A2 Media Portfolio

Friday, 7 April 2017

Music Video

Magazine Advert

Digipack

Thursday, 23 March 2017

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The forms I have used are Magazine Advert, Music Video and Digipack. For the music video I have used the conventional form of the media product, with a video. An example of a video that doesn't do this is Bob Dylan's interactive video for Like a Rolling Stone. I have challenged the forms of both the digipack and the magazine advert. The magazine advert have been designed to be placed in billboards etc and not just inside a magazine, and have been designed to look like articles instead of just adverts. The images of this can be found in this post. The digipack also challenges form, which I've spoken about more below, as the front cover is also a pocket for the DVD, and has two layers.

Theories

Male Gaze

The objectification of women's bodies in the media has been a consistent theme. The male gaze is used to attract and keep the attention of men. Mainly used at media targeted at straight males of lower socio economic grouping, but is used for all audiences.

Laura Mulvey (1975) argued that the masculine point of view was the main one. She argued that the female body is objectified for erotic male pleasure (Voyeurism ("A person who derives sexual gratification from observing the naked bodies or others"). I don't completely agree with this - I feel male gaze is used to sell products and texts to audiences as it effectively gains the male audience attention, I don't think it is always used for erotic pleasure.

Mulvey argues that all audiences are targeted though the use of male gaze, even women, which in her opinion shows that the masculine point of view is dominant. I believe this is because women are more comfortable seeing other women's sexualised bodies, than men are seeing other men's sexualised bodies.

In my music video, I have challenged the conventions of male gaze by having a male dressed as a female. Many of my audience when showed the clips of my artist in full drag couldn't differentiate him from an actual female due to the low light, wig and makeup. Members of the audience focus group said "is that him? or is that a girl?" even though they'd just watched the sequence of him putting on his makeup.

Stereotypes

O'Sullivan et al (1998) defined stereotypes as a label that involved the process of categorisation an evaluation. Stereotypes are used as a short hand to narratives because simple representation defines an audiences understanding of a media text. Music videos often use stereotypes to add to the narrative in the short time the video actually plays.

Verisimilitude and realism can be enhanced through the use of stereotypes, audiences will identify with stereotypes that music video's use. Different genres of music have different stereotypes associated with them,

I challenged the conventions of stereotypes in my music video as a male wouldn't normally wear makeup and a dress. This challenge was also used in the magazine advert, as a male wearing makeup would grab the attention of a reader, and make the advert more eye-catching, therefore work as an advert better.

I used the conventions of verisimilitude in my video, and example of how I did this was my use of a linear (yet cyclical) narrative. This was important to my video, as it was supposed to be quite emotive, and if it is realistic, it will evoke more emotions within the audience.

Uses and Gratification Theory

Blumler & Katz, 1959

This theory focuses on the audience's interaction with the media. The theory focuses on 4 main interactions.

Escapism

The audience uses media to escape from their mundane or inadequate lives. This is one of the reasons celebrities and gossip magazines are so hugely popular, audiences use them for entertainment and diversion.

An Example of this could be Keeping up with the Kardashians, people enjoy watching their luxury lives.

I made the music video have a narrative with and interesting story line so that people could fully immerse themselves into the music video. This allows people to stop thinking about their lives and problems and focus on the life of the character.

Personal Companion

Audiences see media as their friend, caring about the cast/celebrity. Audiences feel an attachment to the people in the media texts. A prime example of this is reality TV programmes like The X Factor, where audiences feel such a connection with the stars that they vote for their favourites. Institutions capitalise on this interaction through payed voting lines, meet and greets etc.

A paper by Horton & Wohol in 1956 coined the term Para-Social Interaction. This is he illusion of face-to-face relationships between the performer and audience. This one sided relationship is fuelled by social media, and celebrities using platforms like twitter to interact with fans. Institutions capitalise on this through the use of covert advertisements, by having celebrities use or endorse a product, people don't see it as advertisement, they see it as a sort of 'friend's suggestion/endorsement', and therefore are more likely to purchase the product.

In my music video, I made the audience feel sorry for the artist. In my audience feedback, I got responses saying that they felt really sorry for the artist, and that it made them feel sad. This shows that I have used the conventions of Personal Companion, as the audience feel some sort of connection with the character, as they feel sorry for them.

Personal Identity

People use media texts to discover how they are and where they fit in. Again this is capitalised upon by products placement.

Some audience members that have issues with their own gender or sexuality, or are part of the LGBT+ community may be able to connect with the artist, and feel a personal connection to the character.

Surveillance

Audience use media texts to find out what is happening in the world, this is true for both news outlets like CNN and BBC News, but is also true for gossip outlets like Prez Hilton. This can be manipulated to suit the views of the institution, for example Fox New's coverage of many things suits their ideology. This can be very harmful and is the main reason for negative minority stereotypes.

An example of how this was used in my music video can be seen in the Mise en Scene, mainly the makeup. Audience members can see the makeup brands worn by the artist, and this shows them what sort of makeup is 'in' and 'trendy'. Audiences may also cut their teeth on the idea of a male dressing up as a female, which they may never have seen in their own life.

This theory places the majority of the focus on the audience instead of the actual message conveyed by the message itself. It looks at what people do with media. The theory states that the consumer of a media texts takes an active roll in choosing what media to consume, choosing what media will fulfill certain gratifications. This is similar to the 'free market' concept in business economics; the media texts must compete for audience gratification, and if no one wants to consume a specific text, it won't be created again by the institution. An example of this is the sensationalism in the news, as news networks need to make sure that people keep coming back and watching their shows. Another example is YouTube, and how it has grown as people use it all the time, and people can find exactly what they want to see.

Different members of the audience that watch the video I created will take different things away from it. Different people will experience the video, the narrative and the message behind it in different ways. For example, some people may watch the video and be disgusted by the idea of a male wearing female clothing and makeup, whereas others may really enjoy it, and may feel a warmth towards the artist because of the connection that they feel.

