more audience research

i decided to look at what 'indie' people would like to see on a front cover which would attract there eye to make them buy the CD both sex's. i was asking questions such as ; Would you prefer a male on the front cover or female? and a lot of the answer's to these questions were obvious that both sex's would prefer the opposite sex on the front cover. But also i asked if they would even like a picture of a person or more objects? but most of the people who i asked said they would prefer a person for the reason that they can see what they look like would be an attraction and also if they know them by face but not name so if they see the face in would attract them to buy the album.

filming

This weeks filming we will be on Thursday and Friday weather permitting, so because the snow is all cleared up we are going to try and get all the outdoors filming in. we was meant to be filming some scenes indoors but we if it doesn't snow up until Thursday we will film outside because then over the holiday break we might be able to do a bit of filming indoors to try and catch up on lat week which we missed because of absences.

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filming and digi packs

we have currently fell behind in our filming due to members of the group being away and the weather that we dont find that it would be suitable for the filming through hazards of slipping over etc, but we had a change of mind the the snow is more romantic in was that couple can have fun in the snow so we was going to be doing a little bit of filming in the snow.

whilst not being able to film we looked at ideas for our digi packs for and what synergy its goin to have with our actual production piece and we figured that in the song its talks about changing days etc so we are going to try and get pictures with me and try a change the sky on the picture with me looking up to it so im trying to look for better days and we are linking the weather to a good day.

fonts for digi pack/audience research

We went round to lots of different people to try and get views on which font style is the best for our title, we asked people who all had diffrent music genre's indie/rock/r'n'b etc and we came to a conclusion that the top one reklame was the most 'indie' and it was the one that fitted the song we have picked for production and we did a bar chart that that shown our results and the score of the other fonts got.

health & safety

For our production work that we are doing most of the locations where we are filming are in peoples houses or in a class room accept a variety which are out side, so there isn't a lot of risk assessment to be done. The main one is when we are doing the 'tramp' shot's where he lays/sits we have to make sure that the area is clear of broken glass bottles, also when we film in the bedroom of someones house that there is nothing lying around on the floor which would be liable for someone to fall over.
especially now it is icy when we film we need to make sure that everything is sturdy and wont fall over and also when I'm walking along the streets that i don't fall over and take extra care.

shooting schedule

story boards

we did a green screen experiment to look at a variety of shots that would could maybe use in our final production, we tried to put it over shots that would be relevant to what we would like to film we have tried another green screen and tried to improve omn the pieces that were faulty in this one.

Audience Research

planning

These were the original ideas of our planning work for the oh me oh my track, we had to change a few bits around after though to try and get a clear picture of what we thought would fit the song better to the beat and also the lyrics of the song. Also we made sure that the whole group understood the ideas of what we want from the video, we had to eliminate some ideas from how we was going to film in a certain shop but the we needed consent and it was a commercial shop so the chances would of been slim so to save time we considerdd other ideas which would fit the song better.

finding a band
We started looking at a band for our music video, within our group we discussed that the genre of the song that we looked at was indie, after thinking that rock, rap and heavy metal wouldnt be a good song to try and do a music video to as the personalities of our group fit more indie. The bands that we looked at were The 99s, Pk and the Painted Lillies, we decided through group discussion that the best band to fit our idea's were The 99s and the song 'oh me, oh my' we discoverd this band from http://www.unsigned.com/, we then emailed one of the members of the band James Loughlin to see if we could use there video and the response was good as he was happy for us to use his bang and gave us the best of luck.








This was the email that we sent out for permission to use the song.










This was the good news from James about confirming our permission to go ahead and film with there video.

