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Tinie Tempah - DISC-OVERY Album Cover

Conventions of a CD front cover are an image, which attracts the eye, name of the artist and album.

Here is the name of the artist and also the name of the album. The use of diamond shapes are used in the text here as the font makes the letters to be very pointy.

The artist is shown here on the front cover and he is also the main focus on the cover to an audience.  This may be to show whom the artist possibly for reasons such as the public not knowing the artist by name but by face. Therefore they may gain some interest in the CD from the cover.

The background style and image is kept throughout the front and back cover, which makes the album easy to recognise by either side. There are uses of diamond shapes used in the background which may be the reason to the sparkle on the artists clothing in the image.

Within the artists arms he holds a city. This may resemble that it is his city and he runs it almost like a king. Therefore the artist might be trying to imply that he is the king of the music. As the album is of a Grime genre, the genre came up from London which is the capital city. Therefore he may be trying to indicate that he is the king of the city therefore the king of Grime music.

The artist appears to be very stylish and wearing very expensive clothing and jewelry. This appearance is enhanced by the affects used on the image, which light up his clothing almost like a shine.

Conventions of a CD back cover are to list the tracks, usually they are found along the left side of the cover but on this cover they are on the right side. Also the cover is to show the record label and the year the song was produced which are both shown at the bottom.

Here are the tracks from 1-13 listed in ascending order down the cover. The font of the text matches the rest of the cover such as the background and the shape the text is all put into, which are diamond shapes. Therefore they have kept this image of the diamonds throughout the cover in different forms.

At the bottom here there is a logo of the record label that produced the album. Also there is a website URL listed which is the artists website which may have a link to buy the album or find info on merchandise, tickets etc.

The barcode is placed at the bottom of the back cover. The barcode is printed on all back covers and are all different of different albums. The reason for barcodes is so they can be scanned and recognised by a system in a shop which would bring up the price.

Here is the spine to the CD cover; the spine shows the name of the artist and the name of the album. The reason for having a spine is so the album can be recognised by name if it is stacked on a shelf amongst other CD’s for example.  

Advert Analysis

Day 1 of Filming

On Saturday 3rd December we met at one of our locations in which we planned to film at which was in Debden. The reasons for having chosen to shoot some of our music video here was due to it being an Urban area which is what was need for the style and genre of the song for our music video. Here we done some filming of the performance for our video using the video camera. Then we had taken some location shots of the area using a Digital SLR camera as it takes high quality pictures and these photos have given us some idea of what we want our CD cover and Digital Booklet to look like. After we used the camera to take photos of one of the group members Adam, who is also a character in the video, we took many photos of Adam moving along a pathway so we could use them to make a short stop motion clip in our music video.

Individual music video by Adam White- Johnson

This video was predominately shot hand held as a tripod cannot fit inside a car. I edited the footage on final cut and used markers to cut the footage in time with the beat. When the beat speeds up towards the end of every 8 bars the pace of the cuts increase which creates a sharp effect.

CD Cover Analysis (Wiley - Playtime Is Over)

Conventions of a CD front cover are an image, which attracts the eye, name of the artist and album.

The logo here shows his artist name and the name of the album “Playtime is Over”. The logo is designed to almost look like a typical label found on a CD case usually with the price on them.

 The artist “Wiley” is shown on the front cover. This may be to show whom the artist possibly for reasons such as the public not knowing the artist by name but by face. Therefore they may gain some interest in the CD from the cover.

The toys in the frame are all fully black and have no colour and this relates to the album title Playtime is Over, meaning that all the childlike objects such as these toys are dead to the artist now. This sign of toys and childlike things being dead to the artist reflects in the dull, black, dead looking objects.

The artist Wiley is wearing a very urban style outfit, which could reflect his background growing up in urban area such is London, the place in which he was born and raised in.

Conventions of a CD back cover are to list the tracks, usually they are found along the left side of the cover but on this cover they are on the right side. Also the cover is to show the record label and the year the song was produced which are both shown at the bottom.

