Digipack

This is my finished Digipack and this is a link to a video comparing my digipack to other digipacks in the same genre. Overall I am very pleased with my digipack. I used black and white as a theme throughout my digipack (and advert) to mimic the conventions of the digipacks I looked at in an earlier blog. I think it gives it a more edgy urban feeling. Black and white representing the two sides of the spectrum, black and white people, good and bad and the struggle that groups like Wu-Tang Clan went through. I used urban modern fonts to help convey this message as well. The title of 'Wu Tang Clan' is in a graffiti font to represent the street style of the music and therefore digipack, the Greatest Hits title is in a stencil/varsity font to show the same urban feeling. They are placed at the top and bottom of the front digipack cover and are on either side of the image. The image has been edited to resemble that of the Public Enemy images. With a more real look to them, without being very stylised which is what I was going for so that the audience could relate to them more easily. The stencil look accompanies the fonts and make it look more gritty and urban. The expressions of the people in the photo also do this. This follows the conventions of many digipacks in the same genre, where the face shows the attitude of the performer and adds to the street credentials. I used a simple layout for both the front/back and inside panels. This is, again, what other artists in similar genres did/do. I feel it contrasts the content by being plain and simple allowing the listener to see exactly what they're getting. This is juxtaposed by the larger than life movements and lyrics to the songs and videos of the group. Also included on the back panel are the things you would expect to find on any digipack. The barcode and company logos are situated next to the copyright and trademark disclaimers. This is to add to the digipack and make it look more professional and authentic. Language used on the digipack is minimal but is fun. It introduces the group and invites the consumer to buy the product because of the many exclusive things it has. For example the exclusive video on the DVD makes fans more likely to buy my digipack than any other as it has something no one Else's has. Both on the inside and the out, references to song lyrics and titles are used. On the inside the text is from Protect Ya Neck The Jumpoff and in the description at the top on the back it mentions Bring Da Ruckas, a very famous Wu Tang Clan song. This is done to remind the reader of the songs and make them want to listen to it therefore buying the product.

And these are links to a Facebook page where photos of my digipack are displayed and comments have been written as feedback.

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages#!/photo.php?fbid=10150545789865183&set=a.10150545789580183.645144.721940182&theater

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages#!/photo.php?fbid=10150545790195183&set=a.10150545789580183.645144.721940182&theater

Recurring comments from this is that people like the use of black and white and the contrast that throws up. The layout is useful in grabbing the attention of a potential user and makes it inviting to browse. I am very pleased with the comments and it has been said that it is clear who the target audience for this product is which is what I really wanted to push.

Another thing people seem to like is the choice fonts. Combining the urban look with an edgy professional finish. This is the effect I was going for and am really glad it is coming across.

A promo pack for a band is a group of different media that promote the band. It consists of a CD / DVD with a collection of the artists songs and an advert promoting the artist. The Advert and CD / DVD should link in some way, possibly a common theme running through it. For example similar imagery and catchphrases. The digipack is a form of jewel case, for holding one or more Cd's or DVDs, in which the outer cover is made of card rather than plastic. This holds the CD/DVD part of the promo pack. As researched in Blog 5 - Target Audience of Artist/Band, there is no 'type' of person that listens to Wu Tang-Clan more, the demographic is widely varied from a wide range of ages and ethnicity's. However this is in the present day, Wu Tang-Clan first released a single in 1992 and so the audience has changed and grown in the last 18 years. At the time of release, Wu Tang Clan appealed to predominately black males.

Wu Tang Clan only has the one digipack released and so I am going to analyse that of artists of a similar genre as well as the digipack that Wu-Tang Clan released. I will be using Public Enemy's digipack as it is in the same genre of east coast hip hop and rap as Wu-Tang Clan.

This is Wu Tang Clan's digipack, Wu, The Story Of The Wu Tang Clan. This digipack has the band's logo as the main focus. Inside the logo are all the members of the group. While the photo's of the members are in black and white, the background colour is very vibrant. The colour choice of red and black gives the feeling of anger and maybe even death. This is coupled with the expressions of the members faces. Also along the bottom of the cover is a landscape shot of New York's skyline which is very relevant as they are all from New York and took pride in that fact which can been heard in most of their songs, representing the east coast.

