Full treatment 2

This is our idea two which my group and I pitched to the class

Full treatment 1

This is our idea 1 that Adriana, Tegan, Bashy and I pitched to the class. 

Feedback

In this lesson I presented my two song choices to the class and I received feedback. They listened to each song and decided whether it was a band/artist, the genre, target audience, performance and costume. This was helpful as it narrowed down which song would be best to use as a new upcoming artist to build their campaign. 

1. Voix - Pull You Down

It is clear from the song that this was a male pop artist, most likely a lead singer in a typical boy band which would appeal to young teenagers and fit into the mainstream music category. This music video would be easy to cast within our school, most likely a musical theatre actor as the singer sounds quite confident and outgoing. In the feedback, my classmates imagined the music video to be very bright and colourful, with the male singer dressed quite trendy. The music video would most likely be a performance which would include dancers and visuals. Conventions could include a slight love interest in order to appeal for teenage girls and also parents who would approve to buy this for their daughter. My peers felt that this lead singer character would be very self focused meaning the music video and campaign would be completely focused on him and his attention from girls.

In my production group, which consists of Bashy, Tegan, Adriana and I, we chose to use this song as our backup choice as we think that it would be interesting to create an image for a solo male pop artist, this would be marketable to a large audience and castable as a music video. 

2. Matthew V - Give It All 

This second song choice runs under the same pop category, however has a slight twist in artist. In the feedback I received, people thought that this artist lacks the love interest and could appeal to any type of audience. The singer sounds like a slightly older solo male artist which would mean we would cast an A2 boy. This pop genre has a hint of house with it, meaning the music video would focus more on the visuals rather than the artist himself. This music video would be more fun and upbeat rather than seriously focusing on the good looking male singer in the other song choice. 

Your Songs

 1. Pull You Down - Voix 

4,091 streams on Soundcloud 

https://soundcloud.com/wearevoix/pull-you-down?in=electroniccaferendezvous/sets/chichounes-jukebox-pop-soul

Male pop artist

no music video 

2. Mathew V - Give It All

1,491 streams on SoundCloud 

https://soundcloud.com/604recordsmusic/mathew-v-give-it-all?in=electroniccaferendezvous/sets/chichounes-jukebox-pop-soul

House/electronic solo male artist

Music video analysis of 'This is America'

 

After studying and analysing the 'This is America' music video by Donald Glover, I picked up on the key topics of gun violence and cultural erasion of black people. The genre is conveyed in this music video through the use of genre conventions, for example, it is clear that the genre is rap/pop due to the imagery of police brutality, weapons and violence, these technical conventions of rap is used to sell the meaning behind the lyrics by using imagery. 

The music video opens with light hearted music, Glover is seen wearing grey trousers and shirtless which emphasises his vulnerability and also it allows the viewer to identify with the ‘humaneness ’. This African upbeat music is broken when Glover references a pose by a historic character named Jim Crow, a fictional racist character who created a stereotype against black people in the early 1800s. This reference to Jim Crow suggests the topic of racial segregation laws in that era.

 The threat of African Americans is resembled as Glover shoots this man as the music breaks to dialog saying 'This is America' for the first time. Each time this sentence is repeated throughout the song after every gun shot, it highlights the significance of gun problems in America. 

We see the gun being carefully handled in a red cloth which intertextualises how the government respond to shootings against black African Americans, meanwhile, the man is dragged off frame without any care. This highlights the issue that guns are given more care and respect than the victim. As the body is dragged off in the background, us as the audience are focused on Glover in center frame. The camera angle does this to show that the viewers are more focused on what is in the spotlight rather than the real issues going on, how we are distracted from real world issues about race and African American history. As glover continues to walk on, he does not hesitate to look back at the victims.

