Album cover development

Maroon 5:

Songs About Jane is the first studio album from Maroon 5, released on 25th June 2002 by Octone and J Records. The album contains internationals hits including She will be loved and This Love with five singles from the album making it into the charts. The album is infamous for being a 'sleeper hit' a term that refers to an album being successful for a long period of time despite having little promotion. All of the songs were written or co-written by lead singer Adam Levine who claims that there is at least one line in every song inspired by his ex girlfriend Jane. Levine also writes that he spent a lot of time in New York where he 'was exposed to an urban and hip hop culture' he believes this had an impact on his song writing and the general idea behind the bands debut album. 

I think the band have tried to match the cover to the genre of music throughout, therefore it explores the urban hip hop theme Levine talked about. The cover itself is in shades of maroon and also black, this links with their name and also suggests inside they will show they can be versatile with their music. I think the name is very clever as it attracts a wide audience of people because it isn't specific of any particular type of genre. From the name of the album I think it is clear the band were targeting at an older audience opposed to a young teen audience. This is because the name is very serious and appeals to people who have experienced break ups. However, personally I believe the name would have been more suited and had a bigger effect on a more established artist as it would attract a fan base and overall audience who would be more interested in an established artists personal life. 

The visual codes include a cartoon woman on the front who could resemble Jane. Hence why she is holding a box with swirls coming from it. This follows the idea that the album tells a lot of a past relationship and spills the truth on Levine's previous relationship. This ties in with how About is in bold font to highlight that it is an album in which through the lyrics he opens up. In addition the woman even seems to be looking away from whats coming out of the box, implying she doesn't want to know or would be ashamed. The woman's hair is long and covers her modesty, this is a way of hiding her identity slightly and although writing about her a promise not to completely reveal who she is. 

Overexposed  is the fourth studio album from Maroon 5 released on 20th June 2012 A&M Octone Records. The genre of this album is labelled as pop and several songs made it into the charts including Payphone featuring Wiz Khalifa. The band released the album after the success of Moves Like Jagger that was featured on the third album which they were not pleased with. They decided after a mixed variety of genres featuring in the album before with Overexposed they wanted to stick to a certain genre. The album explores the pop genre featuring 'reggae beats, soul rock and dubstep influences.' 

I really like the album cover because I think it would stand out against others on a shelf. It is very colourful and gives a good insight into the 'pop' style music inside, rather than a dark cover suggesting ballads and sad songs. The artwork was created by an LA based art project Young & Sick. The collage of cartoons, depicting modern images, crowd the front cover. The cartoons are all different cleverly linking with the title Overexposed suggesting (like Songs About Jane) the album is going to reveal a lot and 'overexpose' the band. In the same way things are seen spilling from the mouth in the centre of the cover. This is the only other album cover out of four that is similar to their debut album and uses similar visual codes to give a significant message.  The parental advisory sticker featured is also similar to Songs About Jane in that it also shows the album is targeted at a more mature audience rather than young teenagers. The name of the album isn't obvious, seen at the bottom left of the cover. I think this is to also tie in with the crowded look of the front cover and potential consumer having to study the cover to find out more, therefore attracting an audience. Other visual codes include a bright and fun colour scheme to attract people suggesting an exciting and upbeat album. 

The Computer Game's Industry

The computer games industry came in to business around the 1970's with the release of the arcade game 'computer space'. Initially targeting focused markets, gradually becoming more popular and appealing to wider audiences over the years,up to present day. This was then followed by Atari's release of 'pong' allowing people to buy consoles they could play at home rather than on arcade cabinets. Around the mid 70's Atari's consoles VCS quadrupled console sales.

Computer space was the first computer game created. Its creators were Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney who would later found Atari,inc. The game was played by controlling a rocket ship with various arrows, the game became extremely popular and was even featured in the 1975 Jaws.

The industry itself is huge, and growing. The industry employs thousands of people worldwide to cover various jobs, some include:
producers, animators, engineers, designers, programmers, artists and marketing. According to the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) took in approx 11.7 billion US dollars in 2008 and $25.1 billion in 2010. It is now also estimated that the industry revenue is $81.5 billion which is more than double the film industry revenue for 2013. 

