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.

Website analysis Plan B

http://www.time4planb.co.uk/

The Website created for plan B has been made to specifically comprehend the type of character he is, also to show the stages of his career in a retro fashion. For example the background of the whole website uses stamps and articles which on each one holds pictures of Plan B and around the website shows Vinyl’s. This creates an Image of the time period he enjoys.

The home page shows us the latest news and blogs which links with tours and music videos. This helps the website interact with the audiences needs because fans wish to see when gigs are coming up and want the information given to them without making an effort to find it, also this helps show the latest music Plan B has distributed.  In the left hand side of the screen it shows the main icon of what represents Plan B with a P and B emerged together but can clearly see both letters. This creates a better selling point because this icon is part of the star persona and would be use in his franchise. The other pages of the website are connected via a black and white banner on the left hand side of the homepage. This Banner includes music, music videos, a biography and a store. Up the opportunity automatically the consumer will look into the corner for the logo and therefore will recognise the banner beside it. There are external links within the website which connects to other supporting web pages, such as Twitter and Facebook. The designer chose this because it opens an opportunity for the user to exchange comments, opinions videos and update news related on Plan B. Facebook and twitter pages for plan B have no change towards the layout of the social networking sites because this website is not designed.

This is Plan B's magazine album advert to promote his album 'the defamation of Strickland Banks'. As you can see this advert follows the typical conventions a magazine advert, The Main attraction on the advert is the big, bold, red title which says 'PLAN B', this is the name of the artist/group; the second observation is the title of the album which is 'The defamation of Strickland Banks' - this title is printed in the same font but in white. The red and white font works well against the black background because they stand out and will catch the audience’s attention. The rest of the font is also either red or white. Continuing the theme of black and white and red is important because this theme is also continued on the album. The Advertisement states that the album of ‘the defamation of Strickland Banks’ is an award winning multi-platinum album of the year. This is a good selling point because it is showing that Plan B is a very talented artist and makes the album seem more appealing to the consumers. The picture used in this advertisement is similar to the album cover shown in the bottom left hand side where Plan B is shown wearing a suit and performing on stage in the spotlight. This shows that’s the music Plan B makes has influences of the 50’s and 60’s in a time which he feels that needs to be brought back. The dominating picture in the bottom right is a similar contrast and style but has been shown in a greyscale and slightly faded to blend with the mise-en-scene. A old style microphone is being used as Ben Drew grasps it, again this prop represent a older time period and which his music fits into those times.

Reflective Analysis Part Two

My Task was to research two artists using previous biographies created which talks about their life and career. Because I have altered my research I have chosen another artist (Plan B) to use for the Biographies so have made three biographies to research. This will help me create a biography which reflects my coursework Artist. Analysing the biographies will help me understand the type of character the artist have by their upbringing and lifestyles and put that into my perspective.

Looking at task one from the previous album or singles covers created I managed to think of a cover which would stand out from all the rest using high contrast in colour and image, the name of the artist is made using large bubble green writing in an older style of writing because the music is associated with the past in the 90’s, the picture of the artist has been edited with a green and blue blur outlining the artist, these colours all merge together well because they are in the same range of the colour spectrum. Thumbs up is the name of the single and a image of a hand with the thumbs up helps us comprehend what the artist message across to the public is and is a sign of the artist’s star persona.

In the biographies I choose the main pieces which in the life of the artists they have had in their upbringing for example I included their birthplace, which schools they attending and family status. This will help me create a clear image towards making up a biography because the type of music I am using is mainly reflected by their upbringing and lifestyle, for example hip-hop usually is associated with black race and poverty estates in America, however hip-hop is now global and has spread across the world and other cultures such as white race can create music, for example Eminem.

The strengths of both task was that the artists I choose all share a similar lifestyle and the area they live in which all shares poverty and has the scene of having gangs and underground rappers. Because of this is was very simple to create an image of a background which associates with my artist by using a rough upbringing in boroughs of London and interested in hip-hop music. The other task I found difficult at first to think of a good single cover but managed to recreate one in the development and use new images and layout and turn out to be very successful.

