dear examiner

well this is last you post you will read so I thought I would make it good. This blog contains the steady rise of the  ancillary tasks and of course the final product. I hope that you have enjoyed this journey as much as we did creating to video, editing the photos and seeing the buzz created by this.

Until I make it big peace out Joshua Stewart AKA Iceburg

evaluation 4 (unfinished)

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I put together this collage to show the icons of the websites and programs and equipment that I have used over the course of the project. 

We used Prezi to create a couple of presentations during this project, including the presentation for our initial music video pitch. This website was useful for creating suave and interactive pitches, and offers something different compared to normal presentation features such as 'paths'.

Google was a useful website during the research stages of our project as it allowed us to search for other websites such as the Atlantic Records website and Island records.

Photoshop was a vital tool in our process as a key program due to using it to add all the text and effects on the images for our digipak and the magazine advert.

Blogger was obviously a key website for us, as this is where our progress was tracked and all our tasks can be found at different stages of completion. Without Blogger it would be impossible to track our progress and there would be no forum to post our work.

Twitter is a website which became the spine for our market research Matthew used it to post the final cut of our video to his followers followers and request feedback via Youtube comments.This was then echoed via the use of my tumblr account to gage a wider response . This was a useful method to reach a large audience as many tweeters are active web users and are likely to have access to YouTube so they could comment.

 Youtube then became very useful as it was used it to upload rough cuts of our video and other key videos such as our director's commentaries. Youtube is popular due to its high quality streaming which is why we chose to use it, and the comments section allowed us to recieve easy and direct feedback.

Finally, the key program we used throughout this project was Final Cut Express. This program was essential for editing videos and we used it to create our rough cuts, our final cuts, our director's commentaries, and our audience feedback videos. All the effects visible in our final cut such as the earthquake effect and defocus effect, were added to clips via Final Cut Express.

The mac above was the source of the editing programs we used; Photoshop for our pictures, and Final Cut Express for our videos, including our actual final piece. It was a privelege to have such efficient software and equipment provided by our college.

We used a light reflector for some of our shots in order to improve the lighting and direct it in a specific way. The main scene we used this in was the scene of Josh rapping in his bedroom, as we directed the shine from the ceiling light onto his face for better effect.

The tripod was vital as it allowed us to get steady, professional looking shots, especially in the music booth, which is where we used it most, with handheld shots being appropriate for much of the rest of our video.

The dolly was not used much in our video, however it proved useful for the shot of Josh taking out his iPod in his house as he walked towards the camera, we were then able to do a great front on tracking shot. Using the dolly and tripod together meant that our shot could remain steady but also enabled camera movement.

The most important piece of equipment was the camera of course! We used a Canon HD video camera in order to record all of our shots, which we then uploaded to the Mac via usb, before log and transferring the footage into Final Cut Express. This piece of equipment was irreplacable and vital to our success. The camera was good because it was hand held with great focus, meaning it was easy to manouvere during quick take shots, and also the detachable piece of plastic seen on the bottom allowed the camera to be attached to a tripod when necessary. We also took pictures for our digipak on this camera, using the photo function. This gave the pictures a great definition, and were great quality compared to what most digital cameras are capable of.

evaluation 3

By using the feedback from our questionaire from Matthew's initial research. From this feedback we were able to proceed with our process of creating and developing our artist Iceburg.

After reading and processing our feedback we put together this compilation of the journey of our video and ancillary tasks.This video shows the development of our digipack as it took several edits before we were satisfied that we covered all that could and it was aesthetically pleasing.

Feedback for our rough cut can be archived from on earlier posts.
from this we constructed a director's commentary Matthew and myself about the Rough Cut of Matthew's edit which was very similar to mine and Manan's. 