The start of the find your love song by drake begins with him and a man speaking in different language and there is text at the bottom of the screen to show you what there saying, as the first picture is of a wall with 'dead' written on it in red to probably show that it is blood and saying that love is dead perhaps, then an old man speaking to drake still as you can see his lips moving with the beat to the song in the back ground. as it cuts to another picture of a 'rasta' man standing there as in zooms in close to his face, then is goes back to drake as he is still being spoken to by the old man, then a few shot reverse shots between them and a 'hot' girl perhaps the old mans daughter and hes telling drake off for being with her. Then it goes to him in a recording studio looking confused and struggling to make something right with his hand on his head looking sorry for him self, then it goes back to him and the old man and looks like they've reach level terms and it cuts back to being in the studio and hes looking happier now finally found what he wanted and now working with it, as he is singing in the studio its doing like shot reverse shots of him in studio and walking down a street being watch by people around him in a poor town and then to a night club where he sees a girl he likes but she is with the 'rasta' man from the start of the video looks over and sees drake looking and it cutback to drake in the studio trying to make his track better to try and win over the girl it is trying to enthasise, from his lyrics as well when he says 'nothing is going to tear us apart' and 'its more than just a mission' as it does a lot of shot reverse shots between them drake and the 'rasta' man in the club. As he then leaves the club looking unhappy until he sees the girl on her own outside as he kisses her hand as a mate of the 'rasta' man sees him and goes to tell the 'rasta' man, as a group of people on motorbikes go past and then back to drake with the girl as they are all 'touchy' with each other as you see the friend of the 'rasta' man turn up and the camera shows him behind bars to start which could show his actions which are going to be taken might put him in prison as he goes to tell the rasta man about drake being with that girl, as you see a sequence of shots of drake with the old man, the rasta friend and drake by the beach with this girl. The ending is you see the 'rasta man get told about drake being with the girl and it ends so you see the suspense and expect there to be a song following on from this.

My third video and digi pack i will be looking at is Drake and his album 'Thank me later' this album was realised June 15Th 2010 by young money entertainment and cash money records, within a week of realising his debut album it sold over 447,000 copies in just America alone.
Drake is quite a new artist in the music industry who made it big through himself he didn't really anyone to help him he basically followed the American dream from starting off with nothing and getting big by one of his fist well known songs that he did with other well known artist like lil wayne, kanye west and Eminem, that song talks about 'how he had nothing do for me' is a lyric he uses saying that he doesn't have anything done for him and he made it him self. The song i will be looking at by drake is 'find your love' which talks about him searching for his love with a girl.

The front cover of his album is a white back ground with his picture outline and painted in with a black paint and a red shadow outline with his beard and his neck and a item of clothing he is wearing looking very serious and again like hes perhaps showing off in a way how the title is 'Thank (drake) me later' and hes standing there and his image is almost showing arrogance to his work saying he knows its going to be good and will be a bigger seller before he actually released it. The black outline with the red shadow fits quite well i think to the pictures because it almost looks like its digital and its being like video and it just gone blurry but hes not affected by it. Thank me later means from his point of view which he has quoted 'when my album becomes big you will be the one asking for something not me trying to make my dream happen i will be your dream and i will make it reality'

This is the inside cover of the album the first page is a picture of drake looking like its been faded a bit with glasses on and again its a black and white picture of him with a gold ring around his picture which could show loyalty and riches, it could almost be saying he thinks he deserves him to be on a coin or a paper note as hes sitting in the same pose as the queen.

The other side of the picture is a angel figure all in black which could be saying its bad or it can be like trying to say that drake is better than an angel and like she looks up to him by how she is looking in the picture to almost say drake is 'god' and as his album is called thank me later she might trying to be asking for something as he quoted he will make dreams reality so he is showing that he is a strong figure. So its showing that he is comparing himself to a angel and saying he is 'better' or more important and perhaps hes in a 'league of his own'.

The back of the album cover has got like a weird almost tribal pattern going around the outside with in the corners there are little love hearts which could show that a lot of his songs are to do with love especially the one I'm focusing on 'find your love' the songs are like all going round a pattern in the middle of the cover showing that those songs could all almost be worshipping that symbol or showing that the symbol means something to do with his songs and that the all revolve around it. The writing at the bottom is explain all the music industries used to make this album and the artists that are featured in it and the logo's of some of the companies. The cross in the middle of the cover could show that he is religious or could show he believes in god etc and from the inside cover of the angel means hes religious.

The poster for this digi pack is a picture of drake coming out a plane saying thank me later as if to say that his riches have paid off now and he is wealthy with a suit case and all his 'swag'. With bright lights as well showing riches, the way how the thank me later words are in big standing out font show he really means it and is confident about how 'big' this album is going to be and he is almost comparing it to the jet behind him saying its as big as that. You can also tell that he is rich from his private jet in the back ground, the bag symbolises rich from in films when you see someone with a bag like that full of money showing a similarity.

