Digipack play contid.

Starting from the end play on photoshop elements i added the font to the top of the image to picture its final look as a cd cover, however, the cover looks too simple and does not correlate with the tunnel photography we are keen to use on the other digipack panels.

So starting from the main photograph i overlaid one of the tunnel fisheye lens photograph to add dimension, colour and atmosphere to the image. Layed with 'pin lighting' to eliminate the photographs fogged background. Then using the magnetic lasso tool cut around the face image, leaving only a clean foreground facial shot. I think this sinister colouring and shadows compliment the theme of both the music and our video, left half in shadows highlights his emotional and physical mood.

Adding the new garden font which is laced through the magazine advert to the front ties the two together and helps in creating a brand, also the mirroring of photograph across the two disciplines ties them together, making them both recognisable and complimentary which is a connotation of magazine articles. However we still need to bring all our ideas to the table and pick a final cover.

A screen shot of creating this product in photoshop

Hannah began to play with the back panel, choosing this photograph because of its depth and simple yet dramatic appearence, heightening the contrast to set alive the colours of the tunnel.

After deciding that is would not be appropriate overlayed on the front cover, i think the simplicity of this image would work well on the back, the ground leaves perfect space for track-names, we decided that a more simple font would look more professional and clean. Conventions of a back panel, noted in the digipak conventions blog of a bar code, record label logo and legalistic information that will be added to the back, and the title may not be needed in the corner.

Paige's play with front cover used overlays of the gate scene, a illustration of his split mindset, and blurred lighting. This image is dramatic and eye catching with a creative use of composition yet we were afraid it would not compliment the magazine article , and that the light overlay could be too similar to other overlays used in the video.

Again the use of overlays is striking and creative, capturing the emotion in our protagonists face and vivid colouring, however compared to covers we analysed it may appear too cluttered.
Taking image from Bloc Party's 'A weekend in the city' using location imagery for the digipak...

Two tunnel images seemed perfect to me as the two inside panels, putting either one together forms a sort of disorientated double ended tunnel which would be visually stimulating as the inside overs adjacent to each other. I absolutely love the contrast on the colours which hannah made sure were the same for coherence, also she made sure that the alignment was perfect so that is gave the effect it was all one image, except from the graffiti which works anyway.
This is a deisgn for a cd Sticker design hannah created on photoshop, cut from a fish eye lens the photograph mirrors the circular shape of the CD again a dynamic and powerful photograph is used.


Here we put the CD cover on top of the inside panel to see how it would look when placed inside a digipak.

So i had a little play, just because

The only programme i have on my laptop is photoshop elements but it does the trick. Having a little play one night with a few of the screen grabs and photographs. The results were surprising but ill have to show the girls to see weather they are suitable or either the magazine or digipack or just for a mock of the final thing.

Using inspiration from the Deftones digipack cover with a distinct use of overlays i picked the two dramatic screen grabs, used the extract tool to cut out unwanted parts of the image and used different layer distortions.

MTV / Strickland Banks

VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR

'Pictures came and broke your heart, put the blame on VTR'
MTV (formerly an initialism for Music Television) is an American cable television network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs. Today, MTV still plays a limited selection of music videos, but the channel primarily broadcasts a variety of popular culture and reality TV shows targeted at adolescents and young adults.

MTV IN OUR GENRE

By the early 1990s, MTV was playing a combination of pop-friendly hard rock acts, chart-topping metal and hard rock acts . MTV progressively increased its airing of hip hop acts, such as LL Cool J, Naughty By Nature, Onyx and Sir-Mix-A-Lot, and by 1993, the channel added West Coast rappers previously associated with gangsta rap, with a less pop-friendly sound, such as Tupac Shakur, Ice Cube, Warren G, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

You can see that British hip hop was never involved in the beginnings of hip hop, a very American orientated genre. Therefore i think it is important that our product would be globally recognisable and appealing, Plan B has obviously seen how hard being a controversial British hip hop artist is to break out, his first album was gritty harsh, intimate rap music but now he has created a soul persona.

Plan B recently stated in an interview with Gigwise that he has not turned his back on hip-hop music."I'm aware that there are fans out there that might feel alienated by this but I feel like I cater for them," he said - link to source

Plan B has become Strickland Banks, an out and out soul singer complete with full band and sixties stylings. - link to source

"the first few tracks rushed quickly out the gate. It was immediately clear that this was no half-baked attempt to recreate a soulful sound. This was the full-fat version with hurtling drums and dextrous basslines charging forward whilst Ben got quickly into his groove- his smooth, falsetto belying his rather stocky, brutish appearance"

Plan B, Chase and Status, what are they about?

