Editing Our Footage

Last Monday myself and Yas filmed the newest shot sequences for our music video. The quality of the footage is substantially higher in terms of lighting, costume, angles, timing and general camera work, however due to the lack of tripods some shots are a bit shaky. Myself and harry have manged to order the footage to make a base for our video. I believe that we will definitely have a rough cut of our music video completed by half term.

Album Art Analysis

Cheryl Cole "Messy Little Raindrops"

The overall aesthetic of the album cover connotes materialistic and commercial ideologies along with glamorous imagery to create specific emphasis on the iconography of the artist, their personal ideals, beliefs/interests and ultimately indicates at the institutional context of the music label. 

The font style used illuminates on the commercially orientated imagery on the cover through its fluidity and delicate/elaborate style (it could be suggested that the font type used is purposely intends to mimic handwriting). The styling of the artist also communicates ideologies of wealth, possession and self adoration; the leopard print Christian Loboutin high-heeled shoes (notorious for their craftsmanship and high-price) represent glamour, but could also indicate at an animistic obsession or desire for an idealised life brimming with wealth, fame and prosperity. 

The pose of the artist reinforces the idea of self-adoration and could signify an appeal to an audience demographic of admiration seekers or materialists. The artist adopts a pose that showcases her body and also the structure of the clothing - iconography that shows that the artist is very commercially orientated. It is clear that the artist has knowledgeable insight into the world of fashion due to the exclusivity of her clothing, the way the dress is sculptured, to the way she purposely manipulates her pose in order to expose the dress' best elements. The pose is however considerably masculine, which portrays the artist's desire to be taken seriously - this goes against mainstream album cover conventions, and the 21st century portrayal of women as symbols of vanity and sexual desire. Despite this, the bright fuschia and orange colours of the dress show a hesitance to let go of her femininity and fun-loving nature. 

The glamorised image of the artist is blurred which could indicate at deeper and more complex issues surrounding the general perception of the artist and the stereotypical ideals she represents. We can learn from the title of the album cover that the artist aspires convey more depth to her persona; she wants people to see the real her - not only the professional and driven side, but the more sensitive side. "Messy little raindrops" alludes to a sense of ambiguity. The curtain could represent the recent turbulence in her life, and ultimately, a longing to see beyond the messy raindrops. It could be argued that the messy raindrops are a metaphor for the washing away of her past and the emotional baggage that comes with it, and ultimately the artist embarking towards a new beginning/a new chapter in her life. 

The Wanted

The aesthetic of this album cover follows a colour scheme of increasingly dark tonal variations. Black usually connotes mystery, sophistication and darkness, whereas grey being a mid tone suggests ambiguity and obscurity. 

The font type used is prominent and bold to ensure the name of the band stands out. The fact that the members of the band are each dressed in black ensures that the album cover is not visually distracting for consumer audiences; thus ensuring that all attention is focused on the faces of the band members, and on the title of the album. The fact that the band are dressed in the same colours could indicate at a sense of unity - a bond between them. This in turn creates specific emphasis on the ideals and beliefs of the band-members, their iconography but also reveals a substantial degree about the institutional context of the music label. 

The music label are obviously keen to present their artist(s) as a new breed of boy band. The minimalistic setting reflects the 21st century trend of minimalism in both fashion and arcitecture, and overall theme of the album cover suggests a serious, business-minded and professional nature. 

Each band member stares directly into the camera which asserts their sense of authority and serious nature; this could even suggest that a visually intruiging album cover is not of real signifigance to the band: that they want to focus soley on promoting their music. One band member however, situated at the back of the image, evidently looks in a different direction to the other band members. This could reflect a differing ideolology or moral from the band member, or could even indicate a difference in the individuals personality or talent. 

Analysis of "S&M" Rihanna

Cultural Context 

• Rihanna's latest music video has been dubbed one of the most controversial music videos of 2011. The video is an example of post-modernism, representing social constructs and objective truths, but also exemplifies the sadomasochist movement/ideologies.
• Rihanna highlights the pleasure she takes in the infliction of pain or humiliation upon another person (whereas where masochism is pleasure taken in receiving the pain) through a comical parody of the codes and conventions of music videos of the 21st century . Throughout the video, Rihanna delivers pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting or submitting to physical or emotional abuse. 

