Expanding On Location: Drama Studio

Aswell as the location for my print work photograph we have some ideas about using the drama studio to film some close ups of members of the band. We plan to position the band in front of a black screen with lighting infront of them to highlight their face. Light in this instance will be used for increasing clarity and showing the emotion on each band members face. The studio also gives us a range of different lighting effects and is not subject to weather conditions. This diverse alteration in light allows us to play around with the mood of the shot, for example, we dont want to end up cutting to a dim and cloudy shot in London followed by a very brightly lit studio indoors.


The photo above is the most similar actual album cover I can find that is roughly the same as what I want to photograph. Obviously I plan to take a photo of the band in a studio but the darkness in the background and the concentration on the star is perfect in terms of what I am aiming for. Our clothing will differ since we are conforming to a different genre but the posture is also similar to the positions we want to achieve.

Technically, to achieve the picture I desire, I will have a slow shutter speed to allow sufficient light to be captured on the image. The light is important as it gives the image good shadow and increases the effect of highlighting certain features of the band. The light behind them also signifies stardom and is synonymous with stage performances (spotlights).

JI: Process

Due to pre commitments our group were not available to do any shooting in the half term period, which is evident through the lack of posts on our blog. However planning was still involved, with the storyboarding now finished a vision of our video is now evident to us. This will now allow us to produce a animatic which will progress our production even further meaning a full shoot date will be planned in period 5 today.

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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