Analysis of Previous Students Work 2

I have again referred to the OCR marking criteria once again to analyse this students work of 'Paradise (cover)' by Modestep. They have shown evidence of technical skills and included elements of mise-en-scene. The students camera movement isn't very smooth which highlights the basic level of professional feel to the video. There are various camera angles such as mid-shot, point of view, over the shoulder, close up and high/low angle, however referring to the OCR criteria the student has used these camera angles to a very basic level. The student has used two main lightings which are natural and artificial lighting, which again referring to the OCR marking criteria has been used to a basic level. However, despite the basic technical skills, the narrative of the video is very clear and has been performed to a professional level, especially the blonde male actor. There are various locations for this video which shows that the student has put a lot of thought into the filming process and have a clear idea of what they want the finishing product to look like. The body language and the facial expressions of the actors and actress are very strong, which makes the narrative of the story seem very real. The blonde actor puts emphasis on his body language and facial expression which marking it with the OCR criteria would go under excellent.

Despite the excellent narrative, the only things that I would change is the camera control and how the directors manoeuvre the camera, and also the costume of the actors/actress in the video because I don't think much attention was paid to the wardrobes.

Analysis of a Previous Students Work

I have referred to the OCR marking criteria whilst analysing this students work of the song 'Stuck' by the Canopy Climbers. They have shown lots of evidence of technical skills and included lots of mise-en-scene elements to a very high standard. For example, the costume and setting has been strongly considered to make the video as professional as possible. The student also has a very high quality camera which adds to the professional feel. As well as using various camera angles such as close ups, long shots, worms eye view, mid-shots and over the shoulder, he also controls the camera to a very professional level and therefore having movements in all the right places. The student has used various lightings within his video such as natural lighting, artificial lighting and a physical fire. He uses a simple spot light to enhance the singers face in particular scenes. There is also a variety of locations featured in the video which shows good prior planning and organisation skills. The actor in the video has strong facial expressions and body language, therefore reflecting the emotion in the song and matching the lyrics and storyline. The student has edited the video to a professional standard, by speeding up the shadows and clouds as well as decreasing the vibrance and saturation in the video. The lyrics, visuals and music all work well together as the storyline is clear and easy to follow, and certain points of action link directly to the artists' lyrics being sung.

Music Website Analysis

Here, I have used a website called Prezi to produce  a creative slideshow about the Arctic Monkeys website. I have analysed different parts of the website including all the possible links a viewer can click on when they visit the homepage.

Music Directors Research

Name: Benny Boom

Age: 43

Job description: Music Video Director

Achievements: 2009/2013 - BET Award for Video Director of the Year.

2013 - BET Hip Hop for Best Video Director of the Year. 

Artists worked with: Nicki Minaj, Diddy, 50 Cent, Meek Mill, Waka Flocka Flame, Nas, Jungle Brothers, De La Soul and Quest.

Mainstream/Indie: Mainstream
Background information: Benny Boom is a music video director and current director of Gorilla Flix, Inc. He trained at Temple University's School of Radio, Television, and Film, and also served as protege of veteran director, Director X and Hype Williams.

Name: Marc Klasfeld
Age: 49
Job description: American Music Video Director
Artists worked with: Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Jay-Z, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Michael Bublé, Nelly, Foo Fighters, Avril Lavigne and many others.
Mainstream/Indie: Mainstream and some Indie
Background information: Marc Klasfeld is an American music video director. He has directed over 200 music videos for the artists listed above and more. Klasfeld is known for his experimentation of camera angle and movement in his music videos. In particular with his rock artists, he follows the typical conventions of the genre and reflects this in his videos.
In this image Klasfeld is seen with Rap artist Lil Wayne - showing that he is involved with lots of different genres ranging from rap to pop to rock.


Name: Tim Pope
Age: 58
Job description: Also known as Timothy Michael Pope, is a film director however is mostly famous for his music videos which he directs.
Artists worked with: Tim Pope has directed over 200 videos that include artists like The Cure, David Bowie, Paul Weller, The Darkness, Fatboy Slim, Neil Young, Queen and Kaiser Chiefs amongst others.
Achievements: Tim was awarded a CADS lifetime achievement award by the music industry.
Mainstream/Indie: Indie
Background information: Tim Pope left the music industry temporarily and returned 12 years later to continue making music videos again with the artists listed above. Tim also did a lot of work in the USA during the 1980-90s; he was invited to America for the first time in 1983 by Neil Young who asked him to film the video for his song 'Wonderin'. Other music videos he shot in the USA for various bands include Hall and Oates, Iggy Pop as well as UK bands like The The and David Bowie.

