Ideas for Band and Album Name

Ideas for Band Name:

• The Others
• Incorporated
• Unsigned
• Unwritten
• GS Boys

 Ideas for Album Name:

• Progressed
• Explained
• Self - Titled
• Incorporated
• Unknown

As a group, we decided that among all the ideas that the Band Name should be 'Incorportated' as it gives a meaning of the boy band. The word itself means combined. Therefore, it relates to the members due to the fact that the boys have come together to create a band. 


For the abulm name, we decided that 'Self-Titled' would suit best. The reasoning for this is that it creates different peoples interpretations of what the meaning is, as its so basic. It can draw the audience in with the meanings of the titles.

Analysis - Front Cover of the Digi Pack

For the front cover of the digi pack, we used a brick wall for the background for a number of reasons. Firstly, to follow the sterotype; many front covers for boy bands have a plan background to draw more attention to the members. Another reason, is that it represents the personalities of the band in general. The personalty being casual and easy to approach with the hint of having different sides to the members. 

I chose the boys being dressed in suits, this is again to follow sterotype as the members are all dressed simillar. This makes the bands audience appeal to young teenage girls but also older wemon as they are dressed 'smart casual.' However, they all each wearing something different e.g glasses hoocked on one of the members belt or without a suit jacket. The reasoning for this, is to create indiviuality and different personailties within the band.

Their sightlines are not facing the camera, to make the false impression that they are not aware of the picture being taken. Each individual member is standing in a different postion, this is to create the appearance that they are different and individual. 

Using photoshop, I decided that the background should be in black and white, to create the authentic look. In turn, it makes the band seem more approachable to the auidence as the overall image seems 'softer'. 

As a group, we chose the band and abulm name which will connect to the band and their audience. After a process of ulimation, we came up with the idea of 'Incorparated.' This means together or combined. The reason we chose this for the band name is that it signifies that the members all came together to create a boy band in which they now all work together as one.

With the abulm name we deiced that 'Self-Titled' would be the best name as its unique. The title is basic which allows the audicene to portary the name as they wish.

On the back cover of the digi pack, we have included the legal requirements that are needed for the album.

However, I believe that we could have improved our digi pack by two things. On the back cover, the writing that we selected is red, with this colour against the background, its not clearly visible.

With the colour of the font, another thing that I beleive would have improved our digi pack is the image on the back cover. It was the same as the front with an affect over the top. Although this connects both the front and back cover together, I feel that another image altogether could give the audience a wider varity.

Planning for the Digi Pack

Before we take pictures for the digi pack, I had to decide what will be needed before the 'photo shoot' that would finally be used the front cover of the digi pack. I had to decide where the band would be and what they were wearing; along with the camera position and sight lines. I decided that I would take the pictures of the 'Boy Band' in front of a brick wall of or with the boys sitting on the stairs. They would be wearing suits so that they are all simillar. The sight lines will either be looking at the camera or away to add depth to the image. When the image is taken, I decided that I would use photoshop to chage the background of the orignal photo to make it black and white; following the sterotypes of a boy band.

Digi Pack Cover

The image below is the final picture of the 'Boy Band' to go on the front cover of the digi pack:

 

We chose the same image but edited the image on photoshop to create a different effect for the back cover:

Prezi - Planning of Digi Pack

To explain all my ideas for the Digi Pack that I have to create, I decided to use 'Prezi' to show visually what my thoughts for the Digi Pack are.

http://prezi.com/irc57xo6yx18/edit/

Mise en Scene - Music Video

Rick Astley - 'Never going to give you up'

I broke down the first 30 seconds of this music video for anaysis, in which I studied the all the different details and elements of what was contained in the music video. In the post before, I gathered all the camera angles and the cutting rate, however in this post I concentrated on the mise on scene of what the actors in the video was wearing. 

The first shot with the artist (filmed in the room with the windows as the background) 

• Shirt with stripey jumper with a dark blazer 
• White (cream) trousers and a brown belt 
• Black formal shoes

•  The background of this shot, is a large window, almost like a stain glass window with him being the only currant one in the room with a mic. 

The second shot  with the artist (Outside in front of arches)

• Black Polo neck with black trousers and belt
• Black formal shoes
• Trench coat

• The actor is outside at night, with the background being stone arches 

The first shot with the female

• LBD (little black dress) 
• Blonde hair

The third shot with the artist (standing in front of a wire gate)

• Light blue shirt with light denim jeans
• Ray Ban glasses

• The background of this shot is that he is standing in front of a wire fence, again with only him being the only one involved in the shot. He doesnt have anything else with him (props) apart from his Ray Bans glasses

The second shot with another female 

• Light, colourful shift dress
• blonde hair 
• Ray Ban glasses

Planning of a Music Video - Rick Astley

Rick Astley - 'Never Going To Give You Up'