I think I will use similar aspects like black and white photos with simple, block colours that provoke strong emotions like anger or violence to accurately represent a similar target audience and message.

This is the back to the digipack and features the same colour scheme as the front with the New York skyline running round to the back. This shows continuity and helps establish a theme and brand. As well as this is shows extracts from music videos that Wu-Tang Clan have made and because of this are in colour. This contrasts the front but does so as they're action shots as opposed to posed ones. It also shows special features on the disk and a small blurb about the band and their career. These aspects, I feel are very important and I will do similar features to make it look as professional as possible.

This is Public Enemy's digipack, Power To The People.

This digipack also uses colour and the lack of to contrast and draw attention. Where Wu Tang Clan's images were black and white and the cover was colourful, Public Enemy's images are black and white and their logo is colourful. The image of the members is done in a way to make it look like a stencil or graffiti which gives it an urban or hip hop feel. Again it uses a red colour which is quite confrontational.

Both digipacks have similarities, they both feature the members of the group and the group logo as main focal points. They both use colour to contrast and both use bright red colours. They are both relatively minimalistic in that they both use 3 or 4 colours and are mostly block colours.

For all my flatplans I plan to use limited colour (Black and white) with graffiti fonts and stylised images to resemble a graffiti stencil. This is done to represent the target audience and be in keeping with digipacks by artists in a similar genre.

This is my 1st flatplan for my digipack. This is the inside panels. I wanted to use lyrics to the song we're doing the music video for and thought that putting it behind the disk as well as having it printed on the disk it would represent the digipack. I then thought that using a group shot would correspond to that of digipacks I analysed.

This is the Front and back. On the back I used a shot of each of the members of the music video's eyes and then wanted the track listing over them. I think this could be a bit crowded and look messy but it looks styalised with the images of the eyes. Also the front is just the Wu-Tang Clan symbol - which later found we cant use - to represent the band that I'm making the digipack for. With simple bold writing for the title and band name.

This is the 2nd flatplan. These are the inside panels and have the lyrics to one the songs on the digipack as well as 2 group shots of the people in the music video. I think having the lyrics on the inside is the best place for it. As well an image of the band so you can see who is in the

band. However the images would be hidden behind the disk and so may be wasted slightly.

This is the front and back and is my favorite, having text introducing the band and digipack as well as track listings broken up by images of the band members. This makes it seem more busy and professional as there is a variety of images and text. Also having a group shot on the front establishes the band straight away and gives the digipack an identity. This way its easily recognised. Again using simple text and the Wu-Tang Clan logo.

This is the 3rd flatplan and is the most basic with the lyrics and the logo on the inside panels. This is simple but I think could be quite effective. It could look too bare though and basic.

This is the front and back which features a group shot on the back with track listings broken up by image. This is really effective as it establishes the band and shows the songs on the digipack. This matches the digipacks I analysed. The front has individual photos of each members to establish an identity for each member separately which is what they did on the existing Wu-Tang Clan digipack. Then have the title and band name in between the images. This looks a little messy but I think is effective.

My finished digipack resembles aspects of each of the flat plans but not any one in particular. My ideas changed while constructing it partly due to the images we captured as the digipack needed to include them.

Shooting Diaries

This is a picture of the first four shots of our music video on our shooting script. It details what shot was next and what costumes and props we needed to shoot that particular shot. It also outlined where each shot eould be in relation to the video so it was easier to edit at the end of the process. Lastly it showed us which shot was the best, in an attempt to save time in editing, this was we didn't have to look through all the shots and decide. It was already dont and we could select it and edit it very quickly. This was very helpful as we had to keep track of all the different cameras. This part of the filming was quite straight forward, we set up the studio and then shot the verses all the way through untill we got the right one. I helped with setting up and directing the music video as well as being a camera man.

