing) 
Don't know how to come down off this high I feel (can somebody help me sing it) 
Cos boy your love is surreal surreal surreal (your love...)

[OUTRO]
Boo your love's so real to me
Just like......
You make a woman say, ohhhhh (x3)
(Baby hear me when I say)
Boo your love just spoils me
I know....
You make a woman just stutter oh oh oh oh
You make a woman just stutter

[CHORUS]
Baby your love is amazing
Taking me high to places I've never seen before
And I need your loving more and more and more
Baby your love is amazing
Don't know how to come down off this high I feel
Cos boy your love is surreal surreal surreal


Lyric Analysis

Target audience

Age: 18-40
Gender: Predominantly females
Interests: music (R&B, Soul), romantic poetry, art
Location: America/United Kingdom
Ethnicity: Black/White/Asian/Mixed

This song targets this specific audience as people within this audience will be able to relate to the song on a more personal level and will therefore like the song better as they'll find it more entertaining as they understand how the artist feels and can therefore identify with her.

Analysing the lyrics

The artist seems to be singing about how great her boyfriend is and why she loves him. Her boyfriend seems to meet the criteria of the archetypal man in a relationship as he provides for the artist as she sings 'anything I ask of him I got it, even if I don't need it'. She also states that he makes her want to just drop all of her plans to be with him - 'Make me wanna just push aside everything I'm doing
to get beside my knight and shining armour'. In the chorus the artist sings 'boy your love is surreal surreal surreal' this connotes that she has never experienced this kind of love before as it seems different to her in a positive way, signifying that this is the best relationship she has been in. She sings in verse 2 ' it's like you flew in and saved the day', this signified that this man that she is currently in a relationship with has saved her from someone, herself or a bad situation and that for this she is grateful, so not only is he her love but also her hero enhancing the strength of her love. In the third and final verse we hear her sing 'you make a woman just stutter', connoting that her boyfriend really knows how to treat a woman leaving them speechless, from this we understand that he is a gentleman.

Analysing the music

The artists slowly progresses into the main body of the song because it is typical of the R&B/Soul genre.

Analysing the tempo

The tempo of the song is mellow, smoothing and slow.

How would you use the song in a music video

In a music video I would mix the song with some performance and narrative elements. I would have a female lip syncing the lyrics whilst she is with a group of her female friends on the phone to him singing how he makes her feel. Then I would cut to some footage of the woman and her boyfriend together looking in love.