Shooting Schedule - Pre-lim

                                      Shooting schedule

Our team picked dates for filming, so we could keep everything organised and controlled, in order for the smoothest process whilst filming our music video. Along with this, we will need multiple different sets of equipment to capture are shots. This will include a tripod, which will allow us to limit the amount of camera movement to the minimum. This will also allow us to keep the camera steady when taking shots from an awkward angel. We will also be booking out a camera from the school site which will enable us to film are video. We have had training on the cameras, so we can use most of the functionalities to get the best performance and quality video from the camera. 

Filming Dates 

- November the 11th

- November the 18th

Editing Dates

- November the 25th

- December the 2nd 

Codes and conventions of a music magazine

         Codes and conventions of a rap music magazine 

In this post, we will be identifying different codes and conventions used in magazines specifically to the rap genre.

Down below is a PowerPoint slide expressing some of the magazine conventions and genre conventions within the magazine.

We can clearly see the links between magazine rap conventions and rap music conventions. This magazine uses multiple rap music conventions such as colour (Red,white and black) and props (handgun).

When we compare this magazine cover to the previous one, we can spot the magazine codes and conventions.

Colour Scheme - Colour seems to be a key code and convention across rap magazines. We can see that Red, white and black are commonly used throughout both of these magazine covers. This can be seen through font colour, and both mastheads of each magazine. These colours could of been used to represent gang culture, as rap glorifies gang activity through lyrics and music videos. Therefore, this magazine uses the colour of a famous west coast gang the "Bloods", to represent and give the gang more awareness.

Anchorage Text - Both of the magazines use anchorage text to establish who the cover star is. This can be seen through the text "JAY - Z" written in white, and "The Game" written in red. This attracts fans of the artists in, as they can see what the magazine is about, and some of the contents in the magazine.

Main Image - Both images for each magazine are direct images, and use a close up (camera work) to display the artist. Close ups help create a strong star image, through showing their emotions and part of their attire. The reasons behind this could be explained by Richard Dyers star theory, as he believes institutes create a star image, to gain more profits and revenue. This is why magazines produce and focus on the main image, as it will increase demand for the magazine, therefore increasing the finical portfolio of the institutes.

Analysis of Digipak

                                Analysis of a Digipak

Infinite - Digipak - Eminem 

In this post, I will be analysing Digipak's in detail, and explaining how they meet the conventions of the rap genre, as well as artist conventions. Today, I will be analysing Digipak's from the rap artist Eminem, with his two albums Infinite and Curtain Call. 

This is an image of Eminem's Infinite Digipak. As you can see, the Digipak uses a darker colour for the background (black), which is conventional for the rap genre, as the colour black is commonly used throughout the industry due to the connotations of the colour, which are death, struggle, danger and poverty.

This medium shot (camera work) of Eminem, is used to create a star image for the artist. The image shows Eminem positioned directly between four show lights, therefore emphasizing that he is the center of attention. This is also very unconventional for Eminem, as he usually doesn't show off his star image, as he believes more in the artistic creation of music instead of sales, profits and star image (Institutions). This also shows Richard Dyers theory, as an Album acts as a revenue stream for the artist therefore, the artist needs to be seen for the product to sell, which means the institution have to create a star image to attract audiences, as a star image can relate to the audience, which is why Institutions focus on this, as it creates more demand for a product if the audience has a physical connection with the artist.

This cover of the digipak, appears to contain a montage of different pictures of Eminem. Again, this can relate to star image, however it comes across as artistic and creative which is a convention for Eminem. As well as contacting pictures of himself, he has also included certain images showcasing most of the background, this could be used to showcase messages about poverty, by using images of places with poor infrastructure. With him also being in the picture, it could show how Eminem used to live, compared to the rich and luxurious life style he lives now.

Curtain Call - Digipak - Eminem

Unlike Eminem's previous Digipak shown on this blog post, this one is more conventional to the rap genre. First off, the background used, is once again black which is a theme that appears in Eminem's last digipak as well. The colour black, overall is very symbolic of the rap genre as it implies messages and values about the harsh reality of living in poverty and being surrounded by gang culture, and it also implies a visceral feeling of being trapped and the ability to escape is non existent, which creates a cyclical feeling towards this life. However, the green font is extremely unconventional of the rap genre. The colour green has a strong emotional correspondence with safety. This subverts the rap genre, as it normally depicts violent behaviour, which puts people at risk, not safety. This could be conventional of Eminem however, as he likes to subvert genre conventions due to him wanting to be unique and seen as a "true artist".

Eminem has also intentionally used backwards fonts like the E directly in the middle of the digipak. We see the backwards E used multiple times in Eminem's album titles, and could represent his past life. Backwards has connotations of negativity, and is possibly the reason why Eminem has chosen to use it, as it represents the struggles of his past life.

This close up (camera work) image, is very conventional to the rap genre, and although isn't conventional to Eminem himself (as he doesn't often talk about gun crime within his lyrics), it has impacted his life greatly, as close friends of his, as well as his inspiration to get him into music, were killed by gun crimes in Detroit.
This creates a personal message about how guns have affected Eminem negatively, which could suggest why the depth of field is short, blurring himself out.This artistically shows the impact of guns on his life, and how they have corrupted him. He has also chosen a black background to match with what a gun suggests... death. The prop itself, is also a heavily used convention within rap, to promote power and strength into the main star. It's also used to showcase gang culture and symbolises the violent lives rappers have had.

