Textual Analysis of album covers

 

This album cover is from 'The Saturdays' and is very similar to the other albums that they have in terms of pictures and colours. For example, this album cover is very bright and colourful which connotes a 'happy' album which contains upbeat songs. Also, the original song that The Saturdays first bought out was called 'Up' and in this video they each had a different colour that fans then related them with when the band was first together. This shows continuity within the album covers, as the colours are still used to market the band.

 

In my opinion, the album cover links extremely well to the 'pop' genre as it is bright and colourful. It also relates to the pop genre as there is a photo of the band members on the front of the CD. This shows a comparison between a 'pop' genre album cover, and for example a 'metal' album cover as they do not generally use a picture of the band as they are mostly concerned about marketing their music and not themselves.

 

This is shown to the left, which is an album cover produced by the band 'Slip Knot'. As you can see there is a clear comparison between The Saturdays album cover and the Slip Knot one, as the Slip Knot album cover is very dark and quite daunting to look at. However, this appeals to the fans as they know that their music is very dark and heavy, and so the album cover links in very well. As you can also see, there is not a photo of the band however, it does link to what the band look like as they wear masks in all their videos.

 

This analysis of CD covers has helped us to make a decision on what our album cover will look like, as we will be able to make it bright and appealing to the pop genre audience. We will not be relating it to the album cover above, due to it being too dark for the song we have chosen and also it not relating to the genre of 'pop'.

Textual Analysis of Magazine Cover

This is a magazine cover of Katy Perry from the Magazine 'Billboard'. Billboard is an American, weekly magazine that devotes all its work to music and the news that surrounds the music industry. This is a well planned magazine cover and all the aspects stand out in different ways, and they have also prioritised in what aspects such be bigger than the others, for example the name of the artist "Katy Perry" is the biggest in font other than the name of the magazine. In the smaller font, there is information that is inside the magazine, however this is in smaller text to ensure that people are not diverted from the main picture on the cover. Due to Katy Perry being a well known artist within both the UK and America, the idea of having Katy Perry on the front cover on the magazine is a good idea as she is popular all over the world.

This week edition of the magazine is the 'spring' edition, which is clearly shown in the colour and ideology in the photo. As the background is pink and Katy Perry has large flowers around her, as if she is 'modelling' then it creates a vibrant cover which will attract audiences to buy it. Katy Perry is also shown as a 'style icon' in this picture as she is wearing a floral dress that was very current in the spring and summer of this year. This invites people in even more to buy this edition of the magazine as, they may want to find out where the outfit is from, and think that this information is in the magazine.


'Billboard' is a usually associated with pop/chart music and so is quite popular and a lot of people know about the magazine even if they do not listen to the type of music that the magazine involves. However, magazines to do with more alternative, rocky, or indie music are usually not as well known and applies to a much more niche audience. For example, below there is a photo of a magazine cover from NME magazine. This magazine focuses on a much more different side to music, involving indie, metal music and rock.

 As you can see from the magazine cover, there are lot more darker colours and compared to the 'billboard' magazine where they show the seasonal nature, NME do not. They generally have the same colours within each edition of the magazine, just involving a different artist.

As you can see from the front cover, they still have the same aspects of a typical magazine cover, involving the large font for the artist and then small font for the other aspects. However, the font underneath the artist is a lot more 'vulgar' and 'sexual', involving words such as "sex, skins and standing in the way of control". This connotes that there maybe photos about the band inside that are nude or with minimal clothing. This is a large difference compared to the pop magazine 'Billboard', which is quite 'sweet' and 'pretty'.

This shows the difference between genres and the types of magazine that the music industry produce. It connotes the different clothes they wear and the way that people that enjoy the music, look. As we are doing a pop video, we will aiming the look of our magazine cover towards the 'Billboard' magazine look, to enhance our chosen genre. 

When making our magazine cover, we will include such aspects of the 'billboard' magazine, including bright colours, large picture of the artist etc, and I will continue to research more magazine covers to develop my knowledge and ideas further. 

