Band

We have decided to use a Band called 'Hope and Social'------->http://www.hopeandsocial.com/

As you will know from my previous posts, this is a indie rock band, which by definition is unsigned. This band is known for its blue blazers and quirky style, they have a upbeat attitude to life which oozes out of there music. They are most used to film bright high key videos, but due to lack of funding are low in quality, but, due to there style this does not effect the end result.

We feel this is a guy band to use as it means we will not have to use so many effects which due to the limited software we have would not look great. Having this type of band means we are able to focus on the types of shots and the performance and narrative rather than how we can edit it, this should mean the core of our video will be solid and mean we could pass our version of the music video could actually could be used by the band,

Audience research plan

In the near future, once our group has come to agreement on the song we are going to use for our video, i will be  using various means to measure what our audience wants to see, and also, what they expect to see, which i think are 2 very different things. What they expect to see is what they already associated with the genre, which means they are able to create links with the song, and what they want to see, is something that hasn't really been done, which they would want to see the genre evolve into, if there is a reoccurring theme within our audience that we survey we will try to implement this into our video, and then in our post market research i strongly think the feedback will be that they were able to identify with the areas that they felt they had a part in coming up with ideas and themes.

I will be using a few different ways to research into what my audience wants to see, and they are; Using surveymonkey, which is a online survey site, printed surveys, and then also sample testing/focus groups using the music we plan to plan to use, with questions, and then already done indie rock videos and what they like and didn't like about those video's.

Genre research

We have chosen a band which we have found it very hard to place in one specific genre, this is because they do not a line to just one, I would most liken them to a indie bands, but they use other instruments which are not normally associated with this genre... for example brass instruments.

Indie ------> After doing research, i have found out that Indie is technically a genre, this is because 'indie' is just short for independent, this means they are not attached to any label's this may mean they do not want to be tied down by the industry, they have not been discovered yet, or simply they do not have what it takes to get into the business.
Never the less, i have done some more digging and have managed to get the gist of what is now come to be known as 'indie'.... Some people have come to associate indie with the style of the band,

'now pretty much...any eccentric, skinny, glasses wearing band of college-agers'    Or as i would call it quirky dressing.

The common recognised genre closest to indie is called indie rock, this can be described as fun upbeat music but has quirky qualities that does not let it fall into what is now known as 'pop' (which also isnt really a genre) indie rock is often referred to as underground music, which simply means that it is not widely known. Indie rock is also heavily associated with the youth and is mainly a British based genre.

Conventions of a digipack

Our group task is to design and produce a digipack for a new artist under the genre of R&B or Hip Hop, we have decided ti choose Hip Hop, similar to other artists.

Through research we have discovered that often on the CD covers of Hip Hop artists there is a variety of conventions:
artist on the front cover
face shots
lego, for example dr Dre
tyres/car items
flags
cartoons
old fashioned glasses
destruction
TV - children watching it
Streets and urban areas
Parental advisory stickers are often found.
American Flags

The wikipedia link offers more indepth detail about the origins and conventions of Hip Hop which I have read and intend to involve with our Media Digipack, the link to the website is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_music.

We originally planned to stick to the comic style of the construction of a Hip Hop CD Genre, we produced the front cover involving the artist called 'Lil Crunk', an artist who we aimed to be a younger adult, just breaking into the music indistury; his CD cover involved a Plastic doll of a baby wearing the architectual 'Gangsta' Clothing. Ufortunatly this iconic cover was not suitable as it had to involve a photo which our group had taken personally.

From these conventions research and first attempt I have learnt the steriotypical conventions and styles of CD/Digipacks that are involved with the CD and artist, I plan to stick to this style strongly.

Intertextulatity

Intertextuality refers to the way in which texts gain meaning through their reference to other texts

Intertextuality is the concept of texts' borrowing of each others' words and meaning. This could mean as much as an entire concept and as little as a word or phrase. Authors borrow words from other texts, which then gains layers of meaning. Also, another feature of intertextuality when texts are read in light of another text, in which case all of the assumptions and implications surrounding Intertextuality refers to the way in which texts gain meaning through their reference to other texts.

Audience research

Looking at the Hope and Social's website they have links to twitter which means people can leave comments, and also they have a slide show of official magazines and newspapers reviews.

These are reviews that i found on there website, so of course they will only put up what they want people to see, but the fact that these big names are taking notice of this relatively small band is impressive. 

I also went and looked on Youtube for comments left by people that have no vested interest posting nice comments.

