Group: Studio Recce

We decided to go on a recce to the studio where we are going to shoot some perfomance shots for our music video.



As you can see the studio is a blank canvas, so lighting, positioning and movement is going to be vital to create an effective look.





We've used spotlights to add that star effect in the shots although we haven't included the whole mise-en-scene, as we mainly just wanted to gain an idea how the studio feel will look.





Here is a basic shot with the use of a green screen comforming to the conventions of the genre with the male gaze breaking the fourth wall using the rule of thirds.

LF:Album Cover Analysis

     I have chosen to analyse JLS everybody in love, the genre of the track and the artist is portrayed in a very obvious fashion.

First of all the cover conforms to the typical boy band conventions as JLS are the focus of the picture and dominating the frame, furthermore the iconic signs of the city landscape in the background evokes there stardom as they are seen to be positioned above the skyline almost conveying a god like image. The most obvious of the linguistic signs is the large JLS logo with a star positioned in front of the J, once again this links with them being positioned a high above the ground as they are within touching distance of the stars and have reached the top of the music industry and are a very popular boy band.

    All four members of the boy band appear to be smiling and acting in an informal manner connoting an approachable side to the boy band. You can draw parallels between the way they are positioned in the frame and Richard Dyers first paradox where stars need to appear to be ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. First of all they seem to be wearing basic clothing and sitting around acting as though a group of normal friends would however when the viewer takes into consideration the way the linguistic signs and the background create there star image JLS then become extraordinary once again.

    The indexical sign that the JLS album cover creates is that of the younger generation who listen to mainstream popular culture music. Certain social myths are created that young men in society should conform to the physical aspects of JLS of being good looking and athletic. In my opinion the album cover connoted JLS as a promoting tool for there own success.

JI: Album Analysis

Here I have looked at and deconstructed a JLS album cover ‘Outta This World’. They are one of the most recent, iconic boy bands around at the moment with a huge following so we our group can relate to this album cover when producing our own digipak.



The genre of the album is clear with the main focus being the group in the centre of the image which connotes a pop star image which is related to a successful pop boy band which features in the charts. The linguistic logo of the band also supports this by portraying the band image with the bright white ‘JLS’ logo connoting their stardom along with the star and the title ‘Outta This World’, giving the impression the band are up amongst the stars of the music industry. Also the curved flowing font adds a more feminine look which appeals to their predominant female target audience, which fits with the genre of the boy band music style however the black background brings back the masculine feel.

The male gaze which they show is a feature of breaking the fourth wall to the audience to create the feel of the two paradoxes which Dyer mentions, about being ordinary and extraordinary at the same time to their fans and also present but not present.

The mise-en-scene within the cover creates their stylish image which is iconic and adds their appeal factor to their target audience, with their artificial look and sexual magnetisation making them idolised by others creating them to be a product which is used as a marketing tool to attract audiences. The indexical sign which the boy band creates from this cover is that you are in to mainstream boy band music and in reach with your emotions which combined create the social myth that fans of JLS are predominantly female.

Their non verbal language with the strong stance and serious look creates another image to the group compared to the lively boy band image they also portray which could be related of the type of tracks on the album being love songs and emotion filled.



The text on the back follows the theme of the front cover with the starry perception.

Album Cover Analysis

I looked at the following image (Above) for my album cover analysis , the single ''Lightning'' only just released by the boy band ''The Wanted''.

The fact the image has been so recently constructed is good because it shows us how the most recent portrayals are still being designed to create a contemporary star image that is effective in marketing the product (the band).

Richard Dyer identifies a number of factors needed in creating a successful star image , the following are included in the album cover above:

Youthfulness - All of the band members are young

Sexual Magnetism - All of the members are good looking,perceived as attractive

Conspicuous Consumption (Consistent trend setting , Male Fashion).

The band members themselves are enforcing the homogenised view of masculinity in toady's media. They are good looking , physically athletic and all share the same male gaze into the camera, breaking the fourth wall and engaging with there audience. The facial expression suggests they are being voyeuristic in the way they wished to be perceived , as a sexually desired group of young men.

Iconic signs within the cover include the mise-en-scene , the fact they are stood behind a metal gate. This conveys the idea that they are locked away from their audience, unobtainable and unreachable by there female fans. Mise-en-scene like this makes the audience feel like they are engaging with them,despite the seemingly closed off distance between them and the band.

Looking at the juxtaposition of the text to the image , it is clear the text ''The Wanted'' covers, horizontally, all the members of the band , clearly suggests they are the ''Wanted''. The fact this text is so central is iconic of boy band album covers, boy bands often have a font that sets them apart from other bands and they use this to brand their own image, making the font a marketing tool that is synonymous with the band itself.

The band members are all wearing coherant and ,more or less, matching clothing. This is a convention of boy bands and also helps market the band as a product. If they all look the same, it becomes easier to associate members of the band with each other. Saying this, it is important to keep the band members 'individual' within the context of the band itself. This can be done by giving members percieved personalities e.g the cute one , the badboy. This is also important in upholding Dyers first paradox '' The star must simultaneously be ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer''. Even though they are popstars , they must not loose their ''personality''.

This album cover re-reinforces social myths that ''The Wanted'' construct in their music videos. They are good looking, seen to be good with women and more importantly are seen to be in touch with their ''Feminine Side'', suggested by the fact their songs are about love and relationships, and how well they treat women.

The indexical sign that 'The Wanted' create is that their audience listens to mainstream pop, is into current 'modern' music and is very much a consumer of other 'mainstream' bands and artists.

Group 9: Pitch

Group 9 pitch

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Our concept in one sentence

'' A group of friends go up to London for the day , one member has recently broken up with his girlfriend and his mates plan a day for him to forget his heartbreak''.

10/10/12 - Update

Today was a very successful lesson as we have built a solid foundation of what we want our video to look like and have come up with some very interesting shots. We are working very hard on the pitch which is due on Thursday, and hopefully we can get the go ahead to start filming!

Print Work Brief - Group

We have just been briefed about our next task , designing print work for our own album. This task includes creating a digipak , and two advertisments in a magazine. We have decided that James will create the digipak while Luca and I will create advertisiments but designed for different magazines targetting different audiences.

We already have some initial idea's about what we plan to do , but need some time to research more conventions of boyband print work. We will also need to carry out a print work analysis which will include :
- Genre
- Media Language
-Representation
- Institution and audience

We are throughly excited about some initial idea's we have , especially our digipak

Brighton Recce Reflection

Given the quality of the photos Luca and James have posted I think it is evident how successful we found the Brighton recce. The photos demonstrate that we have thought about themes and conventions consistent in boyband videos , especially with some of our glamourous posing.

Before the actual trip we were told we were required to shoot a range of shots that were meant to offer some inspiration as to what to include in our actual music video. These shots included :

-Sped up time shot

-POV
-360 Degree shot

-Tracking shot

-Low Angle shot

- Variety of Close ups

We completed all of these shots , with alot of extra practice footage that im sure gave us valuable experience in how to frame our shots. An example of the experience we gathered was that when we shot our sped up shot , we did so in a very public area. This was in Brightons shopping centre , thus , security were not very happy when they saw that we were filming someone standing still in the middle of a public area (they most likely thought we planned to do something). We were asked to leave , however after having gone through this experience it is evident we need to take public consideration into account before shooting any shots.