At the start of this song 'sunglasses at night' its a black background as 'Skepta' in writing comes on to the screen in white neon writing, then it cuts to a picture of a man 'skanking' with a blue background then to a black screen to the beat of the song, then to a red colour one then to a blue one again back to red as it starts the lyrics with a persons face with a close up of the lips with two rings of neon light round in blue and yellow as it goes to loads of white neon lights around them as they move to the lyrics being said as it cuts back to skepta with glasses on to show hes wearing his at night, in a red back ground then to blue then to a long shot of his body. Then it cuts back to a girl singing with a tongue piercing to then a girl with long eye lashes as her outline of her eye ball has red neon rings surrounding it as it keeps cutting between shot reverse shot of him in blue and red back grounds. Next it cuts to a shot of a lady figure as a long shot with white neon lights following her movements as she moves to the beat of the music with a blue background as it goes back to skepta and cuts the picture in 3 parts and add's them in on the beat to make a full picture, as he then starts to sing the verse as it cuts with shot reverse shots to him and a girl as neon lights keep surrounding him as it goes from through different colour of the screens between violet and red because a lyric in the song says 'roses are red violets are blue you know i got my eyes on you' as it goes between some artist like JME from a red background to a Violet one again using a lot of the red and violet to show the meaning of the song. The chorus starts again with a girl singing it with a white neon lights surrounding her lips as she speaks it moves to the sound of the beat as it cuts back to skepta dancing with lots of strobe lighting affects around him which you see through out the video, and then back to the girl singing the chorus as it keeps cutting between different shots of girls in the red back ground which means 'roses' so showing there more for a girl and violet which is a blue colour is for a boy. It then cuts to a shot of a girl dancing but you can only see her outline through neon lights as skepta appears one side of her dancing in the shot and then the next which keeps on changing alternatively, as it then zooms in on a 'sexy girls' body as where there eyes are on the girls you see neon lights coming out of them and then skepta you see the same as it shot reverse shots between him and the girls, as the next shot is of him dancing with a lady with there sunglasses on as it shot reverse shots between them and the girl. Then the finishing parts to the song he takes his sunglasses off and walks of the picture as it dissolves out and the group he is part of 'boy better know' as it flashes and then disappears to end the song.

The start of the 'i need you tonight video' begins with professor green sitting in a living room with him holding a phone in his hand with a sound of a ticking clock in the background saying he is waiting for a call or to call someone, then as the music begins he starts to stroll up and down and it switches cuts between him and the person hes trying to call who looks casual as she is shaving her legs, still with emphasis on the phone, then it cuts to a shot of a girl dancing in a sparkly dress and back to him grabbing the phone to make the phone call. Then he pulls down a screen which is supposedly the screen pad on the phone as the numbers are dialed, then on the screen where you see the numbers dialed you see it say 'RING RING' as well as hear it, as it cuts to the picture of the girl hes ringing as she picks up the phone and there is a split screen with them both talking. He gets rejected basically and he starts his lyrics then to the song as the split screen ends and hes cleaning a pair of his trainers with a toothbrush, as it then cuts to him opening the fridge full of beer showing that perhaps hes planning on a party. It then cuts to him on his bed as he throws down a magazine it jumps to him with a girl dancing as his singing shes all over him, then back to him sitting in the living room when a crowd of people in the background has been green screened in to show that its a party and hes still not got a girl there for him as he is sitting on the sofa on his own, then a girl cums and gets him up on the dance floor and he starts singing about her as it cuts between shots of him and her as it shows him sitting down as the crowd in the back ground go as if there on a sheet of cloth. Then he sees her and starts following her through lots of scenery from a party to the streets of London to her house as shes walking into her bedroom back to his own place in the living room again, as it green screen him in to a shot with a close up of her face in the background as he turns a rip through the screening which she was being filmed on into another one of her and this goes on for 2 more screens as he gets back to his living room again and in his lyrics he says 'next time she phones me I'm not even going to pick up the phone to speak init' as hes gone on how shes just using him and hes saying its enough until she rings him back once saying 'give me a time and a place' he goes back to her as the phone call is done on split screen and at the end the screen goes up and hes in a room with her as she starts being all over him, as it cuts to another artist in the song Ed drewett as he sings a bit of the chorus and then back to the girl and pro green as she carries on being all over him. Then it shows a shot of her walking out a door but on a t.v as he puts his hand through trying to follow her as it goes through several different scenes starting outside his house then a park as a jogger runs into his out stretched arm, then just into the street with the Ed drewett lad there as he seems to be in the way as he gets tapped on the shoulder by the out stretched arm and slapped in the face as it goes all the way to her house as he gets his fingers trapped in the door and then a long shot of the room where there are 4 t.v's o the scenery where he has put his hands through as he pulls it back through all of them. Then hes at a party trying to explain that hes not normally like a lad to following girls etc as it goes between shot reverse shot of him talking to a random couple and how they are laughing at him to a lad trying to chose a song through a bunch of records, as he then goes between lots of different people on about this girl and know one seems to care as it cuts back to a shot of her dancing again and Ed drewett. Then pro green sitting on his sofa again in a zebra suit/pj's looking all miserable because of this girl as a party is going on in front of him and stuff is happening all around him but he just sits there gorming into the floor, Then it goes hot reverse shots of him standing there and the party as he says 'swear down its just a song in real life this would never happen to me i am a pimp, women chase me i do not chase women swear down' as his zebra pj's get striped off him as hes wearing a suit and sees a girl and turns round and starts talking to her as it cuts to him at the end laughing.