Consuming Habits (Ancillary)

Who are magazines & album/single’s consumed by?	How are they consumed?	Where are they consumed?
Depending on the type of magazine, in my opinion magazines are generally consumed by women the most. This is because there are is a lot more magazine choice for women than there is for men, such as ‘home’ magazines, celebrity gossip magazines and there is slightly less revealing celebrity magazines for teenagers. Men and boys are not usually associated with magazines unless it is to do with cars, gadgets or women. For me, I do not usually buy real CD’s due to the ability to be able to buy singles online such as iTunes. It is more accessible for people now to buy CD’s online for people that have grown up with this source. However, the older generation may still feel that they like the novelty of CD’s and still go out to buy them at a shop. This may be because they cannot get used to the internet and its advances and so would rather go to a store to buy music.	Looking at the obvious answer of consuming magazines, people read them. However, it’s wear people read them that makes it different as many people will read them on their own to enjoy the certain things they are interested in. However, many people may be reading them when sat within a group, which will allow them to discuss altogether, making them feel a sense of belonging socially. Singles and albums can be consumed in a number of different ways such as playing them in the car, on CD players, and also downloading CD’s onto mobile phones. With the new advances in technology many people are not listening to CD’s anymore, however in my opinion the use of CD’s won’t ever be completely defeated by online music as people still enjoy the novelty of CD’s.	Magazines can be consumed anywhere and are a practical way in which people can gain new information on celebrities, new cars, new products etc. Whether at work, school or at home its always easy to pick up a magazine. However, with new advances in technology such as Web 3.0, people are able to look at new websites such as, news websites, clothing websites and social networking sites such as Twitter, to look at any new information about anything new in the world. CD’s are limited in where people can consume them however, when they are consumed people are usually in that one place for a long amount of time and so get their use out of them. This could be such as long car journeys or in a place such as a hair salon; they may have CD’s playing on CD players. The fact that people can insert CD’s into their laptop or computer to put the songs onto their phones, allows people to still ensure they are using the CD, but in a different way due to the advances in technology.

Under water camera cover arrived!!

As we will be visiting the holiday village of Center Parcs in a couple of days, as you know I have purchased an under water camera cover, so that we can gain some under water camera shots when taking shots at Center Parcs. The 'camera housing as Polaroid call it, was delivered to my home today and has got us super excited about practicing some shots for the music video!

Here is the camera in the box, I was slightly skeptical about purchasing the 'housing' and was even more worried when i received it, as I was scared that it would not be water proof at all. However, with the brand being 'Polaroid' I asked my dad as he is quite into cameras and he said that he would trust the brand. 













Here is the 'housing' broken up into pieces, and how you would assemble the cover once putting the camera in the large 'box' shape. It was fairly easy to remove all the bits and pieces of the camera cover, however the 'U' shaped parts are quite stiff. In my opinion, I see this as a positive as it means the camera cover will not fall apart if it was in the water and my camera will not fall out. 










Here is the camera taken out of the packaging and with nothing inside. I found that the space inside the 'housing' is very generous and is enough to fit a medium side camera inside. It fits my camera in perfectly, and it also gives you sponges that you can cut up and place inside the camera if you camera is too small. Even though my camera does fit inside the 'housing', I think that I am still going to place the sponge inside to simply support my camera more. 

When putting the camera inside the 'housing' there are small latches on the outside of the camera cover which state whether they are open or locked, to give the user reassurance on if the camera is safe inside or not. The only problem I would say we may have with the camera cover is that even thought the material is quite easily moulded, it is quite firm and may be hard to push particular buttons when inside the 'housing'. We will simply just play the film or look at the photos when we have took the camera out of the 'housing'.






This piece of felt was delivered with the camera inside the case, with a label on that stated, "This paper is for testing usage, please put the paper inside the case and immerse into water. Squeeze it and if the paper is wet, please return product to the shop." (As shown to the right.) I thought this was a very good aspect to include with the purchase as it shows the company know that the product works very well, and with a good price of £15.99, you are getting a well made product. 

