Ed Sheeran & P Money - Artist Research

The song we have chosen to create a music video for is Ed Sheeran and P.Money's remix of Lego House. The song includes the original chorus from Ed's Lego House. In the remix it includes several verses from Grime artist P.Money. I did some basic research into the artists to understand the type of direction their music is going in. 

Paris Moore-Williams was born on the 8th of april 1989 and is better know as 'P.Money' and is a rapper from Lewisham in South London. The music he makes includes Grime, Rap, Dub-Step and Hip-Hop. His most well known songs are probably - 'Dubsteppin', 'Slang like this' & 'Sweet Shop'. P Money is known for his lyrical swagger and play on words. He is most definitely infusing life into the grime and dubstep scene and fusing the connection between the two genres.

Ed Sheeran was born 17th February in 1991 in Halifax and lived most of his young life in Framlingham before his music career took off. His first recorded EP was released in 2005 'The Orange Room'. His most popular and well known songs would be 'A - Team', 'Lego House' & 'Small Bump'.

Digipak Analysis of Wiley

Wiley - The ascent

I have chosen to analyse the digipak of Wiley's The ascent album.

A digipack is an original version of a cd covering and album package. A digipack usually conforms of a gatefold (book style) from cardboard and or plastic. With trays or sleeves holding the CD and the attachments inside in their place. Digipacks were among the first to be used by major record companies. Digipacks are usually used as special editions of the record or albums as the packaging is more resistant to scratching and damage. Digipacks can also be used for DVD's.

Conventionally Digipacks contain images all over portraying the trademarks of the artist and represent the theme of the album such as here, Wiley released this album The ascent where the image on the front of the pack is of himself looking away from the camera in a dramatic pose portraying his deep thought, representing the deep lyrics in some of the songs on the album. This also suggests he has something to hide, or a lack in confidence. Most grime album covers involve the artist looking directly at the camera to increase fear factor.
By looking at the album cover it is rather difficult to see what genre it is conveying, although   there is one way you can tell it is Grime is by the use of a gold chain to represent wealth.

The colour scheme on this digipak is fairly dark, with the exception of a t-shirt and text. On the front and back, it has white text, so it can stand out from the dark, black background.
How Wiley is represented on this album cover he would want to convey a grime stereotype, due to the choice of clothing and name of the album. A waste coat is not a typical choice of clothing for grime artists, so Wiley definitely wants to stand out from the crowd.
As like Wiley’s clothing, the font doesn’t convey grime too. Also like the clothing, it shows sophistication. This could mean that Wiley is trying to change his style and move away from the grime stereotype.
The audience of Wiley would still be the normal young, grime demographic males. Although, by proving sophistication, Wiley could raise his target audience. Some of his bigger tracks have also become quite popular with the mainstream media audience. 
The image oh himself is extremely large compared to other aspects of the digipak such as the small writing on the back and the medium size title on the front. This suggests that the artist is the most important.

First draft of our storyboard 'LG TD BH KD'

Location Shots 'LG TD BH KD'

These are some location shots from the our music video, including some of the main areas of film.

Audience viewing habits

These days it has become extremely easy and massively available for everyone to watch and enjoy music. 

There are many ways in which people can watch music videos of all different sorts and genres. The internet, You can view music videos through many different websites, the main one obviously being the official websites of the artist/band of the song their listening to. 

There are also websites such as Youtube and Vimeo. 

You could also watch music videos on television as there are now many channels dedicated to certain music genres, these channels include MTV, AKA, Scuzz, Kerrang and many more.

Channel AKA is a Free-To-Air music channel, owned by All Around the World Productions, available through Sky within the UK and Ireland on channel 385. It is a music channel, focusing on playing upcoming UK urban/grime/hip-hop music and this would be the channel that the audience of our music video would watch as it features the exact type of videos we are creating. Channel AKA is a significant outlet not only for established artists, but also for those who are just starting out. Its material "includes crude productions shot with handheld digital video cameras," and helps new musicians attract attention and build a fan base.

Another way to watch music videos would be on smart phones and other technology such as iPads and iPods etc.

Audience theories

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - The theory that there are 5 layers of needs that all humans share; physiological (food, sleep,shelter), security, social, esteem and self actualisation.

Hypodermic Syringe Theory - The theory that media messages can be injected into the system like a drug, and influence people to behave in a certain way, e.g. seeing a 'cool' rapper being aggressive in a video could influence a male audience who identifies with him to behave similarly.

Desensitisation Theory - The theory that repeated exposure to certain messages can influence audiences to accept them, e.g. continued exposure to music videos that sexualise women through their clothing can influence ordinary women to believe that this is a 'normal' way to dress.

Two-step flow Theory - The theory that in society there are opinion leaders, who are influential in being able to shape the opinions and attitudes of people.

Uses and Gratifications - The theory that audiences use media texts to fulfil certain basic needs and pleasures, such as personal relationships, personal identification, diversion/escapism and surveillance.

Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.

Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, eg) substituting soap operas for family life

Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts

Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg) weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains

Analysis of music video survey results

This is the analysis of the music video questionnaire...

More than 80% of people said that music videos are important. This means people are constantly looking for new features and styles of music videos, because people are always interested into looking at new music videos. This is a good sign for our video because it means they will be interested with the style of our videos.

Over 50% of people who answered said that they would rather view a music video containing a narrative rather than a music preformance. The lyrics of our song itself is a story being told through the artist in this case Ed Sheeran & P Money are telling a story of hardships of life, The track is very personal and i think this is the best way to get the messages across.