Magazine advert reflection

Magazine advert reflection

How did you use your research into magazine adverts to start planning your own?

In order to get started on a magazine advert, my group and I had to carry out a lot of research on what a magazine advert is, what it is used for and also how to create one. Therefore in order to do this I looked into other pop genre magazine adverts to get a rough idea of all the information that needs to be put within the advert and also to guide me on the type of colour and writing that is conventional to the pop genre in particular.I researched into many pop artists magazine adverts over the internet and gathered individual information about each different advert. As our artist is a male, I focused more on looking at male singers in order to get a clearer understanding of how to lay out a male magazine advert. One of the singers I looked into was Justin Bieber's magazine advert. His adverts tend to be quite a basic but extremely effective, therefore I decided to base my advert around that particular one.

What are your ideas and inspirations behind your paper design?
My initial idea for my magazine advert was originally to have a picture of our artist, Jamie, sitting down on a chair whilst holding his guitar. This picture would of covered the top half of the page and the bottom half would consist of information on what songs his album consists of and also inform the audience that his album has just been released. The colours I had chosen to include in my magazine advert consisted of black, red and white. The reasons I chose this colour scheme was because the red connotes love and for our music video to the song impossible we are creating it based on a couple that were extremely in love. However we then chose the black to connote danger and partly a miserable atmosphere as the girl cheats on her boyfriend. Then finally I chose white as it connotes the purity and innocence of the artist. This is why I decided to write the artist name in white as it makes creates more emphasis on the artists innocence.

How will this help you with creating it on Photoshop?
By planning a rough image of my magazine advert before going straight on to Photoshop, it was extremely helpful as I started using Photoshop already knowing what exactly I wanted to get out of it. One of the changes I made whilst using Photoshop was the background. At first I had an interesting landscape in mind, however after using Photoshop, I decided to make the background black curtains as they are more realistic .

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Risk Assessment

It is vital to create a risk assessment before doing any type of filming as it allows you to consider whether or not you have taken the correct precautions to protect yourself and others around you. The main purpose of a risk assessment is to make sure that no one gets hurt and nothing gets damaged when in the process of filming. 

The risk assessment allows you to identify hazards and risks, identify who might be at risk, evaluate hazards and risks and record your findings.

Hazard	Hazard prevention
Individuals in the background	The filming of the music video cannot be disturbed by unwanted people in the background and so no one apart from the members within the production will be present when possible. However the outdoor location of Dover cannot avoid this therefore we will have to be cautious when filming so there are no disruptions within the video
Low battery on camera	The camera will be fully charged before filming but a back-up lead will be available in case of low battery. This will prevent the battery dying out which would mean the scene would have to be shot from the beginning as filming continuous parts on a different day is too visible
Weather	As the weather is unpredictable, all members of the group must be somewhat flexible. Weather such as rain may potentially cause water damage to the camera therefore the forecast must be checked prior to filming in order to avoid the weather preventing us from being able to film on the day planned.
Carrying/using the tripod	When carrying the tripod, it must be made sure that it does not incur any damage. Also, it must be carefully watched so it is not stolen.  When filming. the tripod will be set evenly on the ground so it does not fall and no damage will be caused.
Household objects	Filming in a house means that all objects need to be moved out of the way so no one trips over while filming. It is also important that no unwanted objects are visible in the video and so attention to these objects must be paid.
Fire	As this may cause a fire hazard, when burning the cards all members of the production will be aware and ready to put the fire out with the use of water. To prevent others from being affected by the use of fire, an open location will be used.

Research into chosen music genre

Research into chosen music genre

The music genre that we as a group have chosen to do is pop as it is one of the most popular music genre that majority of people enjoy listening to. As our genre is pop, it shows that we will be aiming our music video at a mainstream audience. We chose the pop genre as we thought that it will be effective seeing as it will relate to both Goodwin's and Dyer's theory. Another reason we chose to research the pop genre is because within our group, all of us have a great interest in listening to music that is within this genre. Therefore we decided that we will be able to come up with more creative and effective ideas for our music video.

James Morrison - Broken Strings ft Nelly Furtado

Within this music video both artists are presented as ordinary, everyday people. This is shown through the mise-en-scene used within the music video. The mise-en-scene within the video is pretty much very basic. This is mainly shown by the location which is an empty and simple hotel room, however this could possibly be used to represent how lonely the artist is feeling as he is singing about being heartbroken.

