Digipak: One down, Five to go!

In todays session me and my group completed one of the six sides of the digipak. This is the back of the digipak. On this side it contains the track-list of songs which would be on the disc. We have included a track-list as we discovered during our digipak research, it is a vital ingredient which must be included on all digipaks. The font used is a fun and informal font. This is because the style of the band is to have fun, parody etc and a formal font wouldn't be right for the band. The track "daddy" is a reference to one of the band members, as his father walked out on him at a young age.

Here is a screen shot of the side.

Digipak planning : idea and Digipak mock up

Today as part of the planning process of our Digipak , we are designing a mock Digipak. We we doing this to see how our idea's will look in photoshop, the software we use to create our Digipak.

Our idea


Our idea is to have a kind of 'mix up' of a different body parts on the front cover of our Digipak. It wil have our band members head , then other people's/creatures torso and legs. We are doing this as it relates to the band name , The Midnight Beasts.
On the inside, we were going to use some still images however we have changed our minds because we do not think it will look good. Instead we are going to take an image from our idea and stretch it across the three inside panels.

Here is our sample front cover.

At this stage it doesn't look exactly how we want it as the ban members are standing together, whereas we intend to have each person deprecate . Making it easier to 'mix up' the body parts.

Now we have an idea of how we are going to do our proper digipak.

Digipak: Research Into Our idea

Today we are beginning to create our Digipak.
We are surfing the internet to find images for our idea's , being a mix up of images.

No results

Unfortunately there were no images which represented our idea. So we will attempt to make a mock up of the digipak to give us a basic idea of how it will look.

Magazine Advert: Finished Booty Call Magazine Advert

Here is the magazine advert I have created for The Midnight Beast - Booty Call

Magazine Advert: Changes to Magazine Advert

Today, i am making some changes to the magazine. After examining the photo of the band, the image contains some of the back drop of the drama department. This, in my opinion, makes the magazine advert appear amateurish.

Instead i am going to open up that image four times, and use the magnetic tool to crop around the image i want to make it more crisp and to irradiate the back drop.

After doing the first section, it does appear to be a lot more professional and accurate.

Magazine Advert: Creating our Magazine advert

Today I began creating our magazine advert. To make the group more productive, i decided that i shall work on the advert to make sure we finish our project in time. I used the same font that we used in the digipak. I have done this so a link can be made instantly between the digipak and the magazine advert, as the advert is promoting the album 'booty call' , which is why we are creating a digipak.

I will be using adobe photoshop to create the magazine advert. On the advert I will intend to include the following ;

• photo of the band
• album name
• album release date
• magazine reviews
• band information, i.e website, gig dates
• production label

I will include these specific things because from my previous research into magazine adverts, these are the essential pieces of information that were present on every magazine side i studied and looked at.

In todays period I got to upload the image of the band

In addition to this i also inserted the artists name and the name of the album.

Magazine Advert: Reaching My Target Audience

This morning I added several pieces of information which is a essential part of a magazine advert.
I have added two reviews , by Time Out and The Guardian.

In The Guardian, it will be covered by The Guide, a saturday supplement. The Guide is an entertainment guide which cover's gigs, new album releases, films and other forms of media texts. By having the review in The Guide, it will aid us in our objective to increase our target audience as The Guardian is manly read by more 'young professional'. The typical age range is 25-40, which on average have a higher disposable income level. This means that this audience will be MORE likely to purchase the album because they will be able to afford it.

Time Out is very similar to The Guardian, however the Time Out is more of an international article. This will also help us broaden our target audience and increase our sales as by using the Time Out, the album can be read about in foreign countries. This will provide readers with an interest in the album, making them want to buy the product, increasing the overall sales of the product.

London Edition

New York Edition

In addition to this I have added where the Album will be available for purchase. This includes HMV,  and iTunes.

The album is available at these distributers because it will allow us to reach our target audience. All three firms have an online site, which the album be available for download. As our main target audience are teenagers, a vast amount of young people download music form these sites. By making our product available online on these popular sites, there is a greater chance that young people will purchase the album, via download, thus leading to an increase in sales. 

Critical Theory: Audience Theory: Suture & Feminist Film Theory

Recently the class discussed the theory of Suture. We have been learning Critical Theory to best understand how our music video connects and influences the audience.


This is theory that suggests that the Classical Hollywood Narrative, editing, sound and mise en scene 'sutures' (positions) the audience into certain ways making ONLY ONE PREFERRED READING, however conscious the audience is of that position.

The audience HAVE to react to how the film creators WANT them to react.

Feminist Film Theory

In 1975 Laura Mulvey wrote the essay VISUAL PLEASURE AND NARRATIVE CINEMA. This essay composed a logical argument... If cinema reflects society, it must therefore reflect a patriarchal society ( MALE DOMINATED)

How does a Patriarchal Society manifest itself into Cinema?

According the Mulvey, it is through the Gaze

The Gaze

The gaze of the camera is predominately shot from the males gaze. The male gaze is said to be ACTIVE while the female gaze is PASSIVE. Within narrative media texts, the male characters direct their gaze towards female characters.

