Goodbye!

Dear Moderator,

I hope you have enjoyed looking through my blog posts and Prezi presentations and finally, enjoyed my final video and ancillary texts. :)

annyeong! (that's 'Goodbye' in Korean!)


Hasina Kara

Evaluation Activity 4

Evaluation Q4 on Prezi

Evaluation Activity 3 (Prezi) with Director's Commentary

Evaluation Q3 on Prezi

Director's Commentary for Evaluation Q3

The video is also embedded in my Prezi document for this question.

Evaluation Activity 2

Evaluation Q2 on Prezi

Evaluation Activity 1

EVALUATION on Prezi

Ancillary Task

Magazine advert

Promoting the Band 'Kiss My Bass'

How I Would Market My Artist on Prezi

Final Video

In order to create traffic towards my video, I used Twitter to tweet the link to people, asking them to comment and rate my video. I received a direct message from someone I am following on Twitter who viewed the video:

Tweet from MTV Korea

I tweeted MTV Korea asking them what they think the target audience is for K-POP, they replied saying:

"In korea, the audience for K- pop is very broad. Anywhere from elemantary to 30's go crazy over them. I guess the core target is realistically 15-19 but surely not limited to that."

Marketing Campaign involving YG Entertainment

MTV K (MTV channel dedicated to Korean Americans) have an article on their website regarding YG Entertainment, the record label I want to market my band (who also market real band 'Big Bang'). The article reads that the record label have acquired much attention by fans who are puzzled by their mysterious timer posted on the label's blog. There is speculation that the timer has something to do with Big Bang's comeback as their comeback was around late October/early November. It was reported that their comeback may be pushed back to December. The timer was posted on the YG Entertainment blog on 22nd November and after gaining so much attention, MTV K had published the report on the same day. This marketing campaign is very effective as the record label is involved in a campaign which drops hints about what it is promoting but does not reveal it. Instead, fans are forced to speculate and make links between album release dates and possible comebacks of bands and artists. The speculation and attention brings the record company media publicity therefore advantaging the band or artists involved.

Promotion for Album

On Twitter I looked for trending topics involving the word 'K-Pop' and found in one tweet that South Korean boy-band 'Super Junior' had won the 'Best K-Pop group' category at the 2010 ASAP Pop Viewers Choice Awards. I then searched for trending topics with involving 'Best K-Pop group' which had many results.

Date searched: 23/11/2010

This award ceremony would be an ideal place to promote an already established band such as my band. For promotion for their new album, they could perform at the awards, present an award and talk to reporters on the red carpet while mentioning the album release date. All of this would tie in the marketing campaign of the band's new album.

Final Rough Cut before Re-Shoot

The final rough cut before planned re-shoot

Album Cover Responses

I have posted the potential covers on facebook, so people can choose which they prefer. I have mentioned in the caption, what each image would be used for, for example; back cover, front cover 1, inlay 2 etc. I have also included the survey link to create more traffic for the survey.

Public Album Link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=302086&id=517680497&l=1834110f2b

Special Effects

From the feedback, I was praised on the zoomed shadow effect I created by changing the scale and moving the center off the image. I use this only once throughout my video, so I decided to use it again where it was necessary.

Looking through my video, I noticed much of the effects I used were scattered throughout. The more colour visuals were at the beginning and middle, so I decided to use the vector colour effect which I had not use before.

This involved using key frames, where I had to add a key frame to every colour and mixer and change the amount of highlight, saturation and black. While moving along the timeline, I would add another key frame and repeat the process this time choosing different colours. Towards the star and end of this clip, I made the colour mixer low so that there is a smooth transition into and out of colour.

Kwik Survey

I have created a survey designed to establish how aware audiences are of the Korean Pop scene. I have initially posed questions concerning their age, gender, music genre preferences and any opinions on Korean Pop. I have included a range of open and closed questions and my open question allows those who respond to share any prior knowledge that they may have.

My suspicion is that this particular scene will not be a familiar one to many of those I question. In order to combat this, I plan to include a question on bands of a similar nature in order to gauge a suitable target audience.

The link to the survey. I have posted the link on FaceBook and various social forums.

The link to the results of the survey.

