Voyeurism - The Male Gaze

Album Art Research

Album covers just like most other media products have typical codes and conventions which have to be met for it to be effective. Below I have detailed the specific items which must appear on an album.

Front

• Main image (usually close ups)
• Title of album
• Name of artist 
• A recognisable logo or font that is associated with the artist 

What I have noticed about album covers is they tend to have a central image the artist on the front panel, this is especially true of Pop albums. Solo artists are more likely to have their image at the front as they are trying to promote their music by promoting their appearance. This is done to make the buyer feel like they are close to the artist and allows them to form a deeper connection. The star is made to be the most prominent image with little distractions in background; this is done to emphasise the dominance of the artist and create a stronger star image. This is especially true of female artists who use their sexuality as a selling point to attract male audiences.

Groups and bands are presented slightly differently; while one close up is used of a solo artist the same cannot be done for a group album. Instead they model the group in a variety of heights and poses to create individual images for each member. Some may be standing/sitting/jumping etc. and they will most likely be wearing different items of clothing; this is done to expresses their individuality and allows the audience to identity with one member. While there may be a theme amongst the album e.g. the black clothing on the JLS album or the boom boxes in The Saturdays album, they each have an individual personality that is expressed through their clothing and staging.

However, not all album covers follow the typical conventions. Some artists reject the idea of having their image on the album cover. This could be done for a few reasons; they feel the attention for their album should come from their music and not their appearance. Or it could be they would like their music to be represented by a symbol. These albums tend to be targeted at older audiences of 17-25 as they should be at the level of maturity to not to attracted to something based on its look.

The Arctic Monkeys album cover image is of sound-waves; this follows the genre of their music which is supposed to be alternative/indie; it demonstrates they're not going to be mainstream and use an image of their faces, instead they choose to be represented by that one symbol. Lorde's album cover features her name and album name on a black background. It is a very simple album cover but it has a strong meaning. This is Lorde proclaiming she is only in it for the music, you don't need to like my face or approve of the way I dress, but listen to me sing.

Back

• Track list 
• Special Features 
• Another predominant image

The back of an album usually features a lot of graphics and possibly another predominant image of the artist. The typography usually signifies the genre of the album; special fonts and colours will be used to identify the genre. 

Institutional Information 

• Price 
• Barcode
• Record Label 
• Year of publishing 
• Copyright 
• Individual track writers, composers, engineers, producers 
• A reference number
• Band members
• Guest performers 

Spine

• Name of artist 
• Title of album 
• Record Label 
• Reference number 

Inserts 

• Further institutional information for each individual track 
• Song lyrics 
• Photographs of artist 
• Thankyous 

Purpose of an Album Cover

• To protect the album
• To advertise the contents 
• Using the artistic design to reflect the creative intentions of artists
• To reflect the principles, attitudes etc of Record Label
• To stand out, to be interesting, to be eye-catching 
• To boost sales, enhance profit 
• Attracts on retail shelves 
• Enables product to be resold through different modes
• Art becomes the icon

Green Screen/ Chroma Key Exercise

In today's lesson we practiced filming with a green screen. We were taught how to set it up and given a few tips when it comes to filming with the green screen, for example, make sure the screen is fastened tightly so there are no visible creases in the cloth. We were also told that when filming, we should make sure the poles aren't in camera view. Another tip is that we should stand at least 5 paces in front of the screen, this is to decrease the chances of any shadows forming. If a shadow does appear we were told to backlight the green cloth.

Once we've finished filming we then had to edit the footage. We uploaded the footage onto Premier Pro and this is what we did:

1. Drag footage onto timeline
2. Go to video effects
3. Click on Keying
4. Go to Ultra Key
5. Drag and drop effect into the clip on the timeline
6. Double-click on the clip, look for the colour picker from the list of icons and select the colour green
7. Use the similarity tab to remove all the green from the scene
8. Then add a background onto the timeline
9. Use the blend tool to neaten the borders of the image, to give it a more professional look

Initial Ideas

As a group we decided that we wanted to create a music video for the subsection of House, 'deephouse'.

