Message to the Moderator

Dear Moderator,

My name is Kate Burton and this is my A2 Media Studies blog; it contains all of the work undertaken as part of the G324 A2 Coursework Portfolio Unit within the OCR CGE course in Media studies.

I chose to work by myself to produce a music video to the track ‘Crash’ by the British Rock group You Me At Six. The project lasted four months, commencing in September 2013 and cumulating in February / March 2014. There were also two weeks of progression work in June 2013 following the completion of the AS course. This can be seen on the ‘Research’ page.

I hope you enjoy my work and find it both successful and interesting.

Please use the navigation bar above to access my work, as organised into the five stages: Research, Planning, Construction, Evaluation and the Final Products.

Sincerely,

Kate Burton.

Question 3 Response

Question 1 Plan

Question 1

Second Magazine Advert Analysis - Fall Out Boy

Question 4

Question 4 Plan

Question 2 Video

Finished Album Advertisement

Evaluation Question 3

Question 2 Video Plan

Question 2 Typed Up Answer

Questions for the Audience

Story Board

Final Edit

Risk Assessment - The Street Scenes

Risk Assessment - Flash Back Scenes

Risk Assessment - Art Classroom Scenes

Magazine Advert Mood Board & Analysis

Almost every example of magazine adverts for Rock albums portray the lead singer, if not the whole band. By doing this they are making sure that the promotion of their newest work is closely linked to their own social promotion. For the images that do include the whole band, the lead singer is still the centre of attention by standing in the centre or being the closest to the camera. Examples such as Paramore or My Chemical Romance also show the lead singer to be leaning forward, again getting closer to the camera, with a trait that distinguishes them from the rest of the group, such as brightly coloured hair, or the fact that Haley Williams is the only female in Paramore. The only advertisement that doesn't apply to this is the All Time Low's advert of their special edition DVD The Party Scene. This could be because it's not for a new release of an album that the artists would be closely tied to, but rather a DVD of an already familiar album. By using the cover design of the album for this the audience wouldn't be made to think that it's something brand new, yet the familiarity of it would catch their attention if they already owned the album - making them more likely to buy the DVD.
Another thing that most of the adverts have in common is how the photo of the group goes over the title of the magazine, such as Kerrang and Rock Sound among others. This is an effective deign on the magazines part, by doing this they are more likely to sell more copies as the attention is completely on what the article is featuring, and their brand will be easier to recognise from this distinctive appearance.
After that it's just the name of the group that is usually pasted in a large font and colour that is distinctive to the band and the album, over the top of their photo. Then in smaller writing, the name of the new album that they are promoting.

What is Genre?

What is Genre?

Genres are used to categorise art forms, in this instance, music. It is the genre of music that influences the conventions of the video, such as Indie, Pop and Rock.

Pop: Short for popular, these songs are usually ballads or quite upbeat, something that people feel is easy to listen to. The lyrics of a pop song are usually recycled messages about things in life that the audience could relate to easily. The environment of their videos is either casual or bright in colour, matching the style of the artist/protagonist. Pop music videos usually show a straight forward narrative, again easy for people to follow and relate to.

Indie/Rock: A lot of music videos for this genre include multiple close-ups, especially of the lead singer, and most of the time when the band is shown to be performing. A lot of the videos are either shot casually or in dark colours. There is a style of clothes that most artists wear throughout Rock/Indie music videos, such as skinny jeans, converse, T-shirts and hoodies. Special effects are used a lot more for this genre. 

R&B: Stands for Rhythm and Blues. Women are usually used as sex symbols in the music videos of this genre, and men are shown as a rebellious character that is admired – yet both are shown to see the other as objects of desire.  They focus a lot on the physical appearance of the artist/protagonist of the video, as well as being known for promoting things such as labels and brands, and quite a few cars.