Introduction

Hello, welcome to my A2 media studies blog. My name is Max Young, I am a student in St Andrews Sixth Form and I have been working on a project which has involved me creating several media texts which revolve around my fictional artist. I have been inspired by Mac Miller and his music to create a new artist with a similar style. The song I have chosen is Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza. The original music video demonstrates a day in the life as an upcoming Hip-Hop Rapper. This includes me creating a music video, advertisement, album cover & digipack. My blog has shown my progress in making my final pieces from researching other Artist similar to my own, planning, production and post-production. I hope you enjoy my blog and looking through my work.

FINALE

 (Final Video >) Final video Link

 Album Front Cover

DigiPack Pages 2 & 3

DigiPack Pages 4 & 5

 Digipack Page 6 (back page)

Album CD Tray

 Promotion for  Artist's Album: http://animoto.com/play/bGopxgI8l1zzxEzaddW1qA

Evaluation Question Four

What Technologies did you use in your Media Project?

Prezi Question Four

(This may take some time to load up even when you are on the page. wait a few minutes after clicking this link)

Evaluation Question Three

What have you learnt from your Audience Feedback?

In order to gain feedback, I showed my media class and peers my rough-cut. By gaining this feedback i am able to improve my video based on what the viewer/audience sees. One of the biggest challenges was my video was created using Adobe Premier Elements 10 Trail. By doing using the trial version, this caused my video to have a distinct, irremovable  banner across it. After I saw this,  I was hoping that once I transferred it over to Adobe Premier Pro (no trial) on the school computers, that this banner would be removed. This unfortunately, did not work, causing me to re - create the video using the original footage I filmed for the bannered video. After spending after school hours creating the new video, I managed to finish the video to a better standard. 

Below are the Before and After pictures of the video:


Original:                                                                     New:

                                                                                 

As well as the banner, I encountered other problems when making the film: There were a few clips where it was difficult to see the movement of the artists mouth, reducing the lip sinking integrity. 


At this point i seeked help from my teacher and peers, they advised to recreate the video also. This did not trouble me because this enabled the banner to be wiped from my video. 


After recreating the video, not only was the banner gone which allows for better viewing but I also experimented with the timeline, taking milliseconds out of the clips which had bad lip syncing, this improved this set back substantially, allowing better visibility. Nonetheless, there were some clips where this technique did not work, forcing me to leave them, this unfortunately left my video to be slightly out of time in some parts. 


If I was to create new clips or re-create the video again, I would play music in all my clips and make sure my artist new all the words. This lack of  knowledge on lyrics was caused by a sudden change of actor during my filming. Although my original actor was a big fan of Mac Miller and hence knew all the lyrics, it was difficult to arrange times to film. Therefore, when  it was the filming phase of the project, my progress lacked. This is when I asked another friend (also a fan of Mac Miller) to act as artist. However, when looking at my final rough-cut and final video, the difference between the two in terms in lip syncing has  clearly improved as well as a better standard of editing. 

In the feedback given for my Rough Cut, it was advised that the last clip of the video to be removed due to its immature vibe, i took this recommendation into account and decided to replace this with a picture of the album cover, i thought this to be appropriate because part of the project is to advertise the album also. By doing this, it offers a cheap way of advertising and tells the audience to purchase this album. When looking at this new addition, I think it to be better than the original clips because it opens up the promotion/formal side of éSK.  I have already used the idea of having two friends toward the end of the music video where no singing is present.

Original:                                                        New:

Evaluation Question Two

How Effective is the combination of your Main Product and Ancillary text?

(Link to Evaluation Question Two >) Question Two Video

As described in the video, I have combined different media texts which are present with music videos and the artist. Along with my video I also have an advertisement and album, this album includes a front cover digipack and back cover. With these main ideas, each piece of media text follows the same codes and conventions with what his appearance is and how he represents himself. In my music video my artist is wearing glasses and a ‘Snapback Cap’. This clothing is commonly used towards Hip-Hop culture as the fashion with snapbacks started with Hip-Hop.

