Production- All Equipment Ready

The following image shows the equipment we will be using during the process of filming our music video

panning -Photoshoot of artist

Research and Planning- Recent Album I Purchased

I recently purchased the new GOOD MUSIC album Cruel Summer which was released on September 14th,2012. The american rapper Kanye West; the head of Def Jam Recordings owned by the conglomerate universal music group, was the first to reveal plans for the labels collaborative album in October 2011. I felt that this was original and very exciting to hear all the artists from that label on one album what more could you ask for really.

The artists Teyana Taylor, D'banj, Big Sean, Kid Cudi and John Legend are some of the artists featured
on the album track.

My thoughts on the album cover:

TAMARA AKOTUAH: RESEARCH - Looking into Digipacks

I found a clip of how Katy Perry's album cover was made. It is really interesting because of the fact that she used a candy theme and added the idea of having a cotton candy smell on the CD packs. I will use this idea of having something extra when creating my digi pack.

TAMARA AKOTUAH: RESEARCH - Looking into Digipacks

Drake Album Cover Analysis from Tamara Akotuah

Below is an article I found which highlights the ideas and representation of Drake- Take Care's CD. An The interview reveals his message in the imagery and props used.

How can I use this information in my own work

I love the fact that the digipack has a story and message behind it, I believe that it is always important for the artist to tell a story and inc operate a  little bit of their life within there. I can use this to inspire my own digipack by adding a little personal story of the artist on  the front cover to engage a wider audience.

TAMARA AKOTUAH:RESEARCH - Research into marketing tools

 Below is video which are shown on VEVO of recent artists, this is a great marketing tool and way of promoting a new music video.

 I wanted to look further into just how VEVO works so I typed in an artist on YouTube and saw if VEVO would link itself. When I typed in Usher it opened up his VEVO page and immediately had an option for me to see his most recent music video. It also allowed me to browse his previous music and watch his previous music videos. His VEVO page was also linked to the artists official websites.

How Will this Benefit Our own work/music video.

I believe as an artist it is important to be able to promote yourself or have a good marketing team behind you. I think the use of YouTube  Vevo will be a great tool which my group can use to promote our artist. We could maybe try recording some of our filming sessions of our artist and post these to YouTube to get some fans.

TAMARA AKOTUAH: Artist Profile

 

 

TAMARA AKOTUAH:RESEARCH - Updates on Katy B website

Katy B has just released a new music video which is in fact a lyric video. A lyric video is often in the same format as a music video however does not usually show anything on the screen a part from lyrics. This idea is very beneficial as it is a way of the audience creating in there minds thier own video for an artists song.

TAMARA AKOTUAH: PROMOTING - Social Network Site For Artist

I created a Twitter account for our artist I have some screen shots of recent posts.I have created a hash tag for fans of my artist. When doing deeper research into ways in which artists use social networking websites to promote themselves I found a lot of artists create names for thier fan groups an example would be Nicki Minaj. Nicki Minaj calls herself a Barbie and has made a hashtag for her fans called #Barbz for females #Kens for Males.

Taking Inspiration from Nicki Minaj I created a hashtag for our artist called #DubHearts, it appeals to both male and females. The name is based on the genre my artist is from which is Dubstep. I have added the word hearts into it for two reasons 1) It is love for the genre Dubstep and 2) It sounds like Love heart. Screen shots are below of what it looks like on Twitter. I also have made a fan who has changed there Twitter name to @DUBHEARTS

research -Music Websites

This following screen grab basically shows how I use FinalcutPro to edit the videos I make to present some of my work in a different way! It allows me to add text, different transition, and edit the videos by cuting bits that I may not want in the final outcome, I can also add some sound and make and also edit the sound in a way that suits the video, for example I can make it very low for when I am talking

Independent Research- Rihanna's New Album

Musician Rihanna recently announced that her new album ' Unapologetic' would be released on November 19th 2012. She has used twitter to create hype over the release of this album making her fans tweet and guess the name of her album. She tweeted out several teases ''Find the #ALBUMTITLE in #allBLACKeverything on the #COVER," this made fans wonder if the title would be Unapologetic or Side effects. Later on Rihanna then clarified that it was, in fact Unapologetic. Before that announcement their were many rumors circulating around the idea that her album would have something to do with the number 7. After her label universal music created several websites;  Rihanna7Wonders.com  and Rihanna7WorldWonders.com.  The number 7 was related to the fact that this would be her seventh studio album.

