General Update

This week we have mainly worked on our video. We have shot much more footage since our first shoot on October 17th and almost have enough to fill the 3 minutes of video, although we will have to watch all the footage and piece it together first before we can judge whether anymore footage is needed. We have also started work on our ancillary tasks, taking some photos on Monday which we will use for our digipak, and also on Thursday we started a rough edit of our magazine advert for our artist's album.

Artist Website Analysis

For this task I have analysed the website of UK Urban artist; Skepta. His website URL is www.doinitagain.co.uk as his catchphrase is "I'm doin' it again". This is unique as most artists just use their name or a variation of their name as their website URL.

This is what the website's homepage looks like.
When logging onto the website, the viewer immediately sees a big picture of the artist to promote his image, accompanied by his name clearly written in a grafiti style font to match his urban genre of music. The whole theme of the website is quite urban as this will appeal to his fans more. In the top right corner there is a small music player where the user can hear samples of his most popular tracks to give them a taster of what the artist sounds like. Underneath this is a much bigger clue of what the artist is like, as there is a video player which automatically plays his latest music video in full length. To the left of the music player are links to Skepta's profile on other popular social networking websites such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and Ping. This allows people to follow him on their favourite websites and means Skepta will constantly be appearing on their newsfeeds for these websites if they choose to follow him. This also means that fans can easily and conveniently recieve updates from these sites without logging onto Skepta's official website all the time.

On the left is the navigation panel. The 'News' option will take users to a page where Skepta's most recent important news and updates are displayed along with 'Headlines'. The 'Gigs' option will take users to a page where they can see details on any upcoming gigs Skepta may be performing at. The 'Releases' option takes users to a page where they can download Skepta's latest free mixtape. The 'Videos' option allows users to watch Skepta's official music videos and 'other videos' such as freestyles for the radio. The 'Gallery' option shows users other press pictures of Skepta. The 'Store' option takes users to a store where they can purchase Skepta related accessories, clothing and of course Skepta's CDs. Fans can even purchase signed copies of his latest mixtape on this page. The 'About' section provides users with an informative text-based page which tells the story of Skepta so far and also mentions many of his associated artists, which promotes them too. The 'Contact' section then allows people to personally send Skepta fan e-mail or ask him any questions they may have. It is however unlikely that Skepta personally replies to these messages, and more likely that he has a PA or agent to do it.

Towards the bottom left of the screengrab is an option to log-in or sign up to Skepta's website. This means that hardcore fans can become a member of Skepta's website which would give them added  benefits of recieving official update emails on such things as upcoming albums, gigs and general information. At the bottom of the screengrab are images of his most recent album and mixtape releases so that fans can easily see if they have missed any recent releases. This is accompanied by a 'News' section so that fans can easily see if they have missed any important updates about Skepta's personal life, plans for any gigs or tours, and information on any upcoming releases.

There is also a list of gigs with dates and locations in the bottom left although this is empty as his tour just finished a few weeks ago and he will not be doing gigs for a while. At the bottom there is a massive section called 'Skepta Social' which allows users to instantly 'like' his page on Facebook, and also shows all of his most recent and most popular tweets on Twitter.

Similar Artist Album Advert In Magazine

This is an advert in a magazine for a similar artist to ours (Wretch 32). The advert shows the artist to promote his image and also tells us his name and the name of the album, both quite large and clearly. The advert also promotes the album further by mentioning the star names who feature on the album alongside Wretch 32. The release date is also clearly written in bold. This is accompanied by logos of stores and websites where the album is available, which then lets the reader know where and when they can purchase the album if the name, image or associates of the artist have gained their original interest. The URL of the artists Myspace page also appears so that viewers can type it in and check whether they like the sound of his music before deciding to purchase the album or not.

More Planning

                                             This is our planning for locations and costumes.

 

 These are images of a storyboard we created to represent the general content of the video.

