Media Blog Post 50 - Colours

The colours that we use in our ancillary park will be of paramount importance. The colours can be used as a a synergy in our CD cover, posters, website etc. We have to consider the colours we choose in relation to our song choice and we have to ensure that the colours we choose are both fitting and aesthetically pleasing.

I researched many different Grime/UK Rap album covers to see the common colours used in our genre.


It seems as though the colour scheme in most of the albums I researched were mainly of a black and white theme. They also used various grey scales and other dark colours.


For our ancillary, I think that it would be best to follow this pattern of using dark colours in our digipak as it is a common convention of our genre and also fits the dark, sad content of our music video.

Blogging health check 3

Here is what I got for the blogging health check and I am very pleased with it. It just goes to show that hard work really does pay off. I am constantly trying to keep up with my blogging and do extra research. Just need to push that little bit further with the ancillary as noted and hopefully in the end I can achieve a 20/20. Words can't describe how proud I honestly an. Literally didn't think that my blogs were as good as they are, all I have been trying to do is be as detailed  as I can be.

Just keeping up with the hard work and determination and I will prosper. The only regret I have is not putting in the work last year otherwise my grade would have been s amazing.

Digipak mock up of avertisement/website

There is something about this image that love, as it consist of all three artists and they are all seen doing the synergy of the Prayer hands. It's a beautiful image. I haven't added any text or anything on it just a little edit via https://www.befunky.com/create/. This will be a effective poster or banner to promote the song and album.

The two websites above are my inspiration as to how our website should look hopefully. As they both consist of their album being the main design on their website. Which is something that we can incorporate. The element of gigs website where he features one of his music videos is what I would like to add into our own. We can achieve and do that.

 The website will take a format as the two above, There are elements of it that will be incorporated. By using the temple of "Hiphop artist on wix.com"
  

Digipak Mock up album

Yes I know this is a really bad attempt but nevertheless I hope it has help to show what I have visualised and due to the editing it can be achieved, notice how I didn't colour in Kapone and Kwabz, this is because I couldn't get the colour and show it in the way I have imagined it to be.

Costume of ancillary

Photos for ancilliary products

The images above are of Kwabz x Konan, which are similar to that of Krept x Konan, as it consists of only them and no one else. We have wanted to incorporate their style into our own digipak and will potentially use one of those images for our digipak album. The gesture and body language seen above were inspired from the real artist as it was easy to recreate and so effective at symbolising our interpretation of pain, growth and journey. We plan to crop and edit them accordingly and to produce a work of art.

The images above are potentially what we will use as our advertisement, this is because you get to see Estelle as well as the boys. Which I've noticed in real life advertisement of songs, they tend to have the main artists alongside their features. In our case it is Estelle, plus the images we got are pretty cool, so if it is edited accordingly, they will come out incredible.

The yay and nay

Where ideas came from

Here we have One of Tinie Tempah's albums. The reason why I brought this up as a root of our idea is because of the similarity of the importance of the world. In this image above it is as if he is concurring the world. As well as that, it is glowing, similar to how I imaged our digipak. There is also more ratio of the image rather than the text, which is similar to how I image our digipak to be.
Here we have Justin Bieber's Purpose album, that recently came out. I previously made a post about it. The reason as to why I have chosen this is because of the body language he has chosen to use. This is similar to the one in our digipak idea. It shows to contemplation. It is such a powerful and strong gesture and it is very universal too.

