Magazine Advert Analysis

Our magazine advert contains many features which are used to achieve the aim of the advert which is to promote and persuade in order to attract customers.

One feature which does this is the text, most notably the title and the blue text below it. The title contains three seperate pieces of text, but in order to catch the eye of the readers immediately, we have used a large bold font for 'Dizzee Rascal'. This attracts attention and once someone takes a closer look at the advert, the viewer then has the opportunity to read the smaller text which has more detailed information such as where they can purchase the single from. The bue text is also eye catching as it stands out from the yellow background. It promotes a competition which attracts viewers as it is a chance to win something and is the reason we chose the text to be blue.

A second feature which promotes and persuades is the addition of the CD cover. Bold text in capitals is used to inform when the song is available to buy. The CD cover stands out as it is black and white with multi-coloured text. This is very distinctive on the yellow background of the poster.

The final feature of our magazine advert which persuades and promotes other than the image of Suhaib is the media reviews. Having another opinion is a big factor in persuading viewers to buy a product and so having positive reviews from BBC Radio and the Daily Star newspaper on the advert can be very persuasuive in a customers judgement of the song.

Magazine Cover Research

We began this by doing a brainstorm on how we should present our advert. Our main thought was that the poster had to be bright and eye catching. As Bonkers is a modern themed fast upbeat track we felt our advert had to represent this in someway. We drafted a plan and it consisted of; having the main performer taking up half the page, where it is available, release date & "awards" which have been on.


This album cover of Kid Cudi.
The colour aspect was similar to what we were thinking of using for our poster. Also as we wanted it has the mains performers face present. This album is painted which we wont be using in our poster.


This is the poster of British rapper Wretch 32.
This poster gave us an in depth on the theme on the layout of the poster which we are going to make. As you can see it has its album cover, where available for download and picture of the main performer. This is exactly the layout we were looking to do.

Analysis of our video

The ground run shot which we have used at the start of the video and also in the middle of the video is an effective shot. To create the effect we have, we ran the camera close to the ground. Once we put the shot onto the computer, we sped the shot up to around 400%. This created a fast paced, jagged looked to the shot which complemented the cut rate of the song. The finished article of this shot was very satisfying and has become a key feature of our music video.

For the opening verse, we chose to shoot in the park. We felt this was appropriate as we could have Suhaib wake up from a swing. This would convey the character as 'bonkers' as he is sleeping in a park at mid-day and suddenly begins to sing/rap. This also goes with the lyrics in the song: "I wake up everyday is a day dream". We continued the park shots through to the second verse with various cross-cuts to other shots.

We used the green screen for many parts of our video. We made good use of the limited variations in backgrounds available to us. The two backgrounds we used were colour bars and of Las Vegas. The colour bars are unique but were effective as they matched the 'bonkers' theme. The Las Vegas backdrop was used more-so towards the end of the video as this was done to show a significant change in scenery from the ragged park at the beginning. Because of this, the dramatic change in scene represents a bonkers situation. We also used a plain black backdrop to film some less intense, shorter shots.

One shot which is a shock to anyone who watches the video is the shot in the church. This shot doesn't represent our personal feelings and was purely used for the representation of the character. The shot is a high angle shot of Suhaib miming the second verse in the church. This is only used to represent the bonkers and non-caring attitude of the character. In relation to this, the shot is very effective becuase of the reaction it causes to viewers.

We also shot in the middle of the street. Here, Suhaib sings the chorus in the middle of the street. The shot is effective because it puts all the attention onto Suhaib making him the main focus which relates back to the purpose of our album cover. We used a line art effect for half of this shot as it gives it a much more modern feel to the shot.

Overall, our video is very satisfying and we have used video effects such as line art and video transitions such as page peel well to improve the shots we have. However, many improvements could of been made to our video. One improvement we could of made to our video would of been to include a bigger variety of shots. Possible shots we could of took could of been hotel room shots and shots taken on top of high rise buildings. Another improvement we could of made to our video would of been to use an effect more consistently. This would of gave the video a more professional look.

