Drafts of poster

Here is my drawn up draft of how I would like my poster to look like. I would like it to be black/white/grey so that it links with my other products.

This is a quick draft I did when trying out my first idea, however I didn't like it as I thought it looked fake, therefore I changed the whole design but still stuck to the main theme of colour.

Drafts of digipak

Here are my drawn up drafts of my front and back cover of my digipak. I have decided that the colour them throughout my digipak will be grey/black/white as I feel it will link all of my products together as my music video and poster will be grey.

Here I have done some digital drafts of my front covers which I think look good. I mostly experimented with the different pictures put on top of the original picture of my artist as I wanted to get the right effect.

I like the draft on the right as that is more of the effect I was looking for. Also, as you can see I have just included the album and artist name and included a picture of my artist as the background and main image.

Conventions of a digipak

After looking at real digipaks from real artists I came up with a list of conventions that appeared in all of them and they are what I will use in my own work.

Front cover:

• Album name
• Artist name
• Album image

Back cover:

• Track list
• Copyright information
• Record label logo
• Barcode

Spine:

• Album name

Inner left:

• Picture

Inner right:

• Picture
• CD
• Thank you note

Conventions of an album poster

Analysing the album posters that I have was helpful as they are both advertising rock music. I think that they are simple but give all of the vital information needed which is helpful as it means that the audience can find the product easily. I found that the main conventions of an album poster are:

• Album name
• Artist name
• Date of release
• Website name
• Picture of artwork from the product
• Record label logo
• Form of product

When making my poster I will include the above conventions to ensure that it looks realistic and advertises my product well.

Evolution of music storage

Article from Billboard

LP

Billboard's "Retail Record Survey" of July, 1949must first be acknowledged as an impressive accomplishment; this thing was a lot of work for the magazine's staffers at the time, who mailed 3,453 questionnaires to dealers around the country -- and then tabulated the results by hand. While the all of the survey's results are interesting (indeed, most printed material from the period has that irreplaceable hearth-and-home allure), for this column we're most interested in dealers' responses to the questions about 45s and LPs, the latter which had been introduced the year before (well, more or less) and would, as all the formats we'll visit in this column, reshape the record industry. A year after the survey, adoption of the 33 1/3 long-playing record would be precipitous.

"Acceptance of LP and 45 r.p.m. records on both the dealer and consumer level." Survey answers indicate that 45s were on the wane and LPs on the ascent at the time, with 160 respondents saying LPs were selling "Good" versus the 45's 88 "Good" and 229 saying 45 sales were disappointing. It's a very early example of how quickly superior media formats have been adopted by consumers. As we now know, the LP would go on to be the dominant format of the century, being replaced only when the CD came into its own almost forty years later. (Also of note was respondents' answer to the question of what sources they use in determining which records they were to order; 1,236 said "customers' request," almost twice that of the runner-up, "personal opinion.")

STEREO 8

"Enough dust has settled and sufficient time has passed since the upheaval begun in 1965 to permit at least a tentative assessment of Stereo-8's effect on our industry and its position in the market place." So wrote Irwin Tarr, VP of planning for RCA Records in the pages of Billboard for its June 13, 1970 issue. Tarr went on to explain how the music industry establishment resisted the format initially, resulting in "a policy of 'watchful waiting,' as one of them put it" -- a sentiment most you reading this might remember from not that long ago.

Five years after Super 8's introduction, the new mini-industry was projected to be worth $1 billion in sales of tapes and playing devices that year, following exponential growth for the preceding five years, as Billboard's graph shows. Of course, not everything in Tarr's triumphant article was true: "Existing Stereo-8 libraries will not be obsoleted."

CASSETTES

Launched and promoted in parallel to Stereo 8 were "musicassettes," the ubiquitous, undying format we now know as just plain ol' cassettes. Designed by Philips and promoted heavily in Europe, the musicassette's success stateside was initially slow, owing to Stereo 8's popularity in the U.S. at the time. But in 1971, Advent Corp. president Henry Kloss had a few game-changers in store for the nascent medium.

"Among his current plans are to clearly and beyond a reasonable doubt establish the cassette as a high-fidelity medium." Essentially, Kloss and Advent, in collaboration with Dolby, had found a way to significantly reduce "tape hiss" while increasing audio detail, enabling cassettes to nearly match the quality of LPs. Kloss' advances essentially doomed the Stereo 8 and guaranteed the runaway success of the "musicassette" for the next two decades. Kloss' advances also had an unintended consequence for the music industry; the ubiquity of cassettes would eventually introduce the concept of consumer-side piracy to the music business.