Feedback from the Rough Cut

The feedback I received from the class:

The Good Points:

• Good use of visual effects
• My piece works well with odd shots of the body e.g. the shot of the boy looking up at the camera after falling
• The footage of the dancing in the studio which had shadows - it was good how I scaled the footage to show the shadows while showing a little bit of the dancer doing the moves
• The footage cuts to the beat of the music
• The continuity of the dancing was good how it goes from studio to street
• The corridor shots were effective and looked good
• The 'let me show if that's okay' sequence was good

Things to Improve:

• Some of the lip syncing was off with the music
• One of the girls is better than the other with the lip syncing
• One particular boy and girl need to improve the lip syncing
• More choreographed dancing from the girls would be good to add in

I plan to reshoot the lip syncing at another location, possibly somewhere local as I understand that is the most important to improve on. While I am re-shooting this, I will film more choreographed dancing. I could then consider cutting this dance footage in one of the female choruses of the song.

Possible Cover and Inlay

Front Cover 1 or Inside Cover 1:

The above, could be used for the inside cover as it would not be suitable for the front as the artists are not looking at the camera causing it difficult to see their faces. For a debut album, especially, the artists should get as much exposure as they can so it can be clear for the audience who the artists are. If I decide to release this album as the band's second album for example, I could use this as the album cover if the album as it would not be debuting. The image of the boys not looking directly at the camera would then be suitable for the cover as they would be already identified by the audience. By taking advantage of what was around me, I thought it would be quite humourous to have the band stand under a sign warning people to mind their head, of course I told the band 'not to mind their head', causing a sense of rebellion as they are teenagers after all.

Front Cover 2 or Inside Cover 2:


I though this picture was the best for the front cover, as it is so colourful yet dark. The contrast between the two reflects my 'Lollipop' video, where bright costumes are complemented by a dark environment and setting. The title I though could go at the top in front the threes. In this way, the branches may be covered slightly but the colour of the sky would illuminate through. I made this by changing the hue of the sky, to make a alien like/meteor shower skyline. I then selected the buildings either side and on a separate layer, I changed the brightness and contrast to darken them to go with the night time theme. I also changed the hue of the wooden panels on the left building from a dull brown to indigo. To make sure the windows were reflecting the right colour of the sky, I selected just the windows and changed their hue to match the sky colours. Lastly I selected the foreground (the boys) to change their brightness and contrast on a another layer. For finishing touches I used the clone tool to clean up the edges around the boys, and used the blur tool to give them an airbrushed look.

Front Cover 3 or Inside Cover 3:

Another possible cover of the boys against a rock climbing wall. It is more colourful than the above, as no sky or sense of day light showing. I started off with three different images, then cropped them all before pasting them into a separate transparent canvas. From using the original images, I selected the part I wanted to overlap on to the neighbouring image to make it look as if they are in the frame but not quite out their own as a whole. I then realised the outline of the person on the wall was red (as same as the middle image), so I changed the hue and saturation of it and changed the colour to green.

Inlay showing the girl band feature on 'Lollipop' song:

I have chosen a name for this girl band which is, 'Acrylic Kisses'. The name was found on amiright.com. I like the composition of this photo, where the girls are standing on the right while there is much background on the left representing an urban scene of which my video captures. To ensure the girls are not overshadowed by the colourful background, the dark colours they wear cause them to stand out against the background. There is now even exposure of both them and the colourful background. I used taaz.com to enhance the girls makeup creating redder lips, and heavier makeup than they originally wore for the photo shoot. I also changed the colour of their hair, making one's more solid and darker (the left girl) and for the girl on the right, browner with more shine. The ground looked slightly gray, so I changed the contrast to make it darker. While for the overall image, I changed the contrast and brightness levels to give a professional photo finish.

The set up of the photoshoot of the possible back cover

I had laid some white paper around and curved the back to hide any 'cracks' in the paper. The curved paper would have been used in a real photo shoot to make the background look like one solid base. To prevent the stress balls from rolling away, I had to use BluTack to keep them stuck to the paper. I also had to do this with the paper to stop it from flopping down forward.

I have began to PhotoShop one of the photos I took which I thought looked best for the back cover.




To make a creative closeup, I had used the macro setting on the camera (flower symbol), to create a narrow depth of field. The camera focuses on the middle stress ball while slightly blurring the orange and yellow ball. In PhotoShop, I had used the clone stamp to remove the cracks between the paper to make it look like one solid background.



