Album Advert Conventions

•  The same font is used throughout to keep the advert aesthetically pleasing.
• The photograph used for the album cover is also used as the image for the advert as this creates familiarity and recognition between the album and the advert for the album.
• To keep a positive buzz around the album, feedback from well known music publicity is used to entice you in to buy the album. This kind of advertisement is usually used for less known bands because they need to give people a reason to buy the album.
• a simple earthy colour scheme is used.
• Information on where you can buy the album, as much information to make it easy for the consumer to find the album.
• Website for the artist so the consumer can find out more about them.
• Release date.

The difference between the Florence + the Machine and the other adverts I have looked at, is that two different fonts are used. I believe this is because Florence + the Machines are a well known band and the font they have used for their name is familiar to their fans as THEIR font. 

Digipak Research and Analysis

Inspiration

Laura - Bat For Lashes

Wide Shot

Mid Shot

Low angle mid shot

Mid Shot

Over The Shoulder Shot

Establishing Shot

Low key lighting is used from behind the actors/lead singer to create shadows and a mysterious effect. Bright coloured lighting is used to show that dancing for the characters is a happy time. I feel that the lens flare used throughout creates a sense of dream and happiness. The Over the Shoulder shot used makes me feel a sense of longing to dance or for the girl. The Establishing shot shows how empty and lonely the world may feel for the lead singer.

Ed Sheeran - A Team

Birds Eye Close Up

Birds Eye Close

Close up

Close Up

High Angle Mid Shot - Reflection

Low Angle Mid Shot

Close Up - Reflection

Most of the inspiration shots I have screenshot from the music video are a range of close ups using high and low angles to show the feeling and power position of the character at that given point within the music video. I like the use of close ups throughout ed sheeran's A Team because this shows the audience the range of emotions that are felt by the girl. The costumes in this video consist of either over sized coats and hoodies or skimpy vests and skirts for the characters perhaps showing us that she has little money to actually buy her own clothes. When she is getting her self all dolled up, the costume used is to show the audience what she is prepared to do in order to get money. The way the director has shown us what unfolds throughout that evening is through the costume she is wearing, not necessarily through actions. 

Battleships - In Retrospect

I decided to look at this music video as this song is one of my favourites along side Naive, I really like the use of low key lighting behind the artist, creating that incredible, black side profile of his face. I feel his gives the band a sense of mystery which is definitely the persona of the band as little is known about them by their audience.

Annotated Lyrics

Target Audience

 My Female Avatar

• My stereotypical female audience would be dressed in an unconventional outfit, like my avatar. I believe this is a true reflection as people who listen to indie rock music are people trying to be a bit different to the conventional flow of pop music.
• Accessories that would be worn, would be a miss match of rings, necklaces, hair bobbles and arm bracelets, an item not necessarily worn by the mainstream.
• Her hobbies would probably be photography, reading and going to gigs   
• I have decided to make her hair this light pinky colour as this is a hair colour quite popular within the indie community.

My Male Avatar

• My stereotypical male audience would be dressed in shirts and skinny jeans, replicating outfits of lead singers from the indie rock bands they listen to.
• Accessories would be rings and earrings which are not accessories associated with the mainstream.
• He would eat food such as sushi and thai food because this food is not well liked by the mainstream.  

Audience Theory

All media products have an audience, if not one is constructed.

There are two types of audience: 

• Mass audience
• Niche audience

As a producer, you need to know your audience.

1st Theory - The Hypodomic Syringe

The hypodermic syringe is an audience theory created by The Frankfurt School in the 1920/30s. It suggests that society is made of individuals who are ceceptable to media messages therefore media messages are injected into the thoughts of the audience who accept what they're told, without question. The audience is considered as passive.

2nd Theory - 2 Step Flow

The 2 step flow is the second audience theory created by Lazarsfeld and Kats in 1940. It suggests that there is two steps to the distribution of information to the audience.

First Step

• Opinion leaders get information from the mass media, for example a celebrity reads that 'if you eat oranges during the day it can potentially contribute to weight gain'.

Second Step

• Opinion leaders pass on information with their own interpretation, for example the celebrity goes and tweets his/hers version of the information, 'If you eat oranges it makes you fat'. This tweaked information is then read by millions of their fans.