The speculator is made to identify within the male gaze as the camera films only the male gaze, which is the  point of view from the male character. This demonstrates the Three levels of the cinematix gaze , the camera , the character and then the speculator. All three are made to OBJECTIFY the female character

A classic example of this is effect is in the James Bond film Dr. NO.

In this scene the camera uses the male gaze. It begins by looking at Bonds face. It then zooms in ever so slightly to his eyes and then it jumps to her, because HE is looking at her. The shot causes the following chain reaction of events;



Audience ------->

Camera--------->













Sean Connery-------->









 Ursula Andress



Bond then says "No im just looking" which suggests how he sees Ursula as the OBJECT OF DESIRE, HIS LIBIDO

Through this theory of the Male Gaze, the audience is constructed as through everyone was male and women are forced to look at the text as through they were a male member of the audience.

This is SUTURE at work

Mulvey continues in her essay with this theory of AGENCY

According to Mulvey, in classical Hollywood cinema the male protagonist has the AGENCY - HE IS ACTIVE AND POWERFUL, IN CONTROL OF THE PLOTS DESTINY.

Her is the agent around whom the Dramatic action unfolds. The female character is passive and powerless, she is the OBJECT OF DESIRE for the protagonist and audience.

The Role Of Women

Mulvey argue that women have two roles in films,

1. As an object of Erotic Desire for the Characters
2. As an object of Erotic Desire for the Audience

This is evident in another bond movie Die Another Day



In this scene Halle Berry is the Erotic desire of Bond and us, the audience. The way the frames were slowed down when Bond was looking at her through his binoculars, portrays Berry in a seductive and attractive way. Her role in the film is further strengthen when Bond says, "What a spectacular view" clearly referring to Berry's body.

Critical Theory: Audience Theory: Uses & Gratifications Model

As the Effects Model has its severe flaws, a new theory is necessary to attempt to explain the behaviour of audiences when consuming media texts. Today, we learnt about the Uses and Gratifications Model.

The Uses and Gratifications Model

This model is the OPPOSITE of the Effects Model. The model argues that the Audience is Active and that they USE the text, it ISN'T USED BY THE TEXT. The audience, it is argued, uses the text for its own GRATIFICATION i.e pleasure.

The POWER LIES WITH THE AUDIENCE, not the Institutions!!

The theory empathises what audiences DO with the texts, as in HOW and WHY they use them. Far from drugged by the media, the audiences are free to REJECT, USE or PLAY with media meanings as they see fit.

Audiences use media texts to gratify needs for the following;

• DIVERSION
• ESCAPISM
• INFORMATION
• PLEASURE
• COMPANY RELATIONSHIPS & LIFESTYLES
• SEXUAL STIMULATION

The theory insinuates that the audience is in control and consumption of the media helps people with issues.
These issues could be;

• LEARNING
• EMOTIONAL SATISFACTION
• RELAXATION
• HELP WITH ISSUES OF PERSONAL IDENTITY
• HELP WITH ISSUES OF SOCIAL IDENTITY
• HELP WITH ISSUES OF AGGRESSION & VIOLENCE

Critical Theory: Audience Theory: The Effects Model

Today we were educated about the relationship between institutions, text and audience. This is also known as the Media Institution.



We learnt today about one of the theories of audience that can be applied to help accumulate a better understanding about the relationship between texts and the audience.

The Effects Model & The Hypodermic Model


The Effects Model is the theory that the consumption of media texts has an EFFECT or INFLUENCE upon the Audience. Such effect is normally considered a negative effect.
It is argued that the audience are PASSIVE and are POWERLESS to prevent the influence.
This theory implies that the POWER lies with the MESSAGE OF THE TEXT- the text control the audience.
Newspapers are considered a prime example, as they tend to influence the opinions of the audience and can manipulate events to create a certain impression which they want the audience to see and believe.


Hypodermic Model

This model implies that the audience is being INFLUENCED and are POWERLESS to stop it. The messages of the Media Text are INJECTED into the audience, SYRINGE-LIKE, and that the audience is POWERLESS to resist.
Therefore it can be argued that the media works like a DRUG and the audience is DRUGGED, ADDICTED or DOPED.



This advert is a good example. This shake n'vac advert is the most successful TV advert in TV history. The company have used same advert for 30 years. This advert caused sales of shake n'vac to increase dramatically. The advert made a good which isn't a necessity, a must have home cleaning product. Recently a special advert has been released to celebrate the success of the original campaign.



Key Evidence for The Effects Model

1) The Frankfurt School

Members of the Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School theorised in the 1920 and 1930's that the mass media acted to restrict and control audiences to the benefit of Corporate Capitalism and Governments.

2) The Bobo Doll Experiment


This experiment is a very controversial piece of research that apparently proved that children copy violent behaviour.
It was conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961.

The Experiment
The children in this experiment watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown toy called a Bobo Doll. The children were then taken to a room with attractive toys that they were not permitted to touch. The children were then led to another room which contained Bobo Dolls.

