Evaluation 1-Question 1a+b EDITED AS OF 4/4/17

Print productions 

In my print productions I have chosen to feature an actor (my younger sister) to play the part of the artist in my Cd Cover and magazine advert. My Cd covers and Magazine advert have been influenced by the psychedelic visual style which can be seen by my choice of primary colours that could effectively be neon. Conventions of Indie pop CD covers are that they never tend to feature the actual artists but use an actor or feature no people at all and are illustrated. Indie Pop CD Covers are generally known to be de-saturated or black and white. Examples of this is are; Joy Division, Cast away, Creepers.

      

Mise En Scene 

The Actor in my print productions uses an Indirect mode of address to show how she wants the audience to have little knowledge as to who she is. It also connotes that she has power over the audience but it could be interpreted as her shying away from the camera and being reserved. 

My print productions features one sole actor who isn't featured in the music video. The audience could interpret this as her being the main character in our video as she holds some resemblance to her.

The actor is wearing all black clothes such as a leather jacket, Black jeans and a black top. This could foreshadow the tone of the song and how it takes a dark twist but it also shows how we are following conventions of CD covers that feature the artists as they generally wear all black clothes or black and white clothes. This is similar to the makeup choices which feature black eye shadow and red lipstick. The red lipstick could symbolise her being a femme fatale and being the cause of all the events at the party but it could also be viewed as an inter-textual reference to mine and Emily Harvey's film opening last year in which my character wore red lipstick throughout. The colour of red could also stereo-typically mean danger.

    

Lighting

In my print productions I chose to use non diegetic lighting to highlight the actor and draw the audience's focus to her. This makes her the focus of the CD cover and magazine advert whilst reminding the audience that she could be the main character or the artist which presents some ambiguity as to who the main character is and who the artist is. As well as using non diegetic lighting, I also chose to use Key Lighting by using a bedroom lamp which is the cause for the dark shadows that are produced. This helps to connote the tone of the music video but it also makes the actor look mysterious and perhaps allow for the audience to question as to whether (if she is the artist) that she is as innocent as she appears to be in the video. The produced shadows in the print productions could be interpreted as Chiaroscuro lighting due to the heavy shadows that surround the focus of the Cd cover presenting moral ambiguity to her character. The chiaroscuro lighting is also reinforced by the chosen psychedelic visual style as the colours reinforce the shadows and make them more protruding then they originally are. The lighting that is featured in my print productions is hard lighting as it creates the shadows that surround the actor as well as creating a harsh surrounding and yellowy lighting.

Camera work

  The magazine advert and front and back CD covers use a mid shot which allows for the audience to see the whole actor which includes the costume she is wearing and her makeup. Her costume and makeup depict what type of character she could be in the video, even though she isn't actually featured in the video. The mid shot also contrasts previous points as it avoids ambiguity by allowing the audience to see the actor instead of keeping her hidden. Although she is using and indirect mode of address which shows her hiding her face, she can be fully seen in the magazine advert and the front &back CD covers. This is contrasting to the inside CD covers as they use a low angle camera shot to give the audience power and make her appear confident to them.

The camera is also at an eye level angle. This makes the audience think that they are equal in power to her even though she is looking away from them. I chose to us an eye level camera angle as it allows for the actor to seem confident whilst not overshadowing the audience and the purpose of the magazine advert. The composition

Language features 

My magazine advert is the print production that primarily uses the language features. 
An example of this is the Exclamative that is featured in the magazine advert which is used to control the audience and persuade them. It also presents the audience with a tone of excitement which gradually builds a buzz surrounding the artist ( Firehorse) and the album (Bloodstream). The exclamative also makes the magazine seem more expressive towards the album which could be seen as a way of the persuading the audience to buy the album. If the audience are big fans of the artists and the magazine, the exclamative would persuade the audience as well as the magazines status in the fans society.
I have also chosen to use an informal register in my magazine advert as the genre is relaxed and calm, thus there is no need to have a formal register aimed towards the audience.

The informal register makes the magazine advert seem friendly and approachable to an audience compared to being daunting and uncommunicative towards the audience. The informal register is conversationalist therefore being friendly and attempting to provoke a reaction out of the audience. This contradicts the use of imperative 'Order now!' in which creates a forceful tone that is presented to the audience. The use of the imperative 'order now!' is emphasised by the exclamative which reinforces the forceful tone. The imperative juxtaposes the informal register by making it unwelcoming and daunting. Instead of persuading the audience to buy the album the imperative almost forces them to buy it creating an awkward atmosphere between the audience and the artist. This changes the relationship between audience and artist by making it a one way relationship by having the artist persuade the audience to buy the album but not giving them anything

Composition

I have chosen to use the rule of thirds within my print productions as it is a technique that draws the audience's attention to a specific item or person within the shot. I have used this to my advantage as the actor is the only thing in the shot, this automatically gains the audience's attention. This is emphasised by my choice to make the actor wear all black clothing which juxtaposes the white, plain background. This is another way of drawing the audience's attention to the actor and making her the focus of the print productions. As well as this she is mainly in the centre third of the shot which makes her the centre of attention.This similar to a few modern day Cd covers such as Demi Lovato's cd cover for her recent album. Although there are multiple differences within my productions and the exemplar one. In principle they are similar within their composition. The Demi Lovato cd features just the artist against a plain background, although they have de saturated the colour and produced it to look Black and white the composition is similar. The artist is mainly within the centre third of the shot much like the actor within mine but there are slight differences which emphasise the direct mode of address. The shot is at eye level meaning that the artists eyes are in the centre third and attract the most attention from the audience. This is different to mine as I have chosen to use a non direct mode of communication which is emphasised by the actor looking away from the camera. This counteracts the eye level mid shot that I chose to use as she takes the attention away from her eyes and more at her as a person.


