Tour Poster Research

Below is the research we carried out into designing a good tour poster.

Album Poster Research

Below are different album posters I used for inspiration when creating our own album poster on photoshop.

Editing Practice

Banana Phone  

Over the last couple of weeks we had to put into practice what we have learnt about music video filming and editing. We filmed in groups where certain shots were required, these shots were:

1. Filming a person sitting down with the monitor window open and with another camera film the monitor.
2. Depth of field task- Do a distance little and large shot so that someone looks very small in the background and another very large, place an object like a cup or a ball down maybe with grass background - place the camera level with the object quite far away and then zoom into it so the object is sharp but the camera is blurred and place your artist in the background and add various cut out props to the foreground to float around the artist.
3. Reverse Shot- While the artist is singing get them to walk carefully backwards, but to add excitement to the shot add obstacles for jumping over and ball throwing so it can be reversed.
4. Wheelchair / Tripod – we are going to simulate tracking and dolly shots. Camera on wheelchair film artist moving towards you singing to camera one take 30 seconds.
5. Tripod shot – raise the front leg of the tripod so the camera is pushed forward on the back legs.
6. Lego stop motion – 30 still shots of Lego action (one second each)

Once we had achieved these shots we had to then individually go away and edit the footage we received, certain types of editing were recommended for us to try. These were the ones recommended:

• Cloning Edits
• split Screen
• Blurred Background
• Make an object or person colour and the rest in black and white
• Titles

Once we completed these we also try other effects of our own choice the ones which I completed were 'Distort', 'Ghosting' and 'Reverse'. Here is my final edit of Banana Phone:

Music Video Analysis

Today I watched a really inventive and professional music video which has given me some great ideas for our music video.

The thing that stands out to me when watching this music video is the quick and smooth transitions that link the music video together.
I particularly like this way of cutting a music video together because it is different and not your run of the mill editing technique which creates an element of excitement when watching it. Not only that but after watching this simple but creative music video I have been given new ideas for our own music video and how to edit it together so that it stands out.

Further Website Research

When designing our website we studied and researched other solo female artist's websites to see what key features are present in all of their websites.
The three main artist's websites that we consistently drew inspiration from where: Lady Gaga's, Lorde's and Ellie Goulding's.

Key Features:

• The artist's picture/image is the first thing you see on the website and is usually the home page background.
• All of the websites are very minimalistic and simplistic which works well with the artist's image. All promote the artist's current album or single on the home page.

Lady Gaga:


Lorde:


Ellie Goulding:

Ivory GIF's

We created these GIF's to try and show IVORY's personality during hotshots and filming.

 

IVORY's Signature

To help us develop Ivory's image we created a unique signature which she will use to sign the album digipak and our merchandise.

Merchandise Research

We liked the idea of having a song lyric on the front of a grey or white jumper, with the name of the artist on the back. This is an idea that we got from merchandise like this Beyonce jumper which features a lyric from her single 'Formation' on the front of it.

We also had the idea of not only creating clothing but hats and snapbacks, as well as other accessories like tote bags and wristbands. For example, this snapback features a lyric from another Beyonce song and has Beyonce's name on the back. We took the idea of featuring the artist's name and decided to create a snapback that featured our artist's logo on the front.

Website Research

Below is the website research we conducted. We looked at similar artists within the same genre to make sure we were designing ours along the right lines.

 

Website Research

Below is the research we did into creating our website. This helped us design the website in line with similar artists within the same genre.

 

Similar Artists

Our artist is Halsey and is from the indie/pop genre. The artists below are also from the same genre...

VÉRITÉ 

Kelsey Bryne, better known by her stage name VÉRITÉ (meaning 'truth' in French), is an American indie/pop singer based in her home town of New York. Her father introduced music to her at a young age as he was a rock musician. As a result of her fathers influence she joined a all girl punk cover band during her teenage years at school. She was discovered on twitter by producer Elliot Jacobson in 2013 and started collaberating on songs with him. Her first single is called 'Strange Enough' and was received well by critics as it placed first on Hype Machine for July 2014. Here is the song below... 

VÉRITÉ is a growing artist in the United States and is seeing her fan base increasing. She now has 2 million monthly listeners on Spotify and 8,909 followers on Twitter. 

Allie X

Alexandra Ashley Hughes, better know by her stage name Allie X is a CAnadian singer based in the Los Angles. She was signed to the record label Sleepless Records after being noticed preforming on Canadian talent shows. She moved to Los Angeles in in 2013 and began working with preducers Cirkut and Billboard. Her  most successful song to date is 'Catch' which reach No.55 on Canadian Billboard Hot 100 Chart. The song also recieved recognition from Katy Perry on twitter. Here is the song below... 