Both artists are shown wearing simple jeans and casual top which emphasises the fact that they are very much like ordinary people. However this doesn't actually apply to

Richard Dyers Star theory as his theory suggest that artists are not people but possessions and objects but within this music video, both artists look very ordinary.

The main iconography used within this video consist of a guitar which is very effective as it is the typical iconography used in many pop music videos.

From watching this music video, you realise that it relates more to Goodwin's theory than Dyer's theory as Goodwin's theory states that their is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, so when the beat drops in the song and both artists sing "you cant play on broken strings" as they both sing the word broken, the lamp and television start breaking.

The music video is mostly performance based as it shows both artists singing throughout the whole video. However they way the video is made also shows slight narrative. This is shown when James Morrison is singing about how he is trying to get over his girlfriend but her reflection pops up on the glass as she starts singing. This shows narrative as it tells the audience that the other artist Nelly Furtado is supposedly meant to be his girlfriend.

The camera show used at the beginning of the video is an extreme close up of the artists face. This was an effective way to start of the music video as it introduces the artist before anything is said or done. This allows the audience to take a moment to recognise the artist and also build a relationship with him through the music video.

Another camera show that was used quite often was a close up and this was used to maintain the relationship between the audience and the artist. However, the close up camera shots were also used to emphasise on the artists facial expressions and emotions which allowed the audience to understand the absolute pain he was feeling and to get a feel of the type of atmosphere that was going on within the video.

Summary

The research I have carried out on the chosen music genre will assist me when it comes to planning our own music video as I have had a chance to broaden my knowledge about what sort of videos pop artists create. Also I have learnt more about the codes and conventions of a pop music video and what camera shots would be effective to use throughout my own music video.

History of music video

History of Music Videos

As technology has progressed in many ways over the years, it now allows people to consume music videos in a variety of different ways. Music videos are short films created to integrate a song and an image. It is also produced to promote an artist or explain a narrative to the audience.

Since the first ever music video was shown to the public in the 1980's, technology has advanced a substantial amount which now allows the audience to access and view music videos on many different things some of which may consist of Television on music channels, YouTube, smartphones and social media (Facebook & Twitter).  

Over the last 33 years, music videos have become more popular each day and we are now at a point where music videos are as popular as television programmes and people watch music videos purely for their entertainment.
During the 1980's music videos were not known as a big entity and only had small air timings o TV shows like top of the pops. The song 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by the band Queen was the first music video ever to be shown on TV. However all of this changed when the media executive Robert W Pittman came up with the idea to have a TV channel solely for music only. That was when the music channel MTV was created in 1981.

MTV

MTV is used to refer to Music Television. It is an American network in New York City that was started on 1st August 1981. MTV was the first music channel ever created and the initial purpose of this channel was to play music videos purely for peoples entertainment. The first ever music video to be broadcasted on MTV was "Video killed the radio star" that was sung by the Buggles. During that time only a few thousand people could watch it on the satellite television at the time as technology back then wasn't as advanced as it is now. During the early eighties, most people couldn't access cable or satellite television, so viewing music videos was a very rare thing. During the early eighties when more bands and artists began to make music videos. MTV then really took off when more of the population had access to cable television. Viewing music videos then became easier then ever and it was basically the norm for most artists to create a music video to accompany their singles.

YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website that was created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005 and owned by Google since late 2006. On this website, users can upload, view and share videos as well as commenting their thoughts and feelings on any videos. YouTube also allows people to subscribe.
Subscribing is when someone enjoys watching many videos in particular which could be videos put up by one specific person. They can then subscribe which allows the audience to get informed/notified whenever the subscription uploads a new video or makes any changed to their YouTube profile.
Over the years, YouTube has developed a lot. By 2006 YouTube was one of the fastest growing websites on the internet uploading more than 65, 000 new videos and 100 million video views per day in July and was rated 5th most popular website. Throughout the years YouTube has continued growing and this year managed to get 1 billion users visiting the site every month.

