Textual Analysis CD cover3

MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS

In this album Katy Perry is being represented. Because she is naked it has connotations of the artist being sexually active, which also links to her facial expression. She is not smiling, but is tilting her head and squinting her eyes making her look sexual and seductive. Also the way in which she is positioned on the cloud, and the effect that makes it look as though it has been painted, it is similar to a naked portrait. Portraits are more often than not painted for celebrities, members of royalty or some one who is considered a person to admire. Because Katy Perry is represented in that way, it is playing with the audience by making us think that Perry is some sort of Godess. This is also done by laying her in the clouds. Because she is so high up that she is actually in the sky, it denotes that she is an artist to look up to, (maybe a role model) but certainly suggests how 'amazing' she is by presenting her laying in the clouds. The institution Katy Perry currently belongs to is Capitol Records, who are responsible for presenting the artist in this way. What may be an influence to how Katy Perry is being represented here is the fact that back in 1942, Capitol Records recorded their first song called 'Moon Dreams' by Martha Tilton. Because of the history link with how painted portraits were used to present someone important, their may also be a link here.
The way that Katy Perry is represented is an accurate judgement, which is shown within the music video to the song that the album features. Throughout many videos by Katy Perry, she is wearing revealing outfits, wearing very little or wearing nothing at all. Again this conotes the sexual desire and seduction.
Also, contrasting against this sexual and seductive use of representation, the artist is also presented as sweet. This message is put across by the background and lettering, which is made to look like candy cane and candyfloss. This contrast gives us mixed messages, giving different opinions to the audience. Doing this may help to attract a wider audience range, by appearing to be both naughty and nice.

MEDIA LANGUAGES & FORMS
The connotative levels within the album cover are that Katy Perry is in the male public eye. This is shown by what she is wearing (nothing) and the position in which she is lying in. Because her legs are up and her toes are pointed, it makes her look graceful. Her upper body shows an open arm line, which prevents them from blocking her face. It also makes her look comfortable in that situation because she isn't trying to hide her body. This also projects her as being confident, which again is shown by her position. The denotive levels of the album are that Katy Perry is a 'Godess'. She is shown laying in the clouds, making her look dreamy and heavenly. The significance of this is that it relates to the title of the album a lot; 'Teenage Dream'.

GENRE
The genre that this album artwork belongs to is pop music. The conventions that it follows makes it this genre, for example the use of bright and eye catching colours. It uses pink, red and blue as it's main colours which all stand out on the cover. The colour pink connotes sweet, romance, flirtatious and sexual. This is the ultimate message that Katy Perry is trying to put across here, therefore using this colour was crucual. Red clashes with pink, which makes the album cover quite unique. It both contrasts in looks, and connotations. The connotations of red are danger, warning, passion and love. These connotations are also a way in which Katy Perry is represented in the picture, and so using both of these colours shows a variety of attitudes for the artist. In some ways, this album cover goes against the conventions of a pop album. This is because it doesn't use an extreme close up as it's artwork, but uses a long shot. This allows us to see the full body of the artist which in some ways makes it quite controversial. This is because the artist is naked, and perhaps shows that because she is so popular, she is now that recognisable that the audience don't need to be presented with an extreme close up of the artist's face.

MEDIA INSTITUTIONS
Capitol Records are Katy Perry's current record label, and are American based. The influence that the record label may have had on this album is the fact that the label's first artist recording was Martha Tilton's 'Moon Dreams'. This reference to the history of the label links to the history of the representation. The album artwork is made to look like a painted portrait, which was done in the olden days instead of taking photographs. The record label is owned and controlled by Johnny Mercer and Buddy DeSylva. This matters because it was Mercer who over looked the recording of 'Moon Dreams', and that track would have influenced his idea to represent Katy Perry in this way.

