Research Into Directors

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Research Into Directors

Research into the Band/Artsist

Chris Brown

The song I decided to use for my music video is ‘Beautiful People’ by Chris Brown. Chris Brown is an American recording artist, dancer, and actor. He taught himself to sing and dance at a young age and was involved in several local talent shows. Having signed with Jive Records in 2004, Chris released his self-titled debut album the following year. It peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200 and was later certified double platinum. With his first single "Run It!" peaking above the US Billboard Hot 100, Chris became the first male artist as a lead since Diddy have his debut single top the chart. His second album Exclusive (2007) spawned his second Hot 100 number one "Kiss Kiss", in addition to "With You" and "Forever". The album also certified double platinum. His third album Graffiti was released in 2009, and included the top-twenty single "I Can Transform Ya". Chris' fourth album F.A.M.E. (2011) became his first to top the Billboard 200; it spawned hit singles "Yeah 3x", "Look at Me Now", and "Beautiful People". F.A.M.E. earned Chris his first Grammy Award for Best R&B Album at the 54th Grammy Awards. His fifth album Fortune was released in 2012.

 

 

 

Apart from his work in the music industry, Chris has pursued an acting career. In 2007, he made his on-screen feature film debut in Stomp the Yard, and appeared as a guest on the television series The O.C. Other films Chris has appeared in, include This Christmas, Takers, Think Like a Man, and Battle of the Year, throughout his career, Chris has won numerous awards, including two NAACP Image Awards, three American Music Awards and twelve BET Awards.

 

In 2007, Chris founded the record label CBE (Chris Brown Entertainment or Culture Beyond Your Evolution), under Interscope Records. He has since signed frequent collaborator Kevin McCall, singer Sabrina Antoinette, former RichGirl member Sevyn Streeter and rock group U.G.L.Y.

 

In addition to his solo commercial success, Chris has been featured on several hits such as "No Air", a duet with singer Jordin Sparks, "Shortie like Mine" with the rapper Bow Wow and "Shawty Get Loose" alongside Lil Mama and T-Pain. The songs have peaked at number three, number nine and number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 respectively. Due to his dance routines, Chris Brown has been compared to R&B artists Usher and Michael Jackson and has cited them as a large influence on his music.

Conventions of a Music Video

Video Mood Board

video mood board from vanessa wanner on Vimeo.

Location Recce

Equipment Research

Audience research

Influences Of Music Style

The History Of Music Videos

Research Into Existing Music Videos

Theory

Research Into Genre

Pop music originated in its modern form in the 1950s, deriving from rock and roll. As a genre, pop music is very eclectic, often borrowing elements from other styles including urban, dance, rock, Latin and country. However there are core elements which define pop. Such include generally short-to-medium length songs, written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), as well as the common employment of repeated choruses, melodic tunes, and catchy hooks.

 

Characteristics

Musicologists often identify the following characteristics as typical of the pop music genre:

• an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology
• an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities
• an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, over live performance
• a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments
• much pop music is intended to encourage dancing, or it uses dance-oriented beats or rhythms

Definitions

David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as "a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, and folk musics".

Although pop music is often seen as oriented towards the singles charts it is not the sum of all chart music, which has always contained songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs, while pop music as a genre is usually seen as existing and developing separately.

Influences and development

The term "pop song" is first recorded as being used in 1926, in the sense of a piece of music "having popular appeal".

Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues and hillbilly music.

Since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the special meaning of non-classical music, usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, ABBA, etc".

In the early 1960s [the term] 'pop music' competed terminologically with Beat music [in England], while in the USA its coverage overlapped (as it still does) with that of 'rock and roll'".

From about 1967 the term was increasingly used in opposition to the term rock music, a division that gave generic significance to both terms.

Influences and development

Pop music has absorbed influences from most other genres of popular music. Early pop music drew on the sentimental ballad for its form, gained its use of vocal harmonies from gospel and soul music, instrumentation from jazz, country, and rock music, orchestration from classical music, tempo from dance music, backing from electronic music, rhythmic elements from hip-hop music, and has recently appropriated spoken passages from rap.

It has also made use of technological innovation. In the 1940s improved microphone design allowed a more intimate singing style.

Another technological change was the widespread availability of television in the 1950s; with televised performances, "pop stars had to have a visual presence". In the 1960s, the introduction of inexpensive, portable transistor radios meant that teenagers could listen to music outside of the home.

Pop music has been dominated by the American and (from the mid-1960s) British music industries, whose influence has made pop music something of an international monoculture, but most regions and countries have their own form of pop music, sometimes producing local versions of wider trends, and lending them local characteristics.

Some non-Western countries, such as Japan, have developed a thriving pop music industry, most of which is devoted to Western-style pop, has for several years has produced a greater quantity of music of everywhere except the USA.

Research Into Similar Product Research

A Vida Doce - Short Film from Haydon Media on Vimeo.

Regardless of this being a short film it’s similar to how I plan my video to look like. My video is going to look at the beauty of people. My video focuses on family, people around the world and how every each one of them are perfect in their own way. My video is somewhat sentimental and embraces people in their natural habitat. Like the movie most things in my video aren’t staged, it looks at how people act in their everyday life and the happiness that surrounds them.

 

The video uses a lot of close-ups to show peoples expressions and allow them to stand out more than their surroundings, in my video I plan on using quite a few close-ups and long shots as I plan on basing my video on the beauty of people around the world. Having filmed in another country just like Johnny Fonseca did in his film I have incorporated both long shots and mid shots so people can see the surroundings and culture of Zambia.

 

Filming such things like fountains helped Johnny set the scene in his film which is similar to what I did. I was able to film such things like traditional African wooden sculptures that would set the scene and remind people that they’re watching something from a country on the other side of the world. This in turn allows people to pay more attention to the video as they would be interested in seeing how the other half live. 

Andrew Goodwin

Magazine Poster Analysis

What is a Digipak?

 

 

Aim of a Digipak

Used by record labels to promote the sales of the artist. Its features give fans multiple reasons to buy the CD rather than downloading the content via a website such as iTunes. It offers a more aesthetic experience, allowing the buyer to gain pleasure from the exclusive photographs and artwork included in the pack.

A Digipak will promote the artist by creating brand identity. It will present the artist in a particular way whilst paying close attention to the target audience and the genre of the music.

 

Conventions of a Digipak

 

Conventions of a Digipak

 

A Digipak is usually created as a 4 or 6 plate folded piece pf card with a CD in the middle. The back of a Digipak includes information of the songs included this allows people buying the Digipak to get an insight of what they are about to buy. With the increase in digital downloads and apps such as Spotify and websites such as YouTube, demand for Digipaks is declining. The use of Illegal downloads are also at fault as to why Digipaks aren’t in demand

 

It sometimes includes:

·         A DVD

·         Lyric Book

·         Artist photos or Imagery

·         List of Songs

 

How does a Digipak benefit the artist?

 

The font of the Digipak will have some aspect of what the artist represents and what their predominate genre is. The Digipak will most likely embody a message about the artist image. This emphasises the artist’s brand image which would increase the popularity of the album. In addition, the Digipak exemplifies the artistic and creative approach the artist is taking throughout their music.

 

Digipaks benefit the artist and their music as it is a promotional aspect of the music industry which helps bring awareness to the artist, thus selling the artist and encouraging consumers to buy and listen to their music. You could argue that by buying a Digipak it in turn establishes your loyalty to the artist.

Digipak Analysis