With my album cover I have shown him with a different type of hat and a multi coloured Jumper. Although this doesn’t fit the criteria’s which are shown in the music video this clearly shows that he is Flexible with his fashion. However this style would still be considered to be worn in the Hip Hop industry, shown on urban clothing websites. The album cover shows éSK made to be as a drawing. This shows our artist involved with the graffiti as this picture is meant to resemble his past and his surrounding when he was growing up. I chose this method because I felt that it makes the artist different to others in mainstream music and his concept follows on from my inspiration Mac Miller. With Mac Miller he uses art to his advantage to make himself different and uses it to produce his album covers & tour advertisements such as “Blue Slide Park”.

With my digipack I have taken another concept into consideration which comprehends his other self. My digipack consists of using photography pictures which would be taken by a professionals and makes éSK look more like a model rather than his Hip-Hop self.  This idea can represent himself being a icon to the his audience and this also shows éSK living fame and fortune in his successful career  

In my advertisement we can see éSK blended into a concrete wall background. With this we can see that these are two different elements I have used previously in my other pieces of media, I have combined them together to create a new style which consists of adding all the different ways of representing our artist to show that he is able to be all of them at the same time. I have made my advertisement seen very dramatic with the large release date going across the page. This is because I wanted to make this album seem so huge that everyone will want to buy it on that day. I have taken this idea from looking at advertisements which are normally found in cinemas a few months before the movie to be published for advertising.

Evaluation Question One

In what ways does your media product use, develop or

Challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Please click on this picture to read the content in better quality!!!

For my album I have researched previous albums which impact my artist from my research. With this I have look at my Inspiration Mac Miller, with this I have research other albums which he has created such as “Blue Slide Park” and “Best Day Ever”. Both these use Art as a way of promoting himself. We can understand from his key audience that he is aiming himself at teenagers around the same age as him. With this he reminds the teenagers of when they where childish and watched cartoons the same as he did. I have used his concept to my own to create a art album cover, however as much as it is aimed at a younger audience with all the colours and concept but the ideas of this was the make the artist seem like vandalism Art showing the bad side of what he grew up being surrounding in a town covered with Graffiti. This I believe shows that my album has equally just as good representations used in my Album cover as Mac Miller does.

The Digipack I have made to a more professional standard using photography inside where the content is. With this I have taken this inspiration from Eminem’s Digipack from the album Marshall Mathers. He uses photography of his life in the studio and things that revolve around him. I have taken my pictures which are made to look like he is having fun,  but at the same time promoting himself as a role model. I believe that this is normally what every mainstream Artist create of themselves and I believe that the pictures I have taken are professional and worthy of using.

My Advertisement I have created has been made to the design of both my album and digipack. However I have chosen to make this advertisement dramatic and a must buy for the date of release. I have taken this inspiration from looking at advertisements for games and films before they are published with a large date written across the bottom. I feel this idea competes against other advertisement, this makes the audience want to buy the album as the advertising is convincing to the consumers that it is and will be a great success.

Promotion advert for my Artist

(Promotion link >) http://animoto.com/play/bGopxgI8l1zzxEzaddW1qA

This is my advertisement which could be shown possibly on television or played through his website, twitter and facebook. With this it can show my audience when the album is being released so they can be prepared to order his newest album. I have used Animoto which is a photo slide show. With this i used texts and photos from my music video to create an advertisement which could be shown via the computer possibly TV.

Final Advert

This is my final album which I have created using photoshop. With this I have used the elements from the album front cover and digipack content to come up with this different style. This advertisement promotes éSk's newest album being released on the 25^th May 2012. To create this i have decreased the Opacity in both pictures which blends them together.