MEDIA VALUES & IDEOLOGY

MEDIA AUDIENCES

Textual Analysis CD cover2

MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS
Lady Gaga is being presented here on the album cover (above). The main way in which the artist is being presented is wealthy, and glamorous. This is because of what looks to be crystals or diamonds on her glasses. This is the first thing that the audience would see as the picture is so close up. It also presents the artist as a role model or someone to admire, as diamonds and crystals are something every girl wants (stereotypically). This means that because she has them it will attract an audience who want what she has. Her institutions Def Jam, Cherrytree, Streamline, Kon Live, and Interscope have chosen to present Lady Gaga in this way, in order to attract the right audience. By using crsytals and diamonds it is going to attract young females.
Also because the artist is wearing glasses it almost gives her a mysterious look, and makes her seem quite threatening. This is because the glasses hide any emotion on the artist's expression, and so it is quite intimidating for the audience. Also, sun glasses are an icon of 'Fame' which is why it is relevant to the album. Glasses have connotations of a rock star, and in history, that is what famous people wore, and were known for. Because Lady Gaga is wearing them, it reflects the title of the album. The way in which Gaga is portrayed, is an accurate view, as we know Gaga's image is her main selling point. By presenting her using a close up which is usually used to show emotion, but in this case doesn't because of the glasses, we are able to clearly see the style aspect of her career. We see this through the glasses, her block fringe, the flower and the use of crystals or diamonds, and choice of lip colour.

MEDIA LANGUAGES & FORMS
The connotations of the image used on this album cover are wealth, and glamour. This is simply shown through the graphics presented on the glasses. There are crystals or diamonds which connotes money. Also, they are things many people dream of having, so presenting Gaga with these items would make people envy her. The denotations of this are that she is unique and daring. Because we don't often see people walking around with big, black glasses that have diamonds on, it makes her seem like her own person. Again it makes us admire her for been such an individual. The conotations and denotations are significant as the title of the album is 'The Fame'. The glasses and diamonds symbolise the idea of 'fame' conoting wealth and glamour.

GENRE
This album belongs to a pop genre. This is obvious because it follows the conventions of a pop genre. An example of this is the colours used. The dominating colour on the album is black, but because an effect has been used to brighten the artist's face, the brighter colours are highlighted. This makes the album seem more light hearted rather then dull and sinister, which helps to represent the music on the CD. The use of colours also help to attract the intended audience, and as another convention it is aimed at a younger generation; teenagers, and more often than not; females. Because it follows this convention too it means the CD album cover is of a pop genre. The album follows the audience expectations by using a big image of the artist, as the main feature on the cover. This is another convention of a pop music album cover. Along with the main image, the name of the artist is placed right across the bottom in big letters, which would help to advertise the artist, as this was one of the artist's first album. Again following the conventions of a pop music album means that it follows the audiences expectations and is of a pop genre.

MEDIA INSTITUTIONS
The institutions that Lady Gaga belongs to are Def Jam, Cherrytree, Streamline, Kon Live, and Interscope. The text has been influenced by these institutions...
CONTINUE!

MEDIA VALUES & IDEOLOGY
HELP!

MEDIA AUDIENCES


Lady Gaga has progressed from using a close up of her face (first album) to an image such as this one. This helps to show how popular she has become as she no longer needs to be presented by an extreme close up, she is now recognisable simply by her style. Her style has become so iconic these days that she is so easy to recognise just by the costume and how her hair and make up has been styled.

Textual Analysis CD cover

MEDIA REPRESENTATION
On this album cover, Ke$ha is being represented as rebelious and disobedient. The artist is not smiling, which instantly creates the impression that the artist is very serious about her career and music itself as well as being a rebel. Along with not smiling, her eyes are squinting, and this could connote many things. For starters, it could be quite sexual. As though she is literally trying to resist something irrisistable. This could also link to the name of the album 'Animal' because it could also be animalistic. She could be eyeing up a prey; about to pounce. The way in which she is presented makes the audience question which of these is the correct one and so we are left to wonder. Because of her expression it also seems like she is quite threatening, which links to how she is presented in the video 'Tik Tok' of which I analysed. In this video she is made to look quite rebelious and disobedient. The same message is put across here. The institution has chosen to represent the artist in this way to make the audience feel good. Because it looks as though she is eyeing up her prey, it is almost as though the audience are her prey. I think that presented her as quite animalistic and rebelious is an accurate representation of Ke$ha. This is because these aspects of her personality are obvious in her videos and these ideas are shown in what ever she does, in her clothing, videos and photographs.
Also, Ke$ha is made to look as though she is someone to look up to. There is a light behind her which creates the illusion of a glow around her head. This makes her look quite angelic which goes against the animalistic, rebelious and disobedient Ke$ha we know. But because this has been done, it highlights the artist and makes her face seem darker, helping to create the messages we see.

