Font - The font used inside this Digipak by the artist Lady Gaga if the same throughout, this gives the casing consistency and makes it look more professional, also the font which is used is the font which is present on everything to do with advertising and selling this artists new album, this point will help when trying to get people to buy the alum as they may have seen the font before and recognise it.
Colour - This Digipak is completely black and white, some people would be hesitant to do this especially an artist who is so famous, however the contrast between the black and white makes the album stand out a lot more, even the pictures are black and white, like the use of the consistent font, the black and white throughout the casing makes the album look more professional.
Packaging - There are 2 CD's in this Digipak, both of which are almost identical, the only difference is the numbers on the CD's, they are both held in place in transparent plastic casing, which means you can see through to the design underneath. The remaining inside panel and one outside panel has pictures of the artist on them, then the two remaining front ones have the album cover and the track list on the back.
This analysis has given me an in-depth look into how digipack's are constructed and the different parts which make them up. Doing this analysis will help me when it comes to planning and making mine as I now have a greater knowledge of digipack's and how they are constructed.
A Digipack is a style of CD,
DVD or Disk packaging, which is usually made up of 6-8 panels that contain
pictures and plastic trays, which are able to hold the disks. Digipack
packaging tends to be used for special edition CD’s or DVD’s as it is more expensive
than using a normal Jewel Case for holding the CD, plus it looks more modern
than the Jewel Case, however because there is usually no laminate over the
designs on the case, it is less resistant to abrasion, meaning it shows wear
and fading more.
An example of a 6 panel Digipack
Digipack's are also an effective way of the company who are distributing it for the artist making more money. For big fans of an artist, they will want to get their hands on as much merchandise and memorabilia as they can, by making a Digipack as well as a normal type of CD casing, they will make more money by selling the Digipack as a 'special edition'. Doing this will not only help them make more money, but it will also help the chart position of the artist or album as some people will be purchasing two copies of the album in the form of a normal CD and a Digipack.
What is a magazine
advertisement?
A magazine advertisement is
usually a whole page or a small section on a page that is a trying to attract a
certain demographic of people to purchase the product. Usually the type of
product that is being advertised is taken into consideration when choosing
which magazine it is being placed in as certain types of people buy certain
types of magazines, for example an advert for a new children’s film wouldn’t be
seen in a men’s magazine, however an advert for a new album would be seen in
NME magazine as it would appeal to the type of people buying the magazine.
An example of a Magazine advert in NME magazine.
Both Digipack’s and Magazine
advert are important, Digipack’s are important as they give the buyer an idea
of what the bands style and design is like, if a band has a badly designed or
made Digipack the buyer will think the band are unprofessional and this may
make the buyer think less of the band. Also having an eye catching and
well-designed magazine advert will attract more potential buyers and fans for
the band that will increase the bands album sales and popularity.
The Cultural Effects Model states that if the same media messages are repeated often enough they will be accepted as fact but audience members can resist these messages. It also suggests that the audience are active and can 'decode' messages in media texts in a number of ways.
There can be different types of readings in The Cultural Effects Model : Dominant, negotiated and oppositional. Dominant is when the viewer will view the music video and completely understand and absorb the message that the institution has placed in the video. Negotiated is when the viewer watches the music video and understands the message of the video that the institution has places but might not agree with the message. Oppositional is when the viewer watched the music video but decides not to view or absorb the message that the institution has put in the video.
We need to make our music video memorable all the while making it so that no one forgets the name of the song and the artist.
When we come to make our music video we will use The Cultural Effects Model to help us make the message of our music video good, we are going to make the message of our music video about how people can feel alone even when they are surrounded by lots of people who are having a good time, in our case at a party.
We Can't Stop - Miley Cyrus
Above is the music video for We Can't Stop by Miley Cyrus, in this video Miley is seen to be partying and dressed in very little clothing. Due to the fact Miley Cyrus is a child star with a large following of primarily under 18s, this video is seen to be very controversial as she is doing things and behaving in a way which would be seen to be inappropriate for an under 18. The audience watching this video, no matter how young will see the video and immediately think
that what Miley is doing is unacceptable because she is seen to be a role model
by most of her fans.
People who have a Dominant view of this video will look at the video and understand that the video is about her and all of her friends having a party and probably won't be able to see any issue with the video.
People who have a Negotiated view of the video will watch the video and be able to see the intended message which has been put in place by the institution but they will also be able to see how other people could find issues and things that are inappropriate with the video.
People who have an Oppositional view of this video will watch it and most likely miss-read the intended message of the institutions and see negative things with the video.
When making our
video, because we are doing along the route of throwing a party, we don't want
our video to come out like this one, Miley's video could be seen as tacky, and
focusing more on the behaviour in the video as opposed to the actual music and
the song.
Lip syncing is moving the lips in synchronisation with a recorded speech or song to give the illusion of a live performance. It is usually put in in the post production phase of a music video by combining the recorded piece of footage with the pre-recorded track. It is done by playing the song on set and have the artist or appropriate band member mime along to the section of words.
What is its importance?
Lip syncing is important in Music Videos as it is the main link between the video and the song, it very unusual that a video doesn't have any lip syncing in it as it is seen to be the main convention of a music video. Lip Syncing helps the audience understand what band member plays what role in the song and who the lead sing or singers are, it also makes the audience feel more included as they are essentially being sung at by the artist in the video. Also another main convention of music videos is performance, which usually can't be achieved without the use of lip syncing.
