Behind Schedule

Recently we have been behind schedule due to Tavonga's life being busy, we have have to result in basing our timings around his schedule so that it is fair on his schedule as well as ours. This has resulted in alot of set backs within our schedule however, we our hoping with Tavonga almost being done with his music in his college life, we will be able to get alot of filming done in the next few weeks.

Final Costume

Here are the hairstyles that I did my self for the music video, the first picture reveals the "works hair do"b that will be done in the narrative based part of the music video at the very start, this accompanies the storyline of the female character coming home from work. I feel this hairstyle represents her image well as it isn't to formal or informal.

The second and third hairstyle are hairstyles that are going to be used through out the music video, in and outside the house, these are hairstyles that are worn my people every single day and by using a simple ponytail like this it keeps the natural look that we were going for but also ensures that Tavonga is the main character.

This hairstyle is a hairstyle that was inspired by my research of Beyonce, and I though that this hairstyle would be used in the part of the music video where she looked more formal, possibly for the part where she is going out with friends as it shows her in a different light.

These are images of what the makeup will be like during the majority of the film, the makeup is subtle and light yet stylish as it reveals the woman to be quite a dominant character and reveals her character to be someone who likes the look after her self. I decided to used the winged eyeliner and natural eyeshadow tones to reveal her secretive/seductive side that is showed when her cheating is revealed.

Female Costume

Due to the fact there are multiple different scenes within the music video, I have taken inspiration from different hairstyles and outfits that have been used by famous and popular R&B artists. I have decided to take inspiration from music videos as well as events they have been to to show what representation I would have, however as a group, we have decided that although the female should look sophisticated and classy and be the main woman of the music video, she should still be in subtle clothing to ensure Tavonga is the main attraction.

I have decided to use hairstyles from music videos where the female characters look very natural and focus more of their natural beauty, I decided to use this look as we want the male character to be the dominant character and stand out the most as he is the artist within our music video.

Here I have chosen certain styles that I think would compliment the music video and ensure that the female character doesn't stand out compared to Tavonga's characters. They are all hairstyles that aren't seen as professionally done, which means that the music video is natural and homely which is what the lyrics of the songs are based on. We wanted to create a music video that looked like the couple when they were alone, so a hairstyle that looked like it was done as home fits the video.

Importance of Artists as Role models

Artists have a responsibility to serve as role models to our youth

I disagree with this statement as I feel music artists have the right to express their own personalities and emotions through their music. I feel that artists and musicians choose to be artists as they feel that they can express themselves through it and if that is stripped back just to be ‘appropriate’ and suitable for a specific target market then it isn't music that truly expresses anything- which is what music is all about. However artists do have to serve as role models to our youth through their actions, if only their goal is to target a specific audience, but they do not have to take any responsibility what so ever for what teenagers choose to listen to or the actions they choose to take because of artists lyrics. For example, an artist like Chris brown was seen as a heart throb known for his expressive dancing and old school R&B yet his music has slowly changed from being about love to being more about the sexual experiences he would like or has had with women which has taken the young loved R&B singer he once was, however, I feel that over the years as he has gotten old, he has developed to create music that is more about what he wants to write and sing about rather than impressing a target audience of young girls who seen his as a teenage crush. 

Chris Brown's change

This has also been portrayed with the likes of Justin Bieber who has taken a different approach and created songs more for an older audience than create music videos and songs that are seen as “soppy”. I feel that with Tavonga’s role as an artist, we should express him to be more a character that expresses his own views and style rather than an artist that follows in the footsteps of others.

Justin Bieber's change

Tavonga's Ideal Brand

After knowing Tavonga for over 5 years, I have thought of how I can incorporate some of his personal life into our music as it creates more of a recognisable brand that people would recognise him from.From what I know of him, I understand that his ethnic background is very religious and him and his family are from Zimbabwe, so he lives in a very strong Christian house hold. Tavonga goes to church every Sunday which is an important thing that he never usually misses.

Another factor that is important to Tavonga is his fashion sense, he is often inspired by the likes of Kanye west and other artists such as Chris Brown who inspire him to wear the latest fashion as well as improvise and create his own fashion style.I feel that with fashion being one of the main factors that drives people to love artists more, I think his brand should lead with a heavy fashion based look as well as incorporating his live for Christianity of the digipack so that the audience have a look into his personal life, which is what fans like to witness. Audiences like to feel more connected with their favourite artists so by placing some personal features within the images will help the audience engage with Tavonga.

Through out the time I have known him, everyone he knows and that I have personally known have always seen Tavonga as a character that is always positive and sees the good in everyone, I feel that this is a part of his personality that should be shown as I feel with artists such as Chris Brown, it reflected negatively when he had the incident where he hit and beat up ex girlfriend Rihanna. I believe that an audience respond better to an artist who has come from a bad background and has brought them selves up to be an artist who is respectful and positive such as Jay-z 

Audience Survey

I decided to create an audience survey based on the costume of Tavonga's character that he is playing, We decided to create this survey to test what types of costume an audience likes, we decided to narrow it down and keep to popular fashions worn by Kanye West and Justin Bieber as they are known to be highly fashionable celebrities however, we chose certain popular fashions that they are known for to see what our audience likes the best and why. This will help us narrow our costume choices down and we will be able to match up Tavonga's clothes as closely to the fashions as much as possible.

From knowing that Tavonga's is a highly religious character in his personal life but also takes his fashion choices seriously, we wanted to base his fashion choices on both so that we have a sense of his personal life which an audience likes to connect with.

After 10 people from our audience age range did our survey, we found out that fashions based on Kanye were most popular as he is mostly popular and has a high career in fashion, the audience also added that they found Kanye's fashion suited Tavonga's appearance as they have similar features and they feel his fashion is mostly recognised as "today's fashion".

Key Representations

 Trey Songz is represented in the music industry as being a heartthrob to teenagers as well as adults, he focuses his music on the theme of love and sex which targets this age group. In a lot of his music videos he is often showing off his muscular figure to reveal this point and to attract the more female audience that he desires, this is a pointer that maybe we don't want to attract due to his religious background and the song being about his one true love that has broke his heart. However, there is elements of Trey Songz's persona that could feature on the digipak that would attract more of a female audience.  Drake is often shown and is famous for his emotional characteristics that he portrays in songs which links closely to the lyrics of 'So sick', Drake is often placing his hands in his head and concentrating more of the emotional side of a woman rather than the physical side, which reveals real-life situations that couples have been in. this is a characteristic that we want Tavonga to have as it portrays the lyrics of the song and I believe with Drake being names as one of the biggests artists in the world, that this version of Drake is something all audiences warm too and prefer compared to a character like Chris brown.

Within the Music video of 'Ayo' chris brown right at the start is portrayed with mass amounts of money as well as gold and expensive luxuries that his audiences would only wish for, this is something that is well known from this character, however I believe that this representation of him portrays him in a negative way as an audience feel that they can not connect with him as they can with artists such as Trey Songz and Drake.