This year it has been well known to the public that the song 'Gangnam style' which is sung by the South Korean musician PSY, has had the most views on YouTube so far, with a shocking 1,832,815,152 views on YouTube. This song was released in July 2012 as the lead single of his sixth studio album. 'Gangnam Style' became the first ever YouTube video to reach over a billion views and by November 2013, the music video had been viewed over 1.834 billion times.
By September 2012 'Gangnam Style' had been put in the Guinness world book of records as the most liked video on YouTube. It then subsequently then won the award for the best video at the MTV Europe Music Awards that was held later that year. By the end of 2012, the song had topped the music charts of more than 30 countries which include; Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Budgeting
During the 90's, music video production had become more cinematic, and the budgets were bigger. Artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna had some of the most expensive videos of that era, making videos that would cost £5-7million to produce.


Michael Jacksons music videos have always been ridiculously expensive.
In 1983, he spent $800,000 on 'Thriller' which would now be worth about $1.4 million today.
His music videos were getting more expensive to produce which left him spending  over $1.2 million on his music video for his single 'Black or White' and in 1992 he spent even more on the music video for his song 'Remember The Time'.

However his song 'Scream' had become with no doubt the most expensive music video to produce which cost 7 million dollars.

The 7 million dollars were used on... 

Computer-generated spaceship: $65,000

Breaking guitars: $53,000

Morphing artworks: $50,000

Michael's makeup: $3,000

Janet's makeup: $8,000 a day

Choreography: $40,000

Giant video screen: $80,000

Lighting: $175,000

Cost per day: $636,000 (about 11 days)

Total cost of 11 sets: $5,000,000

Music Genres
Over time, music genres have changed and progressed to different styles and mixed with different genres and example of this is how Rock music started out in the 1960′s. By the late 1960′s, lots of rock sub-genres had been created, including hybrids such as folk rock, blues rock and jazz rock fusion. Each combining the styles of both or more categories.
By the 1970′s punk rock was created, which included themes of politics and social differences. By the 1980′s it developed sub genres such as New wave and post-punk, followed by the alternative rock movement. From the 1990′s, alternative rock began to dominate the rock music scene and break through the mainstream, in the form of grunge, Britpop and indie rock. Since then, further sub genres have been created such as Rap Rock/Metal, Pop Punk, Nu Metal, Garage rock and more.



 

Planning lighting and colours

Why is lighting & colour important within a music video?
Lighting is very important within a music video as it sets the mood of the atmosphere which shows how an artist is feeling. An example of this could be how light blue lighting can show someone feeling very calm and relaxed where as dark red lighting could be used to show danger, pain and also in some cases love.

What style of lighting you will include and why?
Throughout the majority of our music video we will be using low key lighting as the song in general is quite a sad and dull song. When we are filming the performance part of the music video the artist will be shown in low key lighting as he is singing about how his heart is broken. Where as when we are showing the flashbacks of the artist and his girlfriend together, we will be using high key lighting as it shows happiness when they were together. This will help the audience to understand the narrative a bit more as the lighting will set of the mood of the atmosphere.

What effect does it create?
The effect that both lighting and colour would create is that it sets of the mood and atmosphere of what is going on within the scene. This allows the audience to relate to what is going on within the music video. An example of this could be how when the couple are happy and were showing flashbacks of memories, the lighting will all be high key and bright to set off an exciting atmosphere where as when they couple are arguing and break up, we will be using low key lighting which will symbolise darkness to show how the mood is very down and angry.

How is it conventional to the pop genre?
The lighting and colour is conventional to the pop genre as we will mostly be using naturalistic lighting which is usually used quite a lot for the pop genre. The conventional lighting allows the audience to focus more on the artist during the performance aspect of it and also when filming the out door scenes, the bright high key and naturalistic lighting allows the audience to clearly view the location.
For our music video we will be using both low key and high key lighting to make it look more interesting and not boring, also we will be using different lighting to show a contrast between the happy memories and sad.

How does it help build a relationship with your target audience?
This helps build a relationship with the target audience as the lighting is a key feature in many aspects to show the mood and what the atmosphere is like within the music video. The different types of lighting will also allow the audience to get a greater understanding of the narrative as the lighting shown on the screen helps drastically to set the scene. Therefore if the audience understand the narrative properly, it allows them to understand the song that is sung by the artist and this finally allows the audience to build a relationship with the artist.

Research into chosen artist

Research into chosen artist 

Introduction
After carrying out research as a group about our audience and what they look for in a music video, we decided to make our artist James Arthur.
As James Arthur is one of the most recent singers out in the UK now, we thought that he would be quite well known by many people, specially our target audience. This is why we believe that it would be effective to use him as an artist because our music video will intrigue our target audience and it will be something enjoyable for them to watch as it is someone they know.

