GCSE Media Studies

2009-04-22T05:19:00.000-07:00

Here is my magazine that i created i completed it using Adobe photoshop cs3, I have choosen the same genre as two of the magazines i analysed being dance. I got alot of pictures from the internet of some of my favorite bands of that genre, also a poster of my band BIOlogik.

GCSE Project 4 Music Video

2009-03-09T02:49:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that I created for project 4, i choose a song by my favorite band, the prodigy. This is their single, omen from the new album invaders must die. We started the project doing the title track of the album becuase that had just become avalible for free download at the time, but then by the time we got started omen was out so we choose to do that instead. We have a slight storyline to this video which was that i had been possed by a deamon and was chasing josh because i wanted to convert him. We really just used that as a reason of why I would be chasing him and also it ties in with the title of the track being omen.

We did have a few problems after filming for instance while editing we discovered that we didn't have enough footage for the length of the song. Also we lost our intro so had to go back to the class and redo the first twenty seconds, which actually turned out better than the original.

We got our inspiration from other prodigy videos here are a few video we where inspired by:

Invaders Must Die

This is the first single off the prodigy's most recent album. I like this music video because it is almost completely filmed in black and white which adds a nice style to the video. It also conveys quite an abstract message.

Hotride

This is also another prodigy video but this one is from one of their older albums, this video is very strange by anyones standards i suppose. I was inspired by the fast pace of the video.

Omen

This is the official video for the prodigy track omen and you can see the style we went for with the creepy little girl. Also there is a logo showed in the video on the girls neck which we copied on my hand.

Our verson of Omen

This is the final cut of our music video a track called omen off the prodigy's new album. Alot of effects have been put in this video but this is so we could see the effect the "daemon" had on the reall world. Then at the ending we show that everything reverts back to normal.

Magazine cover report

2008-12-03T04:05:00.000-08:00

This is mixmag one of the leading dance magazines on the market, the masthead is very visible at the top of the page and follows the colour scheme of the rest of the page. The lead article is very visible in the center of the page just in front of the lead image. The insert is very big in the bottom left corner of the page and is very big and even obsructs the lead image so is obviously quite a big deal. There are alot of main sells for this magazine which are all down the right handside of the page.
This is the second dance magazine i have choosen called DJ, this magazine like the other dance magazine is has very bright vibrant colours to attract the eye. The lead image again taking up most of the page and the lead article and strapline very close to the picture so you can assosiate the three together. Again most of the main sells are on the hand side of the page like Mixmag. There is a lure just in the top left corner saying advertising a free cd, so some people may just buy the magazine just for that and then at the botton of the page it's said again with a picture of it as an insert.

Here is my third choice of magazine, this is a different genre to the others but i think still conveys the same attitudes as the others. This is NME or new music express and deals with alternative rock and popular rock music that maybe in the charts. The lead image as usual in the middle of the page but whats different is the lead article and strapline are in the center aswell partically obscureing the main image. Also the main sells are at the bottom of the page not around the edge like the others. There is no insert in this magazine but there is a lure in the top right corner.

The three magazines I analysed and as you can see above the colours are quite different but this is maybe due to the fact that DJ and Mixmag are dance music magazines wereas NME is a rock and alternative magazine. I think this affects the colours used, for instance both the dance magazines have used one or two vibrant colours like orange and blue and one NME it had used red which is a symbol of anger and maybe even rebelion and this is the kind of audience they wish to attract. With the dance magazines these bright and vibrant colours are similar to the ones you may see in clubs where alot of this type of music is played. Also the layouts are very different for instance NME may be breaking conformity buy haver the lead article and strapline where they are along with the main sells at the bottom of the page.

Report 3: up and coming/unsigned band myspace

2008-11-25T06:24:00.000-08:00

Swarmed is actually one of my best friends band. They are a heavy metal band they haven't recorded any songs yet apart from a short demo piece they recorded with a microphone. They have booked a recording studio locally and are going to be recording soon. As with many local band they are only well known to their friends such as myself but they are trying to promote themselves with myspace e.g adding recording studios to their friends list and asking to be promoted over the internet so other myspace users who have no idea who the band is can check them out and see if they think they are any good. This is fundamental for a unknown band like this. They are also hoping to get a video of one of the many local gigs they have done so people can see what they are like live and then maybe if people liked the vido they could actually come along to one of them. I have been to one of their gigs and i can personally recomend going but not for the faint hearted. They also like prodigy have a list of who is in the band and how many their are and what part they play in the band be it vocals or guitar. Myspace has greatlyt improved the music indutry with loads of band forming and promoting themselves through myspace although soon just anyone will be able to say they have talent and that they are a band when really they are not.

