Final Music Video

Final Digipak

1st draft of our Digipack

 Above is our final digipack, we have showed it to as many people as possible to get feedback. Nearly everyone thought that the front and back cover were good and fit into the Hip Hop genre. Most people also liked the special thanks which we included after analysing Logic's debut album.

Final Website

Our completed website has five pages: Home, About, News, Store and Contact. All of the pages can be seen above. James tried to maintain the same image we have for the Digipack and music video and to make the website similar to Hip-Hop artists like Logic and G-Eazy. 

www.therealproviso.wix.com/iso-official

Evaluation Q4

Q4 slideshare from Great Baddow High School Media

Evaluation Q3

I used survey monkey to gain audience feedback by creating questions and giving the survey to people as they view the video, this helped me to gather information and constructive feedback for our real media product as well as ancillary texts. I also asked a focus group some questions about our music video, website and digipak. 

Our music video was aimed at 16-22 year olds due to the use of explicit language in our chosen song. We decided that we would target the male audience before the female as typically the rap genre is enjoyed more by a larger male audience. 

I have created some profiles of our target audience which are mostly primary but also contain some secondary and tertiary audience that we aim to reach. 

Music Video First Draft Feedback: 

We showed our first draft music video to peers in order to receive a variety of feedback so that we were able to see whether the general concept and conventions of the video worked. We got a range of feedback from both male and female, predominantly in the age range of 16-18. Below is the most constructive feedback we received from our audience when we showed them the first draft of our music video. 

Digipak First Draft:

We also showed our first draft digipak to peers in order to gain some feedback as to how we could improve but also what aspects they liked. The marks out of 10 that we were given are below:

• level 3 - 8 marks
• level 3 - 8 marks 
• level 2 - 6 marks
• level 3 - 8 marks
• level 3- 7 marks 
• level 2 - 4 marks 
• level 2 - 5 marks 
• level 2 - 6 marks 

Positives

(WORDLE)

Negatives 

(WORDLE)

To act on the feedback that we received we decided to make some changes to our digipak to improve it. 

We added a lyric sheet but tried to make sure it wasn't too text heavy as this would be distracting and boring to look at. We added an image of iSO and blacked it out to match our galaxy theme. We also reduced the lyrics on the sheet so it wasn't overwhelming to read. This will replace one of the DNA strands.
 

We moved the special thanks up one square on the grid so it is on the back of the digipak as we felt this was an appropriate layout. 

Website First Draft:

We received some constructive feedback on our website as to what we can do to improve it and what people thought worked well with it. There was a mixed opinion as to the over outcome of what everyone thought of our website. Our scores were:

• 5
• 7
• 9
• 8
• 7

In order to improve our website we have taken these comments into consideration and have tried to improve the website in general but also in specific places that were mentioned as feedback. 

Firstly, we changed the store icon from red to white as it fits in a lot better with the black and white background, being a continuous theme throughout the digipak and website. This was only a small detail that our group didn't think about but was largely recognised by our peers. 

We then changed the layour of the about page completely and added a link to instagram, a description of iSO and the record label as people were confused as to iSO and the Real Proviso Records, which is iSO's record label. We added some other content to this page as people said it was too basic and short so they didn't have enough of an understanding as to who iSO was and his background. 











James added the link to iSO's twitter page and instagram page and put them in a visible place of each page on the website to maintain consistency. This also makes it easily accessible for anyone navigating around the website by being able to view his social media at any time. 

Online Survey: 

I created a survey online so that I could address a larger audience and gather wide range of opinions. 

These were the results we gathered from the online survey. We were able to see that we had a balance between male and female and our primary age group answering this survey was 17-21 year olds. 

Questionnaire for audience feedback on music video: 

Below is 4 male and female members that have watched my music video and then given me a response face to face. I asked a variety of questions as to what they liked and what they thought we could improve on. It gave us vital feedback as they gave honest answers which helped us to relate back to our target audience deciding if we targeted everything correctly. 

INSERT VIDEO

Survey for Digipak and Website: 

I created a short survey which enabled me to get some concise feedback as to what scores people thought our digipak and website would achieve. It enabled me to see what they thought about the layout, content, text, images and merchandise. 

ADD SURVEY

Evaluation Q2

After completing our final music video we wanted to make sure that our digipak and website were completed to the same standard and to the best of our ability in order to achieve full marks. Our main product and ancillary texts were created to be as synergistic as possible in this cross-platform marketing campaign, attempting to create a strong brand identity. We aimed to create suitable advertisement for our artist to accompany our product and ancillary texts so that we could create and gain active social media presence and followers. In order to achieve this we recorded an interview with our up and coming artist, created a magazine article and used social media for general promotion. 

