Final Magazine Advert

Final DigiPak

Final CD Cover

Draft for Magazine Advert

Draft for Digipak

This is my rough draft of what my digipak will have. It includes the front, back and cover of the album including the lyric book and track list.

Draft for CD Cover

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Andrew Goodwins Theory - Adele 'Someone Like You'

Andrew Goodwins Theory

1.          Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.

Adele is a 23 year old English singer, she is mostly known for her record breaking album track ‘Someone Like You’, which stayed number one for four consecutive weeks. Her genre includes Soul, Pop and Soft ballads; these are written by her and mainly about the trials and tribulations that she faces in life and how she channels them through her music. She depicts a sense of edginess yet being calm and this makes her have a mainstream target audience, as teenagers and young adults love her music and so do the much older generation. In the vast majority of her music videos we see her emotions through her facial expression, close up and body language as she sings the songs in depth, also a piano is seen in many of her videos; this conveys she’s very into.

2.             There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.

Someone Like You Lyrics:

I heard that you're settled down
That you found a girl and you're married now.
I heard that your dreams came true.
Guess she gave you things I didn't give to you.

Old friend, why are you so shy?
Ain't like you to hold back or hide from the light.

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded
That for me it isn't over

Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
"I'll remember", you said,
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead,
Yeah.

You know how the time flies
Only yesterday it was the time of our lives
We were born and raised
In a summer haze
Bound by the surprise of our glory days

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded
That for me it isn't over, yeah.

Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
"I'll remember", you said,
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.

Nothing compares
No worries or cares
Regrets and mistakes
They are memories made.
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?

Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
"I'll remember", you said,
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.

Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
"I'll remember", you said,
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead

Adele reportedly said this song was she was struggling emotionally when she composed the song. She had broken up with her boyfriend whom she had been in a relationship with for over a year. They were in love and planned to get married, a few month after they spilt he got engaged to someone else; this broke her deeply and lead her to write a chart topping and award breaking song.

The song talks about her coming to terms with the break up and her heartache; this is depicted in her lyrics. Words such as you, love, mistakes, regrets, remember and I beg are constantly repeated to emphasise how she is feeling.  

There is a slight relationship between the lyrics and visual as it isn’t amplifying or contradicting but slightly illustrative. One can say this isn’t your conventional music video, as it simply shows her walking around an isolated area near a lake. We see the use of camerawork being mainly focused on to show her facial expressions and emotions. Extreme close ups, close up, establishing shots and medium long shots are mainly used in the shot. When looking at Goodwin’s theory we would say this music video is illustrative because its explaining how she felt through different codes and conventions such as her non-verbal communication.

3.               There is a relationship between music and visuals.

There isn’t an obvious relationship between the lyric and the visuals as the artist talks more about the guy whom she broke up with, she refers to this person as ‘you’. Typically we would expect to see a guy with a new woman laughing and living their daily lives as she looks and ponders over them.

We can see slight relationship when she looks into the camera we notice her talking to the audience and her ex saying ‘Dont forget me I beg..’. We also see when she says ‘Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead’, we see an establishing shot of the location she is at. It’s almost as if she’s reflecting on their relationship and thinking as the camera focuses on the sky.

4.          The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

   Close-ups are repeatedly used in Adele’s music video; this is because the camera is trying to convey to the audience how she feels, though as mentioned before feelings and emotions through her facial expressions.  The camera is restricted as it only focuses on her face and not any other part of her body. One could say that the recurring motif if there is one would be as mentioned before, how we see establishing shots of the location she is, then straight after a close up of her face and her looking into the camera. This pattern illustrate that this is where she is in her life now but she’s moving on even though she’s hurt. This appeal to the target audience as they can see the connection with the lyrics to video and the artist.

5.          There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

6. There is often intertexual reference (to film, TV programmes, other music videos etc).

The video is shot in Paris and because Adele’s video is mainly about her and her ex partner we only see some intertexual reference to one film. ‘The Pink Panther 2’ is shot in Paris and has similar shots of the Eiffel Tower that Adele also has in her video. We also see some famous attractions in the road she’s walking on, like a famous bridge in Paris called the ‘Pont Alexander III’ which features statues going across and at both sides, and lamps all the way across the bridge. The director of her video Jake Nava reportedly said ‘The location evokes style and romance. And shooting early in the morning allows you to focus on Adele in this lonely and emotional space.’ The whole video being shot in black and white also adds to the atmosphere and her emotions. 

Adele's Video

Pink Panther 2 Film

Pont Alexander III - Paris

Adele's Video

Music Video: Adele – “Someone like You”

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1st Draft of 'Little Lady' Music Video

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Storyboard

When we were in the beginning of filming our music video, we came across a few problems as we didn't know in what order to film, and exactly what to film. to overcome this simple problem, a member of my group Elizabeth Rayner drew a storyboard to help is on the right path and make us more organized.

Here are the shots that will be included in our music video:

Music Genre Research -Grime

Grime music is currently well known within the British and UK music scene. Even though it only became really established during the early 2000’s. It primarily draws on and takes its roots from music genres such as Hip Hop, Dancehall and mainly UK Garage. It emerged from the youths in East London, Bow with its origins from UK pirate station. Many artists started their musical career as a very young age; from the age of 10-20 this is primarily the age they begin to write lyrics, and make beast in the studio that they rapped to.