Shooting Schedule

09/02/11 Plan to pick up equipment at 12pm and set up in the studio. Actors will arrive at 1pm and we will start shooting at 1:30 after costumes are assembled. Shoot the first 3 verses from all angles. - Studio wasn't available so we used a classroom in Southover with a greenscreen on the wall behind. 10/02/11 - 08/03/11 Capture back and edit the footage caught on 09/02/11. 09/03/11 Plan to pick up equipment at 1pm and set up in the studio with green screen. Start filming after actors have arrived at 1:30pm. Shoot the remaining 3 verses and addon shots eg. group shots with no lip syncing. Equipment List: - 3x XM2 Cameras - 2x Portable Lighting Rig - 3x Tripods - 1x Green Screen Costume: - 6x Flat Caps - Various Hoodies - T-Shirts - Chains and other various Jewelry

Health and Safety

This was the Risk Assessment Form we had to fill out each time we wanted to book the studio or equiptment. It highlights what risks there will be and how we could prevent them. It also includes our names and numbers in case anyone needed to get hold of us if for some reason we were late to the booking or forgot to give a camera back.

On our shoot there are several potential hazards which we had to identify and take precautions to stop these from harming any persons or equipment. 1. Wires and tripods are a tripping hazard that could potentially mean lighting rigs or cameras could be knocked down or broken. We resolved this issue by taping down any wires that were a potential risk so we wouldn't trip. 2. Lights are a hazard as they can get very hot and are a potential for burns. We made sure everyone knew the lights were hot and positioned them as out of the way as we could while retaining the lighting effect we wanted. 3. Dark atmospheric lighting means that all the risks are even more likely as its harder to see. We told everyone to take care when walking around the room and keep moving to a minimum while the lights were down.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard. We approached this part of the task slightly differently than other groups. Our central idea is based on the 6 individual verses there are in our song choice (First 6 verses - Verses thereafter were inappropriate.) This meant that we wanted each verse to be sung by one actor. After discussing this we thought we would film the 6 shots from 3 different cameras at 3 different angles and then edit them together. This way the continuity would be flawless as well as looking interesting. Because of this our storyboard had 6 main shots and then a loose idea of what it would look like. However it is very hard to draw up a storyboard if we don't know at what time and place we will cut to one of the other angles. This is why it is quite short. We wanted the majority of the shots to be front on to the actors at eye level and stay consistant throughout the video. We wanted group shots of the band, having 2 others dancing behind the one performing the verse. The first shot starts at the feet of the first actor (Georgie) and as the song begins it tilts upwards to her face, she then begins the song. The rest are straight forward static medium close-ups. With the exception of a handheld shot where Georgie sings into the camera at a slight low angle shot. We then wanted shots of the band standing still looking into the camera while the camera panned from left to right or vice versa.

Our storyboard came out more as what shots we needed as opposed to the order, because we didn't know what order we wanted them. That decision was going to be made at editing when we decided which parts from each camera (Seperate angle) looked the best.

Mise-en-scene

Setting/Location

For Setting/Location we wanted to use a mix of different urban locations. We wanted to use places with graffiti in it and that had an urban vibe to it. We thought that the streets of Brighton would be perfect as there is a lot of urban culture in Brighton that we could use a back drop to our video. We wanted to do this as it is common in Rap / Hip Hop music videos and we wanted to follow this convention.

We thought that, like the videos we looked at, we could a lot of filming while tracking the actors walking down the street performing into the camera. Having graffiti and other urban aspects in the background would improve the shots. These types of things are scattered throughout Brighton for example the corner of Cheapside and Station Street where the second photo was taken. Also In the lanes in Brighton would be perfect as the urban culture is at a high point here.

Also several friends of ours can drive and have their own car so a possible setting for some scenes could be in a car whether it would be stationary or moving depends on the actual ability to shoot and if it is possible to do so.

The idea to change from an urban setting like Brighton to the Studio was because of several factors that could affect it. We wanted to a get a really professional finish to the video and we felt that using a studio would be more in tune with that. We felt we could get more consistent lighting over several weeks of filming as well being able to control the weather in the shots. Another bonus is that Brighton is quite densely populated and we thought it would be difficult to control this. We also felt that if we used the studio the equipment would be closer and more easily available. Plus we could get more help from technicians which means it looks more like we want to. Lastly we would have had to get permission from the council to shoot in certain places where the studio is very easy accessible.