The track list has been written with chalk on a small black board. The black board is similar to what you would find outside a café or small restaurant. The effect of this makes out as if the tracks are camouflaged within the urban scenery. This could possibly mean the tracks are focused on urban life, which would be common in the Grime genre.

Most objects within the frame are black or grey therefore being quite dark. These points also reflect the album name Playtime is Over as this photo is taken in a playground. Therefore everything appears to be dull and almost dead looking, which gives the viewer the idea that these childlike objects, places such as the playground are no longer part of him.

The record label name and logo are also both on the back cover of the CD. It is also written on the blackboard in the picture.

CD cover analysis

• The CD cover features the main artist in a central alignment.
• The artist is the largest image on the cover which brings the focus to him.
• The colour theme is dark which sticks to the conventions of the grime genre.
• The image of the artist is like a screen within a screen. The artist is looking at himself enlarged on the building.
• The artist is dressed in an attire that would match the genre of music he has produced. 
• The artists name stands out in bold white writing and the name of the album in green.
• There is no negative stereotype linked to this artist in this album cover as the artist has gone from underground to mainstream.
• The font theme is carried out throughout the album cover from front back.
• The artists logo is pictured in the bottom left corner of the cover which follows the colour scheme.
• Conventions of a CD cover are present, such as a bar code, and the producer name. 
• The setting of where the picture of the artist is taken fits to the genre of Grime. The image is set in a dark industrial estate with what seems like an abandoned building.
• The enlarged picture of the artist suggests he is conquering the music industry by releasing this album.

Music video director essay: Chris Cunningham

Music video director essay: Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham is an English music video film director and video artist. The music video’s he is most commonly well known for are ‘Come to Daddy’ and ‘Windowlicker’.  These are the music video’s I will be analysing. In analysing these music video’s I will be using several theories such as Goodwin’s six point analysis theory, Dancing in the Distraction Factory (Routledge 1992), Richard Dyer’s Star Theory and the Auteur Theory.  Although these songs are from the same artist, Cunningham portrays the themes of ‘Come to Daddy’ and ‘Windowlicker’ in different ways.  The colours and atmosphere almost oppose each other; however the visual motif remains the same. The colours used in Come to Daddy are dark and metallic creating a very evil and frightening atmosphere, whereas Windowlicker uses bright and vibrant colours to capture the sunny streets of L.A California. The atmosphere of Windowlicker is unorthodox compared to Cunningham’s usual style. The music video follows the mood and pace of the song creating a more relaxed and dreamlike style. This relates to Goodwin’s six point analysis and how there is a relationship between music and visuals. 

Throughout ‘Come to Daddy’ and ‘Windowlicker’, Cunningham uses close up shots of Richard David James’s visual motif to advertise Aphex Twins image and endorse he’s iconic style. This relates to Andrew Goodwin’s six point analysis of how record labels will demand the need of multiple close ups of the artist to create a visual style. This also relates to Richard Dyer’s star theory in which the image of the star has been developed by the star themselves and/or the management team across a wide range of media (advertising etc.). Aphex Twin’s unique selling point comes from Richard David James’s visual motif in which a disturbing image is branded on Aphex Twin demonstrating their style and genre.

Throughout ‘Windowlicker’, women are seen to be treated as sex objects made for the pleasure of men and nothing more. This is shown by the confrontation between the windowlicker’s and the two women standing on the curb and how they aim to have sex with the women despite their constant refusal. This relates to Goodwin’s six point analysis of how there is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. However, Cunningham does not follow the standard style of the usual music video in which women are treated as sex objects. ‘Windowlicker’ is almost a parody of this stereotypical genre as we can see from the introduction that the two windowlicker’s are turned down and humiliated by the women. Cunningham also opposes this genre by the use of Richard David James’s visual motif which replaces the faces of the women dancing towards the end of the video (7:49). Whereas in most typical music video’s woman are made to look sexy, attractive and desirable, to the audiences surprise Cunningham creates disturbing and shocking images which are unexpected due to the basic characteristics of this genre. Auteur theory suggests that every director has their own authentic style which separates them from other directors. In my opinion Chris Cunningham’s approach to the basic stereotypical genre is totally original and creative which breaks the boundaries of the status quo and separates him from his associates in the music video industry.