Research into Music Genres

Rap
More than a century before rap came onto the scene in America, West African musicians told stories rhythmically using one instrument - usually a drum. This was a similar story on the Caribbeans Islands were people also told stories in rhyme. Indeed, these singing poets from Africa and the Caribbean lay the foundation for modern-day American rap music.

The definition of rap music nowadays is that it's generally performed in a vocal style in which the lyrics are spoken, rather than sung. This type of music often deals with the hardships of inner-city life. Musicians typically remix these sounds and rhythms, adding their own innovations and often synthesised musical elements.

Nowadays rap is typically for a youth audience from around 16+ and therefore has a demographic of E and D, this is partly because of the age of the artists, majority are very young - sometimes still in their teens. Over recent years rap has continued to grow and make it's way into the charts, however I believe it's still not as recognised as it would like to be.

Hip-Hop
Hip-Hop is a lifestyle with its own lingo and dress code.

Hip-hop music is a genre consisting of a stylised rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements which are: rapping, scratching, break dancing and graffiti writing. Other elements include beat boxing. Hip-hop first developed during the 1970s when block parties became popular in New York City.

Hip-hop nowadays is a musical melting pot. It's a combination of sounds that includes elements of soul, jazz, gospel, rock and live instrumentation. The likes of De La Soul, a Tribe called Quest and most recently, Kanye West are recognised for championing the soulful rap movement. Other artists like Azealia Banks tend to blend hip-hop with elements of dance music.

Hip-hop is a very wide spread genre because of it's origin. Therefore it has a wider target audience but also a little older than Rap with a demographic of E and D, ranging all the way up to 36 years old, stereotypically African-American males.

Rhythm and Blues (R&B)
R&B combines soulful singing and a strong backbeat, this was the most popular music created by and for African Americans. Artists like Ray Charles, Little Richard and James Brown rank among the most influential R&B performers.

Early R&B artists broke away from the big band formula by typically performing in small groups and emphasising blues-style vocals and song structures. Saxophone and piano were still prominent , but electric guitar and bass added volume and intensity - making the new sound ideal for radio and jukeboxes.

In the early 1980s, funk and soul had become more sexual with the work of Prince and others. The modern style of contemporary R&B came to be a major part of American popular music. R&B today defines a style of African-American music. It combines elements of soul music, funk, pop and eventually hip-hop - in what is now called contemporary R&B.

The target audience for R&B music today is teenagers and young adults between the ages of 13 and 25, therefore sharing a demographic of E,D and possibly C2 of mainly females. The popularity with the female gender could be due to the actual artists mainly being male and therefore causing an attraction between the female audience and the male artists, but also could be due to the sound of the actual music - R&B music can be quite a soft, feminine noise.

Reggae
Reggae music is a very popular style of music in Jamaica and it's roots can be traced back to the 1960s. Overtime, reggae music found its way to the United States, which popularised reggae and slowly brought it to mainstream audiences. By the 1970s reggae had become an international style which was particularly popular in the UK, United States and Africa. Reggae was embraced in the USA largely through the work of Bob Marley - both directly and indirectly (as a result of Eric Clapton's popular cover of Marley's "I shot the sheriff" in 1974. Bob Marley was the artist that took reggae to the masses and made it a universal language.

In the 1980s and 90s dancehall came around and popularised very quickly. The dancehall deejays refined the practise of toasting which is rapping over an instrumental track. These deejays influenced the emerge of hip-hop music in the USA and extended the mar get for reggae into the African-American community.

The lyrics in reggae music focus on many themes and subjects including: love, injustice, poverty, faith and other broad social issues.

Today, reggae is a worldly recognised genre that has continued to grow at a fast pace over recent years. Typically, because of the origin, the main target audience would have a demographic of E as the audience used to just be the working class Jamaicans, however when the genre spread over seas - so did the target audience and therefore the people listening to reggae now include all ages and races, with people nearly in all demographics.

Dubstep
Dubstep is a new genre compared to the others I have looked into, it's a genre within electronic dance music. You can tell if a piece of music is of this genre by the reverberated sub-bass. The sub-bass is reverberated at different speeds to give a sense of movement and insistence.