Cultivation Theory
Gerbner & Gross, 1975

Similar to the surveillance from above, (Audience use media texts to find out what is happening in the world, this is true for both news outlets like CNN and BBC News, but is also true for gossip outlets like Prez Hilton. This can be manipulated to suit the views of the institution, for example Fox New's coverage of many things suits their ideology. This can be very harmful and is the main reason for negative minority stereotypes), audiences develop views over time about the world through media, some of which are false or over exaggerated.

This impacts the audiences understanding of representation of gender, sexuality, age and ethnic groups. Audiences gain most of their knowledge about the world through media, so this theory recognises the importance of media texts in our lives.

An example of the problems this theory addresses is the concept that 'Crimewatch feeds the perception that Britain's crime rate is growing', which is not actually true. A video that explains this well is a short informative piece called "This is Your Brain on Terrorism" by Vox.

An example of how this was used in my music video can be seen in the Mise en Scene, mainly the makeup. Audience members can see the makeup brands worn by the artist, and this shows them what sort of makeup is 'in' and 'trendy'. Audiences may also cut their teeth on the idea of a male dressing up as a female, which they may never have seen in their own life.

Reception Analysis & Ethnography
Hall, 1980

Audiences perception of a text is dependent on their social position (gender, age, class, ethnicity, socio-economic grouping etc.). This approach values more highly the fact that different people contextualise the same media text differently.

Different members of the audience that watch the video I created will take different things away from it. Different people will experience the video, the narrative and the message behind it in different ways. For example, some people may watch the video and be disgusted by the idea of a male wearing female clothing and makeup, whereas others may really enjoy it, and may feel a warmth towards the artist because of the connection that they feel.

Copycat or Modelling Theory
Coleman, 2004

Audiences are influenced by the media texts that the consume. Used by journalists to scapegoat negative behaviour (for example, saying school shootings are caused by children playing violent video games). This approach mirrors the concerns many parents have for their children who listen to violent music and consume other violent media texts such as films, games and TV programmes. The paper by Horton & Wohol in 1956 I referenced earlier that coined the term Para-Social Interaction (This is he illusion of face-to-face relationships between the performer and audience. This one sided relationship is fuelled by social media, and celebrities using platforms like twitter to interact with fans.) may help perpetuate this theory as people are influenced by their friends.

An example of this is spottedonceleb.com, or the original concept for ASOS. People see what celebrities are wearing or doing and they want to do it. This is closely linked to Fredrick Jamerson's "commodification of culture", which is capitalised on by big corporations who use brand and product placement.

Audiences may watch my music video and decide that they want to wear the clothing not assigned to their gender. Product placement was used in my music video, which audience's may go out and purchase themselves. An example of this product placement ranges from the clothing worn by the actor, the household items in the mise en scene, and the makeup he uses.

Long Tail Theory

Anderson, 2006

This theory outlines how the internet has influenced audience consumption. The introduction of broadband has made many niche audiences economically viable for the first time. This theory can be illustrated with a simple graph. The equation y = | 1/x | where x is the popularity ranking and y is the demand. produces a perfect graph for the long tail theory.

On the graph the blue 'head' area represents one shop that has 50 customers, and the green 'long tail' is the 50 websites that each have one customer. An example of the effectiveness of e-commerce is that 38% of books sold on amazon aren't on the high street.

Put into a music point of view, the long tail theory has allowed niche artists to create and distribute music online without the backing of a record label, and niche music has become economically viable for record labels to invest in.

The way that the Long Tail Theory was used in my product was because it is unknown if the audience for my artist is mass or niche. Through the use of online scalable services like YouTube, the video can get a few thousand views, or a few million. Or even in the case of certain hit singles, over a billion views. It is estimated that from my audience feedback, original audience survey and research, that my song would be in the charts, and therefore be in the 'head' section of the long tail theory.

Semiotics
The word Semiotics was coined by Charles Peirce (1839-1914) and is the scientific study of signs and symbols. Philosopher Charles Sanders said: "We think only in signs." (1931). Everything; tangible, intangible, audible etc; can become a sign when it is subconsciously designated a meaning.

According to Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913), a sign is made up of a Signifier (the sign's physical form/denotation) and Signified (the connotation/concepts/feelings evoked by the signifier). In order for something to be a sign it has to be widely recognised by audiences - "Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign" - Peirce.

Polysemic signs have many connotations, often depending on the situation and audience. For example a kitchen knife may simply connote food preparation is a light genre, in a horror genre it would have dark connotations evoking feelings of unease and fright amongst audiences. Other demographic variances can completely change the perception of a symbol; for example the swastika (卐) to most Europeans signifies the Nazi party, but in Asia is is a symbol used by religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism to symbolise God, its also a good luck symbol, and also represents Purushartha (Dharma (natural order), Artha (wealth), Kama (desire), and Moksha (liberation)). It also represents eternity.

In my music video, and the ancillary texts, I have used numerous signs and symbols. for example the video is full of iconic symbols, according to post modernism, the video clips of the artist are iconic as they are videos of the artist, and not the artist himself. There is also indexical symbols in the music music video, for example the red lipstick shows that the character is wearing female makeup, and the hair style and facial features of the character indexically symbolise that he is male. I have also used symbolic signs, for example the graphic that is projected onto the artist during the performance scenes, this is a galactic sort of graphic with stars and clouds that look like solar systems. This symbolises how the artist feels omnipotent when in his female form - indestructible like a god.

Mise-en-Scene:

French for "Staging," or the literal translation "Put in Scene", Mise en Scene is the use of props and scenery in a music video. There are 5 main factors that mise en scene comprises of, these include:

The position of props and characters in a frame
Positioning is used to manipulate the audience's attention, for example in Justin Beiber's music video for Beauty and the Beat, Bieber is often positioned right in the middle of the frame, this represents how he is the center of attention.

