Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1

 For question one we decided to make a cribs video that would show where we filmed our music video so that we could go round or location and talk about all of the places where we filmed and how they have fitted or not fitted in with our genres conventions. Also we decided that this would be a good idea because it meant that we could talk about all of the props that we used in our music video. We used lots of hip hop props to make our video look more realistic and we thought that using cribs would be a good way of being able to talk about them.

Final Poster

Final Digipack

Draft Poster

To create this Poster I used the program, Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0. I began to create this poster by cutting out the original picture of Grim freehand by going around the whole image. I decided not to use the magnet tool as I feel using the freehand I can cut it out a lot cleaner and make sure every little last bit that I didn't want was cut out. This way to cut out takes a lot more time but I feel its well worth it. After cutting out the images of which I wanted to use, I then used the fill out tool to make the background black. Then I began to start trying out different effects for the image of Grim. I knew before I started to make the poster that I wanted the image to have a cartoon effect. There were many different cartoony effects that I could have used but in the end I decided on using the effect 'cutout' under the artistic setting. At this point the poster just had the image with the effect on a plain black background. I felt the black was too bold and made the image difficult to see, also I wanted white on the poster as our group is black 'n' white. So I selected white as the secondary colour and used the gradient tool, this tool allows you to draw a line and then it with split the two colours selected up and make them fade into each other, in this case the black and white. I tried many different places to draw the line and I felt this was the best place for it. This is because it gives the effect that Grim is coming out of the black into the white which can be seen as coming out the dark coming into the light or as it’s his debut album, coming out of the dark and coming in the spot light as to say he has made it. To finish off this poster I needed to add the text. I decided on keeping it short and having very little text, because as it’s a poster it’s not like many people would stop and read it, it needs to be more visual. Also in our research of posters we found that they don't tend to use much text either. I kept it simple by just adding Grim, the date that is will be released, the album title, the fact that is his he’s debut album and also the rating from a huge Hip-Hop magazine as this is likely to making people see and believe that is it a very good album as a big magazine has said its good. I simply made to stars by using the shapes tool, to get them all the same size I made one and then copied and pasted that 4 times so they were all the same size.

Digipack Draft

Poster/Digipack Photoshoot

Canon Powershot SX210 IS Digital Camera

This is the camera which we used to take these pictures of Josh. For the rest of the pictures we have taken have been taken on cameras on phones but for this the pictures had to be at the highest standard of which we could as we needed the pictures be near to perfect. On the day which these pictures were taken i had to bring this camera in special to take the pictures of josh and had to keep special kind with it as it is my fathers camera.

The camera cost around £350.00 and has;

• 14x zoom, 28 mm wide-angle genuine Canon lens
• 14.1 Megapixels with compact, metal body in three colour options
• Canon 4-stop optical Image Stabilizer with Dynamic IS
• Wide 7.6 cm (3.0 Inch) PureColor II G LCD with enhanced strength and visibility
• HD Movies (720p) with optical zoom, stereo sound and HDMI

Music Posters Analysis

Kid Cudi Tour Posters 2009

This poster is very bold and outstanding. I like the use of the yellow as a main base colour. As a strong, bold colour such as yellow has been used, this allows the picture of Kid Cudi's face become clearer to make out and makes his face stand out more against the yellow as the maker of this poster has decided to make his face dark using and black and white setting. This poster is made up of four different layers. The base layer of yellow, the text explaining when and where he is performing, the cartoon images and the final  and top layer is the large powerful image of Kid Cudi's face although this has been blended into the cartoon effect which appears they might be a part of the same image. I do really like the way this has been done, it suggests the blend of real life and the fantasy live that many of his songs are about.

This poster is a lot more real life and i feel could be seen as a lot more serious. The colour scheme is this poster is very dark and maybe not so outstanding as many posters. I like the way that the moon has been used in the poster, this is because his album title is the man on the moon and Kid Cudi is also known as the moon man.This poster has been made with five layers. The base layer is the image of the moon in the sky with the trees in the distance, the next layer would the highest on the smoke trials, the third layer would be the main image of Kid Cudi himself, the next layer is the rest of the smoke trials and than the final layer would be the text of Kid Cudi's name, where it is and who he is performing with him. This is my favorite poster of the two.

Album Cover Mock Up Designs

This was my first go at designing an album cover. I took the image on the above of Kid Cudi and changed it using the setting and effects that are available on paint shop pro, the program I used to design this cover. Firstly I changed the colour settings of the picture using the manual colour correction setting; in this I changed the colours a little darker to make him seem more mysterious. I changed the setting to a foggy effect, this made the image become more cartoon like but this effect made his face become too dark which meant I had to change the settings on his face. I did this selecting the facial features which I wanted then changed the colour settings to make them lighter. As i was doing this it appeared that it looked like there was a light on the left side of his face. I felt this was really effective and shaded the top corners of the image which now appears that there is a spot light on him.
 

Album Cover Research

Kid Cudi - Dat Kid From Cleverland

This is the album front cover and back cover from Kid Cudi's mixtape "Dat Kid From Cleveland" I feel the colour scheme works really well and stands out strongly. i feel the way in which the brown and green have been used from the background, as these are dark colours the brighter colours such as pink, yellow and blue stand out really well for his and the album name. also on the back cover the colour scheme stays the same and the contents on the cd is writen in pink, the track nuumber, yellow for the track name and blue for the artist that is featuring along side Kid Cudi. 

After doing much research into the genre Hip-Hop and Hip-Hop album covers we seen that Parental Advisory messages are place on the front cover of most Hip-Hop album covers, this because you will tend to find strong language or sexual content in the songs on the album. This is to let the parental know that there is strong content in the album and is a warning in case they do not want their children to listen to this. Because most Hip-Hop albums have this sticker on their album covers we decided that we will need to use it also to fit our genre.

Myspace

We decide to make a Myspace music account to promote our artist as we found most music artist have these social networking sites.we thought it would be a good way for people to see our artist as its easy for them to become friends with him so fans can see what working on for new projects. With all the new technology and huge popularity in social networking sites. Due to this huge popularity in social networking site it is an amazing source of free advertisement. Also we are able to target at our audience and our fans as they will be able to become friends with Grim. It also allows the fans to feel closer and connected to Grim as they can what he is up to . This is a very good place to make announcements such as; dates for tours or new releases. A good feature which Myspace has is that it has an inbuilt music player which comes on when someone enters the page. This allows artists to put their latest songs or samples of new songs on and the fans can feel like they are being let into hearing the songs first. Myspace is one of the leading ways to promote an artist this is why many artists such as; Kanye West http://www.myspace.com/kanyewest. 

Prop List