Advert

Advert Analysis

I am going to analyse 2 different adverts from my chosen genre Hip Hop and R&B as I will be gaining inspiration from them to create my own advert that will extend from the Digipak that I have already created. They will work as a package, using similar colour schemes and images to create a connection between the Digipak and the advert, so that when the audience view the two together or separately theycan clearly see that they belong to the same artist and album.

Firstly I am going to analyse this advert for the R&B artist LL Cool J album 'Exit 13'.

From a quick look at this advert the viewer can tell the genre of the music it is advertising as well as who the artist is very clearly, these two elements being the most important. The image of LL Cool J is also very important in the costume and body language in translating to the audience who the person is and what they are about. The costume colours correlate with the colour of the text and background of this image, this is very important to carry out continuity and keep the advert attractive to the target audience. Using a simple colour schemes can be very effective as shown in this advert.

The image being large and prominent works well as the audience can easily recognise LL Cool J and the composition works very well in fitting the text in without spoiling the image.
The use of simple colours on this advert, I feel works very well in attracting the viewers attention and makes the message loud and clear to read without being overpowering.

The size of the release date typography is larger than the album name but smaller than the artist name, this is because the artist's name is the most prominent and important part of the advert. The release date is secondly important as well as the image to connect with the viewer and make sure they know when the album will be out to buy, to generate income and profit.

This is an advert for an urban night at a club including Hip Hop and R&B music.

As a viewer I can almost immediately tell what genre this advert belongs to through the use of colours, images and text, these are all conveying the genre to me at once. This then will draw in the right target audience- people who enjoy this type of music. The colours in the advert also connote a reggae theme as this genre of music often uses these colours in advertising, clothing and make up. The use of the dark black images of sky scrappers and large buildings connote an urban feeling. The use of palm tree's connote a holiday, summer feel to the advert,making the image seem interesting and exciting. The use of white text works very well against the coloured background and black images as it really stands out and is easy to read. The name of the night is the largest font size meaning this is the most important element of the advert in attracting the right target audience. The name of the club is then a little smaller but just underneath the name of the club night which advertises the location to the audience which is very important to be easily visible. The price for the night and the opening times are in the smallest font size as these are of secondary importance, allowing the audience to find the vital information easily but not before they know what type of night it is. The price could also put viewers off if that is the first thing they see.

Advert Flat Plans x 2

These are my 3 flat plans for my advert. I chose the 1/4 A4 page as I feel this size would work the best in a music magazine on a page as it would catch the viewers attention and make them want to look more closely at what the advert is. I feel that this size would also be good for promotion through letter boxes for example or in music shop counters and they would not take up much space and would be reasonably easy to exhibit.

I think the first flat plan works the best for Wu-tang Clan as it would have a good ratio of image to their name which would both work well in attracting the audiences attention. I feel the black tittle with red behind it will stand out and catch the viewers eye, almost distracting them. I feel the 5 stars from each of the music magazine reviews would give the advert relevance and make it seem worth paying attention to as well as the fact the CD/Digipak would be Wu-tang Clan's greatest hits which could be seen as a collectors item. The use of a white background with black text would stand out and look simple yet effective.

I think the second flat plan could work quite effectively as the composition is quite conventional and the public like to see familiarity but on the other hand they also like to see new things. I decided not to use the second flat plan idea as I felt it was too conventional and neat for a rap/Hip Hop group.

Finally the third flat plan is quite different featuring only one of the characters and being behind the text, when designing this I was trying to create a more abstract and less conventional composition to attract a new audience as well as Wu-tang Clan's fans. I feel that Wu-tang Clan's name is more famous than the groups faces which is why I made the text so large. Even though this design is quite original and abstract I feel it would probably not work the best as an advert as it does not advertise that the digipak is 'The Greatest Hits' which could attract more people also that the page may look a bit bare without many images.

Completed Advert

This is the advert that I created, I followed the guidelines of my flat plan quite well with a few changes in colour. I chose to make the background black as I created the Digipak first and black worked better as the background, for continuity sake I made the advert have the same colour scheme. I have made the image of the group colour as Hip Hop is a colourful genre of music and I feel that an advert needs to have colour to attract a viewers attention.

From feedback from the social networking site Facebook, I have gained an understanding of what other people in my target group (woman and men aged between 16-49) think about my advert. This is the link to the group I created which features my work and the comments from different people. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_164000423656748&ap=1

I have received mostly positive feedback for my advert with the only criticism being that in one persons opinion the image of the group should be black & white, to be coherent with my digipak. Although this may be a valid point I still feel the advert works best with the image being in colour as it stands out more and makes it seem more exciting and eye catching. I feel that the rest of my advert is still very coherent with my digipak even the image being in colour.

I have gained many skills through creating this advert such as research skills: looking at similar genre of music adverts and gaining inspiration from them. I have also become more confident in using the programme Adobe Photoshop to create the advert and edit the image. I feel I have become more competent at using it. I have also learnt to take feedback positively and to try and improve on it if possible.

Digipack

A promotional pack is everything used to promote a song or an album for example, an advert on television, a poster, an album cover and the video. It is all of these elements combined together to promote an artist's new song or album and get the audience excited and interested.

