AIRING

i have decided to write about AIRING for my music video.
AIRING stands for audience, institution, representation, ideology, narrative and genre.

Audience:

the audience are the people who will be watching the music video and who you will be getting feedback from. the audience is very important as they are the people who will respond to the music video. how people have been responding to the video is very positive however, i have only shown people who are my age group, so therefore i will need to sow some more people (a different age group) to get a clear idea if the music video gives the same reaction to other people. 

Institution:  

the institution are the people who make the product. in this case the institution is me as i made the music video. however i have copied the idea of Brittany spears music video "Everytime" when she drowns in the bath. i also was inspired by the painting Mallais Ophelia, which is a painting of a women who killed herself in a lake surrounded by plants and the outdoors. 

Representation:

representation is seen either through the representation of the actors or the representation between the song and the characters illustration of the story. i have made the women in the music video a strong female character as she dominates the music video as she is in almost every scene and she is the only character that interacts with the audience by breaking the 4th wall and having point of view shots. she is also the one the audience relates too as she is more 3 dimensional because we are following her story. by making the actress more reflective than depressed she 

links with the Millais Ophelia painting. as in the painting the women is represented as a virginal, beautiful suicidal women who kills herself because of a lost love which is the theme i have been tries to portray in my music video.  

there is a low key representation of a male character in my music video, as i wanted to make the character ill-define as the story is about the women more than the guy. i have made him ill defined by clothing him in dull, dark clothes. i wanted to do this because i didn't want a type of male audience to associate with him. i also wanted the music video to have the feel of an absence of men. i also made the male character hide his face so that we would find him mysterious. i added to that feeling by only having him appear in the forest and at the beginning of the music video. 

ideology:

the ideology is the story behind the text or the secret agendas. i have done this by showing the independence of the women in the music video. the women is reacting with her environment in the music video as she is always moving when she is outside whereas when she is inside she is always still as she is either on the floor or in the bath. when she is outside she is moving through the landscape towards or away from the audience this symbolises her independent spirit, even in the close ups of her face she is still moving. 

Narrative:

the narrative is the expectations of the story, the conventions and the codes the genre or music video would have. my music video however has an unconventional narrative as there is no resolution at the end. in a conventional ending something would happen such as the couple would end up together or something would return to normality or improve in some way which gives satisfaction to the audience however i didn't want to create a boring conventional music video i also wanted the "watchability factor"in my music video, which i think i have created as i have made the ending confusing for the audience. 

there are also archetypes in narrative music videos such as the standard character of a hero verses the villain. in my music video i have a heroine but we don't know about the male character as he is insubstantial. The viewer is more invested in the female as she more complete in character. whereas for the male character the audience tries to fill him up to make him more substantial. 

Genre: 

the genre for my music video is tragedy. the theme that is present in the video is isolation. the tilting at the end of the music video for me represents eternal misery and how its copies the beginning and that in that time nothing has happened to make her life better. however from the feedback i got the tilt to some people means a positive thing as we are looking up to the sky which suggests joy, new hope and release. the fade to colour effect at the end can either suggest a negative thing or a neutral it all depends on the type of viewer watching. i tried these different effects to make the music video interesting for all viewers. the tilt at the beginning of the video suggests moving down to earth where she is moving around in the dirt and earth. Roland Barthes says that upward movement is more positive and has religious meaning as you are looking up to heaven and lightness. but the opposite moving downward and shots of the ground and nature suggests death, decay, hell and decomposition which are some of the themes that are seen in my music video. 

final advert

this is the final design for the advert i change the itunes logo and removed the amazon one which is replaced with the record company logo that sponsors Birdy's songs. can you please comment and tell me what you like and dislike about the advert i would be especial interested if you could tell me whether or not you think it looks professional. 

ideas for advert

this is the different attempts for my advert. it took me a long time to choose a picture that would sort the A4 page. the problem with use my front cover for the digipack was that it wouldn't suit a portrait only landscape that is why i have looked back to my audince feedback of the photoshop and i decided to use this image. i kept the font the same as the digipack and i have added a small photo of the digipack so that it is clear that the advert links with it. i have also added a review of 5 stars form NME music  magazine which i studied last year as well as putting the date for the CD and also i have added the itunes logo to show people where they can buy the CD. 