In ‘Come to Daddy’, there is clear evidence of Goodwin’s six point analysis theory of the relationship between lyrics and visuals. This is shown by the acts of the possessed children who are drawn towards the demonic creature in the TV. Towards the end of the video once the demonic like creature has been fully born (physically) the children gather around it in awe and praise (4:55). This links to the lyrics “come to Daddy” as it seems as though the creature is calling his children to summon him.

In ‘Windowlicker’ and ‘Come to Daddy’ there is a clear relationship between music and visuals as shown in Goodwin’s Six Point Analysis.This is shown by the use of status distinguishing who holds the most power in a group of people. For example in Windowlicker many low angle shots are used to show the advantage that James’s visual motif has over the window lickers since he attracts women where the Windowlickers fail.  By tilting the camera angle up towards the visual motif from the ground he appears powerful whereas the camera angles used when shooting the Windowlickers are often tilted down from above showing how powerless they are compared to the visual motif.  Visuals also show metaphors of status in Come to Daddy. At 4:37 James’s visual motif is again shown to have the most power by the use of low and high camera angles.  As the demonic creature screams in the face of the old lady she is taken back and petrified. This is shown by the high angle POV shot that is tilted down upon her.

 In conclusion, in my opinion Chris Cunningham is an extraordinary director who easily stands out from other directors due to his originality.

StoryBoard

Richmix - From MTV to Youtube

From MTV to Youtube

As part of our Media A2 course we were able to take a trip to Bricklane in London on Wednesday the 16^th of November to visit Richmix to watch a lecture performed by Pete Fraser, Liz Kessler and Corin Hardy. I really enjoyed this and learnt a lot about the music video industry from the point of view of a producer and a director. We also learnt about how to make our music videos much more appealing to the exam board and allow us to access those higher grades.

Paul Fraser showed us the history of music videos and how it originated from the director Len Lye who painted abstract art on the film itself and connecting it to the rhythm of the song.

Fraser also mentioned how music videos were viewed by the public over 50 years ago through the use of Scopitones that would be found in cafes around Europe. This is an example of one.

We also learnt about how the music video industry has become such a huge market in comparison to what it was twenty to thirty years ago and how it has become, in some cases, dominated by the male audience. This was shown through this example.





Fraser also taught us about ten tips that we could do to achieve the higher marks.

• Choose a relatively unknown track and artist and create a pitch for it
• Write a treatment, have a clear concept and be realistic with it
• Plan everything and get everything done early
• Set up a blog to add all your inspiration and research too
• Understand the equipment you will use
• Shoot everything up to ten times from many different angles
• Organise your footage, label everything
• While editing synch up the performance first
• Analysis everything that you did via the blog

Although I have already performed some of these tips such as creating a blog all the rest are invaluable information and I shall be sure to take them into consideration during pre-production, production and post-production.

Liz Kessler told us of the financial part of creating a music video and showed us music videos that she had taken part in as the producer. This was one of them. She also mentioned about product placement that was also featured in music videos. For example, in Britney Spears - Criminal at the beginning you can see that she sprays herself with her own brand of perfume.

Corin Hardy also spoke to us about his experience as a director and the work that he had done in the past. He told us of the months’ work that he had to put in to create a music video for the band The Horrors and the difficulties that he faced doing this. In this particular music video he told us that he went through almost 1,500 piece of paper while drawing the scenes.

All in all, I really enjoyed this trip and learnt a lot of insight into the music video industry as well as tips on how to create a more professional music video.