GENEVA CONVENTION AGAINST RECORD PIRACY

No, the Geneva Convention Against Record Piracy is not a format for musical transmission, but a direct result of one. Held in 1971, the Geneva Convention Against Record Piracy was the international music industry's first response to the threat of piracy that easily reproduced cassettes introduced.

Billboard's article from December of that year estimated piracy was costing the industry around $240 million a year at the time. "Twenty-three countries have signed the agreement, which is expected to be widely ratified to provide an effective international protection against the pirating menace predicted as formidable enough to disrupt the whole of the world music industry if allowed to continue unchecked." You don't say...

COMPACT DISC

We're all well aware of the CDs success as a format -- how many subscriptions to BMG's Music Club did you sign up for? -- and, as we've seen with the LP, Stereo 8 and cassette, adoption of the promising new medium was swift. "Worldwide trade deliveries of players in 1983, the system's debut year, were around 350,000. In 1984 they reached between 800,000-900,000, and this year are expected to total 1.5 million-1.8 million," wrote Nick Robertshaw in the January 12, 1985 issue of Billboard. 

In the article "Presidents' Panel Puts Spotlight on Compact Disc" Monti Leuftner, president of the Ariola Records Group, "launched the substantive debate on the challenge of the Compact Disc by asserting the record and hardware industries should get together to try and find a device by which it would be impossible to home tape from the new Compact Disc player," wrote Billboard at the time. It's striking how large the problem of piracy loomed over an industry that was, in retrospect and sharp relief, still so vibrant.

MP3 -- "Data"

"Unless you find another way of making money besides controlling copying, you will not last in the digital age." Those prescient words, spoken by musician and Stanford postdoctoral fellow Ram Samudrala, come from the July 18, 1998 issue of Billboard, in an article on the first "MP3 Summit." Labels were rightly concerned about this new format which, in many ways, was the last "new format" they and we are ever likely to see; our musical data may get denser (a la Pono), but it will probably never need to be physically manifested again.

A year-and-a-half later, the industry would be suing Napster into oblivion, as this article from December 18, 1999 presages.

What went wrong

There are many things that could've gone better when filming my music video, however there are some specific things that went wrong and I had to work around.

Number 1: my camera's battery running out
This was obviously bad as not having an up and running camera meant that there was nothing I could film with that would provide good quality footage for my music video, which was important as the better the quality, the more professional it looks which again is important as I want my target audience to take my artist seriously and believe that she is a real artist.

Number 2: the memory card on my camera
Obviously I had many technical difficulties with my camera, and not having a large enough capacity on my memory card meant that I ran out of memory quick, meaning I had to stop filming after a few shots which meant that it took more time to film, giving me less time to edit.

Number 3: the weather
The first thought that came to mind when I started planning my video was that the weather should be dull and cloudy. However every time I started to film in weather like that the lighting was no good and it made my video look slightly boring. I then decided I would try to film with the sun out as I realised the black and white will die the brightness down, which then gave the effect of the sun shining on my camera and I thought it looked good.

Number 4: makeup
The makeup wasn't how I imagined it would be as my actress had a skin tone that I felt would not suit really really dark makeup as she might have ended up looking more heavy metal, rather than pop-punk. However saying that, I think the clothing combined with the makeup in the overall look I chose made her look pop-punk as they balanced out each other as she mainly wore black clothing, and just had a little bit of dark make up on.

Overall there where some things that went wrong, but this meant that I just had to use my initiative and work around the problems it caused which shows how planning doesn't always work out and how testing different things out is more effective.

Material used for shooting video

Behind the Scenes

Setting up the camera

Here I am setting up the camera for the first shot. This was important to get perfect as it is the first thing seen on the screen of my music video. I used a tripod for this shot as I wanted the shot to be a close up and to be still so that when she is lip-syncing we concentrate on the words.

Second Draft

This is my second draft. Obviously there are still some shots to be filmed and re-filmed and I need to improve on my editing but hopefully this will be better in my final music video.

First Draft

Here is my first draft. I don't have a lot of footage as me and my cast found it hard to meet up whilst we were revising for mocks and the weather wasn't how I would have liked it to have been. In the new year I plan to get the rest of my indoor shots completed in the first few weeks as we will not have to revise for mocks.

