Creating a Brand identity

The brand identity or logo for an artist is vital for simple recognition. After analysing previous CD covers before, I could refer back to see the style of logos being used currently.

From the research I had previously completed into the existing CD covers, it enabled me to thoroughly look through the styles of CD Titles and general logos. However, after much research, I found that there wasn;t a particular style which all RnB artists conform to, but they each have their very own style and it appears very up to them.

When thinking about my decided Artist name of 'Alyssa', I felt that the name was too short to abbriviate much like Jennifer Lopez as 'JLo', so I began playing around with different fonts from a variety of websites and slightly changing them through photoshop to create the perfect logo. Because a lot of my shots in the music video are quite 'Street RnB' with the brick wall and grafitti, I didn't want a 'Clean' looking logo such as Kelly Rowland's or the Sugababes, and I felt that a grafitti style logo would represent the style and look that I wanted Alyssa to have, similar to Alesha Dixon, and N-Dubz.

Whilst editing my final logo, i felt that the normal font was good, but  felt that like Nicole's logo with the different N, I wanted to change one of my letters to give it a personal touch, so I slightly bent the last A In Alyssa which I think works very well.

Overall, I am very pleased with my final Logo, and I feel that it will look very effective on my CD cover and Poster!

Poster and Magazine advert Research

When I came to research existing posters created for actual artists, I found that most of them stuck to the same image, or very similar to the CD cover for brand identity reasons. For example, Rhianna has used the exact same image for her poster as her CD cover, and used more information about the release dates of the album etc. After previous research of the CD covers which I had completed,(ALBUM COVERS RESEARCH POST) I began to work with ideas which I could use for my CD cover to work effectively, but also designs which I could encorporate a poster into the design for two effective pieces of work.

POSTER

CD COVER

I Also had to remind myself of previous research where I found a lot of artists use the same set for their CD cover photographs as in their actual music videos, meaning that I should keep a running theme of a shot in my music video, CD cover and poster all similar. I have decided that my 'Brick wall' feature in my music video is the most effective, and as well as my previous draft CD cover, I believe I can create an effective marketing scheme.

Artist Names

When deciding on an Artist name, I referred back to the other blogposts I had completed of research on other artists. I noticed that a lot of Artists used a simple name, almost like a statement, such as Rhianna, Beyonce, Alesha, Ciara, Shakira, Fergie and JoJo rather than using their first and last names much like an Indie artist may. This general trend within the R&B genre is very apparent, and therefore it was clear to me that I would like to conform to the trend.

I began playing with some ideas in my head, and came up with a few ideas such as:

• Alice (The Actresses actual name)
• Jayde
• Kara (Too close to Ciara)
• Sammy
• Lia
• Rosie

However a lot of the time, R&B artists names are usually quite original and quirky like Beyonce and Ciara. After reviewing my own ideas, I decided to quiz my peers within my Media class to see if they had any good ideas. A few suggestions were:

• Alyssa (A play on 'Alice')
• Jessii
• Kelly
• Grace
• Kitti

To seek more ideas, I posted a question on Yahoo Answers. The question was the same as I asked my Peers.

On my question, not many responses came in, however I found a similar question which has already been asked which had a few good suggestions such as:

• Malique
• Willow
• Etta
• Angel
• Breezy
• Serenity
• Celeste

After much considering of all my suggested names as well as my own ideas, I have decided to use the name 'Alyssa' as my artist name. I believe that it has the quirky edge to it much like 'Ciara' and 'Rhianna' and also fits the genre nicely.

First attempt of Editing a CD Cover

After my first photoshoot where I managed to take a series of photographs which I could use for my Digipak, I decided that I could attempt to edit my one of my photos to see how it could turn out.

This is the Photo I am experimenting with.

Firstly I zoomed into the eye to edit it closely.

Using the burn and dodge tool, I made the whites of Alice's
Eye much more white, as well as the 'Glisten' in the pupil.

I then highlighted the eye with the magic wand tool. I Then
wanted to make the blue in Alice's eye more vibrant.

