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.

Group: Reflection on Audience research

After analysing our audience research last year we came to the conclusion that we need to include different strategies of gaining the data to help us mould and shape our final product to suit our target audience. Survey monkey is a good interactive way on gaining an insight into the viewers thought, however we feel the last time we use it some of our questions were rather week, thus the wording we used formed a leading question.

 

Therefore by using semantic differentials we believe we can still get back useful reliable results without forcing the audience down a certain route. It allows us to quantify opinions and gives the interviewee a scale on how much they liked or disliked an aspect of our work.

 

Furthermore there are other techniques we will use in gathering audience research such as focused groups. The focused groups are likely to consist of people we believe would be our target audience, younger males and females. They are a great way of testing our products, by understanding different opinions within the group, immediately. They also include concentrated feedback and we can ask how any improvements may be made