Digipak Conventions

Conventions of a DIGIPAK

• Front Panel - Artist name (bigger text than the title), album title, close-up of the artists face, parental advisory, capture the genre, direct appeal to the target audience.

• Back Panel - Song titles, barcode, copyright information, information about the record label, website, continuing the theme of the front cover.

• Spine - Name of artist, name of the album, record label, reference number, font/colour scheme continues the theme.

• Interior Panels - Detailed credits, lyrics, continuing the theme of the rest of the album, a message, images of the artist or setting, CD tray has image behind it, spread an image across two panels on the inside. 

My Treatment

My Treatment Prezi

The Work of a Director - Mark Romanek

Mark Romanek

Star Image - Miley Cyrus

Star Image - Miley Cyrus

Andrew Goodwin uses the term ‘Star Image’ and refers to the ‘image’ an artist will portray themselves as in order to appeal to their target audience.  Goodwin stated ‘the creation of character identities for stars provides a point of identification for the audience, which is especially important when lyrics lack depth.’ This highlights the way in which an artist is represented as being crucial. Furthermore, the star image is the best way for an artist to reinforce their new persona, which is often shown through close ups in their videos. Miley Cyrus is a perfect example of how an artists star image can be radicalised over time and the impact their star image can have on their success. I have divided Miley’s star images into three categories:

Sweet and innocent Miley:

In this video which was released in 2008 whilst Miley was starring in Disney Channel's Hannah Montana, we can see that she is presented as being a better role model to her TV audience. The clothing she wears is a unique style however, it is suitable for the children who idolise her. Therefore, she has to appear to be a sweet young girl so that parents will be happy for their children to be watching her programmes. 
Dancing Miley:



'Party In The USA' was released in 2009 and this is where Miley started to relax and find herself. Her video now included more provocative dancing in comparison to '7 Things' and she now has more dancing girls who are dressed in a more revealing way as is she. It was soon after this that Miley stopped filming Hannah Montana and therefore she didn't feel as though she had to be someone her audience wants her to be. 

Sexual Miley:

My final comparison is this video which was released in 2013. In this video, we can see a drastic difference in her clothing which has turned into not wearing very much as well as her provocative dancing which we can see in this picture where she's on all fours and sticking out her bottom to show her sexual attitude. 

As we can see, there has been a huge change in Miley Cyrus' star image in just 5 years of fame. She has now become more sexual and  provocative which is definitely inappropriate for young children. As Goodwin said that an artist will portray themselves in a way that will appeal to their target audience. In this case, Miley was young herself in 2008 and therefore her target audience was people her age who watched her programme. Recently, her image changed as her target audience changed due to her growing up and maturing as a person. She has developed her image and made herself appeal to people more of her age group now. 

Star Image - Britney Spears

Britney Spears

Britney Jean Spears was born December 2, 1981. She is an American recording artist and entertainer. 

She has worked in many genres such as dance-pop, electropop and pop. 

This is Britney Spears when she was a young girl. We can see her sweet and innocent image has substantially changed as Britney developed into a teenager. As her fame progressed from her hit single 'Hit me baby one more time' Britney began to realise what she should do to attract a wider audience. This led to her changing her style from a young innocent girl trying to make it in the music industry to a seductive young woman looking to attract a different audience and make more album sales. 

 Britney's costumes had a rapid change as she began to wear more revealing outfits which show off half of her body in order to catch the eye of the male audience. The images released of her in her underwear also gathered a wider audience as men are the targets of her videos as she's matured because she clearly finds it easy to act in a sexual and provocative manner on camera. It appears to come naturally to Britney as she has been doing it for many years now.

As Britney Spears had her children, her image changed again to a more motherly figure otherwise she would have made a bad reputation for herself and would have lost her female audience. Over the last few years Britney Spears went in and out of rehab as she dabbled in drugs after having had such a successful career. The fame and money meant she could have anything she wanted which is why she was not really happy. This led to her shaving all her hair off which was a complete change and also made her lose a lot of her audience as she was being judged for her behaviour. 

Some examples of Britney Spears' music videos are:

In this video we can see Britney with her in pony tails to exemplify her innocence and her age. There is also the image of her dancing more sexually and she has her stomach on show which could be seen as her trying to be like other female artists which very popular in order to be a success herself. She is shown to be performing in her video and there are many close-ups of the artist throughout the video to draw attention to her and make the record company sell more albums as the audience will have a stronger connection to Britney through these close-ups. The setting being in a school highlights her age, as well as the school uniform. Britney Spears has developed as an artist since her first video to now because of the audience she is trying to appeal to. She turned into a more sexual artist through changing her style of clothing, hair and puts a lot more makeup on now. 

Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas for my Music Video

Song Choice:

Arctic Monkeys: Stop the world I wanna get off with you

Locations:

Campfire, Central London, a gig, house party

Actors: x2

Joe Rogers, his band and his female actor friend - (Joe with his guitar)

Costume:

Joe in jeans and leather jacket

Female character in a summer dress

Time of filming:

Mixture of daytime and nighttime filming. Campfire at night, gig in the evening, central london during the day.