The video and the digipak need to be linked in some way to keep to a certain theme. The artists costume, single/album cover and video should seem like part of a whole package and create the same image for the artist or band. Elements such as mise-en-scene like costume, setting and the use of colour help to create this coherence.

A digipak is a DVD cover that features the song and video of the artist. It usually has 4 images on the back and front of the pack and both sides on the inside. This attracts the audience with the use of many images, the front cover image being the most important and prominent as this is the first image the public would see on a shop shelf for example.

Analysis of Wu-tang Clan digipak

This is a current cover of Wu-tang Clan's DVD digipak.

The use of red colour on the digipak connotes danger and violence which is a key stereotype of Hip hop music. The use of the image of New York shows the group's home town and suggests they feel proud to be from there, this also connotes the Hip hop genre.

The use of the groups logo on the cover promotes the group's name and makes it

easily recognisable for the target audience. I feel the use of the white large text used for the groups name and the quotes really compliments the cover as the white text stands out against the red background tint. Bringing the viewers attention to the text.

The use of photographs of the group inside their logo works really well as it looks quite abstract and interesting again enticing the viewer. It also adds a personal touch as the audience will enjoy seeing what the different members of the group look like and if they feel they can relate to them in some way, for example they may have similar clothing- follow the same fashions.

The use of the quotes makes the DVD look worthwhile buying and watching for the public, it immediately stands out and shows the accomplishments the film has made. This is furthered by the nominations at the bottom of the cover. This makes the film and cover look extremely professional and it seems to be recognised by industry professionals which would help in attracting the public to buy it.

This is the back cover of the DVD digipak for Wu-tang Clan

The use of continuity on the back cover is effective and makes sense to the viewer, the back is part of the front cover so must look the same. The use of the same red theme and background of New York has been continued onto the back again creating a natural flow for the viewer to look at. The use of large images from the video give the audience an insight into what the film is about and who is in it, this will help to increase how many people buy it, as they will have a chance to see what they are buying into.

The use of an introduction on the back of the cover invites the audience to find out more about the story of Wu-tang Clan as well as to establish what the film is about.

The use of the special features section is good for two reasons; one being that it entices the audience into buying the product as these features may not be available anywhere else and the second reason being that it makes a space between the two lines of pictures creating a good visual balance and giving the viewer a chance to find out more and then view attractive images.

The various logo's on the back of the digipak advertises the different companies associated with the video as well as showing the viewer that these are successful and well known companies and that it would be worth buying into their product.

Analysis of Talib Kweli Digipak

The use of dark cloud in the background of this cover creates a tense atmosphere together with the barbed wire and dead birds with blood this scene looks very scary and dangerous, this connotes the rough area's many people in Hip Hop come from. The use of graffiti type text with paint dripping down creates an urban feeling and puts a genre to the cover as well as the stencilled font which also provokes a Hip Hop genre feeling. I feel the use of the image of Talib Kweli very interesting as it creates tension as well as mystery, the viewer cannot completely identify the person behind the hat and shadow, this is very effective and makes the overall cover very eye catching and interesting. The longer a viewer spends looking at a digipak cover, the better as that means it has been successful, I find I could look at this cover for a very long period of time. The clothing in this image is very typical of Hip Hop music which again confirms the genre of music for the viewer, this can be very important in attracting the right audience to buy the digipak. Overall, I feel the front of this cover is very effective.

Continuing the theme onto the back of the cover is very effective as it flows naturally and is attractive to look at for the viewer. The use of the theme of the dead birds is very effective and quite disturbing, this leads me to believe that this album is going to of serious subject matter, possibly even political. The barbed wire connotes imprisonment or oppression which again connotes a political message to me as a viewer. The image on the back is more identifiable of who the character is, yet his focus is elsewhere which makes my eye follow and wonder what he is looking at creating mystery, a very good technique in attracting the viewers attention. The colour scheme connotes military or army which again fits in with the barbed wire theme. I feel the text of the title of the CD as well as the track listing leaning to one side compliments the theme of mystery as something doesn't seem quite right. Another reason why this works is because Hip Hop is not a very strict and neat genre it can be very free flowing and natural which is why the text leaning to the side works very well.

These are my 3 flat plan ideas for my digipak.

I feel that this first flat plan is the most effective in it's composition and use of many images as it could attract the viewers attention. I feel the use of many images makes the cover seem more personal and relateable for the viewer and hopefully the purchaser. The use of the large Wu-tang Clan logo would also aid the cover in attracting the right target audience and the logo is quite universal in that it is well known and famous, if not more famous than the actual groups faces. I feel that the red, black and white colour scheme will look very effective and stand out, these 3 colours are very strong but work very well together. The only problem with this ideas however is the lack of space for text and too many images.

I like the simplicity of this flat plan as it is almost in stark contrast to the previous design. I feel the use of the motif of the Wu-tang Clan logo holding the images of the group could look quite effective, however it may be quite difficult to create the desired effect in practise. Again the white, black and red colour scheme has been used in this design as I feel these colours are very eye catching and work well together as well as connoting with the Hip Hop genre. A problem with this design is that once I had found the digipak of Wu-tang Clan to analyse I realised they were too similar and that I must have gained inspiration for the design from the original digipak without realising it.