CD cover research

After extensive searching throughout the internet for an album cover to which would inspire us, we found Tinchy Stryder's 'Catch 22' album cover. What we liked about the album cover was that Tinchy was the main focus as he is located in the centre of the cover. The pose was also an inspiration. Having the arms in such a manner and looking away from the camera portrays confidence which reassures quality for the consumer. These features are used similarly on our album cover.

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


One music video which was a large inspiration for our video was 'Pass Out' by Tinie Tempah. We used a shot which represents the inspiration. This shot is located in the middle-end of the song where Suhaib steps back into the dark. There is a similar shot in the Tinie Tempah video. We used this shot as we felt it went well with cut rate of the 'Bonkers' song and fit the theme of our video nicely. The shot was used as the low-key lighting, which worked well in Pass Out, was also very effective at creating a mysterious and intimidating character in our video.

The relation between our music video and the lyrics is clearly evident through out. Suhaib lip syncs the words for the majority of the video as we felt this was important to maintain consumer interest, rather than just having a song playing over a video which hardly relates to the video. We also used hand actions and body language to represent the lyrics. This is done simultaneously with the miming of the lyrics.Combining the two ensures we keep the viewers interest and makes the video more professional looking as this is a more common technique.

The features we have used throughout our video are typical of any modern dance/rap song. Fast cut rates, multiple effects and an over enthusiastic performer can all be found throughout chart videos of this genre. Our video has stuck to these principles and so has some similar features to the official bonkers video by Dizzee Rascal. We have used medium shots of Suhaib on random mulitple green screen backdrops to be consistant with the bonkers video. Also, at the start of the first verse, Suhaib wakes up from sleeping as Dizzee does in his video. This is done to reflect the meaning of the lyrics.

To summarise, our video has stuck to the conventions of a typical music video of this genre. However, some aspects of our video are original and are used to give it an independance. An aspect which conveys this is the ground run shot we have used. This has become a particularly effective shot after we sped it up by around 500% and added some colour lighting effects. The ground run shot now has a jagged look and matches the unique beat of the song. This shot is used at the start and towards the middle of our video to establish the area of our scene.


How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The video, magazine advert and CD case complement each other in quite a few different ways. The first is that it is similar in design. It is similar in design because all 3 of our products featured bright colours which were used to catch the audience’s attention towards our product and also so we could promote it. We used bright colours because after thorough research in music videos, magazine adverts and CD covers related to our genre we realised that this was one of the main themes to promote and sell to the audience. Another similarity was that the singer was featured in all 3 aspects. We again used this idea because after research in similar stuff to our genre we noticed that the main singer was involved in all 3 aspects and we felt that we should add ours as well as it was a useful way of attracting the audience and also sell our products. We also used similar ‘bonkers’ type of writing in our music video, magazine advert and CD cover. We used this as a clever idea as our song was called ‘bonkers’ so we felt that we should add something ‘bonkers’ to these three products and that the best way to present it was in the form of writing and also ‘Bonker’ pictures of suhaib.

The advert helps to sell our product because the title contains three separate pieces of text, but in order to catch the eye of the readers immediately, we used a large bold font for 'Dizzee Rascal'. This attracts attention and once someone takes a closer look at the advert, the viewer then has the opportunity to read the smaller text which has more detailed information such as where they can purchase the single from. The blue text is also eye catching as it stands out from the yellow background. It promotes a competition which attracts viewers as it is a chance to win something and is the reason we chose the text to be blue. A second feature which we used to promote and persuade the audience is the addition of the CD cover. We also used bold text in capitals to inform the audience when the song is available to buy. The CD cover stands out as it is black and white with multi-coloured text and also features the main singer. This is very distinctive on the yellow background of the poster. We also used reviews from major companies as having opinions from big companies is a major factor in persuading audiences to buy our product and also be very persuasive in an audience’s judgement on our song. We also used a text code so that people could have a chance to win the album for free and enter a prize draw.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We felt as a group that sample of 5 would be right, as they would have to watch our 3min video and then answer questions it will be time consuming which many people may not be willing to do. We let our audience watch our video and then asked them 4 questions; What did you enjoy about our video, How did you feel our editing took a major effect, Do you feel our video will reach our target audience of young adults aged 16-24 & How could we improve our video?