Throughout this process, we wanted to promote the uniqueness of our newest artist and share his new found talent amongst other who'll listen. I feel that this was displayed effectively through our digipak, website and music video using consistency as their is a continual theme and colour scheme throughout. We created the digipak and website with the music video in mind so that we could make them link and as a whole promote our new artist. This way, all our texts are linked effectively. Each product is also designed to promote the different products in the range whilst maintaining synergy. 

Within the music video, there are links between our general theme and concept that we tried to portray through the music video and ancillary texts. Our primary target audience is 15-22 year olds but more specifically, those who are interested in rap music. Our target audience is relative to our social media audience feedback found on our iSO page. 

At the beginning of the music video there are several shots of the sun moving across the sky as time lapses. This relates to the galaxy theme applied throughout our website and digipak.

The continual scheme of dark colours and darker backgrounds used for the digipak, website and album cover are contrasted as these brighter colours feature in the middle of the music video. However the colours also appear on the album cover and the digipak in the ora around iSO. 

There's a glow around some of the shots which makes it look like the glow of outer space also linking in with the galaxy theme. This is referenced to on the album cover too as it has an 'ora like' glow around the image of iSO. 

Evaluation Q1

Before creating our music video we conducted research into rap artists and their brand identities. From this we then established a list of conventions of the Hip Hop genre that we could either develop or challenge. We found genre conventions from analysing products in our genre like Logic's Under Pressure and looking at how other white rappers like G-Eazy's image is presented. I think that we subverted many of the traditional Hip Hop genre characteristics but conformed to some of the lesser known genre characteristics. 

Style of our music video:
After hearing Buried Alive by Logic, our chosen song, it was obvious that we could use the title to base the music video on. As well as matching the title of the song, basing our music video on being buried alive fits in with the Hip-Hop genre as darkness and death are often themes in Hip Hop songs.

Our visual moodboard

As you can see from the visual mood board I made we drew inspiration from moguls of Hip Hop such as Eminem and Kendrick Lamar but also smaller artists like Logic.

Narrative of our music video: 
Typically Hip-Hop music videos do not contain a lot of narrative and are usually based on performance. However similar artists to ours like Logic and G-Eazy music videos both consist of performance and narrative hybrids. So we decided after research to make our music video a hybrid of performance and narrative.   

G-Eazy's music video for single 'I Mean It' sees him in the role of a news presenter, which forms the basis of the narrative. As he plays the news reader and himself, as the interview is ongoing he begins to rap parts of the song which form the performance side of the music video.

G-Eazy combing narrative and performance

Logic's music video for his latest single 'Young Jesus' is also a hybrid of performance and narrative. As he plays many different characters like a chef, shown below, and later on a police officer and news witness. But in between all of these roles he lip syncs parts of the song.

Example of Logic combining narrative and performance 

After doing research and seeing similar artists like Logic and G-Eazy music videos it became obvious that the vast majority of them were hybrids. So we decided to conform to current Hip Hop genre conventions and make our music video a hybrid of performance and narrative.

Balance between narrative and performance

Consumption Habits: 
One of the purposes of a music video is to be entertaining and be interesting enough to watch repetitively. As our music video is a hybrid of narrative and performance we couldn't keep our audience entertained with just narrative. So after doing our research on UK Hip Hop artists we identified that to make their music videos as interesting as possible they use a large variety of locations in comparison to other genres such as Pop and Rock. Below is an example of a UK Hip Hop artist, Nines, using lots of different locations to keep the viewers interest on a performance based music video.

The music video contains in total fifteen different locations. In comparison our music only has seven different locations but we used lots of cuts to keep the video interesting similar to Nines music video however the song is slower and therefore there are less cuts in Nines video than in ours.

Music video for Nines (UK Hip-Hop artist) 'Can't Blame Me' 

Album cover:
The main functions of an album cover are:

• Providing information about the music and the production of it
• Giving the audience a suggestion of what the music is like and what genre it is
• Acting as visual advertising, usually being the primary form of advertising aside form social media and tour dates poster
• Having sentimental value to fans and the auience

Above are some debut album covers from white UK and American Hip Hop artists. Although as you can see the album art varies from artist there some characteristics which are identical. For example the album name is always in bigger font than the artist name, in this respect we conformed to our genre as we have done the same with our album cover.

Our album cover

As you can see we took inspiration from our visual moodboard when creating our album cover. Below is an annotated version of our digipack cover. Which shows in what ways we conformed and challenged Hip Hop genres.