The biography task has made me adapt into changing my original concerns of locations to use in my music video and have now found new locations which can be used in my footage. This is because I can use the places where coursework Artist was brought up in. My Album task has now helped me create an Advertisement for my Artist and has helped me think of ideas for my finial Single cover I will be creating further into my coursework.

Internet Album Cover Development

Biography Of Created Artist

Name: Dan Kenny Andrews, Stage name DeeKay

Age: 19 (4th February 1993)

Birthplace: St Georges Hospital, Tooting

Genre of Music: Hip-Hop, Rap, Comedy

Record Label: Rostrum Records

Dan Kenny Andy was born on the 4^th February 1993 at St Georges Hospital, Tooting; Raised in a flat infested estate, in Wandsworth to a mother working for a local Café and a father who worked as a delivery driver for various companies working through the night. However at the age of 3 his parents were suffering from drug and alcohol addiction, their continuous violence and arguments effected Dan’s upbringing, he adopted his parents violent ways at a young age. Gangs in the estate contributed to Dans behaviour. There were frequently arguments between his parents over payment and intoxicated violence when they were under the influence of drugs. His parents split up when Dan was at the age of 5, his father was unheard of for nearly 2 years.

He was not very academic student at school and failed in maths, science and English. However, he showed a talent for music, poetry and rhymed from a young age to rappers such as Eminem, Dr Dre, 2 Pac and Notorious B.I.G. At the age of 14 Deekay was having a hard, his Mum was constantly becoming drunk and snorting cocaine, when his mum was like this she would physically abuse him almost setting the flat on fire and locking all the doors, luckily neighbours nearby smelt the fumes and broke down the door . After that incident Dan left home and school to stay with his friend at his older Brother’s place for approximately 5 months. However from this he began smoking and progressed to taking drugs such as marijuana and Cocaine.

Deekay 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 Deekay 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 Deekay’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 Dan was then founded on YouTube by Rostrum Records which wanted him to be flown to America, Deekay 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 kids in areas of Eastern America and starting spreading back to the UK where Deekay Originated from.

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

Biography of Mac Miller

 Name:  Malcolm McCormick, stage name Mac Miller

Age: 20 (19^th January 1992)

Birth place: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Genre of music: Hip-Hop, Rap

Label Company: Rostrum Records 2010 – Onwards

Malcolm McCormick or the stage name we know of Mac Miller was born in January 19^th 1992, He is an American Rapper from Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Mac Miller was raised by a Christian Father who worked as an architect and a Jewish mother who was a photographer. He attended Winchester Thurston School and then Taylor Allderdice High School in which he began getting serious about a career in music.

 His music career first began when he started a group called ‘The Ill Spoken’ with his fellow rapper Beedie who also grew up in Pennsylvania as McCormick. They had a successful Mix tape called ‘How high with features of other artists. Malcolm McCormick change his career name from Easy Mac to Mac Miller to begin his Solo career, The first few Mix tapes where called ‘But My Macking Ain’t Easy’ and ‘Juke Box: Prelude To Class Clown’ and ‘The high Life’ After the success of these albums, Mac Miller was signed onto Rostrum Records and is still with them today after creating his newest album ‘Blue Slide Park’.

The First Album produced by the Label was called ‘K.I.D.S’, a Mix tape which was inspired by the movie ‘Kids’ which was showing the experience he had picked up and seeing that his music was getting better. The Follow on from this album was his first tour ‘Incredibly Dope Tour’ which turned out to be very successful.

Mac Millers most recent Mix tape ‘Best Day Ever’ featured all well known producers including Just Blaze. The album produced many great singles such as ‘Best Day ever’, ‘Donald Trump’ & Wear My Hat. Knock Knock had its video premiered on Youtube.

Blue Slide Park is the most successful Album so far, released September 2011 and carried on with his ‘Incredibly Dope’ tour visiting Europe cities such as Amsterdam, London, Manchester and many more. In the first Week there had been 144,000 copies sold. Mac Miller has had very little if not no Radio airplay and has managed to sell over a million copies.

Mac Miller has announced his tour of Europe in spring and summer; He is also visiting London for a gig showing at HMV Forum in Kentish town, London. This is a start of a new artist of a young age producing music which will hopefully be looking into hitting mainstream .