What did you enjoy about our video?

1:  "I really enjoyed the peformance as he was in time with the music and the miming of the lyrics were timed well to make the video believable."

2:  "I was particularly impressed by the ground run shot used at the start and middle of the video, which was one of my favourite parts of the video."

5: "The video was brilliant and i enjoyed how a bright character was performing in a natural dull church."

All 5 of our audience enjoyed our video and seemed please with our finsihed product. We also noticed a smile on a few faces whilst we showed our audience our video which is exactly what we want as it is a happy and jolly track. Also we are pleased people recognised the reason we performed in places like the church. We learnt that we put the performace spot on with the music and the performer was very convincing in his acting and singing.


How did you feel our editing took a major effect

2: "The effects used matched the enthusiasm of the actor. The editing and cuts went with the music."

3: "I loved the filter at the start where the colours were changing and when the actor throws a punch and the screen shakes that was defintely a HIT."

5: "The cut rate of the shots synchronized with the beat of the song and the video also made good use of colours."

We tried really hard in our editing and were pleased that it was recognised as all of our ediitng was done for a reason. We learnt that we could have added more colour filters in such as in the 2nd ground run shot as we used it in our 1st but not the 2nd. Also we learnt that planning our editng beforehand is very benificial.



Do you feel our video will reach our target audience of young adults aged 16-24 

1: "Defintely yes as firstly it is a young adult performing and also it is a young adult targeted track."

4: "Yes because Bonkers is youthfull song and the video is also has a bonkers theme."

5: "Old adults wont be able to keep with the fast editing so it will meet your target audience".

Here we learned that we achieved our target audience, but the problem was the people we asked to give feedback were all our traget audience (aged 16-24). A way we can defeat this problem is by asking someone out of our target audience.

How could we improve our video?


1: "You could maybe have done some of your performance in bright colour filled place".

2: "Should have used a filter in the 2nd ground run shot like you did in the first".

4: " Not much you could improve on".

Imporving our video is what we did whilst editing as we had finshed weeks before the deadline so we just had time to improve our video. We learned that we definitely should have used a filter in the 2nd ground shot. Also we could have used better places which were bright but this is difficult as it was hard to film in places like the Manchester Arndale which require permission and is a long process, which we were not willing to take.

As a conclusion we were pleased with our feedback as we worked hard on our video. What we learned was the performance was spot on aswell as the editing as it was very convincing and went well with lyrics and the overall song. Another problem was we should have used a filter ont he 2nd ground run shot as we did on the 1st. We asked our audience to give a rating out of 5 and we got an average of 4.4/5 which we were pleased with.




How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Media technologies used in the research stage of our production was the computer. The internet and www. were the main uses for the computer in our research. We looked at various songs which we thought would be suitable through websites such as Youtube. Search engines were also used (e.g. Google) to access blogger.com so we could set up our blog and update it.

Our video made good use of technology such as green screen, final cut pro and camera. To film our video 'bonkers' we used a camera. We used the camera in various ways to capture different angles of the locations and Suhaib. We used a variety of shots which the camera allowed us to use such as close ups, medium shots and high angle shots. This assisted in making the video diverse which keeps the viewer interested. The tripod was also used in conjunction with the camera. This gave the shots a steadiness which could not be obtained from being hand held.

The main piece of technology which was used was final cut pro. This enabled us to edit the shots in great detail and completely change the look of a shot so that it was more 'fit for purpose'. A feature of final cut pro which was of particular value to our video was the video transition. This has been used extensively as it allows our diverse range of shots to flow together seemingly easy. Without the use of video transitions, certain shots would look random and unprofessional. Another feature of final cut pro that was used to improve our video was video effects. A wide variety of effects are available which gave our video a modern look. An example of this is the line art used towards the middle of our video. This black and white look puts emphasis on Suhaib and as stated, gives it a modern look which relates to our mordern choice of music.

