Thursday 26 April 2012
Wednesday 25 April 2012
Choosing the song
The choice of song after deciding on the artist we were going to use was also difficult, There were many songs that we thought about such as 'trust issues' and 'wicked games'. Both of these songs are similar to the one we chose which ended up being 'Rolling stone'.
This song is about the artist talking about a girl that he cares about and needs. He appearss to be slightly depressed and the lyrics include him talking about 'weed' and 'serotonin' which fits in with the conventional drug issues we see in the R&B genre. We wanted to choose a song that we would be able to create a video to and target a certain demographic and by choosing this song we believe that wee are able to target the teenage demographic as it has certain elements of social identification in that some people may be able to relate themselves to.
If you look and listen to the lyrics of the song you can use imagery to create what you think the video will look like. The things to expect in our music video would be a main character playing the artist, a female, drugs and a frequent use of dark images to convey the depressing and dark feel of the song. Our main character will be dressed in a way that is symbolic of The Weeknds style.
This choice of artist and song was slightly easier to do as the songs and images of The Weeknd are more realsitic than the other R&B videos we analysed. With this song we would be able to local locations such as peoples houses and alleys giving it a lifelike look and making it relatable.
This song is about the artist talking about a girl that he cares about and needs. He appearss to be slightly depressed and the lyrics include him talking about 'weed' and 'serotonin' which fits in with the conventional drug issues we see in the R&B genre. We wanted to choose a song that we would be able to create a video to and target a certain demographic and by choosing this song we believe that wee are able to target the teenage demographic as it has certain elements of social identification in that some people may be able to relate themselves to.
If you look and listen to the lyrics of the song you can use imagery to create what you think the video will look like. The things to expect in our music video would be a main character playing the artist, a female, drugs and a frequent use of dark images to convey the depressing and dark feel of the song. Our main character will be dressed in a way that is symbolic of The Weeknds style.
This choice of artist and song was slightly easier to do as the songs and images of The Weeknd are more realsitic than the other R&B videos we analysed. With this song we would be able to local locations such as peoples houses and alleys giving it a lifelike look and making it relatable.
Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary products?
Throughout the whole project we have tried to link and relate the ancillary products to our main product, the music video. Starting out with our ancillary products we had to make a digipak and an advert poster that would be featured within a magazine. The way in which we designed our digipak was similar to the previous album covers of The Weeknd, adopting the style of the use of three colours for the colour scheme; however, we decided to put our own twist on it and challenge the usual conventions of The Weeknds use of dark colours and opt for a brighter more vibrant image. Although we did this it was still visible that the digipak we recreated was for the artist The Weeknd as the style of image mimicked this. Some of the images within the digipak have a black and white effect added to them which is more like the typical conventions of The Weend.
The advert poster within the magazine featured the same images used in the digipak and also the album cover. The poster compliments the digipak as its in keeping with the idiosyncratic style adopted from The Weeknd. We also decided to include twitter and facebook pages of the artist that would enable people to follow them, promoting the ever growing social interaction websites which have become because of the development of web 2.0. This whole project was targeted mainly at the younger generation as they are more likely to appreciate the genre wee have chosen, this also inspired us to add the facebook and twitter pages as this generation are more technologically able.
The main man that features in our music video, Roger, is styled the same throughout and remains in the same clothes for the photos used for our ancillary products. This anchors our video to our ancillary products as we have kept the same theme and style throughout our project. The whole idiosyncratic style of The Weeknd is simple, black and white images with the occasional effect. The songs of The Weeknd often have heavy drug and alcohol abuse within them which is something we have included within our project. The song 'Rolling Stone' is a dark and depressing song which we have tried to reflect in our video as well as our ancillary products. The video itself is mainly shot in black and white using the 'bleach bypass' effect which makes the video look very realistic and similar to the style of the artist. There were many taboo topics included in the song such as drug and alcohol abuse, both of the ancilary products show this, with the girl smoking and the bottle of pills. In the video that main character lights a cigarette in keeping with the taboo topics.