Issues and Debates

• The main issue surrounding the music video is that persons who watch/use the video to communicate with one another would need a substantially informed or sophisticated understanding of the context and issues raised within the video such as sadomasochism and objectification through vanity and sexuality. 
• Age restrictions have been imposed upon the music video, and it has also been banned in 11 countries across the globe in order to prevent consumer audiences being susceptible to such controversial and thought-provoking imagery. The complexities surrounding the age restrictions is that the restrictions themselves are very easy to work around/defy. Authorities therefore perpetuate the video by undermining it.
•  The restrictions increase the percent of viral marketing - in a sense the more people are told not to watch the video, the more people will want to watch it. 
• Through viral marketing techniques through websites such Youtube, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter Rihanna will broaden her fanbase, reaching out to aspirational and admiration seekers, but also to anti-authority rebels. 
• Another issue is that Rihanna's fanbase consists of many young girls, especially teen and pre-teen: they look up to her as she is a dominant force/presence within the music industry. Will this result in them trying to adopt the new found, sexually promiscuous and ecsentric ways?

Costume and Mis-en-scene

• Rihanna's aesthetic is promiscous where most of her outfits are revealing, or made out of perspex/pvc material which have predomiantly sexual connotations. 
• Much of the mis-en-scene and costume is hypo-exaggerated/hyperbolic. For example the fuschia and white patterning on the walls of the room in the opening sequence, also the popping turquoise colours of the walls when the artist is being dragged to the "press conference" and ultraviolet makeup.
• Rihanna's hair is of a vibrant red colouring and a juxtaposing of characters is created through the styling of her hair an costume; where we see a more refined and presentable rihanna in a floor length gown with groomed hair, contrasted with a wild rihanna with "afro" style hair, dressed in a crop top with "censored" written across it, dark blue trousers and fur scarves draped around her neck. Rihanna also has a crown on her head. 
• The fact that Rihanna is behind a perspex/transparent plastic wall during a press conference could indicate at her being trapped or her internal ideologies and morals being prevented from being revealed to the outside world. The ideologies and imagery conveyed by Rihanna is evidently viewed as corrupt through the words inscribed in "newspaper article style/font type" on her dress.
• The reporters and journalists also wear conventional clothing associated with the sadomasochist movement.
• Props feature whips, tape and modern/surrealist furniture to create the illusion of a fictional/fantasy world
• The idea that the video is a parody of the conventions of modern day movement, and in parallel sadomasochism, is highlighted through the artist's use of celebrities from the present day media spectrum. For example, when Rihanna appears with a man dressed in pink and white clothing (along with traditional elements of sadomasochist aesthetic) on a lead, audiences will recognise that the man on the lead is in fact Perez Hilton, an American celebrity gossip columnist. 

Editing

• The editing techniques used are useful in conveying Rihanna's transition from an illusive and delusional state to reality. The editing style frequently features focusing and de-focusing to create a movement between two worlds. 

My feelings so far about shooting

I have been thinking about the productivity of our shooting and have arranged a meeting with the members of my group, Yasmine and Harry, to discuss their theories and feelings about how successful the shooting process was, the productivity of our group so far, and also the quality of the footage we have produced. From the meeting, we have conclusively decided that it would be more efficient if I were to lip sync in the music video footage as the shooting will take place at my house, and I also know the lyrics to the song (this would ensure accuracy in the lip syncing process as we will not have to teach another person the lyrics). This would also increase our groups productivity and organisation skills. Therefore we have agreed to arrange to shoot new footage within the next few days.

Shooting

Last night myself and Harry shot various sequences from our original storyboards. We shared the camera work and music timing tasks, I also did the styling, hair and makeup. We asked our friend from school, Joanne Pride, to be our actress. We have planned to do more shooting in the commencing week.

Album covers research

Nicki Minaj "Pink Friday"

I have decided to deconstruct Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday as I feel it is not only visually interesting, but how the album unconventially differs from the aesthetic and visual elements of other albums deriving from the American rap/R&B genre.

