CD Disc design - Example Three

I was surprised how plane the CD design for the Girls Aloud single 'The Show' was. The CD is all black and white (something Asa has been wanting to do our digipak like) there is only one image of a directors cutting device on it which is also in black and white. This is a countertype of what you would expect as the girls a a bunch of singers not actresses although this obviously is linked to the name of the album and track one on the track listing, which only contains two songs 'the Show' and the later released single 'Jump' although this is a remix of the origional track. The track listing is shown on the cut thing aswell as the date the single was released underneath. In a box next to the image there is a box containing small font explaining again the full rights go to the distributor and record label which is again, Polydor the same label Hear'say were signed to owned by Universal Music Company. Below this there are four logos; one with an image and then the name GirlsAloud, another saying Aloudsound which is researched and found that it is the name of the official Girls Aloud fan site, Compact disc digital audio (which has been featured on all of my examples), and the last the letters GA inside a triangle which looks like the one which usually contains film age ratings.







This is the front cover of the single 'The Show' it is quite plane for a Girl band's cover but as the band has recently been put together before this, it names the members and is quite 'cutesy' which matches with the idea of putting a fan site in the bottom right corner in the hope that the band would become bigger and more well known. The 'GA' in the traingle sticks with this idea and is quite fun rating themselves as just the band quite a simple idea, the green obviously means suitable for anyone which may imply that the band are trying to appeal to all audiences and arn't marketing themselves specifically or to one core audience although obviously they don't appeal to all audiences.

Defining our Audience

- The age of our core audience is 15-24.
- General fans of the band and the R&B genre.
- The male gaze aspect would bring in a secondary male audience.
- Our audience may be interested in viewing romantic comedy films rather than indie and horror films.
- They will be interested in mainstream music and genre's such as R&B, Pop and maybe Hip-hop.
- The audience may also read gossip magazine rather than informative newsletters and papers, these may include the ones that target the same age group ie. More, Now & Look
- The uses of gratifications theory is good to use when thinking about the audience you are trying to target, getting a fuller view of what the viewer is interested in will help when making decissions to include within the text itself, magazine advertisment and digipak.
- Destiny's Childs audience is Mainstream but also a Mass audience although because they are a female band in the R&B genre which could be seen as attracting a niche audience.

'Uses of gratifications theory is an approach to understanding why people actively seek out specific media outlets and content for gratification purposes. The theory discusses how users proactively search for media that will not only meet a given need but enhance knowledge, social interactions and diversion.
This theory assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs. The approach suggests that people use the media to fulfill specific gratifications. This theory would then imply that the media compete against other information sources for viewers' gratification.'

All - Blazing Grace so far, Schedule for finishing all products

On Tuesday we filmed a new scene, this was just another scene showing the boyfriend and girlfriend together before the aftermath's take place. 
We now need to film the girlfriend's aftermath and re shoot the scene when the meal takes place for the girlfriend and boyfriend because their was a bit of a mix up with the scene itself, so a quick re shoot should fix the problem.
So far with the Digipak and Magazine Ad, we have not spent enough time as we would of hoped but all three of us have either made a prototype or researched on previous Digipaks and Magazine Ad's. 
We will have an update soon, and will hopefully have a final rough cut to post up early next week.


Here is our plan to deal with these products and what we have to do.
Filming: 

Girlfriend's aftermath
Girlfriend walking up to the house
Girlfriend leaving house
Close up of beans on toast
We plan on filming this stuff this weekend and edit the items on Monday.

Digipak: 
Implement feedback into Asa's digipak
Sophie and Katie need to learn how to use Photoshop. If they run out of time, Asa's digipak will be the main one although we shouldnt see this as being a problem as there are afew ICT students in the class who could show us how to use it.

Magazine Ad:
Research done.
Sophie and Katie will use either Photoshop or Microsoft Publisher to create the advert.
A photoshoot of the band will also take place so that pictures can be obtained for the digipaks this will be done this weekend on a cobbled suburban road in which the band members will be featured walking dow a street away from the camera in a long shot which will be used for the back face of the digipak

Feedback from our first Rough Cut.

The main feedback we recieved from the class mainly focused on how one of the narrative aspects didnt make sense (The boyfriend James had set up a surprise meal for his girlfriend Katie in her own house when he had been shown arriving moments before). They also thought that we should do faster paced editing and although it is a slow song we would be marked down for shot variety. Connor suggested a digetic intro in which we could have the couple having a conversation. Another problem which we knew about already but was pointed out is that the first few shots were shakey as we forgot to use the tripod.

Beyonce Magazine Ad

We have really struggled to find Destiny's Child magazine advertisements Katie is the only one that has managed to find an actual one found in Rolling Stone magazine. The other ones we've found have been fragrance advertisements released by Beyonce which are much more common. From looking at the ad's we've been able to denote there is often a lot of the colour red used in lips which we already knew is a common convention found in girl band music videos to include the male gaze theory.
The magazine advertisement I have found is a L'oreal lipstick shade (red)

The male gaze theory has been brought into the advertsement by focusing on the eyes and lips in a close up of Beyonce's face (left) On the other side of the double paged advertisement the page is split the left side left showing the product although the ad is dominated by the celebrity endorsment, Beyonce. At the far right of the ad Beyonce is featured in a short red dress showing her thighs and she is staring into the camera. Gold and white text is used, but white ontop of the image to not distract the audience too much from the image ' This is my color riche intense 375' making the audience believe that this is infact the lipstick Beyonce wears when it's probably not true. The brand is featured at the bottom in the signature Gold text which is recognisable to buyers that know the cosmetic market.

Filming more narrative

Myself, Asa , Katie & our actor James Newton have filmed more narrative today. Our location was Ilkley Park, all we did was film another scene for the boyfriend and girlfriend, this will be shown also as a flashback in our video just before the break-up, this as well as the rest of our 'flashback' shots will be shown to the audience in Sepia. 

To add both tension, or scenery shots, we filmed a small variety of shots, including ducks, to do so we threw bread at them, once we had a group of them I threw some bread into the river, causing them to splash and make a fuss, we will use this shot when a key change int he song occurs, or it can also signify the tension between the couple. It's only a simple shot but it adds to the shot variation.

Here are the ducks :)

Our first rough cut

Here is a short rough cut of our music video which shows what we plan to do with the narrative and performance parts of the video.
Although this is only a rough cut, it isn't a full one. For what we have left to add/film we need at least two more date scenes, more shot variety during the final date and the break up, and the aftermath of both main characters.
In terms of tools, we used the Sepia tool in order to make the video black and white. This was done in order to signify a flashback.