Album Cover Research: Deconstructions

From deconstructing these Album covers I have gained influence and an idea of what to use when designing an album cover for my own album by looking at successful artists who also produce music for my genre and have collected an understanding of some of the signs and signifiers that I could use in the image(s) on my own piece of work to attract the consumers/Audience and connote significant hidden meaning.

Album Cover Research: What is the Purpose?

An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10 in (25 cm) and 12 in (30 cm) 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records (either in several connected sleeves or a box), or the front-facing panel of a CD package, and, increasingly, the primary image accompanying a Digital download of the album, or of its individual tracks. In addition, in the case of all types of records, it also serves as part of the protective sleeve.

Typically the function of an Album front cover is to express and represent the meaning behind the record or show the audience who the artist is, putting their own stamp on it in a sense. Artists and Record companies put a lot of thought, time and effort into making the perfect cover to go with the record as it is important when it comes to the consumers of the product. The colour scheme is thought through carefully for a lot as this is likely to be what catches the eye of the consumers, but not necessarily the only thing. Some artists will focus on the image and try to put something more artistic or metaphorical that will connote the meaning behind the songs on the record. Ultimately the processes of Album covers will relate to Audience reception theory as the marketers and artists will produce a text/ image filled with codes, conventions, signs and signifiers but in the end it will come down to how the text is interpreted by the Consumers. 

Audience Feedback- Planning and preparation

When asking for feedback on my planning stages for my music video I received a largely positive response. The main positives where that by looking at the planning I had done they could easily identify what my Genre was going to be and that I was going to adhere to the generic codes and conventions of the genre. They also said that it was a strong idea with good opportunity for a variety of shots that would help make my video a success.

What was suggested I could improve on was having a slightly more detailed storyboard to make it easier when it came to the filming process so i know which scenes and shots I need to do, so i will make sure that I take that on board make a more detailed one. Also a common response was to make sure we had a certified cast because at the time we only had one actor for sure, but I have now adressed this issue and we now have all the actors we need.

We asked these 3 because we knew they were fans of the genre, so next time we will get a wider opinion from people who are perhaps not fans of the romance genre and also get a female perspective.

Preliminary Filming With Voice Over.

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This is our Preliminary filming video, we used this as an opportunity to practice a small variety of shots and to get a feel of angles and also to improve our knowledge on using the cameras.

What i think went well about this exercise is that we used a series of shots such as a close-up, a long shot, a mid shot and a long-to mid shot. I think for such a short clip that is a fair variety of shots. this ties in with what I also think we did well, which is showing the journey of the protagonist by using the different shots and angles. As our video will include our protagonist on a journey from destination to destination this exercise was very useful for gaining experience on which shots work and which shots don't.

What i think we didn't do well and need to improve on is that in some of the shots the camera was a bit shaky, this is because we did not use a tripod for those particular ones when we should have, so to adress this in our actual filming process we will make sure that those shots such as the Mid-long shot and ones similar to it will be shot using a tripod to ensure camera and shot stability.

After getting some audience feedback on this video, people very much stayed true to what i thought went well and not so well:

the majority of the people when asked about what they thought of it said:

• Good shot variety 
• Good use of angles
• Camera shaky in some shots
• As we're doing a music video we could have put some music over the top
• Could have put in transitions between shots to make it flow better rather than just jump cuts.

What I learned from this feedback is which sort of shots are best shot with a tripod to avoid shakiness and which shots do and do not work well. I also learned that a good use of transitions will improve the videos quality greatly such as a cross-fade to make the video more fluent from shot to shot.

 

Audience Theory

When making a video it is of high importance to identify and understand my audience so i know what they want to see and make. Our video won't really entail hypodermic needle theory as it is not aimed at a large/wide range of mass consumers, it is a more niché, younger target audience we are going for.

Uses and Gratifications Theory 

is an approach to understanding why people actively seek out specific media outlets and content for gratification purposes. The theory discusses how users proactively search for media that will not only meet a given need but enhance knowledge, social interactions and diversion .

It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs. The approach suggests that people use the media to fulfill specific gratifications. This theory would then imply that the media compete against other information sources for viewers' gratification.

Hypodermic needle Theory.

The Hypodermic needle theory suggests the idea of an 'All-powerful' mass media prosuct with large effects on the consumers. It suggests that consumers of mass media are passive viewers and will simply accept what they see without question. In that way media content is shot at the audience like a 'Magic Bullet' directly penetrating the viewers' minds, showing that mass media used to have a strong, direct effect on the comsumers and audience.

Two-step flow 

This theory says that most people form their opinions under the influence of opinion leaders, that in turn are influenced by the mass media. So according to this model, ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population.

Reception Theory

This refers to the idea that the circumstances in which an individual is in effects the way they perceive a piece of text, this was discovered by a series of research carried out in the 80s and 90s into how an audience perceives Media products and texts. The theory is based around the idea that the Producers of Media products is encoded and is then in turn decoded by the Consumers. Producers include Codes and conventions to connote the product in such a way that is preferable to the consumers. It is possible for an individual consumer to decode and interpret the text in multiple ways depending on the individual and also on the situation.