Ideas for cartoon character of artist

The past few days has been spent creating ideas for this cartoon version of the artist, from the requirements which he asked for, which include;

• shoe laces in a bow shape, hanging down
  
• adidas trainers
  
• a 'bling' belt
  
• diamond ear
  
• wearing a hoody/jacket
  
• looks similar to the artist
  

In the previous versions of the image below I did include the requirements which were not in this final one, although this was my more successful one in terms of the shape of the character and his clothing, though not perfected, or a face on him.

I did use reference images to get it right however, such as taking pictures of my own feet wearing adidas shoes, so that I could get the view right as I find it hard to draw shoes head on, and using a reference picture of a belt i felt fitted the term 'bling' dur to it's reflective texture, and camouflage on the strap of the belt.

here is an image of the reference picture;

















So as you can see, the use of text on the belt inspired me to use the artist's name in the same position as it has been done.

Here's the final design for the character, alongside my own which was unfinished.




Personally I feel that my design would have looked alot more professional had I finished it. Over the next few days I might finish it so that I can compare the two properly. Mine had included all of the features that he had asked for, and yet he thought that his design looked better. Althought I wasn't happy with his decision due to my efforts, I decided to accept his decision because what the artist thinks is the final decision as what is being made is for him.

Lyrics to the chosen song and moodboard

The song Zane aka Zenif gave me is called 'One of dem days'.
I was not given the lyrics, but I thought best to try and figure them out myself so that I could get a rough idea of the meanings and thoughts within the song itself.

Here is a list of the lyrics;

Chorus
Its just one of them days
one of them days
with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past
its just one of them days
one of them days with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past

Verse
Once again it seems like
one of them days
with that same old pattern
and that same old craze
every single day i'll see a familiar face
its like everythings moving at the same pace
its all the same stuff
nothing varies
that's why you'll catch me, away with the faries
'cos they keep me from getting anxious and getting lairy
'cos as i said before man, nothing varies

Chorus
Its just one of them days
one of them days
with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past
its just one of them days
one of them days with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past

Verse
Life nowadays is extremely tedious
too much hype which can not be taken serious
never to to plan star, period
i find your humour on the roads acting mischivious
so i chase and I team with a paper and pen
i spit bars on the mic i try for 10 out of ten
then the next day comes its the same thing again
rusty saying things have changed i'm like when blud when

Chorus
Its just one of them days
one of them days
with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past
its just one of them days
one of them days with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past

Verse
This had gotta chase me i cant take it no more
im taking life as it comes but im thinking what for
this same old routine its driving me to the core
the core of insanity my brain is red rore
its the same old shit just from different days
the same old pattern, and the same old ways
the same happenings and the same old ways
but i guess, its just, one of them days

Chorus
Its just one of them days
one of them days
with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past
its just one of them days
one of them days with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past


Apologies to any of the mistakes with spelling, I was writing it down while listening to the song over and over.
While looking over at the lyrics, I decided to comment a few notes about them.
A use of repitition of the phrase "One of them days" has been used throughout the song, to represent a sense of regular occurrence, of this thing he does each day that 'drives me to the core'. A sense of aggrovation, wanting something new to happen, from what he is used to doing day in day, out each day.
It ends and starts with the chorus, which allows a constant flow of the music, and creates an easy path where you can add a similar into and ending, so that it can flow with the visual of the music video also.

I then decided to listen to it again, creating a mood board, which I decided to lay out as a spider diagram, to quickly put down the ideas and room for branching off to further ideas.

A detailed list of the mood board includes;

• Cheerful
• Relaxing
• Uplifting
• Pretend/Surreal - Fairies around him on the verse "Away with the fairies", a happy feeling
• Underground scene - Tunnels, under the bridge, clubs
• Character rapping infront of a mic, with spotlight maybe
• Walking through the streets
• Urban area - Building works, lonely streets - represent lyrics and atmosphere a
• Camera followed by the artist - walking
• Dull, gloomy -sky/atmosphere
• Waking up, show what happens for him during the day to tell us why it's just "one of them days"

This rough set of ideas will help me to create a good theme to base the video on, and many ideas I can focus on using.

Promotional idea within music video

After speaking with Zenif erlier tonight, we discussed possibly promoting himself in the form of clothing in the video,
He gave me ideas which he had, in the form of images, and explanations.
I was given a picture for the temp idea of his for the signature of his.
The text on it is really nice and simple, which could be used for the t-shirt idea.
















The second idea was to create a kind of cartoon character of himself to be printed onto his t-shirt. He gave me the ideas he wanted, such as the big diamond ear ring, hoody, chain etc, the typical gangster kind of appearance, emphasising on the main items. As he has had a slight experience in graphic design also, we agreed to both create an idea over the next few days and compare them, which is a great chance to compete and make one better, but also use two different sets of ideas together to make a quality t-shirt design.

Discussion with client, music artist 'Zenif'

We had a discussion about possible settings, ideas in the music video and the initial ideas for the scenes, in comparison to some of the lyrics.

Our basic conclusion was to use a setting by a forest/field with trees, with a gloomy background/sky for the chorus. For the main verses, a short story will be shown, possibly the artist getting up in the morning, roaming the streets, doing his everyday things, to relate to the lyrics, "same olf pattern, same old ways", repeating certain scenes to emphasis on this.