Dubstep arised in the late 90's and early 2000's, the genre has recently become increasingly popular over the last year and has been seen more in mainstream music. Dubstep originated from dub remixes of 2-step garage that was taking over London at the time. Remixers attempted to introduce new sounds into the 2-step genre, which resulted in a sound that soon required it's own name. A popular artist today involved in the Dubstep genre is Skrillex.

Dubstep has a very deep sound with a lot of bass and electronic noises. Therefore the target audience for this genre would typically be teenagers from the ages 14+. This is partly because the genre is relatively knew and therefore older teenagers would have grown up when it was around in the 90's. Also, the older generation wouldn't warm to this genre as it has quite harsh beats and a lot of bass and it's something that older audiences aren't used to. Therefore the demographic for the Dubstep genre is E and possibly D.

Music Video Analysis 4

Artists: Arctic Monkeys
Song: Suck It And See

Narrative:
The video includes a narrative as there is a storyline. The storyline of the video is that the protagonist of the video is a convict that is wanted by the police as the video starts off with a poster of the protagonist with the word "missing" underneath. The character is clearly portrayed to be in an American biker gang. The video focuses on his relationship with the female character in which they have elements of an abusive relationship. This video is a part of a trilogy of music video following the same story which will really appeal to their fan base as they'll want to see the next part and how the story finishes. It also makes the artists more identifiable as they will have seen one and expect the same content in the other videos.

Cinematography:
Mise-en-scene: 
The video starts off with the female protagonist looking into the camera for 2 seconds. The model stares right into the camera with a dull yet seductive facial expression, making a connection with the audience. However, the male protagonist comes on right after and he is wearing a scarf and sunglasses making it harder to see his facial expression. The facial expression of the protagonists changes throughout this music video. The male protagonist face is mainly covered by his sunglasses in this video, but when he takes them off he displays a sincere facial expression at 1:05. The facial expression emphasises the love he has for the love interest in the video as they are both intimate at this point. It then immediately cuts to the next scene where the female protagonist is clearly displaying an enraged face which juxtaposes with the male's facial expression showing an abusive side and a loving side to the story. Throughout the video the director has decided to mainly use natural lighting, but in some scenes there is artificial lighting. The two main areas of natural lighting in the music video are daylight lighting and night lighting as well as in the last scene the only lighting is the fireside.  There are two scenes where the camera looks into the sun creating a solar flare, this emphasises the natural atmosphere in the video. The video is set on America highways, which relates to the narrative of the video.  It is also set in an isolated home by the highway which depicts the idea of the protagonist being a convict. The home could be repossessed by them and stole it from the residents that have lived there to present their power as intimidating gangsters. The video has many stereotypical props that are needed to portray a gangster theme. The props included are marijuana, motorcycles, guns, bandana, cigarettes, alcohol bottles and sun glasses. The marijuana leaves, guns and alcohol bottles emphasise the gangster narrative and also the reason why he is wanted by the cops. The main prop that underline the American biker gang narrative would be the motorcycles as otherwise the group wouldn't have been portrayed properly. The female protagonists make-up is very soft and light which contrasts with the videos narrative of the gangster lifestyle and also the abusive relationship. Throughout the music video there are many costume changes. The male protagonist wears either a sleeveless flannel, a sleeveless jean jacket, leather jacket, a hawaiian shirt with black leather trousers or black jeans. The various costumes emphasise the gangster narrative mainly with the leather jacket/black trousers, sleeveless jean jacket and the black jeans because it is a stereotypical expectation. The sleeveless jean jacket has the name of the song and also the name of the album on the back of it which is a promotion within a promotion. As well as clothing he is also wearing a lot of jewellery on his hands which asserts the criminal narrative as he could have potentially stolen the jewellery. The female protagonist also has numerous costumes which are more revealing than the male's. The revealing and lack of clothing for the female character links to Dyer's star theory and Muvey's male gaze theory where women are sexualised. The body language of the female character emphasises both Dyer's and Muvey's theory as she is constantly walking slowly and is shown to be slender. Her body language also portrays her dominance over the male character as she usually initiates the intimate moments by constantly pulling the protagonist down to her level.

Editing:
The director decided to use the continuity editing for this video to develop the videos storyline without drawing attention to how it has been done. He has also decided to censor the females areola to make the video more suitable for a younger audience.