The strengths of this theory is that the audience is active and seen as a part of society.
The limitations of this theory is that there are more then two steps in the flow of communication.

3rd Theory - Uses and Gratification

Uses and Gratification is a theory created in the 1960s. This theory took into consideration that their audiences were adults who had grown up with television. It suggests that the audiences make choices about what the consume which make the audiences no longer passive. We consume texts for different reasons and in different ways.

Further development of Uses and Gratification


In 1974, Blulmer and Katz made a further development of this theory, suggesting the different reasons why we consume text.

• Diversion - we watch to escape
• Personal Relationships - we use media for emotional and other interactions, for example we form attachments to characters and want to see how they development throughout.   
• Personal identity - You recognise and learn values from what you see.
• Surveillance - Information to make our life's easier, for example the weather forecast. 

This theory has now been extended because of video games and the internet.


4th theory - David Morley


This theory was created in 1980 suggesting that there are three main different ways that audiences react to what they're seeing.

• Dominant reading - audiences share the programs code eg. they believe everything they're told.
• Negotiated reading - They partly believe everything.
• Oppositional reading - do not believe anything and do not share the programs code, they rejects it. 

Copyright Permission

In order to get permission to use 'Naive' by The Kooks as my chosen song, I looked on their official website for any contact details and managed to find an email address for the management of The Kooks, Starwood Managment.

My Chosen Song

The Kooks are an Indie Rock band formed in Brighton in 2001, the band are mostly influenced by the British invasion movement, including bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, which signified the movement of British movement across the seas to make great success in the USA. Mostly being described as Indie Rock the band have also experimented with Britpop, pop, reggae, funk and Hip-Hop. The band consists of lead singer Luke Pritchard, lead guitar Hugh Harris, drummer Alexis Nunez and bass player Peter Denton.   




I chose to use the song Naive by The Kooks as this has to be my favorite song for a long time. From passed experience in BTEC Media you tend to get extremely sick of the song you use to create a music video because you are constantly listening to it over and over again however with Naive, I can listen to the song as many times as I want and never get tired of hearing the guitar riff at the beginning or the chorus in the middle. I have refused to watch the official music video for the song because I don't want to be influenced by the ideas in the official music video.

Pop Performance Video - C'est La Vie

This is my preliminary task for a pop performance video to B*Witched's song C'est La Vie. We filmed the whole video in all one shot including lip syncing which was extremely well achieved by Charlie in one shot. I purposely cut the each dance clip to the beat so it flowed better with the song. If I could do it again, I would include more dancing clips with loads of different people. I've had some feedback and the green balloon was said to have been very distracting so I would get rid of the green balloon as well if I was to refilm. 

Practice ADVERT

My practice advert for the hip hop genre. The imagery and template are all my own, created from scratch. From this practice I have learnt that I need to put star ratings and comments to better advertise the artsit.

Practice Digipak

My practice digipak went really well, I was really happy with the results. All the imagery is my own, which was produced in my photography A-level. I feel it works really well with the rock genre, with the messy painting and mystery of the character on the front.

Lip Syncing Practice

Here is my practice lip syncing video. I found it helped to know the words of the song you are lip syncing to and to have the song playing in the background whilst you are filming as this helps with timing to match your lips with the lyrics when it comes to post-production 

The Male Gaze

The theorist Laura Mulvey came up with the theory of the male gaze through her essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' in 1975. It was a way to represent how an audience views the female figure as an object of desire and through the eye of a heterosexual male.

Features of The Male Gaze:

• Camera lingering on female figure
• female represented as object/love interest
• female viewers must experience the narrative secondarily by identification with the male
• gaze suggests that women are weak and defenseless

There are three different parts to The Male Gaze-

1. Men looking at women
2. Women looking at themselves (made to look at themselves in a negative way) 
3. Women looking at women (judge and compare)

There were a few criticisms towards the theory such as 'some women enjoy being looked at' and 'the gaze is directed to same sex not always in a sexual way' i.e. I like what you're wearing

An example of The Male Gaze is Rihanna's Umbrella music video

Throughout the entire music video Rihanna's costumes are skimpy and showing off her figure, in one part she isn't wearing anything at all just silver paint. The camera is constantly panning over her body to create this sense of desire. It isn't just Rihanna that is shown as an object of desire but also the female dancers surrounding Jay-Z are all wearing short shorts to show off their legs.