Group : Progress update

During the course of the lesson we have each been developing our print work ideas and trying to progress them further. In terms of our music advertisement we believe that the aesthetic of it does not help it to stand out as we would have liked so we are trying to develop an effect on photoshop to do so. We have a session booked in order to understand how to apply the tracking for our stop motion effect to our production on after effects  on the 20th November.

We are hoping to complete another shoot his week within an internal location (bedroom), as well as in an alleyway location, which we have already planned for the 21/11, however we need to find out when everyone is able to film. Therefore when we do so we will need to book out the equipment ready, which will consist of what we have been previously using to film. Therefore we need to complete a callsheet and risk assessment ready for the filming in the alleyway location In the near future, as well as book out all of the equipment to use for the film session.

 

Mrs Fernandez feedback 2

There are some very interesting visual ideas here; I particularly like the brick wall image and the concept of vintage TV / games console.  However at the moment there is no coherent aesthetic across all three pieces.

Also, your analysis does not explicitly use semiotics as requested, nor discuss reading path with it labelled.

Current analysis of print is L3, concepts as developing 3, but potential to be L4.  Please go back and use critical theory properly to deconstruct your proposed designs.

SH:Draft print work analysis

Is the artist present or absent?
According to Dyers paradox, in this advert our star is both present and absent which is how we are creating his star image. The fact that the star is in the image and is the main focus portrays him in a present way, this is very typical of the rap/ indie rap genre in which the artist is very present in all sorts of print, however in our one we have decided to also portray him in an absent light by having him not breaking the fourth wall like conventional prints do.

Is the work autobiographical?
This print is fairly autobiographical, as you can see be the big, bold, black, simplistic font and the presence of the artist, the audience already know that the track is going to be about the artist, the fact that he is present makes it more intimate to the viewer and heightens his sense of him contributing to the narrative himself and his meta-narrative.

Are there links between your video and print work?
So far in this print, I have tried to incorporate the more rural look which helps to bring the artist in closer relation to the audience. I have also added a subtle colour wash, the orange, yellows and reds have become more prominent which is the sort of colour we are looking to use in our video as it gives a slightly more vintage feel which has links to some elements within our video.

Typography
The font of the image is modern and minimalistic, however with a gritty urban twist. We believe this connotes the views and portrayal of our artist, who we have shown to be fashionable and modern but with an ironic and slightly comical touch that is definitely shown through the music and the video. The subtle rugged look to the font has connotations of a new age youth and urbanism, it is used to portray the artist in a more present way to the audience and not as a big mainstream pop star, making him more attractive as an 'approachable star'.

What are the idealogical discourse portrayed?
There are some links towards a rebellious sort of attitude, portrayed by the graffiti wall with the care free look on the artists face. The artists represents more of the younger, teen, audience. The way he is dressed, with a fashionable coat with mirrored glasses and his in-fashion faded hair makes him seem to appeal to more of the psychographic of opinion leaders and trend setters. This is something that is very much prominent in our video.

Representations
The wall in the image is an urban looking structure, we believe that it portrays the artist in a non-pop star sort of manner, appealing to his target audience.

What is the reading path?
The big bold text is the most eye catching part of the image, this is what is seen first as it stands out so much, however we are considering making this more subtle by giving it a bit more of a rough, urban feel. After this the eyes are drawn to the face and specifically the glasses of the artist. Then down to the 'vs GOTYE' bit of text, we will also be adding the title of the track on which will most likely be the final line on the reading path.
When looking at the rule of thirds we see that the layout of the magazine advert is slightly unconventional in the positioning of the image. Generally you would see the main image, ie. the artists face being placed upon one of the green dots. However we have decided to be more experimental in the structure of this advert. The advert would be placed as a small advert strip along the bottom of the page therefore the advert is not actually very square, so we thought pushing the image to one side rather than attempting to adhere to the rule of thirds would suit the type of advert much more.

 

 

 

 

4. Deconstruct USING SEMIOTICS all separate aspects of mise-en-scene (lighting, nv lang, composition, props etc)

5. How do these aspects represent the artist?  You may refer to Dyer here

6. Comment on myth / ideological discourse that are constructed through the text

 

AW : Print Work Draft Analysis

Rule of Thirds and Layout Design

From this image of our front and back cover with the rule of thirds applied, we can see that our design infact challenges the rule of thirds as there are no focus points over our star image or any of our main text. However we believe this assists our minimalist design and gives it a slightly alternative edge rather than just being very plain and basic. The reading path of the front cover begins with the large silhouette of the artists face, before leading down to the title of the track, and then back to the top where the reader links the artist name with the large image in the centre.