Extreme close up - Face and mic
1 second


Medium shot - Waist up 
1 second


Close up - Tapping shoe
2 seconds


Medium close up - Waist up 
1 second


Close up - Waist up
3 seconds


Close up - Face and mic
2 seconds


Close up - Waist up
3 seconds


Close up - Face (Change of scene)
1 second


Long shot - Whole body
2 seconds


Long shot - Zoom out
1 second


Close up - Lady dancing from behind 
3 seconds


Long shot - Dancing (change of scene) 
1 second


Side angle - Dancing in front fence
1 second


Long shot of clip before - Zooming in and around
3 seconds


Close up and zooming out - girl dancing
3 seconds


Zooming in on man outside
2 seconds

Stars As Text - Richard Dyer

Stars as text: Richard Dyer

To understand how stars are created we looked at Richard Dyer as he introduced the idea that stars are created to attract the audience which can almost be a different person to the artist themselves. 

He began to explain that stars are not a 'product of some unique, magical quality' but someone that a star that relates to their audience by different means, like class, gender and race. Richard Dyer beleives that artists are created as stars to reach out to a wider audience (not purley for individual tastes) rather than being minpluated through the music industry.  

Richard Dyer argued that the attraction to the stars is reliant on the image they protray. For example Marilyn Monroe's image gained the image of female sexuatily and feminity - sex appeal and innocence. This attracted a majority of the male audience due to the sex appeal but also gained female 'fans' due her feminity and inspiration.

Dyer argued strongly that the stars' image that was created was constructed in such a way to attract a wider range of audience. Almost like a 'fake' personality was created for the artist, in which we call this the 'star'. However, he also believed that the performer had to develop the persona of the image that was created for them. The 'star' had to be more than just visual for the audience, the persona (interests and meanings) are taken into account to create a star  

Conventions of a Boy Band

For the task of designing a digi pack for the genre 'boy band' I researched the conventions to gather a further understanding of how to create my own. 'Boy Bands' only consist of only male singers which perform very highly choreographed performances. Their music aims at teenagers, however they do attract women around 30s and 40 year olds.
They concentrate mainly at the image that is created for their band; dress, promotional materials (magazines) and music videos. Each member is created to have a distinguished image and personal stereotype.
For the album cover, they tend to all wear similar outfits, normally suits. The outfits that they wear are normally dark colours; black and grey or white which contrasts from the previous colours. The hair style can also be very important when creating the image for the album cover.
The most well known 'boy bands' consist of 'West Life' 'The Backstreet Boys' and 'Take that'

Analysis of a CD Cover - Nicki Minaj

We were asked to analyse a CD Cover using the new media language terms that we learnt to understand the hidden signs that is involved in creating the image of the artist. I chose the artist 'Nicki Minaj' with her CD 'Pink Friday' (image below)

Denotation - The artist is in the middle of the CD Cover dressed all in pink, with pink hair and background. She has feather/Wings that cover her back in a lighter pink, contrasting with the bring colour of her hair, which is also pink. The shoes that she is wearing are pink platforms that draw attention to the length of her legs.

Connotations: -

• The mise en scene is all pink, relating to the title of the artists album, however, there is a range of shades of pinks, this could mean that she is unpredicatable and there are a varity of different sides to her as an artist 
• The feathers/wings could be a hidden meaning that she is elegant and pure, with a relation to angles and fairies. However, due to the fact that they are not the usual shape for these magical creatures wings, this could mean that she is individual and has a sharp edge to her
• Pink hair could mean that she is bold and unique, something that her fans could signify as her 
• The length of her legs have been extended, with the shine to make the appareance of 'Barbie'. The platforms draw attention to her the length of her legs with the height of the shoes. 
• The position of that Nicki is sitting in and the focus of her chest, adds sex appeal to the artist
• The word 'Pink' on the abulm, adds to the theme of Barbie, with the font well known to wemon as being a product of Barbie
• With the label of partential permission, means that she is aimed at teenagers and above, due to the lyrics of her music

Media Language Learnt Terms

During our first lesson for A2 media studies, we were given a sheet with all the media language terms that will be needed to be learnt for the course. There were a number of terms that orginally I wasn't famillar with (stated below) however, over the last few weeks, we were set the task to learn the vocabulary that we each individually didd't know. Below are the terms that I didn't know, along with their meanings:

Denotation - What is litterally in the picutre

Connotation - The different interpertations which might be associated with the picutre  

Phonemes - Units of sound, in this context a deliberate misspelling (wot instead of what)

Treatment Signs - The detail and how it affects our understanding of the meaning of the image

Content Signs - the mise en scene and how it communicates a message

Anchoring - Text or explanation of the image

Archetypes - Typical versions of, for example, masculinity or feminity, or sorts of person

Symbols - A picture that has a significance of meaning beyond that literal