Filming Diary

(what days I shot the different shots and how many days it took etc)

Final costume designs

This is the outfit I ended up using in the greenroom as I wanted my cast member dressed all in black. I think it looked good as it makes her look pop-punk, but also it isn't too over the top.

It looks a lot like Hayley Williams outfit here and she is a famous pop-punk singer, therefore people will be able to associate my artist with her and might want to listen to her because they look similar, so maybe they sound similar.

Here is the outfit I used in the street shots and I feel this represents the 'rock' as she is wearing a leather jacket. This is regularly associated with rock as many rockstars wear leather jackets, and it can also be related to the 'mods and the rockers' as the rockers would be the ones who wore leather jackets, therefore I feel this outfit reinforces the genre of my artist.

Here is an article about leather jackets and what they represent.

Here is the outfit I used in the field. Many pop-punk stars also wear oversized denim jackets so I also thought this reinforced the genre, it is also the only colour she wore during the whole music video.

Here is a picture of Demi Lovato's outfit. Although she isn't pop-punk, this is a good example of how important an outfit is to show the genre of something as she is also wearing an ACDC vest.

Choosing the music label

The music label for my artist is very important as that is the thing that will promote my artist and make her noticed. The first thing I did was look up pop punk music labels and this is what came up:

I then looked through all of the labels to see if I recognised any of them. I thought this was a good idea as a recognisable label means that it will be popular therefore likely to have more noticed artists which is important as it means my artist will be able to get promoted well. It also means that people who listen to other artists from that label might think to listen to my artist.

A label I recognised was Epitaph records.

Epitaph Records is a Hollywood, California based independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. The label was originally "just a logo and a P.O. box" created in the 1980s for the purpose of selling Bad Religion records, but has evolved into a large independent record label. Gurewitz took the name from a King Crimson song of the same name. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s most of the bands on Epitaph were punk and pop punk groups, while there are many post-hardcore and emo bands signed to the label as well. A large portion of the record label, known as Hellcat Records, is owned by Tim Armstrong, frontman of the punk rock band Rancid. Several sister-labels also exist, such as ANTI-, Burning Heart Records, Fat Possum Records, Hellcat Records and Heart & Skull Records that have signed other types of bands.

Here are a few artists signed to Epitaph Records:

This would be a good label for my artist as it includes a lot of rock artists which is the same genre as my artist.















I didn't recognise any other labels as one thing I realised was that most if not all of the labels that appeared where independent labels, which shows how much the big 3 effect whether or not an artist is noticed.

My chosen label is Epitaph records as I feel it represents the genre of my artist well, and it is a well known independent label.

Deciding on the name of my artist

The first thing i did when deciding on a name for my artist was search on google 'deciding the name of an artist'. This came up with some idea's and one I found interesting was 'Wikihow- How to choose a stage name'. This gave me the following 2 methods which helped me realise that some of the success an artist gets is from their name as it means people will recognise them, even if they don't listen to them.
Here I have tried to follow the methods to come up with different names. I feel this way of getting a stage name would be good as long as you had an interesting name to start off with.

The next thing I did was use a name generator as I thought coming up with random names and playing around with them would be a creative way to come up with a name for my artist.

I searched on google 'name generator' and clicked on the first result (behindthename.com). It then gave me options to chose from like where I would like the name to originate from and the gender I would like it to be. I searched for the name to be English and feminine as I felt there are a lot more English/American pop-punk artists.

These are the first five names that the website generated.

Once I had these names I thought it would be a good idea to mix and match the names that I thought would attract the most attention.

First names I liked:

• Bryony
• Zandra
• Lydia

Last names I liked:

• Tuff
• Rounds

new names:

Bryony Tuff, Bryony Rounds, Zandra Tuff, Zandra Rounds, Lydia Tuff, Lydia Rounds

The name I thought sounded best: LYDIA TUFF

The final thing I did was research the most popular artists and took a look at their names as many artists have stage names (e.g. Lady Gaga) to make themselves more memorable.

I searched on google 'most popular music artists right now' and one of the search results was MTV so I thought it would be a good idea to look on the MTV website at the most popular artists right now. These are some of the results.

One of the things I realised was that many of the artists have one name as their stage name which I think is because it made their name more memorable. Also some of the bands mentioned are actually pop-punk which shows how pop-punk is still in the charts, also what I  thought about their band names was that they are different like '5 seconds of summer' therefore making them memorable.

