Individual Music Advert

Individual Digipak

Group Magazine

Jack's advert

Jacks magazine article consists of vibrant colours which compliment the background style- jack has used a star like background which could conform to our star image of which we are trying to portray. The typography "Teach Me How To Shuffle By MadMikes" is written in a fuchsia pink which again, compliments the background however if i were to critique the typography I would suggest a different font to make it more prominent on the page. He has included an image of the album cover in the advert which is a good advertisement for the group as it shows their audience what it looks like so they know what they need to be up to date with the group. I would criticise that as the background is the same colour as the album cover that it is hard to differentiate between where the album cover is and where the background is. If I had to recommend a way to combat this, I would say that Jack should have put a glow around the outside of the cover to make it stand out form the background. At the bottom of the advert Jack has placed a picture of each of the members of the group, this helps the audience see more of the artist as they are becoming more familiar with them.

Charleigh's advert

The contrast of black and white colours that has been used in the background represents both artists personalities, perhaps Charleigh decided to portray us as fun yet serious (which is something we wish to portray). As one of the artist is upside down (against different coloured backgrounds) it shows the two different personas of the artist.

The first thing that jumps out at the audience is the title of the artist "MAD MIKE" as the name has been written in the contrasting colour to the background it makes it stand out a lot and therefore will attract the most attention. The typography of Mad mike is creative and innovative and very different to the other fonts she used. Directly above this is a sylish, chic and relevant font which is distinctive against the title promoting the debut album. When critiquing this piece, I would suggest that Charleigh changes the typography of the font above "And other tracks such as". Thus, creating a perfect magazine article.

Digipak Analysis

A digipak is the cover for a CD case that will fold out into three or six pages and display images and information about the artist and the songs that are featured in the album. on the front cover of the digipak there is generally a picture of the artist and the title of the album.

We were not able to find any digipaks for LMFAO so we have chosen to analyse a digipak from the artist David Guetta, he is also from the dance genre so although they are not the same artist they will have the same connotations. The digipak is covered in various bright colours which shows the excitement in his music as it is in the dance genre so this will appeal to his target audience.

Analysis of Magazine Advert 2

For this task I will be analysising the advert showing the artist 'Swedish House Mafia'. The advert shows them in a very positive light as they look almost god like with the lights behind making them appear holy and the audience being in aura of them. This artist is very successful and therefore has a large amount of fans and the advert is stating they have 'One Last Tour' so they are likely to be able to sell all the tickets for the convert very quickly and increase their audience scope. The picture of the artist faces shows them to be very calm and cool, this could mean that they are not nervous about this being their last tour or it could perhaps connote that they may be aspiring to collaborate back together in the future so it is giving hope to their fans.

Risk Assessment

It is important to consider risks before filming in order to make sure that your crew and team and other people that you are working with will stay safe when working on my groups music video. The risk assessment will assist in the making of the film as me and my group will be able to refer to it when we need to make sure people are safe and will not hurt themselves.  

Photoshoot

It is essential to carry out a photo shoot because as it will provide groups with crucial images to include in designs and products that have to be created as part of the project. It gives groups a chance to experiment with different ideas and see what will look good for them. The photo shoot will include several images of the people in the video, the props that will be used and the location(s) of the video.

We used a picture of the two main performers in order to create the album cover. The heads of the people were cut out from the original pictures in order to make the cover.

My group took these 4 pictures above as an example of what we could use in the album or digipak, they will give us a chance to experiment with different locations and poses that could possibly be used in the video.

This is the advert that I created for the use of the group and includes two pictures of the main artists which were cut of pictures so they do not contain the background and also a picture of the album cover in order to show the audience what the album looks like.

Magazine Reflection

Planning the Cinematography

In my groups video we plan to use a wide variety of different shots to keep our audience entertained during the video. We will have to try not to repeat to any shots in order not to be repetitive and not to lose our audience. From the list below I will discuss a few of the shots to give an example.

• Close up
• Extreme close up
• Pan 
• Low angle
• High angle
• Long shot
• Establishing shot
• Zoom
• Tilt
• Overhead shot
• Free hand

A convention of all music videos is and establishing shot at the start of the video, so we will also do this  to keep up with the conventions. The demographic will be able to follow the video as they will know where it is and set the scene. We will also be using pan shots as it is a quick way to show many things in quick succession that is happening at the same time, this is very likely to happen as our video is in a party scene. We will also have to use an overhead shot in order to show the entirety of the party which will put things into perspective for the audience. The mise en scene will also be more apparent here as the audience will be able to see more on the screen. Close-ups will be used throughout the video as it will bring attention to people facial expressions and it is important for our audience to follow the narrative. 

Planning of Iconography

 The props me and my group need to obtain for the making of our video are;

- Gold glitter
- Champagne bottles
- Champagne sparklers

The glitter will be used in a variety of close up and mid shots, one of the members of my group will be blowing the glitter out of her hand like in the picture on the left. The gold colour of the glitter connotes luxury life style. We will buy this glitter from and art shop and will cost roughly £1.

These are champagne sparklers and can be bought from (www.clubcandles.co.uk) in packs of 4 for £2.50. We will attach them to the champagne bottles. The sparklers are very exciting and are regularly used and bought by customers in night clubs. So to add to the verisimilitude we will use them in our video.

We will also need a number of champagne showers to pop open and spray over the people that will feature in the video. This is the most important piece of iconography because the song title is performing this action with the champagne. As we do not have a big budget we will have to go to the supermarket to purchase the champagne and will most probably be a budget/cheap champagne.

Subculture Theory

Vox Pops

To add to the questionnaires my group and I gave out to members of the public we also interviewed some of them on camera. We aimed to talk to a range of different ages and by chance they had similar choices in their favoured artists and genres so our feedback from the interviews does not show a large range of people. The people interviewed were typical examples of our target demographic: young, house/dance fans. Using interviews as a source of research was very different as it gave the people being interviewed a chance to go into more depth about the questions rather than the answers on the questionnaires, this gave us more information and feedback to work from. One of our interviewees went into great detail when asked about if they were a fan of LMFAO, this was helpful as he specified that he "Wished he could dance like that". This will help us make our recreation as we will have to pay particular attention to how good the dancing in the video as it is the priority of our target demographic. All four people in my group had to take in turns to film someone during the interviews and read the questionnaires to them. After we had gathered all the interviews one of my group members edited the videos into a short film about what we found out.

Research into Chosen Artist

My chosen artist is LMFAO and my interests within this artist is their style of dance and 'party atmosphere' they portray in their very successful music videos. Their dance style is very similar to what young people do today, this helps their audience to connect with them as they see them in something they find fun and will want to go out and do. When I was watching their music videos I knew that this would be all the inspiration for wanting to recreate it. I think that making the video would be very fun and enjoyable as I like the dance in the video and as I am in a group of peers that I like and enjoy spending time with, I believe we will have lots of fun making the video. 

LMFAO are an American duo originally from Los Angeles, California. Redoo (Stefan Kendal Gordy, left) is Skyblu's (Skyler Austen Gordy, right) uncle and they formed the group in 2006 and declared that they are on hiatus. They began their career in 2007 as part of the electro club scene and started to create a local buzz. They were then signed to Interscope/will.i.am Music, the manager Neil Jacobson said their demo records sounded like finished records so little artist development was needed. They the later released their first track, "I'm In Miami Bitch" and then their first album, "Party Rock" in 2009.

I found this information on Wikipedia and the table shows the sales and chart peaks of their albums.

I found this information from Wikipedia and the table shows the sales and chart peaks of their singles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA8rcLvS1BY

Research Into Chosen Music Genre

Research Into Chosen Music Genre

The song we have chosen recreate is from the Dance genre, LMFAO's 'Champagne Showers' follows the conventions of the genre in all their music videos and so we will have to do the same when we recreate it. We have to do this so our audience will acknowledge our music video as being a dance video.



I personally wanted to recreated a song from the dance genre as I am really into the genre and also into the house genre which is very similar to dance but the videos are often a lot better for the dance genre so my group and I decided on that.

My group did some primary research and found the following conventions of the genre:

• The scenes predominately take place in a club or party setting
• The female back up dancers wear high heels, short skirts etc.
• Artificial lighting is used to enhance the artist's attractiveness
• The pace of the editing is in synch with the track's beat
• Iconography usually includes lots of alcohol, a pool, UV paint
• Close up shots are commonly used on the artist for promotional reasons
• The atmosphere is fun and carefree
• There is lots of variation in camera shots
• Credits are used to introduce the song title and artist
• Participants in the music videos are all usually young adults aged 18-25

Before me and my group started to plan we needed to research into other music videos for ideas and inspiration we will need. One of the videos I watched was Swedish House Mafia's, Don't You Worry Child as it is a very popular dance song and is one of my favorites. The song is based on the bands last ever show in England and you can see the happiness and excitement, naturally created by the audience and band. 

A panning shot of the front row of the audience in slow motion shows the audience singing along to the lyrics. This shows the audience what it was like to be at the concert as you see all the positive body language and everyone waving at the camera. This is a very useful shot as it shows what their real life audience is like rather than the actors that are featured in usual music videos. From this I can see their typical target audience are people aged 16 - 25 who love to party and dedicated to their music. This is a similar audience that me and my group wish to target. The difference between the two films will be that Swedish House Mafia's is a real scene and in mine they will be people acting as part of a party scene. 