This next album i will be looking which is called 'microphone champion' is by an grime artist called skepta (Joseph junior Adenuga) who is from Tottenham London, he started his career with his brother JME (Jamie Adenuga) and was then known shortly through out most of London and then the UK with such songs released with other grime artists like, 'too many man' and 'private cellar' which featured a lot of his meridian walk crew from Tottenham, but he has worked with other artist such as Wiley, Chipmunk, Tinchey Stryder, N-dubz and Jay Sean.

The song that i will be looking at from this artist is 'sunglasses at night' this song is basically about again same as the first one a boy wanting a girl from a quote of the song 'roses are red violets are blue you know i got my eyes on you'.

This is the front cover of the album I'm looking at 'microphone champion' from the artist skepta. The whole meaning of 'microphone champion' was from him and another member of his group hes in 'boy better know' Wiley, who realised an album called race against time and the whole boxing thing is because they fell out and Wiley left 'boy better know' and went back to 'roll deep' so they were battling for the top spot of the album charts.

The front of the album cover is 'skepta' with boxing gloves on in a set position to fight with his name on a plaster across the screen in bold writing with the title of the album at the bottom in italics, the fact that the person him self looks focused on what his job is intend, that fact on the front cover is sweating might give an image that he worked for his album and his image and the fact hes wearing boxing gloves shows he has fought hard for wear hes at in life and that he is fighting his rival 'Wiley'. His name being on a plaster 'Skepta' might show like hes the one from how he can heal people like Jesus, showing he can change people as well. The fact his title 'microphone champion' is in Italics shows his lyrics inside the songs might mean something and are of an art maybe that his a lyrical king from the 'champion' part.

The inside of the album cover is both skepta and his rival Wiley with there picture of the 'racing against time in there boxing match to see who wins the number 1 spot on the urban 20 albums hit list, there both wearing the typical conventions of a boxing match like blue and red because before a fight you get told what corner your in a the mostly common colours used are red and blue, they have both also got the focused look in there faces with the set positions on with the hands. The back ground is a gym most likely where they fight.

The back of the album cover is quite simple and not as complexed and got a meaning behind them like the front and inside cover, its just plain white tiles everywhere with the songs listed down the left hand side in black outlined writing with a plaster in saying 'boy better know' in gold Writing which could be indicating they are looking for it to get a gold platinum album, wishing that it makes it big. The song i will be looking at is track 17.