Using Hue/Saturation, I Added saturation making the
blue stand out more.

The Eye finished!

I then highlighted around Alice using the Magic wand tool
again and copied and pasted her as a layer.

I could then make the background black and white, leaving
Alice in colour which looks very good in my opinion!

I Then closely cropped the image to leave half of her face.
I think this looks really effective as well!

As I haven't decided a name for my artist, Just to experiment
with typography, I used the phrase 'NAME'.  I also found a
pretty basic font.

I then Rotated the text to go down the side of the frame.

This is the result of my CD cover experiment!

Although this CD cover is very basic and not exactly how I want to do my real Digipak, I'm glad I experimented with RnB looks for my Digipak!

How music is distributed

The distribution of music is very different to ten years ago. The new ways of distributing music definitely makes accessing music much easier as the only way used to be to buy the CD from a shop, however now we can easily purchase a MP3 straight to our computers to place straight onto an MP3 Player/Ipod. To demonstrate the different ways a artist would distribute their music, I am going to focus on one artist in the same genre as my own song, Rihanna, and her album 'Rated R'.

The Website for Rihanna is very simple, and there is a clear section that says 'Shop' which leads you to a sub-website where they sell all of Rihanna's albums as well as merchandise such as mugs, signed posters and T-shirts. Although this form of purchasing an album is very costly, it is definitely official.

ITunes is the new hype which has revolutionised the way the public purchases CD's and MP3's. This new way of downloading MP3's is a great way to directly buy songs straight onto a Ipod which is also a major trend. This of course has limitations. Because of the huge amount of traffic for marketing which comes to iTunes, the cost per song does tend to be high. 

Amazon MP3 is also another way of purchasing MP3's directly. The pricing strategies of Amazon MP3 is aimed much lower than iTunes, although probably not as popular. The price for the album here is 3.99 compared to a staggering 6.99 on iTunes.

A very new form of buying music is also through retail brands which are now opening web downloading stores such as Tesco. Tesco also would sell the album in store for a competitive price for the physical album, however now they are competing with Amazon, iTunes and many more such as HMV and Zavvi.

After researching the different types of ways music similar to my own gets distributed, I feel that I now know more about the kind of industry and competitiveness in pricing there really is. It will help for when I come to create my magazine advert, I know who i'm pitching the advert to.

Mood and Lighting trial

From the research and mood boards I created based on moods and lighting, I have decided to experiment with the idea further. The complete contrasts within RnB of Glamourous style lighting and mood to the contrasting 'Grunge' styled mood is so different. I have experimented with different colourisation and editing through a photo I took of Alice to demonstrate the makeup styles. I felt that this would be a perfect image to experiment with mood as good makeup can either me Glam or Grunge. I completed the edited photographs through Adobe Photoshop. Although I will be editing my music video through Premiere Pro, this is just an experiment with colouring and lighting.

As you can see from the image below, I have edited the colouring to make the colours darker, gloomy and slightly cold. This in my opinion gives a different styling completely to the mood of Glamourous.

My 'Grunge' Styled edit of a still

For the other contrasting shot of Alice, I have used warmer tones, more contrast and a slightly more airbrushed effect. This gives a much more glamourous view on the image and would be perfect to contrast against the 'Grungy style'.

My 'Glam' Styled edit of a still

Now I have experimented with colouring, I can now start thinking about adapting my lighting for shooting the scene as well as knowing the colourisation I want to do in the post production stages of my music video.

Mood/Lighting Moodboard

One main feature I have noticed throughout the RnB genre as a whole is the presence of contrasting styled shots. For example, one main style I have noticed throughout my music video research of RnB artists is the 'Glamourous' style where thery have very well lit shots aiming to give a very seductive mood to the shot as well as the lighting being very warm tones.. In comparison, I have noticed the 'Grungy/Empty warehouse/anti-Glamourous' shots where the artist remains looking stylish, however they use very cold and grungy lighting. These moodboards are examples of exactly what I mean.