These in many ways are better than the official comments that are on there web-site, this is because people have had to go to the effort to leave these comments, and its also mostly done by the people that they are targeting. Also Hope and Social are not able to pick and chose what they want they want people to see on Youtube.

These are useful as it shows us what the world thinks of this artist, as these are not selected by the artists PR team, and they are useful for us when it come to planning our video as we can take the good points which are spoken about about the video, and then we can see the points that people did not like and then try to improve apon them.

prezi - camera

Camera Conventions on Prezi

In this prezi i explore the types of camera shots and transitions used in music videos and how and why they are used.

Costume + Props

From this photo we can see she is not wearing alot, this would give us the impression she is a young girl who isnt afraid to show her body off and it also shows us that she is confident enough to do this. It could also suggest to us her target audience, which is most likely to be young people as the older people in the world would not approve of this. To a male audience it is challenging them to try and find out about them or to try and get them to try and get them to go get her. The intent of her doing this is to try and create controversy, this give her a image that she is a bad girl and gets people talking about her, you have the people wanting to buy her product as they think they are being a rebel buy doing this, and then you also create such a big media craze about it and people talking about it, it makes people want to buy the product as they just want to know whats going on and who is this person they are talking about.

The props tell us alot of things, first you have the bottles of alcohol which tell us that she likes to party and let her hair down... she is also using it to cover up herself... This is very sexual and for a male audience member means they start to have a thing for this artist which could then turn into a global craze as it could means she gets into the top 20 hottest women alive, which would create more of a demand for the artist.
There is also alot of money around which suggest she isnt so much about the music, she is all about getting the money, and then splashing it around, and she is laying on it. Due to the fact she is sitting on money and its just out tells us that she is what they call in the industry a 'female boss' this is the idea that she is better than men and to back that up she has plenty of money which would suggest she is very successful

Camera + Editing

On this photo they have put her in the forgorund/infront of a black background, which has been used to make us focus on her face alot more. This is used to draw our eye to the subject. It also could be suggested that she is coming out of the darkness into the light, and may show us that we don't know what;s been in her past which would make the audience what to know more about her, which would involve buying more of her products, r even just creating a interest for the artist which would stir up media interest, which is free publicity

There are alot of mixed signals given from this photo, firstly we have the plan simple look, and by this i mean she doesnt have much make up on, which gives us the idea that shes all about the music and nothing really else matters to her, this is back up by the fact the only prop on show is the mic... this is also a old fashioned bit of kit. The effect on the audience is that it makes her look like its just her and the music, there was no huge production team behind her (or so it would seem) this give her like image that she is pure and that she isnt in it for the money and fame.

In contrast to this there is the subtle eye liner which defines the eye and then the open mouth which is saying to us that she wants us... this challenging the male audience to try and get her which would encourage us to go find out more about her. Also there is the bling on her hand, this is subtle but enough for us to tell there she is well established as she already has has enough money to buy expensive things, it also make her seem more mature, as little girls do not have bling like that

Sex appeal

This is the CD front cover from Rihanna's single hard.

Sex appeal is shown in many ways from this picture.... Firstly with the clothes she is wear, and lets face it there isnt much... this tells us that she is naughty, and that she does not care what people think about her, her boobs are also popping out which is very racy. This is done because of the target market she is trying to appeal to, by this i mean she to men is someone that we all wish we could meet and could be our girl friends, so by not wearing much it rekindled the lust a male would have for her. On the flip side for a female not wearing much shows how sexy she is and makes them want to be like her, and also makes them feel they can be like her.

There is also the position she is in. She is sticking out her bum to show it off, and to also show people her curves. The photo is also side on... which shows the 2 sexiest parts of a women... the breasts and bum. She is looking down away from the camera which makes us feel like she is being shy or innocent, which contrasts with everything else in the frame.

She has her arm up and folded behind her head, which would show us that she knows the camera is on her, and she is trying to seduce us. Having the arm up exposes more skin and shows the side of her breast, this is down to give the effect like its a picture from a lads mag, which would appeal to the male consumer.

Lighting

This CD cover is taken from maroon 5...  I feel the lighting is very effective here. As you can see there is not ambient/natural light, it is all artificial, done with back lights and the lights which are in the shape of a 'M'. The dim light goes with the theme which and clothing the band is wearing, which is grey and dull but yet contemporary and stylish. The lighting has been used to emphasizes the name of the band which means when the consumer sees this they will immediately know who they are, it also defines there body outline which give them a model look which would appeal to the female audience due to the fact that is what i feel girls are attracted to.

Digipak Analysis

In this audio clip we are talking about the cd cover we had to produce and how and why we did what we did.