Final Album

Final Album Cover

Final Digipack Pages 2 & 3

Final Digipack Pages 4 & 5

Back Cover of DigiPack

CD Tray

Final Back Cover of Album

Final Music Video: eSK - Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza

(Final Video Link >) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxOMSaKfYg

Because of the situation with the banner i had spoken to my teacher about the situation and giving me advice i chose to re create my music video using all the footage i got off the camcorder, with more time into this video i have managed to create a better version than the previous version i did before. My ffedback from the other video was to cancel out the final shot of the artist and friend on the beech. instead i have replaced it with my original idea of a album because i believe that this represents and promotes the album. Another part of my feedback was to make the lipsinking more improved, from this i have editted more itme into the clips and made each clip fit better witht he lyrics.

Final Video of Rough Cut

(Link to Final Rough Cut >) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCfojhUQ2NQ


This is my video which i have create finishing up on all my scene and wish to ask feedback from this video, my only concern with this video is that there is a banner going across the screen which came as part of the Abobe Premier Elements Trial, i am currently figuring out suggestions towards this situation

Rough Cut of Final Video Part One

(RoughCut Part One link >) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J9IIO8EIF0



This is my first Part of my rough-cut which i created.

New Biography of Artist

Name: Suschiel Gandhi, Stage Name éSK

Age: 18 (23rd June 1993)

Birthplace: St Georges Hospitial, Tooting

Genre of Music: Hip-Hop, Rap, Comedy

Record Label: Rostrum Records

Suschiel Gandhi was born on the 23rd June 1993 at St Georges Hospital, Tooting. Raised in a flat infested estate in the boroughs of Croydon, to a mother who worked at a school cleaning and a father who worked for Banking. Living their lives as a young couple. Through his life there had been no signs of violence or any signs of weak areas but as little did the parents know there was things happening in his life which where never seen. He adopted some of these habits revolving around his life at a young age such as trying cigarettes when he was seven. Suschiel was starting to see what the world was really like, full of hate as one of his friends at school was murdered when he was in year three. There were frequently arguments between his parents over payments over the new house they had taken on, the morgage payments where high, the arguments where inflicting on to the children. His Mum and Dad came from an Indian background, religion and style seemed to be coming a issue with living in a British culture.

He was not very academic student at school and failed in Maths, Science and English. However, he showed a talent for Music, Poetry and Drama. He started making rhyms out of tunes from a young age to rappers such as Eminem, Dr Dre, 2 Pac and Notorious B.I.G. At the age of 14 éSK was having a time in his life where he thought there needed to be a change. His sister wasn't having the time of her life going out clubbing and having fun while he felt stuck indoors doing nothing as his parents forbidden him to take on a social life staying on the streets, His mum as part of her discipline towards him would physically abuse him. While his dad was at work one night his mum went mad she tried to set the house on fire by letting gas seep from the hobs in the kitchen, locking all the doors. Luckily neighbours nearby smelt the fumes and broke down the door. After that incident Suschiel felt he needed to get away and start making a career. He left home and school to stay with his friend at his older Sister’s place for approximately 5 months. However from this he began smoking and progressed to taking drugs such as marijuana and Cocaine.

éSK was always making mix tapes from home of various songs put together but wasn’t being able to make up his career of creating songs and singles. So he contacted HoodVideoShop located in London and emailed his first song he had written which was called ‘Inside’. HoodVideoShop liked the lyrics of the song and called In éSK to Record himself spitting lyrics to see how well he performed, they were very pleased with the results and began the production of the music and the videos. HoodVideoShops’ YouTube Channel posted éSK’s first single and music video and was seeing much interest from the public creating over 100,000 views in less than 2 months. In late 2010 Suschiel was then founded on YouTube by Rostrum Records which wanted him to be flown to America, éSK packed up his bags said goodbye to the UK and headed off to the USA and their began to start working on his first album called ‘High Going’ which was released in August 2011. His music began dominating part of the music industry and his music was being listened to by teenagers in areas of Eastern America and starting spreading back to the UK where éSK Originated from.