Performance:
The director has decided to not use any dance choreography for this video to not draw attention away from the storyline, instead he has used scenes where the the protagonist becomes aggressive where he throws an empty bottle of alcohol at the wall. As well as that, there are scenes of the couple fighting and arguing, focusing on the storyline of an abusive relationship. Although the protagonist is the drummer for the band, so he is a semi-professional actor that acts to a very professional standard in the video, however, the female character is played by Breana McDow who is mainly a model but also an actress who has acted in many music videos, which makes her a professional compared to the protagonist.

Sound:
There is no lip syncing in the video as the singer for the band isn't in this video, also there is no lip syncing because the director may have not wanted the focus to be drawn away from the storyline of the video. There are no overlays on the video other than the studio version of the song. The sound is non-diagetic.

Music Video Analysis 3

Artists: Palma Violets
Song: Last of the Summer Wine

Cinematography:
Setting/lighting: 
The setting and lighting is naturalistic because of the environment as it is set in a park.  The atmosphere that the set creates connotes a calm and realistic atmosphere which goes along with the music. The fact that the weather condition juxtaposes the behaviour that the characters are displaying. The setting goes against Goodwin's theory of 'the MTV style' music video that is very staged and edited.

Camera movement: A handheld camera is used throughout the video which gives it a more personal feel for the audience as it makes it more relatable and you feel like you are a part of the video, in addition the raindrops falling on the camera lens adds to this sense. There is a variety of camera angles which is the standard of a music video to show the setting and also the artist. However, in this video the close-ups are again naturalistic and do not look staged. There is a low angle on the artist which would mean them looking up at the camera, this goes against typical music videos as they show themselves as equal to the audience rather than more powerful. The video has a soft focus which gives a dream-like quality but could also be due to the fact it is a handheld camera. There are no filters or coloured lens put on the camera which adds to the naturalistic feel.

Narrative:There is no narrative in this music video as they are not following a storyline, however the lyrics and the visuals do match in one section of the song. Overall, it is not following a structure therefore it is abstract.

Editing:The music video director has used the traditional cut on action editing technique throughout the video as it is a budget video and the artist wanted to keep it personal and for the focus to be on the music rather than having the focus on special effects. This is also a typical convention of the genre. One of few editing technique used is the kaleidoscope effect where the female actress can show. The reason they have used this effect on the girl to imply that she is a love interest in the story. Slow motion is also used on a few occasions perhaps to create a sense of quirkiness onto the video. The pace is generally quite slow which goes along with the music and the lyrics to an extent but there isn't a clear relationship. 

Performance:There is no structure or no evidence of choreography, relating back to the videos main focus being the song rather than the focus being on anything other than that. It's a low budget music video which suits the genre and the artist as a music video full of special effect props and choreography would suit a pop genre song. 

Sound:The lip syncing in the video is very amateur, which relates to the video being budget. They haven't put any overlays onto the video, they have only overlaid the studio version of the song on top of the video. This video is also non-diegetic as the artist is lip-syncing throughout the video. 

Music Video Analysis 2

Artists: Iamsu!, P-lo, Kool John, Jay Ant, Skipper & Kehlani

Song: Never Goin' Broke

Cinematography
This music video is of the rap genre and the budget is a lot smaller than that of the other music video I studied. It is recorded on a normal every day DSLR camera by the artists themselves. However they've also added lots of effects to make the video look more professional. Overall the video has quite a positive feel and is all a laugh with all the artists in Heart Break Gang. The artists in the video all have their own dress sense and therefore don't follow a consistent dress code to suit the song - but that's the whole point of 'Heart Break Gang. They're a group of artists and also friends who collaborate together so each of them has their own individual style as well as their own verse in the song. This music video goes against the typical stereotypes of the rap genre because it doesn't have a 'dark' feel and the video and lyrics aren't really sexualised. However you can tell the genre of the video because although the artists have their individual style and they do dress in clothes that are stereotypically for 'hood' people and all wear snapbacks. The video is set in a back garden and it also continues into a house, this shows the budget of the video but is also a good way to relate to the target audience as these artists are just ordinary people making music, they don't have to be rich to be successful. This also isn't a stereotypical rap video because it's quite common to find women being sexualised, however in this video there is no females in the background or anywhere.