The 'Glamour' Mood/Lighting
The glamourous style shot is very apparent throughout the genre of RnB which is a definite style and lighting I want to re-create. The closeup shot of Rihanna (Bottom, Right image) shows very high key lighting around the face to particually highlight the beauty and makeup. I also love the Jennifer Lopez screenshot (Centre Image) with other warmer tones which highlight the features on her face well with the lighting on her face. For example, the lighting is obviously to the right of her face highlighting her cheekbone rather than the other side of her face which is in shadow.

The 'Grunge' Mood/Lighting
Another RnB style for lighting and mood creation is the glamourous actress looking fully madeup shot in a 'dingy/Grungy' setting such as wrecked walls, empty warehouses and other cold and almost could be spooky setting however the attractive actress brings it back to a purposely designed shot. This is re-enforced more by the use of colouring and mood. Although the initial mood is set by the physical frame, the colouring and mood is set through lighting and colouring in post production. I particually love Ciara's shot (Right,Middle) where she is leaned up against a wall with severe cold temperature with the colours using blue's and greys. The light again is lighting up once side of her face, and one side is in shadow.



After reviewing what types of moods can be created through the power of lighting and and post production with colouring, I now know for certain that I would like to produce two styles of scenes, one very studio/Glamourous styled shoot as well as a very grungy style to contrast and add dimension and meaning into my music video.

Location Possibilities

After my initial ideas on locations, I had two definite locations that I wanted to use. One was the 'Brick Wall' Style where i'd have my artist leaned up against a brick wall, and the other, a dance studio. When I came to finding my locations, I had a good idea that i should look in the local park to my school where I was sure that there were old/imperfect walls I could use in my video. Unfortunately, Alice my actress was unavailable when I came to shoot some locations, however my friend Chantelle stepped in just to be in the frame to give me a better idea how it would look.

This Wall is in the park next to my school.

I also came across walls with graffiti on them. Although this idea was not planned, I felt that it was a very good urban style.

Again, another nice shot, could have good potential!

Then we found an iron shed with graffiti. I like the look of the model against the rough looking background.

I then remembered that in the town where we go to school, there is a subway tunnel which also has graffiti and other artwork which could potentially look really good in a RnB music video. The tunnel has potential to make it into my music video!

Myself and Alice also took a trip to our local town, Bournemouth, primerily to purchase costumes, but also to find urban settings, and we found this back street. we think it has a really urban feel to it, and could look good in a music video!

Other than a few more urban styled scenes, I want to use some studios around the school. We have three,  a dance studio, Drama studio and photography. All of which i plan to use in my video!

Hair and Makeup planning

For the Hair styling, Makeup and whole character styling, I thought that it would be better to find an artist that already looks similar to Alice, and to then style her to look like the artist even more. The Artist I found is Fergie who sang 'Big girls don't cry'. I believe that Alice and Fergie look very similar, especially the hair styles I have created for Alice.

Alice's Styled look for the Music video

Fergie- 'Big Girls Don't Cry' Screenshot

When I came to designing the makeup for for Alice to wear for my music video, I wanted to keep it very neutral because in my mood board for makeup, I found a lot of neutral style makeup. I also wanted it to be a lot like Fergie as I believe that she is a major influence in the look I am creating for Alice.

Alice and my designs of makeup

Fergie- 'Big Girls Don't Cry' Screenshot

I'm very happy with my styling for Alice as I believe that although conventionally, RnB artists are Black, So I think Fergie is perfect to base my character upon.

Hair and Makeup Moodboard

When I come to have to design the makeup and hair for my actress (Alice), I wanted to make sure i knew exactly the style I am aiming for. To do this, I decided to create a mood board of stills from a variety of female artists within the R&B genre. This will helo me discover the conventions of RnB artists.

Make-up

With the exception of Ciara (Top Left screenshot) where she is wearing heavier eyeliner, the make up used in RnB all appears very natural. Occasionally, some of the artists appear to use a more obvious lip colouring or gloss such as Alexis Jordan (Top Right image). Some of the artists also appear to have slightly heavier eyeshadow such as Tulisa Contostavlos from N-Dubz (Square centre screenshot).