éSK is back in the UK producing his new single ‘Kool Aid and a Frozen pizza’ which is aimed at the UK audience, but is hoping to sell over in the USA as well  as is looking into having a tour in both countries.

Reflective Anaylises Part Five

The task I have been given which is getting closer to filming and creating my music video was to look at the type of audience who would be buying into this type of genre and looking at creating ideas for my music video and where footage will be taken and editing skills in moving from one clip to another.

With looking at the genre audience it was focused on looking at previous research when I was analysing already existing artists, for example Mac Miller has caught the youth’s attention in America and the UK, it is believed to be that he will be the next Eminem in the forth coming years. From looking at this audience I had to create a board full of images which would show visitors the main happenings in the consumer’s life. For example London boroughs would involve graffiti, underground scene of music & sport and involving creating advents such as underground rap scenes which would be seen as illegal. From this I can show consumer’s the genre(s) that will be created by the artist. I have figured from looking at other videos there have been openings which start a narrative off to explain to consumers what the video is about. Because of this I have figured out a way I can make this video have a narrative to it by coming up with an intro and making this footage be a day in the life. From this I can show the audience how to live the high life in a normal fashion (having the money but not changing your lifestyle).

Another task given was to create a timeline where I look at situations in where I will take my footage and plan out the video so I can research areas in London and other urban areas and plan out the day for filming. With this task I have managed to look at possibilities which I am able to relate the images with the lyrics which is part of Goodwin’s theory but create ideas in my head which are creative but realistic. For example looking at a scene for going to the airport and coming across a plane I had to think of how I was going to take footage without have to go into departing or getting on the airfield which are both unrealistic suggestions, so I have thought of coming out of the airport and get close by the gates or around the fencing.

The strengths I had was both these task where very easy and I found these both successful as I had no difficulties thinking of these ideas in my head and choosing appropriate answers to each of my challenges.

My weaknesses came across in other parts of the task as I was left down several times in taking the footage and arranging these times with my colleague. To stop this happening I had a change of plans and began with a new idea and using someone else for my video. I have figured that for his lifestyle I would need to change it which will involve a different background and will fit the character I have used. I have also change the name and the style of the album cover to again fit the artist and make the changes an improvement.  

In conclusion to this summary I have found the task successful and although there have been problems with beginning the filming. However I have took another route and getting back on track at getting the filming done which is becoming a success and everything is working out, I now need to edit my biography of my artist to make an improvement to the background of the artist.

Audience Board

For my research I have made an audience profile which will help me identify the type of consumer that will be interested in this genre of music. It also shows the record label what kind of audience will listen to his music and look up to him, so they need to look at the key representations which will want to attract audience into their franchise. For example, clothing and lifestyle are key features to look at because the audience will take on the artists fashion that's created.

Shot List

For my coursework I need to have a rough idea of how the video is going to be filmed by looking at mise-en scene and how the editing will reflect on the video. Instead of going ahead and making the video I have made a snap shot video of drawings I have made which will show each scene of action formed in the video and each drawing will represent different scenarios in the video to create an animatic.

In my video I feel I have successfully created a rough idea of the video showing the places I will be visiting in my video and the props used, from this I can say that I might have changes towards the final video but this animatic has a rough idea of what il be doing and filming in my video. Mostly the idea I am wishing to portray that the editing fits well with the music video by cutting for different scene and doing dissolves or change of brightness. I will be looking at something like this for each time the page changes will be mostly where there are cuts in the video.

With this I can follow Goodwin’s theory and follow how the lyrics will match with the visuals being presented in the final video, from this video I can see the idea I am making in this video with what the lyrics says the video will follow on (that the lyrics are in control of what happens.)

From this I have learnt on the way how I can make things easier in this video instead of keep cutting for different lines in the verses. I have also found new methods to create different effects or how the camera will be acting i.e. tracking or crabbing and having a presenting opening will open the music video into promoting the record label and the artist.

