Artist Research-Robin Thicke

Robin Charles Thicke is famous for being an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and also does part time acting.
In Thicke early career before he was reconsider for his singer talent had been in the music industry writing song for MJ nephews T3. He worked on a song called he had written songs for MJ nephews T3 album called the brotherhood which also featured artist such as MJ. He later joined a mega star New Kids on the blocks, which had many hit in the early 90. After the fall of New Kids On The Block Jordan Knight change his name back to his birth name Robin Thicke when he tried to create a new image as well as a new sound.
Thicke didn’t want to be associated with the cheesy pop music that was associate with his former group and wanted to have a more deeply sound that he actually enjoyed and wanted to make music that he could relate to. Thicke background in soul music can be linked to his childhood where music legends such as Luther Van Ross and whitey Huston where family friends to his parents.
Before focusing on his solo career Thicke gain attention for his producing skills. Some of the people that he worked with were Christina Aguilera, Mya and Brandy. Thicke real commercial success came in 2004 when he won his first Grammy for his contribution on Usher 2004 album Confessions. Because of this later on in his career he was requested by other major artist to put his creative ideas on to their albums such as Little Wayne The Carter III. Thicke work can also been seen in Ashanti album The Declaration as co -produced. Thicke appeared on 50 Cent's album Curtis, on a song called "Follow My Lead". Thicke producing skill are worldwide recognised as he wrote and produced the song "Tie My Hands" on Little Wayne album the carter III which won best rap album. He also produced the song “giving myself” on JenniferHudson album Best R&B album.
Thicke first solo record from his second album was called “Lost without You” which went platinum as well as his album The Evolution Of Robin Thicke. This album featured Phralle, Faith Evans and little Wayne. Robin has recieved 3 grammy award for his musical talent.

Analysis of two music videos

Analysis of a music video

I will be analysing Robin Thicke “the sweetest love” and Justin Timbaland Featuring Timbaland - Sexy Back. I will be looking at the way both artists use camera angles, mise-en-scene and editing to represent of a male artist.
The Sweetest Love begins with a performance shot of Robin playing the piano. The shot is done in a long shot that also establishes that he is in a black studio so the audiences’ main attention is place on the only object in the room which is the piano. Later it cuts to a narrative shot. This theme of the narrative in this song is love in two characters relationship. In this shot the women is asleep and the man’s is caressing her body. This suggests that these two characters have an intimate relationship. This is also suggested by the lack of clothes that the women has on while she is sleeping. This video is done in black and white so colour is nonexistent. The lack of colour is used to make it clear to the audience the difference between the performance shots and the narrative shots because all the performing shot are done in a black back group while or the narrative shots are done in a white back ground.
Sexy Back start off with an establishing shot in an old European country. The opening show shows a tram going up the hill. In cut too two different medium shots. One is with a male sitting on a bed thinking, we know this because of his tense body language and another one with a female in a bedroom identical to his with her taking off her shirt to revel a hidden pistol. Nothing has been visual clear so far in the video, this makes the audiences confused about what is going on but also make them intrigued so they continue to watch. All the characters are wearing suits. Suits have a connotation of power and high status. The hidden pistol make the audiences tell the audiences that everything isn’t as it seems. Because the pistol was hidden it makes us believe there is more to the situation then we know. The pistol has its own connation of death, protection and murder. This video has a stronger narrative compared to “The Sweetest Love”. Instead of giving us the feeling that we are watching the video as a music video it give the audience a feeling as they are watching a film. The main theme of this song mirror themes that can be seen in theme in movie such as deception. This video concentrates more on the narrative plot and lacks a main focus in performances shot. This in its self questions the typical stereotype associated with music videos and makes it different compared to others.
In Robin Thicke video editing is quite simple in the scene the only editing they use is cutting and fading. This makes the transition between shots look effortless. This also serves the purpose of manipulating the audience’s attention meaning that the audiences will look at the camera is focused on. Editing was mainly used for the female character to express how she was feeling. She does this in close up shot showing her smiling with a lightly make up face.
In sexy Back editing is used more frequently and has a stringer effect. Unlike The Sweetest Love editing has a far greater effect on the audiences. There is currently two plot taking place but we don’t know which on took place first and because of this it is hard to identity if the video is taking place in chronological order or if the begging is actually the end. While Justin is in the club the camera view of his is from a low angle. This give Justine status and set the main focus on him as the main character. We see Justine trying to pursue the women without being noticed. This follows the theme of deception and secrecy. Justine is trying to get this girl but in the second narrative he just cant do it as she always gets away. The first narrative on the other hand just does manage to get the girl but he has to do it with force. We know that their relationship isn’t typical as he doesn’t get her by going to conventional way by using a door he jumps from his balcony to hers. Her responses show that he was an unwanted guest and she forcefully pushes him away but instead of trying to defend her self she start to kiss him passionately. This is done in a passion way by the women undress Justine know all the glass to floor that was previously place on the table.
The theme of deception is exploded in the video between what the two characters do when they are not together. Both have spy equipment so we don know if they are both pspay or if one is apolice. Their isn’t a clear justapsition so we cant actually make any assumptions. In the hall way their is a man with a dog that tracking the sent of Justine. This is why he leaves his bedroom to got to the another bedroom. a tape and glass is placed on the door so Justine would know if anybody came into his bedroom. the importants of this situation is emphasized by the camera showing this shot in a close up of the handle of the door after the tape is placed. The mis en scene of the performing shot takes placed in a white room. Instead of looking like a real performance shot it mirror a narrative shot in a movie. Editing is used to cut back to the performing shot and make it seem like he is telling the story.
the sound of JT sound is very future realistic and this explored in the video. The club seen isn’t something hat you would expect to see in a club scene video shoot. The lighting is different in the scene as it isn’t your conventional lighting and sexuality isn’t seen as a taboo as the camera shot two female crossing each other body in asexual manor. The television in the hotel room is old so this suggests that this is set in a distant future. The themes of deception and secrecy are back up by the prompts that we see. For example both main characters have spy equipment so they are trying to find out information on each other.
The sound of Robin Thicke is very clam and relaxing. The video has a theme of modernity and this can been seen in the piano. the piano isn’t your classical piano and unlike you classical piano you can see how everything is functioning. This has a hidden connotation that something that looks so it simple has deeper meaning. The relationship between the two character could be viewed as modern since they are in a inter racial relationship. The mise- en-scene reflects this as well because the house only has the necessary thing in it and that a bed and a phone. In the narrative shot the women were a little black dress stood out to me. It showed her in a feminine way looking appealing to the male gaze.