Dizzee Rascal, Kano and Wiley were the artists that brought attention to the grime mainstream media scene during 2003-2004. The genre received most of its attention and exposure from television, through music channels such as Channel U which focused on playing upcoming UK Urban, Hip Hop, Bashment and Grime, also the BBC’s youth radio station 1Xtra and Logan Samas show on London station Kiss FM. Another way young artist became recognised and made it to the top was promoting their music in any way possible. Going to barbers and hairdressers and handing out their mixtapes and single to anyone that came past them. Producing and designing their own battle DVD’s with other artist was a hobby for many young grime artist.

Many artists struggled to get noticed within the media scene, mainly because they faced many obstacles along the way. One main one being criticism; David Blunkett from the Home Secretary was one influential member to call the lyrics ‘appalling’. Others said it was a polite excuse for youths to vent out their indecent thoughts such as, sex, violence, racism and lyrics on killings and rivalry against gang members.

In a conventional grime music video we notice many factors that we will see in a hip hop video. Exploitation of women, money and cars, but mainly in a youth grime music video we see battles between the members in the video. Mostly guys and guys jumping and creating ‘hype’ in the background behind the main artist to almost encourage and boost his confidence to make the artist more excited.

Below we see two typical Grime music videos, one from one of the most recognised grime artists; Dizzee Rascal ft Armand Van Heldon in his video ‘Bonkers’. The other from one of the most well known and famous Hip Hop/Grime group,  N-Dubz ft NAA in their video ‘N-Dubz’.

Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers

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N-Dubz VS NAA- N-Dubz

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Music Genre Research - Hip Hop

Hip hop is one of the music genres that is widely known all throughout

the world, and is very current in the 21^st century. It is a musical genre that has become a culture and evolved so much it has subculture which consists of different stylistic music. Such as MCng/Rapping; this is where the artist says the lyrics commonly in a fast pace in time to a beat. Other styles include DJing/Scratching, Breakdancing and graffiti wall writing. It was culturally originated from the 1970’s in New York City when block parties became popular with African Americans and Latinos living within the Bronx. Not only Hip Hop but other music genres such as R&B (Rhythm and Blues), Reggae, Funk, Disco and Dub have all created the buzz around the Hip Hop subculture and made it emerge within the music scene.

DJ Clive Campbell also known as ‘DJ Kool Herc’ is known as being the father of Hip Hop. He is highly influential in the hip hop music and culture, as he moved to New York as the age of thirteen from living in Jamaica where he was born, he witnessed toasting, spoken work poetry which led to rapping and MCing and many other different music styles which he observed as a youth in Jamaica. He brought with him to New York his roots, skills and various techniques that have blueprinted the Hip Hop culture today.

For our music video the song we are focusing on is from the English singer and song writer Ed Sheeran. He is a diverse singer so the four genres which he typically focuses on are Hip Hop, Grime, Acoustic and Folk Rock. In some of his songs he mixes some of these four genres in one song to get more of a mass audience and appeal to other audiences of other genres.

In a hip hop music video, we see some typical codes and conventions. We notice codes such as non verbal communication like, sex appeal from every member of the video; particularly the females who are usually exploited.  We see the portrayal of money and wealth as a main and big factor, we see this in artist in the video throwing money around as if it’s nothing and they have so much its insignificant and not a worry. Flashy cars, diamond encrusted jewellery and half naked girls denote that the artists have all the things in life that they want and they couldn’t ask for more. This is all shown through fast pace cuts, extreme close up and high angle shots to make them look superior. 

(Click to PLAY video)

Analysis of Magazine Advert (Rihanna)

Rihanna – Loud

The last album cover I will be analyzing is Rihanna’s album cover called ‘Loud’. It’s a studio album that was released in 2010, by whom she is currently signed with Def Jam Records. One thing this album cover has in common with Lady Gaga’s cover is they’re strategy is similar as they both want to reveal nothing to their audience from the cover, they want their fans and the public to purchase it and let all be revealed. It’s also an extreme close-up of her face like Gaga’s Fame album, it simply says the name of the album at the bottom scattered and largely spaced.

Typically Rihanna also being similar to Gaga again in that they’re both confident and quite sexual, and flaunt their bodies a lot, in their albums the audience don’t get to see this side of them as we only see their face. We see her bright red hair and lipstick and she hides herself as she isn’t interacting with the audience by having her eyes closed, this creates enigmas within the audience as they begin to wonder what she may be hiding. Her face is the only part of her body we see and a glimpse of her shoulder as she begins to bring it up slightly as if an ‘innocent’ and shy girl.

On this cover we see a more subtle side of Rihanna as on her third studio album ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ we see her rebelling and not conforming to the conventional diva style that young upcoming celebrity stars. She’s now more of a lady now as we see her wearing bright red lipstick, which suggests she has a seductive and sexy side to her; this is also conveyed through her lyrics, songs and pictures on her digipak and magazines. She is representing women in more of a post modern way, as their roles are more diverse now.

