COLOURING

In my video I want to add a vintage look.Not washing out the colour completely but still adding a colour enhancer on to the video. This YouTube tutorial really taught me the basics on how to colour correct and helped me widen my knowledge to do so.
 

Target Audience

In order to go through with my music video, I need to collect audience feedback to get general knowledge on my target audience and who would be interested in my music video.

 I designed a questionnaire that had specific questions targetted to gain the key information needed to make my music video the best I can and to make sure it appeals to many different people. This questionnaire has questions that link to my ideas for my music video and the results I gained helped a lot to build on my ideas. 
I gave this questionnaire out to 30 people and once I collected my results, here is what I found; 

QUESTION 1; 15/30 said they enjoy both narrative and lip syncing sections in a music video. 10/30 said they prefer narrative, and 5 said they prefer only lip syncing. - This helps me to design my music video with both aspects of narrative story telling and also lip syncing.

QUESTION 2; over half (17/30) of the people I surveyed said they preferred a mixture of colours in a music video, 5 said they preferred light colours, 3 said they preferred dark colouring, and 5 said they preffered light and dark in a music video. - This again helps me target and refine my video to be the highest standards. 

QUESTION 3; 23/30 said they prefer seeing the artist in the music video, with the remaining 7 saying they dont mind if they do see the artist or not. My music video will have the artist in the video, therefore capturing the target audience.  

     

DIRECTORS

In order to prepare myself for the construction of my own music video, I have been looking at directors whose work inspires me and includes parts I find appealing and potentially can recreate in my own production.

TIM MATTIA - 

-Tim Mattia is a photographer and video director living in both LA and London alternatively He had filmed with artists including The 1975, a band I looked into and analysed the work of in my research, Jack White, Amy Winehouse, Oasis, Florence And The Machine, Arctic Monkeys, 50 Cent, Fetty Wap, The Ramones, Blur, Pharrel Williams, Queen, Fall Out Boy, Coldplay and many more. His clients are signed to companies such as BMG, Columbia, WMG, Hollywood Records, Polydor, EMI, Virgin, and Parlophone.
- His work has been seen on multiple platforms, including MTV, 4MUSIC, NMETV, as well as magazines such as ROLLING STONE, NME, KERRANG among others.
-He is signed to London Alley and Represented by Tommy Labuda and OB Manegment.

Tim's work caught my eye as he uses a very drowned out colour palette. His videos all tend to have the same filter on them, this being a more vintage, bleak colouring to the entire footage, instead of clashing of colours and raw images, he purposely filters the colours into a more vintage and captivating colour theme that I find really appealing in music videos. Looking further into this, I found that on a vast number of music videos Tim has directored, the colourist is Derek Hansen, he tends to keep the same theme of colouring throughout all of the videos he works on, making it somewhat possible to identify what work is his. 

DIRECTOR X 

Julien Christian Lutz, better known as Director X or Little X, is a Canadian music video director who also has his own clothing line called X fit.
Director X has been credited and acknowledged for his high-budget and distinctive music videos for a number of popular music singles including videos for Drake, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, R. Kelly, plus many more. His trademark effect is instead of using just black bars on the top and bottom of the frame to frame the image, many of his videos feature the bars opening vertically or horizontally to reveal the video and closing vertically or horizontally at the end, like a letter box. This is known as tweaking the letterbox format. 

Here is a list of a handful of videos he has directed over the last 4 years;

2016 - Zayn - "Like I Would"
Rihanna ft. Drake - "Work"
Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign - "Work From Home" 

Little Mix ft. Sean Paul - "Hair" 

Fifth Harmony ft. Fetty Wap - "All in my Head (Flex)"

2015 - 

Drake - "Hotline Bling"
Little Mix - "Black Magic"

Kendrick Lamar - "King Kunta"
Flo Rida ft Robin Thicke and Verdine White "I Don't Like It, I Love It"

2014 -

Wiz Khalifa - "Stayin Out All Night"Jennifer Hudson ft Timberland - "Walk It Out"
DJ Cassidy ft Robin Thicke and Jessie J - "Calling All Hearts"
Union J - "Tonight (We Live Forever)"
Iggy Azalea ft Rita Ora - "Black Widow"

2013 -

Drake - "Worst Behavior" 
Drake - "Started from the Bottom"
Busta Rhymes - "Twerk It" 
Ciara - "Body Party"
Angel - "The World" 

2012 -

Drake - "HYFR"
R. Kelly - "Share My Love" 

Justin Bieber - "Boyfriend"
2 Chainz ft Drake - "No Lie" 

Rick Ross ft. Wale and Drake - Diced Pineapples

INSPIRATIONS

These are some of my inspirations for my own music video. I found these effects/camera choices interesting and captivating. They make the videos they are featured in much better and overall add more narative enigma.