We used these sheets to plan 4 sequences of the shoot as well as a shot schedule (sequence 2 sheet).

Questionnaire Feedback

This was our audience research questionnaire.

1. Select your gender
Male     Female

2. Select your age
13-15     16-18     19-21     22+

3. Name your favourite 3 artists/bands? 

4. Which artist would you be MOST LIKELY to listen to based on genre and style?
Arctic Monkeys     Rihanna     Foo Fighters     Olly Murs     JLS     50 Cent     None

5. How would you define your favourite music genre?

6. Is there a particular sub-genre which you like more than other elements of the above genre?

7. What appeals to you about this genre/sub-genre?
Lyrics     Beats/Instruments     Fashion     Culture     It's popular

8. Which music channels do you watch regularly?
I don't have/watch music channels     MTV Hits     MTV Base     MTV Rock     MTV Dance          MTV Classics    

9. How do you consume music?
Free downloads     Purchasing physical CDs     Getting free CDs from festivals                            Online Purchase and Download (iTunes etc)

10. How much would you estimate that you spend on music in an average year?
Nothing     Less than £15     £16-30     £31-45     £46-70     £71-£100     £100-150     £151-300     £301-500     £500-1000     Over £1000


Findings



The above questionnaire was used to gain an insight into our target audience. We distributed printed copies of the questionnaire and distributed them among our peers at college, and we received responses from 15 people from the age range of 16-18 (8 males, 7 females). The results suggest that our audience listen to a wide range of artists and genres. The majority of our audience listen to RnB and Rap/Hip-Hop. Many of their favourite artists include 50 Cent, Drake, Ed Sheeran, and Rihanna. We also found that our audience watch a wide variety of music channels however, the most popular ones among our audience are MTV Hits and MTV Base. Our audience are also influenced by style as 8 people said they listen to Rihanna and 50 Cent because of their style and how they portray themselves. We can also infer from our results that our audience use online download methods such as iTunes to consume music.

The important notes which we can gain from this research is that it is good to give our artist a bold, distinct and clear style as the persona and dress code of artists seems to influence their listeners. Also we can infer that it would make most sense to concentrate on the digital release of our artist's album rather than the distribution of physical CD's as only 1 of 15 people said they usually consume physical copies of albums and singles. We also know now which music channels would be most likely to play our artist's videos on television.

Shooting Schedule

On Monday 17/10 we plan to do a test shoot in the college common room and in the booth/music studio. This will give us an idea of how our video will look and what shots we could use based on the size and angles of the room. On Thursday 20/10 we can continue this and try out a few different angles and shots, before doing the photoshoot for our digipak.

Album Art Research On Similar Artists

This album by The Streets shows Mike Skinner, the main artist standing alone at a bus stop. The scene is something that would be seen in everyday life, which represents the album's content as he raps about daily activities and thoughts. The fact that he is standing alone also represents the album's content as it tells a story of his trust issues and how at one point he feels betrayed by all his friends and feels alone.









This album cover shows the artist; Chipmunk as this promotes his image. The artist's name is clearly visible along with the name of the album. He chooses to show his tattoos in the picture quite clearly as they may tell his story. The inclusion of his tattoos seems to be loosely linked to the album title as he has changed his style and sound from his first album 'I Am Chipmunk.

 Ed Sheeran's album cover is simple like his music in he uses minimal instruments to put more emphasis on his lyrics. The cover is picture of his face as he is clearly recognizable as he is a newly established singer. Instead of the album title 'Plus' he has the symbol to represent his unorthodox style and varied style. The picture is tinted orange to typify his ginger hair.











The album 'Black And White' by Wretch 32 shows the artist centred. the name and album title are clearly visible. The concept of the cover match the album title as the colour has been removed so that it is 'Black and white'. The artist is wearing traditional 'urban' clothing with the fashionable scarf and varsity jacket his swagger reflects that of his music which is hip hop based.

*This task was completed by myself and Josh (50/50)*