CD cover analysis- Ed Sheeran '+'

This is Ed Sheeran's new album cover. The album is called '+' the designer has used the symbol '+' instead of the word which challenges conventions and doesn't use text. The positioning of the symbol is also different as it it is alligned in the bottom right hand side instead of at the top meaning the audience need to scan the entire cover to find out what its called to add more appeal. They have done this to encourage his audience to recognise his face. It is likely that they will carry on the themes through his video and marketing; they will use the same warm colours and also heavily rely upon his face and his videos will be more of a performance than a narrative. This helps with his marketing as he is a new artist and wants to get his face recognised.

The image used is a photo which looks to have been digitally manipulated in a programme such as photoshop. They have used a stylize tool to give the effect of it been sketched instead of a photo. They have done this because it is different to other Cd covers and by bluring it too the orange colour attracts the eye to his face as mentioned before this has been done on purpose to get his face recognised. The warm orange colours used reflect the genre of music and reflects the artists personality. It could also reflect on his style as his hair colour is a red and maybe another tool to get him noticed.

Ed sheeran "you need me" video analysis

This is Ed Sheerans video for 'you need me' I choose to analyse this video as it breaks conventions in that the video actually features a person following the song in sign language however looks like he is dancing. At the start of the video its shows a man standing in a dark room as a spot light gradually gets bigger showing the figure, it then goes in a cropped image of a person playing a guitar if you knew who the song was sung by and the type of music they sing you would know that the person is infact the artist however if you didn't then using the cut in showing the guitar gives the artist a sense of mystery leaving the audience wanting to know more, which will make them want to watch the rest of the video. It also shows a cut in of the mans hands looking like he is preparing for something to happen; this along with the low key lighting and black and white colour give the video a dramatic effect which I think the producers wanted to portray maybe because Ed Sheeran is a new artist they wanted to 'wow' the audience.


They use low key lighting in the video using only a back light behind the subject to lighting up the shape but not enough to light up the subject giving a silhouette effect. They have also used spot lights to draw in the audiences eye in to the subject, the fill light also pulses to the sound of  the beat giving the video and extra dimension and the video a sense of depth. It will occasionally go into high key lighting over exposing the room and contrasting the scenes between light and dark yet again attracting the audience.

Throughout the video they use jump cuts to change from scene to scene which changes in time with the beat and also the flashing light in the background. The simple cuts against the dramatic lighting and big preformance give the video a faster look making it look big and spectacular.

They are all dressed in dark casual clothing which relates to the street dancing featured in the video and also the calmed relaxed nature of his music. This well then help him relate to his audience as he wants to attract a young, hip age range to show them he's just like them, which also relates in the song.

Ellie Goulding "your song" video analysis

I have chosen to analyse Ellie Gouldings video of "Your song" as it reflects the song that we have chosen to make a video for; The song we are using is called "Be mine" by Erik hassle featuring Ellie Goulding.
           This video varies from what seem to be a home video of scenes of day to day life and days out to a professional look that shows her singing.


The video swaps from high key lighting to what seems to be natural lighting to show the 'home video' effect. This gives the video a natural look. It uses low aperture's and cut ins to draw your eye into a specific object in the video such as the train ticket.


The video features the artists herself in an informal way they show this by the clothes she is dressed in and the scenes they have been set in are informal locations such as the park and on a train that people can relate to easier than the celebrity status that an artist like Ellie Goulding. This can also relate to the song as it talks about the simple stuff in life that people need to be happy.

From looking at this video it can help us determine some ideas for our own video. It is natural and laid back,  nothing to elegant using only casual day to day clothing. Using natural lighting and jump cuts it keeps the video clean and simple attracting the audience to the music rather than the video but still leaves the audience captivated.

Example "shot yourself in the foot again" video analysis

When looking closely into the video we can analyse it in sections. In the first section i am going to analyse the production aspects of the video such as composition, lighting, camera work, mise-en scene etc. I will then go into semiotics of the video and the meanings behind it.


