Magazine Advertisement Plan

Magazine Advertisement for the CD/DVD Package Textual Analysis 2

The album advertisement is advertising Green Day's album 'American Idiot'. This advertisement follows a convention that most other advertisements also use, which is the fact that the advertisment is simply the album cover but enlarged to fill the page. This ensures that the audience who sees this advertisement will instantly recognise the album in the shops or on the internet. This advertisement stands out as it has a plain black background with red and white font, and image, this gives the advertisement simplicity and also makes the image very clear. The font not only contrasts because of the colour change from the artist and the album name, but the artist is in all capitals whereas the album name is all in lower case. This advertisement is full of contrasts, even the picture is a juxtaposition. The fist squeezing a grenade in the shape of a heart, shows how the advertisement (and album cover, as the advertisement is the album cover, just enlarged) has been produced to provoke thought from its audience.

Magazine Advertisement for the CD/DVD Package Textual Analysis 1

This is a magazine advertisement for Basement Jaxx's album Rooty. This particular album advertisement is conventional of many other album advertisements because it enlarges the album cover. A reason for doing this would be the fact that the album will be easily recognisable by whoever has seen this advertisement.

The picture has obvious links with the album title 'Rooty' as it has a picture of a guerilla eating roots. This fairly normal picture is then combined with the background of space and also the bright flurescent colours which move up the left side of the advertisement, these colours also appear inside the font of the main text on the page which says 'Basement Jaxx'.

This album advertisement works well as it is very simplistic as it is of one image with a background, it combines a very natural style with a very futuristic and post modern font.

CD/DVD Package Cover Plan

CD/DVD Package Cover Textual Analysis 3

This is an album by Robbie Williams, it is his greatest hits album that was brought out recently in 2010. I have chosen to analyse this album against the other two I have chosen becuase it is a slightly different genre and is more mainstream, Robbie Williams appeals to a wider audience.

The colour base of this cover is light blue and whites fading through to black, the lighter colours at the top fading to the darker colours at the bottom, this is even represented by the colour clothes that Robbie Williams is wearing on the front cover. Another reason that this cover works so well is that Robbie Williams is a mainstream artist and a household name and therefore it seems an obvious advantage to have him on the front cover. The picture is of Robbie Williams walking along a rocky coast, and behind him it depicts the sea hitting the rocks behind him with him walking away from it. This one picture connotates Robbie Williams' life and links with the title of the album 'In and out of consciousness' as throughout his life he has had ups and downs, been involved with the break-up of Take That his previous band and has also had drugs problems, however he has had a brilliant solo career. This picture and album is meant to symbolise him walking away from all the bad things that have happened to him in the past and moving on.

CD/DVD Package Cover Textual Analysis 2

This is an album by 'The Libertines' and I have chosen to analyse this as they are the band that plays the song I have used to create my music video for. This album cover is a very distinct cover in the indie-rock genre. This is because 'The Libertines' are seen as one of the bands that really defined the indie-rock genre and therefore their albums get lots of attention.

This cover is a very simple one and is just a mid shot of Carl Barat and Pete Doherty the two most talked about and controversial members of the band. The cover depicts them showing the camera their famous 'libertine' tattoos, and they are also wearing the same beads around their necks, this shows they are united in one band. It could also have other connotations as in life away from the band Pete and Carl had fallen out many a time so this could show they are now commited to eachother and the band.

Pete and Carl are dressed in casual clothing and fit into the scruffy indie look that is conventional of bands of the same genre, the fact that they both have tattoos showing backs up this point aswell. This album cover also has a very unique font style, this font is very iconic and is an idea taken and improved from a 'Sex Pistols' album. The white font with black surrounding it really makes it stand out from the main picture.

CD/DVD Package Cover Textual Analysis 1

This cover is for the 'Black holes and revelations' album by Muse. I have picked this album to analyse because it is a very distinct cover and Muse are a band with the same genre as the song I have chosen to recreate a music video for.