A green screen was also used to give our video a professional look. The green screen meant we could make it appear that we were in locations that were realistically inaccessible. We used Las Vegas as a location through the green screen and also use tv colour bars as another backdrop. Both backgrounds are slightly random and unique to use but work and so the bonkers choice represents the meaning of the song.

Monday 29th November

Today is the day we start our evaluation. We have finished filming our music video which our group was very happy with and we are now turning our focus to the evaluation on which we have to answer 4 main questions and also create an album cover.

Friday 26 Novermber 2010 ...DEADLINE DAY!

Today is the deadline day and we are now just adding a few small effects and lightening effects to get that perfect motion. We are overall pleased with our production and have given hard work and dedication to the music production. We enjoyed filming and editing together and learnt many skills and techniques which we can use ourselves in the future.

Thursday 25th November

2 days to go till the deadline for our music video and we have nearly finished. We are now just adding editing transitions to our film and also adding special effects. We are also studying the video carefully so we can discover any mistakes so we can fix it last minute. However during the lesson we didn't spot any faults so we are just adding the finishing touches to our music video and its already starting to look like a hit.

Tuesday 23rd November

As we had a day off on Monday 22nd November we came back on Tuesday the next day after college as we missed a crucial day. We continued editing our 3 minute production and we spent about 30 minutes doing this. We had to fill in a 30 second gap that was left in our music video. In order to do this we had to use the green room and film this section. As soon as we finished filming this we uploaded it onto our computer and linked it with the rest of the music video. It was starting to look like a beauty.

Thursday 18th November

Our video production is nearly complete and we had a small gap which required a small amount of filming. So today 2 of our group members did the editing on production that we already had via Motion with the assistance of Mr Fennell, whilst the other 2 went out filming. We filmed outisde the church as the next scene was inside the church so we needed some sort of establishingt shot of the church. This was done in a short space of time and shortly we uploaded the what we had just filmed and continued editing.

Monday 15th November

One of our group members brought in a USB which contained the music. A problem we faced with our track, Bonkers is that it has two versions one being 3.40 and the other being 2.30 which we had been using on our phones until realising that our production would have to be at least 3 minutes meaning we would have to use the extended version. Now we were able to add the music to the Macs and put the video material with the music. We also verbally planned our CD cover and spoke about what we were going to put on. Today we used the application "Motion" which added to our editing material.

Thursday 11th november

On this day we edited the scenes that we shot in the green room. We first uploaded the shots onto the editing suite, and then put them into sync with the song. After we put them into sync we found that it wasn't the best so we shuffled it around a little bit and also added editing transitions such as fade, dissolve etc. We also felt that we needed some extra locations so we went out to film on the streets of Manchester, and we also went into a church, and filmed some of our scenes as we thought it was a very clever idea because you don't usually film music videos like 'Bonkers' in a church so the idea of us filming in a church was 'Bonkers" and again relating to the title of our song.

Monday 8th November

This was the day we used the green room and filmed another verse of our music production. We decided to use a mixed colour background as we thought it stood out very well and was very atrractive to the audience. we also thought it was relevant to the title of our song which is called 'bonkers' as the colour of the background matches with the crazy dancing which again relates to our song called 'bonkers'. We also filmed an extra verse of the song, in which Suhaib and Danny both look lost in america and bump into each other and eventually end up dancing together and look like they're 'bonkers'.

Thursday 4th november

On this day we only had half a day of production available, so we as a group decided to edit the filming we had done so far so we could correct any mistakes we had done on our filming on the previous days. We transferred our filming on to the editing computers and put everything into sync. After putting our video in sync we were happy therefore we decided to carry on filming the next part of our music video.