Project One, Adbusters

2008-11-24T01:34:00.000-08:00

Adbusters is an anti-consumerist and non-profit organization started in 1989 by kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz. They describe themselves as "a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Adbusters has its own magazine and has launched numerous campaigns against commercialism such as "Buy nothing day". If you go on their website you can actually purchase what they call "Tools for the activist".

Abusters has filled lawsuits against many television channels because they refused to air adbusters adverts even when they had purchase the lawsuit claims that adbusters freedom of expression was unjustly limited. Adbusters have been described has the flagship for the culture jamming movement. Adbusters are particularly well-known for thier culture jamming campaigns.

Report 2: A successful bands myspace.

2008-11-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

This is a print screen i took of the prodigy's myspace as you can see they have a selection of their songs so you can check out their music and see if you like their music and want to buy one of their albums. This great for promoting the band and showing their success to big fans or people who have never heard of them before. Also they have dates of gigs that they will be doing on their current tour. There are also some pictures so you can who is in the band also there are some videos of them live further down their profile.

Fans can check the profile if they want some news on the band and releases that are coming up. I am actually a big fan of the prodigy and on the profile i found information that a new album is coming out soon also i can put music from their myspace on my own which is a really good feature of all bands myspaces, and helps you show all your friends what kind of music you re into this also helps to promote the band in another way if a friend hasn't heard of them they can listen to you profile song and see if they like it or not.

Report one: digital music industry

2008-11-19T03:49:00.000-08:00

The internet is becoming a larger part of our lives nowadays you can do almost anything on it now, including downloading music. You can download apples iTunes to buy music digitally which is actually cheaper than buying physical copy so it attracts more people. But there are other ways of getting music and for free as well these file sharing or peer to peer websites offer a huge choice of music that is free. But it doesn't stop there because much like iTunes you can download a programme like iTunes but called limewire and on this you can not only get music for free but films and video clips and even documents. This is very much illegal yet when asked around college many people still admitted to using websites and programmes such as limewire. 15% of all music sales were digital and 3/4 of those sales were from iTunes which has sold over one billion tracks worldwide. Myspace used to be a very popular website for the ability to download music off a bands website but this has been removed. Youtube is another very popular website because many people put a bands music videos on there it's not the easiest way to listen to free music because a computer is needed but a few mobile phone now have the ability to go on the internet. There are about 28,000 pirate websites and over 700 million unauthorised music files and in may 2002 99% of music files exchanged over the internet were illegal. Many groups have been formed against illegal music one which has been set up by the GRAMMY music awards which has a community style where artists can talk to music fans and discuss the problems of free music downloads.

Gcse Project Two: The Music Industry

2008-11-10T02:24:00.000-08:00

This is the front and backcover of a cd I made for my band using a studio and photoshop CS3. The logo is taken from a band i am actually in of the same name and also some of the tracks on the back are real tracks that we have made.

Using Photoshop

2008-10-15T04:21:00.000-07:00

This is when we used photoshop to create CD covers. This was one of my first trys at makeing a cd cover. First I opened the picture into photoshop and then used the magnetic lasso tool to outline him and then cut him and put him on another photoshop document. Then typed in his name and changed the font and then put some effects on the text. Also I added some revies for newspapers about the album and then added an effect to the background.

Project One, Task One

2008-10-06T02:33:00.000-07:00

£17 Billion is spent a year on advertising in this country which is spent on such elements of advertising as TV commercials, Radio commercials, Internet advertising, stadium advertising E.G. the Emirates Stadium for Arsenal, buses, billboards, celebrity endorsements and sponsorship of certain athletes.
What is advertising?
Advertising is about a company’s image and telling the public that the product or service that they sell is far better than any others. So if they sponsor an athlete it will give off the image of that company is part of that sport. Also certain sporting celbrities embody many of the values and aspirations of the brand. For instance David Beckman is associated with glamour , wealth and stardom. This is why companies like Armani and police want David Beckham to thier brands. The brands hope that the connotations associated with the star will also be associated with the product that the star endorses.
We experience adverts in our everyday lives it is impossible to go round a built up city without seeing advertising it is literally everywhere trying to win us over. Advertising is mainly about image and association what we think of the brand and then what we associate the brand with.
This is to do with Denotation and Connotation.
Denotation-Technical codes
This is what we see as soon as we look at the advert the model, the lighting, clothing, photography, location, the text, font, the age gender and possibly ethnicity of the model.
Connotation-symobolic codes
This is the way we interpret the advert using technical codes. The way that the advertisers want the audience to have a preferred meaning to the advert, we may or may not have a preferred meaning. This decoding of the technical codes relies on the audience's understanding and interpretation of the technical codes. Technical codes can embody many cultural, symbolic or even religious codes or iconography.
Messages and values
All advertising tries to appeal to the values of the target audience.
E.g. Addidas: sponsorship deals with top footballers: Gerard, kaka…
Values: Addidas values success and wants to be associated with success.
They can be positive
E.g. success to be popular to be sexy/attractive
Can be negative?
For girls to be skinny
For boys to be muscly
This bring an enormous amount of pressure.