I feel that the simplicity of this flat plan could work very well, however the front cover not featuring an image of the group may not work in it's favour as the viewer may not connect to the cover as much as if it was an image of a person. The size of the Wu-tang Clan title being very large and bold works well for this design as it suits the simplicity and would stand out on a shelf in a shop. It would probably attract the fans of Wu-tang Clan more than generation new ones which may be a downfall of this design.

Completed Digipak

This is my Digipak front and back cover.

This is the inside of my Digipak.

I have received really positive feedback from my digipak on the social networking site Facebook, this is the link to the group I created which features my work. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_164000423656748&ap=1

I received compliments on the colour choices I have made, the layout looking professional as well as the edit of the photograph on the front cover. I also received compliments on the editing of the image on the inside of the digipak as well as the quote I used at the bottom as well as the overall colour of the digipak.

I feel I have gained many skills creating this digipak, such as, confidence in using Adobe Photopshop, a much better idea of how to analyse different texts, thinking about composition as well as colours schemes and what they may connote to the viewer. I feel I have managed to work well in a group as well as on my own, creating a good balance between the two. I feel I have managed to organise myself quite well as well as organise the rest of the group to get things done by certain deadlines. Although it has been quite a challenge I have enjoyed creating and doing all of this project.

My digipak is quite different to the flat plans I originally designed as through the course of the project I found that I was not able to use the Wu-tang Clan logo which changed my idea a lot as I was going to make the logo a big feature of my design. I am quite glad that I was not aloud to use the logo as part of my deigns as I feel it made me think of a more individual idea that did not look too similar to Wu-tang Clan's other digipak's. I have still kept the key themes such as the colour theme which I am very happy with.

Rejected ideas

These are examples of ideas that I tried out but decided not to use because they were not as effective and as eye catching as the ideas I ended with. I tried a white background for my digipak but I felt it looked too washed out and didn't suit the Hip Hop genre very well so I decided to use a black background. The grey background of the front of the digipak idea again looked too washed out as well as the image not being composed very well. I decided that this idea of the digipak inside has too much going on and was not attractive to the eye so I drastically simplified it and I am much happier with my final decision.

Shooting Diaries

As a group I feel we have come across a few common setbacks to our filming.
At first there was a problem with finding actors who were brave enough to act out in front of the camera and the crew, as many of the people the group and I had asked to act had never been filmed in any way before.
This then resulted in the idea of having 6 different female actors in the video for each verse of the song being scrapped and changed to just 3 female actors having 2 verses each to mime and act out to.

Another problem that occurred was a result of loss of a few weeks filming time trying to find actors, the TV Studio in which we decided to film in was fully booked for the next few weeks but the kit (cameras and lighting equipment) were still available. As a group we decided to use one of the college classrooms to film our video in, we felt this would be quite a challenge to create a studio feel to the video but we were eager to rise to the challenge.

09/02/2011 Finally filming day came a few weeks into our filming time, which was quite worrying but at least the day had come.
We set up a green screen across one of the walls of the classroom, cleared the tables and chairs to the sides and set up the lighting rig, cameras and tripods. We had to use black tape across the blinds on the windows to block any sunlight that was seeping through to create the desired lighting effect.
As the group and I were performing test shots and getting the lighting and staging right the actors were trying to learn their lines for the last time.
We finally started filming a few verses, sometimes up to half a dozen times to get the shot, figure expression and miming just right.
As the actors were struggling to remember their lines I had the idea of writing cue cards with the song lyrics on for them to read while they were performing as reminders, I feel this really helped them and they managed to pull off their lines very well.

We managed to get 3 of the verses filmed leaving 3 verses to film another day. The group and I filmed for the most part of a whole afternoon. At the end of the day I was feeling very relieved that we had started filming after weeks of worrying. But I also felt very proud of the actors for being professional and taking the project seriously and of my group for being professional and making decisions together and sometimes compromising for each other.

11/02/2011, 18/02/2011 were meant to be editing days but unfortunately due to absences in the group on these days this did not take place.

As a result of the actors busy lives we had to delay filming for a further 2 weeks after the first shoot, which was very worrying for me as we needed time to edit the footage. But there was still enough time to get our filming done in time.

03/03/2011 unfortunately due to lack of available equipment and some cast unable to attend the day we had to reschedule once again.

This time we managed to book the TV Studio for filming which makes the day a bit easier as the equipment is all closer and there are technicians to help us with any problems we might come across as well as a more light tight area which makes it easier to get the lighting perfect. This day will be the 09/03/2011.
Unfortunately I turned up to the filming day but none of the crew were able to attend and told me at the last second.

11/03.2011 We planned to edit all of our footage this day but unfortunately due to absences we were unable to shoot the second half of the video. Capturing back was finally started of the first video.

16/03/2011 Being quite far behind in the filming process instead of doing any last shots today we managed to film the last half of the video successfully.