Now I have analysed other female artists from RnB genre, I can begin to plan my make up styles. from my four different scenes/Costumes, I have gone for very different feels. For my more 'Backstreet' themed scenes, I want to be a bit more adventurous with the make up, and use quite dark colours around the eyes (Could potentially signify more dangerous/living on the edge/rough styling?). For my more 'Glam' scenes, i want to use very natural make up styles to keep in theme with the costume.

Hair Styling

Throughout the mood board, where hair styles come into the frame, they either seem to have Straight or curly hair. Another observation is that they all have their hair out of their faces, with the exception of Alexandra Burke, they all have subtle fringes. All of the artists have medium to long hair.

Luckily, Alice's hair is very good for this style. She has a subtle fringe and long hair which keeps in theme with the other R&B artists. I plan to use both curly hair and straight hair for Alice in two different scenes. The curly hair I shall use in the 'Backstreet' styled scenes, and straight hair for the 'Glam' styled scenes.

Costumes!

For my music video, it is crucial that I source some good outfits to fit with the genre of RnB to make the music video look more believable. After viewing many RnB music videos for inspiration for costumes, I have come up with my four costumes that I wish to use.To get the costumes for my music video, we took a trip to the local Primark to see what we could find for a cheap price. Although we didn't manage to get everything i needed, I did find a lot of exactly what i needed to get good RnB styled costumes.

Costume 1
This looks was inspired by Ciara in her music video "Promise". I decided to take inspiration from this costume because I also plan to take inspiration from the dance routine when she is wearing this costume and it also fits very well with the more HipHop side of RnB.

For this costume I needed:
-Large Hoodie
-Baggy Trousers/Jogging Bottoms

I managed to source the Hoodie from Primark, and bought the XXL Size as in the screen shot of Ciara's video, the hoodie looks very baggy. The trousers i could not find in Primark, however my friend had a pair of harem pants which she was willing to lend us. I Believe that I have done well to get a very similar outfit, although it was quite a plain outfit!

Alice in my Costume to the left, Ciara from her video 'Promise' On the Right.       

Costume 2
The second costume I wished to re-create was the look in Nicole Scherzinger's 'Wet' where she wears a leather looking jacket with a hood and lots of accessories. I chose the costume because in a lot of RnB music videos, there is a lot of 'Glam' scenes contrasting with 'backstreet' scenes. I decided I liked this look for the more backstreet styled scene.


For this costume I needed:
-A leather jacket
-Big sunglasses
-Large hoop earrings
-High waisted Skinny jeans

Although this costume does not include any trousers, I felt that my look would work better with some trousers. I can also use the same skinny jeans in costume 4.The leather jacket I was able to get from Primark as well as the hoop earrings and the skinny jeans. The sunglasses Alice (my actress) already had from her own possessions. I also added some bangles to this look as I already had them from Costume 4.

Nicole in her music video 'Wet' to the left, and Alice in the right picture.

Costume 3
Costume 3's idea was taken from Alexandra Burke's 'Bad boys' as well as Jennifer Lopez' 'I'm into you'. The sparkly party dress is going to be my main outfit, and probably be shown throughout the chorus of the song. I chose the outfit to inspire from because i felt it symbolised the party glam theme that runs throughout RnB well.


For this costume I needed:
-A Glamourous party dress
-High heels
-Wrist Bangles

The party dress was the hardest thing for us to find. We searched all through Primark unsuccessfully finding a dress suitable. We then went to other shops such as New Look, Debenhams and River Island, however we were still unsuccessful with finding the perfect dress for this scene. After our failure to find the perfect dress, we decided to ask our friends to see if they had a dress we could borrow to fit the style or similar to the dress shown in Alexandra Burke's video, and our friend managed to find a dress for us! The heels were Alice's own, and they were also used throughout costume 4. The bangles were from primark, our bargain of £1.50 for all of them!

