Drake, as an established Hip-Hop artist has recently been in the news after this billboard was put up:
Drake billboard in Toronto
The billboard has sparked rumours that Drake's upcoming album 'Views From The 6' may be released sooner than anticipated. As Drake is a big artist even one billboard which would have been very cheap advertising can generate a huge buzz with the help of social media. To show how we could advertise iSO if he was an established artist, I edited the image onto Photoshop and made 2 different versions, which can be seen below:
This is our tour dates poster than James and Issak worked on together so that they could both input the different skills they had on photoshop. We made sure we had our record label bold so that we were able to promote them and make people aware of who has funded us. We also made our latest album title clear on this poster as most songs would feature from this album. The locations iSO would appear in are all listed and some are smaller venues as we are an up-coming artist and so need to gather and build up an audience of fans and followers.
Before creating our tour dates poster James decided it would be best to research similar artists tour dates posters to find the conventions. He looked at G-Eazy's When It's Dark Out Tour Poster and Logic's Welcome To Forever tour poster. G-Eazy's tour dates poster: The only colours used are Black, Red and White for the text. The Red is used on the 'When It's Dark Out' to make it look like neon bar lights which connotes more of a reckless lifestyle which is typically a common theme among his previous songs. The red is faded across the image and onto G-Eazy and A$AP Ferg's face which also makes it look like a light.
G-Eazy isn't in the center of the poster and is only slightly more prominent than A$AP Ferg. This could be because A$AP Ferg is quite a big act to be supporting G-Eazy. Both A$AP Ferg and G-Eazy are staring straight into the camera and the faces have been made darker.
The actual tour dates are listed on the bottom half of the poster in small white text. Bold larger white text is used for G-Eazy and A$AP Ferg's names. In my opinion, the tour dates are too small in order to captivate someones attention when glancing at this poster. We want our tour dates to be noticeable and memorable, therefore we should use a simple font so that it's easy to read. Logic's tour dates poster: The only colours used for the tour dates poster are black and white which after some research on Logic is very typical. The theme of the poster is outer-space which is very similar to our album cover, we took some inspiration from this as we wanted to have the themes link from each platform and the concept of our video links with being lost in outer space to iSO trying to find his soul. Logic is in the center of the shot so the focus is on him unlike in G-Eazy's tour dates poster, we want to convey this as we want to portray iSO and promote him as much as possible. Also the supporting acts are on the side of the image and are faded into the background. The dates are featured below in the small white text, however from afar these dates are unreadable and so useless to use if we have advertisements on buses/ tube stations and billboards.
Wiz Khalifa tour dates poster: The use of colour on this poster makes it visible from a distance and stand out. This conveys the image that comes across from him as an artist of that he is quirky and different. The artists name vertically on the poster is not as noticeable as it could be especially the font colour as it's not as bright. They haven't actually got a real image of either artists on this poster however, they are able to do this as they are recognisable artists. At the bottom of the poster both links to each of their websites are listed so that people have an easy access of researching them if necessary. Their tour dates follows the same theme of the rest of the poster using the same coloured font. The font is fairly small but not as small as some which makes it easier to read from further away which would help when advertising nationally.
When thinking about our song choice I came up with some advantages and disadvantages in order to overcome any disadvantages or problems we may have. Advantages:
The song isn't overly repetitive, but catchy enough to allow it to be commercialized.
With an actor who can lip sync well, apart from 2 or 3 lines throughout the entire song, the vocals are not hard to replicate.
There is a strong dynamic variation between the builds and breakdowns within the song.
We each had several creative ideas for the music video.
Disadvantages:
Our video may become overly themed and depend too heavily on a narrative, meaning our video will become too complicated for a music video.
The song is copyrighted by a conglomerate corporation, which means gaining authorization to use the song for this non-profit project may be complicated. However, to overcome this we have emailed the record label to ask for permission.
After researching other artists websites and specifically stores, it became obvious that stores are a big part of artists, for example Logic and G-Eazy's websites. So we decided to dedicate a lot of time to making professional products and adding discounts.
Full store screensh
As part of our research, we identified that black was very common in our genre but also in similar artists products. So many of the products, especially the clothing are Black. Offerings on G-Eazy's website were mainly types of clothing so we decided that our store should also largely feature clothing as this was also a good way to make a profit. However, James decided to also include a few accessories such as phone cases and rucksacks.
Example of product preview for iSO stickers
In the preview section of the store, James included at least one image of the chose product, a description of the item and an SKU code.
Example of 10% discount
As iSO is an up and coming artist, we decided that our products should be priced very competitively. So James made the products all slightly above the real cost and added a 10% discount code - 'iso10'. This was also something he had identified from website research as Logic is known for making his new merchandise very cheap in order to give back to his fans.
Logic this week, just released his new album 'The Incredible True Story'. As Logic is a similar artist to iSO I thought I could learn from how he released the album.
The Incredible True Story artwork
Logic released the album on iTunes and Google's music store as well as selling physical copies. The album is priced at only $4.99 and for a limited time people who purchase it will be sent a free poster and t-shirt. This sparked a lot of Logic's fans taking to Twitter and Facebook to praise Logic for making the album not only cheaper than all other new releases but for giving away free stuff with it.
An example of the social media reaction:
On the surface it looks like Logic is happy to make less profit to benefit his fans. However, there could be a more cynical motive from the record label, as pricing the album at half the average price has given Logic loads of promotion, like the tweet above, from fans on social media which could have cost thousands to buy.
For this student music video I would give them 38 out of 40 which would be a Level 4. There was a variety of shots throughout the entire video, whereby they all change from being close ups to wide shots. This keeps the audience captivated and makes it interesting to watch. The camera work is consistently good and when moving, the shots are stable and don't look too wobbly. All of the material included in this video, is appropriate to their genre which makes their video make sense to the viewer, leaving them understanding the general theme. The video is clearly edited in chronological order. They chose a concept clearly and carried it on throughout the music video. All of their costumes fit the theme, also matching with each other and they all look like a real band and the genre is shown clearly throughout. The shot transitions are appropriate and fit in time with the music, there are many shots too which keep up with the pace of the video.
For this student music video I would give them a 30 out of 40 which would be a Level 3. The pace of the editing is too slow for the song in this video, with the shots being too long and so the viewer loses concentration. However, there is a variety of different interesting locations used throughout our video. There is a variety of shots but they don't look interesting as the main character doesn't move around much, the shots are mostly static which makes the audience lose interest. Her costumes don't look as though they match or suit the genre which makes the video look disjointed and confusing. However, the shots transitions are appropriate and fit to the music video but there just aren't enough. The concept is slightly confusing and not clear and there is no narrative with little performance. At times her lip syncing is out of time so, it's made really obvious to the viewers that she isn't singing.
Issak showed us a Logic music video today in class and pointed out that the cuts are very heavily linked to Logic's hand movements. As his hands either move towards the camera or away from it generally there is a cut. This is something that we will try to emulate when filming our music video, especially if we want to conform to our genre conventions. The Jump cuts are also very effective in this video and could work well in our music video.
iSO has a social media account on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram so that we can publicly advertise and promote him and his music but also so that his fans and followers can keep up to date with his music releases.
On twitter he is able to gain followers and tweet regular updates as to how he is getting on with the filming.
We wanted to release an interview with iSO before his music video was released so that his audience could receive an update from him and learn a few things about his influences and/or inspirations into getting involved into the music industry. I researched some common interview questions that we could ask iSO and I researched into what form of interviewing logic normally takes part in so that we could replicate it. Below were the questions I came up with:
As a child growing up, music surrounds us; what type of music surrounds us; what type of music did you hear the most back then? How does it differ from what you listen to now?
What made you first realize you wanted to pursue a career in music?
Going back to early childhood, what was your first experience with music for the first time like? What song do you remember most as a child?
What can people expect to see at a live performance of yours?
If you had to describe your music in 3 or 4 words, what would you say?
What are your immediate career goals?
If you had the opportunity to change something about the music industry what would it be?
Do you have other interests or talents you would like to share with us? How do you like to enjoy your relaxation time away from the music?
What/Who has been your strong influence to continue performing?
What do you feel distinguishes "an artist" from just a musician?
Are there any other "behind the scene" secrets, tips, or additional information you would like to share with your audience?
Tinie Tempah: Discovery (2010): Tinie Tempah is a UK grime artist who broke into the pop mainstream with the release of his debut album 'Discovery' in 2010. This album was especially important for us to take inspiration from as Tinie Tempah is a UK solo artist and this was his first album. Tinie Tempah is portrayed as a powerful and successful man on the front cover. The eyes are covered by sunglasses and he is holding the world in his hands. This adds to the representation of Tinie Tempah being powerful and mysterious. His watch and bracelet are clearly visible which adds to his powerful image and makes him the envy of young men aspiring to 'make it'. The colours on the album are clear colourful and the background is outer space. This could suggest that his music is 'out of this world'. His name, in the corner, is in large bold white text this could be as it is his debut album it's important the name is clearly visible. The album title is identical but is much smaller in comparison. However, as it is white it contrasts the space background well and still stands out.
Discovery album front
The outer space theme is consistent and clearly visible on the back and the triangle is the same front to back but is more visible on the back as Tinie Tempah isn't blocking it. The font on the back is identical to the front expect it is smaller for the track list than album title. The album doesn't conform to the Grime/Hip-Hop genre as the theme is more futuristic than Urban.
This is our halfway evaluation that we put together as a group. Included in it is a brief outline of our music video, the image we want to put forward for iSO, the audience we want to attract, our album cover and similar influences.
For this task, we presented it to the class and received feedback from peers.
Miguel - Waves This music video has just been released and we watched it because as a group we all liked the song. While watching it, even though Miguel makes R&B music not Hip-Hop we thought that the way he worked his album cover into the music video was good for consistency and synergy. At 0.40 this shot of Miguel with the same background as his album cover is used to cut to a completely different scene and is in time with the music perfectly.
G-Eazy's website has a very simplistic effective layout, which I liked. We will use G-Eazy's home page as a template when creating iSO's as it has everything necessary and looks professional. The other pages also had a great layout but didn't have much content. G-Eazy's store is exceptional and James will refer to it when designing iSO's store and the products in it. The range of products on G-Eazy's store is huge and they are all high quality items.
Logic's website is like heaven for Logic fans as it has everything they could ask for all in one place. I really like the blog on the home page as I think it's a great way of keeping fans updated but it's also personal. However, I thought the Home Page was too text/content heavy so when we create the iSO website we will incorporate a blog into it but on a seperate page like a news page for example. James liked the layout of the store page, Logic doesn't have many products but he thought the way they are shown is good. He also liked the header image for the store. After doing a photoshoot, he will edit something similar for iSO's.
James created a Facebook page for iSO so that we were able to promote him and advertise him and any events that he may do in the future. With his facebook page we are able to let fans and followers follow him and keep up to date. He can post about his upcoming album or singles for any interested fans. On Facebook, he can gain likes from people who want to be informed about regular updates.
This is our storyboard that I put together for our music video. It has all of the shot types that we want to use and the locations for each shot. I have also added on the length of each shot so that we can use this to help us when filming and editing.
When we started to film we only took 1 camera out with us because we thought this would be a good idea but as we discovered when we started to film this wasn't. With 3 people in our group, we had Issak performing and myself filming with James not really having a lot to do so to solve this we decided to bring another camera with us on our next shoot. This way we could get a perspective from 2 different angles at one time and this would hopefully save us some time alongside giving us some more interesting shots. We also decided that for our genre we didn't want to use a tripod as this took away the authenticity of our shots and would make them look overproduced. We wanted our shots to wobble and to look as though someone was just filming freehand. However, we only discovered this the second time when we shot some material for our music video as when we watched the footage back it looked too stiff. To solve this we decided that we would just film holding the cameras and not use any tripods but this meant sometimes we had to hold the camera still and not let it wobble lots as this then doesn't look good when editing.
In order to understand what we needed to include to achieve the highest grade possible, I studied the mark scheme and looked at some previous student videos, applying this mark scheme.
Checking back on the level 4 criteria when planning and constructing our music video was useful to me as it reminded me of everything we needed to include in the actual video but also the website and digipak to be up to the same standard. Level 4: The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to mise en scene
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions, captions and other effects
recording and editing sound with images appropriately
Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is evident
Before designing the website on Wix, James drew a rough sketch of what the layout will be for the home page and the news page. This will help when designing the layout of the website as James will have something to look back to.