18/03/2011 Capturing back of all of the footage took place as planned.

22/03/2011 Due to every one's busy timetables we have been unable to do any editing today, we hope to reschedule to do some editing on the 23/03/2011.

23/03/2011 We planned to edit today, unfortunately a few people in the group could not attend but we were able to get through half of the footage putting in the cuts that were needed between each shot.

25/03/2011 Editing took place as planned and we managed to finish cutting all of the footage. We began to start choosing what footage we wanted to use.

30/03/2011 We planned to be near the end of editing today but due to be being behind schedule we are not near the end of editing.

1/04/2011 I managed to book a four hour session of editing time for today. In this session we managed to get all of the footage we wanted to use into a sequence and in order. As well as starting to adds inter cuts, with a range of different shots to add interest for the viewer.

4/04/2011 I managed to book another two hour slot for editing today. In this session we managed to complete the footage editing with a few tweaks to complete. Unfortunately we did not manage to complete our video for our aimed date due to absences and a slow start to the production of the video.

8/04/2011 As a group we managed to complete the video in this session, making last minuite touches such as a fade out of the track and footage at the end of the video as well as editing the gamma and brightness and contrast.

I feel I have managed to cope with many problems along the way as well as cope with problems together as a group. A few of the main problems that arose were the lack of actors for our initial idea of 6 female actors to 3 female actors, we managed to plan around this and got the actors to do 2 verses of the song each, changing their clothes in each verse. Another problem was the absences within the group, counting on many people is very hard and a challenge as well as managing to organise plans around every one's busy timetables. Finally another problem was continuity, we had to make sure that the lighting in the video was as similar as it could be as well as the setting and costumes. I managed to get over this problem by keeping a note of what clothes the actors were wearing as well as the lighting and filters we used and camera angles, I feel we have managed to achieve this as well as we can considering we shot the video in 2 separate sittings. We managed to recreate the studio effect in a classroom by clearing all of the tables and chairs away, taping up a green screen, setting the lighting rig up and cameras and tripods as well as we could.

I feel I have put a lot of effort into the video, I have contributed most of my time to planning, shooting and editing the video. I found having to rely on other people in the group a bit of a challenge as plans did not always happen or meetings would get cancelled at the last minute but that is part of working in a group. I was also in charge of writing and keeping the cue-cards as well as bringing in most of the costume. I worked on the cameras, using creative decisions as a group and on my own to make the shot look as we planned. I helped set up the studio and in getting the lighting right. Finally I attended every editing session that we did as a group as well as being in charge of planning them. I played a part in the editing process in actually editing as well as making creative decisions about the editing.

Unfortunately we ran out of time towards the end of editing and were unable to complete the video to the standard that we hoped, we wanted to add more cuts as well as different backgrounds onto the green screen although I am very happy with the video as a lot of hard work went into it especially mine. I know appreciate how hard it can be to work in a group and having to rely on other people as well as how hard it is to make a music video and just how long you need to create one.

Shooting schedule

09/02/2011
We plan to pick up the filming equipment at approximately 12.00pm from the Media technisians office. We will then head to the TV studio and set up the equipment ready for 12.30. We will then set out the costumes, props and jewellery ready for the actors at 1.00pm. Shooting will then commence at approximately 1.15pm when the actors have put on their costumes, make up and props. We plan to get at least half of the versus filmed by the end of the day approximately 5.00pm.

11/02/2011
In our lesson at 2.00pm we plan to start capturing back the footage from the tapes and start editing which bits of footage worked well for the video and which didn't. As well as any footage we may need to re-take.

18/02/2011
We plan to edit and finish capturing back the footage from the first shoot in our lesson at 2.00pm.

21/02/2011- 27/02/2011 Half term break

03/03/2011
We plan to pick up the filming equipment at approximately 12.00pm from the Media technisians office. We will then head to the TV studio and set up the equipment ready for 12.30. We will then set out the costumes, props and jewellery ready for the actors at 1.00pm. Shooting will then commence at approximately 1.15pm when the actors have put on their costumes, make up and props. We plan to get at least half of the versus filmed by the end of the day approximately 5.00pm.

04/03/2011
We plan to edit and finish capturing back the footage from the first shoot in our lesson at 2.00pm.

09/03/2011We plan to pick up the filming equipment at approximately 1.00pm from the Media technisians office. We will then head to the TV studio and set up the equipment ready for 1.30. We will then set out the costumes, props and jewellery ready for the actors at 2.00pm. Shooting will then commence at approximately 2.15pm when the actors have put on their costumes, make up and props. We plan to get at least half of the versus filmed by the end of the day approximately 5.00pm.

11/03/2011 We plan to finish capturing back our footage from the second and first shoots in our lesson at 2.00pm.

16/03/2011 We plan to finish any filming that needs to be done, for example intercuts- interesting shots to add into the video to keep the viewer interested.

18/03/2011 We plan to have captured back all footage, possible capture the cut in's if any and start doing a rough edit in our lesson at 2.00pm.

22/03/2011
We plan to complete the rough edit of our footage- making sure all footage is in order.