Alexandra Burke 'Bad boys' Video to the left,  Alice to the right.

Costume 4
Finally, costume 4 was also taken from Ciara's music video 'Promise' where she wears high waisted skinny jeans, with a cropped white/cream t-shirt and heels. I chose this costume because I think it symbolises the sexy look of RnB that is in the majority of the female artist videos.


For this costume I needed:
-A Cropped White t-shirt
-High heels
-Wrist Bangles
-High Waisted Skinny Jeans
-Hooped Earrings
-Gold Necklace chain

Alice managed to find her own cropped white t-shirt to use which was helpful. The high heels were also Alice's own. The wrist bangles were the same as the other costumes, all from Primark as well as the Skinny Jeans, Hooped Earrings and Necklace. I think that this is my favourite outfit, purely because we managed to get the look very similar to Ciara's, and I think it suits the genre very well.

Ciara 'Promise' in the left picture, Alice in the right.

As for Georges outfit, I'm hoping George is going to wear black trousers, fairly plain, and a white t-shirt. Although I haven't found a good example to back up my style choice, i'm confident that it won't matter too much as the male actor scenes will only be short, and cut up and mixed in with the four female scenes.
Now I have chosen my four outfits for Alice as well as my four locations, I can now begin to schedule filming dates!

Costume Inspiration Moodboard

When coming to deciding what costumes i need to source or purchase, I decided to do a moodboard of stills from various RnB music videos. I found quite a few features that became apparent throughout my research which I would like to recreate.

After assessing what is common for an RnB female artist to wear during a music video, I came up with this list. This will now help me to know exactly what kind of outfits I am going to be looking for.

• Big Sunglasses
• Big chunky bangles on one wrist
• Big hooped earrings
• Fairly plain tops, Usually black or white
• Skinny Jeans
• Jacket- Biker chick style
• High Heels
• A Glamourous party dress

Digipak Analysis

Rihanna's Digipak

This Rihanna digipak includes a big photo of her in a very Rihanna styled photo shoot. The photograph extends over all three panels of the digipak. I really love the way that the main styling of the digipak is through photography (as I am also a Photography student as well as Media!). I have great ideas for my own Digipak as I also would like to continue the idea of using big photographs as a main idea for a digipak.

Another thing that i noticed with Rihanna's Album 'Loud' is that the photography used in the digipak is also very similar to that in one of her singles released which is also on the album 'Only Girl in the world'.

Screenshot of Rihanna- 'Only girl in the world'

Screenshot of Rihanna- 'Only girl in the world'

This gave me the idea to take my primary photographs I will be using on my Digipak when i actually film the scenes for the music video, therefore I can get the exact styling and use it as recognition marketing.

Choreography Inspiration

There is two things i love about this music video. One thing i love is the dance routine in the beginning of the music video where she is wearing a hoodie and baggy clothing. I think that the dance routine is quirky and adds personality to the artist which is definitely a feature needed in a music video. The other thing i love is the use of clothing. There are some really lovely outfits which would definitely work well with my music video. I Will use these at a later date in a mood board so i know what i am creating for my music video.

More Inspiring techniques

The most inspiring thing about this music video to me is the fact that each camera shot is not only just cut together, but they use effects which almost give the vibrating or shakey movements which really helps to add dimension to the video. I would like to try this when making my own video.

More Music Video Inspiration

 After comparing all of the artists on the 'R&B Now' and selecting those which are similar in style is to my artist, I researched those who i think are relevant to my style. I Particularly liked Nicole Scherzinger's "Wet" Music video as it has quite a few inspiring aspects. Firstly i love the CCTV style shot which is only a small feature within the music video, however i do think it gives a different perspective for the audience to view the action. Another thing that I particularly liked is the use of close ups of un related objects, however going along with the 'Grungy' settings and Mise-en-Scene. I also like the use of sunglasses to conceal her face, however it also makes her look very glamourous.

The CCTV Style Shot

A Closeup of a lock being cut

Another unrelated shot to the lyrics

An interesting close up with an interesting
light and flare across her face.