 
We received a mixed reception for the shot of our dogs, some liked it but some of our target audience didn't. We were advised to use more shots of Josh from lower angles as we used one in an earlier rough cut which worked really well. We were also advised to remove the blur affect that was put in as it looked like we lost control of the camera rather than the effect we were aiming for which was to make it look as if the point of view was coming from someone who was drunk. Some of the lip syncing wasn't perfect, therefore we decided to cut some clips where Iceburg forgets his lyrics and add footage of him walking and acting up to the camera instead.


For the purpose of gaining crucial advise of how to improve and rectify the mistakes made in the rough cut we shared a copy of the video via facebook.

 This was the director's commentary of Manan and Matthew talking about the final cut which was edited after taking into consideration the comments from our first feedback.

evaluation 2

How Effective is the Combination of Your Main

evaluation question 1

eval 1 on Prezi

Front cover final

Here the finished front cover of our digipak. This image was taken against a plain white wall as we wanted it to isolate our artist just in case we decided to create an imaginer background. In the end we decided we  didn't want any unnecessary objects or designs in the front cover. This is because we want the focus to be on our artist Iceburg keeping it simple was the best way of doing so. This is because he as a brand new artist and we needed him to be instantly recognizable for his fans and genre. The changes we have made since our last edit are that we have moved the 'Parental Adivsory' logo to the left and we have also taken it in slightly so that it isn't touching the corner of the cover. Again, from our digipak reseach, we found that the Parental Advisory logo is always slightly brought in and is never touching the edges of the cover. Our feedback also told us that the right side of the cover was 'too plain' and it would be better if we weren't stealing focus from Iceburg's with the Parental Advisory sign. Our artist name and album name are clear and bold with the font we brought in from the previous design. We used the blueish colour to represent the 'icy' theme he brings to the table. We put the artist name beside the artists face, while the album name was much lower down towards his body. This was because our feedback said that this works well because if the artist and album name were closer together the cover would look more bland and that this way we fill in the gaps better. Overall we as a group are happy with our front cover as we believe it looks professional yet simple as we haven't done anything fancy because Iceburg is a debut artist and still needs to establish himself on the scene.

back cover: final

This is the finished back cover for our digipak. We used a shot from the recording session of Iceburg hard at firing in the booth for our back cover as it looked like a nice 'real' shot as opposed to all the purposeful poses in the other pictures. We decided to use the black paper on the wall as a background for the track list as conviently in the background, so we capitalised on the opportunity. This worked out well as there was nowhere else we could have written the tracklist without using a different shot for our back cover. In the bottom right is the barcode. We believe this placement and size is accurate based on other albums and digipaks we researched. We put in the Atlantic Records logo next to this as we noticed label's logos often appear on the back cover of albums and digipacks. The website remained at the bottom in a font which fits in with the other white text and logos. This is followed by a copyright symbol which is a legal requirement which we failed to remember on the original drafts. Finally, we have inserted the Dolby Digital logo as we noticed that this appeared on the back cover of many CDs , so to make our product have the perfect verisimilitude we used all the necessary ingredients. 

final cut finished video

edited digipack panels

isbn

From the initial presentation of the digipack outside panel some alterations have been made. The panel of the front cover has been moved from left to right as we didn't realise that we had misunderstood the template and had the panels in the wrong order. the front cover also now has the parental advisory sign on the right rather than on the left because we noticed from other products that it appears on the right more often. The back cover was also edited as certain compulsory elements had not been  taken into account. For example we did not include the 'Dolby Digital' label has now been included as on the initial copy it was missed out. We also chose to include the record label's symbol (Atlantic records) because on similar products both the record label and symbol were included. A spine has also been introduced as it was completely missed off the first draft. The spine simply consists of the artist's name and the album along with the record label and isbn number as it is a legal requirement to include the isbn.

filming: house sequence

The process for the two house sequence is final part of our sequence after our planning for the video initial cut was decided. the sequence will involve more narrative and less lip syncing as we have already used the booth sequence for the lycing requirements. With incorperating the house sequence it will satisfy the criteria of our hybrid video of performance and narrative.

record label: the decision

we chose Atlantic Records as they seemed to have less big artists, which means they would have time to develop the ones they do have.