In my music video, I used the positioning of my artist and the props to convey certain messages to the audience. For example when the music video is at a pinnacle point in the narrative, the artst is placed in the middle of the frame to show the audience that they should pay attention to him at that point in time.
The clothing/costume, makeup and hairstyle of the characters
These aspects act to indicate a characters personality and communicate other information about them. They also give information about he time period the music video is set in and the culture that surrounds it. In Justin Beiber's music video for Beauty and the Beat the characters are all wearing casual clothing, which is because the music video is meant to emulate a home video. In music videos costume is thought of extensively by teams of stylists, publicists and advertisers, this is because the clothing that celebrities wear has a huge impact of the clothing their fans wear, therefor it is big business to dress them correctly to influence consumers to invest in a certain style or brand. This is a form of hidden advertisement.

The clothing of the artist, his hairstyle and the makeup was obviously the main focus of the video. Because of this I spent a lot of time picking out the costume, the wig and the makeup that would be used and featured in the video. The placement of said props and makeup within the video, and where they come up and are featured was also very important to aid the narrative.
Body language and facial expressions of the characters
Used mainly to indicate emotions of characters, facial expressions also add realism, as blank expressions (unless purposeful) can indicate bad acting to the audience, and break the verisimilitude. Body language is also used to show the feelings of characters. In Justin Beiber's music video for Beauty and the Beat, the characters are smiling and their body language indicates they're having fun, this fits with the theme of the music video - in reality they're probably quite tired and bored of shooting the same scene repeatedly; but showing this would break the realism of the video and make it less enjoyable to watch. In the music video Bieber and Nicki Minaj "grind" upon each other, this close body language represents sexual flirting.

The actor had a very bland facial expression while he was in his male form, which showed the audience his emotions, and how he felt empty and hollow dressing as a man, but when he wears his female clothing his facial expression completely changes and he looks really happy and excited. This was important to the narrative as it shows the audience his changing emotions throughout the video. The artist also has a very sad expression nearer to the end of the music video where he returns to his male form.
The lighting used in the frame, including the intensity and colour
Lighting is used to manipulate the audience's attention and also evoke emotions. Different colours and intensities of light can reflect different emotions, for example in Justin Beiber's music video for Beauty and the Beat, although it is night time the location is well lit with flashing multicoloured lights, this represents a disco type feel and communicated that the characters are having fun to the audience. The colour of props also affects the feel of the frame - for example in a girly pop song, props may be pink to reflect the feminine environment, whereas in a gangsta rap videos props may often be black.

Conventionally lighting used in music videos comes from either artificial stage lighting or sunlight. In some of the shots in my video I used a projector to light the scene. This was for the semiotics of the graphic being projected onto the artist, and also to make the video more aesthetically pleasing. The graphic also reacted to the music, and grew, 'danced' and changed with the volume and beat of the music, this helped to further tie the music video to the actual music itself, as what is lighting the scene dances along with the actor also dancing to the music.
And the main component Setting (location) and props
Sets are either built, or real locations are used in music videos, they build expectations among the audience and give more information about the current scene. For example an heavy metal music video wouldn't make much sense if it was filmed in a church - unless the irony was intentional. In Justin Bieber's music video for Beauty and the Beat, the location is a water park, as the main focus of the video is a pool party. This location was probably used as it is a relaxed and fun environment, and represents the lifestyle Justin Bieber is presenting to his fans.

I chose to locate the video inside, this was to reflect the narrative. The main character is going through a very private and emotional transition, and by filming it inside it shows how he is hiding himself from the world. This is juxtaposed by the performance scene in front of the projector where the artist acts like his is performing in in front of an audience.

Mise en scene is used to communicate information to an audience, and the different aspects of Mise en Scene is used to evoke emotions among the audience and offer more information that just dialect alone.

ADVERT

The 10 main conventions I found from looking at some magazine album adverts were

The artists name
The album name
The release date or "out now"
Some of the hit singles included on the album
A website address for the artist
A photo of the artist
Social Media account names for the artist
The star rating/shot review of the album
The formats that the album is available on (e.g. CD/Vinyl/Digital etc.)
The institution behind the album

I found some examples of these conventions:

Textual analysis of an album magazine advert

I then analysed a single album advert.

Above is the advert for the album, and below is the album cover itself.

The first obvious thing about the album advert is the fact that it closely matches the Album Cover itself. This creates a sense of a 'house style', that allows audiences to link the advert with the album subconsciously, and help them to recognise it. The point of an album advert is to sell the album, and by creating this subconscious and obvious link between the album advert and the album cover itself, the record label's designers are hoping to generate more sales.

The background of the advert is dark, which helps to create contrast upon the white pages of a magazine, this can help it to stand out and catch magazine readers eyes. The images of pink flowers and bright skin of the artist also stands out more because of the background. This use of colour could have been used to connote a dark, depressing album,

A mixture of two types of typography are used, the artists logo is a hand written decorated font, which will match all of the marketing done by the artist as it is a continuous logo, whereas the rest of the text is in a serif font, similar to Times New Roman. The connotation of the logo font are feminine and almost childish, whereas the fonts of the album name and other text is serif, masculine and more mature. The difference between the two fonts could be compared to the difference between a letter written by a child (written by hand) and a letter written by an adult (typed, Times New Roman style font). This technique could have been used to separate the childlike creativity needed to create an artistic piece of work, such as an album, and the corporate, mature information needed to actually buy the album.