Contact Sheet of Potential Images for Album Cover/ Advert

Reflective Analysis Part Four

My task for this few weeks was to look at the lyrics and deconstruct them to find their meanings in the music video, for this I have used Mac Miller – Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza, this is the music video I have chosen for my music video. Looking at this task will help me use lyrics to relate to the music video providing that the narrative used as some form of meaning with words used.

Other task I have had to create was a ‘Director’s Pitch activity’, this task has been layout to look at the different representation in the music video which includes Video Concept, Intertexual references and Location.  This has helped me think of representations used in the video because I can understand why I have used this in the video and the meaning behind it. For example for my intetextual references I have referenced Kool Aid as this product is mentioned in the music video and as my music is using the idea of the lyrics control the video with what happens so when Kool Aid is mentioned the video will be showing Kool Aid. Part of this task was to create a music video pitch board which allowed me to show my video using still images found off the Internet which involved location, props and costuming. This will help me break down my video into separate situations and shots and put each one into reasons why they are used and spread my ideas across which can relate to other parts of the video.

My strengths for these task was possibly the Copyright issues which was to email or write a letter to the record label company i.e. Rostrum Records and explain to them why you want to use their music video and ask for permission to create a music video using the music created by the artist (Mac Miller). Other strengths involve the pitch board which allowed to me break down my ideas for my music video and has allowed me to change my ideas and think of ways to edit my video so that props and locations can be changed in each cut.

My weaknesses to any of these task was very little as I did not find any of these task hard, the only hard part of the task would be the copyright issues of how I had to write a formal letter as my English skills are quite weak and therefore had to have several changes to the letter but overall managed to overcome this and create a letter which was made to good formal standards. Another issue was looking up address’ for the location of the record label and the email, however I managed to find some links which would allow me to find a way of contacting the company.

In conclusions I found that these task where not as difficult as I thought they were but I believe that these task will help me with my planning in the future tasks and allow having props ready to use.  

Copyright Issues

Because of Copyright Issues I needed to contact Rostrum Records which are the record label for Mac Miller. I needed to ask permission from the record label company for me to use the song's lyrics to put into my music video for my artist. This will allow me to prevent problems in my coursework The only way I could find to contact the record label was through email. The email itself is below:





Music Video Pitch Board

In my planning I have created a pitch board which will help me to deconstruct my music video for the different props, locations and costuming. With these I can create the type of artist I am using plus from looking at all the locations can sum up a idea to fit them all together.
Below is the pitch board which has been illustrated in words and below this is the video pitch made using images from the Internet of places I wish to use.

Directors Pitch Activity

1. Ideas For The Video-Concept:

This Video is representing the feeling of being a Kid and being with friends in the sun, The Lyrics will match with the video as everything the lyrics portrays the artist will act on. The video will be taken in local areas which will be part of the idea of his living, the video will use estates, school room and various other connectivity to the artist which relates to him, for example the words “with a little more cash and my own fast jet’ will be taken around a airport or somewhere which will help with relating words with images.

2. Intertextual References:

The Intertextual references will be based on the fact of the song, for example Kool Aid Franchise is an American powder drink which creates a sweet succulent drink, its target audience is towards kids and therefore is the idea of the video where it’s about kids doing their own thing in the summer.

3. Location/ Special Features Needed:

The locations will be various towards the idea that it needs to show a local area being in a estate, however due to my artist living in London some footage will have to be done elsewhere where it still gives the same feel, a school will need to be used in one for the verses ‘Used to go to school, hang with friends and play sports’ which needs to show small group of friends playing a sport, for example basketball. I won’t use many special effects in this video apart from possibly when spending up or slowing down the video in places as part of my editing, some filters may be used towards the beginning and end of the filming as I want to make it feel part of a show being based around comedy.