Overall i believe that the combination of all three products produced were very effective. Although we slightly challenged the conventions by adapting the colours we managed to recreate something that was in keeping with the style of The Weeknd. With the song lyrics being fairly emotive i believe our music video is able to evoke feeling from an audience and maybe allow the audience to sympathise with the main artist.
Throughout the whole project we have tried to link and relate the ancillary products to our main product, the music video. Starting out with our ancillary products we had to make a digipak and an advert poster that would be featured within a magazine. The way in which we designed our digipak was similar to the previous album covers of The Weeknd, adopting the style of the use of three colours for the colour scheme; however, we decided to put our own twist on it and challenge the usual conventions of The Weeknds use of dark colours and opt for a brighter more vibrant image. Although we did this it was still visible that the digipak we recreated was for the artist The Weeknd as the style of image mimicked this. Some of the images within the digipak have a black and white effect added to them which is more like the typical conventions of The Weend.
The advert poster within the magazine featured the same images used in the digipak and also the album cover. The poster compliments the digipak as its in keeping with the idiosyncratic style adopted from The Weeknd. We also decided to include twitter and facebook pages of the artist that would enable people to follow them, promoting the ever growing social interaction websites which have become because of the development of web 2.0. This whole project was targeted mainly at the younger generation as they are more likely to appreciate the genre wee have chosen, this also inspired us to add the facebook and twitter pages as this generation are more technologically able.
The main man that features in our music video, Roger, is styled the same throughout and remains in the same clothes for the photos used for our ancillary products. This anchors our video to our ancillary products as we have kept the same theme and style throughout our project. The whole idiosyncratic style of The Weeknd is simple, black and white images with the occasional effect. The songs of The Weeknd often have heavy drug and alcohol abuse within them which is something we have included within our project. The song 'Rolling Stone' is a dark and depressing song which we have tried to reflect in our video as well as our ancillary products. The video itself is mainly shot in black and white using the 'bleach bypass' effect which makes the video look very realistic and similar to the style of the artist. There were many taboo topics included in the song such as drug and alcohol abuse, both of the ancilary products show this, with the girl smoking and the bottle of pills. In the video that main character lights a cigarette in keeping with the taboo topics.
Overall i believe that the combination of all three products produced were very effective. Although we slightly challenged the conventions by adapting the colours we managed to recreate something that was in keeping with the style of The Weeknd. With the song lyrics being fairly emotive i believe our music video is able to evoke feeling from an audience and maybe allow the audience to sympathise with the main artist.
Tuesday 24 April 2012
The poster
This is the poster that we designed to be within a magazine, it is designed to promote and enhance the artists name by featuring their album cover and other photos of the artist. When looking at other examples we found that the posters often featured the artist and the album/single they had released. On the poster our group made we included the twitter and facebook page of The Weeknd which not only made it more contamporary but also suits the age group at which this genre and artist aims his music at. There is also a smartphone bar code that is available to scan allowing an app ono your phone. The poster also promotes the Brit Awards which is very popular with a variety of ages. The layout of the poster is simple and organised something that the original album covers of the artist evoke.
Images from the photo shoot
The images above are the images we took whilst doing our project, some are used within the digipak and the poster but some of the images are spare. We styled our main chacaracter in a similar style of clothing worn by The Weeknd to represent the artist. In particular the middle image juxtaposes the typical style of The Weeknd as most images are balck and white, the red lips are an 'iconic' symbol of lust or temptation which fits in with the typical images associated with the artist The Weeknd. The use of cigarette smoke within the photos is important as we found this to be a recurring factor seen within the images of this artist.
The two images below have been recreated by our group. The image of the girls lips; however, to slightly change it up we didnt edit the photo we left the lips red. The profile shot of the artist was also recreated.
The Story Board
This is a simple outline of how we wish to structure our video.These shots and scenes we want to create fit with the style we are trying to apply to the video. Our group would often meet within the week to talk about new ideas we had to consider including within the video, this made the video easier to make as when it came to shooting it there was a clear vision of the video in our heads along with the style we were trying to recreate.
Choosing the Artist
Eugene, Callum and i had a small production meeting when thinking about what artist to decide upon we had already identified the most popular genre of music within our school sixth form and this was R&B. There were any artists we discussed such as Chris Brown, Usher, R Kelly, Ne-yo, Drake ect but we wanted to do something slightly different and look for an artist that maybe wasn't as well known as the iconic and well known R&B artists at this moment in time.