This cover is very conventional as it has a very obvious link with the title of the album. 'Black holes and revelations' automatically conjures up ideas of outer space and this album cover clearly depicts people on another planet, and if you look closer at the cover in the top left hand corner there is the earth roughly in the same position as the sun or moon would be. This therefore is meant to depict that they are in a black hole. The artist name and title of the album are also situated in the top right hand corner in bold black lettering, this on the light blue background makes them stand out. As soon as the audience looks at the album they know who its by and what its called, and they can pretty quickly work out the link between the picture and the album title. However some album covers tend to be more ambiguous and it is harder to work out who its by and what its called.

The shot is long shot so that the audience can see the people's full bodies and the table that they are sat around. It also allows the audience to see quite far back into the picture as it has lots of depth to it. This album cover plays on the idea of another world through a black hole, and it puts forward a few ideas.

Ancillary Texts

• a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)

• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)

Shooting Script

The song i have chosen is 'The Libertines- Don't Look Back Into The Sun'. My music video starts with an extreme close-up of glasses filled with water appearing to ripple in time to the drum beat set on a rusting outdoor walkway. The camera zooms out slowly as this is happening, and this shot lasts for approximately 3 seconds.



This then fades to a medium close-up of the character in my music video, which is me, playing a guitar and smoking sat on a roof, behind this is are busy roads. The shot then pans to the right to reveal more of the background setting. This shot lasts for approximately 12 seconds.



The camera then cuts to a long tracking shot of me walking towards the camera down the street. This shot is also sped up to give the video a more edgey approach. All the time this shot is taking place I get closer to the camera, and eventually I catch up with it shouting the first vocal of the song 'Yeeeeaaahhhh' into the camera in a close-up shot. This shot lasts for approximately 10 seconds. From this close-up shot the camera then spins around to the right, completely about for rotations, this is also sped up to enhance the effect. The spinning of the camera lasts for approximately 2 seconds. It then slows down to reveal me, dressed in different clothing, the same as in the earlier shot on the roof, playing the guitar walking towards the camera from the opposite direction. This shot lasts for approximately 7 seconds.



The shot then cuts to a long shot of the sun, this shot is also sped up to create a fast paced and edgey effect. This last for approximately 2 seconds. The shot then changes angle and downturns to a medium shot of me laying on a roof singing the words to the first verse of the song. This lasts for approximately 21 seconds.



The camera cuts to a medium shot of me in a phonebox singing the words of the chorus into the phone. The shot is taken with the door of the phonebox open, so that it gives the impression that the camera is inside. Midway through the chorus the shot cuts to a medium shot of the same location just from a different angle outside of the phonebox. These shots together last for approximately 13 seconds. This shot then cuts to a long shot of the sun sped up, this lasts for approximately 2 seconds.


This than cuts to a medium shot of me laying on a bed in what appears to be a trashy bedroom setting singing the second verse of the song. This shot lasts for approximately 18 seconds. This shot then cuts to a close-up a computer screen with youtube open. It shows me on a youtube clip singing the chorus to the song, in what appears to be a leaked video. This shot lasts for approximately 13 seconds. 1.43


This shot then cuts to a long shot of me playing a guitar on a roof rotating to the left with the camera rotating around me in the opposite direction. This shot is also sped up to carry on the edgey and scruffy style running through my video. This shot lasts for approximately 23 seconds.


The previous shot then cuts to a medium close-up tracking shot of me walking towards the camera on the rusty walkway which is the same location as the glasses of water stood in the opening shot. This then quickly cuts to a long shot of me stood on a roof blocking the sun with my hands in the air appearing to shout the words 'let me go', which gives a darkened outline of me. This then cuts back to the previous shot, and lasts all in all lasts for approximately 9 seconds.