Lyric Deconstruction

Mac Miller - Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza

Kid,
Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza
its a work of art
I ain’t talking Mona Lisa
Dream of rockin crowds
See Me Fillin up arenas
This weed got me laughin like a damn Hyena (yeah)
I’m living life pretty similiar to yours
Used to go to school hang with friends and play sports
Every single summer takin trips to the shore
It was all gravy but I knew I wanted more
You never seen a young rapper like MOI
Can’t believe the eyes its just a mirage
Still got my training wheels still in the garage
But I ain’t gonna need those I’mma go hard

So far I’ve done pretty well for myself
Couple of trophies on the shelf
What else could I want that I don’t have yet
A little more cash and my own fast jet
So I can go anywhere (anywhere)
Anywhere (anywhere)
Cali for the Kush
Boy I know there’s plenty there
About to be in music stores everywhere
But no yet!
They can’t understand my concept
I’ve been climbing up the great wall
Haven’t had a fall yet
These blogs gotta know that I’m on next
Clean conscious
Good Samaritan
Companies sending me clothes so I’m wearing them
If you don’t know, I’m from the burg
Everything I drop recorded by Big Germ
I smoke herb
I make music
I don’t even talk about it, I just do it!
Everyone got their own opinion
Reason why they fellin em
You must admit he’s killin em
Runnin off adrenaline
Waiting for the game to let him in
So open up
The boy of a barrel smoke and gun
Whether old or young the chosen one
I got hundred million flows to come

You know the lyrics to every single song
So when I’m at a show everyone can sing along.
My weed bag empty
Bottle at its last drop
I’m feelin like this could be my last shot
But many more songs to make, cousin
So why the f** you buggin.

Yeah, we just some muther fu** kids
We just some muther fu** kids
We just some muther fu** kids
We just some muther fu** kids
We just some muther fu** kids
We just some muther fu** kids
We just some muther fu**
we just some
we just some muther fu** kids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnAbszcy3bs

This song is a representation of how Mac Miller has developed from an underground artist to a successful artist more globally known and selling millions of albums; this is the time of his career when everything is turned around. The song is upbeat and although there are a lot of words in the song, it is reasonably short.

Goodwin’s Theory between the lyrics and visuals is the only link between the movie KIDS (1995), therefore lyrics talk about “I live a life pretty similar to yours, used to go to school”. Visuals are going to represent spots which are associated with the movie. Another theory between the music and the visuals which is represented in this video is the video cuts whenever it is the end of a verse or the start. The filming will be taken towards the county of the artist (London County), however not all filming will be taken in London and will be taken around the local areas of my home town where there are housing estates. Other parts of filming will be taken reference to the lyrics, for example the verse “Every single summer taking trips to the shores” the filming will be taken on the south coast of England. This idea is based around Eminem, the lyrics are in control of what happens in the music video, however not every reference will be taken into consideration.

The end of my music Video will be showing the Album/ Single to promote his release. This helps with marketing and therefore people will see the album and will want to buy it.

Reflective Analysis Part Three

My task was to research and deconstruct 2 artist’s official websites; this will give us the idea how they are marketing themselves via Web 2.0 and as an audience how does the websites welcome visitors. I had chosen three artists to look at because of my altered research in first task. This task will help me understand how designers and record labels have created new methods to sell music.

In this task I have created an advert which shows the dates in which Deekay will be playing for his new tour and locations, for example I have used areas which concerts are performed at such as HMV forum. Using this is my advert will create a bigger star persona where now audience will be able to see live music created by the artist. The advert consists of many pictures which highlights the artist I have used for my mock advert (Mac Miller) to blend into the background creating layered images to form one. This would be a possibility that I would look at when designing my final advert because I feel that it is one of my strengths which I used in my Media AS coursework and wish to experiment with. I have associated the advertisement with Facebook, Twitter and Sound cloud. With these this will help connect the artist with the audience where they are able to follow, comment and post on their walls with social networking sites.

My strengths towards this product would be researching the advertisements found in magazine, the easiest I would say would be plan B as his advertisement was based on his album ‘The Defamation of Stricklands Banks’ from I was able to connect the album with the advertisement where as other advertisements where based around tours and concerts.