Here we have Wretch 32's Black and White album. What I love about it is the use of colour, the name of the album is also corresponding with the design on the digipak. He is also positioned in a way that he looks as if he's in deep thought. This can be used within our digipak to have Kapone and Kwabz doing this gesture( plus the synergy of the prayer hands) As they will be parallel to each other and signify the meaning. The ratio between the image and text is good at helping to identify the artist as Wretch is what your eyes are drown to. It's so simplistic in the way it is done yet so effective.
The biggest influential element towards our work, lies in the hands of Krept and Konan's The long way home. This was the album we got the song from and most of our digipaks revolve around this beautiful work of art. It is pretty much how we would like it to be, but obviously we can't completely take way their idea, so he have to settle for little bits and bobs.
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What I find appealing is the use of the editing of the colour. Though this isn't the actually album cover of his "This thing called life" it was one of the artworks for the song "Song cry", nevertheless it is still beautiful. I love how the rose still has its colour. I feel as that approach can be applied to our digipak. Therefore, the globe in our digipak can be of colour with a glow surrounding, to indicate the greatness they are achieving. Whiles there's like a fade out of the other things on the album cover. Meaning that most the colour will consist on the globe and kind of fade out into the surrounding of a grey-ness just list that of August Alsina's album cover. The way in which our digipak will differ from August will be as we don't have the name of the artists on the album cover. Which is why we will only use the name of the album on the front cover. As it pretty much sums it all up.

Leading to my pretty good drawing of what I picture the digipak to look like:

Colour, fonts, layout and design ideas

Analysis of two band websites

Here are the following artist websites I have decided to analyse. They all happen to be UK artists too for a first. The reason to why I chose them. Firstly, I started off with recapping the website of our inspired artists that being Krept and Konan, which was literally a repost of the one I have previously done on the blog.

Secondly, I chose Emeli Sande, because I thought it will only be right if I did so, as she is featured in the song Roses, which we chose to use and it will also be useful in explaining how we tried to engage with our wider audience, that being Emeli's fans. Her work is very beautiful and deserves all the credit it can get, she is beautiful and an inspiration too all. Big her up.

The third artist I chose to analyse was Giggs. This is because he belongs to the same music genre as Krept and Konan and so it will be useful to see how he has approached his target audience in comparison to the others. He is also a very talented man from South London, it is very common nowadays for rappers to be from the likes of South London, whereby why they have similar target audience and have similar types of music.

Analysis of two digipaks.

I have previous analysed the digipak of the original artist's album, as you see above, but never the less I will also find out artists similar to them, where I can analyse too. So I have decided that it will be useful for me to do that with Emeli Sande's album, considering as she's featured in the song. What I have noticed between this album above and the Krept and Konan album is that they are both edited in a way that they come across as drawings, which like I keep on saying helps to represent that they are still growing and have a long way to go. Both album consist of heartfelt pieces, songs that will really touch ones heart and you will feel it to the core. Their music has become so universal that anyone can relate to it or more so enjoy it.



Another Artist I have picked is UK Rapper Giggs. Here's a digipak album of his from his earlier days in the music industry. Here I have talked about two of his albums as you can see below:
    The following albums that I have looked at (The long way home/ Live in Albert Hall/ When will it stop) hold similar codes and conventions. One being the style in which they the album art is made all has a portrayal of growth and being a working progress, due to the use of drawing rather than a image. All albums I've looked at all have the imagine of the artist that takes place in the centre of the digipak. That is done so that people instantly identify the artists, its also way of branding their product, so you know that it is them that you are listening to. This also something that is really common in today's music industry and is still the common layout of many album covers.

Functions and importance of Digipaks

Media Blog Post 50 - Fonts

Media Blog Post 49

Media Blog Post 51 - Where the ideas came from

Media Blog Post 48

Media Blog Post 50 (Part 2) - Colours and Design Ideas

The colours of our ancillary are very important. They need to match our theme , our characters and our songs. Our song is a rather sad , relatable song therefore the colours need to replicate our message which is why it is very important to consider colour despite it seeming like a small thing. As a result some of the colours I have considered include:

• Red
• Black
• grey
• white
• Cream
• Mixture of black grey and other dark colours

I chose these colours because firstly they are commonly used throughout music and ancillary work. Therefore sticking to the common conventions would make the most sense. I also chose these colours because they seem to fit our work more i.e red is the colour of the rose so that would be a direct link. Black and grey are often colours of despair, hatred and anger, which are all characteristics that are shown by our two main male characters. I chose white and cream however because that gives the idea of hope after losing someone , similar to the ray of light shown repeatedly throughout our music video. 