Lighting and Editing
It's quite difficult to label the lighting as it's hard to distinguish a theme because of the high amounts of camera editing. However to make the video look as professional as possible there are many effects added on top of the video. Colour variations is an example. The 'Heartbreak Gang' logo is black, red and yellow and these colours and more are further portrayed in the video editing. There is a lot of 'cold' and 'warm' effects throughout the music video, the cold could represent the fact that the artists are outside in thick jackets and therefore adding to the scene, and the warm effects could reflect the actual people and their friendship showing a strong bond. Secondly, most of the video is shot through a circular lens showing a point of view and almost gives the effect of looking in to the artists own worlds.

This is one example of the effects used in the video. They almost create a glitch and this can be seen as representing the budget the artists have, and also the name of the group themselves. 'Heartbreak Gang'. Heartbreak could also represent why the glitches are present, because when a person is heartbroken they are seen to not be 'thinking straight'.

Performance
Regarding the choreography - this video looks like there is no choreography. The video was completed in one take and everything looks improvised. The only thing that is choreographed is when the artists come forward for their verse in the song. This isn't always a bad thing, it works particularly well with this music video as it's portraying fun within a group of friends and I think they represent a group of friends hanging out in a positive way. The stereotypes that come with rap music is usually drugs, sex and alcohol - however these artists go against this stereotype and prove that the music you're into doesn't represent who you are as a person.

Music Video Analysis

Rap Artists: Lil Wayne, Drake and Future

Song: Lil Wayne - Love Me (Explicit) ft. Drake, Future

Cinematography
The overall feel of the video is quite dark and dirty. It begins with one of the artists singing close up into the camera with a black background. This is complemented also by the black clothes and sunglasses worn by future. This really appeals to the target audience as Rap is stereotypically a 'bad' and 'gang-type' genre. As the music video progresses we begin to see more artists, also dressed in typical 'rap' clothing - which include mainly the colours black and red. From very early on in the video we are shown women who have been sexualised and almost used as props. This is a very common thing to see in rap videos, it is very rare to find a music video where women are not sexualised by the male artists. For example, in this video they are dressed in very little, tight clothing which exposes a lot of their body. Their make up is also done to make them have animalistic qualities - to be precise, snakes and cats. The women are dressed as snakes to be seen in a predatory, seductive manner throughout the video and almost bring out their dark and dirty side, which emphasises the extent at which they have been sexualised to. Furthermore there are scenes in the video which show the women in cages which further emphasises their animalistic qualities. Throughout the music video there is never a seen where there is a female standing taller than a male. This again emphasises the sexualisation given to these women and also expresses inequality and the idea that women are objects.

The lighting the whole way through the video is extremely dark, usually with just a main bright light shining on the singing artist at that moment in time. The darkness is used to again emphasise rap in a stereotypical way and to complement the theme and lyrics of the video as it has a 'dark' feel. The music video begins with majority close up shots of the artists and women but gradually, the camera widens and shows more of a scene, this could represent the vision of a person once under the influence of drugs. For example there is a scene where Lil Wayne is on a bed surrounded by women, then surrounded by water which can be seen as a sexual symbol to represent the female genitalia. The movement of the camera can have a jolting effect and this could represent the side effects of smoking marijuana - which is spoke about a lot in the lyrics.

However when the video gets to 3.00, there is a complete set change. The theme at this point in the video changes to white and there is also a drop in the beat where it decreases in speed, but the rappers remain in the dark half of the video as they still fully represent rap. Lil Wayne then begins to role his eyes which complements the new white theme as he is just displaying the white part of his eye to the viewers. There is again more sexualised females in this part of video where they get into a bath of red paint. The red paint could represent the actual genre of rap and the white background could represent society, and therefore the effect of the females wiping the paint everywhere infers that the rap genre is taking over not just the music industry, but also society.

Editing
There are so many editing techniques shown throughout the video, however the mains ones are fast cut, jerking and there is also some slow motion and double imagery. All of these techniques have been used as they would all represent the side effects of smoking marijuana and drinking; which is seen a lot in the video. Fast cutting is the most popular technique and keeps up with the fast pace of the song and the frequent scene changes. Secondly, jerking is another camera technique used a lot and it again represents side effects of drugs. It's also quite a new technique that isn't seen in many music videos representing the freshness of the song.

The camera editing in the song reflects the lyrics. For example Lil Wayne says 'and these h*es love me like Satan'. As the word Satan is said, double imagery is used to quickly flick between an image of Lil Wayne with devil horns and the actual music video. I think this is a good technique as the music video has a link with the lyrics, even though there is no obvious narrative.