 Typography

The font we have chosen is very minimalist and basic, however is narrow and tall, thus making it different and slightly alternative from a common don't such as Ariel or Helvetica. We have taken our inspiration from the brand DONDA Design, who make album cover for rap label G.O.O.D Music, on a post I made yesterday, where they use the Bebas font with a very simple solid image gradient underneath, to create a stylish and simplistic design

 

Lighting

This is the main focus point of our image as it is a silhouette of our artist, keeping a very clean and minimalist look, we did not want to edit the lighting of this image too much however we did make the image greyscale to keep it even more plain, making sure none of the audiences focus was taken away from our artist. The fact he is in the shadows also shows that he is hiding and trying to cover himself, but that he will be revealed in the process of listening to the track.

 

Composition

The composition of the text, when applied to Dyers Star Theory we see that the artist 'Is both present and absent' in our front cover, aswell as in our back cover where some of the images involve his face, and other do not or distort it, leaving the audience striving to get the full picture of this artists life. This technique can also be seen in Kendrick Lamar's album cover for Good Kid Maad City, where it shows a childhood image of his, thus he is present in the shot yet absent as the image is not the artist as we know him.

 

Link between print work and video

The print work is linked to our video as both of our pieces incorporate the round window you see in our front cover, however for the album cover it is Mikill Pane's face and in the video it is Gotye's face thus linking the two artists together in the audiences mind, so they think of it as one mashup Song, rather than two separate songs put together.

AW : Print Work Inspiration Post

A collection of print work from DONDA Design

We have looked at different rap artists work that we like and are going to use this sort of minimal style for our print work

 

 

 

AH : Print progress

During the lesson today we have each began to develop our print work on Photoshop. I am currently producing the print work for the advertisement.

We got this image from what we have taken during our practise shoots and thought it would be a good idea to use within this ad, as well as for the album cover of our print work.

 In order to create this image we have used various aspects in order to position and scale our original image as well as adding in a black background. We have had to cut out the single image of our artist in this case and increase the size of the image through photoshop.



 Furthermore, we have also had to adjust aspects of our image using various editing tools via photoshop. For example we have been able to create a shadow effect on our photo.

In this case here we have managed to enhance the colour of our image better so that the colour stands out more  and looks a bit more attractive and eye catching. This therefore helps to draw attention to our silhouette image used by contrasting it against a light green background so that the image is much more visual to an audience.












In terms of the text used within our production we have used a fairly minimalist font so that the name of the artist, as well as the release date is obvious and simple to read. The use of white font once again has been used against a black background in order to make it stand out well to the audience. In terms of our progress so far it is evident in terms of this that the aesthetic needs something which will help to draw in the audience a bit more and to make it stand out so therefore we are currently trying to develop an idea which we can apply on Photoshop to make it more attractive and experimental.

 

The conventions for a typical representation of Mikill Pane are normally fairly minimalist so therefore we are going to conform to this approach, however we do wish for this piece to stand out more and reach out to the target audience.

 



Group: Shoot review 10/11/13

On the 10th November we planned our shoot to be at Sam's house to film mostly performance shots but also some stop motion. However on the way there we decided we would re-shoot some our the footage at the Southborough location as we were not quite satisfied with it. We shot about 3 more performance shots whilst we were there and we are very happy with how they look. We also decided to practise taking some images for our print work while we were there but it has actually turned out that we are going to use these images for the actual print work as they mostly look very good, we took a lot of shots, around 15, in different angles and with different framing to help us decide which looked best when on a computer.

The problems we had with our shoot at Sam's house was that although the lighting looked very good compared to most other bedrooms, we did not really feel it had the right aesthetic to fit with out genre and the feel of our music video. However we have got some shots that we are perfectly happy to use from this location. Because of this we have decided to also film at Alex's house as the bedroom we will use there would really suit the video, we may need to look at lighting however.

We also shot some stop motion at Sam's house of objects moving around as if they were thoughts coming out from the artists head, the way that we set them up looked very good. However it was very hard to frame all the shots exactly the same as we had to shoot from a birds eye view, next time we shoot this (at Alex's house) we are going to make a fake bed by putting a duvet and pillows on a plain area of floor so that we are able to shoot from a less high position but still at a birds eye view.