MAGAZINE ADVERT

The magazine advert features the cage as it is a signature part to the video and is featured on the front of the album cover, it shows the connection to the band and the advert. The writing is very simple and to the point. Having our main singer in a hot point attracts attention. Most of the poster is dark but having our lead singer wearing white immediately draws your eye towards the poster and your eye is the lead round and to the singer from the tour dates that create vertical and horizontal lines down the page. The red writing saying, ‘book now’ also draws your eye toward the poster and as it is on a hot point it is one of the first things that you notice and that catches your eye.

DIGI PACK

Our Digi pack was created to be very simple but have a lot of symbolism and underpinning meaning. We added smoke to add to the ethereal feel of our song and set the atmosphere of the type of singer that she is. It is a very simple and plain front cover as we wanted it to have mystery and not give too much away. The cage is empty and surrounded by nothing as this makes it look very lonely which is a theme that is echoed throughout the video. The title of the band is also in very simple lettering as it again creates a sense of mysteriousness as it then makes it difficult for the audience to see what kind of band they might be and it leaves them eager to find out. The lighting is also low and it creates shadows around the cage, reinforcing a sense of mystetry and the feeling of entrapment.





The Inside of our album cover is a lot more stylised with intricate detail in comparison to our two outer covers. The lyrics are printed to the song of our music video all along the inside. Our main singer is also featured as she then gives the song a bigger selling point, she looks very vulnerable yet simple and this gives off the idea that she is very relatable to and not threatening. Her face also appears in the bottom left hand corner in a very faded and out of focus form which also echoes the diffused glow that we used in our pop video. The inside is more detailed yet it is very clear much like our other two covers. Her face is on the two hot points of the rule of thirds stressing her importance to the band. And the lines of the lyrics lead your eye across the page. The colours of the layout are also quite muted and monochromatic so as to enforce the simple feel of the album cover, they also do not distract your eye and it creates a very un-chaotic out come even with all the detail of the lyrics and music.




The back cover is very similar to the front cover as it is simple and has the empty cage on it which gives the idea of emptiness or loneliness which is what a lot of our video portrays. The names of the songs on the album are also featured which gives the viewers more insight into the band and what their style is. The record label is featured with the title on the hot points to enforce their important ness and the layout is simple so as not to distract from the main image. The lighting is very dark and the cover is 30% black and it in forces the ideas that something is being hidden, and this is what most the song is about, secrets and underlying things which are not said.

BLOG TASK ONE . IN WHAT WAYS DO YOUR MEDIA PRODUCTS USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Two videos that have many of the similar conventions and ideas as mine do are Pink’s video, ‘please don’t leave me’ and Priscilla Ahn's video ‘Dream’. These both have very non naturalistic elements to them and have a very dream like quality to them. They each create their own world and play on the psyche of the audience, much like our video does. They all follow the convention to disregard realism. Both the videos, ‘please don’t leave me’ and ‘dream’ have subverted many ordinary conventions, like cutting a few seconds after the beat and keep the camera on an obscure angle creating a unique pop video. Another convention these video's follow much like our video is the Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography throughout the video. Both of these video's also have specific lighting that creates mood and atmosphere much like ours does. We also used after effects to create a diffused glow to add to the mystical atmosphere of our video, as the other two video's do to.

For our pop video we researched and analysed the major conventions of a pop video in order to gain more knowledge on pop video conventions we researched Keith Negus pop video conventions which are.
-The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption
-The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)
-A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement
-Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)
-A possible narrative structure
-A possible performance element
-The flexibility to disregard Realism!
-Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track
-Use of special effects (lighting, animation, CGIs, in-camera effects)
-A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track
-High impact instantly! (Don’t forget that competition for airplay on the main music channel outlets is intense)
Each of these began to influence our pop video in some way. We also followed Barthes theory of Plasir where we looked to imitate conventions in order to give the audience expected pleasure. We also began to subvert conventions in order to give jouissance, which as Barthes explains is the unexpected for the audience, and when the two are together they create the perfect balance in a pop video.

We also explored variouse pop videos by bands and singer who had ethereal songs or images similar to our band. These included Beyonce's 'Halo', the early Bjork videos and 'Yellow Submarine' and variouse other Beatles short films that go with their psychedelic songs.

The message in our song can be portrayed in many different ways. It can be seen as a video all about guilt and secrets as the lyrics clearly state in the song, the cage also may be seen as what is caging her in, her seacrets. She is unable to escape or break free from them, they are caging her in. The bird cage may also be seen as an extended metaphor of the girl’s psyche, as she does not sing for the first part of the song it gives the impression that it may all be going on inside her head. It lets the audience into her thoughts. It has many different interpretations. The cage may also be seen as the society that we live in, which she has been trapped or caged in by and she is trying to break free from. The cage also gives us the idea that she is constantly being observed by someone or something as people will watch an animal in a cage.The image and brand of singer has a sense of mystery and a dreamlike quality to it. Our singer seems lost or struggling and this gives off a very vulnerable feel to her although she is trying to break out toward the end, it also begins to create an air of frustration and strength to her. The ethereal atmosphere that surrounds her creates the mood of our singer and what the reset of the song may entail. The opening shot of our video is an abnormal one which subverts many conventions, this immediately shows us what type of singer she is. It is also a high angled shot and so we are introduced to her from an angle that makes her look inferior, again, making her look vulnerable, her clothes and her appearance also make her look rather innocent and this adds a certain attraction to her and the song.


Negus’s conventions are easily displayed throughout our video in many different ways. We either imatate or subvert them but never ignore them. His convention to have ‘The flexibility to disregard Realism’ is what most of our video is surrounded by as it has a very dreamlike and non naturalistic quality to it.
This image portrays that convention as not only is our lead singer in a giant bird cage but the fact that she is not singing gives us the idea that the images are all being played out in her head and we are almost part of her imagination. When the feathers begin to fall it also asks the question whether it is an act of naturalism, if she has killed the bird and its feathers are falling or if they are all in her imagination. Each one of these shots disregards realism.





The opening shot subverts many of Negus’s conventions as it gives the audience the unexpected because often a video will start by establishing the band or singer in a powerful way and let the audience know what is still to come for the rest of the pop video. But this image subverts the expected, as it begins with high angled shot which makes her look vulnerable. She is also on a spinning swing which could also be used as a metaphor for her life, it is spinning out of control and she is unable to stop it, or gain control of it.



Our Digi pack was created to be very simple but have a lot of symbolism and underpinning meaning.We added smoke to add to the ethereal feel of our song and set the atmosphere of the type of singer that she is. It is a very simple and plain front cover as we wanted it to have mystery and not give too much away. The cage is empty and surrounded by nothing as this makes it look very lonely which is a theme that is echoed throughout the video. The title of the band is also in very simple lettering as it again creates a sense of mysteriousness as it then makes it difficult for the audience to see what kind of band they might be. The digi pack, like the magazine advert, follows the rule of thirds by having the key words on the first hot point and the mysetery of the empty swing on the fourth hot point. We also use the idea of black and white connoting art to build up the idea of ouor singer as an artist not just a pop star.