Album Cover Analysis 1 - Taylor Swift 1989

On the cover of Taylor Swift's 1989 album you can see a picture of her. Now, this is an odd picture, as she is wearing unfashionable clothes and the top half of her head is missing from the photo. This makes the picture seem like a silly selfie, taken when she was with friends, making it more personal to her. The picture also has a vintage/worn effect making it seem old. You could say the picture looks like it was taken in 1989. The red lipstick she is wearing is a typical and easily recognisable feature of the artist. Because of her ever increasing popularity most people would be able to gather that the picture is of Taylor Swift. Helping anybody who isn't too sure is her initials written on the white frame around the picture. The frame is present to add to the idea that this picture was taken in 1989, and was from a photo album very close to her. The shot is also a medium shot, implying it the person taking the picture was standing quite close to her, suggesting a possible friendship between the two. The typography is marker pen, and next to it are the letters DLX and above the date 1989, which is the year she was born. It is written in pen because it looks like she has written on it, dating it and signing it. This is the type of thing you'd see in someone's old photo albums from their teenage years. The letters DLX abbreviate the word "delux", letting the customer know that the version they are buying is special, more so than the regular edition.

 

On the back there is a picture of the artist, the song names and track numbers and copyright details, along with a bar code. Once more, the picture looks vintage, and not really typical of a professional photoshoot, adding to the continuity from the front cover. Stylistically, it is to make the artist look more like a person someone can relate to, opposed to just a celebrity. Additionally, it fits with the conventions of her image and  the genre: There are two typical and easily recognisable features of the artist - her blonde hair, and the bright red lipstick. Her reserved and hipster demeanour also add to the conventions of the genre too. Opposed to posing, she is stood there looking at the camera, which represents her simplicity, whereas a more aggressive rapper like 50 Cent can often see posing with a gun, or a metal band like Black Veil Brides would often be seen screaming on their album covers. Comparing her to them once more in terms of attire, people would be seen wearing the clothes she is wearing in the real world, but it is not particularly mainstream. Once more, making her quite relatable to her audience whereas 50 Cent is often seen wearing clothes associated with gang culture, making him seem different to the people who may choose to listen to him.

Once more, certain things are written in a marker, such as the track numbers, and the Big Machine Records logo. The personal vibe they are trying to put across suggests the songs on the album mean a lot to the artist personally, and the music isn't profit driven. 

The CD itself shares its image with the shirt Swift is wearing on the front cover. On it is written "1989 T.S. DLX" which is oddly reminiscent of a mixtape.  Additionally the typography remains the same, adding to the continuity unlike Jethro Tull's album "Aqualung"

 

The insert is simply lyrics to the songs. The polaroids are annotated photos of Taylor Swift, the type of thing one would see in a time capsule. This is simply an added feature of the album, making it feel like a deluxe edition.

Main Titles Typography

The typography of this album name is the same as the artists name, implying it is unlikely that a mainstream audience would recognise them from just a simple logo. This brands the demographic as alternative, which I can agree to. The font itself is reminiscent of that of a type writer, hinting at the simplistic style of the album. It is also in black, which both matches the colour scheme of the album cover and stands out. Of the three, I'd say this is my favourite.

This obviously more mainstream than the Nick Cave album. We have Eminem's logo placed conspicuously in the middle of the cover, in the same place as is Push The Sky Away, but this is a lot larger and easily recognisable. The album's name is in a smaller underneath it in the same font. It is also written in white, a bright colour which stands out.

This is the stranger of the three covers in my opinion - it just feels like the font is inappropriate for the style of the art on the album. The album cover's picture looks drawn, and the typography is obviously printed.

Noteworthy - font

Actor Enquiries

For my music video, I will need characters. Three to be specific. The protagonist, the ex-boyfriend and the mother.

The Protagonist

The protagonist will be played by a girl, ideally the singer of the song. A general description of this character is a female with dark hair, of reasonable stature and build and somewhat appealing to a male audience.

The Boyfriend

The boyfriend will look like a generic male, of average height and build. I describe the character as looking generic, or drab, because the song is about him being cheated on and generally people remain faithful to people who bring excitement into their lives. I feel Daniel Farndell would fit this role perfectly, and I will contact him accordingly.

The Mother

The mother lacks relevance in the story. She is simply a side character only seen for a brief moment form behind. My only requirements for this actor is that they are female with long hair and of the same ethnicity as the boyfriend, who is her son. This is for the sake of continuity. If my preferred actor accepts the role, I would prefer the mother to have brown hair.

