Advertisement deconstruction

All of these album advertisements have the name of the artist, the date the album goes on sale or whether it is on sale at the time of publication. They all also have an image that relates to the album or a picture of the artists. All of these bands are indie/indie pop in genre.

For the individual advertisement deconstruction I am analysing The Fratellis' advertisement. The advertisement has one main image which is of an old fashioned typical american carnival, as the picture is of what appears to be the ring leader. The colours in this advert are dull pastel colours which contrasts to the typical bright reds associated with carnival. The text in this advert is all white, this helps the text to stand out more on the coloured background. The text and the images don't strongly relate, the album is called 'Here we stand' , the only relation would be the ring master standing proudly on the advertisement. The band have their name on the advert so people can clearly establish who is releasing a new album. It also has a quote from a review by the sun, which could help to promote the album positively. The target audience for this would most likely be those who enjoyed their last album, as their first album was a large success.

9 Frame Analysis

For the 9 frame analysis I chosen a music video with an interesting visual style, I decided to analyse Katy Perry ft Snoop Dogg - California Gurls which was directed by Mathew Cullen.

The first shot is of a board game box, set in the fictional 'Candyfornia', the camera zooms in closer to the images on this box before the lid lifts off the reveal the footage from the music video. This box and the theme of sweets on it suggests that the video will be fairly child like as games are generally associated with children. The board game at 0:00 is at a tilt in the straight camera, this could suggest playfulness, the background of this shot is blue sky and clouds which is consistent with the rest of the music video.

The second screen shot is of 'Snoop Dogg' putting a miniture Katy Perry on the Hollywood board game. The camera is at a medium shot which is focussed on having the main character as the focus of the screen. The mise-en-scene of this shot are mainly made to look like gingerbread, marshmallows and other types of sweets to fit in with the video theme. The star performance of this video is successful as the miniture Katy Perry looks very much like a game counter, from the pose of the character to the candy themed base she is stood on.

The third screen shot is of Katy Perry in an enchanted candy forest, the camera angle looks as though it has been placed slightly lower to make sure that all of the surroundings have been noticed fully by the audience. The mise-en-scene has again been created to fit in with the rest of the video, using items to looklike sweets and candy. The visuals of this shot also look like they have been created to look similar to 'Alice in Wonderland' as the trees are tall in comparison to Katy being smaller than them, The performance in this part of the video also relate to an 'Alice in Wonderland' style as Katy acts vulnerable and naive to fit the role.

The fourth screen grab is or importance due to the mise-en-scene, as Katy is freeing another 'California girl' from a bubblegum bubble the sign in the background is for 'Sunset boulevard' which is a relation to classical areas of Hollywood. The camera uses a medium shot to show the main events of the shot while still using the background as this is important within the video. Again the performance is important as Katy is acting childish to fit in with the fairly childish genre that makes the video work successfully. The editing of the video so far is fairly slow to follow the story of the video accurately.

The fifth shot at 1:48 is a high angle used to look down on the miniature board game which has all been created from sweets, the angle reflects its small characteristics and inferiority. The shot is composed to show Snoop Dogg in the top left corner of the screen as he is powerful and in control of the board game as a whole. This shot is cross cutted in with the storyline footage from the video. The pace of the editing so far in the video has been at a relaxed pace however shortly after this screen grab the pace quickens as Katy spins round, again this is a relation to her childish role within this music video.

At 2:09 Katy is shows to be looking through candyfloss curtains at the ice cream cone castle which we previously seen in the shot of the miniture board game. The mise-en-scene of this shot has been created based on the small board, but on a larger scale. The camera zooms in towards this as the curtains are pulled further back simultaneously. The lighting is very high as the video is set outside, or in the clouds, this has done to make the video seem more realistic like an imaginery world.

The seventh screen shot is of part of the dance routine in the video, at this certain part a wide pan has been used to reveal all of the dancers doing the routine at the same time, after this the camera cuts off to close ups, high and low angles of individuals doing different parts of the routine alone. All of the characters have outfits which fit with the theme, their hair colours are surreal, their outfits have been created individually based on a certain colour, they have also been decorated with sweets and cakes. The background is again a blue sky, however this time the clouds have been created using candy floss and some candy canes have been used in the background for extra decoration related to the theme.

Then the eighth screen grab is of the female characters dancing individually, or sitting in sugar cubes. The females performance has been decreased for this part of the video as Snoop Dogg has taken over on the vocals from Katy Perry, thus now the focus is on him. The background is again of the blue sky and clouds, however their is now a mountain been created from layers of different coloured cakes.

At the final screenshot that I have taken, Snoop Dogg has an 'army' of coloured gummy bears that are coming out of the ice cream cone castle. The camers tilts downwards from the top of the castle to reveal the 'army' walking out of the gates as they open.