Now, though, it seems that number is only tied to the fact that this is 

YouTube banner advertising her new album's release

On this album cover her latest hair style '' Pixie Cut'' and Isis Tattoo is spotted. She is topless while the words ' Chalice ', Faith, Fearless'', Side effects and victory are scrolled across her body. This could be possible titles of the songs featured in the album? not too sure have to wait and see.

Research and Planning- New Video Release- Ciara

This music video below was published yesterday night. It's the artist Ciara's new video that 'Epic Records' which is a division of the conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment holds license to. A few days earlier the teaser trailer came out in HD on YouTube. I thought that this marketing strategy was useful and created hype for the music video fans were eager to watch this video and see the new dance moves she incorporates into this songs video.

Following Andrew Goodwins' Theory On Music Videos. This video has adopted the concept

of amplification of certain words ,which are expressed through dance moves. While the rest of

the video contains elements of disjuncture. It is shot in a dessert which has no link with
the lyrics of the song, but the open space used as a backdrop is appealing
for the target audience. I liked the binary opposition of costumes ' all white '' for the artist and '' all black ''
for the backing dancers, because it put the artist as the main focus of attention.
 Following Laura Mulvey's ideas on representation this music video
does have some elements of the male gaze, but due to the artists choice of costume covered up clothing and
powerful. bold and strong dance choreography the representation of women isn't shown in that stereotype.

In the above picture on the left I liked the use of colored smoke when I saw that I immediately thought of the smoke that my group would be using for our music video. I think that it is better to get the pink colored smoke, because when we edit the footage we can use the pleaseantative effect to pick up on the pink smoke which would be the only color depicted in our black and white music video. While watching Ciara's music video I looked at the transition effects ,and the angle of most of the camera shots. I liked the use of low angles on the artist I think this is something that our music video needs to include to make our video more exciting and dynamic in composition and frame.

Planning- Photoshoot Of Our Artist

This is a  slideshow of  3 pictures that we edited  on adobe photoshop

that we thought looked the best and we could use them for our wix page.

Pitch Feedback

When we presented our pitch we received excellent feedback. We covered all the questions, and did further research to make our presentation strong. We were told that we have very good locations that captured the urban lifestyle, but Louisa and Rebecca didn't understand how Brighton would fit into our music video. They couldn't visualise our video without a full animatic so we had to redo that part of our pitch.

TAMARA AKOTUAH:RESEARCH - Looking into song choice lyrics

I took a section of our chosen song for our music video's song lyrics and thought of ways we can portray the words. Or things that could be happening in the music video whilst those lyrics are been sang.

planning -Calendar Schedule

TAMARA AKOTUAH: PLANNING - Thinking about Costs & expenses

Creating a music video is very cost effective. There  is a lot of money involved fortunately for us we don't spend nothing any where near the actual cost for creating our music videos. I have put together some calculation of the costume and prop costs for the group.

As a group we can split the cost up by dividing this total by 3. We should conduct a meeting of how we will cover the cost and who should purchase what item.

TAMARA AKOTUAH:RESEARCH - Poses for Photoshoot

I Thought it would be a good idea to do a photo shoot for our Artist as we can use it as a way of promoting our artist. We can also use it for social networking websites I have created for the artist. It would be also more professional to have good quality photos instead of blury ones. I did some research into ways in which our artist can pose. I also looked at popular female artists photo shoots to see if we can use them to influence our shoot.

Planning- Last Minute Changes

We made a few changes to the dates that we will be filming our music video. 

I planned to go on holiday during the week that we planned to film over the half term, so we changed the date so that we can film at the end of half term instead of in the beginning.