feedback for digipack

i asked people at my school what they thought of the digipack and the feedback i got was very positive and there were few changes i needed to make. i ask both males and females as i havent narrowed down my target audience by just one gender. 

first draft of digipack

this is my first draft of the design for my digipack. i havent done the spin but i dont think that will take too long. this is what my digipack will look like. i have asked my teacher what she thinks and she has told me to add more DVD extras for the back page and to do other little touches to it however could you please comment and tell me what you think

experimenting with photoshop with front cover of digipack

Feedback from photoshoot

i narrowed down the chooses for the front cover of my digipack to numbers 9,10,11 and 14 and asked people to vote on which one they thought would be the best for the front cover most people voted for option 3; as they thought it suited the genre more, but i want to experiement more with option 4 as its my favourite.









i also put the photos onto facebook and asked people the "like" there favourite pictures. i took some screen shots of the ones people liked.

photoshoot

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the location for my photoshoot was the woods where i did most of my filming. here are some of the picture i might use for my advert and digpack. please comment and tell me which ones you like a why

digipack research

i have decided to research different types of digipacks to see which one would look best for my artist. the minimum amount of panels i could use is 4 but there is also 6 and 8 panels which could make my digipack look more interesting.

i have copied out some of the different digipack sizes i could have. my favourite is the 6 panelled one as i think it allows you to have more freedom with the photos you can chose. i also have photos which i think will fit a 6 pannelled digipack as well. i have also included some images of different 6 panelled digipacks.

second draft

the idea for this second draft was to create more of the home video effect, and making it seen as if the boy was behind the camera filming her, that is why i have a lot of shots were she is staring at the camera longingly and breaking the 4th wall. i think this makes my music video more interactive with the audience as she is giving them eye contact throughout the music video but is also makes the viewer feel and empathise with her pain as the eye contact makes the audience feel close and connected.
In the second draft of my music video i have added some performance and some instrumental parts onto the video. i have also shortened the music video so its around 3:03 i have done this because i didnt want the music video to drag on and become boring. please could you comment and tell me what you would change and what you like about it. thanx

Fonts

i decided to go on the website dafont and look at the different fonts i could use for my digipack and advert. i decided to look at quirky, individual fonts but then i thought about how the font might distract from the picture and that sometimes simple fonts can work best like in Adele's 21 album. having this in mind i decided that the simple "Sans" fonts would be the best. however i would still like your input so can you please comment and tell me which font u like best.

beat sheet

i decided to create a beat sheet to estimate where different scenes will go on this time line. 

feedback from layout

i got feedback from people at school and this is what they voted for:

i found out that the most popular layout was 3a and 2b which is what i going to make my digipack look like

layouts for digipack

1a+1b                                                                   2a+b

                   

3a+b




could you please comment and tell me which covers and back pages you like the most so i have an idea of what my digipack will look like

textual analysis of adverts

Recce shots

these are a few pictures of me filming:

Representation

All media are forms of representation. the people involved in making the representation are all governed by their beliefs, values and most importantly their attitudes. this means that not representation is objective.
The representation of gender is an important theme in music videos as their are many stereotypes relating to gender across different genres. for example in many music video's there is a 'hopeless romanic', women portrayed as sex objects, 'the hard man' and 'the lad about town'.  in music video gender seems to be polarised (direct opposite)- men are aggressive whilst women are passive, men are portrayed as wanting to have sex, whilst women are seen as sex objects. Laura Mulvey's suggested that women in film are represented  as 'objects', images with visual and erotic impact. most films position the audience as male, and give them an active role in viewing the female subject and gain pleasure from doing so. women are either seen as 'voyeuristic' which is viewing women as virtuous and beautiful which is what i have done for my music video as i wanted it to be more of a romantic tragedy than an 'fetishistic' which is viewing women as excessively sexual beings.
In my music video i would say my actress is stereotypical in the sense that she is passive and a hopeless romantic. however, you could say that as she appears more in the music video than the male character is is in the power position. in Christina Aguilera's music video 'Dirrty' she is merges both the 'voyeuristic' and 'fetishistic' view as even though she is "the naked-ass girl in the video, but if you look at it carefully, i'm als at the forefront. im not just some lame chick in a rap video; im in the power position, in complete command of everything and everybody around me," Christina Aguilera.