Key milestones for the industry came around the 1990's with the advancement in technology, this included CD based storage, Microsoft, 3D graphics, the internet, mobile gaming, and multi play competitive gaming. 

In 2000's social media was gaining popularity and through sites like Facebook games such as Farmville were introduced. In addition, IOS and Android devices made mobile gaming a more convenient option and games could also be downloaded for free on the App Store for example.

From 2010 computer gaming is not as popular, console gaming is developing however not as fast as mobile gaming with games like Candy Crush and Flappy Bird. Consoles have also developed from Nintendo and Atari with popular consoles now being PS3 and Xbox 360. These computer games are now much more developed in that voice recognition and motion detection is now common. 





Narrative, Representation and Audience:

Different games follow different narratives and because of this they target different audiences. 


For example Fifa 12 is the 19th game in the Fifa series. Developed by EA Canada released in 2011 for play on Xbox, Playstation and Xperia play amongst others. The narrative of the game is to select a player and play. Team selection, success and salary all comes into play and can help individuals progress in the game. 

Fifa's target audience is teenage to young adult males. The game is aimed at sports fans, in particular football supporters, with the majority of consumers being male. The game fails to have the option to play as a women and all front covers of the game, through the whole series, fail to feature a women on the front cover. Race is focused on in Fifa as players can have the option to choose their race and so racial discrimination in the game is not a problem.

Personally I think Fifa need to look expand their target audience as the game is not dominated by male players anymore. On doing a survey around college for the class presentations, we found that more males than female playthe game, however some females still did. Everyone agreed that race was not a problem as you could personalise players. The majority of people we asked said that they would play as a female if they had the option and agreed that Fifa fail to recognise that female players should be an option.

Sir Terry Pratchett

After a long battle with Alzheimer's, Sir Terry Pratchett has died aged 66.

Pratchett was knighted for his huge contribution to the fantasy genre, with his last book a new Discworld novel in the summer of 2014. His writing struggled from here on wards due to the disease. 

Terr's daughter Rhianna Pratchett paid tribute to her dad on twitter posting 'The End'.

Prime minister David Cameron was sad to hear of his death saying 'his books fired the imagination of millions'. Sir Terry Pratchett is best known for his Discword series of up to 40 volumes. A line from the 28th novel reads "If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else’' story." – from The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.

Revision Plan

• Representation - sex, race, age, class (dominant ideology)
• Audience theories - Hyperdermic needle theory and Uses & Gratification
• Todorov's theory
• Maslow's hierarchy
• Production cycle
• Visual, Audio, Technical codes
• Character development

• Practice papers 
• Looking at different exam possibilities

Vogue editor provokes fury

Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis has been the victim of internet trolls this week as she took to Instagram on Saturday and posted an image of a homeless woman. The photo taken in Paris shows a homeless woman reading a copy of Vogue Magazine. The photo posted by Elisabeth was captioned 'Paris is full of surprises.... and @voguemagazine readers even in unexpected corners!'

People took to Instagram to call her 'cruel' and 'tasteless', within five hours of posting it the editor had deleted it. The 32 year old responded to the criticisms she received, asking 'Why cruel? The person to me is as dignified as anyone else!'

Personally I think people took the post too seriously and shouldn't have taken offence. I think Elisabeth was just innocently posting a photo of readers of her magazine. She was in turn actually showing that it is a magazine for anyone, all different social classes and backgrounds - even the homeless. The criticisms towards her would have been more suited if she had commented negatively on the homeless woman reading the magazine. However she was in fact doing the opposite, promoting the magazine as a versatile read.

Coursework Improved - Promotional Poster

Award Ceremonies

Award Ceremonies are formal occasions whereby prizes are awarded to honour certain achievements. Within the media industry award ceremonies are a frequent occurrence with some famous examples being:

BAFTA's
The Oscar's
MOBO's
Teen Choice Award
National Soap Awards
Grammy's
BRIT Awards

BRIT Awards:

The British Phonographic Institute is the trade association for Britain's recorded music industry. The first ceremony was held in 1977 at Wembley Conference Centre and the name BRIT was later developed into a 'backronym' for 'British Record Industry Trusts Show'. The BRITS
 award their iconic prize for various categories including; British female solo artist, British male solo artist, British breakthrough act, Critic's choice and International artists amongst others. The BRITS's is a popular annual concurrence in Britain with its highest viewing figures in 1999 with 9.86 million viewers. However the show has seen a reduction in viewers with only 3.84 million people tuning in last year. 

