Magazine Advertisement Research

Here are some of the typical layouts and structures of a magazine advertisement:

Representation Of Women In Music Videos

What is representation?

Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially that of the mass media) of aspects of 'reality' such as people, places, events identity and abstract ideas. These can be constructed in speech or written text as will as still, or moving pictures.

Representation describes the signs that stand in for and take place for something else. It is through representation that people know and understand the world and reality through the act of naming it. Signs and representations are manipulated in order to make sense of the world.

Representation vs. Reality

Different media producers "pick up" aspects of a "reality" society and reshapes them to suit current trends in society that will foster profit-money making for the medium that they occur in, with the product that they intend to sell. In doing this, the media uses stereotypes as they are a quick (if distorted) way of conveying and communicating information as they are instantly recognisable to the mass audience.

Using stereotypes from the "real" world

Music video producers today recognise stereotypes and represent girls by "borrowing" an old stereotype from the showgirls of the silent film era in the 1920s, and Burlesque girls from earlier.

• Stereotype 1: Burlesque
• Corsets
• Fishnet stockings
• Top hats or 'show' hats
• Accessories like canes or microphone used as a cane
• Elbow length gloves
• Stereotype 2: The stripper
• The 'open' crotch
• Poles
• 'Bum shot' (wiggle)
• Underwear
• Glitter on body/clothing; strobe lighting
• Stereotype 3: Gangsta
• Typically African-American women
• Bikini tops and torn-shorts with large skin exposure
• Simulated sexual positions
• Backwards-worn hat
• The use of oil or lubricant on the body
• Bling and excessive tattoos

Messages of representation (music videos)

• The objectification of women, which are foreseen to be possession
• Women are disposable and changeable to whatever desire
• Women's own sexuality only exists in relation to men (men decide)
• Women are passive and are acted upon - they are there to be watched (The Male Gaze)
• Women can be manipulated into anything desired or wanted and have no choice in the matter

Values of representation

• Women are 'cheap' and 'easy'
• Women are just bodies with no emotion or morality
• They are powerless
• Women get rewarded for sexual behaviour and actions (either through money or fame)
• Women are commodities on the open market
• Women who do not fit the 'stereotype' are useless

How does this representation fit wit the post-feminist currently?

• There is allergy educated female population in the Western Culture
• Independent and disposable income
• Sexual freedom from pregnancy
• 'Gangsta' represents only a small proportion of selected areas of the USA (typically) but influence of american media constitutions and organisations is worldwide (MTV, Sky, Digital TV and delivery)
• The legitimisation of prostitution - legal in NZ since 2003; parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and Australia

The effects of representation on girls in the real world - 'gangsta' dolls for sale

My Chosen Ancillary Task (#2)

My second ancillary task that I have chosen to do is a poster/magazine advert. Along with all my other products (music video and website), I've chosen to make this magazine advert very simplistic and minimalist. Who would've thought it, eh?

These are the guidelines I'll be following whilst creating the advertisement:

Get the customers attention

This is the purpose of the advertisement in the first place, and is vital to its production. Audience attention can be grabbed through catchy, bold titles, graphic/logo and the presentation of the band's image.

Colour

Colour makes an advertisement stand out, and looks professionally finished and expensive. This can grab the audience's attention as bold colours are eye-catching and draw a passing audience in.

Make the pitch simple, but precise

The advertisement shouldn't be crammed with loads of information,bad this will lose the audience's attention as they will only look at it for between 10-15 seconds. Include the band and album name, as well as the release date, a list of tracks isn't needed.

Make it easy for the customer to reach and order the product

Make the product accessible, including the release date of the album in bold, and an easy format to read. Add a website and email and where the product can be purchased from.