The main colours on the whole of the album are quite vibrant and but yet still soft. We see the primary colour of red in her hair, lips and roses. This makes Rihanna seem vulnerable and innocent compared to how she is depicted on the front cover. This image will appeal more to her target audience of young girls as she is being conveyed as feminine and beautiful. The red roses in the background that she’s lying in have connotations of passion.

We see a completely different side of Rihanna in this album as she posses a modern and formal style. We see her in a ballerina type dress and her hair style is very ‘Marilyn Monroe’, as it swoops across her face and is curled. Her persona is that of femme fatale, as although we see some slightly innocent sides of her, the public and everyone knows the real Rihanna and knows that the sexy, seductive diva will come out sooner or later.

Analysis of Album Cover Art (Lady Gaga)

Lady Gaga – The Fame

The first album cover I will be analyzing is Lady Gaga’s album cover called ‘The Fame’. It’s a contemporary record released in 2008 she is currently signed with Streamline Records. Lady Gaga’s album cover is an extreme close-up of her face with her name and the name of the album on the sunglasses she’s wearing.

This photo has a specific meaning to it as we only see little of her face as the big sunglasses block out her eyes and a hood covers the rest of her hair. We see she is ‘hiding’ her identity from the viewers which tells the audience that she wants to remain anonymous and reveal little, and they will only get a sense of who she is from her listening to the music in her album; this creates enigmas and questions for the audience.

Since Lady Gaga has came onto the music industry scene the public and world have welcomed and loved her, her crazy eccentric style and her pop dace music makes her the newer better Madonna! ‘The Fame’ album really speaks for itself; Gaga won many awards and it has become the first album that reached the platinum certification, after selling 300,000 units in the UK based on digital sales.

Gaga tries to make a statement with everything she does, so this album cover is pretty simple as everyone knows who Lady Gaga is, she doesn’t need to be extreme with her album cover; being herself is more than enough and exactly what the fans and public want.

Above is the Digipack for ‘The Fame’ album. Analyzing this will give me and my group more of an idea for what we want our digipack to be like. In Lady Gaga’s cover only shows her face for a reason. The glasses that she wears show that she is of high status and the diamonds on them signify wealth. The main factor we notice about our freak chic is that she is trying to make a statement with the less revealing image.

The typography throughout the pack is a simple, with block lettered sans serif font. This is because Lady Gaga wants the attention to be on her style and her pictures. The font is all in white because the backgrounds are dark colored so it makes reading the tracks and information easy to read. On every panel there is a picture of her and information is always on the other side so it does cover her and it shows her dress code. All the pictures on every panel are between extreme to medium long shots of Gaga, meaning that she wants her audience to see the emotion and her style. The genre that Gaga is mainly focused on is pop, dance and disco, this is conveyed in the colors which are quite dark but lively and loud. Her non verbal communication suggests that she’s quite sexual, as she poses her gesture and posture are showing her figure as she wears a tight patent cat suit.

The photo below is the advertisement photo used for promotional purposes, and to tell the public and her fans that this album is coming out, and the music that you've already been hearing and more will be on it.

Lyrics for 'Little Lady'

Casting Actors

As we're making our real and first music video we wanted it to look as real, believable and good as possible. We put up an advert on Star Now to get some a few little experienced actors, and to get them to audition and see if they would be suitable to play the roles needed in our music video.

We got some positive feedback and continue to still search for people who we think fit our specific roles perfectly. 

Our Production Logo

Target Audience Research

For our target audience we went around and asked a group of diverse people of different ages and both genders, whether they were into music videos and the typical genre of music videos they watch. 


Ed Sheeran the artist that we are focusing on, isn't very diverse as he only does a specific type of music, so his audience isn't mainstream. The primary audience that he appeals to is mostly young girls and women from 15-30. However, the secondary audience is females and males from 15-40. They are all in the socio-economic groups of C1, C2, D and E. This is because they're mostly all young and in the lower and middle classes. 


Because young people nowadays all have different tastes, we got a range of feedback as to what music videos people watch, and what type of genre they like, and also what source do they view these on YouTube, MTV etc. Our results are shown in the video below...

Moodboard

Animatic For 'Little Lady'

Below is our animatic. Its a video of a few shots that we've taken from our shot list and edited to make a video. The photos are an animated storyboard which will help the audience have more of an idea of what our music video will be like. It will give them an insight on what the real music video may be like, we have also included the soundtrack 'Ed Sheerans - Little Lady ft Mikil Pane' to add to the scene and set the mood.

(Click the button below to Play)

Contact with Artist 'Ed Sheeran'

As a group we chose to use Ed Sheeran's Little Lady ft Mikil Pane song. We had many ideas and thought that this particular song was suitable for the style, genre and would go well with our music video. Because Sheeran is a well known and established artist, we had to contact his management to ask permission if we could use his song for our music video.

They got back to us quite quickly and said that this was fine, that as long as we make it unlisted - meaning the public can't find it if they search for it; it was fine. However, if it was public is may get taken down due to copyright. Below are screen shots of us getting Ed Sheerans management contact number, and the emails sent between them and a member of my group.