What I've been getting up to...

So, yesterday (30th Jan) I attended a gig that I had planned to go to at The Roadhouse, Birmingham. I was going to the gig to support the band Aramantus, who have agreed to work with me to develop my tasks for my chosen brief (NuTunes Records).

During the time I was at the venue, I sat through the sound checks for each band that performed (With Silence Comes Secrets, Aramantus, The Brandy Thieves, and Theia) and I got to know some of the band members and managers, who told me about their experiences of being in bands, or managing bands, and playing/managing different gigs.

Before the gig began at 8pm, I took some photos of the performance room, the stage, and some of the technical equipment; mostly I was just testing the camera I had with me, and my phone camera, using different angles for shots and testing the zoom option, as well as seeing how the photos looked with the lighting that was around.

When Aramantus came on stage to prepare for their set, I took some photos of them setting up the stage for their performance and I tested these set of photos on my camera. A short while after all of this happened, Aramantus were up on stage, and I took pictures of them performing throughout. Although it was tricky at times (with trying to get around people to get good shots and to get a clear image of the band despite them moving around a lot), I managed to get some realistic photos of the performance. I have put up just a few photos below to show you all, for now, at least until I've decided which photos out of the 50 or so that I took are decent and the ones that I could possibly use for the print task.

Now that I have something to work with, i.e. all of the photos I took at the gig, I can start planning in more depth how I'm going to construct the material for the print task. I already had some ideas in mind, like a tour poster, an advert to promote an album in a magazine and/or an interview with the band in a magazine; but now that I have some of the material that I will need for these processes, I can start to plan and actually create the work for the tasks.

I will keep you all updated!

- Aramantus on stage -

- Aramantus with lead vocalist Andrea from The Brandy Thieves -

- Aramantus performing their set on stage -

Audiences theory (revision)

Audiences

Over the course of the past century or so, media analysts have came up with several effects models, or in other words, theoretical explanations of how humans ingest the information transmitted by media texts and how this might influence (or not) their behaviour. The effects theory remains to be a very controversial area of Media and Psychology research, as no one is able to come up with any indisputable evidence that audiences will always react to media texts one way or another. The following theories attempt to explain how an audience receives, reads and responds to any media text:

1. The Hypodermic 'Syringe' Model:

Dating from back in the 1920's, this theory was the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media. The model suggests that audiences receive the information transmitted via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data. Don't forget, however, that this theory was developed in an early age when the mass media was still fairly new - radio and cinema were less than 20 years old.



http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/
alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience

In basic terms, the Hypodermic 'Syringe' Model suggests that the information provided by a media text is transferred directly into our minds, and the experience, intelligence and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. This theory implies that, as an audience, we are
manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behaviour and thinking can be easily changed by makers of the media.

2. Culmination Theory

The Culmination Theory suggests that while one media text does not have too much effect on the viewer, years and years of watching certain media products will make you less sensitive to that specific issue. For example, years and years of watching violent television programmes and/or films may make you less sensitive to violence in reality. Or, if you are female, years of watching women being mistreated in television soap operas may make you less sensitive to the idea in reality. However, the problem with this theory is that it is very difficult to prove, even though most people would agree that it is more credible than the Hypodermic Model theory. Many people have tried to prove either theory in the past with no real success.

 

Many of us have a general sense that the media does, in some way, effect our behavior, but it is very difficult to determine to what extent it is effecting people.

3. Two-Step Flow

In the 1940's, Lazarsfeld and Katz came up with a theory that could more precisely explain the relationship between audience and text. Their theory suggested that the information given through media texts isn't transferred directly into our minds, but it is filtered through use of ''opinion leaders''.

The theory suggests that certain people can have a large influence on how people gain opinions about specific media texts, for example a product being advertised on TV, like Gillette Razors. If an employee from the Gillette company advertised the razors on television, the audience may not take too much notice and perhaps take the view that the advertisement in bias,. However, if for instance David Beckham advertised Gillette razors, the audience will probably share the same opinion as him and be persuaded to go and purchase the product. This is because David Beckham could be seen as an ''opinion leader'', which is a figure that people look up to and respect/admire, and will therefore take notice as to what he says/promotes; this is the idea of how Two-Step flow affects us.

 

3.Uses and Gratification

 

In the 1960's, media theorists discovered that audiences made choices about what they did when consuming media texts. Audiences were made up of individuals who frequently consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways.

 

In 1974, Blumler and Katz developed a theory which stated that individuals might use a text for the following purposes (i.e. uses and gratifications):

• Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.
• Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional reasons and other interaction, e.g. swapping soap operas for family life
• Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
• Surveillance - Information/knowledge which could be useful for everyday life e.g.weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains

4. Reception Theory

In the 1980's and 1990's, a lot of work was done on the way individuals received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading.

 

Update (coursework)

For the past month or so, I've been using some of my lesson time and free time to start thinking, planning and preparing my work for the coursework brief that I've chosen: NuTunes Records.