I'm deciding on making this advertisement against some of the guidelines above. To conform to the style of marketing and presentation that I'm going for over the range of my products, I'm going to make the advert simply structured, yet bold and eye-catching as I believe that the simplest things are the most effective. I'm choosing to use the colours from the album cover "This Is All Yours" as the colour scheme for the advert. This way, it promotes further the album, and it's very striking (whilst still being displayed on a simplistic background) to a passing audience.

Website Published

I've just published my website! The link is below:

http://jameslusher96.wix.com/alt-j

Joe Newman approves of my website

"This...this is a good website"

Website Update #3 (almost there)

Quick introduction - I'm pretty much complete with my website. All the tiny little elements and main bulks of the site are finished and there is nothing more I need to do (or I think I need to do).

On my home page, I've decided to take away the initial introduction of "the gospel of John Hurt / out now / from 'this is all yours'" and replace it with lyrics from the song. These lyrics are the main bulk of the song, which are repeated (a fair amount) throughout the song, being that it is the chorus. Furthermore, they conform to the fade-in transition I have on ever-single-element on this website. This although, is more effective as the lyrics "coming out of the woodwork" are a luteal meaning of coming out form nowhere, hence the top-notch partnership with the transition of choice.

I've still kept the advertisement of the song as I previously had it before the lyrics. All I've done is just change the positioning of them to fit in with the presentation and similar layouts found throughout the website. The video link to the song on YouTube and the album cover for This Is All Yours below have not been altered.

Also, I decided to place an exact copy of the menu seen at the top of the website, at the bottom. This was because I found it quite tedious to keep scrolling back up to the top of the page to then go to another section of the website. It's got to be easy for the viewers, yeah? This way, it's less of an inconvenience to keep scrolling back to to the top. I've also added some more social icons to the footer at the bottom. Initially, I had Facebook. YouTube, Twitter ad SoundCloud which I had linked to all of the relevant alt-J pages (alt-J's Facebook page, Twitter page etc.), and I have added their Tumblr and Instagram accounts.

The music page is exactly the same. No changes done.

My gallery, however, has taken a photographic change. Get it...photography...gallery? Anyway, i've changed the layout of this page. Whereas previously the images seen in the gallery were placed outside the guidelines that are put in the editing mode of the website, I decided to put them inside these boundaries, re-arrange them slightly so they would fit more comfortably with each other, and deleted a select few that I didn't wanted anymore. Now, instead of there images being huge and pouncing out at the screen, they're smaller, more compact and easier to view - these all conform to my goals of the website. Minimalism, baby.

All of these images, as well as everything else, have the fade-in transition, so, as you scull down through the gallery, each photo will swiftly appear before you. I've also added the band's logo (a triangle) at the bottom of the gallery, so when you're finished, the triangle appears as this is the band's 'ultimate image' and where does an image belong? In a gallery (presumably).

The 'live' page has also had a wee make-over. I've put each individual show in a 'section'/'grid' or however you'd like to call it (in between 2 lines if so) and this adds to the minimalistic feel and simplistic layout of the website. As assumed, yes, each date fades in as you scroll, and the presentation is that of which is seen throughout the website in areas such as the homepage and the store. Obviously these dates aren't real (although the locations are) as I don't want to confuse my audience and have them literally searching for tickets for these specific dates and places.

The store has also had some captivating cosmetic construction. The very top image showcases the three types of merchandise found within the store: the albums This Is All Yours and An Awesome Wave and clothing. All of these individual images are linked to separate 'anchors' which are placed at certain points down the store page. For example, when you click the icon for This Is All Yours, it automatically takes you down to the section where the pricing of this product is. The same goes for An Awesome Wave and the clothing. To also make it more aesthetically pleasing, I've sectioned each area to separate them from each other.

I should probably point out now why everything is in lower-cases in case I'm being perceived as illiterate or someone who doesn't now who to push down the capitals button on the keyboard. The reason for this is that alt-J's name, is in lower casing (apart from the J of course), and having writing which is in lower-casing is also easier on the eyes because there is no capitalisation pouncing at you and startling ones self. Also it's very simple and straightforward, the aims of my website. Looks kinda cool as well, doesn't it?