Props

We decided that the main feature of the music video will be the people performing so the emphasise will be on costume. We are doing this to make the audience focus on the performers which is a common convention in videos of similar genres as its almost showing off the success of the performer. Some props we are going use include; cigarettes or cigars, money (lots of notes), microphones and possibly a car. These will all be used to support the image of the performers portraying a rap artist. Hopefully it will give a balance between the glamorous and the urban feels we want. Cigarettes or cigars are typically seen as 'bad' and 'cool' and also associated with urban culture. So, having the performers smoking or holding them it will add to their status. The money will be used to show the wealth of the singers. This is common in this kind of music video as it is being showy. Microphones will be used to sing into and wave around in the way that hip hop / rap artists would. Finally the car might be used to sit in, or to drive around and show wealth again and status as well as being linked with urban culture. Driving around with friends at night.

Costume

Costumes we're going to use will be a mix of typical urban clothing and glamorous clothing. Things like over sized hoodies and jeans will be contrasted with brightly coloured jackets and jewellery to emphasise the lavishness of the performers.

Colour

The colours in our music video will be very bright, the costumes being worn by the performers will be extravagant and loud colours to show their presence and status. Also the colour of the urban setting will contrast the bright colours of the costumes and props.

Make-up

We aren't using make up that much, just on the 2 female performers. We want it to be subtle to bring out the features of their faces while leaving them looking natural. This is to keep the main focus on the content of the video; the lifestyle as opposed to the effects we use.

The Pitch

These are two videos of me and my group doing a presentation of our idea for the music video. Also attached is the presentation shown.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1M_7vjfm84ZNDdlNWI3YzYtMmIzMS00NTdlLWJiMmEtNGFhYjQzMDA1ZmI3&hl=en_GB
These are an outline of our research so far and the ideas we have for our music video.

This is a link to our pitch that we videoed

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B4-5YKV5LgbpY2E4ZmZhNDgtMmJkZi00OThkLWIyODEtZmRkN2QwNzY5OWIx&hl=en

Initial Ideas

My group and I wanted to create a video that challenged common media stereotypes in the hip hop genre. Because of this we decided that using role reversal for the main characters in the video would be the most effective and fun to do.

In hip hop music videos, particularly, Wu-Tang Clan, woman are portrayed as sex objects, things that are seen and not heard. A classic example of this is Wu-Tang Clan's Gravel Pit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vLOMHfIKn8. In response to this we are going to have the two females in our group doing the singing/rapping and the two males filming and directing. Having the females in male clothing also adds to the challenging of the stereotype that woman in music videos have to be scantily dressed as well as adding humour which is common in Wu-Tang Clan videos.

Another idea we had was using certain shot types and camera angles that are common in hip hop/rap music videos. Fisheye lens shots are very typical of old school hip hop and rap and are combined with rap posturing to make it look like a genuine music video. Low angle shots are also common in hip hop/rap videos and give status and power to the subjects in the shot.

Copying an existing Video

In class before we started actually making the copy of the video we analysed a story board of the first 14 shots. This gave me my first experience with storyboarding and the amount of information that is required for a successful storyboard, which was a lot more than I previously thought.

In the copying of the existing video of "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus I had a go at using a camera to film shots with a handheld camera. This gave me practice holding and moving the camera in a comfortable way that allowed the shot to stay steady. Also I learned how to track and pan using my body as a pivot, there were lots of different positions I could have used and practicing let me find the best one. As well as this I took part in directing the shots and conveying how the shot should look to the actors and camera person. This made me realise how much effort and time you need for just a single shot. Also the organisational skills you need as well as communication skills. I also took part as one of the actors in a couple of shots, this required a lot of concentration and patience while waiting for everyone to get into place and I learned be patient with people and concentrate. As well as this I did a bit of editing of clips together, we learned how to separate the different shots and takes by cutting them in Final Cut, the editing programme we used to edit the footage we caught.

We were also shown how to use a clapper board and shooting script to help monitor filming on set. This showed me that it is important to write down which take of each shot is good or bad and more importantly for what reasons.

I also learned the amount of communication needed on set to make sure everyone knows whats going on and is quite and everything runs smoothly. Having to coordinate the actors positions, the camera operators knowledge of the shot about to take place and then making the shot run smoothly with everyone at the same time. And actually physically asking each person or group of people if their ready to make sure then yelling action. Lastly I learned a lot about setting up the camera and also camera techniques. Simple things like mounting the camera to the tripod were really difficult until I found out how to do it. This made it very simple. Setting the white balance and exposure before recording is another key skilled learned simply by just playing around with the camera and instructions given to us. These changes really improved the look of the shot and gave a more professional look to the finished video which I can carry over to the filming of my music video. Composition and depth of field are also techniques used to make the shot flow better and look more polished. Depth of field was quite hard to grasp at first but after some time practicing it's getting easier and can mean some nice effects in a shot.