The poster of the album is of him looking serious again probably sending out a message for Wiley or his 'haters' saying that what he is doing is meaningful and he wants to show that this album is going to be big and challenges people about it, there is know advertisement on this poster because its mainly a grime artist so he wont have such a big music industry behind him in the sense of recording studios and etc because they do a lot themselves and promote everything through videos on a website http://www.grimedaily.com/ or http://www.youtube.com/

The first of my digi packs i will be analysing is professor green's (Stephen Paul manderson) his newly released album 'Alive til I'm dead' and the song i will be focusing on is 'I need you tonight' professor green is an early establishment to the music world when he was signed up on 12Th February by the label 'The beats', then after in July he won the jump off myspace £50,000 rap battle, then in 2009 he did touring with lily Allen.

The song I'm focusing on 'i need you tonight' was originally signed by virgin records, the song basically is about him trying to get girls and saying that hes a pimp and that girls should chase him but in the video its the other way round and he goes after the girl like 'feening' for her.

The front cover of Professor green's album is a picture of him 'posing' looking upwards quite seriously with his tattoo on his neck out saying 'lucky' could be showing this off to say that he is lucky about this album and has a feeling it will do well, also he looks like he has 'polished up well' so looks like he is perhaps wearing a bit of make up for the picture. He almost doesn't look real in a way from how is shadows are on his face and the looks of his eyes in the way they are colour contact lenses, also he has got a big scar on his neck were he has had to have a skin graft and it looks like it has been covered up quite well through shadowing etc even though its noticeable if pointed out. The writing is in thin font at the top of the page starting in white and then goes to like turquoise colour saying the title of the album 'Alive til I'm dead' with the parental advisory label at the bottom left of the cover.

This is the inside of the album cover another picture of himself looking quite sternly at the camera looking a bit like 'death' or again you could say serious, hes dressed in a casual black t-shirt with tattoos showing on his left arm again which could showing signs of him being rebellious maybe. The background is quite dull and is not a lot of 'life' to the picture so from the title of the album 'alive til I'm dead' might emphasise the fact that he is trying to look for dead than alive or proving a point from his side of life that you will always be alive until you die which seems obvious but it can have meanings to it.

The other side of the album cover where the CD will go over is again him with a colourful top on this time showing more a of a brighter side to him with his head turned to the side still and his tattoo on his neck showing again so is still trying to be 'rebellious'. The colourful top might show a change of from the first bit showing death and this bit where the CD will be going is showing life indicating that the CD will be good and showing life to hi music, also he has rolled one of his sleeves up to show his tattoo of a stick man in blood which was him after he got stabbed its showing that he still alive even though he was at risk of death like the tattoo on his neck saying 'lucky' was that hes lucky to still be alive after what happened and its basically saying you can do whatever you want don't let anything get you down. The way he has turned to the side is to say he doesn't want to go back down the road that he has been down and he wants to live the new him until he is gone through natural life.

The back of the album cover is in like a sepia colour almost with a human figure (professor green) walking with a chair in front on a photo shoot so its showing the end of the album kind of from how hes had pictures through the picture and now hes at the end and the chair probably symbolises him going to sit down for rest until hes ready to release the next album.

The songs hes done are on the side in small white font with all of the producers, studios and featuring artist in with the professor green logo.

The poster of the album is again a picture of his face showing another one of his tattoo's on his neck with his initials PG, also although he isn't hes go his right ear pierced and assumingly is supposed to mean you are 'gay' s he might be showing a feminine side plus with how hes looking is like a poser and a stereotypical model, this doesn't really send out a strong message to the audience but it is probably saying hes concentrating but he is just waiting for something like a number one spot etc.

Risk assessment

when filming we had to think of some hazards for example one was when i hopped over the fence on the park that i didn't fall or get my foot caught and injure my self, another would be whilst filming in the car that i didn't have the engine running or tried to drive as i have not passed my test and could of been a hazard on the road.
We also had to make sure that Megan was sensible on the swing so there was no injury, when taking the pictures that were on the car seat of me and Megan sitting on a railing we had to make sure that we didn't fall off backwards.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