The large image of the artist has many connotations. The flowers reinforce the femininity of the album. The greenish tint of the background contrasts well with the ginger hair and burgundy lungs of the artist. There is juxtaposition in the mise on scene, flowers are in front of a curtain, which are found usually inside the house, while flowers are found outside. This could be to connote that the album is personal, and the artist is exposing her secrets, and inner emotions, some of which are dark (enforced by the gloomy, dark curtains) and some of white may be light and happy (enforced by the bright pink flowers)

A real sadness can be seen on the artists face, and she's looking down with her eyes closed and her hands up, this could represent her surrendering to her inner sadness that is expressed in the album, and fits the overall gloomy look of the advert. Little makeup is work which matches the Victorianistic look of the album. The clothing the artist is wearing is see through, which connotes how she is showing the world her inner emotions through the album, and it almost looks like bars - trapping the lungs on her chest. This may connote the fact that she has been silenced by something, possibly her sadness, and the album is helping her to express this inner sadness. The fact that the lungs have been removed from her body also may connote that she has been stopped from expressing herself. The lungs are smooth and cartoonistic, unlike real lungs that would be rough, organ like and bloody if removed from the body, this may connote that she has 'sugar coated' what's in the album.

The album also says a simple date, '6.7.09', this may be in order to not draw attention away from the focus of the advert - the artist - but still offer the information needed by the audience. The included singles are also shown, along with the formats the album can be bought on. This is all at the bottom as its not vital information, but it is useful to help sell the album and again give the consumers the information they may want to know about the album. At the bottom of the advert is the web address that audiences can visit to find out even more marketing information about the album.

My album magazine advert

I then analysed my advert the same way that I analysed the others.

The colour scheme of my advert is black, white and red. The black and white monochrome colour scheme makes the image look more two dimensional, and makes the red stand out more. Red has connotations of blood, but also of femininity like roses and lipstick - this mix of connotations allowed my advert to portray the fact that the for the artist, displaying his femininity is a painful experience. The red lipstick isn't in black and white, which shows that when he does wear his makeup, it gives him another dimension, and his life goes from being monochrome (sad) to colourful (happy). This also links into the the music video as there are a few shots that are monochrome with a single colour left. This editing denies the adverts own reality.

The artist is looking directly into the camera, this grabs the readers attention and creates an interpersonal connection between the artist and the reader. The shot is taken from eye level and is a close up of just the actors face. Water runs down the face of the actor which links in with the shower scene of the video, and shows his washing away his secret life of being female. This is an intertextual reference to the James Bond scene where a female is sat in the shower washing away blood that sprayed on her. This breaks the fourth wall and is an example of how it is a postmodern advert.

The photo of the artist is cropped to the left, to show only half of the artist's face. This was a signifier, showing that the artist has two identities, but only shows half of himself - and in this music video and promotional package his whole self is showed, so instead of only showing his 'male' half, like normal, he is showing his female half.

The white background is very clear cut and almost surgical, so are the fonts used. The only thing that doesn't look computer generated is the artist's face and the streak of lipstick. This was to show that the side of him that is male is boring, and he is fake and acting like someone he is not, whereas the side of him that is female, with the makeup on, is happy and real and his true self.

The 'out now' is simple, and gives the audience the exact message that the need, that they can go out and buy the album as soon as they want. The website and twitter username is simple and connected to the artist, the font of these matches the house style of the promotional package as a whole. The institution of publication, universal's logo is clearly present in the bottom right had corner. Again this is all in black and white, as it doesn't really matter to the music, what's important is the lyrics and the sound and the artist's emotions, which is exemplified with the use of the single colour red.

The three main things in the advert, the artist, the song title, and the release date are all in red to make them stand out. The font logo of the main titles has a specific style, it is straight cut and the As are more like upside down Vs. This style is spread across all of the media in the promotional package. It makes them stand out and look good and creates a recognisable style.

Conclusion

So, what ways does my magazine advert use or challenge the conventions of a real magazine advert? The main conventions, and how I've approached them, are:

The artists name
I have included the artist name in my advert, as this is important to show the readers of the advert what the advert is advertising.
The album name
Again I included this as it is important information.
The release date or "out now"
I decided not to include a release date, and used the words 'out now' to show the audience when the album would be released. Although I made a advert which is posted to my blog with the date inside the lipstick smudge, I didn't like the way that it looked, and I thought that it would distract the readers attention from the main focus of the advert.
Some of the hit singles included on the album
I included the single that I made the video for, 'bravado', but I didn't include any more. It is often conventional to use just the one, and I decided not to use any more as I didn't want to clutter up the advert. Using one helps readers to recognise the artist - and make them think things along the line of 'I know and like that song, so I'm going to buy the album because I'll be likely to like the other songs'.
A website address for the artist
This was included, as it is a place for the readers to find out information, or find links to download or purchase the album or song. Readers can look up tour dates and other information about the artist on their website. The website can be used as a further promotional tool to further advertise the artist.
A photo of the artist
I used a photo of the artist that linked closely to the music video and album cover. Conventionally the whole of the artist's face is shown in the photo, but I challenged this convention by only showing half of the artist's face. This was to show that the artist has two identities, but only shows half of himself - and in this music video and promotional package his whole self is showed, so instead of only showing his 'male' half, like normal, he is showing his female half.
Social Media account names for the artist
I included the twitter username for the artist, this allows users to stay connected with the artist, see what they're doing, get news on new released and tour dates.
The star rating/shot review of the album
Although I tested this out, I decided that I didn't like how the rating looked, so in my final draft of the magazine advert I removed it. Although a rating is conventional, from my research I found that only 20% of the adverts I looks at had a rating.
The formats that the album is available on (e.g. CD/Vinyl/Digital etc.)
I included the formats that the album could be purchased on, as this gave information to the readers about the album that they may need.
The institution behind the album
This is a convention I found was in the majority of the adverts I looked at. I decided to use 'universal' as the institution/record label, as it was the record label that the song was originally released on.

Digipack

Firstly, I analysed an existing digipack, and looked at the ways that it used or challenged conventions. I felt the easiest way to do this was to split it into 4 sections. The font cover, the back cover, the inside cover and the CD/DVDs.