The first two inspirations come from one of the music videos I analysed in a previous post. I really like these editing techniques used in the two gifs below as I believe they add tremendous creativity to the music video, and for me personally really grabbed me and kept me watching the video.
The speed of the video has been sped up considerably to give that time warped effect and helps the audience understand the perfomers feelings and how she may be really confused. The use of the different coloured lighting is also great and really adds depth to the video by addings a seperate narrative, one that gives insight into the perfomers thoughts and feelings.

The editing technique below used the ghost technique, which I find inspiring and interesting as a video without some effects can be boring, and adding simple techniques like this will essentially make the video much more interesting. It can also be used to depict the perfomers feelings throughout the video, for example used in Kendrick Lamars 'God Is Gangsta' video the ghost tool is used to show how much he is drunk and how his body is reacting to it by being unable to see clearly.
I also like the lighting in this shot, the perfomer is set in a white room, as well as the black one above. This shows a difference between a naturalistic setting and a unnatural setting such as a room. The background colour changing every so often, again suggesting the performers feelings.

There is a variety of editing techniques in this inspiration that I find interesting, including split screen and placing footage over another in seperate parts of the screen. I find that this technique not only cuts the images up and adds depth, but simultaneously binds the footage together to give more of the story in short cuts over the top of other images, even if those images are the same as the bottom layer. This type of technique can be used in fast or slow paced videos, making it usable for any song I may chose, and used appropriately and correctly to give that professional aspect.

Another inspiring video is the 1975 'Robbers' video. This video used camera techniques that make it look like the majority of the video was recorded by hand and not using equipment such as tripods or tracks. This I found interesting as it takes away a hint of professionalism and instead makes the video much more personal and creates a real story rather than a fake one for the viewer, as the camera seems to be held by someone and not a professional team. I also like the colour theme throughout and the effect added onto the footage to give that vintage, lighter look rather than a raw camera footage. This is something I would hope to add to my own music video, as I find it is more aesthetically pleasing.







 

TASK 9 - Digipak - J Cole

TASK 9 - Digpak - Kendrick Lamar

'Good Kid Maad City' is Kendrick Lamar's second studio album released in 2012. 
The front of the digipak is very simplistic with minimal yet satisfactory information and imagery. The front panel of Kendrick's digipak contains a Polaroid image of a family van going down a street. The image has a slight fish eye effect on the van in the middle, creating the allusion that the van is bigger than it is, with the surrounding settings smaller and less important. 
The colouring of the image is distilled and even has visible cracks as if the image has been crumpled in someones pocket and picked out later in the day.  Around the image is an off white frame, one that closely resembles the surrounding frame used in Polaroid cameras. These techniques all make the front look authentic and could even be associated with the rapping/hip hop genre Kendrick fits into - Not much put into the imagery of the digipak as it is all about the music.
On the framed part of the front cover, there is the album and artist name, both written clearly in handwriting from the artist. The purpose of placing this information on the frame of the image further suggests and reinforces the Polaroid effect as this is something that is commonly done on the frame of Polaroid pictures.
There is also the parental advisory sticker placed clearly on the front that emphasises to the audience this album is not suitable for younger ears, as it could contain swearing, as well as subjects such as sex, drugs, and violence.
There is no imagery on the front or back of Kendrick's album, however there is the mention of his name. The absence of the artist could suggest that the audience know who the artist is just by the name, and the artists face is not needed to sell the album.

The back panel of Kendrick's digipak is also simplistic. It doesn't take that same Polaroid effect as the front, however does take the same image of the van. This time however the image is blackened out and covered with text. The image is still visual, and adds more creativity to the back of the digipak instead of it being a block black background.
On the left side of the back panel is the tracklist for the album. The tracks are written in serif font and are readable, they are clearly the most important part of the back, as they are placed first, and all other information is placed further down the panel.
The tracklist also includes artists that are featured on each single song, this information, although being important, is not as important as the actual track songs, therefore are written in brackets and in a smaller text size, as well as capitalised and san serif. The tracks are also numbered. This is a feature included for the audiences ease, as if they want to listen to a particular track, it is clear and easy to find it as the number is provided.

Towards the bottom of the back panel, there is other information that is important but not important enough to dominate the entire back cover. This includes the record labels Kendrick is signed to, as well as information for their location and address.
Underneath this there is a number of official websites for both the artist and the labels associated with the artist. This helps audiences who want more from the artist, such as tours and extra tracks, access to all other information by visiting these websites.