These are links to the copy of an existing video.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B1M_7vjfm84ZYzliM2U5NTItY2E0MC00MGFiLWI5MDYtZjRlMzFmYjFhZTY0&hl=en_GB

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B1M_7vjfm84ZYWYwZDgyYTItNzAyMS00OTRhLWFkYTAtZTQyYjBlMDY4YWVl&hl=en_GB

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B1M_7vjfm84ZNmE5NzQxMGYtMjk5Mi00NWEwLWJiNmUtNmY5NDQ2OTUyYjY3&hl=en_GB

The call sheet is a list of everyone working on the film with a reference to contact details such as mobile or email address. This meant we were able to contact all co collaborators at any stage of the production. The call sheet should include the contact details of all the production crew, actors, equipment suppliers, costume and props supplies, location contacts and anyone involved in transport. I had everyones numbers saved in to my phone including Craig media Production technician and my tutors, Lisa and Dann. We did not have to pay for using the kit, but there were some rules we needed to abide by. You needed to give at least 48 hours notice of booking and could book for a maximum of two days. This is because equiptment at college is limited and in high demand. This also impacted on the return time as returning stuff late would clearly impact on students who had booked cameras to use after us. We also filled in a Risk Assessment form to cover our insurance policy against accidental damage. Here we would have identified any risks to the kit when filming and highlighted the precautions that you would take. For example when filming in a studio using the lighting equipment, we have identified that the leads and cables would need to be taped to the ground to stop people tripping over them when filming. I undertook several exercises to help gain some skills with the cameras. I took part on working. on the ‘Wheatus, Teenage Dirtbag’ project. The results of this exercise are linked above All cameras give you the option of using automatic settings. This is good if you are just taking snapshots or making amateur films. However when undertaking something such as a music video, we used the manual settings. This gave us control over the exposure and focus allowing us to shoot footage exactly as you had devised. We set the white balance so that in different lighting conditions, the camera knows what white is and can be calibrated so that colours are filmed consistently.We set it to indoor as we were studio based. If a shot is too dark or too light when you are setting it up, you can adjust the Shutter Speed and Aperture to let more or less light into the camera. You can also make exposure adjustments using the Video Gain setting. In order to adjust the focus you need to set the camera to Manual Focus. Auto Focus tends to shift the focal range as you are filming. Manual focus allows you to have control over the focal range.

A camera mounted to a tripod is easier to control when executing a Pan or Zoom. The tripod alleviated camera shake and enabled us to undertake precise filming. On set we had natural roles we fit in to. We all seemed to get on very well and direct equally. As well as this, because there was often 3 cameras we all got to opperate 1 camera. It worked really well as we all communicated well and listened to each other. We filmed in Widescreen (16:9 ratio) and in Standard (4:3 ratio) but in the editing stage we changed it all to widescreen, this was a mistake as it wasted time. The standard for digital editing is Final Cut Pro. For our projects, you have used Final Cut Express which is a different version but still very good. We started out the project using PAL. This is the European editing standard which means we opperate at a frame rate of 24 frames per second. In America, they used a standard called NTSC which plays at 29 fames per second. Digital editing is Non Linear. This means you can structure your sequence in any way you like, changing the order of the clips at will. We captured the footage to a computer. To do this we connected the camera to the Mac using a Firewire cable. We then played the footage back and at the same time, using Timecode, transferred it to the computer. First we did an Assembly Edit. A very rough version where we selected the best shots to use from all of the tapes and placed them roughly in order on the final cut timeline. The rough draft follows on from the assembly edit and is the version where we cut all of the clips together to create a smooth flow and to sync in with the song. The final cut was our very last sequence when we added any effects or graphics.