textual analysis of digipack

Adele
i have decided to do a textual analysis of Adele as she has the same kind of look i want from my digipack.

the image is of Adele. she takes up the whole screen in a mid-close up. they have chosen this shot to emphasise the emotions in her face and in her songs, the body language also adds to this as it looks as if she is thinking about her lost love. the simple image of Adele allows the audience to focus on the artist and the message in her lyrics and music. Having Adele not look at the audience makes her appear to be shy and withdrawn because of the pain of her break ups. Having her eyes closed gives her the look of a innocent female who has suffered not someone who has caused the suffering. The connotations that spring to mind when looking at the image is of sadness and love songs, this is why the front of the CD is simple as they didn't want to take focus off the artist and her soulful lyrics. The title of the album is in another colour to separate from her name by doing this, the design emphasised that Adele was 21 when she wrote these songs and that she was young and innocent when it came to love. The genre soul doesn't have many font/image connections which allows the audience to focus on the artists message and music.

Having the image in black and white links the cover to the music video of her most popular song-"someone like you" as in the music video Adele was walking around in a black and white effect. Having Adele write these songs at 21 and having the album called 21 we would assume that her target audience would be 21 year olds however having the CD cover in black and white makes Adele's target audience seem much older as it gives a elegant and classical look which would appeal to older women. Her target audience is women as she sings from a women point of view as well as having a stereotypical beautiful women on the front cover instead of going for the sex appeal men who want to see for the front cover.

Having Adele wear fake eyelashes allows the audience to see into a small part of Adele's life as she's from Essex and in Essex they are associated with fakery.

Cher Lloyd
i decided to do a textual analysis of a sterotyical CD cover targeting teenage girls. the bright colours and doogles surrounding the cover tells the audience that the target age group is young teenage girls. there is also a sterotypical beautiful girtl on the front cover. she is dressed in covering clothes which shows her as a role model for these girls. however the skull at the bottom of the page shows that her has an edge to the way she dresses. the handwritten font of Cher's names has a lot of swirls which emphasises her target audience as young girls. the font also makes the cover more personal as well as making the audience feel more interacted with her. it also implies that she writes her own songs.

having her looking at an old photograph links the cover with the music video as in her famous song "Want U Back" she is seen looking at a photograph of her boyfriend. it also imnplies that her songs are about lost loves, we also see this is her body language as she is leaning over the photograph. having the photo hidden adds a bit of misery to the cover which makes you want to see the music video to see who she is talking about. the connentations of the pop genre are seen in the bright colours and hr doodles.

the shot used is a mid shot so that we can view her body language as she that she is thinking about the boy in the photograph. having this shot also allows the audience to see into her life as you can see parts of her bedroom which is a very intimate room, this allows the fans to know more about her and feel interacted with her.


ke$ha

i decided to analysis this CD cover as i thought it was interesting. the shot used is a close up which focuses on her animalistic stare which is linked with the title of her album. the background also links with the title as it is scratched and appears damaged, which makes the CD cover seem wild which links with her persona. even the style of her font is animalistic to link in with the theme of savageness.

Ke$ha's genre is dance/pop which is seen in her CD cover as she has bright colours for her name and title which are contrasted with the balck and white photograph. the black and white photograph also adds misery to the Cd which makes the audience interessed to see what she will be singing about. Ke$ha's target audience is both boys and girls as she is quirky which girls will be drawn to but also her wildness and sexy facial expression which will appeal to boys. her fetishistic facial expression allows her to be a sex symbol for men and women.

By Ke$ha breaking the fourth wall she is making a contention with the audience, which draws them into buying the CD.