From looking at my research on the kanye west homecoming video which was in black and white, Filming our video in black and white makes it seem more effective to the song by it being an aged song and black and white generally means its old so we used that to our advantage also in the kanye west video he films a mirror and you can see him in the reflection of the mirror so that is how we used me lip syncing to see that it works to more of a effective way. Also in music video's you see pictures being used so we decided to use that as well especially in a love video which we turned ours into, also during the video we used some general media conventions like when i hop the fence and Megan gets of the swing we both have our head down which in love stories and you are shy you try to hide your feelings, when we meet in the middle of the picture we hug which shows a sign of 'love' as well and after we walk off holding hands showing we 'have found the heart of Saturday night' because we have met and found our love so the 'heart' of the Saturday night. The lip syncing that we did in our video was hard to try and fit in because how i said the lyrics 'looking for the heart of Saturday night' didn't look like i was actually saying it so we had to try n just fit some of the lyrics in and then just carry on the video with the end of the lyrics in another shot, so we understood that it was not the best lip syncing but we tried to fit it in as best as possible but for the real production we would take more care into the timing of the words and practise the song before just filming it straight the way because we was rushing for time a bit after not being able to find the right type of shots for the song itself.

how effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? (poster etc)

For our digi pack we thought of some pictures that would look good and effective to the front cover so we decided to take the main character in the video and put him into a good scenery and make a thinking pose, and placed the guitar against the fence to show he's musical with the title of the song and the name of the artist, our inside second picture is in colour which is different to the other 3 that are in black and white we decided to do this because it shows that the swings are in colour so its playful and youthful and when it gets to the black and white its more grown up and mature because when you have a relationship its supposed to mature. The picture where the CD would be placed is of where we filmed and took the pictures for the cover, we chose this because we thought it fitted as looking into research a lot of artist put the place where they filmed like Duffy for example. The back of the cover we did as it the back and the end we picked a picture at the end of the song and walking off so into the heart of the night, with the the songs listed on the CD. I think that our poster is quite a good attraction product by having a young male with attractive clothing and looks fashionable we put the title of the song on his again and the artist also a tag line that would hopefully attract audience to buy the album and a website so they ca get a download for itunes and get a free signed poster form artist. This fits well i think with the main product because it all just looks fitted in and thought over to try and make the best out of the song the pictures wasn't at the best of quality but we had to use a video cam,era and use grab on the macs because there wasn't any digital camera's left, but overall i think that the digi pack and video fit together because the both have synergy between them.

props for filming and digi pack

The props that we used to for filming where a guitar for the fact there is a guitar instrumental in the song, another prop we used was the swings on the park for Megan to swing on as park of the filming also the fence surrounding the park was used at one point during the filming for me to hop over, also another prop we used was the car that fits the sound of the song because there is a car horn in there.
The props that we used for the digi pack where the swings and the fence again for me to lean on and the guitar as well on the front of the album cover and the poster.

Ancillary texts

This is our album cover we decided to use most of these pictures because they featured in the video except the Oliver park sign but that is the place where we filmed our production so we decided to add this as one of the pictures on the over where the CD would fit in.

This is our poster we used for our digi pack we used a picture of me at the park where we filmed it because we thought it would fit the with the tree's in the back ground and with the guitar next to the fence where i am standing would look effective.

planning for production

For our planning we had to pitch some ideas to see if we could get the song and we ended up not getting the song we pitched for so we had to change all of our ideas and planning, as we got given a song which didn't really fit the people that we are and we couldn't think of any ideas to start off with, so we had to think about it and adopt our personalities to the song and try and make it in our own way not fit it in to originally with the song.
also we was not aloud to use a car to its full potential so we had to just sit in it and film as we wasn't aloud to drive it and thought it would be to difficult to try fit green screening it with the car and thought it would spoil the video by not looking realistic.
when we wanted to film though some of the people in our group was absent or not able to make an after school session for filming because we needed to use places out of the school area, also a member of our group left during the production so we had to try and work things around that as we changed a bit of our filming because she was not here to do the filming we intended on doing we had to work around it.