Treatment

My project is a music video, as we know. It shall contain two relevant elements mainly, a performance and most importantly, the story.

The song is about a girl who has lost a lover due to her cheating, or making a mistake, as she so subtly puts it. It is a tale of sorrow, melancholy and regret, the objective of the protagonist being on a quest to redeem herself and to convince her ex-lover to forgive her of the sin she had once committed.

The performance element will be the protagonist and artist singing. She will be alone in an empty room.

Additionally, the film is to be recorded at night - only the ominous shroud of night could represent the emotions the protagonist is feeling. Also, one of the first lyrics of the song states that it is 3am. Continuity is important - we wouldn't want to be like Ed Wood. All humour aside, the mis-en-scene is two have a dark theme to it as to truly capture what was felt by the writer of this song at the time it was written. The song was a reflection of the composers emotional state; as will be the video.

I have chosen not to include a dance in my video, despite being influenced by Nick Cave, the reason for this being I feel a more simplistic video would be preferable for a song such as this.

Company logo

Here are some examples of music company logos that I looked at in order to create my own in a  suitable manner:

A common trend between these logos is that they're all simple designs in black and white. I also quite liked the idea of using one letter in a distinguished font on their logo as Motown did. Columbia records and Atlantic records both used easily recognisable images too, thus giving me further inspiration. All the logos have the companies name next to the image representing their company. Easily readable fonts are a common sight amongst these, as to be clearly visible to those who are hard of sight.
Here is the logo I designed.

This logo contains the companies name, an easily read and recognisable font, and a logo. The logo is of two bass clefs put together creating the image of a heart. Inside the heart is the letter A in the Jazz LET font. A stands for adagio, the company name. Adagio and the bass clef are things related to music. Adagio means slow, which is relevant to the type of music the company sells/would sell. Jazz is also a genre of music. Already, music is heavily referenced and implied, but unlike the logos I analysed, the word records is underneath my company name - this clearly shows that my company is a record company. The heart shape of the bass clefs implies some form of love, whether it is a love for music, or the meaning of the songs. The song I am making a video about is a song about lost love, so this is relevant.

The image above was the finished product. Before hand, I had created a less satisfactory logo, which was this.

At this point in time, I was pleased with the logo's font and the general concept, but the the letter O in a different font in a larger size was repulsive; Mr Allan, my teacher also did not appreciate how low down the image was in the frame, so for then on I centralised the image and replaced the O with two bass clefs.

Digipak flat plan

This is the digipak I shall create to contain my cd. I will produce this as 6 separate files on photoshop, and then combine them, creating my album cover, at which point it will be ready to sell. I will be using these measurements to create said case.

Pixar's 22 rules o' story telling

These are what Emma Coats said to be the general rules that make a good story, and Pixar exploit this. Here is my analysis of two of her rules.

4 Once upon a time there was _____. Because of that, ______. Because of that, ____. Until finally _____.

The 4th Rule of storytelling is quite clear in presenting its message. Most stories generally follow this rule, for example, the Blues Brothers movie. One upon a time there was an orphanage, which was about to be demolished. Because of that, Jake and Elwood set out to raise funds to save it. Because of that they get their former band back together, until finally they raise the money to save the orphanage. Things happen in between, but that's a basic overview. My story is that there was a girl called Zena, she cheated on her boyfriend, because of that he left her, because of that she was sad, and regret her decision until finally she loses hope.

14 Why must you tell THIS story? What's the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That's the heart of it.

This rule is more of a rhetorical question, but a good one nonetheless. This is a rule followed by the best movies. "Why would somebody want to watch this?". In Brokeback Mountain, it's the tragic story of two homosexuals in america during the 60s, and the only of its kind. My music video will hopefully touch the audience on an emotional level, allowing them to relate to the feeling of sorrow.

Audience Targeting

Audience Targeting

In marketing and advertising a target audience is a specific group of people in the target market; also referred to as the demographic.

Gender

Various things appeal to certain genders, for example, to attract a male audience a magazine may contain pictures of somebody like Mila Kunis modelling. This will be important, considering my song is about a promiscuous female passing away, depending on how I represent said character and circumstances will determine whether or not the video will appeals to males, females, both or neither.

Age

Age is another one. One would not place a song by Stormzy in a television show to appeal to older audiences. Being sure the age range is clear will assist me in making a successful music video.