In terms of design it would be wise t use existing work we already have seen. The most obvious one would be 'Krept and Konan - The Long Way Home'. As we used their work it would be a fitting tribute to make a similar cover to their own and we have already started taking similar images.

This is almost the perfect image to use as inspiration as the song came from this album , our characters are almost mirroring them perfectly. The destruction in the background is an example of the recurring theme throughout the album.

However if we didn't want to add our characters we could in fact use an object. With the name of the song being roses we could place an image of a rose in the background of an all black panel. The rose could be bright right or if we wanted to contrast it we could have it be a dying rose. We could then have a faded image of the artists in the background , clear enough to see but not so clear that it takes focus away from the rose. While this can be seen as a quick and easy way out it has been done before many times by other artists.  

Media Blog Post 50 - Fonts

FONTS 

Each of these fonts have a unique aspect about them which would make them ideal for out ancillary project. Given the criteria we have been given to use it would be beneficial if we potentially used on of these in my opinion for the following reasons.

This font 'El Valiente' is a rather thick black font. This would be ideal because it would stand out on our digipak. The name would jump out and the audience would be able to recognise it easily. 

This particular Font is called 'Colonna MT'. While it is not as bold and thick as the other one there is something that gives it its own identity. This font is rather classy and sophisticated. This on our ancillary work would convey a message we explained during our pitch which is the song we chose and the way we chose to do it is to appeal to both typical grime audiences as well as a different demographic. Rather than taking an approach where we use big black font like most people would we could use a font that doesn't look like it belongs on a grime cd however will fit well with ours. 

This last font is called 'Travelling typewriter. While the first font stands out because it is thick and black and the other stands out because it is more sophisticated this takes a more urban look. It looks more like graffiti than the others , giving it a more grime feel. 

Media Blog Post 47

The Importance of a Digipak in the music industry.



During the class discussion, we assessed the importance of having a digipak in relation to promoting music videos.



A digipak can be integral in promoting a music video as it adds extra value to the product in the sense that a customer is more willing to purchase a song as it provides them with something that has extra meaning. For instance, a digipak may include a special quote from the artist, piece of synnergy, picture or extra information about the artist which makes the song/music video more marketable.

A digipak is also useful in promoting the 'face' of the artist and their work. More often than not, the artist would be on the cover of their digipak, hence seeing this would make the fans more willing to buy it. It not only increases sales, but it also makes the artist to become a more popular, prominent figure in the industry.

Media Blog Post 49 - Websites

Music video finished

The music videos are finished finally. After months of searching, planning, reviewing, hard work and late nights all media classes came together to watch everyone coursework. In the cinema we watched group by group as music video after music video played for about an hour and a half. And there was no weak link. Each video received critical acclaim from the other students , a couple girls screamed here and there and there were thunderous cheers given from some videos (our own included :D). With that fun but grueling task out of the way we now look to the next part - our ancillary work. While this part is largely individual and requires independent work , there are aspects in which we we will need to work together.

Media blog Post 47 - Importance of Digipak's

During our class discussion we talked about a digipak and how it is relevant to music videos and our course. A digipak is made for various reasons. 

• One of the reasons is that it adds value to the product. often when buying something there may be a little something special i.e a special quote from the artist, pictures and posters or a little extra information or music. 

• It plays on the love for the artists. They are usually on the cover of it. As a result seeing hat would cause their fans to want to buy it. 

Media Blog Post 48 - Analysis of Digipak

Interview with Avelino

I was lucky to catch him whiles he was having such a busy day at the BBC radio on Charlie Sloth's show. I was able to ask him a couple of questions that he freely answered. You can tell it wasn't rehearsed but nevertheless.

My cousin Avelino x my brother

Here's a music videos below:

Here we have a fire in the booth at Charlie Sloth show 3 weeks ago:
This man right here has so much undeniable talent. Yet he is still so underrated. His flow is amazing and he just offers more than just lyrics. So much imagery and what not its just incredible. It's so rare for an artist of his calibre to be striving the way in which he is. He is killing his scene and his fan base is growing more and more everyday. I am so so proud of him and I wish him the very best, he deserves it.