Real Front Cover

The conventions of a front cover are the artists name, a picture of the artist and the name of the album. Pink's album 'Missunderstood' includes all of these conventions. The font is styled as a graffiti, which links in with Pink's 'rebel' character, and also links with the picture on the back, where Pink is holding a marker pen. Pink is sat on a sofa that has been vandalised, which connotes a sense of dis-authority and anarchy within her household/life. Her hair in Pink, which links with both her name, Pink, and the rebel characteristics.

She is wearing clothing this was popular during the time the album was released. The purple colour of Pink's name, her hair and lipstick and the red design on her tshirt all represent her femininity. Pink looks directly at the camera, which breaks the 4th wall and grabs the audience's attention. The front cover has a sticker on it that says 'includes the smash his 'Get The Party Started', bonus track 'catch 22', enhanced section'. This is a selling point for the album, and its aim is to increate album sales.

The image of the artist is a mid-shot, but this photograph challenges the usual conventions of a mid-shot photo. Usually the artist would be standing up, but in this photo the artist is lying down, looking sort of bored. Again this backs up the connotations of the artist being a bit of a rebel.

My Front Cover

My front cover is slightly different to the conventional one. Conventionally a front cover would be a single pice of paper or card inside the hard plastic CD case, but my front cover is made up of the conventional piece of card/paper, inside a plastic wallet, which would then go inside the hard CD case. I did this for a number of reasons. Firstly, the brief stated that the digipack had to had room for the CD and DVD, in my design, the DVD would go inside the plastic wallet, and the CD would go on the opposite side, inside on the right opening of the digipack. I also liked the idea of a two part cover, which could represent the two sides of the character - male and female.

The logo is in the house style, in red. The album title is called 'Tame', which is also the name of the artist. It is common, but not necessarily conventional, for albums to be 'self titled'. An example of this is Paramore's album "Paramore". I decided not to put "Tame by Tame" or anything along those lines as I didn't think it would look good, and would ruin the simplicity of the album cover.

The background of the album is water droplets, which links in the the music video where the two main focus point of the video is the shower scenes, where the artist first washes away his male gender, and then his female gender, and this is important as it represents the cyclical nature of the narrative. The background is monochrome which represents the boring part of his male life, and the drops of water symbolise tears, showing the sadness behind what comes across as an upbeat story.

The colour scheme is predominantly red with the hair, lipstick, dress strap and logo. The colour red has connotations of blood, but also of femininity like roses and lipstick - this mix of connotations allowed my album cover to portray the fact that the for the artist, displaying his femininity is a painful experience.

The image of the artist is taken from a medium-close up, showing mainly the face. I challenged the usual conventions of a mid-shot album photo as the photo is cropped to the left. I did this across all of my ancillary texts, to show that my character is never showing his true full self, as he cannot live life as both a female and male.

The artist is looking directly into the camera, which breaks the 4th wall and creates a connection with the viewer of the album cover. The shot is taken from eye level and aims to create a connection between the artist and the viewer. The artists face looks sad and serious, representing the true nature of the problem that he faces.

Real CD/DVD cover

Through extensive research of CDs, I couldn't really find a list of set conventions that spanned across them all. In my opinion the reason for this is they are not directly viewed at the point of sale. Conventions are needed on the album cover and back as they are viewed in the shops when people are going to buy a CD, and they need to be recognisable, to increase sales. But CDs and DVDs aren't usually viewed as the album is usually wrapped in plastic to stop people stealing the CD inside.

In this CD, Adele and the album title '21' are written in a feminine, script like font. Adele is looking down and away from the camera, which in digipack photography is unconventional as it doesn't grab the viewer's attention, but it does a really good job at signifying her emotions, the album is about heart break and subsequently sadness, and Adele shows this with her facial expression. The loss of her lover has taken the colour out of her life, which is also evident by the desaturation of the image.

My CD/DVD cover

I created two disk designs. One for the CD and one for the DVD. These designs are very similar, with the only difference being the image and the words "DC" and "DVD". Conventionally, the background is either a picture, or black or white. I challenged this convention by having a cool grey background (web hex code #cccccc), this was for two reasons, firstly so that the background didn't stand out more than the image of the artist, and secondly because it represented the greyness of the life behind him, and the colour of the makeup on the front of his face represented the colourful life in front of him where he shows he true self.

The images are two different pictures, which show the artist with water running down their face and makeup smudged. The images are close-ups of the artist's face and break the 4th wall by the artist looking directly into the camera. I challenged the usual conventions of a mid-shot album photo as the photo is cropped to the left. I did this across all of my ancillary texts, to show that my character is never showing his true full self, as he cannot live life as both a female and male.

The 'TAME' logo goes across the middle of the disk, and is bold to catch the audience's attention. The font and style of the artist's name fits the house style of the rest of the promotional package. It is a convention of CDs to have the artist's name and the album name on the CD, but similarly to the album cover, and because of the fact that it is a self titled album, I decided to only put the words 'tame' once. I wanted the CDs to be as simple as possible in order to not distract from the main focus which was the picture of the artist.

Real Album Back

Some of the main connotations of the back of an album, which span across the majority include:

Track List
The track list on the back of this album is unconventional, usually the track list is in a normal, bullet point styled, list, whereas in this one there is two tracks per line, and they aren't aligned. This is because of the 'rebel' character that Pink is trying to portray, and being non-conformist, for example breaking connotation, is a way to enforce this image. The track numbers have been written in a graffiti styled font, which links to both the 'rebel' character and the marker pen that Pink is holding in her hands. The colour of the track lists, pink and purple, represent both the femininity, and the name, of the artist.
Bar Code
The bar code is used for convenience reasons, without it the CD would not be able to be sold, or the shop that was selling it would stick a barcode onto the CD, which would block information that the audience may need to see.
Web Domain
The back of this disk is unconventional in the fact that it doesn't have a web domain. This can be explained by the fact that it was published in 2002, when a web presence wasn't as paramount as it is today. After looking through the digipak as a whole, I discovered this is a domain, in extremely small letters on the inside of the the back pack of the leaflet.
Copyright Notice
There is a copyright notice, this is slightly unconventional as it is positioned to the left, whereas they are usually at the bottom of the page. This was done to fit with the image used. The copyright notice is conventional because without it people could legally copy and distribute the music, which would mean that the record company wouldn't make any money, and wouldn't be able to fund future artist.
DVD/CD logos
These logos aren't used on the back, but are visible in other parts of the album.
Institution Logo
The institution logos are above the copyright notice.
Image
Pink is sat on a sofa that has been vandalised, which connotes a sense of dis-authority and anarchy within her household/life. Her hair in Pink, which links with both her name, Pink, and the rebel characteristics. She is wearing clothing this was popular during the time the album was released. The purple colour of Pink's name, her hair and lipstick and the red design on her tshirt all represent her femininity. Pink looks directly at the camera, which breaks the 4th wall and grabs the audience's attention. The image of the artist is a mid-shot, but this photograph challenges the usual conventions of a mid-shot photo. Usually the artist would be standing up, but in this photo the artist is lying down, looking sort of bored. Again this backs up the connotations of the artist being a bit of a rebel.

My Album Back

Track List
The track list is presented conventionally in a list like form. It fits the house style of titles in the promotional package as a whole, with the font style and lines above and below.
Bar Code
The bar code is used for convenience reasons, without it the CD would not be able to be sold, or the shop that was selling it would stick a barcode onto the CD, which would block information that the audience may need to see.
Web Domain
The web domain is positioned below the bar code, in the same style as the rest of the fonts. I decided not to use the 'A' which looks like an upside down 'v' for this because of the size of the text, as it was quite small it needed to be easily read.
Copyright Notice
The copyright notice is conventional because without it people could legally copy and distribute the music, which would mean that the record company wouldn't make any money, and wouldn't be able to fund future artist.
DVD/CD logos
Above the bar code
Institution Logo
Above the bar code
Image
The image shows the artist in full drag. On the front cover, the artist is also in full drag, but on the inside covers the artist is washing it away. This was done to connote the fact that on the out side he knows he looks like a woman when he tries, but on the inside he knows that its only artificial, and it only takes something as simple and common as water to wash it all away. There is a bright light around the artist, this was to represent the 'bravado' and confidence that he feels when he takes on the form of a woman makes him almost glow.

I added colour noise to the background o the left side of the image, this created a 'computer generated' sort of vintage look, which helped back up the artificial connotations. This use of subtle colour in the background also backed up the connotation that being in drag put colour into the artist's life. The image was taken in front of a projector screen projecting a still from the graphic used during the music video, this helps to link the different media in the promotional package together, and is almost like a self-intertextual reference.

The image of the artist is taken from a medium-close up, showing mainly the face. I challenged the usual conventions of a mid-shot album photo as the photo is cropped to the left. I did this across all of my ancillary texts, to show that my character is never showing his true full self, as he cannot live life as both a female and male.

The artist is looking directly into the camera, which breaks the 4th wall and creates a connection with the viewer of the album cover. The shot is taken from eye level and aims to create a connection between the artist and the viewer. The artists face looks sad and serious, representing the true nature of the problem that he faces.

Real inside of album

The graphics on the inside of an album have very little conventions. In my opinion the reason for this is they are not directly viewed at the point of sale. Conventions are needed on the album cover and back as they are viewed in the shops when people are going to buy a CD, and they need to be recognisable, to increase sales. But the inside pages of an album aren't usually viewed as the album is usually wrapped in plastic to stop people stealing the CD inside.

The inside of this album, there is another variation of the track list, this time in a more conventional form. The track numbers have been written in a graffiti styled font, which links to both the 'rebel' character that Pink tries to portray and the marker pen that Pink is holding in her hands on the back cover. The colour of the track lists, pink and purple, and the background, represent both the femininity, and the name, of the artist.

My inside of album

The 'TAME' logo goes across the middle of the pages and is unconventional as it spans across two pages instead of the conventional one, and is bold to catch the audience's attention. The font and style of the artist's name fits the house style of the rest of the promotional package. I wanted these pages to be as simple as possible in order to not distract from the main focus which was the picture of the artist.

Conventionally in a digipack that contains a CD and DVD there is 6 panels, but in mine there is only 4 (front, inside left, inside right, back). This is because the DVD is stored inside the left panel of the digipack. I did this because I felt that a 6 panel digipack was too complicated and didn't fit with the simplistic house style of my promotional package. Here is an example of how this would work:

Real Music Video

The conventions of a music video include lip syncing and dancing. Both of these conventions are used in Lorde's video for Green Light.

Lorde is unhappy in a club, a place where people are supposed to be happy, and having fun. This links in with the song as it shows how she is finding it hard to get over her boyfriend. Mise en Scene is whats in the image, Lorde wears fashionable clothing, which is conventional of a postmodern music video. The location of a club and the flashing lights also link in with the 'party life style' often portrayed in music videos. The lighting also links in with Lorde's main lyric 'green lights', as the lights are green. This also links in with the semiotics, as the 'green light' is signifying her waiting at traffic lights, she is held back by the love she has for her ex boyfriend, and is waiting for the green light so she can move on.

Different camera angles and filming techniques are used throughout the video. The opening shot is a tripod shot, and it then moves to a handheld shot. Later on in the video when lorde is hanging out of a car window, a tracking shot is used. The length of shots is dependent on the pace of the song. During upbeat sections of the song they are cut quickly, and they last longer during the slower parts of the song. Some shots, like the ones in the club, have been slowed down. A grain effect has been added to the video to give it a vintage look. The flashing stobe lighting was also probably added in post production, as often when filming a stobe, as a single flash of light is less than 1/24th of a second - which is the length of a single frame on a 24fps recording, the strobes can be missed out or split across two frames which can ruin the verisimilitude.