The complete video uses an idea of an imaginary world which has been created from sweets and cakes, therefore all of the outfits within the video have been created to fit with this idea, this entailed using caked on the outfits. Additonally the make up is equally elaborate as Katy has glitter eyeshadow, much like many of the other girls in the video. The mise-en-scene of this video has been carefully thought out and planned to become a success. The video is also all light using bright lights to reflect the sun of California and the optomism of the characters in the video. The video has been editied together to reflect the narrative as it follows the artists through playing the 'candyfornia' board game.

Music video analysis

Analysis of Lady Gaga - Just Dance

This music video contains approximately 192 shots throughout, 105 of these are 'Meat shots' where the artist (or main artist if in a band) are the main focus of the shot.

This video uses a large amount of medium shots, these show the storyline or events of the music video while focusing on Lady gaga as the main artist. This video cross cuts between footage of the party scene and lady gaga dancing and singing the lyrics throughout the music video. The video uses high angles to reveal people on the floor. this shows lack of power, while when the low angle is used to look up at lady gaga, this shows how she contrasts with the other people at the party as she is superior in comparison to them. At the star of the video, someone is carrying a music player and is shown to be pressing the 'play' button. However this is shot using canted framing to show that something about the frame or video is unusual. The video also uses contrasts in lighting, the start of the video uses bright lighting, this could relate to the time of the party that this is earlier on in the night as the more the video goes on the darker the lighting gets, again possible in relation to the progression in time.

The speed of this song relates to the video as when the sound in the song speeds up, the video footage has been edited together faster. However most of the song is fairly fast paced and quickly edited together, the shots of the fast paced part of the video are in the second set of screen grabs.

The video relates to the music as the song is about a party and dancing, these images are illustrated in the music video.This song is taked from Lady gaga's first album, the icons of this video are lightning bolt and disco ball, these images are used in throughout the video.

Analysis of a music video using Prezi

Kanye West - Good life on Prezi

Album cover deconstruction

Kanye West's - graduation album is interesting because of the images used, the cartoon bear on the album cover has been used on most of Kanye West's albums, this is a reoccurring theme throughout a lot of his album covers. The title of the album relates to the images as the title is 'Graduation' and graduation hats are in mid-air in the background of the picture, where other cartoon animals are in the role of cheerleaders, and some are wearing the traditional graduation robe outfit, the theme of the album cover is mainly that of the American college experience. The colours on this cover are all bright and seem to be surreal, however the background has been created with clouds which accompanies the bear flying throughout the air. The text is large and the font is colourful to fit with the album sleeve's theme. The text and the images relate to each other as the pictures all relate to an American college 'Graduation'. These work together to make the theme of the album clear and successfully market the album. The back cover of the CD continues with the themes of the bear, the cartoon in the bottom corner and the bright bold colours. The album was designed by Takashi Murakami who designs characters that appear to be friendly at first glance, but the more you look at them they reveal darker undertones. The inner sleeves continue with the city life where the cartoon bear is being running into the final image of a graduation, recognisable by people wearing graduation hats. The front sleeve is designed to advertise the new album to increase sales, the back cover of the album is designed to show all of the songs on the album and give details of the production and recording companies, while the inner sleeves are made more to fit with the topic and story of the album. There is iconography on this album's sleeve as while there isn't a picture of Kanye west on the sleeve, the bear is associated with him as it has been on most of his album's covers to date. The album cover represents the genre as typically the r n b rap genre would not be something associated with graduating college, however this is challenged on the cover of this album. Additionally the design was created by an artist, a concept of this album could be not to have any real images on the album sleeve. This album is the third album released by Kanye West, so this album will be aimed at the target audience of his fans who liked his previous albums. Kanye West is a mainstream artist as he is well known and his songs are often chart music.

IMovie and Final Cut screen grabs

These screen grabs show Imovie and Final Cut, both of which i have used to edit my AS level work and my A2 prelimenary task.

Album cover artwork

Typical features of an album cover

The typical features of an album cover is a picture of the artist or band, the name of the album, or an image or cartoon which relates to the artist or the album' s name.

Categorise the album covers

These four album covers are different genres, Kanye west - graduation is rap, and on this album cover is a cartoon bear that reoccurs on most of Kanye west's albums, Taking Back Sunday - tell all your friends is indie this picture on the album doesn't relate to the artist or the song title, Lady gaga - the fame is chart pop, the picture on the album cover is a close up on Lady Gaga with the title of the album written on her sunglasses, and The human league is new wave with a picture of the band on the front of the greatest hits album.

Function of the album covers

The album covers are usually made to be easily recognised by the audience and fans, additionally they are designed to advertise the artist when they release the new album, it is the covers that are remembered by the fans.