Magazine Advert Analysis

• The setting of the photo ties in with the album name/theme.
• The trademark logo of the band fills the screen.
• Description of the album.
• Logo of organisation that will distribute the album and the price at which it will be sold.

Audience Research

1. Gender?

• Male



• Female

2. Age?

• 15-17



• 18-20



• 21-23



• 24+

3. Do you listen to music often?

• Yes?



• No?

4. Are you familiar with 80's synthpop? (A-Ha, Eurythmics, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys etc)

• Yes?



• No?

5. How you acquire your music?

• Buy CD



• Download



• Listen to the radio



• Youtube/ Spotify

6. Do you watch music channels?

• Yes?



• No?

If yes which ones?_______________________________________________

7. Which type of music videos do you prefer?

• Performance



• Narrative



• Performance/Narrative

8.Do you think music videos should follow the song's lyrics?

• Yes
• No

Magazine Advert Analysis

• The title of the band is spread vividly across the top of the advert, it catches the readers attention.
• The picture of the brightly coloured dressed lady adds individualism to the advert and can result in the picture being permantly printed into the memory.
• The senery in the back ground of the picture creates power and domination to the female genre, especially when the woman is seen to firing a beam of light out of her hands and feet.
• The advertindicates that this world the woman is placed in is not our own (different planet/ dimension) as the raoad is seen to be scaling upwards to the clouds.
• The advert clearly shows what it's trying to promote as the tilte of the song is spread in symetry to the tilte of the band.

Magazine Advert Analysis

• Uses lots of graphics (background, lemons, paint spill)
• Name of background big bold and eye catching
• Some ratings from known organisations (mojo, Q)
• Couple of lines about what the advert is telling you about
• Logos of organisations which will distribute the product
• Puffs with infomation on
• Tends to be smaller font where the general infomation is located (small print)
  

CD Cover Analysis: The Human League - Don't You Want Me?

Conventions

• It has an abstract purple and yellow colour scheme
• The fonts are all very formal and quite simple
• The band members are all striking relaxed 'camp' poses and looking at the camera. The two main singers in this song are separated from the rest, as they're in a contrasting photograph

CD Cover Analysis: Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls

• Colour Scheme - Black and white picture and graphic. Some colour used on the band name and song title, this draws the eye to this part of the cover. Contrasting colours with the blue background and red writing connotates lights outside a club or a west end theatre sign.
• Long shot of the two gentlemen striking a "camp" pose, this is quite common of CD covers of this period in time.
• The setting of this cover is very similar to parts of the setting in the video, the walk through tunnel.
• The costume design also fits in with the "camp" look of the video with the long coat, the blouse like shirt and the cowboy neck tie.
• The bright light at the back is edited in to make the scene more contrasting, this is noticible due to the shadows shown from the lights facing the actors.
• The font for this CD cover is the same as most other Pet Shop Boys covers. They have encoorporated the elongated E aswell .
  

CD Cover Analysis: A-ha -Take On Me

• The bold headline strikes the page and makes it clear who the artist of the album belongs to.
• The actual band members on the front cover of single are presented and strike a camp/ bad boy pose which indicates what genre a-ha play without even hearing any of their material.
• The graphics and IT skills put into this cover are not up to date, however this cover was most probably designed and created in the early 1980's. 
•  Most qualities of this single are part of the sterotypical 1980's look with the flicked up hair and leather jackets.

Textual Analysis: New Order - Blue Monday

We have decided to analysis songs and their videos that fall into the genre that we have chosen. The genre we have chosen in 'synthpop' and the song I will be analysisng is 'New Order - Blue Monday'.




There are three versions of the music video that were released every time the song was re-released; 1983, 1988 and 1995. I will be analysising the 1988 version.This is one of the most influential songs in a genre that was already a major force in British popular music - Synthpop/Electronica.

This video doesn't seem to have a clear storyline, it is a strange order of totally random events. This song is believed to be about either drug addiction, child abuse or a failed relationship; an idea that would easily coincide in the video with the halluicinations experienced with certain drug's use. The main theme throughout this video is a number of pieces of random artwork on a constant stream creating a video effect. The artwork stream is regulary interrupted by clips of people and random objects, but one that is constant is a story of a Weimaraner dog and a tennis ball. Although, the dog and the tennis ball appear in the video with other objects.

