The Motto Media Album cover



This is a magazine cover which I created on Adobe Photoshop; I created this for my A Level project which required me to make a music video using a song of our choice. Then create an album cover for the song which had to be with the use of our own source. After that it was a magazine cover which advertises the artists and for my case I decided to add the upcoming tour dates for the band.

A2 Media Coursework Music video

http://youtu.be/Z4r9wvgNcRo

Media genre research

http://prezi.com/w7h6uv726zpo/media-genre-research/

I chose to research on Hip/hop and rock because its the genre which i want to create  my music video of. also its because i like and know more about Hip/hop and Rock than any other genre, therefore it will give an advantage when making my video because i already know what techniques and styles are used in that type of genre of music videos.

Rise Against – Help is on the way music video

Rise Against – help is on the way music video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHiqGqoIGII&ob=av2e

Rise against is a punk rock band who are from Illinois Chicago and base their songs on various things such as natural causes, human and animal abuse. Their help is on the way video was made with real footage of hurricane Katrina and people injured on the street, the real footage was embedded within a short story of a family who are coping with the effects of the hurricane. Rise Against have created this video which has an ideological purpose to the song and the video as we will investigate further.

The video starts off with an establishing shot of hurricane Katrina destroying everything in its path which supports Todorov’s narrative theory of setting the scene because Rise Against want the audience to know how disastrous the hurricane really was. They had an establishing shot of a broken levee to show the location of New Orleans which enables the audience to put together the image and see that it’s Hurricane Katrina, also the fridge magnet which states French quarter to link to the location of New Orleans. Then it cut to a long shot of a respectable working class family (stereotype of a typical family) within their house packing food away, there is an imprint of cross of Christ on the kitchen cupboard door which shows that they are religious and religion is often known as comforting.

There is a shot of the boy with a torch which means that the main power has been cut off so they can’t use anything electrical and have to survive on what they have left, also that the hurricane is getting worse. This links to lots of close up shots of the family members which shows the anxiety on their faces. There is a mid-shot of the children’s feet in the water to connote the disequilibrium which makes the audience assume that this is the end and this creates sympathy for the family because they are about to drown, the subjecting shot increases the audience thought of them drowning because the water has risen, but the father who is shown as a stereotypical man as a caring father and a loving husband, showing all positive views of a dad clears a path out onto the roof.

There is a mid-shot of the family viewing pictures which creates a warm and comforting feeling because family is everything, this enforces the lyrics which states “I have my mother’s dreams; I have my father’s eyes you can’t take that from me, just go ahead and try”. This means the hurricane can take my home and everything around it but it can’t take my family and their legacy. Little boy slips of the edge of the roof and falls into the water and dad saving him connotes that even if things get worse dad will face the problems to keep his family safe.at that moment there is allow shot of a helicopter flying above them which means that they are vulnerable and are in need of help but the helicopter flies by which creates a false climax because the audience instantly thinks that help is on the way and they will be saved but it doesn’t and just flies by. In the video there is a moment where a snake slithers on the roof and later a butterfly land on the boys knee this creates a juxtaposition because in religious iconography a snake connotes the devil and a butterfly connotes an angel, as the snake comes first followed by the butterfly connotes that you have to endure negative before u see a positive.   

The way the narrative is instructed makes the video and meaning more powerful connecting the audience via emotions to the family. The only diegetic sound is the helicopter, the name of the song is “help is on the way” and the only diegetic sound within the whole song is the sound of help which is the helicopter. Rise against chose to use sound editing to create a meaning so that the helicopter is here but not showing the helicopter itself to let the audience choose the ending.

Railing of Magazine, The Stone Roses 20th Anniversary



Ø  The advert has a colour coordination of red white and blue which represent the colours of the British flag, this is very eye catching and would attract the reader’s attention because of the bright colours. The colour coordination is also used for the ratings to separate the comments and ratings from the company’s name.

Ø  The title of the CD takes up most of the page and is centred so that it could stand out and so that the reader would instantly notice who and what it’s about. For instance this is about the Stone Roses who are releasing their 20^th anniversary album which has been re-mastered. The name of the band and the 20^th anniversary is in gold which represents celebrating their anniversary of the day they created the band.

Ø  The picture at the bottom of the advert is a picture which john squire drew up for the band; he is also a member of the band. The picture has been taken from the album cover

Ø  The name of the band and the 20^th anniversary takes up most of the page so that its eye catching and to show the viewers the name of the band and the purpose of the magazine advert.

Ø  More information about the album so that the reader can get a glimpse of what will be in the album. This will draw the reader’s attention and make them want to buy the album because it mentions unheard songs and interviews with the band with new photos of the band. This will make the audience buy the album because of the unseen and unheard songs  

Railing of Magazine advert, Green Day – American Idiot

Ø  In the magazine advert for Green Day American Idiot has used a colour co-ordination of red, black and white representing the same colour as the album cover, which has a hand holding a grenade which looks like a heart and is dripping in blood. 

Ø  The single and the album being separated through the middle by a red line to distinguish the two apart. The colour coding is also the same as the album cover which is a red and white colour coding, the same as the charity they are supporting which is make poverty history who use red white and black colours on their logo.

Ø  What Green Day is trying to say to their audience with their album American idiot is that the American government are idiots for spilling so much blood while going to war with other countries hence forth the blood and hand grenade being held on the album cover.

Ø  The title of the page is also the name of the band and stands out because it’s pretty big, this is done due that it attract the reader’s attention because of its size and colour. Also the name of their bestselling song “wake me up when September ends looks like it has been hand written, like the artist has written it for someone. As if he is saying it someone to wake him up when September ends.  

Railing of Rise Against - Appeal to reason Album cover

Rise Against – Appeal to reason

Rise against is a punk rock band which are well known for their political lyrics and activism, they base most of their music about war and conflict. The name of the band Is Rise against which means that they are rising against or want people to rise against someone, this links to the lyrics on the CD which are about bringing our soldiers back from wars and politics which means that they are trying to get their audience to rise against the government so that they can stop doing bad things such as sending soldiers out to war when there is no need to.

 All of the group members are vegans and active supporters of PETA which is an animal rights organisation, they created a song called Ready to fall and for the video they have footage of factory farming, rodeos and sport hunting as well as deforestation, forest fires and melting ice caps. The group itself called it the most important video they have ever made. They were voted as by PETA as the best animal friendly band in 2009. The cover has a picture of a cow upside down with a target on it which connotes animal cruelty. The band tend to use a lot of meaningful pictures on their album covers for example the charger which is connected the baby, this means infertility using machines to make babies and the scissors cutting it means that it’s wrong to use machines to create babies and it should not be allowed.

Also the fist in the air which Rise Against use is similar to the black power movement which were against t politics and were fighting for freedom which is a coincidence because Rise Against who have a belief that everyone should have freedom that’s why they create song that have a message embedded within it and show actual footage of animals being treated horribly, hurricanes destroying people’s homes, people dead or injured and soldiers should come home to their families  instead of fighting. These are all a messages to the world to change and create a better place with peace instead of fighting.