The ending will consist of the artist by a mic with a spotlight upon him, he will be rapping to the lyrics, and then as his part ends, and the instrumentals are carried on, and a repear every few seconds of "beats" in a high pitch voice, the lights will flash on and off, as he walks off from the spotlight and out of the scene, which will then go to a full black screen as the song ends, and the artist's words "Zanif Productions" will come up to finish it off.

This is just a basic outline from the discussion we both had, I will be creating a mood board next, to give me a wider range of possible ideas for this video.

Developing film camera techniques

We begun looking at work from the famous Alfred Hitchcock, who specialised in shots such as the trombone shot. We saw this in effect from the film 'Psycho' in which a man falls down the stairs, while we see the background getting bigger, it is a very effective technique. Although the film was made in 1960, the camera shot still works just as well as it did back then.

We then looked at a video by La Roux - Bulletproof. This video contains an effective use of the tilt shot. The artist is leaning against a wall (or so it seems), and then the camera tilts and she is lying down, which then cuts to her getting up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUsbpmQ9-mc

Here's a screenshot of the shot in action:












At 1.27 into the music video, you see this shot in action. It is so quick that you wouldn't think much of it.

We discussed about several shots including;

- Trombone shots
Tracking back, whilst zooming in

- Lip Synching
Pretending to sing to the music,
Can be done by speeding up the track and then slowing down on iMovie.

- Lip Synching with time lapse
One example of this is ;
Guns N Roses - Garden of Eden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jweI0kDOgtI

- Time Lapse
Speeding up the background around the character
e.g film 10mins of the character standing still, then speed it up to about 2-3mins
One example of this is;
Lazee ft Neverstone - Hold on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uWZ0KD1A4M
example ;
Orbital - The box

- Cutting on XCUs

- Cutting on black

- Tilt moving shots

- Tilt static shots

- Disappears

- Floating heads
Black background, and increase contrast

- Headcam fixed shots

We then went out to attempt to make some of these shots ourselves. This was very challenging as most of these we had not tried before, and had little experience with

Deconstruction of Album covers

By looking at several different artist's album covers, it enables me to begin thinking about what image and representation they are trying to bring across, and the effects that are used to do this, which is what makes them so effective, and look so great on the front cover of the CD case.

First album:
Ludacris - 'Word of mouf'



















Now as you can see, an instant sense of distortion has been represented, through the use of image manipulation. The dog's mouth looks to have been stretched, but has infact been given a set of human teeth instead. The actual artist 'Ludacris' is the man stood next to the dog, who also has been photoshopped, to give the impression that he has a really big afro, and that he is somewhat rebellious due to the facial expression he is giving off and his choice of 'baggy', loose clothing.

The artist himself is a very loud, aggressive rap artist in his way of rap, and this album tells us that, due to the points listed above, but also how the dog beside him is a known aggressive dog, the bulldog, and how Ludacris is frowning, and from the looks of it, shouting. The colours are widespread, but quite dull, representing the streets. Ludacris is a very influential artist, and by representing himself as small, but with the big afro and showing passion and aggression, he will successfully appeal to the younger audience with this album, as this will humour them, and think it's 'cool'.


Second album:
Ace Hood - Gutta




















A sense of authority is shown here, as artist Ace Hood is sat before you with his hands flat down on the table and a lot of money infront of him. he is a relatively new artist, yet he is represented as someone important from this front cover. How do we know this? Well the use of mise en scene. The army-type clothing, with the badges and ranks stitched on (I dont know what they mean but you dont need to, if he has some badges and ranks stitched on then he would be quite important), and the use of money to show that he is rich, and someone important, 'big' to the topic, which in this case is the Rap/hip hop music industry. Aswell as the use of army clothing to show him as being superior, the use of a cap has been used to link back to the fact he is involved within the rap industry, as this style of cap, the 'new era' are those worn commonly by most rap artists who wear caps.

The use of gold and green represents this theme of money and wealth, alongside the idea of authority and being superior. Ace Hood looks more serious than he actually is as an artist, he is chilled and creates music, yet here he is shown as some army officer with a handful or more of money infront of him, which has created this high figure status and made him out to be an important person, despite this being his first major album, and being an early figure in the music industry.

Zanif Records

After talking with a colleague in the media class of mine, I contacted 'Zanif' and he agreed to let me use his song for my music video.
We've already begun discussing basic ideas for setting and type of filming to do, it sounds like we could work well together with this video.

















He uses myspace to populate his music to the potential fans, and to distribute his music. A music player is used on the page to play a few of his tracks.

http://www.myspace.com/zanifonline

He uses mixtapes to distribute songs to the public, which means it's for free.
He is still new to the music industry, first inspired by listening to eminem, and then to the grime genre by listening to artists like Kano and JME.

This is the song that I will be using is called "One of dem days" which he sent me, and i've had a chance to listen to, so that I could think of ideas for the music video, such as themes, settings, props, weather etc.

The next stage will be for me to come up with some possible ideas for settings and events in the music video, which will be accompanied by the use of a mood board, which will then be discussed with Zanif so that we can finalise on an idea that we both have confidently agreed on.