Miley Cyrus - 'Party in the USA' Analysis - Vernallis

Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA 

 



Vernallis' theory suggests that The star of the music video should be the main focus throughout however, there is usually a background of performers in a performance video. In this case, Miley Cyrus is the singer therefore, all eyes are on her, even though she has people in the background dancing behind her. Vernallis doesn't think this takes away from the main artist as long as there is the right kind of staging so Miley here is placed at the front to make the audience aware that we should be watching her.  

Another of Vernallis' theories is that the lip sync should be obvious to the audience, therfore there should be close ups of the artist to show them singing the song as she believes that this reels the audience in which makes them by the video because it makes the artist more engaged with the performance if they can see Miley singing the song.

Party in the USA is edited to the beat as the change in melody cuts to the scene of Miley on the swings which matches the tune of the song very well as well as matching the lyrics 'Feel like hopping on a flight' whilst she swings back and forth.   

Rihanna - 'Distubia' Analysis - Vernallis

Disturbia - Rihanna

Vernallis' opinion is that the lip syncing is one of the most crucial things because the purpose of the video is to sell the song, and more importantly advertise the artist. Here we can see a close up of Rihanna which is selling the artist as she is the main focus of the entire video. Also, the close up allows the audience to engage with her and enjoy the song more if they can see the visual of her singing it.

This video immediately echoes Vernallis' theory of editing to the beat as we can see in the opening of the music video. This creates more of an attraction to the song and the video because it is likely to look a lot better to an audience if the video is edited to the beat of the song.

Furthermore, Vernallis stated that the artist in the music video is constantly on camera, with extras being placed into the background so the focus is still on the star of the video. In this video we can see Rihanna as the main artist as she is pretty much the only person shown throughout the entire video, however there is the part where she is singing to the manakin and this is the point where she still remains the main focus. The staging is set up in the performance part of the video in such a way that still makes us focus our attention on Rihanna.

The Possible 'Female Gaze'

Is There a Female Gaze?

The ‘male gaze’ is obvious in many different types of music videos. It is now so common that it is almost an expected feature. In my previous post I mentioned and analysed the features of the male gaze, however, I am now considering whether or not there is also a female gaze as a contradiction to the male gaze. Women are constantly being the object of voyeurism in music videos, however it appears that they are not the only ones. Men are being used in music videos to support the new concept of the ‘female gaze’. An example of how the male gaze exists within music videos is in the video 'Stupid Love' by Jason Derulo. 

The way in which the female character is laughing at what Jason is saying signifies her enamour of him. She is clearly happy just being round him and this attraction which is made very obvious with the way the camera is angled to show her reaction to him, allows the target audience to feel like they want a relationship like that with a man. 

Similarly, in this image, we can see her pose is implying how engrossed she is in what he is singing to her. She feels lost in what he's saying. It's as if she's in her own bubble with him and her gazing at him is used to show the affection she wants to show him. The fact he is looking away shows her releasing her emotions without him knowing. 

This pose highlights his strength which could be interpreted as something women want in a man. Therefore, it would attract the female audience to watch the video just for the images of the artist as women want a strong man to love and protect them and make them feel safe. 

The image of Jason Derulo being shown topless in this scene emphasises the female gaze as the director was aware the target audience would be engaged whilst watching this part of the video as he is seen as exposing himself in order to appeal to the women watching. 

The male is the subject of the female gaze and although he is presented sexually, it's in an intimate and affectionate way. This symbolises how women see men as more then just sexual objects which is expressed through the female gaze.

Arctic Monkeys - 'Stop the world 'cause I wanna to get off with you' Lyrics

Lyrics 

Open Sesame (we've places to go)

We've people to see (let's put 'em on hold)

There's all sorts of shapes that I bet you can make

When you had to escape, say the word

Well I know that getting you alone isn't easy to do

With the exception of you I dislike everyone in the room

And I don't wanna lie but I don't wanna tell you the truth

Get the sense that you're on the move

And you'll probably be leaving soon, so I'm telling you

Stop the world 'cause I wanna

Get off with you

Stop the world 'cause I wanna

Get off with you, ooh ooh ooh

Eyes the color of (water left in wood)

Icing sugar dust (crazy green flashes)

It's a funny thing that I cannot explain

Don't you know the train keeps rolling

Stop the world 'cause I wanna

Get off with you

Stop the world 'cause I wanna

Get off with you, ooh ooh ooh

Well, I know that getting you alone isn't easy to do

And I don't wanna lie and I don't wanna tell you the truth

And I know we got places to go, we got people to see

Think we both ought to put 'em on hold and I know you agree

Stop the world 'cause I wanna

Get off with you

Stop the world 'cause I wanna

Get off with you, ooh ooh ooh