"Brief Three: Nutune Records

Brief three allows students to investigate promotion and marketing in the music industry and they should come up with a fictional band or artist who is signed but yet to break into a broader mainstream market. The band/artist is about to release their debut album so it is crucial that the potential audience is reached and that the band's genre, persona etc. is communicated as effectively as possible. Students should consider the visual presentation of genre and the way audiences are defined, targeted and appealed to. Materials should be focused on extending the reach of the artist. Whichever are chosen, the materials for the two tasks should be connected in some way to create the idea of a coherent campaign."

When I first chose this brief, I had a few ideas of what I could do for the tasks and some other ideas, which added on to this, of how I could make them work; nonetheless, it was unclear at this point exactly what I would choose to do. After choosing the platforms that I would be doing (print and e-media), I started to get some more clues as to what I might like to do next, i.e. posters, flyers, designing a 3 page magazine spread, a website - all of which would be suited to fit the instructions of the brief I chose. After a while, it became clear to me what I could do for these materials which would fit in with the requirements of the brief; I would use a real life band that I know to make this work.

Aramantus are a recently formed metal band of music college students; some of the band members are whom I know outside of Sixth Form. I came up with the idea to use this band for my coursework after I saw that they were starting to do really well with their music and band status, which I spotted on various social networking sites. I spoke to my friend, Lou, recently, who is a member of the band (lead vocals), and she agreed on behalf of the rest of the band that Aramantus would love to participate in the work that I will be doing for the coursework tasks. It was from here that I made the decision to begin my work which would be based around this band, and I would start to plan some of the things I wanted to do with Aramantus i.e. photo-shoots and interviews, right away.

- With thanks to Maureen Connor, Lou Walker, and Andy Bates for the use of these images -

**** Recently, I've been in touch with Lou, and she has asked me to attend an upcoming gig at The Roadhouse, Birmingham, to see Aramantus perform on stage. I thought that this sounded like an amazing opportunity to take some photos of the band which I could potentially use for my coursework, for example taking photos of the band performing on stage which could be used for magazine material. The performance will be on Thursday (30th), so I will be sure to update this post after I have taken the photos of the band, and then hopefully I will have many more ideas of what I can be doing next for the task! After this, I hope to be able to edit the photos, and then arrange with the band a date/time that we can go ahead with the photo-shoot to get a selection of photos which could be used for posters, flyers, etc. ****

Coursework decisions

The coursework brief I have selected is Brief 3, NuTunes Records. I have chosen this brief over the others, as I feel that is most suited to me; in the future, I hope to work within the music industry, and I believe that the experience I get from completing this brief will allow me to gain a wider knowledge and understanding of the industry. I also feel as though I will enjoy this brief the most, and I will therefore be more committed to completing each task/activity.

The platforms I have chosen are print and e-media. I feel as though these platforms will be best for me as I have more experience in this type of thing, i.e. designing magazine covers and making websites etc, as oppose to the film platform where I have hardly any experience in film making. I feel more confident with working on the print and e-media platforms, as I will be able to show the different skills I have in regards to these two, and hopefully I'll be able to produce two pieces of work that are of a good standard.

I will be creating three pages worth of promotional materials for the print task, to promote the release of a bands debut album, as well their upcoming tour of the UK. The genre I have selected for this band is punk/metal, and the reason why I feel this would be best is because in my opinion, there is a gap in the current music industry for this genre of music. This means that there is room for new bands or artists within this genre to promote their music, without fear of there being much competition from other current punk/metal artists in the market. The reason why I have chosen to go with a genre that isn't completely pop-based, for example, is because I think there are many pop bands/artists already on the market in the music industry who fit into the pop genre, and if I decided to add another pop group/artist into it the mix, then there would be a lot of competition for them, and I would probably struggle to make the band/artist stand out, or make them seem unique to the audience. The target audence for this is 16-24 year old male and females, and I have chosen this specific group of people because I believe that they are within the age group of people who are more likely to buy music singles, and albums, and they're more likely to want to attend concerts, and therefore it would be easier to create promotional materials for this particular purpose. For example, if I decided to make a magazine cover to promote a new pop/punk boy band, I would know to use specific language that would appeal to this age group, as well as choosing the right colours, and setting/layout also. At the moment, I am considering creating the front page of a magazine which features the band I will be promoting, and inside of this magazine there will be a full-page advert which promotes the forthcoming tour of the UK, as well as producing a third page of a planned interview with the band. These are only initial ideas though, and I'm sure I will change my mind frequently throughout the task about what I want to include in my work.

For the E-Media task, I will be making three parts of a website that is aimed at the same target audience for the print task I will be doing, (16-24 year olds). The three sections of the website that I will be creating are the home page, the 'information about the band' page, and the 'news' page, which gives information to the viewers about the latest news regarding the band, album, and the tour. I will be making the house style and design of the website in a similar style of the things created in the print task, so everything is clear, and fits in as it should. The web pages I make on the website will all be of a similar style also, and I will be using DreamWeaver to create the basis of the website. Already, I'm considering a simple colour scheme, perhaps black and white, so it creates a professional look, and I will include links in a separate colour which is bold (perhaps blue or red), which is something that I learned from the research task through discovering and analysing production company websites. I will have included my logo from the research task on the home page, at the top, where I have noticed that most of the top-end production companies and individual bands/artists websites put there logos, as it clear for the audience to identify the band being advertised/promoted.