I then changed the contrast of the balls to correct the vibrancy of the colours. As for where the track list could go, it could possibly feature on the right of the image. To do this, I will have to extend the right of the image by cloning the white space on the right of the balls. I would then have to resize the image to prevent it from being too wide.

Rough Cut So Far

So far there is about 1:26 seconds of footage. The last few seconds have not been yet edited.

*Note: the audio carries on playing so you may want to stop the video after a blank screen.

First 20 secs of video for feedback

I have cut the first 20 seconds of the video, so I can post the video on Vimeo, FaceBook and Twitter in order to receive feedback on effects, cuts, flow and overall edit. After checking the feedback I will update this post and make the necessary changes while showing the screenshots (from Final Cut). I have also made a snippet including the effects I've used so far.

Vimeo link to profile: http://vimeo.com/user5179365

The video snippet (20 secs):

Effects Video:

Feedback on Questions, Band Names and Videos

On the website amiright.com, people from all over the Internet can submit 'cool' band names, while giving them their own personal reason for the names. Having a look through them, there are a few I quite like. From here I will create a poll and post it on this blog so site visitors can post their choice. Although the website states, that you need to verify that the names have not been taken, it doesn't tell you how to contact the submitter as their details are kept for the website only for contact.

List of names (in no particular order of preference):

1. The Kidiots - the reason: for bands that like to act child

ishly stupid, this could relate to my band as they are teenage boys, so there's no certainty of maturity.

2. Kiss My Bass - the reason: the play on words are quite humorous which adds to the character of the band who are playful, quite mischievous, fun boys.

3. Boo-Yu-Suk! - the reason: the name as a whole looks like it is in another language (oriental), but as you say it, it reads, "

Boo You Suck!" The humour in this could benefit the recognition of the band name, as it would be noted for its quirkiness and uniqueness.

4. E-Males - the reason: an internet themed band, if they were to be heavily marketed to the internet audience.
5. HAYTUR - the reason: the word inspire

d by one of the boys in my band, who is always calling everyone a 'Haytur' (hater). I think it could be a possibility if the band were saying that they hold something that other bands hate on, so there must be something special about them.

Questions:

I asked the question, "What do you think about Korean pop/hip hop (K-pop) music?" to various people on formspring.com and FaceBook So far the answers are:

Formsping:
Sahratezel: "I f***** love i t :))"
FaceBook:
Bansri Kotecha: "Love it! :D ♥" 

*'MBLAQ' are another Korean band of the same genre. Tanda expresses her 'love' for the band showing that she is part of the potential audience (age range 15-19) of this genre.

Twitter:

Traz Bellodon: "I enjoy all music if it's hot..."
* Traz Bellodon is a Recording Artist(Hip-hop), Producer, Ghost Writer, Actor and dancer from, Queens New York.

I began following one of Big Bang's member's fan page and someone from New Zealand. The two were tweeting each other about Korean music, so I decided to ask them 2 questions:

1. What do you think the target audience is for K-Pop? (bottom and middle Tweet)
2. What about in the UK? (top tweet)

The Making of the 'Lollipop' video

Locations : Bloomberg TV Studio, Corridor, Near Wembley Stadium

Copyright E-Mail

Due to copyright issues, I have to acquire permission from YG Entertainment, to use the song 'Lollipop' by their artist Big Bang. I have emailed the letter below asking for permission to use the song.

Dear Copyright Holder,

I am an A Level student writing to request your permission to use Big Bang’s track ‘Lollipop’.

With your permission, this track would be used in our current A-level Media Studies project, which involves creating a music video, as well as producing an album cover and a magazine advert for the artist. The artist featured in my video will not be using Big Bang’s name, as I will be creating a new marketing strategy for an up and coming artist.

If I receive your permission, this track would ONLY be used in an educational context and will be viewed by my media class, my teacher and the OCR exam board moderator. It would NOT be used for any financial purposes or gain, nor the school or I intend to make any profit out of using your artist’s track.

The artist and your company would of course be fully recognised throughout pre-production and the final video itself. A copyright notice, with wording supplied by you can be included in the records of the project. If this is required, please send full details.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Miss Hasina Kara

Park High School, UK

Kanye West Album Cover Analysis and Inspirational Album Covers

Kanye West's album cover analysis

View more presentations from hasina16.