MEDIA LANGUAGES & FORMS
The connotations of the album cover are that she is quite animalistic. This is shown by the use of representation, and the facial expression. Because she has a serious expression on her face and her eyes are squinted, it is made to seem as though the artist is eyeing up her prey, which gives her the animalistic quality. Another way of looking at this could be that she is being seductive, and trying to attract a ‘mate’. This is shown through the squinted eyes, and slightly tilted head, which could represent something quite sexual. The denotations of this are that she is serious when it comes to her career and music. We can see this again through her facial expression as she is not smiling, and is looking quite threatening. The significance of the connotations and denotations are that the title of the album is ‘Animal’. It creates the impression that Ke$ha actually has a wild side, as well as being serious about her music. Her hair has been purposely styled to look messy and untidy, which helps to convey this ‘animalistic’ quality of hers. How she is presented is iconic of a wild animal as she looks fierce, and as though she is eyeing up her prey.

GENRE
This album cover belongs to a Pop genre. This is obvious as it follows the conventions of a pop genre. One is the use of colour. The dominating colour on the album is black, but because it uses gold, pink and purple as well it is using brighter, and more eye catching colours. This makes the album seem quirky and quite fun, which helps to represent the music on the CD.
The use of colours also help to attract the intended audience, and as another convention it is aimed at a younger generation; teenagers. Because it follows this convention too it means the CD album cover is of a pop genre.
The album follows the audience expectations by using a big image of the artist, as the main feature on the cover. This is another convention of a pop music album cover. Along with the main image, the name of the artist is placed in the top corner, and the name of the album is positioned in the bottom. Again following the conventions of a pop music album means that it follows the audiences expectations and is of a pop genre.

MEDIA INSTITUTIONS
Ke$ha belongs to an institution called ‘RCA Records’, ( Radio Corporation of America) which is a flagship of major label ‘Sony’. It is one of three different co-owned record labels. RCA Records is the label in charge of pop music, rock music and country music. RCA Victor looks at blues music, world music, jazz, and musicals and RCA Red Seal is the classical music label.This institution has influenced the album cover by giving Ke$ha her individuality, and by doing this it makes her noticed. By advertising the artist as much as possible and gaining as big an audience as they can, the institution will gain more money. RCA Records is owned by Emile Berliner and Eldridge R. Johnson, which could be influential as Berliner, was known to be an inventor. Because he was an inventor, it means he isn’t afraid to experiment and try new things. This may have had an influence on this album as it is unique to any other. Berliner may have been experimenting here, with both the message he was putting across and the representation he was trying to create.

MEDIA VALUES & IDEOLOGY
Because the album presents Ke$ha in an animalistic way, it has used the colours and design pattern that connote a leopard print. Because it is represented this animal, it means that the artist stands out and is unique. The colours on the disk itself and the design on the CD also connote the designer Louis Vuitton. This connotes money, wealth and bling.



MEDIA AUDIENCES

PLAN

I have planned what I need to have done by certain dates:

November..
week commencing 1st- Animatic COMPLETE
week commencing 8th- shoot video/upload COMPLETE
week commencing 15th- shoot video/upload
week commencing 22nd- edit/ re-shoot video/start ancillary texts
week commencing 29th- edit/ancillary texts

December..
week commencing 6th- edit/ancillary texts
week commencing 13th- evaluation/upload to youtube

Dance Routine- first attempt

I made my first attempt at shooting the big dance routine that will feature in my music video. Here is a short preview of the footage showing my mistakes: (it takes a few seconds to load)


There were many errors I made that meant the footage was unusable, and that I have learnt from.

Error 1.. Colour
The colour of the back wall that the routine was performed against was a light colour; cream. This was a major error that I made because of the dancers' costumes. I told the dancers to wear white tops; a big mistake. This would mean that the dancers' tops would dissappear when I went to edit the cream background, which is not the effect I wanted. Also, because the dancers' skin tone is a similar colour to the colour of the wall, it means they would dissappear too.
How to fix this..
In order to fix this, I need to use a background that uses a colour that isn't used within the costume, hair colour, makeup, or skin colour. A perfect place to shoot the routine on my next attempt would be the college green room, as green is not a colour used within costume etc.

Error 2.. Framing
The framing of the dance routine was difficult, as they're moving, they're not still. This meant that in my footage the dancers kept moving out of the frame, which meant I had to move the camera during the shot, making it look untidy and not smooth, and I was capturing parts of the room that again were uneditable.
Also, the camera was not straight, it was unlevel. This meant that the picture was slanted, making it look unproffessional and messy.
How to fix this..
In order to get round this, I need to put the camera in shot, then mark out were the dancers can perform, with tape. This will prevent the dancers from moving out of frame and would make sure I wouldn't have to move the camera during the shot.