• The images used focus solely on the aesthetic of the artist. The central focus on the front of the album cover is a shot of the arist in elaborate clothing, accentuated by a mass of delicate pink mesh creating a tutu effect around the waist of the artist, which then stands stuctured behind her.

• The background colour of the cover is soft pink, as are the artists shoes, outfit, lipstick. Even the artist's hair is a shade of eye-popping bubble gum pink. This cleverly reflects not only the name of the album, but conveys the unique style, personality and artistic style of the artist.

• The combination of white and pink on the cover connotes the ideology of innocence, youthfulness and fun; the pink and white reminds me of sweets and all things feminine. This could be representative of the message of which the artist wishes to convey about her music and her personal sense of style, personality and outlook on life. It could also indicate at the demographic of audience she wishes to appeal to.

• The bold font used reflects the importance of the artist herself, but could also be symbolic of the genre of music and the bold/significant statements of which she makes in her work. The delicate pink writing is juxtaposed with this to create a clash of femininity, sexual empowerment and the female gender's professional ability and capability witting a modern day context.

• A poster of the artist is included in the inside sleeve of the album which could suggest that the artist wishes to be portrayed in a mode sexually appealing manner. She adopts provocative stances in each image, therefore appealing to a male audience. However the elements of femininity and inpirational collaborations of the latest fashion trends with futuristic embellishments indicates a female demographic of admiration seekers, materialists and anti-authority rebels.

• The inside sleeve also serves the function of allowing the artist to thank all those who have helped her on her journey to success

• The front cover also displays the symbol for notifying consumers of explicit content wich reinforces the idea that the artist appeals to an older demographic of audience. This contrasts immediately with the overall theme and content of the album cover: even though the artist essentially focuses on delicacy and felinity in her personal presentation and aesthetic, the symbol highlights the clutching onto her american rap/ R&B roots.

• The tracks on the album are quite controversial. One song in particular named "I'm The Best" comments on sexual empowerment and in parallel the artist's aspirations to become an inspirational role model for women who have the ability to achieve, but have never let themselves believe it due to restraints imposed by the modern world "I'm fighting for the girls that never thought they could win, Cause before they could begin, you told them it was the end, but I am here to reverse the curse that they live in".

• It is evident that Nicki Minaj is keen to sever the restrictions that stereotypical perceptions impose, such as the ideology that to be a successful rapper you have to be male, or masculine. By communicating her feminine aesthetic and juxtaposing it with her ability to rap and produce controversial music, it creates a whole new appeal to a niche demographic of audience.

Stage 2 Album Covers Research

The typical features of album covers are:

• Name of the artist
• Track Listings on the back cover
• Price/Bar code on back 
• Intriguing and thought-provoking image to entice a certain demographic of audience
• Often an image of the artist/band is the central focus of the album cover
• Name of the album/single on the front

How the genre of album covers categorises them, and the ways of distinguishing between them other than generically:

• There are specific indications from the font style used (i.e a joined, swirled writing could indicate a female audience, whereas distressed block writing, or messy writing could suggest a more indie/rock interested audience, or the demographic of anti-authority rebels)
• If an image of the artist is used it could suggest that the artist appeals to a more mainstream audience. However, if another image is used that is not directly associated with the artist, it could be suggested that the artist appeals to another demographic of audience
• Colour schemes also indicate at the demographic of audience the artist wants to appeal to. For example soft colours appeal to a more mainstream audience i.e baby and soft pinks appealing to an audience predominantly of the female gender. Where florescent colours could indicate an older demographic of audience,  such as the late teens to twenties who are far more drawn to consume from the club/dance/electro genre

Album covers serve many different functions, such as:

• To convey and communicate meaning, beliefs and particular ideologies that are specific to the audience, the record label etc
• To present the artist as a marketable and profitable "brand"
• To appeal to a specific demographic of audience and their fan base
•  To promote the record label so it is instantly recognisable to the consumer audience
• To coney the style/aesthetic of the artist 
• To covey/indicate at the genre/style of music that the album contains.