Research- Skrillex Hair Style

I was watching ENews and the Dubstep Dj , and artist Skrillex has recently been recognised as a trend setter for this hairstyle. Rihanna, Willow Smith, Avril Larvigne and Miley Cyrus have been spotted with this new funky hair style. I think that our artist should also brand their image to start a trend like this artist from the same Dubstep genre of music has done. This image has branched him out in so many ways and has gotten attention for all the right reasons including his music.

research -The effectiveness of Black and white

I have created this presentation because our music video will be black and white, and we are relating this effect to the emotions and feelings that the song may symbolize

The following is previous students' production of a music video that was made in black and white and it's also a dubstep song. I find this video very effective because it has a lot of effects and editing that make it very efficient; such as flashing lights and slow motion. The black and white effect also portrays emotions related to the lyrics

The password to watch the following video is 'student'

TAMARA AKOTUAH: PLANNING - Last Minute Changes

planning -creating the artist's image

I have created this collage by using an application called 'CollageIt'. I made it to show the image of the artist, her type of clothes, make up, and characteristicsI have also added some pictures that represent 'skanking' which is the movement that people usually make when referring to house music or dubstep which is our genre for our music video

TAMARA AKOTUAH:RESEARCH - Article on how music affects teenagers

As an Aspiring Journalist, I though it would be interesting inc-operating my personal interests into my work. I found an article which discusses the influences music can have on teenagers; the article does not specify on the age range of teenagers it used to conduct it's information.

 The Affect Music Has On Different Teens

Music is something that every person has his or her own specific opinion about. Different people have different taste, and various types of music have many ways of leaving an impact on someone. It can be relaxing, angering, soothing, energizing, and many more.There are so many types of music out there today. Rap, pop, rock, country, indie, alternative, hardcore are some of the abundant types in the world. Music sends out either good or bad messages that have big impacts on how people act. People usually become friends with others who have a same taste in music as the rest of the people they hangout with, or it can be vice versa. People may not want to associate with people who have different tastes in music because they’ll argue about what they think is better but its just their own opinions.Rap and Rock music are two very important types of music in the world. They both send out different messages and help kids. The lyrics sung or rapped by the artists can be things going on in their own personal lives, and people with the same types of problems can listen to them so they know theirs hope and theirs people like this out there in the world. Music can also serve as a catalyst for new ideas. When people listen to the new things out there, they learn different things going on in the world and they become more open-minded because they’re exposed to different people like the artists.A lot of people come to the conclusion that rap music has a very big impact on the world. Listening to the lyrics, they usually revolve around sex and drugs and those are topics many parents don’t want their kids being involved in. Many of the music videos made by rap artists in the world show these topics in them. Studies show that people who are more into rap music do drugs one time in their lives.People can use music to express themselves, in ways it can’t be expressed through behavior, or art. You can usually tell how someone’s feeling by the type of music he or she is listening to at the time. It’s a tool used by many. Groups of people around the world can come together and gather at concerts, shows, and venues to show what their interests and likings are and you see how many people have similar likings as you. I can personally relate to the effects that music has on its listeners and users because it’s a big part of my life. Every day I listen to the words and sounds of different singers/bands with contrasting ideas and opinions. The music I listen makes me who I am.

I wanted to take this article and use it to benefit my groups music video, I think it is vital information and we can use it in terms of how we can adjust certain elements within our music video to engage a certain type of person within the targeted audience. 

Research- Independent Artist SNE

I recently contacted an ndependent recording artist ,and one of my close friends Rico aged 18. He is known as S(ound)N(ever)E(nds) and has been trying to branch out into the music industry for 4 years now. He is living in Hackney and has released his first single and official video entitled
'So Soon' and is still working hard on upcoming projects.

He has just released a warm up EP which includes his first single ,and can be downloaded from his labels website: www.idreambig.co.uk. He has performed in events such as, Hackney Empire, Bigga Fish, Sickabit, The Barbican, Hackney Carnival,The Shaw Theatre, O2 Arena and many more.

The concept iDreamBig came about while he was studying business and music at college. He thought that talented people in need of exposure to the music industry needed help, which is the main aim. His group aim to inspire those who have a dream and help people. He is similar to our new artist due to the fact that he is part of an independent label ,and uses social media to help promote his music which our artist will also be doing.

The idea for this music video came from the concept of ' dreaming big '

he uses a martin luther king quote from his ' I had a dream speech' as a voice over to amplify this.

As a new artist it is vital that close-ups are used so that the audience can identify him ,which is a feature of camera that our music video will be adopting.

This is a screen shot of the email he sent me answering a few questions I wanted to know about.

This is his twitter page that fans can follow and keep updated on new music and
possible performance locations and tickets.

This is a broadcast for a new music video that
he is helping promote.