The next important scene in this music video is the symbolism of how police deal with racist, hate, mass shootings, this is referenced to the Charleston church shooting in 2015. The gun chosen in this scene is an AK-47 which was created to kill mass people in wars, it is now a weapon of choice for mass shooters in America. After Glover shoots all the gospel singers, we see the rifle once again being carefully wrapped in red cloth resembling that guns are more important than black lives. Then we see imagery of police officers running to the black shooting victims, not the actual shooter who walks past them all. This is because Glover is trying to point out how police ignore the white shooter and immediately assume it was because of the black gospel singers.

As Glover and other black children are dancing, a man in the background supposably jumps off from the prison like balcony and commits suicide, in this moment Glover is smiling and not acknowledging this, which suggests the ways that black cultural production is appropriated by white audiences. His dancing serves as a distraction from the riots and violence happening behind him.

As the camera angle moves, we see more of the location of this music video. It is set in a empty wear-house with prison like balcony's. This is emphasised when Glover says 'This is celly not a tool' while we see imagery of black people recording videos on their phones off the balcony. This suggests how black people use social media and phones to document police violence and also using prison cells as a tool for black oppression. 

We see imagery of a white horse being ridden through riots as cars are burning and violence is going on. This imagery of a white horse symbolises judgment day and the day that the world ends, Glover is pointing out that we all are distracted that we don't notice the world falling apart behind us. 

Everyone disappears in fright when Glover pretends to hold a gun, this imagery symbolises how white Americans who do crazy things with guns aren't as feared as a black man holding a gun. The silence in this scene lasts for about seventeen seconds before the music continues.

The ending scene is very important. It highlights clear links of the themes and elements of imagery from the referenced film 'Get out'. We see Glover running for his life from a group of white riot police officers. 

Sources used: 

Insider - https://www.insider.com/this-is-america-music-video-meaning-references-childish-gambino-donald-glover-2018-5

Analysis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_LIP7qguYw

Feedback on Album Artwork

 After presenting my album artwork to my class I received feedback on it. 

Was it clear if your artwork was a band or artist?

It was confusing due to the two images of girls on the front cover which could convey that it is a band, however the title 'Aura' signifies that this is a solo artist. 

To improve on that, I should only include one person on the front cover to make it clear that this is a solo female artist. The feminine feel to this artist cover does not sexualise the girls, which portrays that the target audience is majority teenage girls.

Was your genre clear? What conventions did you use that were successful? 

My class guessed that the genre was indie, alternative pop and perhaps a lofi feel to it. This was because of the pastel colours which matched with the colour of the sunset, and the design of the grafiti lines which gave an edgy, alternative feel and the reflective writing is similar to other indie/pop titles on album artworks. The style in which the photo looks like it is a poloroid photo which suggests it's a new, trendy artist as this style is similar to those on instagram.

What worked well overall 

I received positive feedback about what worked overall, such as the ideology which is created by the album name relates to the two faces of the girls as they almost fade away which relates to the title of 'nothings real' suggesting an ideology statement that nothing is real and that the two girls are even temporary ewhich resembles the outlook on life its self. 

The grafiti drawn line along with the black parental advisory label gives an edgy feel and also gives off a personal touch, making it seem as if she had signed it. 

The randomness of all the editing and layout further emphasises at the genre and makes it feel relaxed and lighthearted. 

On the backcover, the name is in center top focus which reinforces the artists name and the selling point of the albums artist's name. 

What could you have improved

Some elements of this album artwork which didn't work include;

The basket ball hoop on the back cover, it doesn't correspond to the artist or the front cover and it also suggests that the artist is American. The track numbers could also be in the center of the back cover along with the track names, this would help center the design. 

The font of 'nothings real' doesn't match with the other title font, this could be improved by using the same font as the artists name as the albums name.

My designed artwork

 

Here, I used an image I took and uploaded it onto photoshop to create the front and back album cover.

I included the artists name, the aesthetic of their image, the album name, parental advisory label, legal copyright information, barcode, list of tracks in alphabetical order and studio label name.