By choosing The Weeknd we recognised this may be more challenging as he is a new and upcoming artist there was not much to anchor our ideas for the video to. This is slightly different to the typical R&B genre you would associate with someone such as Usher, we decided to break away from this and chose The Weeknd as its something contemporary and slightly more exciting, also the older R&B videos can sometimes be seen as slightly 'cheesy' something we don't want to create within our video.
The Weeknd often sings about different emotions which is very apparent in his songs. Slightly more risque and taboo topics are often featured within his lyrics such as drug and alcohol abuse and the problems they cause within day to day life and relationships.
By choosing The Weeknd we recognised this may be more challenging as he is a new and upcoming artist there was not much to anchor our ideas for the video to. This is slightly different to the typical R&B genre you would associate with someone such as Usher, we decided to break away from this and chose The Weeknd as its something contemporary and slightly more exciting, also the older R&B videos can sometimes be seen as slightly 'cheesy' something we don't want to create within our video.
The Weeknd often sings about different emotions which is very apparent in his songs. Slightly more risque and taboo topics are often featured within his lyrics such as drug and alcohol abuse and the problems they cause within day to day life and relationships.
The Weeknd Music Video- The Knowing
The Weeknd have actually only made one music video which you can see above so when choosing this artist we understood that it would be slightly more difficult to make a music video as there is not much from this artist to compare it too, thats why we looked at similar artists videos to compare ideas. The video seen above does not reflect the style in which we have made our video as this video is dominated by effects and we decided against using effects making the video more relatable also our video echos the lyrics and meaning behind the song something that is effective with the target audience. Instead we researched the artist, and pictures of the artist, giving us ideas of how to produce a music video that people wold be able to relate the actual artist to.
Similar Videos
This video is similar to The Weeknds style we would like to mimic within our A2 music video. The dark images and mise en scene is what we hope to create when shooting our video. The possible locations we have chosen reflect the style of the style of The Weeknd, the woods, graveyard settings and alley ways all create a good mis en scene for our video. Similar videos such as the one below also use the inside of a house within the video which may allow the audience to relate to the artist. Taboo topics such as drugs are also a heavy influence within these styles of video.
I believe this style of R&B music videos are maybe more relatable opposed to the stereotypical ones with money being showered over women dancing at parties within huge masions at which a sports car is parked in the drive way.
I believe this style of R&B music videos are maybe more relatable opposed to the stereotypical ones with money being showered over women dancing at parties within huge masions at which a sports car is parked in the drive way.
Friday 20 April 2012
R.Kelly duet with Usher- Same girl
With this video being about relationships there is a large amount of social identification, the audience may be able to realate to the position the artists are in. However, it can be argued that the images throughout, such as the expensive looking cars, gleaming jets, chunky wrist watches, parties at which it rains money and penthouse apartments are not something the public would be able to associate themselves with. But as i have mentioned modern day R&B videos have a heavy wealth influence within and present the idea that having money women and cars sorts out all problems in life.
Sunday 18 March 2012
Usher- You remind me
Twitter account
https://twitter.com/#!/UsherRaymondIV
The mise en scene of this video is similar to With You by Chris Brown as it is set in an American urban area; however it seems to be set in New York as there are a number of shots that include new york apartment style fire escapes. The mise en scene of the airport at the beginning of the video is busy and full of people. The artist (Usher) is walking down the escalator after an attractive girl who is very slim and has curly dark hair. The clothes she is wearing mimic the genre of music, they are a pair of baggy jeans and a cropped one shouldered top representing looseness and fluidity, something this certain genre of music evokes. Usher then goes on to walk past another attractive girl sitting outside a shop on a New York sidewalk. The stereotypical new york apartments with fire escapes are also iconic. She is wearing clothes that reveal her long legs and slender figure, something that seems to be a predominant feature in this genre of music video. The urban setting of the busy sidewalk and group of people on bikes gives a relaxed and everyday feel to the video.