Though content wise, Plan states that with most of his songs he is "just telling a story" and that he is "just trying to portray something that's real that happens in everyday life". These stories are largely semi-fictional but include personal content as well.

'London rapper Plan B - known to his old ma as Ben Drew - isn't one to shy away from controversy. His debut LP offered a damning indictment of society's ills, but it was references to genital warts and unsavoury activities over a biscuit - those of a sensitive disposition should avoid 'Sick 2 Def' - that left a lasting impression. Four years on, and with follow-up LP The Defamation of Strickland Banks in the works, he's showing no sign of being tamed.

Quite the opposite - trailer single ‘Stay Too Long’ features the same lyrical ferocity as previous efforts. This time around, the tale is of a raucous and alcohol-fuelled night out that ends - as the title suggests - with girlfriend ignored and hotel bill unsettled. A rollicking combination of rock, funk and hip-hop, with a generous array of expletives chucked in for good measure, this tune will definitely help get the party started, but don't be surprised if the frenzied rapping of the final minute leaves you feeling queasy. ' - source

A recent beautifully honest interview from Plan b on Soccer FM , just ignore the dim questions and responses by, that lady. "Its got guitar in it", oh Christ. Touching upon his first album in which he bore 'his soul' and how his recent works are about expression and being a true artist.

"Don't ever expect anything from me, because i will turn it on it's head. With music I follow my heart and if something becomes stale,becomes boring, my hearts not in it, so i search for something else".
Plan B demonstrates his disregard to conventions people have set, and is not fearful to be controversial. His gritty honesty is warming, and his music is real. This will definitely have to be an aspect we try to encapsulate in our video.

taken from bbc home collective page

LOTS OF CHASE AND EVEN MORE STATUS

London based production duo: Chase & Status, really do start as they mean to go on.

In the past year they have not only permeated the Drum & Bass industry but succeeded in convincing several Drum & Bass labels to take a risk by putting their money on something a little different - an unfeasibly clever feat in these times. Chase & Status are less concerned with chasing their status and more concerned with making quality music. If you don’t already know about these rising stars, we suggest you get to know…

Another website avenue 61 hosts a review of Chase & Status and also talks about their collaboration with Plan B

"Relatively new to the Drum & Bass scene, Chase & Status quickly built up a firm fan base amongst those seeking a somewhat less archetypal D’n’B aesthetic. Whereas the majority of the harder D’n’B scene has often gravitated towards the classic pulse, limiting their sonic range to literally little more than drum and bass for instrumentation, C&S seem to have instituted themselves less in D’n’B aural sensibilities, but in the ideal of interweaving something all the more pleasant with the underlying D’n’B discourse"

Also posting...

For their latest release, C&S have enlisted the vocal help of London neo-balladeer, Plan B. Know for his close to the knuckle subject matter, favourite subjects include murder, rape & drug use, Plan B’s contribution is an extremely subtle, nuanced vocal track against which C&S solid D’n’B beats are given extra fervour. Whilst the lyrical subject matter is far less guttural than previous Plan B material, it still gives insight into something far darker than the lyrics themselves. It alludes to the context surrounding our protagonist’s untimely death but still paints a rather grim, foreboding portrait of the London underworld. - a beautiful review!

The track reviews

Reading a light heartened BBC review of 'End Credits', our chosen song, this depiction of the song for me is a perfect summary -
'It might start like strummy, summery indie pop, but the funereal strings soon blot out the sunshine, and when the beat kicks in, it is with all the cold force of a sleetfall on a blustery day. And even though there are patches of relief, where the onslaught stops and the clouds disperse a little, they don't last long before all hell breaks loose again' - Fraser McAlpine

Target audience research /Updates

Target market is an extremely important factor as we can understand and try to relate to the audience, reaching out to our target audience successfully will have a correlation to sales and success of promotion. Each of our tasks will have to appeal to the target audience of the artist we have chosen. After researching into the target audience of our artist's genre, hip hop / dub-step which both umbrella under the urban scene, i can conclude there is no conscious about hip hop demographics. A lot of information I found was from America, as of course this is where the vast majority of hip/hop music resides although British hip - hop in the 21st century is up and coming, Plan B, a British urban artist, is certainly an anomaly in his field; could our product attempt to reach out to this vast market?