My weaknesses were originally the advertisement where I could not create an advert which would have good marketing and attract the audience. I found it difficult to find a text over the Internet, for example www.dafont.com did not have a huge variety of texts which I was keen on representing old school hip-hop. However I was able to overcome this task where I used two fonts which worked towards my message across to the audience and finally finished my mock advertisement.  

In this analysis I have found new ways of creating a advert which will help create a bigger star persona for the artist by creating a tour around London where the artist will be playing live in front of audiences. Looking at other artist’s Facebook pages I managed to create my own Facebook page which resembles similar to other artist I have researched.

Development of Advert

Web Pages for eSK

These pictures show the pages I have created for my artist. Creating pages on social networking sites allows the artist to interact with their audience and create follows and gain likes and feedback from recent songs that the Artist uploads. I have created pages for Facebook, Sound cloud and Twitter. Twitter and Facebook allow the Audience to interact with éSK and post up latest gigs, tours and singles coming out which he then can post. With sound cloud however you can still gain followers but the difference is you put only Music tracks up and people comment on the music. This can get feedback from the audience for any new songs coming up.

Website analysis Mac Miller

Mac Miller is an upcoming artist that is beginning to sell albums globally, His Most recent album is called ‘Blue Slide Park’. His Official website has made marketing advertisements better because the homepage has featured the album on the top of the website, which is the first thing that the audience will be able to see and therefore will want to look further into the album. The designers choose this idea because this is a good way for the artist to sell his album at a broarder audience.

The Homepage’s main picture is of Mac Miller with sunglasses and with a goofy smile. I believe that this idea was used because although the picture may seem funny to the consumer it also creates a welcome feeling towards him because the smile represents a sign of gratitude for the fans he has supporting him. At the top of the website additional links where music allows you to play Mac Millers on the website, buy the album or song, login to the website and connect with Facebook or twitter. This has been located at the top of the page to allow visitors to login and play music when they enter the website.

Below the dominating picture of the website is another additional link for twitter commenting on the amount of followers he has made. This is to show visitors how successful he has become and a way of showing fans that they can be part of this by clicking the link beside it, which leads you to twitter page. Below this on the left-hand side of the page is a message with a cartoon picture of a young boy wearing a Flat cap. This is part of the Mac Miller Franchise and therefore is being promoted to sell the clothing and logos. This message talks to us about how we can join the website and receive emails from the website operators. This again is part of social networking and a way of gaining a committed audience who wish to be part of the Mac Miller Fan club and joining his support pages through many websites. On the right of the website beside the message is a section for news, bio, tour, music, videos, photo, forum and store. From this, the visitors may decide which section they wish to look at and instead of having many internal pages within the website. The entire page will stay the same, but only a small section on the right side changes, which provides different information with the different links, provided at the top of this section. The designers chose this method because it makes it easier for the audience to navigate the website.

Facebook and twitter fan pages have been created from the artist or other fans which allow consumers to follow their favourite artists, actors and celebrities. However Facebook and twitter have not allowed there to be any changes to the website layout, this is the same for other icons in the world, which have signed up to these websites. This is because the owners of these websites believe that Fan pages should be kept to the original spec of the website as the designers spent much time creating this and would cost more to have customization.

The Blue Slide Park tour is Mac Miller’s newest tour that will be taking place this summer, the tour is held in Europe, which is part of the Macadelic tour. However, the tour is only happening in the United States and Blue Slide Park is an add-on to this year’s tour to support his newest album he released last year. Blue side park is the park next the high school which Mac Miller attended. From this, we can understand that he has had a lot of memories from this place and therefore naming one of his tours after it. This advert has been created in a cartoon style. We understand that the designer’s chose this method because blue slide is associated with children as children enjoy playing in the park and cartoons are associated for the younger audience. In the middle of the advertisement there is a cartoon picture of Mac Miller holding a boom box, this picture indicates that he is the main act of this tour hence dominating the picture. The writing style is the same throughout every advertisement and every product used; the writing is a light blue, which uses characteristic illustrations. For example on the word slide, the tail of the L is extended to reflect the word. Featuring special guest has been reflected in orange, this is because blue is the complimentary colour to orange. The artist or designer used these colours used in this advertisement because Mac Miller uses the inspiration of the movie KIDS which uses bright bold colours. The kids COVER contains bright colours with the characters mentioned in the centre of the page. You can see a clear connection between this cover and Mac Millers tour cover, they use the same composition and colour scheme.