Atlantic Records' parent company is Warner Music Group, whom are widely seen as the second biggest record label in the world and are constantly in contention with the other major labels: Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and EMI who prior to late 2011 would be regarded as one of the major labels.

Atlantic Records is an American label founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. It was in 1967 that Warner became their parent company. The label are most famous for being host to many major rock acts over the years such as Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, and also helping the evolution of African-American music, as they held such talents as Ben E. King (best known for 'Stand By Me') and Ray Charles (best known for 'Hit The Road, Jack') in the prime of their careers. Currently their most popular artists are of the urban genre, as their website mainly promotes rappers; Wiz Khalifa (similar style to our artist) and T.I as well as RnB star Trey Songz. With such a convincing range of talent we were sure that Iceburg would fit in nicely at Atlantic records.

'its Rizz'

At the start of the song which we have created a video for the first words are its 'Rizz' and our tracklisting, features the title 'It's Rizz!' while our artist is signed under the title Iceburg, This is simply the name we have chosen to present. Many rappers have alternative names, for example UK rapper Wiley also goes by the name 'Esky boi', and Eminem of course is also known as 'Slim Shady', we decided that we would use the name Iceburg to promote our artists instead of his alternative 'Rizz'

video latest edit

this is our video after taking into account the feedback from the primary audience and with new footage to try and hit the new objectives.

digipack outside panels

This is the outside panels of my CD digipack which was developed and edited on photoshop, and unlike the inner layers it send out a more business message.

The first picture(front cover) is very unorthodox as we see Iceburg doing up his jacket from the top... he clearly doesn't conform which sends out a message like other artists including ed sheeran whose album cover showed simply his face with no other information making the target market have to listen to his music to see what he is about.The text is sharp and stands out on the white background so that it is easy to read after receiving feedback saying that the title and artist name couldn't be distinguished  we chose to spread it out so that it is very clear that we can tell which is which. the explicit content was a label requirement as we have to inform the consumer that the lyrics may be more than they expected.

The second shot (back cover) shows off the more business end of the album we see the artist in the studio as if busy at work. this shot was taken from the set for the music video 'Im 17' but because of the effectiveness it was promoted to the digipack. the tracklist is from the left because of the back backdrop which conveniently was in the studio and greatly contrasted with the font colour and style. 

The third panel is similar to that of the inner panels and shows the mise-en-scene of the artist that i have developed. The hi top trainers and the jeans are the only items that can be seen on a seemingly invisible background this is because using the art of contrast (and the magic wand) the background was feathered out and brought emphasis onto the two items in focus. 

digipack inside panels

For my digipack i have decided to make a six panel cd case to try and promote and expose 'Iceburg' as much as possible. These pictures are to show off the swagg and personality of our artist so that the fans can get to know the artist. The first picture (left to right) shows Iceburg in a serious thoughtful pose, although the promotion song from the album shows a lot of vanity part of common new english rap image is serious mixed with fun. The serious pose shows that he can be a more down to earth performer. The middle picture where the CD would sit is a close up of the artist in a similar way that Wretch 32 is shown on the cover on 'Black and White' as a similar we chose this shot so that we could market from the same angle. The the last picture shows the artist sitting on the corner of fountain. this is to reflect and remind the fans that he is one of them a boy still in college chilling doing what he enjoys.

finished magazine ad

possible digipack pictures

The first picture is of the artist 'Iceburg'  sitting in a thoughtful pose on the edge a fountain in a stereotypical pop culture pose.

This shot is a high angle of 'Iceburg'. The digipack needs to show a lot of the artist as it is his first album so the desired image needs to be promoted.

This shot is a close up of the artist's trainers. We may include to use this shot to show off the swagger of the artist to again promote the desired image.

label research

After the creation of Iceburg it was time to find an appropriate label to enter talks with about possible promotion and this meant going into depth on searching for the right label. As the rap hybrid genre was becoming more popular it was a good idea to start looking at some of the more commercial labels that would possibly sign him.