This image is very conventional of the rap genre, as well as Eminem. The colour of the image (black and white) is very conventional of the early rap era for example, the 80's and 90's. This was a predominant element during these times as it represents corruption, which was a huge issue in america during the 80's and 90's, and can be shown through N.W.A attitude towards police, which really influenced people from these poorer area's to rebel against authority, therefore resulting in more issues and problems relating to gangs. This black and white image also shows Eminem in a conflict, which expresses his life issues as well.

Summary of what I like and will include in our digipak
Overall, these two individual digipak's both offer a lot that I could incorporate into our main task. One of the key features that appeals to me, is the limited amount of colours shown. Black and white, create a vintage rap atmosphere, as well giving the piece a smooth feel and tone.

Questionnaire Analysis

                                Questionnaire Analysis 

Our group constructed a questionnaire over the week, which asked our audiences multiple different questions about the rap genre. Our main aim was to create an image on what are target audience would like to see in a rap music video, so our work can appeal to them.

Key questions

Q1) What age are you?

This question is key as it shows us what age group rap music appeals to the most. From this, we can see that the key age is between 15 and 21, which means we have to appeal to that age groups individual needs during our music video, so we can attract this audience. This age group tend to be listed as Fun-atic and Tribe wired in the Life Matrix Segment, which is what we find out below when analysing the next question.

Q2) How would you describe yourself?

This question is yet another key question, as we can decipher the people who rap specifically appeals to. We can see that a large majority of people chose creative as a way of describing themselves. This could suggest that the creative/artistic style of rap music appeals to them because of this trait. Therefore, we need to produce something that creates meaning and shows messages and values about conventions of the rap genre. Possible ways of doing this would be to display themes of poverty, as well as embedding rap iconography into our video, like cars and bling.

We can also see that a large majority are also free spirited (6 people) and digital (5 people). By using the Life Matrix Segment, we can see that these types of people are classed as Tribe-wired. Therefore, we know that they are connected to the media, and are very socially orientated, so we have to appeal
to these needs of our audience. We could appeal to this audience by including media into our video.



Q3) What would you like to see in a rap video?

This question is important to analyse because it shows what visuals people want to see e.g. visuals that create a strong narrative, or show off a star and their life. The results show a 50/50 split, which means both appeal to our audience equally. This means that we will need to interpret both into our video, which means including little bits of story telling and images of stars throughout the video. This means we will have to think carefully about the narrative, as typically a storytelling narrative is linear, but a narrative commonly used to show off a star is episodic. This also shows how we could use Richard Dyers star theory, to appeal to half of our focus audience.


Q4) What style of narrative would you like to see?

This question suggests that linear and episodic narratives are the most popular answer, and the obvious choice of narrative to use in our video. This also shows that Circular narrative is unpopular, therefore will be ruled out for our music video. Because it's an almost 50/50 split between Episodic (50%) and Linear (43%), we could integrate both narratives together to please both viewers. Although this will take a lot of planning, and time, it will benefit us overall, as will receive more positive feedback for are video.

What we will take forward from our findings
One of the most important findings of this questionnaire analysis, is question three. These results show we will need to include images of stars as well as creating some sort of storyline for spectators to follow so therefore, we will take this information to help us create a video that suits both agendas for each spectator.

Another thing we have to take forward, is the type of narrative to use. Linear will suit the storyline aspect, however won't appeal to spectators wanting images of the stars. Therefore, we will probably need to choose the Episodic narrative, as we can have a variation between star and storyline which will satisfy both spectators

We also now need to focus on appealing to tribe-wired people, as we used the life matrix segment to analysis question two which helped to break down spectators into categories so we could identify what things appeal to them.

Storyboard

                                           Storyboard

For this story board post, I will be uploading a image of a sketched storyboard, which was drafted out by our group, and shows some of they key shots we want to include during the 30 second pre-lim task.

For the first shot, we want to start with a full pan around the artist, which will be a 360 degree turn. This allows the spectator to see the whole appearance of the artist, and star image is important for rap, so we have decided to include this shot in.

For our second shot, we will use a long shot to capture a group of people partying without the artist, to create a upbeat and fun atmosphere. We will also include different lighting effects, by changing the colours of the lights 

For our third shot, we will be using a close up image of the artist, but have include lighting effects with it. We either want to create a silhouette effect, or create some sort of spot light that is shining down on the artist. 

For our forth short, we return back to a long shot, which will show the appearance of the artist emerging from the crowd of partying people, and then the camera will gradually track in closer to the star as he starts to lip sync.

Then for our final shot, we will zoom at from the artist, as are background lighting is changing colour to give the scene a cool effect.

Questionnaire

                                      Questionnaire 

This post displays our blank questionnaire which we made to find out more about audiences, and what their thoughts are about rap music and the genre. We have carefully designed questions which will give us the best insight into our audience, allowing us to achieve and satisfy their needs as an audience.