Allie X currently has 150,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and 29.7K followers on Twitter. 

Phoebe Ryan

Phoebe Ryan is a American singer/song writer from Texas. She began her music career as a song writer, writing fro artists such as Oh Honey, Bea Miller and Skizzy Mars before moving on to bigger names such as Britney Spears. She released in her frist single in 2015 which was a mash up of 'Ignition' and 'Do You', before being signed up to the recorded label Columbia Records. With the help of Columbia she released the single 'Mine' which received recognition from Taylor Swift and Tove Lo. Here are the singles below... 

'Ignition' 'Do You'

'Mine'

Phoebe Ryan currently has 1.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify and 20.2K follower on Twitter. 

Representations Within Music Videos

Relationship Between Visuals and Lyrics

In class we looked at the relationship between visuals and lyrics in the music video to the song 'No Rest' by Dry The River. After listening to the song we described what we thought the visuals would be then compared this the actual video.

Our visual predictions...
Charlie - Set on a farm within a old barn on a dull rainy day. It would start with the lead singer singing on his own then the rest of the band would join him within the barn. The video would be performance based.
Matt - The video would be set in a Asian city with a continuous tracking shot following the lead singer down the street. The rest of the band would join the lead singer as he walks down the street.
Connor - Set at the bands concert with the lad singer watching himself from within the crowd performing. The lead singer in the crowd meets a girl. The video will be performance based mainly with a narrative.
Jack - The band will be performing on top of a hill in the country side. Throughout the song the seasons are changing. This would cross cut to the lead singer going through a break up with a girl throughout the video.
Angel - The video is set in different locations focusing on the characters emotions. Everybody else in the video will be happy contrasting with the lead singer who would be looking unhappy and gloomy.
Georgia - The video would be of a band doing a live performance cross cutting to different people leaving their partners. This is to create a theme of 'goodbye' within the video.

 

After this we then analysed the lyrics of the song. After this we thought of different ideas for the music video to go with the lyrics that were less stereotypical. This is what we came up with...

Music Timeline

What Music Means To Me

Replay - Iyaz

I remember this song from when I was younger. It reminds me of my school discos in primary school.

Can You Hear Me - Wiley

This song is from my early teens and reminds me of party's back in the day.

Exchange - Bryson Tiller

This is a song I would listen to now. This song makes me feel chilled and I can listen to it quite a lot without getting bored.

Features of a Music Video

• Concept
• Narrative
• Performance
• Mise en scene styled to genre
• Lyrics match visuals
• Unusual locations
• Dancing/music/choreography
• Quick cuts, multiple cuts and transitions
• Repeated locations
• Artist/band lip syncing

Carol Vernallis Theory

Her theory is based around producing music video using four concepts...

1. Narrative - The video is a visual response to the narrative, reflecting the lyrics in he song. They can be incomplete/broken up, questions don't have to be answered at the end.
2. Editing - It can break or disrupt the conventions or continuity editing. Editing can be visible and not hidden and be more distinctive. 
3. Camera movements/framing - Establishing shots are one of the key features of music videos. Close up and medium shots are also important to establish the artist. It can move with the lyrics.
4. Diagesis - The world of the music video (setting) can be revealed slowly, may be shown through repetitions in frames.

Andrew Goodwins Music Video Theory

Music videos ignore common narrative (not made to tell a story) as they are essentially adverts. As consumers we make up our own meaning in our minds.

Key aspects...

• Through beats - The idea that you see sound. The voice within the song with a unique voice.
• Narrative and performance - You should avoid common narrative as their role is to advertise rather than become a story. Lip syncing and other actions in the video increase its verisimilitude to convince the audience.
• Star image - The key aspect within videos. By creating the image of a star it can increase the audiences awareness of the artist and can therefore show a development of the artists over time.
• Relations of visuals to the song - There are three ways to promote the song: Illustrate - the image on screen shows what the lyrics say, Amplify - where you manipulate/put emphasis on the image in the video, Disjuncture - where the feel of the song and the lyrics contrast what is being shown visually.  
• Voyeurism - This is the use of close up shots. Goodwin found these shots were used to create the 'male gaze' by sexualising woman.
• Inter-textual reference - Where visuals or lyrics from other types of media text are used for convenience/synergy in other areas.