This reassured me that the camera was going to be water proof, and I tested it out in my bathroom sink full of water, to make sure (as shown to the left).  I held the case under the water for approximately 10 seconds and then took it out. As shown below, the test was a success and there was no water at all soaked up into the piece of paper/felt. 

This has reassured me that we should be able to get some good shots when in the water at the holiday village and also, so good underwater photos to upload to the blog. It is a very recommendable piece of equipment so far, I shall see how well it works out when we visit Center Parcs at the weekend. I hope that I have purchased a good product that will help towards my A2 project sufficiently. 

Waterproof/Underwater Camera

Today Alice and I have purchased a cover for our camera so that we are able use it in wet conditions or under water. This is the email that I received to confirm that I have ordered to cover, and we should receive it in time for Saturday when we visit Centre Parcs to take so photos and record when around the pool. I have erased my personal details on the print screen, which is why the email looks 'scruffy'. 

Planning for our visit to Centre Parcs

I am currently planning my journey to Centre Parcs, how long it will take us to get there and back etc, so that I will be able to work out accurately how long we will have to complete the planning and short clips. Above is a map of where Centre Parcs is, which is based at Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire. 

<<<< I have then typed in where I will be travelling from and then to - Centre Parcs, to see what the estimated time will be for us to get to the centre. As you can see from the print screen to the left, there are a  few different routes that I can take from where I live, however I will be taking the quickest route which is the first one (19.1 miles), which will take me approximately 40 minutes. However, if there are any traffic conditions it could take slightly longer.










Here, (right and below) I have asked Google to then give me directions to Centre Parcs. However, I will be using the navigation system on my phone as I will not have to look at the directions when driving, I will just be able to listen to the voice telling me where to go.









As you can see from the print screens of directions, they are very clear and also tell me the estimated fuel cost of driving to Centre Parcs. This research and planning gave me a good idea on how to get there which means I now know approximately where I am going, hopefully meaning we can get there easily and quickly. 

Booking Day Visit to Film - Practise Ideas

We are currently on the Centre Parcs website booking our visit to the holiday centre on this Saturday. This is one of the frequently asked questions on what the 'Full Day Visitors Pass' is, and there is another question below on the options of how we are going to book the day visit.

As our friends are visiting for the weekend, this as enabled us to visit the site to look at locations and different shots that we will be able to take when actually filming the music video. We will also be practicing different aspects that we want to include within our music video such as, driving there and filming us in the car, underwater filming etc. We are going to purchase an under water cover for our home camera that we will be using for some one the shots, such as on water rides and by the lake.

" We have 5 stunning Village locations across the UK, each set in 400 acres of beautiful forest with lakes and streams." 

This is a quote from the centre parcs website, and as you can see we will have large areas of land to work with, which will come in handy as we recognised, when researching music videos quite a few of them, the artist had a large space to work with. For example in the 'Rihanna - Only girl in the world' video, she is in a large field, as you can see from the print screen below from her video.

When on the website we realised that we couldn't actually book the visit ourselves, the people that we are visiting (who are staying for the whole weekend), have to book us in. Therefore, when we reached this part of the website that you can see to the left, we couldn't enter a booking reference. However, our friend Emma that we are visiting is currently booking us onto the day visit so that we can go up on Saturday. 
Unfortunately, one of the members of our group (Amy) has other commitments and cannot come with us on the visit. However, two other of our friends will be joining Alice and I on the visit to Centre Parcs, to help us gain different shots, look at the different locations and practise short parts of the music video. We feel that this trip will enable us to further our knowledge and plan a lot more for the music video. 

When visiting Centre Parcs this Saturday, we are allowed to visit from 10:30am until Midnight so we should definitely have a good amount of time to get all the small parts of footage, photos and planning done that we need. I will be posting throughout the day on the types of the things we have done etc., to prove all the parts of planning that have took place.