Video Analysis

I'm going to look at 2 different videos, one from the artist we've chosen and one other from the same genre. In analysing the genre, representation, narrative, audience and how the video communicates a meaning I will be able to further my knowledge of how music videos in this genre are constructed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjZRAvsZf1g is the first video I'm going to look at. It is Wu-Tang Clan - "Cream"
The genre of the video is Hip-hop/rap and is recognisable not only because of the style of music but the way they dress and act in the video, which is quite stereotypical of a hip-hop/rap group. The Wu-Tang Clan is made up of all black members. In this video they are represented in quite a stereotypical way. They are shown dealing drugs and living/hanging out on the streets. The people in the video wear stereotypical clothing like hoodies, hats and big coats while having a 'hip-hop posture' of waving their arms around while rapping. They are shown in an urban setting with graffiti on the walls and barrel fires. The singers are wearing 'bling' which is a stereotype of rappers, that they spend all their money on over the top jewelry. There is also a lot of aggression in the video through facial features and movements which is typical of a rap video and stereotypical of black people in particular, as well as this they are together like a gang and gambling together in the video which again is a conception of black people and rappers. Most videos in the rap genre don't have a narrative and this video follows this convention and has very little story. Having the focus on the lyrics and singers themselves allowing them to show off their lifestyle. The Audience of a video like would no doubt be people that would relate to the lifestyle that the rappers are promoting. So typically black people that can connect to the struggle that is being talked about in the song as well the way the video portrays their lives. The video was released in 1994 and would have been showing the struggle of black people in the 90s. Their isn't a clear story in the video and therefore its hard to establish a meaning that it was trying to communicate however I think it shows the harder times that people like Wu-Tang Clan would have had to go through before they found success and the types of things they had to do to get by, like drug dealing and being in gangs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7UnhSz1fSQ Is the second video I'm going to look at. It is Beastie Boys - Intergalactic.
The genre of this video, again, is hip hop and is easily recognisable because of the beats and type of music produced. In this video the representation is quite different to that of Wu-Tang Clan's Cream as the rappers are white. I wanted to look at this video because it has given me lots of ideas about how to do our music video. There is only 3 artists in the video as opposed to the 9 in Wu-Tang Clan's. White people aren't necessarily represented in any way in this video except that it challenges common stereotypes that white people cant rap. The Beastie Boys are acting a bit goofy which can be a stereotype of white people, that they are kind of geeky. The video's narrative shows the 3 artists crash landing on earth from space and walking around New York city as 'Spacemen'. This could represent the feeling that lots of hip hop and rap artists felt when it was first released as a mainstream genre. The feeling weird and like an alien because people weren't used to the music and thought it was strange. It's a playful video that uses classic Sci-Fi filmic qualities like the giant robot. This makes it more accessible to more people as its easily identifiable with. This video appeals to a larger audience than that of Cream because its more accessible to the masses. Its got humor and a familiar style to lots of films. In contrast to Wu-Tang Clan's very serious video featuring the 'nitty gritty' life of a rapper. While the story is quite funny and wacky, the video still conveys a message about attitudes towards hip hop and rap at the time of it being made. The story and imagery is used to show that the artists, The Beastie Boys, are from out of this world and came to earth and shocked people. (With their music) This is also shown by the robot destroying the city, this could represent the chaos that genre of music caused when it first came about. Also a retro style of Sci-Fi is used, using miniature sets to make the robot look massive. This could represent people being stuck in the 'old days' and need to be less old fashioned when it comes to accepting new things (Their music)

Target Audience

These are some magazines that Wu-Tang Clan have been on the cover of.

The face was a music magazine that featured everyone from Paul Weller to Puff Daddy and was for anyone that loved music. It was hard to find any evidence of the target audience of this magazine but it was quite a mainstream magazine which shows that Wu-Tang Clan were widely enough received to make it on the cover.

The Source was another magazine I found them on the cover of but again it was hard to find any facts or statistics as to who the readers actually were. What I do know is that its described as "the Bible of Hip-Hop Music, Culture & Politics". On the website there are links to events, The Source's own radio show, fashion among others. All this makes me think that the target audience of the magazine is young and has not only an interest in hip hop music but the style and culture involved with it as well.

The main magazine I'm going to look at is Rolling Stone as it had the most information available as to the readers of the magazine. As well as being one of the most famous magazines Wu-Tang Clan featured on.

Here is a screen shot of the information I found on the readers of Rolling Stone.

100% of readers are Adults (18+) with the majority of 58% of them being male. Of the readers 86% of them are 18-49 with an overall median age of 31.5 years old. The median household income is $68,372 with the median individual employment income being $33,008. In total 80%of readers are on $30,000+ HHI. Most readers are employed having gone to college. As well as being single.