The BRITS voting academy included over 1,000 music enthusiasts from record companies, managers, agents and media enthusiasts in general. A list of eligible artists is compiled and given to the academy via a secure website, each member then draws up their own top 5 list for each category and these are then short listed.






The Oscar's:

The Oscar's also known as The Academy Awards is annual awards ceremony in America held around February or March. They honour 'cinematic achievements in the film industry' with the prize being the gold plated Oscar statuette of a knight. The shows can be seen live in over 200 countries with its highest viewing figures being in 1998, the year of Titanic, with more than 57.25 million people tuning in. Various categories include; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Film Editing.


The voters consist of 5,783 members of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy is split into different disciplines, with each one voting online after being invited to do so by a board of governors.

Teen Choice Awards:

The Teen  Choice Awards is an annual ceremony shown by the Fox Network. Prizes are awarded for music, movies, television, sport and fashion with a total running time of around 100 minutes. The show is targeted at teenage demographic however can be enjoyed by all ages. Voting takes place on their website http://teenchoiceawards.com/signin.aspx with voters being between the ages of 13 and 19. The iconic surfboard prize represents the 'freedom of summer vacation for teens' and each one is custom made costing around $800 each.

Radio and Games

5 Radio Stations:

• Classical- classical composers and musicians

• Smooth - easy listening, soul

• Kiss - house, pop, R&B

• LBC -debate and talk show

• XFM - indie, alternative, rock

5 Games:

• FIFA - football league, football simulator game

• Call Of Duty- War, modern and occasionally futuristic 

• GTA - action/adventure, american cities, driving, shooting

• SIMS- life simulated video game, virtual town, virtual people

•  Assassin's Creed - historical fiction action/adventure, rivalry between two societies.

Representation

Representation of ethnicity in the media:

Ethnicity is based on social groups that share the same history and cultural roots.

It is seen as more social than biological, and refers to

·         Heritage

·         Culture

·         Ancestry

Within media different ethnic groups can often be overlooked and therefore the use of ethnic minority actors is known as tokenism.

Tokenism can be seen in the media by having either:

1.      A reduced amount of ethnical background actors or characters.

2.      The difference between ethnic groups over emphasized, such as exaggerated accents.

Often ethnic minority characters are secondary to white protagonists such as friends or sidekicks.  

For example

It has been said that the TV show Friends fails to explore different ethnic groups with all six main characters being white, from America and living in New York and the only ethnic minority actors being colleagues or love interests.

Demographics and Psychometrics

Demographic:

Marketing within media used demographic information to find out what audience to target. This information helps pinpoint whether or not they will be successful with their chosen audience. 
For example: Cosmopolitan magazine is targeted at women.

Media companies change their ideas to suit a particular demographic and to follow 'demographic trends'

There are different social grades ranging from A to E.
A- upper middle class
B - middle class
C1- lower middle class
C2 - skilled working class
D- working class
E- lowest level 

Psychometrics:

 Psychometrics tests measure knowledge, abilities, strengths and weaknesses. This is used to measure audience suitability It looks at differences between different groups and targets them specifically.

Never Found : Final DVD cover

Media Coursework Report

Media Coursework Report

Pre-production:

I decided to follow both horror and supernatural genres with my teen series, as it is starts with a mystery which stems from a supernatural cause and then as a result develops into a horror. I decided on twenty episodes for the first season and each would be half an hour. I chose to base the series in a school to relate to my target audience of teenagers. The majority of characters will be teenagers as well, including the protagonist – sixteen year old Hannah. The remaining characters will still be relatable to teens as they will be teachers and parents. Although following both genres I wanted the series to be more supernatural than horror with an element of mystery and fear of the unknown. To keep it interesting the protagonist will realise something is wrong with her new friendship and her parents and teachers before, even within the first episode. This is to keep it within the supernatural genre otherwise it would be a risk of being a teen drama. In my research I looked at a few American teen dramas within the supernatural/ horror genres such as Twisted, The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars. All of these seemed to be based in a small conformist town in America, with a group of friends, a romance and a school setting. These shows seem to get a lot of interest from teenage audience, myself included, and so I followed their conventions.


