The Male Gaze

In our plot, the artist is voyeristically lusting after the girl while painting. The camera is subverted as a male looking at a women, this is classed as the male gaze.

Historically speaking, the typical viewer of artwork was male. The term ‘male gaze’ has been a subject of much debate by art historians and has been use in Freudian and feminist contexts to describe the sexual objectification of women through various media outlets.

Most depictions of the female in paintings throughout history have been commissioned and painted by men for the pleasure of other men thus leading to the ‘male gaze’. Since women throughout most of history have been subjugated, kept illiterate and treated as property of their fathers and husbands, they have learned to be actually aware of that gaze. 

An example of this is from the OCR January 2012 exam, where they had to analyse the TV Drama, Fingersmith. It focuses on the undesirable love of one woman for another. In one scene the female is painting the other woman and the camera is used in a subverted way, hovering slowly over certain parts of her body, which the character is looking at.
This is rarely seen with this occurring over a man's body, since they are not typically seen as objectified.

Many other music videos use male gaze to sell the artist to the audience. This is especially in female artists music videos including Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj

However male artists are also objectified, this is seen less often but it predominately used in Artist, Jason Derulo, to sell him to his female audience. 

Actors Consent Letters

Influences of Music Video

One of the main inspirations we got for our idea for the music video is from James Camreons blockbuster movie 'Titanic', when Jack paints Rose. This is the first instant where they meet eye to eye and when their love flourishes. This is what we want our video to be like and the same affection to be met. This scene is iconic because of one of the quotes in the scene "Jack, I want you to draw me like one of your French Girls"

The reason we found inspiration in this video is because the target audience is similar. Both our music video and 'Titanic' are centred around love, and similarly, to different extents tragedy. We thought if we had a similar aspect in our video to 'Titanic' the audience will relate and notice as it is so well known and popular. Having such a well recognised film inter textually linked with our video means we will have all different types of audiences watching, not just our specific target audience, teenagers.

Another Influence for our music video is from the movie '500 days of Summer'. This movie is based around a character who has fallen in love with a girl. As the audience member we see how their relationship progresses over 500 days. This relates to our video as we wanted to see how a relationship would start and the progression of what happends after they meet.

An additional piece that is an influence of our Painting Scene is from the movie 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'. In this movie it surrounds the making of the famous painting. We wanted to follow the same guidelines of this painting scene to make it look as effective as possible. Also the viewer may identify the intertextual moments that we have placed into the video.

And lastly a music video that influenced our idea is Taylor Swift's 'Blank Space'. One scene contains Taylor painting her on-screen partner, we wanted to use elements from this video since the artist is young and would also appeal to our target audience, the artist is also in the same genre as our artist, and the video has only been released recently and has subsequently racked up over 90 million views in less than 3 weeks and so the viewer can easily see the similarities.

Our Perfect Audience Member

Our perfect audience member would be between the ages of 15-22. We decided this after reasserting similar artists and finding out their target audience and matching them up. Such artists include One Direction, McFly, The Vamps etc

Mostly our artist would appeal to females, since other artists similar to ours are not sold on their musical abilities but actually their physical attributes. Which means that it is likely that more woman would want to listen/watch their music based on the artists look rather than their actual talent.
Our perfect audience member would be a person who is particularly popular, seen as cool and friendly. The reason for this is because our artist would be found in the mainstream pop charts which the so called 'popular kids' would be listening to.

Since our audience member is typically a teenage girl, this means that their parents can afford to spend on merchandise and other synergy created by the artist. Many similar artists including One Direction take full advantage of this, by selling items such as pencils, keyrings, life size cutouts, dolls and bed sheets with the bands face stamped on, to make even more money out of their fans.
However it is not restricted to this, since our artist would attract a very wide range of demographic. It is highly likely that another audience member could be the complete opposite of the above audience member, and actually be very quite and shy, this is where the actual music relates, since the song is about love and our music video is created about losing love, someone who is an introvert can easily relate to what happens on screen.

As our perfect audience members has high disposable money since their parents are paying, it means that our target audience is able to purchase particularly expensive tickets to see their favourite artist perform live in concert.

One example of a perfect audience member:

Gabs is an 18 year old girl who loves music, in particular boy bands. She is a great example of a someone from our main demographic, since she is a popular teenage girl (over 1 thousand friends on Facebook) who lives in London, indicating that she is able to gain money easily to purchase music, memorabilia and concert tickets.

She loves going to her favourite artists concerts and trying to meet them, she is willing to pay extra to do so. 

Gabs creates fan pages on Facebook and Twitter for male singers, such as Justin Bieber, and has many followers who also like Justin Bieber.