This then cuts back to the long shot of me on the roof with a guitar rotating to the right with the camera rotating in the opposite direction. This shot was taken more than once moving in different directions and have been edited together for this elongated instrumental/guitar solo at the end of the song. These shots are sped up and also reversed which really emphasises the edgeyness and 'rough and ready' approach I have used all the way through this video. This shot lasts for approximately 30 seconds.


This then finally cuts to another long shot of me standing on the path with the camera slowly tracking backwards away from me, as this is happening I take my hat off my head and throw it away towards the camera then turn around and walk off, my back facing the camera. The picture then slowly fades to black thus ending my music video. The fade to black and seperation of camera and me (the main and only character in the music video) really links well with the light hearted instrumental end to the music once the guitar stops playing.

Target Audience

The target audience are the people that a media text is produced for. The media text is made around that segment of the population. The population can be split up into lots of different segments in various ways. Such as age, social class, income and gender, to name but a few.



My target audience encompasses mostly people who are in the age range of 16-25, and who listen to the Indie-Rock genre.

Props List

Cigarettes- I used this prop to create the atmosphere of a conventional indie-rock music video, this prop also appears on 'The Libertines' album cover that I will be analysing later on in my blog.





Beer cans- I used this prop to emphasise the lifestyle of the genre of music I have chosen.





Guitar(electric)- This prop was a hard choice, as i did not know wether to use an acoustic guitar or an electric guitar. After listening to the song I decided that it was important for the music video to represent the sound of the song as much as possible so i used an electric guitar without an amp, as this would make filming the shots I wanted to difficult.





Glasses of water- At the start of the song i have chosen there is quite a strong beat at the beginning and to emphasise this I decided to fill glasses of water, this allowed the strong beat to be represented visually.

Cast list

Camera man: Chris Hopkin

Actor 1: Adam Clifford

Storyboard

START.

Song Lyrics

Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhh!
Don’t look back into the sun
Now you know that the time is come
And they said it would never come for you oh oh oh oh

Oh my friend you haven’t changed
You're looking rough and living strange
And I know you got a taste for it too oh oh oh

They'll never forgive you but they wont let you go, oh no
She'll never forgive you but she won't let you go, oh no

Don't look back into the sun
You've cast your pearls but now you're on the run
And all the lies you said, who did you save?
But when they played that song at the Death Disco
It started fast but it ends so slow
And all the time it just reminded me of you

They'll never forgive you but they wont let you go
(LET ME GO!)
She'll never forgive you but she wont let you go, oh no.

Conventions of my music genre

Firstly I need to address which genre my chosen song fits into. 'The Libertines - Don’t look back into the sun' is widely recognised as an indie rock 'anthem' as it is one of the songs that really defined the genre.
The term 'Indie' is a shortened down word for independent, and is a word used in the music industry to describe a bands independence from major commercial record labels, and also brings with it connotations of a 'do-it-yourself' approach to recording and publishing. This term is often added to the front of other music genres, for example 'Indie dance' or 'Indie pop', in this case it is Indie Rock.

One convention that is often used for this genre is an example of the 'do-it-yourself' approach, as it is often apparent that indie music videos have an amateur-ish style to them, a kind of handheld camera, one take, style to them. This creates a more intimate setting between the audience/fans and the band, and the audience feels closer to the band. This also adds to the overall image of the bands that choose to produce their videos in that way. For example the band I have chose, The Libertines, have a reputation for living rough and doing drugs and hosting gigs in their own flat. This ties in with the very loose and rough edged their videos are. It is almost like it hasn’t been edited it has just been thrown together in the space of the song they actually performed in it.

Another convention of Indie music videos is the live performance element to them. Most videos of the Indie variety vow for a performance at some point, if not all, of the video. This reinforces the band’s image and identity, it almost represents the band as a brand in a way. I think it is seen as a convention as well because not only is the performance vital to a band but Indie rock music is a genre that in particular is a rapidly changing genre, this is because so many bands nowadays claim they fall into that genre. Thus creating music videos, thus wanting the audience to know who they are and to create band identity therefore their music videos will essentially be based around the band’s live performance.