Error 3.. Background
The background in this part of the footage was a cream background, that had plugs, fire alarm buttons, big brown doors at either side, stained glass windows, and blue curtains. This meant that the background was not able to be edited as it wasn't plain. Also, it meant if I was capturing a good shot that was usable, and then the dancers moved out of the frame, the camera had to be moved and I ended up getting parts of the background; like the windows and curtains, which ruined the shots and made them unusable.
Also, the wooden floor meant I couldn't edit the background either. It didn't match the colour of the background, and had too much detail, preventing me from editing it.
How to fix this..
I could fix this by again, a change in location. I need to use somewhere that uses a totally plain background; no doors, no windows or curtains, no plugs, and the floor needs to match the colour of the background. Again, I could use the green room as it is suitable to work with, and edit.

My intentions for the dance routine to begin with, were to film it in the college theatre, against a totally plain black background. This would allow me to get a wide variety of shots, as well as give me the opportunity to use the lights for special effects. It would also allow me to use the CD player so that the dancers were able to use the music in order to keep in perfect time. I wanted to use my main artist, as the main dancer, and then use six other back up dancers. During the half term holidays I was only able to use the theatre on a thursday, which to start with was perfect. Until my dancers began coming up with exuses and reasons for not being able to make it that day. This meant my beginning intentions were just not going to happen. I ended up cancelling my theatre use because I didn't have enough dancers. I then thought it would be easier to use a venue that was closer to home, encouraging more people to take part in my video. I booked the village hall in Welwick, and had all the chairs and tables cleared inside in order for the dancers to perform properly. I sent a reminder to all my six dancers the night before we were due to shoot, and three of them, again, made an excuse for not turning up. I ended up shooting my video in a local village hall, with three dancers (nothing like how I intended).

CAST LIST:
Becki McKinley
Sophy Wardman
Laura Derbyshire
Stacey Hartly

Next time...
I will shoot the dance routine in the green room at college, with 5 background dancers, a long with the main artist. Because of the size of the green room, it means that I cannot have all dancers performing at the same time. I came up with the idea of videoing the first three dancers at one time, then filming another two, and then the artist on her own, seperately. I will then super impose each clip on to the other so that the artist is at the front. In editing, this is called double exposure. I will dress the dancers in all black so that they're all uniform, but dress the artist differently to make her stand out.
I tried this idea with another video to whether it would work, and it did.

SHOOTING

Today I started shooting my video. Firstly I filmed a peice of paper on my kitchen floor. To begin with the paper was flat, and gradually crumbled up into a paper ball. Once I put that on the editing suits I will put it in both fast motion and reverse. The effect of this is that the peice of paper will unravel to reveal a message; KISS & TELL.

I then went to the Welwick village hall that I had hired to use for 3 hours this afternoon. I arranged to meet my four dancers there, as well as a friend to help set up the hall, and create space to dance in. My dancers then got ready in the costumes organised, and I taught them a routine that I personally choreographed. After learning it, I told the dancers to perform the routine repeatedly in order for me to shoot from several angles using a variety of camera shots. I will capture the footage on Monday at college, and look through the footage I got.

Animatic

prop list/ location list/ cast list

PROP LIST: car, football, cup and string, ball of paper, pencil

LOCATION LIST: photobooth in post office Withernsea, my garden Withernsea, football pitch in Withernsea,


CAST LIST: Becki McKinley- as Ke$ha- wearing black converse boots, black leggings with slits across the leg, sequined hot pants, black top with slits in to reveal a bright pink bra. Her hair will be backcombed, and wavy. I will do her makeup to create the right message. She will wear thick black eye liner, fake eye lashes, and pink tinted lips. She will also wear a nose ring.
The outfit will change when Becki performs a dance routine, choreographed by me. She will wear the same sequin hot pants, without the leggings this time, with a similar pair of shoes in a different colour; red and white stripes. She will also wear a black and white striped top that is long sleeves and belly button length. She will also wear a leather glove.

Extra Dancers: Laura Derbyshire, Stacey Hartly, Sophie Wardman and Becki McKinley all danced in my first attempt of the dance routine. They will all wear similar to the main artist, but less distinct so that the artist stands out against the rest. They will wear either red or black plain converse boots, with the same seqiun hot pants, and a stripey top. They will have their hair straight, but still back combed.

Thomas Brankley: boyfriend- wearing jeans with holes in and a shirt with a white T-shirt underneath. I will style his hair so that it sweeps to the side.

script/screenplay

Storyboard