1st November Monday

First day back after our holidays we began experimenting the new state of the art media production room. We used the 3 large cameras and tested the facilities available to us. Our group also used the green screen to produce scenes and tried and tested all the backgrounds available to us. We recorded some scenes but we are not going to use any as we were just getting used to the new equipment. The lighting and sound system was used in the tester shots, and actually using the equipment gave us a better idea of how we were going to organise our scene in the green room.

Wednesday 27th October

This day was during half term we went around the city centre to look for some locations which could be suitable for our filming. As our song is Bonkers we required open space with bright natural lightening. Also we chose a location which contradicts this as we chose a church, our idea behind this was we would use a fairly dark room with the main singer wearing bright colour clothes with bright sunglasses.

Second Day of Filming - Monday18th October

Today we filmed cars coming under the bridge. This scene will be sped up so the cars come through swiftly and also to make the shot less dull. However, we didn't film as much as we inteded to due to poor time management as we intended to shoot some shots on the green screen for the chorus. Our group will also come back to this bridge at night to film cars going away from the bridge as this will give a different effect from the lights on the cars. In total, these shots will consist of around 5 seconds of the full music video.

Start of filming

Thursday 14th October

Today we filmed the first 30 seconds of our music video. The location we chose to film was a park. We used the swings and various other playground equipment to include in our video. We used a hand-held shot which was ran across the floor at knee height to film the intro of the video before the lyrics start. This shot will be sped up to create the feeling of a jagged, fast paced walk. The second shot was of Suhaib miming the lyrics on a tyre swing. As this scene is fairly long, cross cutting will be used to break it up. Shots we use could involve the use of a green screen.

Storyboard & Shot list

STORYBOARD

CAMERA SHOTS IN PRODUCTION

Extreme Wide Shot
The view is so far from the subject that it isn't even visible. Often used as an establishing shot.


Very Wide Shot
The subject is visible, but the emphasis is still on placing it in its environment.


Wide Shot
The subject takes up the full frame, or at least as much as comfortably possible.
AKA: long shot, full shot.


Mid Shot
Shows some part of the subject in more detail while still giving an impression of the whole subject.

Medium Close Up
Half way between a MS and a CU.


Close Up
A certain feature or part of the subject takes up the whole frame.


Extreme Close Up
The ECU gets right in and shows extreme expression.


Cut-In
Shows some (other) part of the subject in detail.


Cutaway
A shot of something other than the subject.


Two-Shot
A shot of two people, framed similarly to a mid shot.


Over-the-Shoulder Shot
Looking from behind a person at the subject.


Noddy Shot
Usually refers to a shot of the interviewer listening and reacting to the subject


Point-of-View Shot
Shows a view from the subject's perspective.


Weather Shot
The subject is the weather. Can be used for other purposes, e.g. background for graphics.

CAMERA ANGLES

Eye-Level

This is the most common view, being the real-world angle that we are all used to. It shows subjects as we would expect to see them in real life. It is a fairly neutral shot.

High Angle

A high angle shows the subject from above, i.e. the camera is angled down towards the subject. This has the effect of diminishing the subject, making them appear less powerful, less significant or even submissive.

Low Angle

This shows the subject from below, giving them the impression of being more powerful or dominant.

Initial Ideas

Initial Song Idea

An initial idea for our project was to use the song 'Pass Out' by Tinie Tempah. This idea came about as the song was very popular but also had fun lyrics which wouldn't be too cheesy to imitate. The scenes would of been short and sharp, regularly changing to match the tempo of the song. The idea was scrapped because not every group member could commit to the idea and so 'Bonkers' was chosen as this appealed to everyone and had many of the same appealing features as 'Pass Out' did such as: being a popular song, having a fast tempo and containing fun lyrics. Some of the ideas we had for 'Pass Out' will be interpreted into 'Bonkers'. Ideas such as using a green screen on some of the lyrics and showing lyrics on paper

Initial Idea CD Cover

This is the idea for the cd cover for our song. The word 'Bonkers' will replace the current word on the picture: 'Lets Party'. We feel this is a relevant cover as the bright colours portray a lively environment. Also, the images of people partying represent the genre of the song we are using.