The end of the video is set in a club with dim lights and people dancing with one another, the focus mainly on the girls bodies. The clothing Usher wears throughout the video is also very symbolic of the R&B genre, the tight fitted vest and baggy jeans along with the heavy silver chain around his neck which mimcs the image of wealth being a predominant factor in modern day R&B videos. toward the end of the video there is a short dance routine which seems to be fairly common in Ushers music videos and r&B videos.
The camera shots vary throughout this video; however, the most common camera shot is medium close up. This is frequently used within the video especially to show Usher singing to the many different women he seduces in his video. This shot allows the camera to easily capture the emotion in peoples faces. Close-ups are also used when focusing on Usher himself. When in the airport there is a sequence of high and low angle camera shots to capture Usher aand the girl coming down the escalators. After the airport scene Usher follows a girl down a New York sidewalk the camera shot used is track but follows to the side of them. In the club there are a series of close-ups of girls and Usher as well as a wide shot of the club to show the decor and create a busy vibe. When Usher is at the bar there is a close up of his wrist on which he is wearing a diamond encrusted watch which is hegemonic to the R&B genre.
The editing varies between fast pacedd editing and a normal speed. The majority of the editing within the video is simple cuts from one shot to another; however, at the beginning there is a fade from one shot to another. When transitioning from the airport scenes to the sidewalk, there is a wipe, but not a simple one, the wipe is lead by a females torso walking from one side of the screen to the other. This transitions is copied throughout the sidewalk scenes, this design of transition could be seen to represent the busy poeple walking the streets of New York. There is a dance routine that takes place infront of a back drop of a wide road lined with stereotypical New York apartments during sunset. It appears as if the saturation of the backdrop has been altered as the image is slightly orange and Usher only appears as an outline as it is firly dark.
The overall message of this video is that its hard to get over someone that were in love with. Usher meets many beautiful women throughout the video; however, as the lyrics tell the listener he is not able to 'get' with them as they all remind him of his previous relationship. There is a strong social identification within this video as it predominantly focus' on the younger adult generation. The men and women featured are all fairly young ad beautiful, this is a apparent factor in all of modern R&B music videos.
Chris Brown- with you
Twitter Account
https://twitter.com/#!/chrisbrown
Chris Brown With you is a slow mellow song about love and only needung one person to make them feel complete. The mise en scene of this video is in an urban setting which is more associated to modern day R&B. The video takes place in an urban town at night, we see car lights and street lamps lighting up the iconic 'LA' streets with huge concrete slabs as 'sidewalks' and street benches with scribbled graffitti. This represents maybe a more deprived area of Los Angeles as there are no hills or trees seen in the video which are normally presented in big american movies, where the mise en scene is focused around Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. Walking down the street there are a number of couples, wich represent happiness and love, they are also relitavely young cuples, this mimics the age group of the artist and makes the target age group of the video apparent. The artist gets on a bus which looks very different to the stereotypical red london bus we get in England, It is a single deckered bus and the layout is different to what we would usually see. There are a number of 'attractive' girls throughout the video, with clothing and make up that wee would associate with this genre in particular, such as low slung jeans, low cu tops, fairly heavy make up and 'bling'.
The same few camera shots feature throughout the video. These are Medium close up's, tilts, Long shots, track and close up's. The predoominant camera shot in the music video is the track which follows Chris Brown down the street whilst he sings and dances. There are also alot of medium close ups of the artist singing to the camera which gives the idea of the artist singing to the viewer of the video. This shot on the left is a low shot which represents Chris as being 'on top of the world' this could be a symbol of his hapiness and why he is singing about love and having the 'only one'. There is also a tilt when the camera goes from high to low then almost goes under so it looks as if the artist is stanfding on top of the camera, it does a 360 degree shot which is quite effective. 
The editing is quite fast paced throghout this music video with short shots cutting from one to another. There is one part of editing that stands out from the others and that is the colour change of his shirt whilst singing. The shirt changes colour from blue to purple to green and has almost a diamond sparkle effect which is iconic of being happy and excited. Also toward the end of the video there is a scene where he is kneeling in the middle of a busy road whilst cars drive past, this symbolises how he will do anything for this girl and even willing to risk his own life. The cars driving past have been sped up around him so now they are only visible as 'neon' like lights whizzng past. although the cars have been sped up his speed remains the same which is cleverly edited. The guitar is also edited in throughout the video which shows the soft acoustic side of this song.