Website:
Our website in our marketing campaign for iSO plays a vital role, as it's purpose was not only to promote the artist but also the record label and the products. The presentation below explains in what ways our website conforms to and challenges the Hip Hop genre.

Genre Characteristics: 

iSO as an artist largely challenged genre characteristics, as a new artist it is important to challenge conventions especially as iSO is somewhat of a niche artist, A UK white rapper. 

Storyboard

This is our storyboard that I put together for our music video. It has all of the shot types that we want to use and the locations for each shot. I have also added on the length of each shot so that we can use this to help us when filming and editing. 

Reverse Speed Effect

In my music video there is a relatively simple effect created through using reverse speed.

Example of reverse speed in my music video; a before and after.

To achieve this effect, I firstly placed the clip in the desired place on the timeline. Then, I right-clicked the footage. I then selected the option reading 'Speed/Duration', a 'Clip Speed / Duration' box then appears. I altered the clip speed to 200% (2x) the normal speed for two reasons:

• To ensure the reversal of speed is seamless.
• To make sure that the clip is in time to the beat of the song.

I then checked the 'Reverse Speed' box. Job done.

Colour-Change Effect

One of the effects which I implemented into my music video was the colour-change effect. Here is how I carried out the process:

Above is a screen grab of my work space when achieving the colour-change effect on Adobe Premiere. This was a relatively simple task which gave a great effect at the end of the process. I realised very early on that a plain and simple block colour background would be required.

Me and James found this container which was clean and had a perfect background for the colour-change effect to work as desired.

Here was an example of the finished result.

Action on Website Feedback

In order to to improve our website we have taken these comments into consideration and have tried to improve the website in general but also in specific places that were mentioned as feedback.

Firstly, James changed the store icon from red to white as it fits in a lot better with the black and white background, being a continuous theme throughout the digipak and website. This was only a small detail that our group didn't think about but was largely recognised by our peers. 

We then changed the layout of the about page completely and added a link to Instagram, a description of iSO and the record label as people were confused as to iSO and Real Proviso Records, which is iSO's record label. We added some other content to this page as people said it was too basic and short so they didn't have enough of an understanding as to who iSO was and his background. 

James added the link to iSO's twitter page and Instagram page and put them in a visible place of each page on the website to maintain consistency. This also makes it easily accessible for anyone navigating around the website by being able to view his social media at any time.

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.

Logic's Digipack for Buried Alive

Buried Alive artwork

Logic has not yet officially released Buried Alive as a single but according to reports he is making a music video for it. This artwork was used for the release of the song on Soundcloud. The artwork is heavily linked to the theme of the song. With the artwork depicting Logic buried alive. An effect is used on the mud to make it look deep and dark, which contrasts to the green grass and light from the sun.

Similar Genre Artists

Kendrick Lamar: 

Kendrick Lamar is an American rapper born in Compton, a city known for producing great rappers like Dr Dre, Coolio and Tyga. Kendrick first gained notoriety with the release of Section 80 which received huge critical acclaim. He then went onto release Good Kid, m.A.A.d city which was one of the biggest hip hip albums of the decade and has already been dubbed a classic album by many reviewers. With singles like Swimming Pools (Drank)  Kendrick managed to reach a global audience to people who don't even particularly like hip hop music but liked the singles.

Logic:

Logic is an American rapper born in Maryland he gained a lot fans through the internet and is a part of the RattPack group.He is signed to VisionaryMusicGroup and DefJamRecordings. His latest album Under Pressure received wide critical acclaim. Logic is one of the less commercial rappers still releasing a lot of his tracks on SoundCloud for fans to listen to for free. 

Krept and Konan:

Krept and Konan are an award-winning English hip hop duo. They are known for making an impact on the UK underground scene and for their punch lines and metaphors. They combined releasing mixtapes such as Young Kingz to satisfy fans of Grime and releasing more pop, hip hop inspired singles such as Freak Of The Week.

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

Website Journey

iSO's Website Journey from eaglej09

Video Inspiration

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

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.

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.

Logic Website Research

Logic website research from eaglej09

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.

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.

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. 

Advertising Examples

Drake, an established Hip Hop artist has recently been in the news after this billboard was put up:

Drake billboard in Toronto

The billboard has sparked rumors that Drake's upcoming album 'Views From The 6' may be released sooner than anticipated.  As Drake is a big artist even one billboard which would have been very cheap advertising can generate a huge buzz due to social media.

To show how we could advertise iSO if he was an established artist I edited the image on Photoshop and made two different versions, which can be seen below: 

'iSO' is watching

'The Identity' is watching