Another feature that is seen as very popular in this genre of music is the use of extreme close ups and long shots. This is to show the contrast and works very well in these types of videos. This contrast is brought out very well in this genre as most music in this genre is very fast paced, this means that there are frequent occasions in most videos were burst of fast sequences in shots take place, this gives the video overall good tempo and rhythm, which is why I believe Indie music videos are watched by many people who have a wide range of music tastes.

This is not so much a convention but an aspect of filming that does not appear much at all in Indie music videos, special affects. The main focus point of Indie music is to relate to the audience and this is captured in the videos they produce, they are stripped down to the basics and therefore create a closeness with their fans that does not appear in any other music genre.

Initial Idea

My first thoughts on what to do for the music video is to combine the videos i have analysed into one video, taking various aspects from each video improving them and putting them together. Initially I would like to use the amateur/documentary style of The Libertines' videos, shooting the shots the way they do. I also would like to adapt the sped up amatuer style that was used in 'The Smiths' music video for 'Panic', although I would like to chaneg the viewpoint by for example shooting it from a long shot to close shot, or a shot panning round a guitar player. I would like to combine this style with a documentary/amateur video style. Also adding in the rotating shots that appear at the end of the video for 'The White Stripes- The hardest button to button'.

Dont look Back into the Sun....

This is the existing video for the track I have chosen.

Textual Analysis 2

The Libertines - Up The Bracket

This video is by The Libertines, which is the band that I have chosen to create a music video for. I have chosen to analyse one of their songs to get a feel for the type of music videos they produce. The video starts with the screen as a thin strip in the middle, this leaves black segments above and below it. Also the strip in the middle is split into four segments, each segment is for each member of the band. Each segment is a shot from different angles, then the camera moves back and we see the four members of the band, each member is in a different segment which is shown from a slightly different angle. The band members are dressed in jackets, and the main colour at the start of the video is black. The camera tracks back as the band members are walking towards it. Faint words are shown across the screen however the main shot is still in full view. The split screen then fades out, and the shot is the same but of all the band walking down the alley together, the band all jump on eachother etc, this shows the togetherness of the band. The video has certain documentary style/amateur style quality to them, this creates a sense of identification with the audience. The audience can identify with The Libertines, this is one of them aims of the video. As The Libertines arent a conventional band and they do things slightly differently to involve fans with what they are doing, for example when the band first got together they did gigs in their own flat for fans. The action then cuts between the alleyway and the street they were walking down, and what appears to be somebody's living room, further enforcing the home gigs the band used to do. In this shot the band are wearing red guards jackets, which later became a symbol of the band. It is kind of ironic as 'libertine' (the word the band is named after) is a word that describes someone who is against authority. However the band could be seen to be mocking authorotive figures. The camera shots carry on to be very amateur, this adds to the rough and ready style that The Libertines display. Also the bands overall look in the guards jackets and their hairstyles shows the band are very raw and natural in their approach to music.

Textual Analysis 1

The White Stripes - The Hardest Button to Button

The video starts with Meg White playing the drums, she is playing the same drum over and over again this is emphasised with her moving along each beat she plays. As this is happening the drum duplicates and another one appears as she moves along. The drums are red and white, this is because throughout 'The White Stripes' career their predominant colours are red and white. The White Stripes have associated themselves with a colour as this creates great association as when people see a music video and it has red and white in it predominantly, then the audience my associate it with The White Stripes. The camera shots are very few throughtout this video as it is just the equipment (the drums etc.) moving further or closer in relation to the camera. This video is located in a normal park like, city venue type area. This is to show the normality and simplicity of the video, essentially it is the two members of the band making their way through the city and on the train. This video does not have any real link with the lyrics of the song, as this is one of the rare occasions when the music video breaks the conventions. Meg White on the drums moves along with each beat, this movement has been edited and to great effect, I am hoping to use a variation of this technique in my own video. As the video progresses the minimulistic approach is carried on with few camera shots, this emphasises the movement of the drums and later on the movement of Jack White. Also Jack White sings with movement in the background. The setting of the movement changes also quite alot throughout, this gives a fairly simple idea variation and excitement, for example later in the video when in the tube station. This would have been a very difficult shot, it works so much because it gives the video identity and associates it with London or America were The White Stripes are from. The video then moves further into the city and the audience sees various different shots from different angles, most of these shots show Jack White in the foreground with space behind him were we can see Meg White playing the drums, again these is in time with the music, and the sweeping movements she makes round a building later in the song shows the tempo of the music. At the end of the song there is a low camera angle were the camera pans around in a circle, the camera sweeps around at a steady pace, along with this the setting is under a bridge in an urban setting. The same technique of the movement of Meg White on the drums is used, the technique is used with Jack White aswell, this creates a brilliant sweeping effect.

