Thursday, 7 July 2011

Analysis of “The A-Team” by Ed Sheeran


The video starts of showing us a close up of someone crying, but then we know she is crying because a girl who she probably knew is laying next to her dead. Then there is a close up of the women who is dead, the close up then becomes a medium shot. The video is in black and white, and the woman is staring at the camera, and we can here sounds of birds chirping, this effective because it gives the audience a cold feeling, we can tell that the dead woman maybe had a hard life, a colourless life.

After this we see the dead woman sleeping and then sitting on the bench, she is wraps her self with a blanket, when she walks off we see that she is not completely dressed, which could mean she doesn’t have money to buy clothes.  From this scene I assume she is very poor and homeless. In the background there are dead trees, maybe the meaning of having them in the background is to show that trees are slowly dying and maybe she is. Then she walks around the park, she looks like she is enjoying the weather, I can tell because a medium shot is used which allows us to see her facial expression which is happiness. We can tell that this location brings her peace.
The next scene takes place in an urban area, and by the use of close ups we can see the mood has changed. She looks depressed, hungry and weak, and I assume she is depressed because of the things she has to do for example begging. She is probably hungry because she don’t have enough money, and she is weak because she isn’t eating enough or regularly.

She stands near the fence and sits on the pavement begging and she see things go and come, in the editing stage the video speed has been increased for certain amount of time. This is effective because as it shows that her life is a stand still, no progress is made and that she is stuck in the same situation everyday. In the print screen below, the close up allows me to assume that the woman is beginning to give up, and that she is exhausted of the life she lives. We can see that she wants to cry as we see her eyes tearing up.


In the next scene she is getting ready and she goes to a parking lot, where a car stops next to her. At this part the Ed Sheeran sings “sells love to another man, its too cold outside”, this is effective as the lyrics is now being explained with the use of the video.  Then she goes to his hotel room, and before anything happens she takes the money out of his pocket, and a close up is used to show this, it is effective as it emphasizes that what she does is only for the money, as she needs the money to survive. Yet when she is finished, she has a sad, dead facial expression. We then see her buy drugs with money she just earned, and she goes into her room and commits sucide by inhaling too much. I assume she gave up, and that she couldn’t take anymore. What makes the ending so effective is that close ups are used and we see what she does and what she prepares, and her serious face.

Monday, 4 July 2011

Coldplay mash up

Lip sync exercise


Lip Sync Evaluation
Our first attempt at the lip sync exercise was of poor quality. We chose "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars. The main reason for its failure was that the shooting wasn't well planned. For the members of my group it was their first time lip syncing, so time was wasted just understand the concept. All the members of the group lip synced in the first video, but only take of each scene was recorded, so we didn't have much footage to use when editing. To resolve this problem, i tried to apply effects to the video to make it more interesting and professional.
For our second attempt we chose the song "Feeling Good" by Michael Buble. We learnt from out first attempt that we need to plan, we planned the location and the type of shots. The first shot takes place indoors on the stairs, but we originally chose outside but due to the lighting Omars face was too dark and we couldn't see his mouth move. We chose a medium long shot,  we thought this would be a great establishing shot, as it allows the audience to see Omars facial and body expressions. The next shot was of Omar sitting outside, the thought behind this was that it goes with lyrics. The third shot was of Omar walking towards the camera and the camera went back.

Tuesday, 28 June 2011

Market strategy

iTunes had 3 billions songs. Nearly all albums now can be bought on iTunes. Some people might just want one song from an album; iTunes lets us buy and download any song. This benefits the artist greatly. The artist can make a video depending on how many downloads a single has had, so time isn't wasted on editing and post production 48 tracks.
Market segmentation has to take place to determine their potential audience.
Before an album is made they have to know who they are targeting or the album might not sell that well. So an pop artist wouldnt target people who listen to country music.

Promotion is an important factor, people need to be aware of the singer and their new album. The album can be promoted by having posters, TV adverts, radio adverts, taking part of a TV show and attending TV interviews, sponsorship, product placement, testimonials, sales promotion, merchandising, direct mail, personal selling, public relations and trade shows.

The album can be quite expansive if the artist is well established, but if the artist is new then the album should have a low yet a reasonable price. The Price also depends on the artists competitors. For example Lady Gaga competes with Nicki Minaj and Rihanna, the prices of all their albums are probably the same as they want to be cheaper than the other, this could attract more people to by the song. If the song is too expensive then no one will buy the song or album as it is over priced.

The album/song has to be good, if the song reached the top ten, then more people buy it. Also if the album is of good quality then more people will be aware of it.

Jay-Z


The album "The Blueprint 3" was found being leaked on the internet before it official release, yet 476000 copies were sold in the first week of sales. 301000 copies were sold in the second week of sales, and a month and a half later 1.3 million million copies were sold. So we can see that the album being leaked made a small impact on the sales,  this is because of the marketing campaign and Jay-Z loyal fan base.
To promote the new album Jay-Z teamed up with Rhapsody and MTV, and the partnership involves that people can listen to the whole album for free two weeks before the official release on "Rhapsody.com" and "MTV". Jay-Z's "Answer the call" concert took place in Madison Square Garden in New York and FuseTV televised it. Absolute Vodka, Roc Nation, Live Nation and Citi sponsored the event.  When people watch the concert on TV they could be motivated to go to the next concert. Jay-Z performed at a secret show at the Gramercy Theater with aid from DJ Hero and My Space Music, 250 lucky fans were given free tickets and the show was only announced 24 hours before the show. If those who received the free tickets enjoyed the experience, they will others and they will tell others and on and on, and this will raise awareness. Yet the primary reason was to promote a new game which features songs from Eminem and Jay-Z.
Jay-Z also used media coverage to promote the album. He made a special appearance on "Real Time With Bill Maher", "Late Show With David Letterman", "BET's", "The Oprah Winfrey Show", and he also performed on "The Jay Leno Show" and on the MTV video music awards. Jay-Z didn't stop there, as he went on tours and sold merchandises to promote the new album.

Monday, 13 June 2011

Foo Fighters

Was there a pre-release?
They have a trailer for the documentary movie called “Back and Forth”.
Foo Fighters also did a live performance, this was a preview for the Wasting Light.

Promotion strategy?


Was there a music video for a specific single?
Back and Forth has no music video but it does have a documentary movie based on it.

Where was the album or singled advertised?
The telegraph has done a review, by having a good review it raises awareness of the album.