Costume design

In our video, the main character of the piece will definitely wear a fur coat at some point.

A fur coat was suggested when we first came up with the final idea. The thinking behind this is that, since fur coats are a rare sighting, it would play on the unorthodox nature of our video. This, in turn, makes our video a far more interesting and unconventional piece, catering to the funk genre.

We always briefly discussed the idea of wearing multiple layers, serving as another mechanism that will aid in dwelling on the uncustomary themes running throughout the piece.  

Our plan is to have our main character wear lots of clothing all at once. This would be funny and ridiculous, which is a common theme in many funk videos.

By the end of our video, the main character will be seen wearing a lot of clothes. These clothes will be whatever we can find and so, are too random to find examples to post. We looked at the scene in Friends where Joey annoys Chandler by wearing his clothes but without pants or boxers. Here, he is seen to be covered in layers of multicoloured clothes, wearing many t-shirts, joggers, shorts and ties. The clothes we use will also vary in size, much like what Joey is wearing, as they are clearly not all one size.

This picture of the same character is another example of what our main character may end up looking like. This picture is closer to what the actual final result may look like as the first pictures clearly show a costume that has been designed, whereas this picture looks closer to what it would look like to actually be wearing six sweaters.

Since there is only one character in our production, and they are going to be wearing a multitude of random clothing, it is difficult to find sufficient examples.

Funk Digipaks - Album Covers

This funk album cover shows a comically large LED sign late at night. This is similar to a lot of older funk music videos, which often take place late at night, or in dark areas, with comically shaped and sized LED signs. A good example of this is the music video for George Clinton's Atomic Dog. This video takes place in a dark arcade with lots of ridiculous LED lettering and shapes plastered all around the room. The font is also a very typical funk font, as well as the "INC" at the bottom, which is a bubble font. Bubble fonts are very common in funk albums. This album was released in 1971.

The design of this cover is more typical of what people expect from funk: bright colours (colours used for funk art are almost always some shade of yellow, red, pink, and orange) wavy lines, and typical funk outfits with things like star-shaped sunglasses. It also helps that the cover is all cartoon, as funk videos (especially jazz-funk) often include animated elements. By having the artwork entirely hand-drawn, Funkadelic were able to get the band member's onto the album cover, without using real life elements, like photos. George Clinton's Atomic Dog is also an example of animated elements in music videos, as there are animated dogs appearing throughout the entirety of the video. Also the font used for the band name, "Funkadelic", is a bubble font. This album was released in 1981.

This album art is from 2011 but is a throwback to older, classic funk and soul designs. It even has fold creases on it as though it's an old poster or album cover from back in the 70s. The design is similar to the previous two images, as it has a very dark background with red, pink, orange, and yellow lines. These identify it as a funk album. The fonts used for "funk" and "classics" are bubble fonts too, which also fits in with the conventions. The font used for "soul" is also reflective of vintage soul album covers. However, this artwork is very minimalistic, which is a more modern design choice, which indicates that this album is not in fact classic and vintage, but is modern. The album was released in 2011.

Mark Ronson's Uptown Funk has a much more modern design than the others. The lack of colour, aside from the yellow box of names at the top left, is an indication of this change from classic to modern funk album covers. However, the minimalism is still an indication that this is indeed a funk album. It's a lot more minimalist than other ones, like the Ministry of Sound one, but the roundness of the artwork and the polka dots in the middle are easily identifiable as funk conventions. This album was released in 2015.

Ideas for Our Music Video (19/11/15)

We've recently gotten a steadicam shoulder rig for the camera that we're planning to use. We're also planning to use a glide cam if it is available. These would allow us to pull of the "single-take" effect we had discussed, if we do end up going with that idea.

An idea that one of us had is that we go to Shotover (a local woods), and at different beats someone pops out from behind a tree. Those people would be a variation of the same character, so that by the end of the video there would be multiple versions of the same person dancing to the music.