Dizzee Racal Bonkers Lyrics

I wake up everyday it’s a daydream
Everythin in my life isn’t what it seems
I wake up just to go back to sleep
I act real shallow but I’m in to deep
And all I care about is sex and violence
And a heavy bass line is my kind of silence
Everybody says I got to get a grip
But I let sanity give me the slip

Some people think I’m bonkers
But I just think I’m free
Man I’m just living my life
There nothing crazy about me
Some people pay for thrills
but I get mine for free
Man I’m just living my life
There nothing crazy about me

(Bonkers)

--- repeat --

Music Video Analysis - Pass Out

(Official video would not allow embedding!)

Tinie Tempah - Pass Out

The camera shots used in this video are mostly close- ups, extreme close-ups, mid-shots and long shots. Extreme close-ups and close-ups are used to show the artist singing the song, hence the close ups on his lips. This is very typical of music videos as it shows the artist is singing the song. Mid-shots and long-shots are used to show body movement of the artist, this may be used to show the singer is moving in sync with the music. The angle used is straight to camera and is very basic. The editing is cut to the beat and matches the song this is the same for the lip synching this gives a sort of rhythm to the music video. The misc-en-scene used has a very hip-hop feel this is show through the costumes in which the artist is wearing, the bass of the music is significantly shown as there is a extreme close-up of the speakers. It is set in a dark room with a spotlight on the singer, this may be used to show that the singer is most important character in the video. There is not any major performances in the video except the artist just singing his songs with some swagger. The lighting is very dark with just a single beam light on the character. CGI is also used on the sunglasses of the character and also the words he sing as shown on the screen.

The genre of this track is RnB and it is a illustrative narrative. The performance is just the singer performing his song in front of a camera with no dance routines.

I believe the video is an interesting video as it is concentrated on the singer and he is paramount. The CGI used is very interesting and we may use it in our video as we believe it is quite effective.

Production Treatment

Title of song:  Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers
Duration:  3:00 minutes





Audience: The audience of our production is aimed at 14-25 year olds. This is because the style of music is of a dance genre which will be played throughout clubs and teenage parties. The lyrics are very basic, repetitive and are not detailed which might have discouraged an older audience and attract a more youthful audience.

Resume: The video is a low budget production which will be easily recognizable throughout the misc-en-scene of the video. The title "Bonkers" is reflected in the theme of the video.  The genre of the song is dance/rap. Our audience can expect to see a high tempo, upbeat, very active music video to represent the theme of the song. We will have the same theme as the original video but we will do our own version e.g using different shots, scenes and editing methods.

Suggested Elements:


Costumes:
:- Variety of colourful shirts
:- Jeans
:- Black and blue jackets

Clothing
The costumes we will use will have vibrant colours and will stand out from any background. Colours we will use for Suhaib's attire will include; pink, blue and red.

Accessories
The shorts will also contain some accessories to complete the bonkers look. Sunglasses will be prolific in the video as these will be used extensively in numerous different shots such as in the green screen room and on cloudy days. Another accessory which will be used consistantly will be a cap. We feel a flat cap would be best suited to sunglasses.
Key Locations: 

:- A first key location we're filiming is in a park. This is where the opening scene is filmed
:- The church opposite college - This is to convey the characters 'bonkers' attitude
:- Green screen room
:- We will also be filming in the middle of the road

Recording Days:


We intend to spend 5 days on filming the video, we believe this a reasonable amount as not much traveling time is required. The majority of time we will be editing as this takes up more time than actually filming. For post-production we are looking to spend roughly 10 full working days on completing the whole piece. This will include doing the blogs and completing the CD cover and posters, as members in our group will be delegated different tasks.

: Thursday 14th October 2:00pm - 4:00pm
: Monday 18th October 9:00am - 11:30am
: Sunday 24th October 2:00pm - 4:00pm
: Wednesday 27th October 12:00am - 3:00pm
: Monday 1st November 9:00am - 11:40am

Budget:

Our budget is 0.00.