Outline of series:


 Sixteen year old Hannah starts her summer with a big move to a new town. The town is small and old fashioned, and its as if everybody who lives there is stuck in their ways and moreover stuck in the past. The house she moves into is big and old to contribute to the eerie sense of the move and as an obvious component of a horror.  Hannah goes out to familiarise herself with her new surroundings and begins to resent her parents for the move as she doesn't like the new place and how quiet and conformist it is. She meets some people of a similar age down by a lake in a forest on the edge of town. She begins to become good friends with them and soon the summer has gone by and she has spent the majority of it with her new friends.


 Eventually summer is over and it is time to start school so she looks for her new friends on Facebook and finds it strange when she can't find them. After starting school she looks for the friends she spent summer with whilst in school but never sees them during only after when they meet by the lake. Her parents begin to worry when Hannah is never home and always out with her 'new friends', although never seen with them by the tight knit community. After being told that Hannah is often seen wandering and sitting alone her parents worry more and the school gets involved. Waiting outside for a parent teacher consultation about her she begins to look at the old photographs of previous school years on the wall by the office. Peering closely on the bottom left row of a photograph labelled 1972…she sees the familiar faces of the four friends she's been searching for.


The friends went missing shortly after the photograph was taken and were never found. The community do not talk of the friends as it is the biggest and most mysterious event to ever happen to the town and would jeapordise their ‘perfect’ reputation.

The idea behind Hannah thinking the friends are ‘real’ is similar to the film Sixth Sense however because it is series opposed to a film she will realise within the first few episodes.

The themes explored within the series include supernatural, horror, mystery, love, friendships, family and betrayal. In addition, each episode will have conventions of each theme and take on a new name with a hint to that episode’s content, for example:

1^st episode – The Move

2^nd episode - 1972

Production:

I started production by designing t shirts, bags, phone cases and a mug. To do this I used www.shirtinator.co.uk  and www.customink.com . After deciding against this I chose to try a DVD cover. I chose a dark colour to match the mysterious genre. The title comes from a font off the t shirt design website as I liked how it looked like a ransom note cut from newspaper letters as the disappearance would have been reported in a newspaper.  The background is made up of a chalk board to coincide with the school setting, in the same way ‘season1’ is written in chalk. I got the chalk font from a website called www.fontspace.com. I wanted both these titles to stand out as they attract the viewers.  I blended photos  on an app on my phone called ‘instantblend.’ I copied the names and producers from another DVD and ‘set transparent colour’ to get rid of the background. I also did this with the content guidance box and barcode.

I made my DVD cover using Microsoft Word and relied on the re-colour > ‘set transparent colour’ tool, the snipping tool to recapture images, cropping tool, text wrap (square) and different fonts/ colours available. I layered a lot and saved my work as a new image frequently.


Final Outcome:


After the photo shop workshop in class I decided to develop my DVD cover and try and use the Photoshop skills I learnt. From here I made my final piece which is a promotional poster for 'Never Found' and I often looked at posters for dramas such as The Vampire Diaries and other CW network shows for ideas to see ways in which they targeted a teen audience through their posters. I used an image of an eerie woodland setting and blended it with a jigsaw puzzle image from Google, removing the colour and changing puzzle image to gray scale as it was in bright colours. The puzzle was to coincide with the mystery theme throughout. From here I added the title and actor names and I wanted these to be quite bold and simple, with a small shadow to draw attention to it. Next I added the ITV2 logo as this is where most credited teen dramas are aired. Finally, I added in a photo from Google of what I picture the main protagonist to be like, as I feel this helps draw an audience in and gives them an insight helping attract them. I used the lasso tool to remove the background and just get the side of the girls face I wanted.