Another idea we had is that someone gradually gets more clothes on him whilst we watch him walk. On different beats a new item of clothing appears on him. It was suggested that we purposely incorporate continuity errors, as this would add comedic effect. It would also reflect the amateur look of many of Vulfpeck's videos.

FINAL IDEA:

Expanding on the clothes idea, we thought we would have the main character planning for a fashion show or something else circled on a calendar. The video would show the character planning his outfits for the show as well as his normal daily routine. As the song continues and the big day gets closer and closer the character's outfits and daily routines get more and more ridiculous. By the end of the video, the character will be wearing a ridiculous amount of clothes only to find out he was using last year's calendar.
We feel that this ridiculous idea would reflect the comical nature of many funk videos, while also being original in its own way. It follows a narrative that makes little sense too, like many funk music videos.

Ideas for Our Music Video (12/11/15)

One idea that was discussed was the idea that our video would consist of one long take. That a day of our main character would be documented. There were talks of the world around this character being abnormal and strange, but the character would be totally oblivious to this and simply carry on. These abnormal and strange visuals happening within the world would be quite typical of funk music videos, with there being bright colours and abstract shapes.
The technical side of making a video that appears to be one single take would prove to be quite difficult. We discussed the idea that we make the special effects look amateur, in a similar vein to Vulfpeck videos. However, we decided that making a single-take effect look amateur would look quite bad and just wouldn't work.
The idea of a character walking down the street was lifted from the music video forBittersweet Symphony by The Verve.

 

Another contrasting idea was that we'd follow the main character around in his/her house whilst they carried out mundane activities such as brushing their teeth, making breakfast and eventually falling asleep. However, we felt this might be just a bit too mundane and were thinking about how we could make it more interesting.

A working class idea was briefly touched upon. Due to the upbeat nature of the song, a couple of members in the group discussed the idea of following a member of the working class, living in evident impoverished conditions. The message of it would be the plight of the working/lower class as the video would portray the hardships but not dwell on them. Instead, the person would embrace the lifestyle towards the end in an attempt to portray the humanity of the working class, as opposed to how they're normally represented in the media. The upbeat nature of the song would also contrast with the message of the video. However, this idea was scrapped as we felt it didn't accurately represent the funk genre.

A video we want to take inspiration from is Them Changes by Thundercat. The video offers a lot of symbolism, matching an upbeat track with comically dark tones and scenes. The contrast between the song and violence works very well here as, whilst the song is certainly a funky one, it isn't too upbeat that it detracts from the story that the video is showing. With ours also being a funk track, we want to see how many dark scenes we could possibly incorporate within our video. However, our song is far more lighthearted than this. It'd be interesting to see how far we could actually go with a dark narrative without making it feel gimmicky or too out of place and unfitting.

Another suggestion offered, one that contrasts completely to our last idea, was the idea of making a parody. Vulfpeck are quite comedic in their music videos; the idea was that, with our own, we could take that comedic element and really dwell on it to the point of making a parody of one of our other ideas.

We know that we want our video to look amateurish, similar to Vulfpeck's music videos, to fit in with the indie funk nature of the song. Vulfpeck often opt with a performance shot based music video, however, we want ours to be abstract with at least some form of narrative. This is also due to the fact that none of us play an instrument.

Analysis of BBFC Rating

We believe that the BBFC video rating for our music video will be rated 12.

We think this is so as during the duration of our video none of the below will be included, which would make it above a 12.

- Drug misuse
- Dangerous behavior presented as safe
- Bad language
- Sexual behavior and nudity
- Threatening behavior and violence

The age rating 12 is simple. It means that we think any persons under the age of 12 can not legally buy a copy of the video in a shop or online.

Digipak Evolution

Digipak's are utilised to help establish and promote the brand of which an artist uses to gain revenue. The digipak will consist of a front cover, back cover, where the CD sits, the inside centre and left. Each of these panels have certain roles to play.