From wikipedia -
British hip hop was greatly influenced by United States’ hip hop. Hip hop music throughout the world is influenced by the United States hip hop but none are as similar as are the British and the US forms. The cultural diversity that exists in both these countries seems to be the relationship that makes them so comparable. The different cultures within these two countries are each creating their own form of hip hop individually. The effect of multi-cultural countries on music seems to be cross collaboration with the end result being a blending of all the different cultures. This merging of music puts the resultant hip hop from both the US and the UK on the top of the charts.

A statement I found on this hip hop website stated :
The global hip hop community: twenty four million people between the ages of 19-34, from a range of nationalities, ethnic groups and religions. Their collective spending power is $500 billion annually in the U.S. alone.

This age range seams ish appropriate to me, initally 34 feels too old of Plan B's genre, I would suggest that Plan B's fan base is the lower end of that age range, 19 - 29, an age range of young adults who would hear the track at clubs and bars to a slightly older generation but still below the age of having children etc as I believe this would definitely determine which music you brought and how much you listened to it. It my eyes anyway.

Another idea surfaced in a hip hop blog located here , giving the demographic Males 18 - 30.

However these age ranges for hip hop genre fails to be specific to our artist, which is a key point. I tried to look into the demographics for our chosen artists however this did not produce any reliable results. I decided that a reliable way to determine that our target audience is correct is to look on last fm. A website dedicated to tracking the listeners of artists.

Plan B is the second most popular British Hip Hop artist.
Chase and Status are one of the top Drum n Bass artists

The two artists profiles are hosted here (Plan B) and here (Chase and Status)

Chase and Status top listeners: Male 27, Female 17, Male 20, Male 25, Male, 20, Male 15, Male 18, Male 33

Plan B listeners: Male 25, Male 23, Male 21, Male 21, Male 17, Female 16, Male 23, Male 23, Male 18, Male 33
Plan B & Chase and Status top listeners - Male 27, Male unknown age, Male 20, Male 25, Male 18, Female 19, Male 20, Female unknown age, Male 20, Male 20

I took each of these print screens from the first page of 'Most Recent Listeners' The results were unanimous that Males aged 18 - 27 were the main target age group. The target audience will also be listeners of hip hop & drum and bass music. Females are part of the market yet they are not the audience we will be mainly targeting our product toward.

To conclude, our target market is Males aged 18 - 27 who are fans of hip hop / drum and bass music.

An article by Criag Davis' about Video Conventions

During my research i discovered this article by Crag Davis who establishes music video conventions, after reading through i discovered that these statements mirrored the conventions I established after my analysis. This was reassuring as I can now state music video conventions with confidence. The conventions I found are posted on my blog here.

Lighting - We could use the idea of switching from colour to black or white, desaturated to determine a flask back or memory, also a change of colour lighting will be useful in differentiating setting, chorus and verse change etc. We will endevour to think of clever ways to use artificial lighting in our video as we believe this is a key focus for making our video seem professional. This idea was also highlighted a lot during my research, from which we gained some inspiring ideas.

Mise en scene - We will interpret the genre of the track in our mise en scene, choosing gritty locations that reflect the urban music. We have thought about how we could stage the garage scene and thought about using old tattered furniture surrounded by clutter. - an intentional 'parodic' setting to exaggerate star image.

In post production we will think of innovative ways to use Final cuts many video filters and effects to the premium.
Even though our video is not planned to be a performance due to the genre of the track, these points were interesting and insighting especially the comments on a hybrid form video, cutting between performance and narrative as in Greenday's 21 Guns which I analysised. Also we could use the idea that the 'artist...often becomes part of that narrative story', as we are keen to switch between him singing/ performing alone in a desolate room and a subtle narrative.
This was reassuring, as the plan to our music videos narrative is not very strong, it hints at why he is in despair through use of flashbacks but we did worry that this would not be adequate for the audience. Craig Davis' claims that 'narrative code must be 'loose' or simply 'suggestive' which is reassuring.
Amplification - this is a convention we will endeavour to finish to a high quality, we have already began to interpret and amplify the lyrics from using a bleeding nose for the opening 'When the blood dries in my veins', here a 'connotative' link has been used. We are constantly thinking of ways to creatively interpret the lyrics and the mood of the video.

This is a idea i picked up on a lot after analysing already established music videos. Care full planning of camera positioning and movement will be needed - especially close ups! And the idea of lip syncing we will definitely use. During our editing we will then utilise these shots to edit to the fast drum n bass pace of our track. 'Jumping from location to person...without any normal narrative continuity', this means that we will have to be less aware of continuity editing as this will appear too much like a short piece of film, rather than following conventions of a music video.

The article found is hosted here.