Band Photoshoot

Today I am photoshooting the band for images for their website and Digipak. 

I am performing the shoot in a local woods, taking conventions from existing rock band album covers such as Black Stone Cherry; Folklore And Superstition.

This band do however take themselves quite serious, which Black Syndicate do not. So the overall feel of the Photoshoot/digipack cover will not be as serious.





Although they are a pop band, Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies are a parody/cover band from America. Their whole characteristics and personality is similar of that of Black Syndicate;



The overall style of my work will be a combination of the styles of the two bands; Black Stone Cherry and Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies

When looking up digipak case I discovered a number of templates that you can download and use for your own personal use. The standard Digipak case has two sleeves to it, one to store the booklet, the other sleeve for the CD itself. However when researching templates I was unable to find a template with two sleeves, so will adapt a template with a single sleeve to be correct for two sleeves.

http://www.oasiscd.com/graphics/templates-digipak.asp

Style of work

In terms of the style behind the Digipak and Website they said they wanted a particular style, a style like the band Black Stone Cherry; http://www.blackstonecherry.com/

The style of their website is very dark but simple and easy to navigate and follow around the site. I will keep the navigation and appearance of the site very simple too. However they did express that they wanted it to be a little more interactive, so will have links to videos rather than just a play button for the songs. On the home page there will be the more recently videos/songs, latest news and contact details.

The CD will be inspired by that of Black Stone Cherry's Folklore And Superstition album, based in a wood, with no form of special effects or anything. The font will be basic and not 'perfect' looking. I am looking at getting the member of the band to write it in their own hand writing to make it more personal to the band. The back would have the track list written on it, so would get the band members to write that too.

I will keep the template of the digipak simple and traditional. If you look at exciting digipaks from heavy metal/rock bands, their CD cases aren't overly complicated, but stay traditional.

Intertextuality

My plot and style for my music video has heavy influences from a range of sources, from bands to films. I have researched and explained these influences and intertexual references in the Prezi below.

Classification

From October 2014 the new implication of age restrictions on music videos will be set in place and begin. In August David Cameron announced plans to add age restrictions music videos "to help parents protect their children from some of the graphic content in online music videos". However there is some conflicted views as to whether this idea will work or not. Ella On The Run is one artist who has two views to the issue, she explains that the understands why they want to put age restrictions on music videos, as there are many over sexual and violent images that children of particular ages shouldn't see. However she also has concerns that if a restriction is put in place then certain artists will make videos much more sexualised and explicit and just put a higher age rating on it, just because they can. 

The artist FKA Twigs said 'I think that the answer to protecting younger viewers is not to ban things, it's to show an alternative.' He does present a fair argument that we no longer live in Victorian Britain, should we still be having children grow up with an elephant in the room, with anything sexual or graphic hidden behind close doors. Some people argue that it's worse to act like sex and violence is something bad and something we shouldn't discuss, as it then becomes something young people aim to try or see purely because its restricted. 

There is another side to the argument as the majority of record labels are already part of the BPI's parental advisory scheme, so is there any need for the a age restriction on videos. 

They seem to be focusing more on graphic violent content rather than content of a sexual nature to start with; “If it contains racist, or homophobic, or other types of discriminatory content it will now for the first time have to be classified. If it contains suicide or self harm, it will for the first time have to be classified. So the music industry is doing is looking at that level, and linking that to when they will submit content to us."

There is already filter in terms of the Parental Advisory Explicit Content label, however it this isn't a enforces filter, just a suggestion that the parents listen to the music before the child, to ensure it is suitable in the parents eyes. A child of any age can still buy it without an adult present though.


Following a sruvey in 2013 of 10,000 people about the classification laws there was one issue that arose strongly; 'A specific issue highlighted by the consultation is in relation to sexual content, where the public is particularly concerned about the sexualisation of girls, and pornography.  The content of music videos and the ease of accessibility of online porn are special worries.' hence this has become something the BBFC want to tackle. 

Its videos such as Nicki Minaj- Anaconda:  Nicki Minaj - "Anaconda" from > on Vimeo.
(http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2014/10/nicki-minaj-doesnt-get-all-the-talk-about-her-racy-anaconda-video/) That create such complaints. 


http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/29423817
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/10584304/Age-ratings-for-music-videos-Kids-this-Miley-Cyrus-music-video-isnt-for-you.-The-British-Board-of-Film-Classification-says-so.html
http://parental-advisory.co.uk/advice-for-parents/why-are-certain-songs-or-videos-labelled-explicit/
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-bbfc/media-centre/bbfc-launch-new-classification-guidelines
http://www.factmag.com/2014/01/13/british-board-of-film-classification-working-on-age-rating-for-music-videos/

Questionnaire answers

After receiving answers from my questionnaire, I created an Emaze presentation to deconstruct and analysis' the answers I got.

Plan to ensure I have all the necessary primary and secondary audience research

Secondary;

• ABC1, what categorises people into the ABC1 (once Primary is done, link back to the ABC1 groups).
• BBFC age categorises, also look into the recently decision to censor music videos with an age restriction. 
• Apply Pete Buckingham concepts of audiences to my music video.
• Find 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory essay'

Primary;

• Questionnaires on Facebook, asking what people like in Music Videos (styles, themes, genre etc).
• Watch videos of the band and see who is in the audience of their performances.
• Interview the band themselves and ask who goes to their gigs.
• Create a focus group.