Website analysis Mikill Pane

http://mikillpane.com/

This website’s homepage has given us a portfolio of images in a moving background, when we click on the banner for another section of the website the theme is the same in the background but the content covers up most of it so you are still focused on the information provided in each section. These photos are taken in photo shoots of the Artist to represent him in different fashions and show a background to the sort of person he is. For example the use of the graffiti background behind him in one picture explains to us that he comes from a rough area where graffiti is commonly found in London areas where he originates from.

The home page to this website has no content apart from the banner which runs across the top of the website and the background imagery that dominates the centre part of the website which creates a step from entering the website content. The designer chose this method of making the website like this because it makes the homepage look smart and presentable but also makes it easier for the consumer to choose what we wishes to look at about the artist. I would like to have this feature if I was to do a website for my artist as it makes the website seem more simple and can relate with the audience by the uses of fashion being shown where Mister Pane is living a everyday life. Also makes it easier for the consumer because the user is not bombarded with lots of information and instead is very down to earth.  This website has given us the opportunity to direct us to other links , on each page a section in the right highlighted in a box are buttons with the logo’s of the provided websites related to Mikill Pane. For example Facebook, Twitter, Youtube & Sound Cloud are used as a way to promote the singer.  Mikill Pane has various Facebook pages towards his fans and for his personal use, Mikill Pane or Justin Smith Uzomba (real name) which is referred to on his personal use Facebook is what actually is being typed from the artist rather than others, it tells us about what he is thinking, doing and what new songs and videos he has created, this page would of possibly been created before the artist had ever got recognized for his talent. The Fan Page allows Fans to comment on the wall and because the personal page only can have a limited amount of friends, Whereas a fan page allows as many followers to connect to the page. The layout of the Facebook pages have no change in ways of personal and fan pages but there is a difference between fan pages and personal pages is that fan pages collects followers and likes, personal page collects friends. Mikill Pane has a twitter page where he is able to keep in touch in different social networking sites which allows him to connect with more fans and creates a bigger star persona.

This Advertisement is found in MixMag magazine and is also hosted by them. This is a good way of selling their magazine because people will want to buy there magazine more often because there are concerts to look out for inside. Evidence is shown because below the title of the Tour it says in text ‘Official MixMag Tour Party’ The advertisement for this concert could be possibly a leaflet handout in the local areas (London county or Bournemouth southern cost areas). This advertisement is a Concert which hosts many underground artists which not a lot of people recognize from the UK. The Concert is called ‘Ice creamed’, we have evidence why the concert was named this because the gig was held on the 10^th December therefore ice cream is cold and December is in the winter season which relates to each other. The background is mainly blue with pictures of snowflakes, holly leaves, Christmas trees and many other wintery references. However there are sunglasses, beach balls and flowers, this creates the feel of holidays and parties which happen during the summer and winter. This magazine advertisement has sponsors and supporting websites to help the market the tour, Facebook and Twitter have been used as part of a marketing tool because it allows the audience to interact with the concert line up and comment are made regardless of there being any change in the performance that any artist cannot do or delay in the timing. Ministry of sound have sponsored this advertisement as they have part share with MixMag. They can help with part of the set up, for example the suppliers for the sound equipment and help with creating the backing music for the artists who are playing at the concert. This is also a good selling point because Ministry of sound create an album which promotes artists via permission which sells more songs for the artist yet Ministry of sound still have a share of the money.