Task 5 - Research Genres

Genre within music is the conventional category that identifies music belonging to shared traditions and conventions. In my research, I will be looking into different types of genre within music and expanding my knowledge, helping me chose what type of genre I would like to use in my production.

The different types of genre I will be researching thoroughly are;

Hip Hop/rap, RNB, Country, Dance, Pop, Alternative.

http://popplet.com/app/#/3333732

Prelim - Planning

For planning, we story boarded each shot of the video we was recreating in order to get a shot by shot plan to follow through when filming, this helped us as we worked together as a team to analyse the video. Not much other planning was needed for this task.

TASK 3 - Marketing Package - The 1975

When an artist releases a new album, the record company also release different forms of advertisement and selling products to ensure the best for the artist and to ensure they are being seen. Usually, with a new album, there is new cover art and advertisements shown in magazines, as well as digipaks, these all work together to ensure the success of the artist and to paint a picture of the artist and the new albums story. 

  The 1975 are an English rock/indie band consisting of Matt Healy, Adam Hann, Ross MacDonald and George Daniel, they formed from friends and released multiple Ep's. Their first album was released in 2013, and was self titled, which shot to number one a week after releasing. There second album 'I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it' was released in February 2016, and again shot to number one in the UK charts and US. 

This is what a digipak looks like, I have found a blank one as I could not find one specifically for the 1975, however this is the basic concept of what a digipak looks like.

This is the digipak for The 1975's first album 'the 1975'. The colour scheme for this particular album is dark and monochrome, creating a sullen mood. However the digipak and cover art work together to create this mood. The lighting in the cover art shines through behind the panel displaying the bands name, bringing it to the forefront, and on the back of the CD, the names of the songs are bold and obvious to see.
Black and White art can be associated with the band from this album, with a number of their music videos being edited in black and white, creating a continuing genre and aspect that this CD is wanting to achieve. The actual band members themselves do not appear on the digipak, and are instead replaced by simple images and their band name in bold lettering, creating an aroma of uncertainty. The greyscale themed design also displays the album as dramatic, as it has more impact than something colourful like the majority of other artists albums. 

 The back of the album is almost parallel to the front of the album, with only the text changing. Almost all album back covers have the songs that are included in the new album, as it helps the audience identify which particular song is next and navigate themselves through the album. The style and colour of the digipak is consistent throughout, this is a very important factor and will be considered when making my own digipak. 

The music videos that accompany some of the songs on this album are also shot in black and white, adding to the monochrome, black and white theme, clearly a continuing aspect throughout the entire process of advertising and marketing the album, as well as it being the based theme for this album itself, letting the album be different from other artists and create their own image that will attract different people. 
 I wasn't able to find much advertising of this album, maybe because most adverts are focused on their newest album. However I was able to find this poster, advertising their album, displaying information such as ITUNES, STORE, and AMAZON, allowing the audience to know where they can purchase their music.
 


This is the album's tour advertisement for this album. The dates for the tour are displayed on the same illuminated board that is used for the front and back of the album. This technique is used to create the connection now with this sort of image with the artist its associated with. All tour dates are written clearly in white, illuminated by the lights coming from behind the panel. 



The second, most recent album from The 1975 is called 'I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it' which was released in 2016. This album is very different to the first one, and has a number of different advertisements available.
  

 This album is clearly very different to the first album. The first album was very dark and consisted mainly of black and white themed adverts and posters, however this album is very light and vibrant, with the complete opposite colours used in this album. This separates the albums completely from the previous one, however is also connected through the same cover art.

The wall art panel propped up against a wall is used again in the second album, this time however the words on the front are illuminated by a pink light instead of white and the wall is white, not black, the panel is white, not black, and the lettering is pink, not white. This emphasises the look this band are trying to achieve, and are keeping the same cover art that now can be seen as defining the band in some way, making them distinct and recognisable in stores and online streaming sites.

The back of this album is much more subtle than the last, however instead of including the albums listed songs, it instead gives the name of the album on the back of the CD/digipak. This is unconventional of a digipak, however looks subtle and alluring. The back cover art is the same as the front, with the white and pink cover scheme, this time including a black panelled shelf where the words are structured. The aspect of not having the songs on the back may attract the audience as they will be intrigued as to what is on the new album, driving them to buy it. 