Visual, technical and audio codes

Insidious Chapter 3:

Visual Codes:

·      Short extracts from the film to give audience an insight into film

·   Varying shot sizes

·      Information about the film ; the release date(THIS SUMMER)

·      Introduces characters

·      Dark colours as a component of the horror genre

Technical Codes:

·      Shot Sequences edited together

·      Make-Up on actors 

Audio Codes:

·      Calm/Classical Music to sound eery and contrast against loud music on jumpy scenes

·      Loud sudden noises, make is more jumpy

·      Scary/Loud music to add suspense and intrigue audience

·      Extracts of conversations from characters to give further insight

Narrative:

·      Young girl and her dad move into a new house due to the girl becoming temperately disabled because of her broken legs. Whilst in the house she discovers it is haunted because of unexplained happenings. A relatable narrative makes it more realistic and therefore scarier narrative.

DVD Cover: Wanted

Visual Codes:

·      Main protagonist on front hows that a well known actor stars making people want to come and see it

·      Large Titles so name of the film is clear

·      Name of actors to again target fans

·      Information of release date and awards etc..

·      Attractive colours and fonts to attract people

·      Synopsis (summary of film) gives a brief insight into the film

·      Barcode for selling purposes

·      Producer(universal)

 Technical Codes:

·      Fake Background with light showing hope against a villain

·      Photoshopped protagonists on the front so its easy to see who's in it. 

·      Weapons

Billboard Magazine Cover

Visual Codes:

·      Celebrity taking up most of space to target fan base

·      Stands out against background

·      Covers title

·      Minimal information but enough to make you want to read

·      Simple colour scheme to easily read headlines

·      Price and Barcode for selling

Technical Codes:

·      Photoshopped

·      Large centre ‘M’ 

John Lewis TV Advert:

Visual Codes:

·      Bright colours- Keeps audience interested

·      Narrative focused on little boy yet also focuses on selling products

·      Relatable- Children at Christmas

Audio Codes:

·      Calm music/links to the narrative

Technical Codes;

·      Sequence of shots to develop narrative

·      Edited- penguin not real

Music Video-MGMT

Visual Codes:

·      Bright colours throughout to keep you interested

·      Characters in the videos are dressed in hippie like clothing such as headbands and are shown doing free spirited things

·      Use vivid imagery and changing in brightness which has an illusion on the brain

·      The characters use drugs in the video which shows pills are their religion

·      The first part of this video is the song titles followed by artist name and album name to give clear information

·      The video is very naturalistic and includes no modern materials such as technology, all we can see Is plants, animals and the characters

Audio Codes:

·      You can hear the use of the drugs(sniffing cocaine)

·      The song itself aids the narrative

Technical Codes:

·      The video has been edited to fit the audience target which is younger genders who enjoy going to festivals and believe in peace and the protection of the environment

·      The video is made to give the viewers the feeling that they are in the video to and have taken the same drugs.

Development of Production

I have chosen to design a poster for the series as part of the production and merchandise. I looked at some of the shows in my research from ABC family and CW network to see the types of clues about the show they gave on the posters. Most of them used dark colours and were obviously very relevant to the show.

The left poster shows the silhouettes of the friends she makes and has the backdrop of the forest they went missing in and therefore can only communicate with Hannah in. The title is eye catching and links with the tag line at the top of the poster which gives an insight into the series.

I prefer the left poster to the right as it shows more about the series. In the right poster I went with the police investigation side of the missing friends with the stamp and unidentified face. I think this poster lacks an insight into the show for advertising and won't grab a passers by attention. Although it may be a good poster for merchandise for fans of the show after it had aired.

I used Microsoft Word to design the posters, layering images such as the silhouettes onto the forest.I then chose a font and a colour that would stand out against the dark background and put the title more or less in the centre of the poster. Underneath is the times and days for people to see and this is all very clear as the poster is not busy. The silhouettes adhere to the mystery theme within the show.

For the second poster I also used Microsoft Word and I designed the stamp on a font website and put the face onto a stained page backdrop to show the time period.  The font is in red to stand out and I put it in a red box to make make it look like a stamp. The time and day is in the same font however because it is smaller it is not very clear and so in my next development I will have to change this.

I would like to use Photoshop or Illustrator to develop these designs and make them look more professional, and maybe try out different fonts and colours whilst doing so. I am choosing to develop the poster on the left as it is the one I prefer and think matches the ideas I have more than the other poster.