Choosing my song.

The song i have choosen to create a music video is 'Dont look back into the sun' by The Libertines. The reason i have chosen this song is because it falls into the genre of music i like best. Also the band i have chosen are my favourite band, therefore i feel i know more about that bands genre and ideology.

LIIAR

Language- This is the conventions used in the music video. These conventions are what are recognised as part of media, for instance the types of shots used in the music videos like shots of the band playing live. Roughly the videos split into different categories, performance videos, abstract videos and abstract videos.

Institution- Institutions are the companies that produce, market and distribute the music video and the artists music. For example, Universal and Sony.

Ideology- These are the ideas behind a piece of media text, these ideas are the reason why the media text is made in a certain way and also they involve the message that the artist wishes to get across.

Audience- These are the people that the media text is targeted at.

Representation- This is how the band is represented through the video and how the song is represented through the video. The music video needs to represent the mood and genre of the song it is for, and also the image of the artist. The music video often contains connotations of the music lyrics.

History of a music video

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song, generally music videos link with the song they are for. Either by the lyrics of the song or the mood of the song. Most music videos show the band performing the song, not necessarily for the whole song but the band performing the track is mixed in with the narrative of the song. The song performance in a video takes up more time if the band is a new band, as they need to create awareness of their image and band identity. Music videos have been around for a long time, this came about in France in around the 1950's, this was all due to the invention of the Scopitine. A Scopitine was a visual jukebox. This quickly spread to other countries.




This breakthrough in tecchnology allowed not only France but many other countries to creat music videos of the same quality as the one above. Also this invention created knowledge for other countries to make their own versions of the Scopitine. For example Italy created the Cinebox and America invented the Color-Sonic.

One of the first pop performance clips was created in the 1960's by The Animals. Their song 'House of the Rising Sun' was filmed in high quality colour, and on a specially made set. The video was also a breakthrough as the lip movement of the lead singer was in sync with the track.

Promotional clips (or promos as they are known as more now) grew in importance from the 1960's to the 1970's, around that time they were known as 'song films' or 'filmed inserts'. A band that really set the tone of promotional clips, and were one of the first to use them was Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd are seen as pioneers of the music industry because of this.

Top of the Pops started to show music videos in the 1970's, however they were restricted to a certain amount of videos each programme, so it was in the best interests of artists to put a lot of effort into their music videos to gain more revenue. As this era saw the music video rise in importance.

1981 was an important year for the music video, as it was the year that the MTV channel was launched. This brought with it a new era in the music video, as they became more commercial and were used to promote the band and create revenue, by the mid eighties it was a very important part of music marketing. The MTV channel launched with 'The Buggles - Video Killed the Radio Star'.





As time and technology has progressed this has allowed for bands and unsigned artists to creat their own music videos that are very inexpensive but still are very effective. As unsigned bands can now make use of this technology and make a music video to raise awareness about themselves. Whereas before this would never of happened and smaller bands would find it hard to get more well known. The internet has enhanced this and has been very influencial on music videos and the importance of them.

Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band;
• a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)