The front cover is the main part of the pack. The main image of the pack will be on the front cover, along with the album name and artist's. This aids the brand of the artist. Whoever listens to said artist will immediately identify with the brand on the front cover, whether its a picture of the artist or a logo affiliated with said artist. 

The back cover is where the tracking list is usually placed. The design, colour scheme and text found on the front cover often remains there on the back, this continuity again aids to advertise the brand of the artist and album. The text has to jump of the page so that the customer feels intrigued to read it and buy it.

The extra panel is the third part which is seen, it should show an image in the background and maybe a little bit of writing from either one of the producers or artist's as to how the album was brought together or what the meaning is.

The inside left and right cover could consist of multiple different things. Usually, the centre panel has a pocket for the lyric book. A lyric book helps the consumer familiarise themselves with the tracks which in turn, grows the fan base for said artist as the song then becomes more widely known.

The inside right cover is where the disk will sit. This part doesn't require much editing at all. A few digipak's print an image underneath where the CD sits. More often than not, they'll avoid doing this and choose to place a picture onto the CD.

Our main goal with our digipak will be to ultimately sell the brand of our music video/artists. This will be done through the colour schemes, font and the design of the cover which will look appropriate to the funk genre.

Magazine Covers for Music

The magazine cover shows Michael Jackson, who was at the time an active member of the band 'The Jackson 5'. The band had taken the global charts by storm, this explains the lack of an explanation as to who Michael is on the cover.

The page is taken almost completely up by Michael, with small text in the bottom left. Several titles on the side and a large 'Record Mirror' as the header. Having Michael as the cover, along with the lack of text implies that particular issue is solely focusing on Michael. The red background helps Michael's colourless photo stand out, an effective tool utilised to help garner the consumers attention.

The title 'Rolling Stone' is red, similar to the text on the magazine. The red is bright and bold, grabbing the viewers attention. The magazine being cluttered and full of information is a design choice, which, as a result, makes customers want to purchase the magazine as they believe there will be a rich variety of content. The focus is on Prince, however, as the title on the left further enhances this. Having the only image as prince with 'Faith! Funk! Sex!' and 'Prince On Fire!' aids to perpetuate Prince's band by labeling him with valued traits. Prince breaking the fourth wall and staring right into the camera adds a certain intimacy with the piece, it suddenly seems so much more personal than the average magazine.

This cover has more going on than the last two. Daft Punk are clearly centered, with big yellow text advertising their name. The font and other images such as the stars are incorporated on the cover to reflect the enjoyment one would have reading it as bright colours and stars have connotations of joy and fun. The headlines placed at the side show that, whilst the magazine sole focus is upon Daft Punk, it is not limited to the stories revolving around them. Rather, it shows that the magazine has a varied amount of content, even though it primarily focuses on Daft Punk. This helps to reach a wider audience than being constrained by the sales of only Daft Punk fans. A wider range of content will aid the newspapers' sales as it'll more likely attract far more people.

The blend of colours, the font and the animation of the figure are all quite urban and appeal to a specific demographic of those who are fans of this type of branding. Along with the bold and wide font, the image portrayed is almost psychedelic in its' style. The main image shows an artist, the central point of the issue, in animated form. By veering away from the norm and incorporating this animation, the magazine company are implying that there is a lot more to expect from this issue than normal music magazines. Next to him are various other sub-headers telling you about different acts. This is relatively simplistic compared to a gossip magazine, for example 'Ok!' magazine.The large pink title reinforces themes of Sex, Lust and Soul, Jazz and funk are often affiliated with these labels and so, the magazine is subconsciously categories by the consumer who stumbles upon it. 

'SONIK' magazine has a black and white picture of Marvin Gaye with blue text surrounding him. This is a very plain and simple colour scheme, emphasising the laid-back vibe that the magazine has set out to portray. So, although there are a lot of things to read, the colour scheme presents an almost minimalist cover. The large title of 'Marvin Gaye' is to catch the consumer's eye. Having him look at the sky suggests a journey that he's gone through/is going through. Fans of Gaye would instantly be aroused by such a cover.