We have finished our music video!

We finally reached the end of editing. Sorting out all the colour corrections and the special effects. The sequence itself is looking really good and we cant wait to be able to showcase our work to the rest of the department.

Last bits of editing by Esther

Due to re-watching our sequence, we were given an idea from the lovely Rebecca about making the roses image have even more meaning. She suggested that we cut the red rose clip and make it longer, and by doing so we can literally show life and death through editing it and using two different colour corrections. So that one half represents life and living, whiles the second represents death and decaying. We experimented with and surprisingly it came out just right. In between the cut of the clip, we added at film dissolve, to make the cut seamless, as before the only thing it would do is jump. Here's the clip below to show you what we did:

We also solved the issue at Kapone's scene where there was a awkward and random glitch. It turns that all we had to do was zoom in to the timeline and it showed that there was a tiny clip just chilling there, which is why it kept on appearing when we watched it over. Now that I gone and dealt with.

We also managed to somewhat sort out the dead space issue we had at the end. By changing the motion and magnifying the scene so that it pretty much cropped the dead space out. Making the scene so much better. However, it did make it seem much more pixelated, but it really isn't that obvious and can't be easily pointed out.

Another thing we sorted out was in the last scene with all three artists. There's a point where the beat drops and the same clip is used after that. Which makes it boring and doesn't vary much of the shots. Which is why due to a suggestion from the lovely Marisa, we changed the shot right after the beat dropped. Just by doing that it make it look so much better literally right after that.

What was done today

Today I went to a media workshop to start off the continuation of our editing, as it would give us more time on our hands to actually get this done.
So with this time, I decided to continue with colour correcting some of shots, where they were either too bright or too dark.

Due to colour correction brightness & contrast, I have managed to make the Red rose stand out even more, as it is redder and clearer when looking at it.as before it lacked that rosiness feeling, now it does have it.

Due to colour correct brightness & contrast I have made the white rose stand out, in terms of being able to see the details of the rose. it also creates a good contrast, as the rose is white and the background is much darker, it causes the audience to look directly at the rose. Which helps us in terms of then building a connection with the name of the song and the visual things you can actually see in the music video. 

Due to colour correction brightness & contrast, I have managed to make the statue look much golden than what it was before. I have also cut the clip and added the addictive dissolve effect, which makes a ray of light appear on the head of the statue. This creates a spiritual and religious symbolism, as it conveys a supernatural/God like presence there at that specific moment. 

Due to colour correction brightness & contrast, I have managed to make the sky look the more gloomy than what it was before. This adds to building the atmosphere of sadness and sorrow. Which interlinks with the theme of the music video as a whole.

Due to colour correction brightness & contrast, I have managed to make Kwabz scene much more darker than what it was before. This adds to making it more meaningful, as you can literally feel the emotion to what he is saying and the use of his body language. It also makes the audience focus on him at this exactly scene, so your eyes won't be drawn to anything else other than him.

Note for evalution question on audience

Due the editing process, we were asked to create a rough cut of our product which we will then show to our class in return for some feedback which will help as fix some of the elements we might of got wrong or readjust things.
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We have used Carol Vernalis' theory of the image of the music video and music itself moving in sync with each other. This is seen at the start of the music video. However our teacher did want to see more of that incorporated into our work.

Deadline 4/12/15

Given the fact that the deadline is this Friday my group, as well as all the others are in a very hectic place right now. We are trying to finish all the editing before Friday because I don't want to have to come in.
Because of this we are each going to try and edit our films in our spare time, today I am editing because I finished early.

What was done

Joel and myself spent some time editing our music video. During this time we managed to colour correct some of the scenes. such as Tolu's scene. As well as that, we played around with the various effects to see what they would look like at different shots and selected the very few that would actually go well with the music video.