Evaluation

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

My media product defiantly uses and develops forms and conventions of real media products in many different ways. My group tried to stick with the normal conventions of a real music video, which includes the artist having mostly performance shots of him or herself singing and a narrative to help mix up the performance shots. In my music video we have done exactly this as the artist is seen mostly performing in a couple of different locations. As director, for the narrative I wanted to be able to tell a story as to how the artist got in that state. I was unable to do this, however, narrative has been included and I am quite pleased with the outcome of it as it keeps the viewer guessing how he got like that. When watching the music video the song can almost be told by listening to the lyrics as a large majority of the footage follows the lyrics.

Another music video convention that we have included in our video is the use of dark clothing to make the artist stand out from the background which in one of our setting is white. This can be seen in many music videos today and is used to help highlight the artist and make him the centre focus of the shot.

In a way you could say that my music video does challenge the forms and conventions of a real media product to a certain extent. Most music videos tend to have a storyline behind the narrative shots and the viewer can easily work out what is going on in the video and why it is happening. However, with my music video there is almost a lack of narrative, creating a sense of enigma as the viewer does not know why the man in our video is all roughed up drinking to down his sorrows.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I would say that the combination of our main product and ancillary texts works in some areas and others not. We have tried to keep similarities there in the album cover as in the music video itself. My group have done this by using mostly screenshots from our video to create the different sides for the Digi-pack. However, there a lot of areas that are not so similar. For example there is no use of neon lighting within the music video itself and yet this could be said is one of the key features of the digi-pack itself. Even though the neon lighting has not been incorporated in the music video at all, I feel that there is actually no need to have it in there though because I feel that it would distract the viewers eye away from the artist, which is not what we want to happen.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Our audience feedback was essential in our media project because it let us know what people want to see and like in music videos and the other content involved in the project such as the digi-pack. The first bit of audience feedback we received was when we handed out the questionnaires to find out what people like in music videos and their general opinions on them. This helped me greatly because I was then able to start storyboarding the music video after I knew what people wanted to see in it.
The next type of feedback is what we received while in the editing suite. The feedback was mainly from teachers and other media students. However it definitely helped as everyone has different views and suggestions as to what worked and what didn’t. we took onboard some of the ideas that were put forward to us and are grateful for them as we believe they have made our final video better than what it would have been without them.

