Research and Planning - Drafts of Advert

Drafts of Advertisement

Before creating our final product, Josh and I had to go through various drafting to ensure we were creating a conventional product. Each time we developed a new idea or made changes, we received feedback from our teacher and peers that we knew liked the UK rap genre, as their feedback was beneficial for us in order to make improvements. 

Draft 1:

Positives:

1) Clear consistent campaign relating to digipak.

2) Colour scheme compliments the eye.

3) Relevant/ key information on poster.

Improvements:

1) Cropping around artist 1 (SWEENEY) head to eliminate all green areas.

2) Looks like a movie poster, very similar.

3) Parental advisory symbol (Digipak only).

Draft 2:

Positives:

1) Photoshop is much better around the artists

2) Layout is complimentary to the theme of the advert

Improvements:

1) Try and crop even smoother around SWEENEY'S image

2) Where you write about where it is available to download from, change typography 

3) The symbols of availability should be the same size

Conclusion: 

This process has been crucial in order for us to ensure that we create a product that is complimentary to all our other products. Further, the feedback has been invaluable to allow us to make the appropriate changes needed to reflect our genre. As this is a product that will be on public display, we need to ensure it is eye catching and I believe that if we make the changes advised in our draft 2 'improvements', we can do this. 

Research and Planning - Drafts of Digipak

Drafts of Digipak

Our class were required to create a brief design/draft of what the album for our music artist would contain. In particular with my groups campaign we needed to create a digipak to would fit the conventional needs to our duo artist campaign. Creating drafts benefited us highly as our end result was to create a final digipak that would go along with our music video production which would help sell the artists.
Draft 1 image:

Feedback:

Positive

- Colour scheme very good

- Clear consistency and style

- Good images provided and used

-Typography is good and suits style

Negative

- DefJamRecordings logo goes on the back

- Production company details missing

- Inside panel is not white

- CD looks a bit boring

Draft 2 image:

Feedback

Positive

- Front and back compliment each other very well.

- Good artistic style and theme to the video.

Negative

- Inside image does need to be circular, distracts from the CD panel.

- Lyrics are blurred and looks odd

- Think about what else you could put in the inside panel.

Draft 3 image:

Feedback

Positive
- Really good consistency across all panels.
- Layout and artist image is conventional to the genre.

Negative
- Album name on front
- Some green noticeable on MD's face on the front. 
- Instead of ''Ying X Yang'' on the inside, can you think of any other words you could use?

Conclusion

Creating these drafts was really beneficial because it helped me and Amani to develop into creating a professional looking campaign for our artists and music video. Creating several different drafts allowed me to experiment with new ideas and even implement different designs, color schemes and theme ideas from existing products that me and Amani researched in to. As well as myself and my partner giving each other constructive criticism on our drafts for my digipak and his adverts, we also received feedback from students and peers who were interested in the Grime/Rap genre.

Research - Censorship

Censorship

Censorship within media is something that comes up and is always tested. In the music industry censorship can be pushed to its limits as it can be seen as hard for artist and audience to find the line between freedom of speech and expression also known as 'art' and what is seen as inappropriate. 

If explicit content is mentioned or seen in a music video or soundtrack it is usually followed up with the 'Parental Advisory' symbol. This symbol is used to notify the public of its explicit content and that it is up to the parent or guardian's consent that any person under 18 can be exposed to this. 

Genres that have been known to carry the 'Parental Advisory' symbol:

• Hip-Hop - Violent, sexual and drug abusive content.
• R&B - Sexual content within lyrics. 
• Rock - Violent and drug abusive content.

There are 14 topics that have the right to be censored if presented in either a sound track or a music video, these are:

1. Shock - Footage that the audience could find traumatic and disturbing.
2. Violence - Scenes too violent can also be deemed inappropriate. 
3. Graphic Representation - If scenes are considered as to graphic (gory or explicit) the can be censored. 
4. Language - Explicit language may be found as inappropriate by the audience.  
5. Sexual Violence - Sexual Violence is a topic that could make viewers very disturbed and uncomfortable. 
6. Domestic Abuse - Scenes of domestic abuse and violence could possibly upset the viewers. 
7. True Events - Using true stories and events is a very sensitive subject as people that where possibly affected by these events could find it upsetting or offensive. 
8. Culture - If culture is shown in the wrong way it can be seen as offensive by others which is why it gets censored. 
9. Race - Racial misinterpretation can also be seen as offensive.
10. Class - Like racial interpretation social classes can also find misinterpretation offensive.
11. Corrupting the young - Corrupting children and youth (underage) can lead them to do things such as copy what they see or be influenced by things they do not fully understand which is potentially dangerous for them to do so. 
12. Political Controversy - Political controversy has the right to be censored as it could slander a  political figures reputation and change the peoples political views which could lead to problems such as rioting and disruption within society.  
13. Nudity & Sex - Sex and nudity can be seen as inappropriate in the eyes of young children hence the reason why it is censored. 
14. Drug Abuse - Drug abuse is an illegal activity which is why it is not often shown and is censored. 