The Results

• 88% of Children imitated the violent behaviour they saw on the video
• 8 months later 40% of the children repeated the violent behaviour

This evidence led to the conclusion that children imitate violent media content.
HOWEVER!!
This experiment consists of huge flaws. What else can you do with a Bobo doll? The answer, nothing! The toy is designed to be hit and then 'Bop' back to its original position. This can be used to argue the point that the results are not conclusive as they could not do anything else with the doll.

Key Examples Cited as Causing Violent Behaviour

In lesson we also discussed several high profile cases which can be related to the Effects Model.

Child Play 3

In 1993 a horrific event happened, the murder of Bulger. Two kids were charged with the murder of toddler Bulger. It was reported in the media that the murder was committed BECAUSE the kids saw the film Child Play 3. Subsequently this film was banned for many years in the UK. However, the media failed to report the fact that the Children involved in the murder had very bad backgrounds. In court.

Man Hunt

footage from original Manhunt game

In 2004, Stefan Pakeerah was murdered in 2004 by his friend Warren LeBlanc. It was claimed that the murder was a result of Warren playing the console game Man Hunt. This event happened just before the release of Manhunt 2. The game was not released in the UK and was banned.

A clockwork Orange

In 1971 a number of copycat rapes and violent attacks were committed in the UK, which again the media claimed was due to this film.

Severance

The most recent case was the murder of Simon Everitt. It was claimed that his murder was the result of this film.

HOWEVER, THERE WAS NO PROVEN LINK BETWEEN WATCHING ANY OF THESE VIOLENT FILMS/ GAMES AND THE MURDERS.

• With Child Play 3, the court said that they was no evidence that the offendants even saw the film.
• The case regarding Man Hunt, the judge claimed that there was no link between the game and the crime committed.
• The same verdict was reached with A Clockwork Orange and Severance

The only link between these cases are is that there was a media and political outcry for these texts to be banned!!

This led to a huge moral fear over 100's of films, in which these video's became known as 'Video Nasties'

Moral Panics - Caused by the Effect Model ?

It was claimed that  the consumption of media texts such as films and games produce inactivity, 'couch potato's', and make students have no incentive to look for work.
It was also put forward that the same media texts cause violent 'copy-cat' behaviour and mindless shopping in response to advertisements.

It must be stated that it is still unclear that their is any link between consumption of violent media texts and violent imitative behaviour.
It is clear that this theory is flawed, as if it was 100% correct, then EVERY person who watched violent texts WOULD imitate the behaviour..... this is not the case as a large amount of people appear not to be influenced.

Critical Theory: Audience Theory: Reception Theory

Today we discussed as a class the issue of RECEPTION THEORY. This theory was developed by academic STUART HALL at Birmingham University in the 1970's

This theory considered how texts were ENCODED with a meaning by producers and then DECODED by the audience. 

The theory Suggests:

The PRODUCERS construct a text which is ENCODED with a meaning or MESSAGE that the producer wishes to convey.

In some instances, audiences will correctly DECODE THE MEANING and understand the message.

In other instances the audience will either REJECT or FAIL to correctly understand the MESSAGE.

Hall identified three types of AUDIENCE READINGS.

Dominant 

• where the audience decodes the message as producer wants them too and the audience broadly agree with them

Negotiated

• audience accepts, rejects or refines the elements of the text in light of previous held views. For example neither agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested.

Oppositional

• Where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or idelogical reasons

This was shown with the song Born in the USA. The song is recognised as a song that symbolises the USA and was used in the republican presidential campaign. HOWEVER, by examing the lyric of the song, The OPPOSITION reception theory comes into play as the song does infact criticise the 'american' way of life.

Music Video: Analysis Of Finished Video: Communicating to the Audience

Our video communicates to the audience in several ways. We have tried to communicate with the audience as much as possible as we discussed during our AUDIENCE RESEARCH that the audience like to be engaged by the video. The main way we feel he have achieved this is by having the actors in the music video look straight into the camera a lot.

This has helped us to communicate with the audience as by watching the video, you get the impression that they are communicating DIRECTLY to you.

Split Screen - Montage Theory

In our video we used split screen scene where we put images of the band members individually, and then they are put next to a cucumber, carrot and Brussels. We did this to subconsciously communicate with the audience using what is known as Montage Theory.

This is the theory that when you place two images together, you automatically create a meaning, a LINK between the two images. This is a form of communication with the audience as the audience have to create a link between the two images, making them think, thus resulting in the audience being engaged by the text.




Graphic Match

In our video we used graphic matches to switch between two different scenes, the boys bedroom to the girls bedroom. We did this by having Charlie, the actor of the leading man in the band, placed in the centre of the shot with girls either side. The boys scene had charlie again in the middle, with a boy either side of him.

This transition also gives the impression that the two events are happening simultaneously. This works to our advantage as it helps us achieve one of our objectives to tell a story, which according to our TARGET AUDIENCE is a vital part of successful music videos.

The finished Article - Our A2 Media Music Video

After all the blood, sweat and tears, here is our A2 Media Music Video