Performance
There is lots of choreography in this video, mainly with the females involved. However it's not dance choreography or a script which they specifically need to follow, which helps the video look a little less forced and professional. The choreography with the females is very seductive and they are showing sexual behaviour towards the artists. There isn't much choreography with the male artists because the main focus is on the lip syncing and using hand motions to express the lyrics. The lip syncing the whole way through the video is very accurate and precise showing the budget of the video being very high as everything is very thought out with lots of props. However there's also some scenes with no lip syncing where the main focus is the choreography with the females.

Poster Analysis 2

From my analysis of this poster I have identified the typical conventions such as the name of the album, the band name and also the front image blown up. The promotional poster of The Vaccines' "What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?" has the picture of the front cover blown up and edited in a light pink filter. The light pink edit could suggest the band trying to draw in a female audience to the band and album as the genre is mainly for men. The pink filter could also be put there to put more emphasis on actual album name on the poster so that the audience will be attracted into buying the album. The reviews for this album are extremely positive from very famous [rock] music magazines such as Q and MOJO, by getting a 4/5 star rating. The star rating will increase the audience as usually the audience of these magazines rely on them to inform them with great new bands and albums, which will increase the audience of this band. There also is a review quote from NME "the return of the great British guitar band." This review will mainly intrigue an audience that is interested in guitar bands, by including the word 'great' this will attract those who want to know whether they are as great as this famous music magazine stated.

From my analysis of this poster I have identified the type conventions  such as the band name, the band and album name. The promotional poster of The Black Keys concert as well as their new album 'El Camino'. On the poster there is a picture of the band which contrasts with The Vaccines album poster. The thing that mostly draws the attention of the audience is where one of the band members is looking right into the camera. The direct look into the camera creates a connection with the audience through the use of eye contact. Another thing that attracts the audience is the other band member who is looking in the other band members direction but not directly at him. This makes the audience intrigued as they wonder what has caught his attention. Their facial expression contrasts with each other as the member in the green shirt has a warm smile which invites the audience into wanting to attend the concert and also buy their album as they are intrigued whether their music is also very warm and inviting. The other band members facial expression is less appealing for the audience as he is frowning at something/someone, but this could intrigue the audience into wanting to know why he is pulling this facial expression. Both of the members have opposing body postures. The member on the right has his shoulders lowered to indicate a more relaxing feel to him, but also has his arms together which could imply he is slightly enclosed. However, he is much more welcoming than the other member as his shoulders risen which indicates him enclosing himself, not making the audience very welcome. As well as antagonistic expressions and postures, the members are also in different costumes. The member on the right is wearing a lightly coloured shirt which gives off a very warm and engaging vibe, encouraging the audience into wanting to buy the album. The member on the right is wearing mostly dark colours which connotes the music to being possibly heavier, which would appeal to a rock audience. The lighting on the poster is very soft and bright spotlight on the band which lures the audience into wanting to know more about the band starting with their music. The background colours are red and black to emphasise the genre of the band, attracting many rock fans as usually rock is associated with the colours black and red. The font on the poster is the same font as font used on the album that they are promoting on the bottom left corner. The use of the same font lures the audience into wanting to buy the album as they have recognised the font from the poster. On the poster, they also have another famous band from the same genre. If fans from the other band see their favourite band on the poster, they will want to listen to [The Black Keys] and want to buy their album. The poster also includes information on how to buy tickets for one of their concerts, this promotion will increase the audience of The Black Keys because many people who already have the album would go to this event and invite people to go with them, and if those people enjoy the band they would want to buy the album. 

Poster Analysis

This poster is linked to my Digipak analysis of Rihanna's album 'LOUD' and is used to promote the album itself. It follows the same theme as the Digipak making it consistent and therefore the target audience are immediately able to recognise the album in which this poster is representing. The positioning and image of Rihanna is a close-up shot of just her face - similar to the image on the front of her album cover, this may have been done to establish a form of continuity. Rihanna is a very well known world wide artist and therefore doesn't need a huge, fancy poster to advertise her music and her talent. This is why this simple template works for an artist like Rihanna. Although her name is written in big letters, the font is very narrow which furthers emphasises her presence and popularity in the music industry. Furthermore, the subtitle that reads 'coming to a city near you!' is very intriguing for her target audiences and encourages them to go home and search up her tour dates. If the dates and places of her concerts were written on the poster and they didn't apply to everyone, then the poster wouldn't have as much impact and it wouldn't have as big effect on people however, this title almost compels people to do a bit of research on the concert dates themselves.