Design, Layout and Editing

The artist in my productions does have a distinct font which can be seen in the picture below; The font I have chosen to use is similar to that which would be produced from a type writer. I chose to use this font as I believed that it reflected the artist as well as fit in with the genre of music. As can be seen below I have primarily chosen to use the same font as the Artists name but I chose to overlay 2 other different fonts as this gave the Cd cover depth of field and emphasised the Song title. I chose to make the fonts the same colour as the ones that the actor is surrounded by as this would mean that they blend in with the cd cover making the white writing stand out and be the most prominent out of all of them. The font that I have used is sophisticated and not childish as the song talks about alcohol intake which means that a handwritten or childish font would not have reflected this. The font colour of white connotes innocence and wholesomeness which juxtaposes the choice of clothing colour. The all black clothing connotes darkness, mystery and also the unknown which completely juxtaposes the meaning of the white font which is purity, by contrasting the colours it shows the audience that perhaps the artist is morally ambiguous/ ambiguous about her identity and would like to keep it that way which would either intrigue the audience or put them off of being a fan.
 The artists does not have a logo as I felt that because of the distinct font this was not needed and would not fit in with the genre of music that I am trying to reflect with my print productions.
The only colour that holds symbolic significance is the colour of red which reflects the red cups that are featured throughout the video. The frequent repetition of the colour red connotes danger and in films can connote an actor being a femme fatale. Apart from this none of the other colours that are featured within my productions hold symbolic significance.


My design does make reference to a specific visual style but it only infers this by the use of colour. The visual style that my productions infers is psychedelic, this is shown by the use of bright colours in which the majority are primary colours minus the pink. Although a vast majority of psychedelic cd covers are illustrated they feature primary colours that are highly saturated which makes them stand out. By editing these colours to surround the actor in each of my productions it helps to balance all of the shots and make them somewhat similar whilst still remaining individual and different from each-other. I have attempted to also conform to some pop cd covers by having negative space next to the actor, this once again reinforces that she is the object and main focus of the video. This conforms to Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory in which females are placed purely for males. So, whilst my text does not reference a specific artist's style it does reference the psychedelic visual style and also conventions of a pop cd cover.
The balance between font and image is unequal but the text that is featured is anchorage text as it helps the audience to understand the cd cover and magazine advert. It also helps the audience to understand the context of the pictures that are featured within my productions. The fonts that are featured balance the print productions slightly due to how bold yet minimalist they are compared to the actual images.

Narrative

The cd cover does not offer a narrative unfortunately as the actor who is featured is there to represent the lead singer. So, this means that she is there as a figure head and is there for the audience to look at not to tell a narrative. Although her purpose isn't to tell the narrative, the choice of costume could offer the audience an interpretation of the tone of the video which takes a dark twist emphasised by the modulation from a minor key to a major key.
My print productions offers the audience a slight enigma which is shown by the actors choice of non direct mode of communication. All of my print productions offer the theme of disorientation due to consumption of alcohol, this is shown by the colours surrounding the actor but also within those colours the image is repeated. This could show the effects that happen when alcohol is consumed  which is disorientation due to the chemicals in alcohol. This theme is repeated through the music video as we have used POV shots to display the effects of alcohol consumption such as when Bella's character is passed out on the bed and drops the alcohol bottle.
My productions demonstrate what character type the singer is, her costume reinforces this as she is known to be mysterious and enigmatic. The choice of red lipstick reinforces my earlier point of her perhaps being a slight femme fatale within the music video even though she stays objective to all of the events that happens in the video. 

Representation

In my print productions I have constructed the band to be fun but also mysterious and slightly ambiguous as to who they are. This is constructed by the audience only seeing one person from the band which is the lead singer but even though she is in the video the audience could perceive this as a member of the party part taking and playing round with the lyrics. Due to the lead singer being the only member of the band that the audience see, it conforms to the constructed image that I try to present for the band. By the audience only seeing one member of the band it retains the ambiguity and mysteriousness that surrounds the band and their music. 
The members are presented as progressive within my music video as they are constantly developing throughout the song  but fortunately within my print productions the actor can be seen to be progressive as well as she changes through the 4 cd panels which all use different photos that capture her. posing and showing the audience a different side as to who she was in the video.

Age and Gender are represented in my print productions but the way age is represented is misconceived  and is entirely false. The actor that I chose to feature in my print productions portrays a 17/18 year old which could be shown by the amount of makeup that she appears to be wearing. But this representation is false due to the actor only being 12 years old but I had to feature her as she was the only person that was available at the time that could be made  to look like she was roughly 17/18 years old.
I have mentioned in a previous point that the issue of alcoholism is slightly represented in my print productions which is emphasised by the colours surrounding the actor. The colours surrounding the actor establish the effects that misuse of alcohol can cause due to my productions being influenced by the psychedelic visual style.

The photos that I have analysed in my questions aren't my final productions but my final print productions have been posted in a separate blog post as they weren't complete when I was completing the evaluations