filming and editing

In the filming in our film fitted in well because we got our planning done early and had some good ideas which would fit the type of song we had been given. The filming that we did was at Oliver park in whetstone which we did on the Monday.
We thought that we would use this place because how the beat of the song was fitted to the scene on the park quite relaxing and nice scenery. also we took pictures of me and Megan for part of our filming to show that we have had history before i met her on the park, we manged to film most of our video all in one day except one shot.
To make the editing easy we did lots of different types of shots but made them all good so that we only had to pick out the best one to fit the scene, editing we did quite quickly as well between the 3 of us and after not having much experience on the mac found it quite easy to figure out.
when filming the lip syncing how i said the words looked like not proper on the mac so we had to try and slow it down to fit with the song and eventually made it fit.
when we did the digi pack we just took some pictures on the park and we didn't really need much planning for this as it was just off the top of the head and the poster was just the main picture on the front of the CD cover but just in colour.

For my research on an album cover, poster and the song i have chosen Kanye west the graduation, this album was his third album of his music career involving most of his well known songs like for e.g. stronger, champion, homecoming, flashing lights and touch the sky, along with all of the other songs on the album.

The song i will be focusing on and analysing is "homecoming" which i think relates to the album name 'graduation' the most for the fact its from his school experiences and university when he comes home and how he got into the music business.

Analysis on the album cover and poster

The album cover is a purple night sky background with a bunch of animals dressed in gowns and there graduation hats are being thrown up in the air, the animals are cats and rabbits and there out side which is supposed to symbolise a university.

The picture is almost surreal of how it is like a moon which has a face and a weird shooting beam as its mouth and this is where the teddy bear (kanye west) is being fired out of with his 'swag' on the colours that are used are extremely bright to catch the consumers eyes to attract to it.

The way how he is being fired out in the sky is showing him like finishing university and that he's done his 'learning' of life and he is now out to live his music career. it the poster which is in the album is the same as the front cover of the album. The reasons for why he chose to have such a surreal futuristic theme was that he wanted to show other than he lyrical side to his career but also his imaginative side of design so he linked in with a surreal artist called Takashi Murakami which over there in japan is known as 'Warhol of japan' Murakami said what inspired about working with kanye and why he chose to do such a piece of art "The cover is based on kanye's theme of student life, a place to have dreams and fun, his music is like sandpaper you need to use it aggressively to get a good final product"

The back of the album cover is just the same picture but from the other side and showing the back of the teddy bear being launched up into the sky.

Some of the songs also that Mr west uses in this album reflect the cover and poster for example 'touch the sky' as on the cover he is reaching for the sky as he gets launched up in the sky by the surreal moon almost, and the song that i will look at called 'homecoming' which is enthusing coming home so back from his gradation at university and all he studied for is all paying off.

The inside pictures on the album is one of the teddy (kanye west) in his graduation clothes and hat looking mean and angry and also the picture it self is more darker than the other's with the surreal mushroom glaring at him with soppy eyes, this would enthuses some of the songs on his album as well like 'stronger' saying hes got to be stronger, another would be 'you cant tell me nothing' this song was a strong meaningful song about people trying to guide him in life and he guided himself and it worked. The other side of the picture is the whole group of students but as animals as you can see the giraffe and a goose, which looks like kanye is telling them something and there is a few strokes of rain in the top left corner and and to the right its more light saying that it the good side with the university building surrounding all of graduates.

Analysis of the song 'homecoming'

The song homecoming starts off with a good mood sound to it with it being a good thing about him coming home, this is meant in several ways in the song the first bit is when he talks about his 'girl' who he met from a young age of 3 he has pushed him this far and encourages him to go further telling him to keep bringing it home meaning the songs and the money.

The second part to the song after the chorus is about how he left her to do what he wanted and she just talks about the bad times, then he gets passionate about the songs and tells his 'girls' name. The last part to the song is just bits of the chorus and how he ends the song 'maybe we can start again' saying about his homecoming hes a new man. This relates to the album cover and poster by how the fact he has left and now has got so much in life like his riches and fame so his decision that he made to go for his 'dream' was the correct thing to do.

The video its self is in black and white in a chi city in Chicago and talks about lake Michigan as he raps on like a moving float going through the streets on chi city with mirrors all around him and he keeps going back like rewinding in the song just him walking round 'chi city' with Chris Martin singing the chorus and then he also gets green screened as well. with fire works in lake Michigan and he keeps just raping around 'chi city'