25/03/2011 We plan to start doing a final edit in our lesson at 2.00pm

30/03/2011 We plan to be near the end of editing our music video and sinking the music to the video.

01/04/2011 We plan to be near the end of the editing process, to be done in our lesson at 2.00pm.

04/04/2011 We plan to have finished our music video.

Equipment list

- 3 XM2 cameras

- Lighting rig

- Green screen

- 3 x tripods

- Black tape to tape down the cables to stop tripping hazzard and make the rooms light tight.

- Costumes

- Props -flat caps, cigars and money

Health and Safety

When shooting our video we made sure that all cast and crew knew of the possible hazzards and risks of filming in a room. These risks included things such as fire hazzards, cables trailing accros the floor, dark lighting, live electrical sockets in the walls and tripod legs sticking out.This is an example of the risk assessment form we had to fill out every time we booked out the cameras and equipment as well as the Tv Studio. Health and safety is a very important factor to think about when planning to shoot a music video as the safety of the crew and actors comes before anything else. The safety precautions we took were good practise for industry and the real world. Another reason is that will be able to have a smooth as possible production experience if we make sure that all health and safety has been thought about and dealt with.

As well as the risk assessment form I made a call sheet for the group, actors and I. The call sheet is a simple list of everyone working on the film with a reference to their contact details such as mobile phone number and/or email address. This enables the group and I to be able to contact one another at any stage of the production. The call sheet is a vital document as it enables me to save time and allows me to contact anyone involved in the filming at short notice. My call sheet is on a sheet of paper as well as on my mobile phone so that if I do not have the sheet I can use my phone instead. I have the numbers of the group-film crew, the actors, the media technician Craig as well as contact details of my teachers. It is vital to be organised at all stages of the project, from start to end.

This is my call sheet..

Stroyboard

Storyboard
Our ideas are based around challenging the racial and sexual stereotypes and conventions of rap videos by using the opposite genders and race to normal rap videos. We feel there are too many dominantly male video's, where woman are used as a sex objects and men are portrayed as being in a position of power and dominance, by switching the gender's around it would cause the audience to think twice about what they are so used to watching in video's and see woman portrayed as the more powerful and dominant characters. With the added humour of the blonde females lip sinking to obvious male lyrics.

We have chosen to use a more improvisational technique by drawing out our key ideas and shots on the storyboard but continuously using similar shots of each verse and character. This storyboard is a guideline for all of the group and crew to know what we are looking for in terms of shots. We have decided to shoot against green screen as we feel that we will be able to make the lighting look more professional in a studio as well as add interesting footage onto the green screen if we want to.

We want the woman in the video to be dressed in clothing that the public would associate with urban culture and music;for example over sized jackets, hoodies, flat caps and chains as this is typical of Wu-tang Clan and Hip Hop video's and will add to our overall aim. This will be used to add humour to the video to keep it light hearted as blonde woman will be rapping and wearing male clothing.

We decided not to follow a narrative for our video because most videos in the same genre do not have narrative but instead have the characters perform to camera- engaging with the viewer.

Our key camera shots and movements will be close ups, slow zooms in and out, slow pans across and up from the feet, many different angles- from high up, from the side and from below. As well as using a variation of people that fill the frame, sometimes being solo, a duo or a group of three. We feel this will work well for our genre of Hip Hop as well as keep the viewer interested and engaged.

We have chosen to use many close up's of the characters faces to show their expressions and emotions as this will gain the attention of the audience and engage with them. We have chosen to use many mid shots as these are typical of many music videos to concentrate on the characters upper body. We have used some profile shots to add interest to our video and vary the different shot types. We have chosen to use long shots in our video as this will show the audience the characters figure expressions, dancing as well as their costumes. Finally we have chosen to use a static shot of the characters stood still staring into the camera menacingly as this will convey to the audience the power the woman have and how they can be dominant just like men.

The storyboard is a vital part of any film/video project. It allows us to pre-visualise the film before setting out on the long journey to making it. It is a working document that should be referred to at all times of the project and by all member's of the production team at all stages of the production and post production. By setting out a proposed idea on paper in a shot by shot format showing images of shots with detailed descriptions of what happens, it makes sure that the film will flow well and captivate an audience. I am glad we made a storyboard as it will be useful to look at for help and to make sure we stick to our initial idea as much as we can.

Shooting Script

After making our storyboard we created a shooting script which is used when actually filming. It enables us to set up a schedule for the day of filming including a list of shots that we intend to film. There is space in a shooting script to write information about each take of every shot to indicate which shots were best and which were not so good. This saves time in the editing process as we will only need to capture back the good footage.

This is an example of our shooting script..

Booking Equipment

In the real media industry, production equipment such as cameras, tripods and lights are usually hired from specialist video production companies. In this case you would have to pay a hiring fee and if the equipment was late to be handed in then a fee would incur. As you would have to pay for kit then it is essential that there is a tight well thought out plan and schedule set out so that you can maximise time with the production kit. Filming therefore is taken in the smallest possible time period, saving the director money in the long run.