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

In every step of research, planning, and evaluation there was always a chance to use media technologies to help us. In the research stage media technologies such as the internet came in very handy and this was used to go websites such as Youtube to find a song that we wanted to create a music video to. The internet was also used for information on existing artists, lyrics, pictures and much more.

During the production stage a video camera was used to capture our footage and this was by far the most important piece of technology used at this stage. Digital cameras were used to take pictures of the artist which has been used several times throughout the project.

From the editors point of view the technology used for post production work was by far the most important as this covers all the programmes and software used that allowed us to piece together all of our individual shots. Using software such as Adobe After Effects and Premiere it gave us the chance to add some special effects to the music video, and without this half of the shots we needed would not have been produced.

I tried to contract Justin Timberlake to gain his permission before we tried to use his song but i got no responses.

Digi-pack 3/4

This is one of the inside covers for our digi-pack. The front cover was designed first and i wanted to keep in theme with the same design and colours. Like the front cover i have used a black background and the artist is the main focus. I edited a picture from a photoshoot that my group did of the artist by adding lighting effects. For example on the artists face you can see that there is almost a spot light shining on it. This was to help highlight the artist and attract the viewers eye to his face. In the top right hand corner of the cover there is some blue neon lines. I included these within the design again to fit in with the front cover that has a neon blue line spiralling the artist.

Artist research - Robbie Williams

Robert Peter Maximilian commonly known as Robbie Williams was born on 13th February 1974. He is a very talented English singer, songwriter and musician who has won many BRIT Awards throughout his music career. Robbie first became famous when he started his career in 1990, only at the age of 16. He was a dancer and singer with the pop band Take That who have sold millions of records worldwide. However, Robbie decided to leave the group in 1995 after he had many disagreements with the manager and certain group members. It was from here that the singer decided to launch his career as a solo artist in pop.
His first album, Life thru a Lens, was released in September 1997. At first, the album was slow to take off, debuting at number eleven of the UK Album Charts. Many fans of Take That disliked Robbie for leaving the band and therefore refused to buy his new album which is one of the reasons as to why it wasn’t as successful as first anticipated. After his third album release, there was concern that his fourth would be just as unsuccessful; however despite arguments over whether or not it should be released it finally was and became one of the biggest singles ever released in the United Kingdom. This single was of course “Angels”. This single changed the public’s views on Robbie Williams, because he showed what great songs he was capable of producing. It was from here that his solo career really took off, and Robbie Williams was on his way to becoming a worldwide superstar with the alum selling over three million copies in Europe alone.

In 1991 Robbie Williams was signed by Capitol Records, which is part of EMI. Capitol Records tried to make Williams a bigger star, releasing a second single from the album, the ballad "Angels", Robbie Williams produced a new video for it, and when it was released in the Autumn of that year, the song became a bigger hit than "Millennium", I like penis reaching number 53, but this was not enough for Williams, so he concentrated on the rest of the world where he was already an established act. The album went on to sell 596,000 copies in the United States, certified Gold by the in November of that year. The compilation was released worldwide.
In 2007 Robbie checked himself into rehab on his 33rd birthday. He believes his decision to do this saved his life from his addiction to the painkiller Vicodin which is a prescription medication. He revealed that he has also taken LSD, ecstasy, amphetamines, cocaine and heroin, but said his most damaging dependency was to prescription medication also known as "the American addiction".

After the Singer had come out of rehab his main goal was to turn things around and start doing what he loved the most, singing. In November 2009 Robbie released his latest album “Reality Killed the Video Star”. He told the media that this album was to prove he could still carry on with his singing career even after going through a bad period of time due to his addiction with drugs.

Job role as the director

A music video director is a person who directs the making or production of a music video. The director does a lot more than just order the singer and other crew members around though. For example the director must visualize what the video is going to look like on screen, and for their idea to come to life, actors, editors and all other crew members must work with the director to fulfill this.


Although the director has most the control over what happens within the music video, the producer which in my group’s case is Kieran Lewis can approve or disapprove their ideas as they have more power. Another group member that I will be working close with is the editor, Matthew Flynn. As editor some of my ideas are impossible to capture or create the right effect that is needed, however it can be produced through editing using special effects.