The majority of readers are white with 75% and A/B county with 80%.

A typical reader would be a white 31 year old male earning $33,008 a year, living by himself who is interested in music and music culture.

This is a screen shot of some of the Wu-Tang Clan's fans on Myspace. And below that are 4 random people that I chose to look at to see if there was a correlation between the people that listen to Wu-Tang Clan and race, gender, age, where they are from.

These are 4 randomly chosen fans of the Wu Tang Clan Myspace site, each is very different in terms of ethnicity, style, gender and age.

20 year old white male from California.

30 year old white female from Kentucky

27 year old white male from USA

32 year old Hawaiian female.

There wasn't a clear 'Type' of person that likes their music. Their target audience seems to be very diverse. From young to old, from black to white and from any kind of background.

Also I created a facebook page asking people to leave details of who they are and why they like Wu-Tang Clan. Here is the link. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=155074551182678&v=wall.

Overall people seem to like Wu-Tang Clan because of the distinct style of music and unique lyrics. Lots of different people commented explaining why they like them, adding the conclusion that their isn't one type of person that particularly likes Wu-Tang Clan. Lots of different ages, from 13 - 22 commented saying they liked them. Both males and females were pretty equally represented as well. Also lots of different backgrounds. From American, to British, To Zimbabwean.

Permission

Copyright is important to the music industry because it prevents music theft. Also it stops plagerism and allows artists to protect their intellectual property. This upholds the music industry as it stops artists not getting paid for their work and hsving their work taken and used by other people without permission.

This is a letter sent to Universal to ask permission to use Protect Ya Neck (The Jumpoff) in our music video.

Song Choice

My group has decided to create a music video for the Wu Tang Clan song Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off). We chose this song becuase we all have a love for the music genre and band as well as wanting to use a song that we could create a music video easily and effectively while challanging media stereotypes like gender and race.

We looked at other hip hop and rap songs like songs by House of Pain, Other Wu Tang Clan songs and Beastie Boys songs but rejected them all becuase we wanted a balance of up beat music and powerful, easily sung lyrics. For us Protect Ya Neck did both these things and thats why we settled on this.

We also decided to cut the last few verses as they have too much swearing in them.

Here are the lyrics.

Exploring Music Video

In this blog I will be exploring the music video format through the analysis of four very different music videos selected from a documentary viewed at the beginning of A2.



The first video I looked at was Run DMC and Aerosmith's break through collaboration Walk This Way in 1986. I chose this because it pioneered the way for cross genre fusion and also made rap music more mainstream and accessible to the masses. Walk This Way lead the way with a new genre, a cross over of hip hop and rock and was represented in the video by literally breaking the wall that separated the two bands. It represented the two genres and bands as one, and brought two audiences together. Rock listeners as well as hip hop and rap listeners. The video told the story of breaking conventions by having two very different bands collaborate on a song.






The next video I looked at is Dire Straits - Money for Nothing. I chose this video as it too used break through ideas. For the time it was made, the technology was incredibly advanced and the idea of using this technology in a music video had never been done before. This song was in the rock genre and appealed to newer, younger audiences as it used animation and controversial lyrics.












The third video I looked at is Pulp - Common People. I chose it because of the very different styles to others I chose. Using a mixture of weird and wonderful techniques like repeating short clips of movement and basing it in a kind of student disco. Common People is an alternative rock / Britpop song. That appeals to the younger audiences because of the setting in the video as a disco. The video represents

The last video I analysed was Godley and Cream - Cry. I looked at this video because of its simplicity. The idea that 'anyone can sing it' was visualised by making everyone sing it. At the time of the release this video showed a whole new way to use available technologies. Cry was a synthpop song and was one of the first of its kind. The video, and song, appeals everyone. The simplicity of the video and the inclusion of all kinds of people in the video make it easy to relate to by lots of people.

All of these videos had elements that inspired me but in particular Run DMC and Aerosmith's video gave me little ideas that could be used in my project. For example I liked the cross genre idea and I think could be successful with the heavy rap/hip hop song we chose to then use elements from other genres like styles or the way they perform to show a contrast. Also the idea of role reversal for female and male characters started with this video as it showed the contrasting genres, we decided to show the contrasting genders.