All 14 topics can be censored because a large group of people can come to disagree with what is shown and might find whatever is shown as offensive,upsetting or inappropriate for viewing, hence the reason why is can be censored. 


Examples of Censorship in music videos:

In this music video, "I Don't Fuck With You" by Big Sean, the language is extremely explicit. With the word "Fuck" in the title gives a clear insight into what the rest of the song may be about. The language in this may be offensive to the younger audience which is why the swear words were censored in order to be released on the TV or radio stations.

In this music video "Bitch Better Have My Money" by Rihanna contain extremely violent scenes of abuse and kidnapping. This music video is censored in order to protect the public from distressing and harmful scenes and also protect children from the inappropriate scenes. As well as violence, there is also nudity shown and taboo language being used.

In this censored version of "Loyal" lyric censorship has taken place. Repeating occurs when the lyrics state "I'm the shit oooh" however, the censored version states "I'm the, I'm the oooh". Disc Scratching occurs every time the artist says "nigga", "bitch" or "hoe". This is done in order to protect the public from the explicit lyrics and is able to play on the radio without offending the audience under the age of 18.

Cut and banned:

When a music video is cut, it means that the music video is edited or the lyrics are bleeped out in order to make sure the content or lyrics are not in any more harmful or distressing. However, when a music video is banned, the video is not allowed to be shown on TV or banned from listening to it on the radio due to the lyrics.

                Advantages and disadvantages of censorship

Advantages:

• Protects children, as they are easily influenced and may copy.
• Protects emotional/physical reaction.
• Promotes a politically correct world.
• Prevents disrespect in individuals or community.
• Shields social morals.
• Restricts obscenity.
• Restricts violence as this may be easily imitated.

Disadvantages:

• Less views.
• Freedom of speech is compromised.
• Restricts idea/creativity.
• Compromise entertainment.
• Create a 'hype' which may make people want to create a music video that is explicit.
• Control industry, there is no freedom.
• Individual taste.

My understanding of censorship has been beneficial because it is something that me and my group have to consider because not only does our music video have a censored and an explicit version, but there are also themes of drugs and violence within  the music videos narrative which viewers could potentially find upsetting which means that we need to be care what we show to the people when filming the music video.

Explicit version compared to censored version: 

Explicit version

Censored version




My groups song choice music video:


In this music video the music video itself does not breach any rules of censorship for any scenes of it to be censored out  as it is not an explicit music video, however the sound track contains diluted explicit lyrical content (very few swear words) and the N word which is said twice by artist two (Youngs Teflon) which would offend our viewers, it is for this reason why we have planned to censor out the lyrics of the soundtrack and blur artist lip sync within the music video. 

Overall, from researching into censorship it is clear that this is a significant part in the production of a music video. This needs to be considered because this is how the public is protected which is why artist's should abide by this in order to not get any of their music video's or lyrics censored. The song I am planning to use will not have any harmful lyrics and I will not be making a music video which may have to be censored. Although, this bring controversy I would prefer to keep my music video suitable for all audiences.

Research and Planning - Creative brief of advert

Creative brief for advert...

Who are they and why they are collaborating?

The artist we have created go by the name of Sweeney and MD who are both R&B/ Hip Hop artists who are now releasing their new collaboration album 'YingYang'. They recently just came off their individual tours around Europe which sold out immediately in most places including London, France, Germany and Belgium. Both Sweeney and MD's tours have allowed their names to stardom into fame, placing their top singles at the top of the charts worldwide. The demand for both artists to collaborating has been hyped immensely on social media which for both artists, is another great opportunity to gain more success. Their loyal fan bases have been trying and worked together for quite some time to finally convince the two artist to collaborate. This album will hopefully please each artists fan base and satisfy their demand for this star combination.

Album concept

The two artists both being at the top of their careers means that this album must create no controversy between the ''favoritism'' that could possibly shown within their album Ying&Ying. Therefore we will produce the two artists with a 50/50 split ratio throughout the album. We will do this by consistently showing clear opposites between the two artists by: in music videos we will have one artist dressed in white and the other in black, on the album cover, one artist will be represented in white and the other in black.

Comparable products

These two artists are a due who go by the name of Ying Yang Twins which immediately grabs the theme of ying and yang. There albums follow a similar idea of ours as they are also represented as 'opposites' through the use of color within the the of the digipak and also their clothing in which they also consistently follow their black vs white them throughout their campaign. Although their idea is very much like ours we will portray the concept of Ying and Yang to a further extent as we will include this in our music videos.

Audience

The two artists both being at the top of their careers means that this album must create no controversy between the ''favouritism'' that could possibly shown within their album Ying&Ying. This is taken into consideration as there are many stereotypes within collaborations between two artists. One of the main ones being audiences will tend to favor one artist more whereas some audiences would favor the other, therefore conflict and controversy would occur if artists are 'better' that the other artist on the album. 

Launch days

Album Release: 30th January 2016

Press campaign: 9th January 2016

TV Launch: 13th January 2016

Conclusion

By researching into existing products and analysing key conventions within music adverts I now understand what can and needs to be included within an advert. This will benefit me and my group as we can implement some existing ideas and generic conventions with our own original idea in order to create an audience engaging advertisement.

Research and planning – Digipak: Identifying conventions and analysing existing digipa

Planning: Digipak analysis

Me and my group analysed exiting artists digipaks with similar representations artist representations to our artists. By analyzing existing products by successful artists we consider and implement some good key points that are in their work which could help apply a similar structure to that of ours. 

For our digipak analysis we choose to look at:
The End Of The Beginning - Skrapz

Blueprint - Jay-Z

General findings:

• Bold outstanding colours.
• The title of the album is also labeled in quite a big bold outstanding sized font.
• Artist image is apparent however it is slightly being lost in the darker lighting.
• Parental advisory symbol is present.

From this research here is some key factors that I am looking for in my project:

• We want a close up shot of both of our artists, in in order to best present star image.
• Lighting will also be brighter in order to enhance the star image of both artists.
• We will be using contrasting colors throughout the digipak (white for 1 artist black for another) this will again make our artists stand out within the digipak equally. 
• Facial expressions that will be used we be quite serious to present the themes of professionals being in their element which helps to build the anticipation of the digipak visually as it must be considered as the visual interpretation of the albums tracks.

Overall, I believe that the digipak is extremely important when promoting an artist as it is considered as the face of the album and the entire musical campaign to an extent. This is why we must create a visually satisfying logo of the album to attract and engage both artists target audience to best capture the primary themes of the album.

Research and planning – advert: Identifying conventions and analysing existing adverts

 Research into conventions for the advert

Intro:
The purpose of the advert is to:
- Make the audience aware of key information such as the release date etc.
- Simply promote the artist and their album
- Reminds the audience of an artists status in the music industry, whether they are regularly seen by the public or not.
- Selling an album can also be personal to an artists e.g. if they have been negatively portrayed within the media, displaying themselves positively outside the album can attract viewers.

Which two you looked at and why?

Me and my group looked at two artists, Jay Z and Skepta that portray similar artist representations that we wanted to portray within our two performers. The main representation were young black artists coming from a ghetto background however instead of portraying the stereotypical and negatively viewed black artist we wanted to portray artist that will be a positive influence on their audiences. 

Our two artists 'Sweeney' and 'MD' will 

This is sketch of the type of advert design we would like to create. My music video concept being 'ying and yang' showing complete opposites between the two performers is the same idea we want to portray within the advert. This sketch is close up shot of both performers heads edited and cut in half to be morphed together as one head. With the ying and yang logo as our background both faces will be edited to show a clear dividing in half in between the logo.; Sweeney being on the white half of the Ying & Yang logo and MD on the black half of the logo. The main idea is to show a clear 50/50 ratio between the two artist. Our idea is very similar to an existing collaboration album by Chris Brown and Trey Songz.

The conventions I would like to apply as a result of this research activity are...

• Album title (placed at the top of the poster)
• Artist name (Color coordinated with the design
• Artist image (clear 50/50 ratio of the showing of both artists) 
• Production company (will always be next to the album name to show who owns the album)
• Where the album is available e.g iTunes, 'In Stores Now', Amazon etc. (placed at the bottom of the poster, with the brand logos of the apps/companies you can purchase the album from.)
• Main singles from album (Can be listed next to the brief details of the album which gives teasers to the audience, attracting them to the album with known, top of the chart singles.)
• Parental advisory log if required. (if needed, the logo will be placed 

Overall, this research has been helpful to our planning because... 

This research has been beneficial to my group as it has given us a clear idea of how adverts should be portrayed to an audience and what are the key conventions of adverts. My research has also allowed us to know what needs to be included within an advert to make it an effective form of synergy to help sell the artist to an audience. As we are very aware of the importance that this is a form of synergy, it allows us to advertise the our artists album to fit our needs and receive ultimate success.

Planning - Shot List

CAMERA SHOT LIST

Production Title:KAJE

Director: Joshua/Amani

Location: Ponders End

Sheet No. 1

Date: 20/11/15

Scene: Performance of both artists