Lifestyle

The lifestyle and interests of the audience will have a big sway on what the products they are likely to interact with. One must design a product for a specific culture, as in a film designed for goths would not contain any form of K-Pop.

Demographic categories –

Social grade/social status/occupations

A) Upper class/upper middle class – higher managerial administrative or professional.

B) Middle class – intermediate managerial, administrative or professional.

C1) Lower middle class - supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional.

C2) skilled working class – skilled manual workers.

D) Working class – semi and unskilled manual workers.

E) Those at lowest level of subsistence state pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers.

Psychographics -
Psychographic factors are more fluid and subjective in nature and relate to the psychology or behaviour of a group.
Determining the psychographic profile of a group would typically be useful for market segmentation.
Psychographic measures include values, opinions, political views, lifestyle, behaviours, leisure activities, desires, entertainment preferences, cultural interests and social activities.

Audience Classification Definitions -
Mainstream -
Mainstream can be seen as a product of mass media; where media work reflects the most recent or current trends within a society. Originally it opposed high culture, but now is considered pop culture. It is more associated with highly consumable, easily accessible, transient media products. For example, currently, films about comic book characters are popular, and thus Batman vs Superman would be considered a mainstream film.
Alternative -
Alternative are media which are not considered 'traditional' or 'mainstream'. An example of this would be Nick Cave. Unlike Taylor Swift, whose new CD could be found in any shop and could appeal to anybody, it would be very unlikely to find a Nick Cave album in anything but a specialised record shop.
Niche -
A niche audience is a small one. It will generally be for a very specific type of consumer or user. An example of this would be if I were to upload a video of my personal band, the partisans, to youtube.

Moodboard

The song is by my friend, Zena. Thus, she should appear in the video, as most artists do, both as the protagonist, and the bands singer; this implies that I would like the band to appear in this song performing the song, much like in the music video of "Fifteen Feet of Pure white snow". but combining that with a side storyline, inspired by the lyrics of the song. Nick Cave is a particular influence of mine, as I believe he does this relatively well, but in a different style to my own. He tends to have the story and the performance played simultaneously, such as in the following images.

In the screenshot above, you can see that the band are performing in front of a live audience who are, in fact, the part of the video designed to provoke thought. 

In the two shots above, you can also see that the performance aspect of the video has entwined with the story, as throughout the whole video the members of the band are performing and dancing in costumes that correspond to the lyrics.

Individual Analysis 3 - Taylor Swift - Shake It Off

The first shot is of a group of dancers seemingly stretching on a pole. Taylor Swift, the artist, stands upright and proceeds to sing. It is a medium shot. The editing promptly becomes fast paced.

The singer turns to face the camera and begins to sing. The manner of which she is singing and the loud nature of the song seem inappropriate for the setting, which appears to be a high brow ballet class. This gives the video a rather humorous aspect. The following shots are of her trying to look at the camera whilst singing. The other characters appear oblivious to this.

This is a medium close up. Goodwin's theory suggests this is the request of the producer, to promote the star. There are many shots of this nature, revealing her. This show specifically has her motif - the red lipstick. 

As I previously mentioned the pacing of the editing in the video matches the fast and energetic nature of the song. In this long shot the star is doing what appears to be the main dance of the video, a silly improvised dance. Once again, this make the video funny as she is standing next to a group of hip hp dancers. Her dance is out of context, once again. This is a theme that remains similar throughout the video. Additionally this is the perfect example of the relationship between the lyrics and visuals - the lyrics are about the singer being different, a non conformist. Throughout the video she is seen with a variety of different groups not fitting in.

This is one of many long shots of various dancers. In each of these shots the dancer does something impressive, which is then replicated poorly by Swift. Throughout the video the background remains plain, to draw attention to the dancers.

 As far as conventions go, this video generally mocks the genre conventions of most other genres. In this scene it is looking at a more artistic crowd. The dull grey clothes and the placid expressions on the motionless background characters gives off an almost Nick Cave vibe. Taylor reaches her arm out in a dramatic fashion stating the irony of the situation. The music remains the same as always. However, some conventions can be spotted, such as the male gaze. All the people in this video are young, physically fit and wearing tight clothing with the women showing a lot of leg, and the men mainly shirtless.

This is reinforces the silly nature of the video. Interestingly, the artist is always in the centre of the frame, in every shot.

This is an intertextual reference to Lady Gaga. The more eccentric style of dress and the sunglasses.

In this medium two shot the artist is dressed in her usual style, with the glasses and sweater. Another motif of hers.