On this digipak, there is a warning by the FBI about pirating the album, this information clearly says that copying is punishable under federal law, next to this is a logo with the same information in it. This information is clearly important, and tells audiences that the album is against copyrighting.
There is also a barcode on the back of the digipak, allowing people to buy the album, the purpose of a barcode could also show that the album is real and not a fake. The barcode is not the most important aspect of the digipak, hence why it is on the back cover and relatively small.

The inside of the digipak takes the same creative approach as the outside.
Firstly, the inside cover holds the same Polaroid aspect as the front cover, even including the same handwritten text and parental advisory sticker. The actual image used is different. Instead of the van, there is an image of a family, evidently people from Kendrick's childhood. The picture is even washed out to a small degree, reinforcing the fact it is an old picture. The eyes of the members have been crossed through with a black pen, all but one - a small child that is Kendrick as a child. This somehow makes the album more personal, as throughout the album Kendrick's home town Compton is mentioned, and an image of him as a child with his family in Compton adds to the overall theme of the album. Even the name adds to the Compton aspect, 'Good Kid Maad City' could be a direct link to Kendrick's life himself. All of this together draw the audience in as they will want to know Kendrick on a personal level and his life in Compton.

The CD again hold the same information as the front and back of the digipak. The album name and artist are written the exact same on the top of the CD, as well as the record label signs. The colouring of the CD is a black shade with an image of Kendrick blended in on the left side. 
The artist is visible on the actual CD and covers the entire left side, dressed in all black with boots on. The image of Kendrick is cleverly edited so that the image is both on the CD and the casing that the CD is in.

TASK 9 - Digipak - Arctic Monkeys

Hover over the image to reveal points of analysis

TASK 9 - Digipak - One Direction

TASK 9 - Digipak - Drake 'Take Care'

The first Digipak I am analysing is Drake's 'Take Care' album.

Aubrey Drake Graham, better known by his middle name Drake, is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario.

Most of his songs contain R&B and hip hop elements, and he combines rapping with singing.

Studio albums - 4

Music videos - 16

EPs - 1 

Singles - 85

Mixtapes - 5

Promotional singles - 8 

This album has a very browny/orangy based colour scheme to it, as Drake seems to be situated in the middle of a ancient bar or house. The combination of these colours suggest a classical period of time, and could suggest to his intended audinece that his music will never get old and will always be remembered. The imagery is very similar to the magazine advert this album has, as well as the tour advertisement. 
The front of this digipak includes the artist himself sat at a table, the location of the digipak is continued througout the digipak and also into other advertising aspects.
 The front cover contains minimal content, with the exception of the parental advisory sticker stating this album will have explicit content, and is not suitable for younger audiences or people who are easily offended. 
The font cover also contains a handwritten title of the album, in the same golden colour of the candle and other props in the image. This adds everything together and creates a simple front cover to a digipak that draws the audience in without a lot of photography or manipulation. The simplicity of the front cover could be an indication as to what the album involves.
However, the front panel does not contain a name of the artist. This could be due to the fact that Drake is a large, popular artist around the globe and it is not necassary for his name to be on the front of  his Digipak, as people should know he is.
 In terms of mise en scene, Drake is wearing all black, with his shirt having a few buttons undone to reveal his chest. Chains and bracelets are visible, not only adding to the golden aspects of the page, but also representing Drake's social class. The jewellery also helps put Drake in a particular genre of music, as gold chains and jewellery on men is usually associated with Hip Hop/ RNB artists. 

 The back of this Digipak has a lot of information, and little imagery. Imagery is not as common on the back of digipaks, as information and tracklists are commonly placed here.
The tracklist to this album is placed in the middle of the back panel, in a biege, brown tone on a dark brown background. This is information the audience want and should expect to find on the back cover, as it gives them every song that is on the album. The text is written in capitals, drawing attention to the information.  
 Colour - The colour scheme on the back follows the colour scheme on the front, however holds many darker elements, with only the text being light. This helps identify important information and that the back of the digipak is not made to look pretty, but is infact to inform and give audiences more information about the artist and the album.

 The back panel also includes a barcode, allowing people to buy the album, record labels and companies included in the making of this album, websites for more information if the consumer is wanting any, and all the information about the record company and rights. This information is minimal, it takes up very little room and is in a small font. This reinforces what information is important and what isn't on the back cover.

The spine of this digipak is simple, and is the same as the back cover, with both the artist and the album name in capitals on the spine, in the same light brown colour used on the back too. It also includes logos of record companies and a series of numbers in the top corner.

The disk of this album is very simple and contains very minimal imagery and text. It contains the same handwritten text of the album used on the front cover, as well as the artists name in san serif capitals. It is black, a running colour scheme throughout the digipak, tying everything together perfectly.