The label we looked at was 'Atlantic Records' because of its success and fame for producing successful artists's such as 'Wiz Khalifa' and 'Lupe Fiasco'. "Over its first 20 years of operation Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American independent recording labels, specializing in jazz, R&B and soul recordings by African-American artists, " With credentials such as these and with their market expanding to the UK this seemed like a sensible label to use for the purpose of this task. As Lupe Fiasco showed with his debut album it was possible to mix the idea of rap with rock beats, The potential was spotted and Atlantic records chose to distribute this artist's music and with Iceburg being of a similar mould in a generally new market this gave him the opportunity to follow a similar pathway.

As Atlantic Records is a predominantly American label with UK links we thought it would make sense to look at other labels closer to home. This lead to the attraction of 'Island Records' which "is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group. The label now operates as a division of The Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the United States (where it is now a largely rock-oriented label, much like in its heyday) and as a standalone label in the United Kingdom (also known as Island Records Group or Universal Island).Since 2007, there is also a frontline local artist and repertoire label in Australia known as Island Records Australia, run by Universal Music Australia. Island Records was also the founding company behind the highly influential Anime licensor Manga Entertainment, which has changed hands numerous times during the 90's and early 2000's" and  has a more recent record of producing UK artists. With success stories such as 'Rizzle Kicks' on their books this was the logical path if we were to try and tackle the UK market. However as it was a rock based label we were not sure that it would such a great idea. This was still a possibility however. 

The avenue of looking at a UK grime label was also explored as the new interest and commercialisation of this genre meant that the market was fast growing and contained our target audience. With Wiley and Skepta becoming growingly popular the idea of singing with 'Boy Better Know' became more appetising. "The band and label were established by Jamie Adenuga (born 4 May 1985). "Boy Better Know" is a registered trademark, clothing line and Boy Better Know sim cards.In 2008, they pioneered a short-lived dance fad called the "Rolex Sweep" which accompanied the song of the same name by Skepta. The song and dance was later referenced by Chris Martin of Coldplay during a rendition of "In My Place" at Brixton Academy". With an advertising plan and commodity ideas already in place this label had a strong appeal as with a pioneering label in place this made a strong point for being considered as being a debut artist on a label surrounded by newly found success the fan base would have already been in place. This could have been a risky move as the general hype around the label could have died quickly and this would mean our artist would have a limited opportunity and may not make it. Similarly Professor Green's first record contract fell through when the label went bust meaning he could not legally release anything that he recorded with them and had to start his career effectively from scratch.

All three of these labels made a strong point for consideration which we would late have to address for our artist's journey to progress. 

 

narrative shoot

we decided to add a fresh sequence into our music video after the general consensus was that the scene in the booth was repetitive. Our response was to use one of the initial sequences from the planning part of the project which was 'the streets'. With artists such as Devlin and Wretch 32 developing there style from street video were they rap and interact with the camera we decided to mimic this.

mag ad latest draft

This is our magazine advert to promote our artist Iceburg's debut album. We used a large picture of the artist which shows his face and his style in fashion which allows fans to judge him based on his appearance and get an idea of what genre his music could be (jeans, trainers and baseball jacket are likely to represent urban pop or rap). This is conventional for a young urban artist who is not yet established, with such artists as Wretch 32 and Ed Sheeran using similar images.

We put the name of our artist at the top to clearly let people know, and the name of the album so that people can search it or identify it when they see it in stores or online.

The text for this is bold and stands out from the rest of the poster so it is easy for the consumer to see when the album is available.

The list of social and promotional information is clearly listed. Inlcuding the popular logos of HMV and i-tunes states where the album can be purchased. Putting such information on the poster is necessary toincrease chances of sales and alert the target market. The social network sites have also been used as a way of furthering the fanbase so that people can access future releases and follow the artist for information about concerts and possible free tracks.