Overall, I thought the best name I came across when researching was 'Lydia Tuff' as I feel it has the potential to be memorable, but at the same time could be a real name, and many artists use their real name as their stage name like 'Taylor Swift'.

Cast

Potential cast members
 I wanted my music video to feature a girl with the look of pop-punk (or someone that I could make look pop-punk) and these are the girls that I considered featuring i my music video.
I asked the following questions to find out whether they were right for the part or not:

1. Name
2. Age
3. Do you have any acting experience?
4. If the answer to the last question was yes, what was it?
5. Does their look fit the genre well/could it?
6. How many subjects do you study?
7. Do you have a job?

I asked the age of them as I I want a teenage girl that looks appropriate wandering around by herself and old enough to have a relationship, therefore I though the appropriate age was 17-19.

I asked whether or not they have acting experience as that is what they would be doing in the music video. Also I need someone who is confident and follows direction well.

I asked what the acting experience was so that I could see whether or not they would be capable of doing something like this.

I wanted to see whether their look fits the genre or whether or not I could make them look like it does so that it is evident in my music video and expresses my aim of the music video and the genre of the song well.

I asked how many subjects they study and whether they have a job so that I could see whether or not they would have enough free spare time to film the music video but also to ensure that I would not interrupt their studying.

Amelie has the correct look and age of the way I want my cast member to be, however she does 4 subjects and has a job therefore she will have less free time. She also has no acting experience so I wouldn't know how she would act in front of a camera.

 

 Charlotte has the correct look, age and acting experience which are the main priorities whilst I'm choosing my cast, however she does have a job which I wouldn't want to interfere with.

Eloise is one of the cast members who least fits the criteria as she has no acting experience, however she is confident and she studies less subjects than Amelie.

Katie is also not the best match to my criteria as she is only 16, even though she has acting experience I feel that her look isn't very pop-punk.

The person I chose in the end was Charlotte Skipsey as she meets the criteria of what I want in my music video. Also her acting experience will make it a lot easier to film as she will be confident whilst performing.

Story Board

Doing a storyboard was extremely helpful as it meant that my ideas were organised and I could ensure that I hadn't missed anything out. It also meant that I had a shot for every bit of the song, and gave me the experience of what it is like actually working on a music video, film etc as this is what producers actually do when making a new product.


ANIMATIC

Doing an animatic is also important and helpful as it allows me to see whether my ideas actually go with the music and whether or not it would be possible to do the editing to the beat of the music so it doesn't look rushed.

Props

Microphone & Stand

I will be using a microphone and stand to help with the performance element of my music video. These are used in live performances which shows how I am trying to interpret the more indie 'in it for the music' approach.

Black electric guitar

I am using a black electric guitar as I feel the black resembles the genre and the guitar shows the true and real approach. Also, it will add something interesting to the performance as she will be able to use to emphasise the lyrics.

Clock

In one of my shots there is a clock. This represents how she is waiting as she is waiting for a long time therefore the time shows this.

Health and Safety

Doing a risk assessment was important for me as a priority whilst filming was ensuring that my cast and people who helped out were kept safe.

Possible places my video will be featured/advertised

YouTube

YouTube is a website that allows live streaming of all sorts of videos. This would be a good place to feature my video as so many people have access to the web therefore they can view anything online.

































The first thing I did was see what the 'top music videos by genre' are.

This meant that I could see whether any pop punk music videos where in the top charts.

I also typed 'pop punk' in the search bar to see the suggested searches which meant that I could see what is mostly associated with pop punk and what people are mainly searching regarding pop punk.

The final thing I did was search 'pop punk' which then lead me to a '42 song pop punk mash-up' which allowed me to see what the most popular pop punk music videos look like to help influence my own music video and understand whether or not my video would be suitable for YouTube or not.

Instagram

Instagram would be a good place to display my music video as many bands and artists tend to put previews of their music videos onto instagram to tease their followers as there is a time limit on how long your videos are. It is a good place to get noticed as people can search hashtags and come up with the most recent posts that have hashtagged what the instagram user is searching for (e.g. #poppunk)











Here I searched #poppunk which then gave me the most popular hashtags regarding pop-punk.

Here are the results from my search. As you can see there is no videos that have recently been posted where the instagram user has hastagged pop-punk therefore instagram may not be the best thing to use to advertise my product, however more and more people are using Instagram, especially the younger generation therefore if a products target audience was teenagers then this would be a good advertising opportunity.