This is the official poster for Katy Perry's tour 'Prismatic'. Which is promoting her recent album 'Prism'. The album and this poster do not follow the same or similar colour scheme. However, this is a world wide tour and the bright, contrasting colours are necessary for the poster to attract attention from not only the target audience but any audience. The title is written in a font that represnts a prism which makes it very stylish and interesing to look at. The font is also relevant to the artists target audience as it's quite playful and therefore represents the younger generation who are her target audience. Secondly, the artist is positioned in the centre of the poster emphasising her importance and power in the music industry. She is also positioned inside a triangle which again represents a prism and therefore reflects the album name. The effect of using a range of colours on the poster apart from attracting attention is that the attraction can be from both genders. Although Katy Perry's fan base is mainly females, her audience is also made up of males and combining lots of colours combines the two genders and encouraging all people to come to her tour. Also, under the main title is the subtitle in slightly smaller letters saying 'World Tour'. This will be the second thing that the audience reads on the poster because it means that Katy Perry will be doing concerts wherever her fans are - which encourages them to go even more as it's close to wear they live. Furthermore, at the bottom is the list of the places where she will be performing. She has done this so that her audience don't have to go home and look up where she will be, which may put people off going as it means they have to do some research in order to find out where she will be. The ticket date at the bottom of he poster is also very important. This tells people when the tickets are available and means that they don't miss the date, it's also very important to put a ticket website at the bottom, for example ticket master so that the audience are given all the tools they need to buy their tickets and go to the concert.

Digipak Analysis 2

Digipak Analysis

A Digipak is a type of packaging used to hold a CD as well as posters and other leaflets relating to the artist. It typically has a paper back outside rather than a jewelled case. It also usually has extra special effects and sometimes even a separate CD with video footage.

History of Music Videos

 

Here, my partner and I have made a Prezi which shows the history of The Cure throughout their music career.

Statement of Intent

My name is Katie Begg and I am now studying A2 Media. My task for this year is to produce a blog with all my research and planning on Digipaks, Music posters and other similar products. Which I will be analysing in great detail, including key evaluation points like Mise en Scene, this will enable me to cover all details of the posters and digipaks I will be analysing. I also need to do research into target audience and then choose the target audience for the music video I will eventually create at the end of my coursework.

For last years coursework I created a blog based on Music Magazines. My research and planning was into different genres of music magazines, and the idea was to get a good idea of what music magazines look like so I would be prepared to make my own music magazine. I had to analyse different music magazines using codes and conventions and Mise en Scene. This was to look at where professional magazines positioned different elements of their magazines to give me some inspiration for my own. By the end of the year I had made my own music magazine in the genre of rap, and I followed all the codes and conventions which I learnt from my analysis of professional, popular music magazines. Throughout making my final product, I ended up making lots of changes to really emphasise my genre on my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I chose a complementing colour scheme of red, yellow and black to allow the magazine to express the genre of rap in a more positive way, and I also decided to use a female artist on the front as the rap industry is dominated by males and I wanted to bring females more into the mix.

If I were to alter my final product in any way I would maintain the same colour scheme as I had on the front throughout my msagazine. On my contents page and double page spread I changed my colour scheme to pink and black which matched my artist but also didn't really reflect the cover. Secondly, I would also love to be able to make my contents page more interesting and fuller. My main inspiration was 'VIBE' magazine which also had a basic but sophisticated contents page but I don't think it suited my magazine as well as it suited VIBE as the target audience for my magazine was a younger generation and was therefore represented a more fun side to rap, which I feel I could have expressed a lot more. Overall I think I managed my time relatively well, it took me a while to get started with my magazine as I wasn't very confident with photoshop, however towards the end I picked up my pace. But for this year I want to be able to time manage a lot more efficiently and not have to rush towards the end of my coursework to get everything finished. As well as managing my time better I would like to be more organised and plan the work I am going to complete for my next lessons, this way I can keep on top of my work without missing any important details out.

For the end of this year I would like to achieve a professional looking product where I am successfully promoting, I also want to develop my skills with video as it's an area of media which I don't have much experience with.

Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task I worked in a pair with another class mate to recreate a music video, we decided to recreate Lorde's well known song Royals.