Artist Profile
James Andrew Arthur is a young British singer and musician. He was born on the 2nd March 1988 and is currently 25 years old. He became famous by winning the 9th series of the X-Factor in 2012 last year, which is British television programme/music competition created by Simon Cowell. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for the old television programme called pop idol.
After the artist James Arthur had won the X-Factor, his debut single 'Impossible' was released and debuted at number one on the UK singles chart in its first week of release. It has since gone on to sell over 1.2 million copies in the UK, and 2.5 million copies overall.
The successful young artist has now been signed to the record label 'Syco music' which is also known as 'Syco records'. This is a British record label founded by Simon Cowell, the English television, music and talent competition judge which was founded in 2002.

Artist music video analysis

James Arthurs latest single "You're nobody till somebody loves you" was released to the UK radios on the 9th September 2013. It was released as the lead single of James Arthurs first album.

Throughout the majority of this music video, the artist is shown performing with a band but part of the music video shows some narrative. Therefore I would say that the video is 90% performance based and 10% narrative based. The narrative of this song consists of the typical British tradition which is a street party. 

In relation to Richard Dyer's Theory, James Arthur is shown as very original, talented and 'normal'. This is shown through artists image which is represented as a typical 'everyday' man. The clothing he is wearing consists of general casual clothing and nothing which is outstanding or over the top. This shows that James Arthur is very down to earth and is seen as more of a person and not a possession. However this may be because he is a new artist and at the moment is spending his time trying to get noticed and recognised.

Goodwin's theory is can also be applied to James Arthurs music video as the theory states that there should be a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. Some of the lyrics that the artist sings like "You're nobody till somebody loves you" it shows groups of people together laughing and having some kind of physical contact, this shows how everybody feels like someone as they are loved.

The target audience for this music video looks like its aimed at teenagers and young adults. This is shown through the music video and how James Arthur shows many groups of teenagers/young adults throughout. Although the music video is aimed at youngsters, it comes across as quite a widen and broader audience as that is conventional to the pop genre seeing as this particular genre is massively mainstream. Within the music video the audience are shown and equal amount of both boys and girls which show how James Arthur is not bias about the different genders which also makes the target audience a bigger group of people as the music video is aimed at both boys and girls.

The most common camera shot used within this music video are close up's. This is used as James Arthur is quite a new singer and many close ups of his face allow him to become recognised and for the audience to build a relationship with him.
Another camera shot that is used many times throughout the music video are mid shots. These are camera shots that allow the artist to be standing in the middle of the frame with some location shown equally on both sides. This shot is effective to use as it puts emphasis of the location James is in and also of the people around him.

 

Summary



By researching into our chosen music artist, it has helped me become more aware of what the artists image is suppose to look like. Therefore when we film the performance part of our music video we will make the artist look a lot like James Arthur which is very ordinary, stylish and 'normal'. Another thing that this research has made me realise is the different camera shots used and why. As a result of this we will also be using similar camera shots used within "You're nobody till somebody loves you" as we thought they were extremely effective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planning editing styles

Why editing is important within a music video?
Editing is vital when it comes to creating a music video as it is one of the main feature that helps make a video successful. This helps the audience understand the full narrative of what is going on in the song as editing is what puts the whole story together.

What editing styles are you planning on including and Why?
One of the editing styles we are planning to use within our music video is fast pace editing. This is when you have one of the video clips and increase the speed of which the action is going.
Within our music video we will be showing a couple, fiercely arguing with each other as the girl was caught sneaking out the house. Here we will be using fast pace editing as we believe that increasing the speed of which the argument is happening will help make the scene more intense and the rushing action going on will also relate to the fast pace editing as the editing could show the amount of thoughts and emotions the boy was feeling at the time.

Another editing style that we have decided to use as a group are flashbacks. These flashbacks will be showing both happy and sad moments that has happen within the music video.
As a group we decided that it would be effective if we show the couple arguing and breaking up, then go on to flash backs of how the couple had a happy relationship. The reason we chose flashbacks were to show a contrast between the good and bad times that happen within a relationship.


How are your editing styles conventional to your music genre?
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How will your editing styles help build a relationship with your target audience?
Editing styles will help to build a relationship with the target audience as it will allow them to create a relationship with the people they see within the narrative and performance aspect of the music video. This will then broaden their knowledge of what is actually going on within the music video.