Below is one of my favorite adverts. It is for Halo 3 a computer game. I enjoy this advert because the music goes really well with the still images. Actually it isn't a still image they actually made a scale model of a battle it took them 6 months to get right and thats what I like because they put time and effort in to making an amazing ad. Also the first time this was shown was half way through a baseball game in america with millions of people watching. I remember the first time I saw this advert I was amazed.

GCSE norwich advert montage

2008-10-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

For this project me and my group walked around norwich taking pictures of all the adverts we encountered. Then we made it into a slideshow and then uploaded it to www.youtube.com

Project One, Part One

2008-10-01T04:05:00.000-07:00

Project One, Part One

£17 Billion spent on UK advertising every year and most of the money is spent on Commercials on Tv and on radio also on the internet and in stadiums for example the emirates stadium for arsenal. Also there can be adverts on buses and billboards, celebrity endorsements and also sponsering sportmen and women. Advertising is just about promoting a product or service that people may want to buy and just perseude them to buy it. Advertising is everywhere in our

First paragraph: what is advertising?
: Where do you see Ads?
Advertising is about image and association
This is to do with Denotation and Connotation
Lighting.
Photography.
Clothing.
Location.
Text/Writing in the advert.
Font used for text.
Model:
Age
Gender
Ethnicity

The technical codes of the advert

The way the audience interprets the technical codes. Advertisers want the audience to have a preferred meaning.
e.g. Apple computers are Nike is for winners.
We may or may not have a preferred meaning
Messages and values
All advertising tries to appeal to the values of the target audience.
e.g. Addidas: sponsorship deal with top footballers: Gerard, kaka…
Values: Addidas values success and wants to be associated with success.

Messages and values
· Can be possible:
e.g. success to be popular to be sexy/attractive
· Can be negative?
For girls to be skinny
For boys to be muscly
Pressure!

Chanel advert analysis

2008-09-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

Denotation

As you can see in the advert the model (Keira Knightley) is right in the middle so as soon as we look at the advert we see her. Also she is a very attractive women which alot of men admire so it is appeling to the men to buy it for there wifes/girlfriends. Women will see this advert and see that she is very beautiful and they may think well if it is good enough for Keira Knightley its good enough for me. Perfume companies always use beatiful, aspirational models. The female audience will aspire to be like the modles. We can also clearly see the product at the bottom of the page and what it looks like along with the brand name and also the specific products name.

Connotation

If we look into the advert abit more we can see that Keira is not wearing much in the way of clothes so yet again it is hoping to appeal to the male side of the population. She seems to be in some sort of lift meaning that maybe she was at a important meeting or in a hotel. She is also wearing what appears to be an expensive necklace so maybe it was a night out at an expensive restuarant. Keira is holding a bowler hat which in the television advert she is wearing this links the two adverts. This could also be a sign that she has possibly tacken from a man she was getting close to, giving another aspect of romance and lust to the advert. Connotations of lust and sexuality are often used in fashion and perfume adverts. Again Keira Knightly emodies many of the values and aspirations of the target audience-she is young, confident and sexy. Chanel have paid Keira Knightly to appear in thier adverts as chanel want to be associated with the values she emodies.

Wayne Rooney Advert Analysis

2008-09-15T02:22:00.000-07:00

Wayne Rooney Nike Advert.

Denotation:
It’s very bright and noticeable so it grabs our attention so we will look at the advert. Also Wayne Rooney is a very well known and popular person and people know he is a footballer for England. It is also a very well known brand and also the advert is being very patriotic and it is representing England. He is in a position that looks like he is celebrating and this is what Nike wants to convey, success. He is bare chested, his skin is painted whited with a red cross across his chest, the cross represents the st geogrge's cross.
Connotation:
Personally I am not interested in football but I do find the advert interesting because it looks like the company has made an effort and spent a lot of money. Also I am impressed with the way it looks exactly like St. Georges flag. The company wants us to think of sport and success and making something of yourself and with Nike you can do that. Similar to other adverts that i have looked at wayne rooney embodies many of the values and aspirations of the target audience. The billboard poster was realeased during euro 2006. The advert plays with notions of national identity and national pride and closely associated the Nike brand with the England football team.