We initially decided on the song Afterglow by Wilkinson, but after some thinking we decided to change our song choice to Gecko (Overdrive) by Oliver Heldens ft Becky Hill. We made this change as we wanted to incorporate a dance routine in our music video, but the song Afterglow wouldn't cater for a dance routine, so we went for a more up beat song instead. Furthermore, Afterglow didn't have as many lyrics so it would have been difficult to create the visuals.

We wanted to create a fun and visually appealing video; to create this we are going to use a variety of locations that are filled with colour. We're going to use powder paint, different visual effects and the dance routine to create an engaging and quirky video.

I feel that we have some really good ideas for the video; we're developing a fun and interesting concept and hopefully we produce a really good video in the end. I am definitely looking forward to working with my group and I can't wait till we start filming.

 

Music Video Directors

Construction of a Pop Star-Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift has a noticeable star image. From the type of song she writes to the stories written about her in the tabloids. She is undoubtedly known for her illustrious songs about romance, boyfriends and heartaches. The songs she writes tend to be of the Pop genre, some up beat song and others more sorrowful.

She has this very typical image of this fun loving, innocent, sweet girl which she portrays in the way she dresses as well as the way she acts. As she is young herself and also due to the type of music she creates her  main target audience are young teenage girls.

All her songs and albums have the same themes of 'love', this creates a feeling of continuity. Her fans expect the same type of sounds from her albums, so in order to sell singes and keep her title of a 'star' locked-down she has to produce the same time of music.

She has managed to uphold the same image throughout her career, but as she gets older she can no longer be the 'cutesy' girl we all know her as. So she's had to mature in a lot of ways, from the way she dresses to the mood of her songs. Needless to say she still writes about love songs but she's moving on from her cheesy days, and into recovery anthems, that are very personal to her, this also allows her fan base to feel closer to Taylor.

As a young female with a roller-coaster of a personal life, the tabloids are quick to the know the ins and outs of her life as they unfold. Most of the time thats she's in the news its to do with new relationships or current ones ending. She's also had many interviews surrounding her fashion. With a female fan base as big as hers, she has to work incredibly hard to make sure she looks the best she can. This leads to magazines features on how to 'Dress like Taylor Swift' or 'Taylor Swift Style', which provides her with a lot of positive publicity. She's always on chat shows and doing TV appearances, promoting her new single or album, in the hopes of widening her fan base.

As well as being known for her music, she is also known for the numerous altercations she's had with fellow musicians, the latest one being a twitter war with Katy Perry. She expresses any differences she has with other artists in her music, which gets people talking about her songs, therefore greatening the publicity she receives. She is a true example of someone who uses any and all publicity to her advantage.

She uses social media to interact with her fan
base. Examples of the sort of platforms she uses are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. When doing live performances the presents the same image. She wears quite humble clothing, never provocative and dresses with class. She wants to look respectable but at the same time not too serious because she still has to remain appealing to her fan base of teenage girls. From the first time we saw her in 'Love Story' video with her corkscrew hair, to now having chopped it all of in her 'Shake It Off' video, her appearance in her music videos is slowly adapting in order to stay current.

This is the video for 'Love Story' the song that boosted her into stardom.

And this is her progression 5 years down the line. This is a perfect example of how stars adapt to stay current. The less than impressive dance moves in the video for 'Shake If Off' is her almost saying 'yeah I cant dance, so I'm going to be even worse than I actually so you keep talking about me'. She uses any negativity aimed at her, and uses it to her advantage.

Inspirational Music Videos

Here are a few examples of music videos that i liked the look of. They each have different elements that I would like to incorporate in my actual music video.

The first one is Bounce by Iggy Azalea. I really liked the use of bright colours and the hypnotic video effect used at 1:58.

Another video that I really liked the look of is Problem by Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea. I thought the colours used and the funky showgirl theme was very interesting. 

I also liked the video for How Ya Doin? by Little Mix ft. Missy Elliott. I liked the use of different colours to represent the individual singers. I especially liked the split screen used at 0:13. That is definitely something I would want to incorporate in my music video. I also like the use of the strobe lights on the walls. Obviously due to limits on the budget we won't be able to get something like that for our music video, but we will definitely be experimenting with lights the best we can.