The video begins with a shot showing a dog's leg resting on a yellow tennis ball. It then goes into the stream of artwork, the stream is first interrupted by the dog on it's own, and then by the tennis ball on it's own. The interuptions from then on are a regular pattern of random events such as a toy frog, a baby doll and a carrot.
The stream then flows into a similar artwork series showing the song's lyrics for a section of the song, as they're being sung. The lyrics begin to be shown when a ship is mentioned in them. When this section ends, the video begins to follow the same pattern as in the first half, but this time images of ships are regulary shown as well as the dog and the tennis ball. The familiar pattern is followed until the video's end, ending with the same shot as begun with; a shot showing the dog's leg resting on the yellow tennis ball.

The camera shot throughout the video are mainly static as the shot is filled with the constant flow of artwork, however, the interrupting clips in various shot types. The start and end of the video are tilting shots going down the dog's leg to show the tennis ball. Apart from this, the shots are mainly static, with the execption of a few pans and tilts.

The only effects evident in the music video (Apart from the constant stream of artwork - if you'd count that as a special effent) is the tennis ball and the way it floats around the dog and people.

There are no outdoor shots in the video, all the shots apart from the artwork are shot in what seems like a warehouse, or a blank room. For this reason, there is no natural light, so the shots are all lit by artifical light.

Textual Analysis: Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls

This song by the Pet Shop Boys fits into the synthpop genre we have chosen. This video doesnt have a clear storyline but the costume and settings work well together to create continuity. The setting involves a town/city centre with lots of shops flats and high streets. The costume also fits in with the continuity due to the suits, skinny ties, long coats and perms.

There are many shot types seen throughout the video, many are shown in the opening 30 seconds. The fast snappy shots at the start show a wide range of shot types including long shots, close ups and extreme close ups. There is also alot of fast past panning between the quick head and shoulder shots. The actos in this part of the video seem to have no idea that they are being filmed. However when it cuts to just the singer, the shots used here are head and shoulder shots. He is positioned to the left of the screen with the other person in the shot further back and to the right. There are also many close ups and extreme close ups of people emotions and the singer lip syncing along to the words.

Most of the transitions at the start of the video are fast staright cuts, this is due to this part of the song being alot more up beat and a faster pace. However when the song slows down and and the beat isnt as fast.

Day scenes in this video are completely lit by natural light to fit in with continuity. However the night scenes use low key lighting to try and make the effect of the singer being in a walk through tunnel or on a highly lit street.

This video also uses a few special effects such as the black and white view, this creates a more sophisticated look to the video. When there is a two shot of the singer and another person infront of a set of roller doors, both people at one point fade away and become opaque. One final special effect is the shot overlap, where two seperate shots are used in one shot. This effect means you can see two parts of the story in one angle.

Genre

We have chosen to base our music video around the genre "synthpop". In synthpop, synthesizers are the main dominant instrument. It originated from a new wave of music from around 1970's to the mid 1980's. Artists that come under this genre: A-Ha, The Human League, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys and Tears for Fears.

Textual Analysis: Take On Me

Take on me- A-ah

Take on me was originally introduced to the music corparation in the 1980's written by a norwiegen band. The single hit the top 10's in both the USA and UK and was a huge a sucsses.


The video is set in several different enviroments. The opening scene shows several characters who seem to beging a race. The shots are fast paced and use the technique shot reverse shot on both close up's of the characters faces and body parts of the motor bikes.

Although the characters are shown as real people their portrayed to look as if their re-telling a black and white comic book. There is hardly any moving camera shots when the charaters are in the "comic book" and is shot with lots of different single still photographs which gives the story line and video itself a fast paced feel to it. This is one of the main reasons why we chose to use this particular video, having a fast paced video gives us the oppotunity to gain high marks in our own music video. Other camera shots that are regually used throughout the music video are such techniques like the zooming in and out. This shows detailed facial features and the emotion the specific character is feeling, for example when the female actress notices the moving picture in the cartoon magazine her eyes widen and an extreme close up shot is taken to emphasise her facial emotions.

Nearer the end of the music video the main male character throws himself into walls to sway the cartoon effect off himself. The camera emphasise the power the main male character slaming against the wall when it cuts on match on action. Without the cuts it would not give the same effect it dose at the moment.

The way all the characters are dressed is very 1980's (especially in the diner when the woman is sitting) which is not that suprising as the video was set in the 1980's.

Another media technique used frequently throught out the video is the amout of transitions used. A first example is the amount of fades, it was used to link reality between the cartoon magazine world. The fade also indicates a period of time has passed which adds more emotion to the character. Another common transition that cropped up was the straight cut, the fast paced pictures link well with the chosen transition, if it were to be another such as fade then it would not have the same up beat pulsing rythm that the video originally has.

Preliminary project

AS Final Project

AS Final Project