I was able to find a lot of advertising for this album, including a large number of images with the names of the songs included on this album dotted around various different locations, all displaying that same pink illuminated lighting, making it clear what artist's this advertising belongs to.

 
 The advertising of this album has been thought out hugely and expanded throughout different locations and settings. The images are very subtle and hold colours that create a calming effect, no extreme colours or busy environments, just clear, natural settings capturing one song name to each one. The use of such clear settings could be to attract the audience to the name of the song, instead of focusing on the image and forgetting that it is an advertisement for a band. The art of the posters are very captivating and every single one of them hold the pink writing in common, connecting them all and adding to the bands image. The imagery is also manipulated to look as if the words could be there everyday, as if they are part of everyday life. They are positioned in may different areas, such as a hospital, church, mountain and beach, each all very different. This could suggest that their music appeals to a large audience, and reaches many sides of the world and different places.

These images work very well with the digipak, and all come together to create a much more lively and upbeat album, contrasting to the last. The imagery work together cleverly and compliment each other and they capture the eye in the right way.

The website of the band has the same colour scheme as the album, and is selling merchandise from this album, as well as a number of black merchandise. However if you look at the website as a whole, it is very much associated with the bands newest album, working to create an overall image and therefore marketing themselves well to ensure purchases and success.



http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/track-by-track-the-1975s-i-like-it-when-you-sleep-for-you-are-so-beautiful-yet-so-unaware-of-it - This is an article taken from the magazine 'NME' giving a track by track dissection of the new album, this allows audiences to get an in depth description of the album and each and every song available. 

Another site that gave a review and was the Guardian, they also include the music videos for the songs released with videos, and give an in depth description of the album, allowing audiences to judge for themselves what the album will be like from other peoples opinions.

PRELIM TASK

 Planning - Preliminary

For the preliminary task that is assigned at the start of A2 to get us thinking about music videos is to recreate the first 1 minute 15 seconds of an already existing music video shot by shot with the song we were given. In my group are myself, Mia, Sam and Izzy, and the video we were given was Jessie J's 'Who's Laughing Now'. To prepare us for filming, we briefly analysed the shots and split the 1 minute 15 up into 4, so each of us analysed around 20 seconds of the video each. This helped as we were able to look more in depth at the shots and editing of the music video and therefore hope to create the same type of shots and add the same sort of editing to our preliminary.

TASK 2 - student work analysis 2 - Ebony Anderson

Music Video - This music video is done well to an extent. The editing skills used on this piece are done very well and to a high standard, with lots of fading and straight cuts to add the pieces together, as well as this form of editing there is also ghost editing and reverse editing when the actor is smoking, this gives the piece a versatile aspect and a range of different things to look at. I think the video could have done with a larger recording space, as it seemed like everything was shot in the same place, and it did not have a lot of different locations. This is only a minor fault that is something I would change if it was me, however it did not make a difference to the music videos story.
The camera quality and the actor used were quite poor, and not as professional as hoped for, but the equipment this student was given may have been limited, and she may not have any actor friends therefore made do with what she had, which shows that she can work well with what she has. 
The lighting in this piece was very poor, with it being shot in the evening the camera did not give a positive view of the scene, everything was dark and the actor looked very dark and not in focus contrasting to the light of the sunset behind him, showing the level of professionalism as the student may not have thought about the lighting before filming.
Overall this music video is not bad, it has a lot of shots but could do with some more to make the video more interesting and maybe the time frames could have been shorter to fit into the conventional music video theme of having segments of 2-5 seconds before cutting. However, the video had a lot of well done editing that made the video interesting to watch.

Planning - This student has planned thoroughly and added a lot of information into their findings, they wrote a letter to the record company asking for permission off them in order to film the video, and went into detail when explaining their chosen costume and location. 

They described their track and shooting schedule, showing their organisation skills, and provided images to match the descriptions.Ebony even designed a mood board to depict what she wanted in her video, and sketches of the digipak and story board, although these do not seem to be elaborated on and explained, which maybe could have helped. 



Research - The research of this student is very well done and thought out, researching multiple music videos and the genre in which they want to relay into their own music video, showing the level of professionalism as they are going above and beyond to get the best results by making sure they are researching and taking notes from their findings. Ebony went into great detail and included practice videos into different editing skills that she may include in her video. She researched and found information on the director of the music she wanted, and analysed existing magazine covers in order to make her own professional and well thought out.


Digipak - The digipak created clearly had a fluorescent universe theme to it as the entire digipak is covered in this design, with images and text ontop of it. Although this being simple and a great idea, I personally find it not the best to look at, I find it is all too much at once and doesn't hold different aspects. Although the editing skills are good and the girl is faded and cropped to give an edge, the universe imagery dominates the digipak and leaves no room for any creativity other than that. I think to make these digipaks better, the student could have used the universe effect but not add it on to the entirety of the digipak.


Magazine advert - The magazine also uses the universal fluorescent aspect, which is good

that it is the same as the digipak, however the magazine lacks content and is very plain, the same image that is used on the digipak is used on the magazine advert. This advert however does hold the Twitter and Facebook symbol, however does not display links or names in which audiences can find these social network sites which I think may have been better and more helpful. It held very minimal information which could be seen as good or bad, either way, the magazine is satisfactory, but could have done with more detail to add more of a professional aspect.

Evaluation - The evaluation for this project is very short, the majority of it on a prezi presentation. The information in the evaluation is good and thorough, however the shortness of the evaluation does hinder the quality. The student did include theorists and talked about what she did throughout, which is a strength. A disadvantage is that the student could have chosen different ways of presenting her information, such as videos or soundcloud, instead of always using text formats.





  

TASK 2 - analysis of students work - Chiska Ankers

Music Video - This music video had a number of faults and disadvantages to it. To begin with, there wasn't many different shot types. It includes a lot of mid shots and long shots however there was very large frames between shots, which ive found is not conventional and normal for a music video, as music videos tend to have shots showing for around 2-5 seconds before changing. This music video was very repetative, and although it does follow a vague narrative, it could have been better portrayed. A lot of the frame time belonged to the band playing their instrument and singing along to the music. This being good, it wasn't well edited, as it could have done with different shots inbetween to break the long shots up and keep the audience watching.
The quality of the camera was not the best, and the student did not manipulate the image to make the video more interesting, for example changing the colour or tone of the video to seperate the time gaps. The entire video seems to be recorded by hand and this is very evident as during parts of the video, the camera was shaky, portraying poor professionalism.
Some editing skills where applied such as fades between shots, however in general this music video lacked quality needed to create a music video worthy of watching until the end. 



Research - This students research is very thought out and well organised, containing research of looking into a number of conventions and theorists, as well as looking and analysing existing music videos to ensure he knows what to do in his own work. He looked into artists digipaks and drew conclusions as to how digipaks are made in general. His analysis was thought out and contained a lot of detail, showing his researching skills to be of a high standard, this preparing him for his own practical work.




Planning - The same with research, this students planning is thought out exceptionally well, including things such as the songs lyrics, permission to use the song, audience research and other various planning stategies. His planning has a lot of information that would help him in his construction stages, and he has demonstartes that his planning has been thought out and carefully collected to achieve the best possible grade.


 Digipaks - This students digipaks are good, he has taken aspects from his research and added images of the band onto the CD covers, his back cover for his digipak looks professional and well edited, however the front and back pages including images of the band could have been edited better to make it look less sharp, and perhaps making the digipaks more professional looking. In my opinion, the digipaks dont hold much excitement, they are very plain and could do with a lot of work on them, but they are not hugely disasterous. 

Magazine Advert - This students magazine advert is very well done, its simplistic and holds very little imagery, but looks good and what you would find in a magazine. It includes social media information and information on who will be at the tours, giving the audience insight into who they will be hearing if they buy the album. Simple but good. 

Evaluation -  The evaluation held some good points, however could be elaborated and explained more to show more knowledge, there was only 4 evaluation points on this students page, and even though there was one or two different presentation choices, the information could definately be exaggerated and thoroughly explained to evaluate the process in every detail. One evaluation point stopped in the middle of a sentance, suggesting that this student took little care in preparing and posting his blogs, which is a downfall.