This video doesn't actually feature the artist them selves however it does leave little reminders about who it's by; for example when she is wrapping the present it's actually 'examples' album which features the particular song. As the video doesn't feature the artist it is designed to tell more of a story, the video shows a young "lad" celebrating his birthday with his friends, forgetting that he had made plans with his female companion. The song is about making mistakes more than once which is portrayed in the video as the girl seems to have had enough and not giving anymore chances.


They have used various lighting techniques throughout. They used low key lighting on the scenes that show when the lad is out on the town with his friends, this not only shows us that it is set at night but also insinuates that Its the wrong thing to do as its dark using blacks, browns and navy blues. However it then skips to the scenes in the house where they have used high key lighting. The clean white backgrounds against the girls dark hair gives the scene contrast and draws your eye into what she's Doing and her emotions. The high key lighting shows the audience that the girls night would have been much better for the boy. It also suggests innocence which implies that it all the boys fault that he would of lost her.


The producer of the video uses various shot types. The close ups on certain objects Such as the girls underwear gives the audience sexual connotations , also the close up on the man lighting his cigarette at the start this gives the audience an idea of the males attitude but also may lead the stereotype of young male that smokes,drinks and that messes around. The establishing shots of both the street shows the urban street it then goes onto a wide shot which shows the Blackpool lights behind the actors suggesting a night out. They have also used jump cuts to a fast rhythm which is opposite to the rhythm of the song which shows contrast again similarly to the colours and lighting used. The fast pace also correlates to the kind of night the male was having, hectic and busy drinking it also shows the girls anger growing until it's too much. The use of ellipsis within the the scene shows the passing of time as he walks down the street.

Research and planning schedule

Primary and Secondary research: 22nd September 2011
           We aim to complete our research by the 16th. For our primary research we need to look into a variety of different music videos that both reflect our music choice and also others that show us the codes and conventions of videos and how we should go about making our own video. We need to look at a music video and analyse it; looking at the lighting, composition, mise-en-scene and the messages it gives the audience. When looking at our secondary research we need to look at what others think and resource it from a reliable source and check the validty of it. We will need to look at music critics and other music websites.

Target audience research: 25th September 2011
           To complete our target audience research we intend on creating a short interview about what they expect within a music video, what they think of a digipak and an advert; we will ask a number of people of different ages and genders and backgrounds to get a wider audience knowledge and create our products on what they want to see, attracting a wider audience. After collecting the data we will evaluate it too show you what we found it. we will then look futher into our audince's by creating short questionaires to hand out to around 20/30 people and see there response we will then collect the data and create graphs toshow our findings.

New media research: 27th September 2011
            We need to look into the media we are going to use and how we intend to create our product with them. We will need to explain the products and there capabilities also pick up on there strengths and weaknesses and how we can overcome them.

Cross Media advertising research: 5th October 2011
             Finally we will need to look at how the use of cross media advertising will reflect on our product; we will need to look at how products link and how they are related between the video, advert and digipak. To do this we need to look at similar products and look into the running themes and an overall analysis of the packs.

Advanced portfolio brief (A2)

Welcome to Naomi Hughes' A2 media coursework blog. Within the blog I will record all of my research, planning and production ideas and explain what I am going to do and how I intend on doing it.

Scenario:

"Having established your own independent production company, you have been given a choice of two differnt briefs to complete with very distinctive deadlines. It is your job to ensure that you meet these deadlines and also to ensure that your product meets the needs of the client which are outlined within the brief."

The brief we decided to choose is a music video followed by some ancillary  products which consist of a 4 page digipack and an promotional advert for a magazine. 
To complete the task we need to do plenty of research into our intended target audience, the codes and conventions for other products by analysis of others work. And broaden our technological skills to improve our knowledge and get a better overall product; we will need to look into images and how they are composed also the lighting a mise-en-scene and how it will all relate to the song and the audience. To meet the tight deadlines we will need to compile a number of schedules to keep us on target and also give us time to improve on our work.