The overall messgae of this video ios that its nice to be in a relationship and that it makes you happy to find that one special person to spend time with. There is social identification in this video as you can easily associate yourself with the people in this video as its a snapshot of everyday life, busses, cars, street lamps, trash cans and graffiti. There is a predominant social group represented in this video and thats the younger generation. The couples walking down the street and driving past the artist in a car are all younger boys and girls, there are also a group of young boys who skate past on their skateboards, something that is strongly associated with the youth group.
The History of R&B
R&B is the abbreviated version of Rhythm and Blues, which originated in the 1940's and is a popular genre of African American music. The term R&B has had a number of shifts in the meaning. In the 1950's the term was often associated to blues records. R&B actually contributed to the development of Rock and Roll which would not be expected as the contemporaray R&B that we listen to in todays society is completley opposite to what we associate 'rock' to be today. The term R&B refered to a style of music that incorporated electric blues, gospel as well as soul music. By the 1970s, rhythm and blues was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as "Contemporary R&B".
The 'Rhythm and Blues' genre, known today as R&B has been linked as far back as the 15th century. When the slave trade began and the African slaves weere brought over to America to work some aspects of their culture remained with them such as dancing and singing. Their cultured rhythms collided with European music which has had an effect on the development of modern music. The black church music was popular which later developed into gospel, soul and rhythm and blues music.
The artists that our target audience would now associate R&B music with are artists such as Rihanna, Beyonce, Usher and R Kelly. The older artists that are famously known by all generations are Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.
In the earlier days of R&B music the topic of songs was often cetered around love and the problems it brings or how it makes you happy. They were often focused around the artist singing to or about the opposite sex. It was more romantically inclined than nowadays. The R&B music videos we see nowadays are far more sexually inclined with risque dance routines and women in skipy clothing, R&B music videos have pushed the boundries as what is seen to be 'socially appropriate'. The music videos often feature money, alcohol, drugs, partying, cars, and of course women. This genre of music definatly relates to the escapism theory of Blumer and Katz.
The 'Rhythm and Blues' genre, known today as R&B has been linked as far back as the 15th century. When the slave trade began and the African slaves weere brought over to America to work some aspects of their culture remained with them such as dancing and singing. Their cultured rhythms collided with European music which has had an effect on the development of modern music. The black church music was popular which later developed into gospel, soul and rhythm and blues music.
The artists that our target audience would now associate R&B music with are artists such as Rihanna, Beyonce, Usher and R Kelly. The older artists that are famously known by all generations are Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.
In the earlier days of R&B music the topic of songs was often cetered around love and the problems it brings or how it makes you happy. They were often focused around the artist singing to or about the opposite sex. It was more romantically inclined than nowadays. The R&B music videos we see nowadays are far more sexually inclined with risque dance routines and women in skipy clothing, R&B music videos have pushed the boundries as what is seen to be 'socially appropriate'. The music videos often feature money, alcohol, drugs, partying, cars, and of course women. This genre of music definatly relates to the escapism theory of Blumer and Katz.
Thursday 16 February 2012
Audience Theories
It is believed that audiences actively select what they view, listen to and read. Blumler and Katz came up with the uses and gratifications theory which studies the reasons as to why someone would like to watch, listen to or read something. By catorgorising the different reasons marketing companies are able to pin point how they target their audience. They said media has a way of informing and educating, identifying, entertaining, providing a means of escape and allowing audiences to socially interact with one another.
INFORMING & EDUCATING- This is when the audience has chosen to watch something that they believe will help them understand the topic or subject discussed within what they are watching.
ENTERTAINING- This means when the audience is entertained by the media they are consuming, eg comedy.
IDENTIFY- This is when the audience is able to relate to the subject matter within the meadia they are consuming, this could be in the form of a movie or maybe a magazine article similar to a situation someone has been in, eg Jeremy kyle.