In my case however there was no hiring fee but there were specific rules to be followed such as needing to book equipment 48 hours in advance and have it for a maximum of 2 days. This is because kit is in high demand all of the time. We will have to fill in risk assessment forms whenever taking out equipment to cover insurance and to make sure everyone is aware of the possible dangers.

Mise-en-scene

Setting and Location

The settings and locations we plan to use are a mixture of urban looking locations to compliment our Hip hop video. One of these locations is the town Brighton as this will give our video an urban feel and there are a few key locations with famous graffiti art in the back streets of the North Lanes which would create an eye catching back drop.

Another location we plan to use is Lewes, the setting being the skate park as this would create a young and urban feel because of the way the people there act and dress.

Props

The props we plan to use are dollar bills as this is a common prop in Hip hop themed videos. We would also like to use cigarettes or cigars for the same reason. These ideas for props are inspired by Wu-tang Clan's other music videos as they seem to enjoy showing their status of wealth.

Colour

My group and I would like our video to be quite vibrant in colour to attract it's target audience and to correlate with Wu-tang Clan's existing video's.

Change of location

After much debate as a group we all collectively decided it would be best if we filmed in the TV Studio at college as this was a more reliable location weather wise and it is easly accesable, the equipment would also be much closer and we would be able to get help with any technical problems we come accros with the technisian being just next door. Another reason we changed the location was because of the busy streets in Brighton, people may have got in the way and distrubed the filming, the actors might have felt more uncomfortable and shy and not performed their best. As well as the problem of having to get approval by local councils to film in such public locations could have held us back time wise. But the biggest reason was because we- as a group want our music video to stand out and look as proffesional as possible, using the studio, we feel we will be able to achieve this aim to the best of our ability. Using a green screen background would allow us to add different backgrounds in the editing process and the lighting would look much more proffesional and dramatic with the lighting kit.

The Pitch

For this blog my group and I had to make a powerpoint pitch to the group Wu-tang Clan trying to sell our idea's for a music video.

This is the powerpoint...

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B4-5YKV5LgbpY2E4ZmZhNDgtMmJkZi00OThkLWIyODEtZmRkN2QwNzY5OWIx&hl=en

It is an outline of our ideas and research results.

This is a link to our Powerpoint Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4-5YKV5LgbpOTMzMzFjMTctNzMxMS00Mzg2LWFlMmEtM2I4OGY1Nzg1ZTRk&hl=en

Initial Ideas

Our ideas are to challenge the stereotypes and conventions of rap videos by using the opposite genders and race to a normal rap video. We feel there are too many dominantly male video’s, where woman are used as sex objects and men are portrayed as being in a position of power and dominance, so by switching the gender’s around it would cause the audience to think twice about what they are so used to watching in videos and see woman as the more powerful, dominant characters. With the added humour of the female’s lip sinking to obvious male lyrics.

We feel Wu-tang Clan would suit this type of video as they often use humour in their videos and have been slated for being sexist so this could bring them more of a following and a larger fan base.

An example of this is their video ‘Gravel Pit’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV3wh2VPcd0

Wu-tang Clan use humour in their videos to entertain their audiences and make them laugh, we feel that we should carry this theme on and by using females as the lead characters this may point out the fact that woman are not normally portrayed as strong characters in Hip Hop unlike men to the audience as well as making them laugh. Bringing attention to a serious subject but commenting on it lightly. We have an idea to use a fish eye lens effect as it is typical of videos of the same genre: Hip Hop. An example of this is the song ‘Mo Money Mo Problems’ By Notorious B.I.G. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twkh0YiInPM

Another example of this effect is the video Intergalactic by Beastie Boys. This is a print screen from the video.

The actors will be dressed in clothing that the public would associate with urban culture; for example over sized jackets, flat caps and chains as this is typical of Wu-tang Clan and Hip hop video’s and will add to our overall aim. This will be used to add humour to our video as the actors will be woman and will be dressed in male clothing.

These are our image examples of the types of clothing we would like to use and the figure expressions.

The posturing of the actors will be similar to Wu-tang Clan's, for example when they wave their arms towards the camera.

This is a print screen from the video 'Mo money, Mo problems' which I am using as an example of clothing and arm posturing.

There will be no obvious narrative in the video because most videos in the same genre do not have narrative but instead have the characters acting out to the camera- engaging with the audience.

We feel our ideas are perfect for our genre and target audience as we have not strayed very far from the conventional pattern of Wu-tang Clan’s video’s except that we will be challenging the gender and racial stereotypes that they often use. In doing this we hope that their current fan base will enjoy the video as well as welcoming new fans.

Copying an existing Video

As a class we are going to re-create and copy the video 'Teenage dirt bag' by the band 'Wheatus'.
This is a link to the real video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jJVRcCdvyY&ob=av2n

As a class we looked at and filled in a storyboard for the Video, before we started any filming. I was surprised by how much work goes into the planning of just a single shot. We only looked at the first 10seconds of the video but even in that short amount of time we had to analyse and write about so many elements including: Shot type, shot number and description of action etc. This is an image of the storyboard.