This is another intertextual reference to Nikki Minaj, specifically the video anaconda, with the twerking and short shorts. This continues with the mocking and ironic theme of the video. 

 This is the performance aspect of the video, with the extreme long shot, this shows you what it would be like to see the artist live.

This is a shot, once again, selling the artist. This is a medium close-up as to reveal both her movements, the microphone and her face.

Individual Analysis 2: REM - Losing My Religion

Here we can see the protagonist of the video sitting down on a chair looking rather sullen, with a man standing next to him. As the next few pictures show, he is seen walking away. It is raining outside. This may be a pathetic fallacy, the rain representing how he feels.

 As the figure in the waistcoat walks away, another person appears. He is jogging. The camera begins to pan, observing the movements of the running man. He is looking towards the sky.

 At this point the panning and the tracking stops. What can be seen within the frame is a glass off milk. I must also mention this shot has been continuous, and so far there have been no transitions or changes of shot. This has simply been a 14 second shot, establishing the theme of the video. The music has not started yet. The camera zooms into the milk.

 The glass falls, and breaks. Concurrently, the music starts. I believe this to be symbolic of the protagonist's emotional state, believing that there is no use crying over spilled milk, and begins to move on, starting the song.

 Upon the start of the song, shots begin to rapidly change, as the following images show. Here is a shot of the people performing the song. The video is synchronised to the song. Shots change on every crotchet beat.

 There is of course, one deviation of this, however. This shot lasts two crotchet beats. It is of the mandolin player playing the main riff of the song, and one of the most iconic and easily recognisable aspects of the song/band. This is both a medium shot and a two shot. You can see the mandolin player in the foreground playing his instrument, and another person in the background. Noticeable, the rule of thirds has been in practice for a lot of the video, with most shots being from a more dynamic angle. Hardly any shots have been of just one person in the centre of the frame. In this shot, the depth of field is in deep focus.

 To send a more powerful message to the audience, in this closeup, the depth of field is in shallow focus, with the protagonists face out of focus, the hand appearing consoling him is emphasised, giving the audience a feeling of melancholy. In terms of mis-en-scene, a lot of opening shots contain the protagonist, along with the other characters, looking down, towards the floor. This further pushes the idea of sadness to the audience. Each character looks gloomy, bored or upset in their own way.

This shot contains foreshadowing, if one would put it that way. This shot is also seen at the end of the video, but longer and clearer. This distortion of the perception of time adds to the artistic style in which the video is narrating the story.

 Moving past that, this now shows the mandolin player playing, adding to the performance aspect of the video. This lasts for a while, allowing the audience to settle, and prepare for the expected singing that is to occur.

 This is a close up of the previous shot, zoomed into the mans hand on the protagonist's shoulder. This reinforces the idea that he is consoling the character.

This next shot is of a character holding his arms up. He had just waved them in an outwards motion, responding to the words bigger. It is a medium long shot to ensure the audience is able to track his movement.

Here shows the protagonist pacing. Pacing is what somebody would do when they are either anxious, upset or stressed. Although it responds to no specific lyrics, he is dancing whilst pacing, showing the element of a dance in the video.Here the is shown to have a set of wings on/behind him. This is seen as an angelic feature.






Once again, this is a medium long shot to expose the entirety of the wings. This may have been symbolic of Hellenistic mythology, specifically that of Icarus - the story is about a boy, Icarus, who could not fly, as he was a human. However, his father, a master craftsman named Daedalus, made him some wings and warned him not to fly to close to the sun. Icarus ignored his fathers instructions and did it anyway, thus the wings melted and he fell into the sea and downed. This may represent how the protagonist feels, considering the time of the songs release. Seeing the singer of the band was a homosexual, this may have been symbolic of despite the warnings his fellow christians gave him he embraced his sexuality, thus feeling like he had turned his back on his religion.

This is a medium shot of the protagonist on the floor. The character sings the lyrics "Oh no, I've said too much". He has a hand on his head, a sign of frustration or dismay. He isn't clearly visible in terms of lighting, and he's sat on the floor. This is also a longer shot, possibly to let the feeling of sadness settle with the audience, almost saying that he looks desperate.

What we have here is a long shot of the workers previously shown. This shot specifically is foreshadowing, and does not last very long. There is an anvil on the left hand side of the frame, implying there up to some kind of manual labour.