This is an extreme long shot used half way through the video, it shows how popular the band is. Richard Dyer's theory applies here as the band seems extraordinary due to the size of its fan base.  The crowd are dancing around with their hands in the air having a good time which is entertaining for the audience. 

Copyright

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Generally it is "the right to copy", but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work. 

My group had to email artists that we wished to use their song in order to comply with the regulations of copyright law. We tried to contact LMFAO as our choice of artist so we had to email their record label. We had to gain permission fro this via the email so they can be sure that no-one is going to make money from their video.  The email we sent is listed below, we sent this letter to the record label four times (once from every member of the group and have not yet received a reply from them.

Pie Charts

My group and myself decided to make pie charts because they are quick and easy to read and they are a great way of displaying the data so that we could decide easy with the clear majority answers from our survey.

Questionnaire

Questionnaires are important when you need to consider who your target audience is because it gives you relevant data about what the audience wants to see and therefore you will be able to make something that is in demand and therefore has more chance of being successful. We surveyed 40 people in the survey because it gives you a wide spread of data but is not so large like for example if you surveyed 400 people it would become very time consuming and we would not be able to interpret the data into what they audience wants as it would be too different. As there is 4 people in my group we each took ten questionnaires and gave them out to different members of the public and then came back with the results.

Major Record Labels

Focus on the UK

Who are the major labels currently in the UK?
Who do the major labels manage?
Do the major labels own smaller comapanies ad whcih artists do these labels manage?
Are there any links within the media?

Sony Music

Background:

They are a subsidery of Sony Corporation of America.
They are in the music and entertainment industry.
They have many artists of many different genres.
They were founded in 1929 and then in 2008 they were founded and Sony Music and Entertainment (SME)
They are owned by Sony.
Their parent company is the Sony Corporation of America.

Who they manage:

Michael Jackson
Beyonce
Christina Aguilera
Calvin Harris
West Life
Kings of Leon
Chris Brown
Celine Dion

Smaller companies owned by Sony:

Epic Records
RCA Records
Syco Music
Columbia Records
Sony Masterworks

Sony are also linked and makers of many different products such as mobile phones, games consoles, televisions, computer and home entertainment systems. Offering this many different products and being part of so many different markets broadens their target audience and helps to maximise their profits, they will also get a trust element from their target audience as the consumers will know they are a good and trusted brand and stick with their products across different markets. They are also involved with the X-Factor and the winner of the competition is signed to Sony BMG.

EMI

Background:

They are in the music and entertainment industry.

They were founded in 1931.

They went defunct in September 2008.

Their Headquarters is in London, England.

Who they manage:

Lily Allen

Melanie B

Cold Play

Connor Maynard

Kylie Minogue

Chemical Brothers

Matthew James

Fatboy Slim

Enigma

Smaller companies owned by EMI:

Capitol Music Group

Blue Note Label Group

Virgin Music Group

EMI Christian Music Group

Caroline Distribution

Universal 

Background:

They are in the music and entertainment industry.

They were founded in 1934.

Their headquarters are in California, USA

Their parent company is Universal (96-06)

Who they manage:

Avicii

50 Cent

Akon

Amy Winehouse

Jessie J

Craig David

Jay Sean

Abba

Smaller companies owned by Universal:

• A&A Records
• A Cappella Records
• A Different Drum
• A&E Records
• A&M Records
• A.D.S.R. Musicwerks
• Abbott Records
• ABC Classics
• ABC Dunhill Records
• ABC Records
• Abco Records
• ABC-Paramount Records
• ABKCO Records
• Ironworks
• Isadora Records
• I Scream Records
• Island Blue Records
• The Island Def Jam Music Group
• Island Masters
• Island Records
• Island Reggae Greats
• Isolate Records
• it Records
• I-Volution PML
• Ivy League Records

Universal are heavily involved in the film industry and have made a number of films such as King King, Jurassic Park and The Fast and The Furious. They also co developed VEVO, which is a site designed for music videos which will allow consumers to stream music videos for free.

BMG

Background:

They were founded in 1978.

They went defunct in October 2008

Their headquarters are in Germany

Who they manage?

Maroon 5 

Kelly Clarkson

Linkin Park

Justin Timberlake

Joss Stone

Nikki Webster

Companies owned by BMG:

• RCA Music Group
• RCA Records
• Arista Records
• J Records
• Full Surface Records
• US Records
• Arista Nashville
• RCA Nashville
• BNA Records
• BMG Kidz

Warner Music Group

Background:

They are in the music and entertainment industry.

They were founded in 1958.

Their headquarters are in New York, USA.

Who they manage:

Bass Hunter

Michael Buble

JLS

Nickleback

Cher

Jason Derulo

Down

Alesha Dixon

Smaller companies owned by Warner:

1M1 Records

12 Apostles Records

12 Tonar Records

12k Records

1-2-3-4 GO! Records

13th Floor Records

13th Planet Records