ESCAPE- This means when the audience feel like they can get out of their normal lives and associate themselves with the lives of the people in the media they are consuming. R&B music videos are especially important within escapism as they offer images of money, cars, masions and beautiful women which not verybody has within day to day life.
SOCIAL INTERACTION- This is when the audience can talk to one another via the media or make profiles/blogs about themselves.
INFORMING & EDUCATING- This is when the audience has chosen to watch something that they believe will help them understand the topic or subject discussed within what they are watching.
ENTERTAINING- This means when the audience is entertained by the media they are consuming, eg comedy.
IDENTIFY- This is when the audience is able to relate to the subject matter within the meadia they are consuming, this could be in the form of a movie or maybe a magazine article similar to a situation someone has been in, eg Jeremy kyle.
ESCAPE- This means when the audience feel like they can get out of their normal lives and associate themselves with the lives of the people in the media they are consuming. R&B music videos are especially important within escapism as they offer images of money, cars, masions and beautiful women which not verybody has within day to day life.
SOCIAL INTERACTION- This is when the audience can talk to one another via the media or make profiles/blogs about themselves.
Audience Identification
When choosing the genre of our music video, we also had to take into consideration our target audience. Target audience is defined by a number of aspects, these are gender, age, social status and media consumption.
When talinking about social grouping we are looking at age, gender and social status.The age group we are targeting is between 16 and 22, we decided to choose ths age group as it reflects our own age and the actors in the video are of similar age. We also considered 'social status classification' where we thought best to aim our film to those C1-E, meaning people of middle class through to the unemployed. We have chosen to aim the music video at both genders as R&B is very popular with both males and females.
Graham Burton has a theory called media grouping when you target an adience with the same media intrest from the tv they watch down to the magazines they read. The TV programmes that our target audience will be watching are those featured on channels such as E4, MTV, Channel4 and ITV. These channels often feature talent or reality shows. They are also programmes directed to older teenagers and young adults.
The magazines that our target audience would be reading would be magazines such as Heat, More, Grazia, Star, Glamour and Cosmopolitan for women and magazines such as Nuts, Zoo and FHM for men. These magazines are often read by people who are into celebrities life and intrested in fashion. These magazines also focus on body issues often displaying the idea of the 'perfect body' for males and females. This is fairly important as within alot of R&B music videos if not all, there are young beautiful women and men parading around often in swimwear showing fit and toned bodies.
When talinking about social grouping we are looking at age, gender and social status.The age group we are targeting is between 16 and 22, we decided to choose ths age group as it reflects our own age and the actors in the video are of similar age. We also considered 'social status classification' where we thought best to aim our film to those C1-E, meaning people of middle class through to the unemployed. We have chosen to aim the music video at both genders as R&B is very popular with both males and females.
Graham Burton has a theory called media grouping when you target an adience with the same media intrest from the tv they watch down to the magazines they read. The TV programmes that our target audience will be watching are those featured on channels such as E4, MTV, Channel4 and ITV. These channels often feature talent or reality shows. They are also programmes directed to older teenagers and young adults.
The magazines that our target audience would be reading would be magazines such as Heat, More, Grazia, Star, Glamour and Cosmopolitan for women and magazines such as Nuts, Zoo and FHM for men. These magazines are often read by people who are into celebrities life and intrested in fashion. These magazines also focus on body issues often displaying the idea of the 'perfect body' for males and females. This is fairly important as within alot of R&B music videos if not all, there are young beautiful women and men parading around often in swimwear showing fit and toned bodies.
Introductory Post
The brief we have chosen to do is the Music Video as it looks challenging and is something that our group has not done before. Our group also had to decide on a genre of music that wee will be following and that is R&B.We have chosen this genre as it most recognisable with the age group we are targeting and will enable us to include familier features see in the most iconic R&B music videos. We each bring skills required to make this music video.My group is made up of three members including myself, Eugene Bongi, who has experience in graphics as he has taken this for as and is also continuing this as an a2, this means he is able to sketch and help with the it side of the project. Callum Wilson will be contributing more in the area of writing as he has good language and writing skills which are key when thinking about the plot of the fil. I am good in the area of planning and organisation.
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