That\s pretty much it, really. I've been having an issue however, whenever I enter the 'preview' mode of my website to see how it operates and looks like to someone viewing it. I've come across a problem: y page scrolls a fair bit to the right into a blank space where there is nothing there. Why is this? I don't think there is a text-box hidden or something because I can't see it in the editing mode, so I'm rather confused as to why this is happening and it's pretty frustrating. Hopefully I can solve this, if not, and if there is no way of resolving it, then I'm just going to have to deal with it and hope that no one really notices it when viewing it and they don't accidentally scroll to the right and notice a blank space staring at them aimlessly. There's always something, isn't there.

Website Update #2

Website Update

This is the front opening page of the official alt-J website

This is the front page of my website. It is clear evident how I've tank influence from the official alt-J website

As you scroll down the home page, there is a subtle teaser of the new album 'This Is All Yours' By clicking on the album cover, it sends you to the music category within the website where further details can be found

 

(Pop Music Video Analysis) Katy Perry - Thinking Of You (With Goodwin's 7)

"Music videos demonstrate certain genre characteristics"

Goodwin's 7 states that  genre and its music videos maintain certain 'characteristics' which define its genre. "Thinking Of You" by Katy Perry conforms to the genre of pop and there are a number of idiosyncrasies which contribute in making it a pop music video.

• A key convention of pop music videos is the element of performance within the video, meaning that the video is either entirely performance-based, or if it is a narrative/conceptual video, then there will still be scenes with the artist(s) performing the song. The music video for "Thinking Of You" is narrative and even though Katy Perry is playing the role of a character in the music video, scenes of her performing the song are interspersed throughout of the video. Because of this, the video conforms to Goodwin's theory of certain genre characteristics (in this case, pop) being demonstrated within music videos.
• Neutral colour schemes are also a prominent feature in pop music videos. "Thinking Of You" is set in 1940s where these colour schemes were a vital element of society. This is more significantly shown in the flashback or 'memory' scenes within the video, which depict a happier time, hence the use offer brighter and vibrant colours.

"There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals"

"Thinking Of You" is a narrative music video which portrays a story that is told in the lyrics of the song. The lyrics describe a couple that is separated through war with the female participant trying to move on and find someone new, even though she still thinks of her previous partner.

The lyrics are reflected through the visuals of the music video, as it tells the story of a couple separated by war. The video showcases the past and present events of the female character's life, as she struggles to maintain a new relationship whilst still thinking of her previous partner, her attending the soldier's funeral and interwound flashbacks of the couple before he is sent off to war. There is a heavy relationship between the video and the lyrics as the video demonstrates and represents the story that is being told in the song's lyrics.

• As the lyrics "I guess second best is all I will know" are heard, the video cuts to a panning shot of the female character's new partner. This is referring to the idea that there will be no one better than her previous partner, and she can't stop thinking about him.
• Again, as the artist sings "I am thinking of you", the music video cuts to a flashback of her and her previous partner, symbolising who she is really thinking of.
• When "...and bust in the door" is sung, the female character actually leaves the house and closes the door behind her as she leaves for the funeral of the soldier. This is symbolising a contrast between the video and lyrics, as at the same time of her wishing he would open the door, she is actually closing it.

Final Cut Pro Tutorials: Learning How To Do Slow-Motion

One of the main elements of my music video is slow motion. So, obviously, I needed to learn how to incorporate and accurately and correctly apply slow motion to my music video through FinalCutPro. In the last stages of AS, when we were put into groups to preliminarily play around with an aspect of FinalCutPro and manipulate it into any clip, my group was given colour manipulation. Because of this, up to this point I didn't know how to use or manipulate slow motion into a clip. So I had to learn. And what's the best way to learn about things in regards to editing and how to use FinalCutPro? YouTube of course.

Here are some of the videos I used: