Photoshop Editing Research

Before starting to make the Tour Dates poster on photoshop I thought I should watch some tutorials to get comfortable with the software. As I haven't used it since last year to make poster for AS Media.

This tutorial was good for learning the basics such as layering and other tools:


This tutorial showed me how to manipulate lighting effects which I will use at the bottom of the tour dates poster: 

Clothing Research




Clothing is a huge part of Hip Hop music and probably more important to rappers than any other kinds of artists. Below is an article from the Guardian which explains how Skepta, a relatively small UK grime artist, has helped increase Sports Direct sales.
Guardian article on how Skepta affected Sports Direct sales
From this research I have learned that when we film or do photo shots it's vital that we think carefully about what clothing labels iSO is seen in as this is a huge part of our artists representation. 

Visual Moodboard


I took screenshots of some of my favourite shots from music videos in our genre and put them altogether to make a visual moodboard. This will make it is easier to visualize what theme we want to achieve when we go out filming.

Video Inspiration #3

Miguel - Waves

This music video has just been released and I watched it as I like the song. While watching it even though Miguel makes R&B music not Hip Hop I thought that the way he worked the album cover into the music video was really good for consistency. 

At 0.40 this shot of Miguel with the same background as his album cover is used to cut to a completely different scene and is time with the music perfectly. 


Shot that matches the album cover
  
Miguel's Wildheart Album Cover

Logic Website Research


Conclusion: Logic's website is like heaven for Logic fans it has everything they could ask for all in one place. I really like the blog on the home page it's a great way of keeping fans updated. However I thought the Home page was too content heavy so when I create iSO's website I will incorporate a blog into it but on a separate page like a news page for example.

I also really like the layout of the store page, Logic doesn't have many products but I thought the way they are shown is good. I also really like the header image for the store. After doing a photoshoot I will edit something very similar for iSO's store.

G-Eazy Website Research

G eazy website research from eaglej09

Conclusion: G-Eazy's website has a very simplistic effective layout which I liked. I will use G-Eazy's home page as a template when creating iSO's as it has everything necessary and looks professional. The other pages were also had a great layout but didn't have much content.

G-Eazy's store is exceptional and I will refer to it when designing iSO's store and the products in it. The range of products on G-Eazy's store is huge and they are all high quality items.

iSO's Social Media

I set up the Twitter account using @therealproviso (iSo's record label) as the username and created a header which is identical to the Facebook profile except for the Twitter logo this makes our social media consistent. The goal for Twitter now is to get 50 followers.



There are no usernamses for facebook pages so I named the page iSO and listed the page under the musician category.The goal now is to get 50 likes on the Facebook page.
Facebook Page

Potential Album Cover

Proposed Album Cover


Issak created this album cover today in lesson on Adobe Photoshop. We had three different album names before deciding on Identity. We felt that Identity was the best choice as it is iSO's debut album it will give him an identity. We also suggested using text that Libby identified when doing the font research would stand out and fit our genre conventions.

I will create another album cover so that we have two to choose from. Whatever album cover we choose to use as a group I will then create a tour dates poster based on the album cover. This is so they match and that we can establish our  artist as a brand.

Digipack Research

Before making any major decisions about the Digipack I thought it would be best to research everything first. As with the websites I have looked at artists similar to iSo to try and take inspiration from them. I researched two of Logic's album covers and one of G-Eazy's.



Logic's first album Young Sinatra features a picture of a mugshot of Sinatra with his eyes obscured. This is a subtle link to crime which very much conforms to the Hip Hop genre. Also the first cover is in black and white, dark colours are very common within our genre. 

The second Logic album cover is Under Pressure, which has just been released. The front features a portrait of three friends in what looks like a bedroom studio. This could be Logic trying to show what little he started from, with just friends a laptop and some speakers visible. This also confirms to genre conventions as staying 'grounded' is a big part of hip hop culture. 

The last album artwork I looked at was G-Eazy's album 'These Things Happen' which is very simplistic. The front features G-Eazy standing in the centre of the shot in a White shirt with his name in very small text in the corner. The album cover could quite easily be a male pop solo artist as the white background and shots being focused on the artist are not typical of the hip hop genre. However as a white rapper G-Eazy has to stand out. When we create ouralbum artwork we need to find a balance of conforming so it is obviously hip hop but like G-Eazy we need to appear slightly different.



Video Inspiration #2



J. Cole - No Role Modelz

The first thirty seconds of this fan-made music video is what we want to try and replicate in our music video. The video starts with a time lapse of scenic forests and the sky. The shots are good because they are interesting in their own right but it's much more effective as it fits the intro of the song perfectly. 

Risk Assessment

Before we could start filming we had to complete a risk assessment of all of our chosen locations. To minimize risks we will look at the risk assessment before each time we go out and film.

Our Risk Assessment 

Timeline Of Annotated Lyrics

Video Inspiration #1





Issak showed us a Logic music video today in class and pointed out that the cuts are very heavily linked to Logic's hand movements. As his hands either move towards the camera or away from it generally there is a cut. This is something that we will try to emulate when filming our music video, especially if we want to conform to our genre conventions. The jump cuts are also very effective in this video and could work well in our music video.

Exampe of Logic's hand movements

Font Research

I used DaFont.com to research fonts that we could use. DaFont lets you preview your chosen text within a range of different themes. Some of the fonts I thought looked best and fitted our genre are listed below:




Storyboard


This is our storyboard we made it has all of the shots we want to include and we will use it as a plan when filming the narrative of our music video.

Storyboard

Website Journey

Narrative and Conventions for 'Buried Alive'

Issak suggested that the video needs to set a narrative to represent the [main character's] personal story. The narrative will follow a teenage male living with their parents, of whom do not care about their child/forget about their child as they're so caught up in personal problems and arguments resulting from financial problems. This causes the teenage male's imagination to spiral and create an escape from the parental turmoil that they're caught up in and attempts to break the mould.


An important concept of the music video, that is key for the video's success is the CHANGE from normal to greyscale filter. This does not only correspond to the lyrics, it also looks impressive if done correctly and helps the narrative come to life. Full colour shots and greyscale shots also have clear colour differences which have different connotations.

Photoshoot

Today in our green room I took pictures of Issak with different posses and costumes. We used my Black Hoodie as from our research I found Black is commonly used in costume in our genre. We also used Issak's jacket which fits the conventions of our rap genre. Below are two of the best examples of the raw pictures, before editing the background, that I took. Although in the first image the quality isn't amazing the faded look works and once edited will fit our genre well.

  • Once edited these images will be used for all of the social media profiles and promotional purposes

1st Costume

2nd Costume

Props List

As a group we have also decided on props that we will use. When making this decision we considered iconography in music videos. Below is the list of props we have decided to feature in our music video:

  • Documents (That look like bank statements)
  • Bed
  • Bunch of flowers
  • Car
  • Shovel 

Locations List

We got together as a group and discussed possible locations for our music video, below are the locations we have decided will be best:

  • Graveyard 
  • Green Screen Room (School)
  • John Sheenan's playing field
  • Outside of house
  • Bedroom 

Buried Alive Lyrics

First sheet of lyrics

Second sheet of lyrics

Shooting Obstacles and How To Overcome Them

After doing research it became clear that there are some shooting obstacles that we will have to overcome:

  • When filming in the green room we need to ensure the lighting is effective so there is no shadow on the footage. We can do this by spending a bit extra to set up the lighting then doing practice shots and looking at the footage to see if there is a visible shadow
  • We also need to stick to the storyboard and annotated lyrics as much as possible so that when we go to shoot we have a clear idea of what shots we are getting this will reduce wasting time when filming in locations such as Town
  • When Jake Wynne visited he said that we should film each shot twice especially if it is in a location that is far away as some footage may not turn out as we would like it to so this saves going out filming again leaving more time to edit

Similar Artists Websites


From the research I did I have decided that the website will be in a similar format to Kendrick Lamar and G-Eazy's. It should be minimalist with just the album cover, and links to social media on the home page. However as iSO is an upcoming artist I will incorporate elements from Logic's fan-run website such as using links to non-commercial music networks like SoundCloud.

Media Talk from Pete Fraser and Jake Wynne

On Friday we had a session with Pete Fraser, the head examiner of Media Studies and Jake Wynne, who directed many popular music videos. Pete started off with a presentation of his tips and advice. I have listed below what I thought the best advice and tips were that he gave us:

  • Storyboard everything so that no time is wasted when filming 
  • Become familiar with the equipment before filming to ensure less mistakes are made
  • Shoot more than you think as some shots might not work 
  • When editing add effects last after the footage is ordered 
  • To do the Digipack early on so that it matches the theme of the music video 
The second half of the session Jake Wynne took over he showed us some of the music videos he had directed and edited. Some of the videos he had directed are below:

Robbie Williams - Let Me Entertain You:



Spice Girls - Say You'll Be There:



Individual feedback from Jake Wynne: 


  • Only use Black and White if there is a fully justified reason to
  • Don't give away all the good effects or interesting parts straight away, build up to them
  • Take more shots than you think you need 

Album Cover Sketch

Today I did a brief design sketch for our album cover to use when making our album cover. This is the template I think we should use four our album cover as it is similar to other artists album covers I found from my research.
Album front cover sketch

Logic's Audience Research

I decided to research Logic's attitude towards his audience and how his audience treat him, what the typical Logic fan looks like, in how they dress etc.


Logic has a fan base which appeals to even the youngest of people.

In an interview, when asked about the tracks on his new album, Logic states, "There's stuff on there for the motherf***ers that don't pay attention to lyrics and just want to have fun, but every line is constructed with such depth that the real lyricists and nitpickers have something to listen to and analyze as well."

On March 15, 2012, Billboard declared Logic as the Next Big Sound, meaning he was the fastest accelerating artist across the internet gaining fans.

The video below documents one of Logic's meet and greets. By watching this video you can kind of get a feel about Logic's most dedicated fans. Notice that there's no clear type of people who has queued to see him.


Record Label Decsion

For the name of our record label we are going to use Real Proviso Records as it matches well with iSO.
We decided that iSO should be signed to a small independent record label that is an affiliate of a bigger record label.  This is very common among rappers with artists like J Cole having 'Dreamville Records' and Kendrick Lamar being signed to T.D.E. Unlike Pop or Rock artists rappers use their record labels for merchandise and promote it.

J Cole wearing a 'Dreamville Records'hoodie


Real Proviso Records will be an affiliate of Def Jam Recordings, which is the label Logic is signed to. Logic also has his own record label Visionary Music Group.In the interview above he talks about turning down an offer from Nas to join his record label and his relationship with Def Jam.

Steal-O-Matic

We created a Steal-O-Matic to show the type of shots we want to use in our music video. This will be a useful guide before we go filming to remind ourselves what shots we want to get. 


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