A2 MEDIA STUDIES - Robert Atkinson

Our main product - the music video for 'Did You Miss Me' by Olly Murs and our ancillary tasks being both the Digipak and Magazine Advert needed to combine efficiently and did do so in order to reflect continuity within our music group and media texts, and reflect individual and team iconography (Dyer).

Most aspects of both texts contain similar conventional uses that match that of the pop genre, starting off with:

 

Mise-en-scene

For this task, an aspect of intertextuality is required between all three texts to display a type of 'house-style' within al three pieces to create efficient continuity. For all of the three products, all 4 actors (Jonny Clark, Robert Atkinson, Josh Calver, Mohsin Bhaiyat) in the same:

• Costumes to reflect that consistent iconography they need to possess (Dyer). By all 4 members keeping the same costumes throughout each text it cements them into the mind of the target audience and making each piece recogniseable and that they all link together nicely. A similar layout used between digipaks, magazine adverts etc to create a multi-platform continuity is that of Ed Sheerans '+' album and song range. This therefore creates that 'house-style' effect and if a part of his target audience were to see his orange colour or plus sign they will instantly recognise that of Ed Sheeran. This is exactly what we were looking forward in our texts with the use of costumes (Personal Relationships - Uses & Gratifications).

•  Are in similar plain type backgrounds and settings (white, grey, rural etc) to convey pop genre conventions, as due to lack of stimulus behind that characters, it puts more emphasis onto the stars and highlights there performances and them as a whole - relating to Dyers Star Theory. This can be seen in the video where all 4 of us are dancing in the freeze frame grid view and behind us is a simple plain background to bring upon that emphasis on the stars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Also, the lighting is very consistent within both texts, being mainly high key lighting to release positive connotations and to make the artists/s be emphasised upon. The light sources to produce that high key lighting were ambient sources such as the flash from the camera and built in lights such as lamps and ceiling lights. This creates the pop aesthetic we seen in most media texts such as Nick Jonas' 'Jealous' video, then Olly Murs magazine advert with the white background and Biebers 'Believe' digipak, to ultimately highilight the stars prominence, something we wanted to achieve after the research we did. The white itself makes the texts non gender specific, similar to the pop genre as a whole, therefore our products reach our to both male and females.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camerawork

Throughout the production of all three media texts, we opted to use conventional camera techniques such as close-ups, mid-shots and long-shots, all three that are utilised within pop music videos to highlight the star and match the performance element of a pop song (Goodwin-promotional), whilst also relating to Dyers Extraordinary Paradox 2, emphsising the stars presence. 

The close-midshot within the front cover of the digipak within the grid view intertextualises with the grid view in our music video. In the digipak, it helps emphasises the boy bands

presence and makes them recogniseable towards the target audience

(personal relationships). Then in the magazine advert the mid-shots are of course used to present each members costume and personality type with how they are posing, with us hoping the audience see themselves in at least one of the characters (Personal Identity)

Whereas in this particular scene in the screen-

shot, it is used quite late on in the video in the hall, to help show our

reactions towards the female character, and adds to the narrative

of the video, and yet again presents the boy bands NVC towards the

audience similar to the digipak to help establish their 'star image'.

 These shots are normally seen in videos such as Bruno Mars'

'The Lazy Song' and Cee Lo Greens Magazine advert.

So utulising the close ups and mid-shots between these all three texts  

collaberate well and are effective in presenting pop conventions and highlighting the star, whilst demonstrating aspects of synergy, where they all work well together in order to promote the artists as successful as can be.

 

Editing

Of course, editing is an important part of production phase, and as a group we all had to think of ways to combine all three pieces effectively. A huge way in which we have done this throughout the whole production phase, is by using the grid effect, in order to become instantly recogiseable to our target audience. It allows all four band members to be on screen at the same time doing their own thing that reflects their own personality through the use of NVC and costumes. In order for personal identity to hopefully take effect. This effect can be seen in the video, the front cover of the digipak and the bottom left of the magazine advert. The grid itself is very unconventional of course and from research not many pop genres use it and can relate to 'differences are essential to the economy of genre' - Neale, making our product unique, which is mentioned in our answer to question 1. Although using the grid effect does help with the flow of our products and the overall continuity, yet again helping with us being recogniseable with our target audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, using AffinityPhoto we came up with another sort of 'signature' mark for ourselves with that being the lip print mark, which can be seen again on all three pieces. This create a synergy between all three mediums and helps us with our star image as a band and emphasises our presences with our target audience, but also with other audiences. A lip print symbolises that of feminimity and relates to the mood of the song of a relationship between the males and the female, that she has left a mark on our lives and is the reason we're making music - therefore matching typical pop genre conventions of a male and female love story (Jason Derulo - Want to want Me).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typography

The typography used in all three texts are there to match that of pop conventiosn and match each other to inform the audience what each of them are all about. The font style used for both the ancillary tasks is known as 'Apple Gothic' that is in sans serif font that Jonny used to create them using his software on his MacBook Pro laptop (which is become very handy in production). The upper casing and boldness of the letters matches pop convention of standing out and promoting the artist, this type of font can be seen on Pharrell Williams' 'Happy' music video, Sam Smiths Digipak and Olly Murs' magazine advert. It helps the information to be clear for the audience without being clustered and the simplicity emphasises the aesthetic of the texts. With the text at the start of the music video being the same as the ancillary taskts, it helps create synergy and intertextuality yet again in order for our products to be recogniseable and familar for our target audience, and it almost becomes a 'household' thing to recognise due to just the typography. Genre are instances of repetition...!