This is a representation of the story of doubting Thomas, a biblical story. The story goes upon Jesus' resurrection Thomas does not believe that Christ has resurrected, and believes him to be a fraud, despite his physical ailments. In the end, he put his finger inside the wound, and established he was, in fact, Jesus and he did resurrect himself from the grave.

This may represent that religion is man made, due to the wings being made of steel, however this also references the story of Icarus, seeing as Daedalus was a blacksmith. This is a long shot of the blacksmiths and the steel wings. This also potentially is stereotypical of the artists' sexuality as muscular men in uniforms are aesthetically pleasing, stereotypically at least.

Individual Analysis 1: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow

The opening shot of this video is an establishing shot of a building, presumably somewhere in Russia due to the Russian text captioning the shot. This is followed by a series of establishing shots of the building from the inside. This shot, itself, is an establishing shot. Every time the picture changes a white flash appears on the screen accompanied by the noise of an old fashioned Polaroid camera. Not a single shot contains a person, and the rooms are generally empty, with the exception of a few which have paper on the floor. Interestingly in future shots a man with a camera can be seen in the background. This shot specifically relates to the lyrics and title of the song "Fifteen feet of pure white snow".

This is a long shot of the artist and his band, Goodwin's theory suggests this will be at the request of the producer; this is very possible as it includes Nick Cave's signature motif, his eccentric dancing.  They are all dressed in a very dull, dated and retro style which gives off a 70s vibe. Back then, it was assumed most rockstars were on drugs, and the theme of the songs is the negative effects of drug use, so this may be an intertextual reference.

This is a medium shot of the people not on stage dancing in a bizarre and eccentric style, however none of the people dancing in the video are smiling. All of them seem placid. This could be symbolic of them being under the influence. It is also in a minor key, which people usually associate with sadness. However the ostinati of the piano one minute into it is reminiscent of a dance.

This is a close up of one of the members of the bands instruments, representing the artistic nature of the artist and video. The following shots are also close ups of the musicians playing their instruments.

Once again, the style of clothing worn by the people in the audience are outdated too. They don't appear to be the youngest of audiences either, but young people from the era of which they likely grew up in (the 70s) dressed like that and were deemed as cool. 

As the song progresses it gets more aggressive. In the chorus there is a crescendo and the drummer specifically goes from playing rim clicks to opening the hi-hat and using the actual snare. As this happens the artists movements and gestures become more aggressive just as the song does towards the end.

This is a close up shot of the star, as expected. This is a convention of the genre and also another aspect of Goodwin's theory - this would be a request of the producer.

This is an intertextual reference - the singer for Pulp, Jarvis Cocker. He is a well known drug user, thus in a song of this nature it is natural for people like him to appear. Additionally he is dressed as he normally would be, so it could be said that he has a major influence in the style of this video.

This is a medium shot of Jason Donovan. Donovan is a very famous figure in Australian culture. Nick Cave is from Australia, thus his presence possibly makes the video more personal to the star. He is from the TV show Neighbours, so people may recognise him thus have more of an incentive to watch the video.

This is a medium close up of the artist. The following shots contain the other celebrities making appearances in the video also alone in a dark room with a smokey background. He is looking upwards, and is alone. This is relevant to the lyrics and the meaning behind them. Noticeably, lines for the song are "Where is Mark?", "Where is Mary?" and so on, and these are all figures from the bible. In this shot he is looking upwards, towards the sky as if to be looking at a deity. He is alone because symbolically, the song is about his losing his religion through use of cocaine, but literally the song is about people disappearing. This is towards the end, meaning he is all alone. At this exact moment he sings "Doctor, Doctor, am I going mad?" as if to say that he needs help.

This medium shot of somebody using a smoke machine brings the video back to earth, maybe suggesting that the previous scene was just in his head.

The rest of the song is Nick Cave aggressively shouting "Save yourself", as if there is no true saviour. That the only things that can liberate you is your own actions. This could be his warning the audience that god will abandon those who abuse themselves, either that or that there is no god. This theme is typical of Cave, a motif of his if you will. Constant intertextual references to religion and death, two things that fascinate him. Each of his songs is about something that makes him him, thus he is more an artist of whom is appreciated by alternative audiences rather than a commercial artist.

Finally, there are the credits, which is unconventional for a music video. Not credits in general, but rolling credits at the end of a video. This is more typical of a movie. Nick Cave is more likely to see his work as an artistic film rather than just a music video, so this is once more, a motif of his. The names of mentioned are written strangely too, Nick being spelled Nyk, and other Scandinavian characters are used.