The genre of the music video is Electo-pop according to Wikipedia. The song was released through the record label Universal New Zealand - which is owned by Universal Music Group. Lorde signed to Universal Music Group in 2009. Green Light is Lorde's debut single from her second album. The ideology presented in this song is more Lorde's than the institution's. This is because she co-wrote and co-directed the song and music video respectively. The music video shows a 'party lifestyle' with the club locations, and a 'luxury lifestyle' shown by the luxury car that picks her up from the club with a driver.

Audiences watch the music video to gain a further dimension, they enjoy the song, and want to see more of Lorde's creativity. It also helps to promote the video by being a visual side to the song. Lorde, the main concentration of the video, is represented as young and free. She goes partying and has a good time, but looks sad. She is represented as heart broken, but waiting for the pain to fade so that she can be free and happy again. She isn't represented as a 'normal' teenager, as most normal teens wouldn't have perfect skin, lip plastic surgery and be able to afford private drivers in luxury 4x4 cars.

My Music Video

Performance
Conventionally in music videos, the artist will dance while they lip sync to the music video. This is apparent in my music video and I have used this convention, but I have developed it though the use of lighting. To light my artist dancing I created a graphic that also 'danced' to the music and reacted to the beat, rhythm and volume of the song. This was then projected onto the artist and offered another dimension to the video. I did this for two main reasons. The first reason is for the aesthetics, I though that it fit the music and looked much better than just a normal light. The second reason was to enable me to allow the artist to either be fully illuminated or not at all, which let me create different signifiers, to symbolise both the light and dark parts of the emotions he is feeling in the video.

Although there is lip syncing and dancing in the video, I have challenged the conventional music video dancing by having my artist not actually move his feet. This was to symbolise the fact that although he is 'moving' and is dancing and happier in drag, he isn't 'moving forward' to his goal of being happy and being able to really express who he is. I have also challenged the conventions by making the music video itself actually 'dance' through the use of editing. I have edited in stobe lighting, and camera movement, and synchronised certain clips to match with the beat of the music, similarly to how a dancer would dance to the beat of the music. This was done to tie in the visuals with the music even more, and create a sense of unity between the two.

Narrative
The narrative in the video was important to me, and I felt it was the focal point of the video. Conventionally the narrative would be linear, but the narrative of my music video is cyclical. The idea was that the video starts and ends at the same point, which is the shower scene, and represents the fact that the artist is just cycling between being male and female, never feeling truly happy with his self. The music video also challenges the usual convention of a linear music video because it is filled with 'cut-in' shots of the artist getting ready, even after he is fully dragged up. This lack of linearity was to represent how he is confused, and doesn't really know what he wants, his male or female side. Conventionally music video narrative, especially that of the pop genre (and subsidiary pop genres, such as electro pop) also focus on quite lights hearted issues that the public can relate to, such as being in love, being broken hearted, or partying hand having fun, music videos often try to evoke a positive emotive response.

Where as my video challenges these conventions by being quite sad, and looking at an issue that people seldom experience. I did this because I wanted the video to stand out, and be remembered. This is obviously important if it was a real media product, as the music video's job is to promote the song, and a memorable music video will do this better. I also challenged conventions by missing out parts of the narrative, for example in the video, the artist goes quickly from slowly putting on makeup to being in full drag, there is no shots of him putting on the wig or dress. I did this to reflect to pace of the song, the song starts of very slow, and after about a minute it picks up extremely quickly, the skipping of the narrative was to symbolise the 'flicking of the switch' between when the artist feels confidence, and when he does not. There is however shots of the artist taking off his female clothing, this was to reflect the fact that the song's pace slows down much slower than it speeds up.

Many music videos are conventionally either a narrative style video or a performance style video, but I have challenged these conventions by mixing the two together.

Cinematography
conventionally, music videos use a number of camera shots and angles to evoke different emotional responses. An example of this is Keaton Henson's 'You Don't Know How Lucky You Are', where almost every combination of angle and shot type are used in a single take. Conventionally music videos will use a verity of shots, from wide angle to close up, where as the majority of my shots range from mid shots, to medium close ups, to close ups to extreme close ups, and I've even go as far as to use a macro lens to get as close up to the fingernails being painted as possible. The reason I haven't included any wide shots was to fit with the narrative. The experience that the artist is going through in the music video is supposed to be very intimate and private, and I wanted to reflect this with the cinematography. The close up nature of the shots brings the audience closer to the artist, this is also the reason why all of the shots are taken indoors, in private - which links in with the mise-en-scene and location.

In music videos, angles are used conventionally for either literal reasons, for example showing something that can only be shown from a high/low angle, or for emotive reasons, to evoke and emotion amongst the audience (e.g. low angle makes the subject look taller/more powerful). In my music video I used this convention, but I developed it slightly. Usually when angles are used to reflect power, they are playing on the audience's emotions, (e.g. in visual media a low angle makes the audience feel that the subject is more powerful them then, as the medium is their point of view) whereas in my video, the angles used were reflecting how the artist felt in relation to the public as a whole, and not how the audience felt in relation to the artist. When the artist is not in makeup or drag, and when the artist is putting it on, many high angles were used, so that the shot was looking down upon the artist, showing how he felt ashamed and inferior because of the fact he was putting on makeup. When the music kicks in and the artist is in full drag, he finds his 'bravado' and is filled with confidence, this is reflected by the camera angles returning to eye level, he feels like he is no better, but no worse, than anyone else, some of the shots are shot from a slightly lower angle, showing how he feels more and more confident. This links in with both the music, the performance and the narrative.

I used a lot of 'cut-in' shots throughout the video, which again is quite unconventional as it destroyed the linearity of the narrative. Many of the cut in shots were of the artist getting ready, even after he is fully dragged up. This lack of linearity was to represent how he is confused, and doesn't really know what he wants, his male or female side. Conventionally in pop music videos, dutch tilts and unusual angles are used, I didn't use these as I felt it would distract the audience from the narrative which was the main focus for me.

The camera movement in my video ranged from a dolly/tracking shot of the makeup on the table, the movement suggested that the artist was putting 'so much makeup on that it couldn't all fit in one shot'. Pans were used to shows the artist getting ready, the movement of the camera was to represent the artist 'moving forward' and becoming what he wanted to be. During the performance scenes the camera was on a tripod and often locked off, this was to represent the fact that the artist, at the time in the narrative, is exactly where he wants to be.

Editing
Conventionally, music videos are either in full colour or black and white. In my video I challenged these conventions through my editing by desaturating all of the colours except one. This represented some of the pinnacle moments in the video, and represented the fact that when the artist is living his male life, he feels like it is boring, monochrome and dull, but when he puts on his makeup he feels like his life is full of colour and happiness. I got the idea to do this from the film Pleasantville. I also added non-diagetic sound, including the music and the shower noise at the start, this is conventional of a music video, as without sound it would be pointless. I used jump cuts and parallel editing to keep with the pace of the music, and keep the audience interested in what was happening in the video.

Mise en Scene
The lighting of the the video was carefully designed to highlight the artist and dull the background, this was to show the audience that their main focus should be the artist, and the narrative. The lighting used in the performance scenes was unconventional as instead of using conventional lighting I used a projector with a moving graphic that I created which also 'danced' to the music and reacted to the beat, rhythm and volume of the song. This was then projected onto the artist and offered another dimension to the video. I did this for two main reasons. The first reason is for the aesthetics, I though that it fit the music and looked much better than just a normal light. The second reason was to enable me to allow the artist to either be fully illuminated or not at all, which let me create different signifiers, to symbolise both the light and dark parts of the emotions he is feeling in the video.

Many props were used in the video, mainly the makeup that the artist was applying, this was important as it was part of the narrative, and helped the story progress. The costume in a way was completely unconventional which was exactly what I wanted, and it reflected the video's narrative perfectly. Conventionally in a pop music video males wear male clothing, and females wear female clothing, but in my video the male is wearing female clothing. This was done for obvious reasons to reflect the narrative, and is the same as the hair and makeup. Usually males don't wear wigs or makeup, but my artist had to to make the video make sense. The colours red and black were used across as much of the hair, makeup, props and mise on scene as possible, this was for their connotations. The colour red has connotations of femininity, and also blood - this was to show that even though the artist is happy to be dressed as a female, its also a painful experience as he feels ashamed. The colour black is more of a masculine colour, and has connotations of the darkness, this links in with the fact that he is hiding his female side behind his masculine male side.

The location of an electo-pop music video are usually in clubs, outdoors or other 'fun' places, where as I have challenged this video by making my whole music video indoors, to show the privacy and intimacy of the situation. I specifically chose one window to shoot next to, and filmed at a time when the tree outside the window had no leaves and the sky was grey, this was to show that the outside world was bleak and grey to him, and links in with the black and white shots later on in the video.

Stereotypes
Conventionally males in music videos are portrayed as cool and masculine, this convention was challenged in order to fit to the narrative of my music video. Homosexuals are often stereotyped as wearing women's clothing in popular culture, for example David from Little Britain, and the reverse, that drag queens are all gay. I developed this convention because although my artist is dressing in drag, there is no suggestion of sexuality. I did this because that wasn't the focal point of the video, the artist's sexuality didn't matter, what mattered was the fact that he was a male dressing in women's clothing.

Paradox of the Star
According to Richard Dyer's "paradox of the star" a star must be both ordinary and extraordinary, and the star must be present and absent. I have challenged this convention as my artist is neither ordinary or extraordinary. He isn't ordinary as he has gender issues, and he isn't extraordinary in any ways. The artist is present through the media products, but absent as he is private, and doesn't leave his house.

Institution
I chose Universal Music Group (UMG) as my institution of publication (record label). The reason that I chose this company was because it was the original publishers of the song that I used to make my music video. Other artists on UMG include Taylor Swift, Adele, Zara Larson and Lana Del Rey, all of these artist make similar music to my artist, so the record label would have experience in promoting the artist, and would have the connections to form duets, which can help to grow artist fan bases. UMG is also one of the largest record labels in the world, and therefore would have the funds to be able to promote the artist, and match them with the best producers, song writers and public relations companies.

Pricing & Advertising

The magazine advert would most likely appear in a mainstream popular music magazine. Two examples of magazines are NME and Q, two music magazines. The reason I chose these music magazines was because of their active media audience, who in response to their Media Pack surveys said that music magazine adverts influenced how they found new music. I had a few different styles of adverts, for example, I had the DPS advert, I had the DPS with text on one side and the advert on the other (advertorial), I had the full single page advert, and the small 1/4 page advert.

Above is the rate card for NME music magazine, according to this, it would cost me £12,456 for the double page spread, £6,920 for the whole page, and £2,755 for the quarter page.

Below is the advertising rate for Q, according to this it would cost £19,136 for the double page spread, £10,072 for the single page spread, and I estimate the cost of a quarter page would be around £2,560.

As you can see NME are slightly less expensive to advertise in than Q, this is probably because the circulation for Q is 61,485 whereas the circulation for NME is 20,011. Even though the circulation of NME is around 33% of Q's, their advertising rates are proportionately cheaper, as NME's readership is 261,000, whereas Q's is 377,00 - so NME has around 66% the readership of Q. This is because NME's readership are part of a 'share' culture, where audiences read it, then give the magazine to their friends to read.

By dividing the price of a DPS by the readership, I found that per reader, NME charges around 5p, and Q charges around 6p per reader. This means that per reader, NME is cheaper than Q and offers better value for money, assuming the audience is demographically similar, NME offers better value for money for advertising.