The video above accompanies Lily Allen's song called 'Air Balloon', the video featured a great deal of lip syncing. It is obvious that she isn't singing live as she is in the middle of a field and isn't singing into a microphone, however on the set of the video the song would be playing out loud and she would be moving her lips along to the song to give the illusion that she is singing live.
I have chosen to analysis this song as Lana Del Rey is an alternative artist, like the artist I have chosen to make a video for, and also because the video is similar to what we want to make and something we take inspiration from.
In terms of Goodwins Theory's on music videos, Young and Beautiful presents a lot of characteristics and really displays Goodwins Theory well.
Firstly, this video displays stereotypical genre characteristics of both the genre but also the artist, Del Rey is an alternative artist, and videos for this genre of music tend to be very mysterious and often very emotional and full of feeling as this is typically what music in this genre sounds like. The fact Del Rey has two tear drops on her face shows the emotion in the song, and also the use of an orchestra is not typical in any music video, this is done because Del Rey's video is alternative.
Secondly Del Rey is presenting a vague link between the lyrics and the visuals of her video, this is present when there is a shot of Del Rey in a long black dress with curly hair, some people viewing the video could say that she looks older than her age and is dressed slightly old fashioned, this shot has links to the lyrics 'When I'm no longer young and beautiful'. Links to this lyrics are also present when there are close ups of Del Rey as she looks youthful and young.
Like the link between lyrics and visuals there is a vague link between the visuals and the music, this can be seen when the orchestra are in shot. As the music lifts and build, so does the conductors body language and the rest of the people with instruments, although this is obviously going to happen as they are playing the music, it still aids in building the song and giving the audience more enjoyment by linking the music and visuals.
One of Goodwin's Theory points with regards to music videos is having multiple close ups of the artist in their video, this is very obvious and achieved in this video as for a long period of time at the start and also throughout the video, close up's of Del Rey lip syncing can be seen, this adds a performance aspect to the video which audiences and record labels alike also require or expect.
In this video there is no obvious attraction to the notion of how people look or dress, or any voyeuristic attitudes towards women. Due to the fact Del Rey is the only obvious female in the video, she gets the audience full attention, this is already going against what most music videos do where men are the central attraction. To even further the turn away from how women are typically represented in music videos, Del Rey is full clothed, not dancing or doing anything provocative, this will gain some of the audiences attention as this is something they might not expect to see when watching a female singer.
The song is featured in the film The Great Gatsby, although there are no clips of the film featured in this video, there are still underlying themes of the film present. Because the film is based in the 1920's the whole theme of the video and the people in it are dressed to suit a 1920's theme.
Class is represented slightly in the video as it is quite obvious the Del Rey is of an upper class as she is presented to the audience as someone with wealth and power by the fact she is wearing a large amount of diamond and nice dresses but also because she has an orchestra performing behind her and is centre stage despite being a female.
I have chosen to analysis this song as The XX are an alternative band, and this video for their song 'VCR' has similar themes to what we want to put into our video and also has some similar shots to what we want to put in our video as well. This music video also contains some theories which can be found in Goodwin's Theory of Music Videos.
Firstly, this video displays stereotypical genre characteristics of both the genre but also the artist, The XX are an alternative band, and their music and videos completely live up to and adhere to what is expected from this genre. Their music tends to be very mysterious and have a lot of hidden messages, the video for this song is one of their more 'easy to understand' videos as many of them are extremely artistic. Alternative music tends to very deep and about love, this video displays these characteristics as a couple are featured in the video.
Secondly The XX are presenting a vague link between the lyrics and the visuals in this video, there aren't any actual things shown in the video which link directly to the lyrics that is being sung at the same moment, however there is an overall link to the visuals and the lyrics. The song is referring to a couple throughout the song by reference to the lyrics 'I think we're superstars, You say you think we are the best thing' and featured throughout the video is a couple.
The link between the music and the visuals also has a very weak link. There are some points when the cuts and changes of shots fit with the music. A good example of when this happens is at the beginning of the video, the songs contains some chiming sounds, and whenever one of these sounds is made, on most occasions a cut happens. This is effective, due to the fact the video isn't very elaborate, the fact that the music and the visuals have a link near the beginning will help get the attention of anyone watching the video.
One of Goodwin's Theory points with regards to music videos is having multiple close ups of the artist in their video, this isn't possible in this video as the artists aren't featured. However the two people in the video, despite not being the artists, do have many close ups, helping the audience see what they are doing and also helping the audience see the emotions they are feeling in the video.
In this video there is no obvious attraction to the notion of how people look or dress, or any voyeuristic attitudes towards women. The video is in completely black and white throughout meaning you don't get any real detail on what the characters in the video are wearing, both characters remain full clothed throughout also. Both the female and male in this video are seen to equal as they are doing an equal amount of what could be considered as 'work', also the male doesn't have an characteristic attitudes towards the woman, such as making her a house wife, however this could be due to the fact they are both young.
The song isn't featured in any major films, meaning there are no major clips which could have been featured in the video, this may also be down tot he type of band The XX are, as they aren't a commercial band as such, they are unlikely to feature any films in their videos. However the song was featured on a programme called 'Lie to me' which would have given the song some exposure, however there is nothing relating to this show in the video.
