Tick sheet for Coursework Research and Planning A2

1. Analyse AT LEAST 5 videos in your chosen music genre and embed the YouTube videos onto your blog to gain maximum marks.
2. Upload images and analysis of location, costume, props etc
3. Make sure you have a photo storyboard/drawn storyboard/animatic plus analysis INCLUDING changes made and why
4. Include an audience questionnaire about audience expectations of videos in your chosen genre - embed the Survey Monkey link
5. Lyrics analysis with initial ideas (include shot types and possible edits you intend to use).
6. Research of music video directors - eg. David Fincher - with conventions they use in their work
7. Research into websites and digipacks - put the analysis of the Kanye West Rolling Stone cover in with this - Link to artist research examples here 
8. Images and analysis of 2 music magazine adverts for a forthcoming tour of an artist like yours
9. Theory posts - Andrew Goodwin, Tori Kelly, Facial expressions, Laura Mulvey
10. Your final pitch: Make sure you have a narrative analysis of your planned pitch
11. Embed rough cuts of your work with feedback from public and changes made

Audience Research for your artist

Buy a music magazine which features articles/adverts about artists in your chosen genre.


Analyse an advert or article for the representations made about the artist which you can then use for your website/digipack research.


Now look at how how the magazine writes about its reader in their Media Pack.
This should help you have a more detailed understanding of how to write about the audience for your artist.


Here's Q magazine's media pack.


Q Magazine Media Pack

Sample Artist Bios and Backstory

Here are some sample artist biographies, you will need to know this information about your artist if you are to create a believable video, website, digipak, or magazine advertisement.

The Weeknd

Abel Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known by his stage name The Weeknd(pronounced "weekend"), is a Canadian singer, songwriter and record producer. In late 2010, Tesfaye anonymously uploaded several songs to YouTube under the name "The Weeknd". 

He released three nine-track mixtapes throughout 2011: House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence, which were critically acclaimed.[1] The following year, he released a compilation album Trilogy, thirty tracks[2] consisting of remastered versions of the mixtape material and three additional songs. It was released under Republic Records and his own label XO. 

In 2013, he released his debut studio album Kiss Land, which was supported by the singles "Kiss Land" and "Live For". His second album, Beauty Behind the Madness, which became his first number one album on the Billboard200, included the top-five single "Earned It" and produced the number-one singles "The Hills" and "Can't Feel My Face".

Music videos for Production Design

Researching artists, videos and ancillary tasks for your project.

For your G324 project you are not simply creating a music video, but in reality you are creating:

"A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options: 

• a website homepage for the band; 

• a digipak for the album’s release;

•  a magazine advertisement for the digipak."

So in reality you are creating a new band, and promoting a new fictitious album from them. 

(Only you will be 'borrowing' a real song to use for the video part) 

Your blog and your research should reflect this. You will need to research bands and artists as a whole and see;

1. How they promote themselves across multiple platforms (video / website / artwork)
2. If and how they create consistent theme through image, style, design, colour, narrative, tone, etc. 
3. How these various elements come together to promote a single media text (in this case an album) 

As an example, have a look at this from CHVRCHES. A pop/electronic band from Glasgow who are about to release a new album called " Every Open Eye"

Videos: 

Website screenshots;

Album page

Merchandise / Shop page 

Main 'Splash' screen promoting album 

Menu tab

Instagram

Album + single artwork. (digipak art)

Album

Single

Single

Single 

Publicity Photos 

What you need to do, is put an analysis of more than one artist on your blog, who is currently or has recently promoted a new album. You should include examples of the media texts listed in the brief (Videos, website, artwork, magazine adverts). What you need to do, that I have not done, is to analyse and evaluate the images and examples you are adding to your blog to answer the questions I put at the top of this post. 

- Mr Lane