As a group when we first started filming we had to fill in a shooting script, this included the image of the shot, the shot number, shot type, description of action, camera movement/direction and how many takes it took. I found that this really helped to get the shot right and to give everyone involved from the camera operator to the actor; a clear idea of what was happening and the aim of the day. This is an image of the script.

I have contributed to the video by doing some handheld filming. I learnt how to track and do still shots using my body as a tripod, keeping my legs apart to keep me steady. I also learnt how to keep the camera stable and steady using my arms and hands, to reduce camera shake. taking part in some directing was my favourite part of the production, I had to try and keep the focus of the crew and give them clear instructions to get the shot I had envisioned. Finally I took part in some acting in the video, I found this quite fun and challenging. I had to pay attention to what the director was telling me and to try and stay in the position I had been given. It has been very useful to get every perspective of the filming process from different positions to help me understand how a team should work effectively. I took part in practising time-lapse filming to give me some creative techniques to use in my own group video.

We have learnt to edit our film very basically using the Apple programme- Final Cut Pro.
Firstly we had to attach the firwire cable from the camera to the slot in the computer and open up the programme Final Cut Pro. Then we had to 'capture back' our footage- load it onto the computer and then save it. We had to set the 'capture' to the pixel aspect ratio of (PAL - 24FPS)
Using Final Cut Pro allows us to edit in a non linear way, which is very helpful if we wanted to edit a certain part of the film first for example the middle. This creates a greater flexibility than editing film. We had to select a piece of footage using the 'selector tool' and then cut it between each take using the 'razor tool'.

While editing we have had to follow the editing process- step one called an 'assembly edit' where you have to cut out all the footage we don't want to use and assemble to footage we do want to use on the timeline and putting it in order, step two is called 'rough draft/edit where we have to aim to create a seamless flow to the sequence and finally step three 'Final edit' where we finally tweak the cuts made in the sequence and sync the music and effects to the sequence which can take some time.

Here is the time-lapse filming I took part in..

http://blackboard.sussexdowns.ac.uk/@@61D18A51906843E3937869C12A10E565/courses/1/A3MEDA-new/content/_280813_1/widetime%2011.mov

This is the footage I took part in filming, directing and acting in for the 'Wheatus' video.

http://blackboard.sussexdowns.ac.uk/@@61D18A51906843E3937869C12A10E565/courses/1/A3MEDA-new/content/_281963_1/A2%20Media%20Test%20film%203.mov

http://blackboard.sussexdowns.ac.uk/@@61D18A51906843E3937869C12A10E565/courses/1/A3MEDA-new/content/_281964_1/A2%20Media%20test%20film%204.mov

Video Analysis

I am going to study 2 different music video's, one by Wu-Tang Clan and another by a similar group that are under the same genre: Hip hop/rap. The second video I am going to study is by the group Cyrpress Hill.

I will be looking at and comparing both video's by writing about their representation, narrative, audience and how the video's communicate meaning and their genre.

The first video I am analysing is the song 'Gravel Pit' by 'Wu-tang Clan':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGS7I8_UXhM

Representation:
The most obvious representation used in this video is of stereotypical men 'cave men'. Many males flaunting their wealth, strength, clothes and woman.
The video seems very sexist in that the men have female slaves or woman held captive and tied up. The woman have to dance for the men and they seem to not be respected, an obvious point is when one of the men hit a woman over the head with a club for no apparent reason and then drags her off by her hair.
Another stereotype is that the men fight in the 'gravel pit', this reminds me of the old gladiator arena's, at one point in the video the camera zooms out to show the 'arena' and there is a sound effect added of people cheering.
The video turns into a stereotypical Chinese fighting scene, where Wu-tang clan turn into Ninjas and fight against other ninjas. The men are portrayed as having super powers- being able to fly into the sky.
I would say the only un-stereotypical element of the video is that the theme of cave men and ninjas is quite unusual for a hip hop group's video.

These are some examples of my ideas- print screens: showing the caveman theme, the woman held hostage, the clothes and jewels being flunted and the expensive looking clothes.






Narrative:
The story of the video seems to be told through the various members of Wu-tang Clan.
The basic story is that the main character's-Wu-tang clan- a large group of men are in an elevator after they had been clubbing and they all seem to want to go to different places, so various buttons get pressed in the elevator. The elevator turns into a time machine and sends them to the year 2000 BC.
They turn into cave men and flaunt their wealth and have female slaves.
And then towards the end of the video clip Wu-tang Clan turn into ninjas and start to fight other ninjas. I feel the narrative of the video is mostly a story of Wu-tang Clan having fun and pushing gender boundaries in being quite sexist in a comical way.

Audience:
I feel the audience for this video would be mostly Male between the ages 15-24 but with some female fans aged between 16-20. This tends to correlate with the results I came up with from their overall fan base in my previous blog.

Meaning:
I am not certain of the true meaning of this video but I feel from watching it that it may be a comical nudge at being a bit controversial with sexism.
The group seem to be having fun in the video which is nice to see as many hip hop video's can tend to be quite serious.
I feel that Wu-tang Clan wanted to show themselves having fun and show off their wealth and power.

Genre:
Hip hop/rap

The second video I am analysing is the song 'As we enter' by 'NAS and Damian Marley':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMGd3mAfl-0

Representation:
This video again is quite stereotypical of Hip hop video's with only males featuring in the video. Unlike the previous video by Wu-tang Clan this is quite serious and there is a sense of anger and a message trying to be sent out.
The dark clothes and hoodies are also another stereotypical aspect of this video.
I feel that the video is trying to represent that 'real hip hop is dead'- the famous saying. NAS and Damian Marley are extremely famous and almost always seem to sing about real issues in the world and are trying to bring hip hop back.

These are some print screens of the points I have made about males only featuring in the video- acting out to camera, the dark clothes and hoodies and dark and serious set and atmosphere.

Narrative:
This video is told through NAS and Damian Marley to 'us' the audience. It is as if they are actually speaking to the viewer by the way they look right into the camera and seem to talk to the viewer.
They take us on a short journey through words and seem to be stating they want to bring back 'real' hip hop and sing about real issues in the world compared to some commercial hip hop acts these days who seem to sing about wealth.
A few quotes from the video that back this idea up are 'Must be dementia that you could even think you could touch our credentials' and 'The king's is back, time to return the crown'.

Audience:
I feel the audience for this video/song would be similar to Wu-tang Clan's video as it is in the same genre but I feel that both woman and men would listen to this in more of an equal amount for example men 60% and woman 40% with both ages being between 16-45.

Meaning:
As I stated earlier I believe that this video/song is telling the audience that hip hop is going to change again and that it is no longer 'dead', that NAS and Damian Marley are going to give us 'real hip hop'.

Genre:
Hip hop/rap

Target Audience of Artist/Band

To establish the target audience for Wu-tang Clan my chosen artist. I have looked into their audience in terms of psychographics, demographics and socio-ecemonic classifications. I will back these up with various screen grabs and images of magazine covers they have featured on.

To begin with I will talk about wu-tang Clan's Facebook and Myspace fan pages. I found that on facebook there were up to 6 different fan groups, with many fans up to hundreds of thousands.

This image is a screen grab from The artists Myscapce page.

From looking at the type of fan's on their Myspace page I chose at random 10 different people to focus on to gather my information. I found that most people were in their early 20's with the exception of 3 people who were aged between 28-70.
5 out of the 10 people were male and 5 were female, I found that this was true of other fan's on the page and on the Facebook page as there seemed to be an even mix of both sexes.
9 out of the 10 people were from America and 1 being from Hawaii, I found that most of the fan's were American on Myspace as well as Facebook.
Half of the fans on Myspace seemed to be Caucasian with the other half consisting of Asian and mixed raced people.


This is a screen grab from one of the Facebook fan pages.

I found that Wu-tang Clan had featured on a number of different magazines. One being an American magazine based on Hip Hop called 'The Source'.

This is the sources target audience, which I found on their website.

Target audience
Age: Unknown but I think around (18-34)
Gender: 50/50
Class: C1, C2 and D
Nationality: American
Psychographics: individualists, aspirers and mainstreamers.

The Source Magazine doesn't have any information on The NRS records as it is not such a mainstream genre of magazine, so I have emailed the magazine and I am hoping they will email me back with the information.

Another magazine I found that Wu-tang Clan featured on is 'The Face' magazine.


This is an extract that I found about 'The Face' magazine from the search engine Wikipedia:
'The magazine, often referred to as the "80s fashion bible", was influential in championing a number of fashion music and style trends, whilst keeping a finger on the pulse of youth culture for over two decades'

The magazine was based in the United Kingdom and doesn't seem to exist anymore, It's seems to of ended in the year 2004. Another quote from Wikipedia back's this up: 'By its May 2004 closure, there were too many competitors, sales had declined and advertising revenues had consequently reduced'.

Unfortunately I couldn't seem to find the magazine's readership information.
But from the extracts about the magazine I found, it states that it was for young people I would say aged between 17-25 year old men and woman.

I found that Wu-tang Clan also featured on the famous magazine 'Rolling Stone'.

Fortunately as this is a very famous magazine I managed to find out a lot of information about the magazines readership.

This is the image of the cover they featured on.

This is information that my group and I found from the Rolling Stone website.

It shows the figures for their readership for the year of 2009.

This list of results shows that 100% of the readers are over 18 years of age.

Out of the 100% of readers, the percentage of men that read the magazine was 58% and remaining were 42% woman.
The most popular age of people that bought the magazine in 2009 were ages 18-49 which contributed to a huge 86% of readers.

72% of the readers were employed.

The magazine was most popular with white people at 75% I find that this is true as I found most of the fan's on Facebook and Myspace were white.

This is a Facebook group that my group and I created to try and help us figure out who Wu-tang Clan's audience is:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=155074551182678#!/group.php?gid=155074551182678&v=wall

To conclude I feel that Wu Tang-clan's target audience is woman and men of the ages 18-49 which is quite a wide target audience but the information I have gathered shows that this is their audience. My group and I have chosen to keep to Wu tang-clan's target audience and target our video for their song at the same audience as we feel is is very wide and would appeal to all these ages.