She enjoys solo artists such as Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Olly Murs and Sam Smith. She would definitely come to see our artist in concert and would purchase his merchandise.
It is people like Gabs which our artist is aimed at, a teenage girl who likes an attractive, appealing and relatable artist. This is what made us decide to have our artist appear in the music video, so his fans find it more personal since he is in the video. 

This links to his star image of an average guy who appeals to not only teenage girls, but also male teens who can relate to him.

Analysing the Animatic

To make our animatic I had to take individual shots of each frame that we made for our Storyboard.

I then had to send the images to myself using my email so that I could get them from my mobile phone to the computer, where we were assembling the animatic.

However the tricky part that arose was that the process of downloading the images from my emails onto the computer drive altogether was extremely difficult. And so I had to download each image one at a time which was a very ominous process, which took longer than it should have.

Once the images were all downloaded onto the computers hard drive, I had to then import it into Adobe Premiere Pro, again this had to be done individually, which made the process of making the animatic even longer.

I had to then download the audio clip of McFly's 'Love is Easy' onto the hard drive, and then import it into Adobe Premier Pro.

Once all the material was imported I had the task of getting the timings right depending on the timings that we set when making the storyboard. However once we put in the images we realised that the timings we made in the storyboard don't exactly cut to the beat of the song, which most music videos try to achieve, and so we had to arrange the shots in a way that it did achieve this.

We also used some shots more than once, this use of repetition is typical of a synthetic music video.

The result of the animatic allows the viewer to visualise our idea for the music video, I personally think that it is particularly effective in doing so.

What We Learnt
From creating this animatic I learnt how hard and tedious it is to gather all the media onto your working space ready for you to use.
Also I have now learnt more about timings and cutting to the beat using Adobe Premiere Pro. I am now finding it much easier to navigate my way around this professional program.
From this we learnt that we needed a wider range of shoots and we needed lip-syncing sections that would go alongside narration, these are the things that we will have to work on now.

Analysis of a CD cover

The name of the artist is One Direction
This connotes that the artist a one body, and that they are part of a wider group. Also they are moving in only one direction which is presumably up meaning that there fan base is increasing, and their global connectivity is ever expanding.

The font/lettering is best described as being painted, but is also in capital letters, this is the typical logo of the band, which is iconic on their albums and merchandise. However the actual album title is fairly mundane.
This connotes that the band is particularly creative and have their own style. However as the title is plain it connotes the artist is still serious about making music.

The physical appearance of the star is masculine, part of a group and they have a sultry pose looking at the camera, the camera angle is Eye Level, which allows the audience to feel as though they know the artist, clothing is fairly casual, however each have their own style that each of them wear, such as Harry with his hat, Niall wearing his iconic denim gilet, Zayne in a typical black/dark looking outfit. This allows the audience to judge each individual, point them out and choose their favorite. Their facial expressions are different in either shot, one where they are almost serious, whilst the other shot shows their funny side.
This connotes that this artist is just like any other boy band sold to teenage girls based on their looks.

The dominant image within the front cover is the artist itself
This suggests that the artist is sold on their looks, which is an indication that the artist is synthetic.

The title of the album is ' Four'
This signifies that the band is releasing their fourth official studio album, Beyonce also named her album '4' which indicated her fourth studio album release. This again signifies that the band is growing, and shows that they have produced 3 albums before and so they have a long history of music ahead of them.

Dominant colours include brown, black and blue
These connotes that the artist is trying to be serious and give off a professional vibe, this is compared to their first album release which used bright colours to emphasise their youthfulness and fun they can have.

The record label is Columbia and Syco
This connotes that the artist is fairly synthetic since most Organic artists like to be signed to small indie record labels which Syco isn't since it has Joint deals with the music corporation, Columbia Records. This appeals to the audience because Simon Cowell own Syco Music, he is the creator of the talent show X Factor where the group, One Direction was formed and made famous. Also on this label, Simon has also signed other acts from the show X Factor, and Britain's Got Talent. this is so those who watched this talent show will want to hear what happened to the artist after the competition ended.

The artist fits into the genre of Pop Rock/Teen Pop
This is signified by the bands use of dark colours and clothing style they have in the album cover image. Also it appeals to the pop genre since the artists face is in the album image, and the use of collage technique of having 2 similar images put together, adds a sense of sophistication and finesse.

Attitudes and values associated with this genre include a slight rocky edge while also appealing to young girl target audience.

The target audience for this CD cover is predominantly Teenage girls
The cover is appealing to this audience because it contains each individual band members face, and shows that they are a group that seem to get along together.

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The name of the artist is 5 Seconds of Summer
This connotes that the artist is fun, and energetic, and enjoys the perks of being a teenager.