Here are some album covers that inspire the initial ideas of my own album cover [visualization, colour, composition]

1. MBLAQ - Just Blaq

The band members have been photographed individually but during editing, they have been given a 'panel' each which cuts the side of their full body for example, shoulders, arms and the side of the heads are cut off. The use of black and other dark colours respectively compliment the name of their debut album named 'Just Blaq' pronounced black. I am inspired to use a paneled image like this one and see how it works with my own band.

2. Kanye West - 808's & Heartbreak
The front cover (right) for this is simplistic and has a literal image of the heart being torn, as the title of the album says '808's & Heartbreak' . The back cover (left) shows the artist West, with an elongated heart coiled around his arm and waist. As the background image is animated and the foreground image of West is real, the art behind him comes to life as the heart squeezes him. West is not shown on the front cover as this album is not a debut album, therefore he must have an existing fan base already. The colours of this album inspire me as it is bright and colourful which would suit the Korean Pop genre which I have chosen for my video.

N.E.R.D. - Everybody Nose (All The Girls Standing In The Line For The Bathroom)

Technically this is a singles cover, but the composition and colours inspire me as they are bright and vibrant. Also the paneling or sectioning is present here like MBLAQ's album. Each band member is given a colour and a section of the cover. Each member does something different with their hands though are standing in the same way. Although this album has nothing to do with the name of the single, the fact is that they are recognized regardless of what is represented on the cover as N.E.R.D.

M.I.A. - Kala



This is M.I.A.'s second studio album, and on this album, her face is shown at the center slightly obscured behind the glasses and hat, but again he fan base is established at this point. Four of the same images are placed under name and above her album name. The album cover as a whole looks like a viral ad or subliminal message, as the pixelated fills of the lettering look like a computerized message and the repeated 'Fight On!' message circled around M.I.A. herself. There is an interesting colour contrast between the background (blue, green and purple) and foreground font (red and yellow), which causes every element of the album to stand out. The back of the cover, however, is slightly confusing as the choice of background behind the song list is too overbearing resulting in difficulty to be able read the song titles.

More Inspirational Shots from Existing Videos

There are some inspirational shots and sequences from the video 'Lupin' by South Korean girl band called 'Kara'. The shots I've chose will inspire me when story-boarding the female scenes of my video.




Twenty-two seconds into the video, has a sequence of a cat walk by the middle figure of the group. We see her walking in one shot in a black set, then the video cuts to footage of her walking in the same style in a hallway. As mentioned in a previous post (post with Girls Aloud catwalk), I'd like to incorporate a catwalk scene in my video to distinguish female empowerment within the females in my video.



Catwalk in black set (0:21)



Catwalk in hallway (0:22)

The footage the cuts back to a high angled shot showing all the girls doing a catwalk in different directions, keeping the center girl in both shots (black and hallway set).

There are also low angled shots that I particular like, as they show dominance which the girls in my video will be showing as they are the ones the boys are fighting for.



Low angled long shot (0:20)



Low angled long shot (0:24)...Also a nice touch is the beam of light slightly passing through her legs, gives the shot a glowing and flashing effect.

Another use of long shot to mid shot, long shot to mid shot during a dance sequence (mentioned in the break dancing post) is effective in this video, although very quick, it breaks up what may have been 4 seconds of a static long shot of dancing.
{Click to Enlarge}

Long Shot - Mid Shot - Long Shot - Mid Shot
(0:27 - 0:31)

Transformation of Komal to K-Zee

Transforming Komal on Prezi

Breakdancing Routine (ideas of how to film one)

These two videos show a break dancing routine, where the dancer is seen dancing to the beat, which is where the footage also cuts in places. These two videos provide me with an idea of how to film a break dance routine, inspiring me with shots that look successful for example in the first video at 0:18 we see a extreme long shot of the dancer for one second, the camera then cuts to the profile of the dancer showing us a mid shot, and then it cuts to a long shot which is slowly zooming in, which then cuts to a close up of the dancer who is looking and is lightly turned away from the camera. There is then a brief long shot, until the camera cuts to a close up shot of the feet then finally back to the long shot. This play between long shot to mid/close up shot and back again is successful as it is on beat with the music creating clean and smooth editing.





This second video, shows the same scene but with two dancers. In this video the camera is constantly moving slowly, if not following the dancer's moves (0:31).

Animatics and Lyrics of Lollipop by Big Bang ft. 2NE1

Scroll down for Animatics
Time Map of Lyrics

Animatics (about 20 seconds long)

Shot List

SHOT LIST/Time Map of Lyrics

Costume Ideas

Costume Ideas

Location - Roundhouse (Bloomberg TV Studio)

Above is the location where I will be shooting the indoor scenes of my music video. It is a reasonable sized TV studio in Roundhouse Camden. I was shown the set, and was quite surprised by the darkness of the room, which I thought might be a problem since my video is meant to be 'bright'. I expected there to be a white or coloured back drop, but instead the whole room is a green screen, with a black curtain to cover it which can be alternatively used as a background. I am considering using the green screen to change the whole feel of the video in order to bring out the 'bright/colourful' element of the video.

YG Entertainment Research

YG Entertainment on Prezi

Star-text and Star evolution - Fans and Marketting : Rihanna

Although Rihanna’s fans are not as loyal as the fans of the more legendary artists such as Madonna, or even Beyoncé, who seems to be on the path of being legendary in a few years or decades, they are fans who like songs or albums which are at that moment ‘hot’, and may get bored after a while. While there may be a handful of dedicated fans, there have not been many stories of fans crying (or fainting) as Rihanna appears on stage (like fans did for Michael Jackson), there are those who mouth the lyrics to her songs during a concert.
When Rihanna first started out, she could have been a ‘one hit wonder’ without her transformation (thanks to her stylist and management team). Rihanna’s fans evolved as Rihanna did, they moved forward as she did. Rihanna became more popular because her music became more known and started charting highly. Her fans also grew as her sense of style changed and was featured more on magazines, becoming a somewhat inspiration to other girls. Girls, who are her fans mostly, as teenage girls in particular, were more affected by Rihanna’s assault by Chris Brown. Seeing as many are subjected to violent relationships though feel they cannot do much being so young. This assault may have been a blessing disguise as the unintentional publicity, had fans pour support to her, she was the victim in the situation. Talk show hosts such as Oprah and Tyra Banks had also reached out to her, and she was payed for doing interviews with Diane Sawyer (Good Morning America).
To separate Rihanna from the other artists coming out at the time of her debut (or early years), her label and management team had to change Rihanna both musically and appearance wise to make her stand out from the rest. This would have captured the audience’s attention more instead of dismissing her as just ‘the rest of them’. As Rihanna became a fashion icon, she influenced many of her fans, which gave her an advantage in terms of acquiring new fans from her distinct look. Many of these would be women and young adults/teenagers.
Rihanna’s mentor and collaborator Jay-Z had made Rihanna gesture (left) the ‘Freemason sign’ or diamond hand which is a triangle shape to promote Jay-Z’s recording label, ‘Roc-A-Fella’, although many see this as an Illuminati sign often associating them with the cult. Therefore, Jay-Z using Rihanna (in his ‘Run This Town’ video) to promote his fashion line is a form of synergy. Not only was she promoting his label, she was also promoting herself ahead of the release of her album 'Rated R'. Rihanna is known to promote Nokia, as seen in Rihanna’s earlier videos, she promoted the Nokia 3250 in her ‘Unfaithful’ video. Later in November 2009, Rihanna partnered up with Nokia to promote her album ‘Rated R’ and Nokia’s new X6 phone. The promotion included live streaming of Rihanna’s London (Nov 16th) concert on to the X6. “We are thrilled to be working with her [Rihanna],” said Liz Schimel, the global head of music at Nokia. “She’s excited about it personally: she’s a very innovative, cutting-edge, fresh, young, exciting global celebrity, and she has enormous pull around the world. She’s truly a global superstar.”
Rihanna also appeared on The X-Factor live shows in 2009 to promote her album and single 'Russian Roulette' from the 'Rated R' album.
To further promote 'Rated R', Rihanna had a photo shoot taken showing herself in a dark, monochromatic light. Her minimal clothing highlights the album title, 'Rated R' which also creates voyeurism (circled images) as she is topless in some pictures showing a sense of vulnerability as the viewer looks at her.

*Click to Enlarge*