The font/lettering is best described as grunge-y typewriter-esque
This connotes that the band wants to break away from the norms of society and the mundaneness of reality and just live life to the fullest.

The physical appearance of the star is a childish and reckless group of friends, their pose is almost like they are in a police line-up, their full body is shown so that the viewer, of teenage girls, can see the artist completely. the camera angle is Eye Level, which allows for the audience to feel as though they are with the band themselves, their facial expressions show their cheeky side and their character traits. All of this allows for the viewer to feel like they know the artists life.
This connotes that the band is not just sold on innocent sex appeal but also their cheeky nature.

The dominant image within the front cover is the band itself
This suggests that the artist is in fact synthetic since most synthetic artists are sold on their looks

The title of the album is '5 Seconds of Summer'
This signifies that the artist is debuting themselves, this is to entice the audience in and show them what they have to offer. The album is self titled to get their name out there, examples of other artists who have released an eponymous album include: ABBA, Aerosmith, Christina Aguilera, The Beatles, Beyonce, Blink-182, Jake Bugg, Bon Jovi, Blur, Foo Fighters, Jonas Brothers, Kasabian, Of Mice and Men, Elvis Presley, Paramore, Taylor Swift and Queen are but a few artist who have marketed their albums based on their artists name. It also doesn't just occur in the pop genre as shown from the examples but can be seen in Rock, R&B, Metal and even Country.
Some artists use it as a debut album title to sell themselves and put their name out, however there are other artist such as Beyonce who have self titled their album as they are fully aware of their popularity and fame and just use it as a marketing technique.

Dominant colours include Grey, Red and Black
These connotes that the artist is trying to portray their rock/punk side. While also focusing on their teenage audience with the colour red which has connotations of love and passion but also danger.

The record label is Capitol
This connotes that the band is a most probably a synthetic artist since many organic artists like to be signed by Indie Record Labels.

The artist fits into the genre of Pop Punk/Pop rock
This is signified by the use of dark colours and imagery of doodling in black ink marker, showing that the artist is fairly on the 'wild side' ,the use of the word 'dropout' above one of the band members head indicates that the artist doesn't care for mainstream education. They are also spray painted with an X showing that the band is fairly dangerous and rebellious.

Attitudes and values associated with this genre include wrecking things and just being a typical rebellious band that doesn't care about mainstream society.

The target audience for this CD cover is Teenage Girls
The cover is appealing to this audience because it displays each member of the band in full view, and shows their 'bad boy' image which may attract female audience members.

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CHANGES

The name of the artist is Bastille
It is derived from the French Bastille Day, which is misleading since the audience may view the artist as being French when they are actually from London.

The font/lettering is all in bold which demonstrates the artist almost shouting/yelling at the viewer
The A in the bands logo is a triangle, this symbolises the bands quirky and unique nature.
Also in the cover we see the credits/rights of the songs on the album, this would normally be reserved for the back of the digipak, However in this case it enforces that the artist is more organic, since the music is at the heart of what sells the artist.

The stars physical appearance cannot be commented on in this image, since the viewer can only see a faint and blurry outline of the artist, running away from the camera, almost as though he is going to be run over by a moving car, which isn't seen, this can be related to the metaphor 'Deer in the Headlights', in which the artist may be running away of fear.

The dominant image within the front cover is the image of the lead singer of the band, but that image is fairly insignificant against the large logo, album title and credits which take up a lot of space on the front of the album.

The title of the album is 'Bad Blood'
This signifies that the artist star image is most likely to be off-the-wall, yet dangerous and risky.

Dominant colours include Black, Yellow and White
These connotes that the band is fairly dark, and unconventional to the normal stereotypes of bands who would be sold on their appearance. 

The record label is Virgin Records
This connotes that the artist is most likely to be Synthetic, since Organic artists prefer to work with Indie Labels, and Virgin Records even though purely British, isn't an Indie Label since it operates as a division of Universal Music Group.

The artist fits into the genre of Indie Pop/Rock
This is signified by the use of dark colours, however it attracts the female audience because of the use of font.

The target audience for this CD cover are Teenagers of both genders
The cover is appealing to this audience because it contains the artist, however he isn't looking directly to camera, meaning that is acceptable for a male fan to own.

From an analysis of these CD covers I have gained an understanding of a range of ways I can target an audience with my CD cover, in particular I find the Bastille cover to be inspirational, as I have always considered it to be necessary to feature the band, now I am thinking that actually as long as the artists logo and name is on the album, it is equally as effective to just have an image. My target now is to explore images that are effective for a front cover.

Iconography of the Album Cover