Assignment 16

By Liam

James Bay

A) Image/ Style: USP is his hat and long hair. He seems from YouGov.com that he is moody and easily distracted although kind and youthful relating to his target audience of 18-24 year olds.

B) Types of videos: Performance/ Narrative- true to himself portrayed in performance and lyrics. Camera work uses mainly close ups for narrative purposes showing his character within the MV, and there are a lot of pan shots and tracking shots connoting smooth and calmness.

C) Research into platforms: The Youtube/ VEVO channel contains advertisement of his new debut album and its release date, images of himself, and his music videos and personal/interview styled videos- which are at the top of the page so fans and new viewers are more likely to watch them- to depict his character and personality to audiences so they can understand him and why he chose the style he sings today as well as the narrative and performance style.

D) Performance: Quite an intimate performance style to stay true to his music and lyrics which is quite indie, although he has mainstream audiences.

E) Social Media and Websites: Homepage- Black colour with white text contrasting. Basic. Many pictures of himself, albums, and links to spotify for example and a registering page. Twitter/Facebook/Instagram- Different profile pictures to connote a variety in image (although his USP stays the same). Useful information about albums (release dates) and performances (dates/Tours) for fans.

F) Synergies: Digipak contains the common image of James Bay standing by a red door dressed in black as it is his new album cover. The website is very photographic. Apple- Commercial for Apple Music promoting himself as well as the product/software. Always wears hat and has long thin hair, and his colours are usually black vs white.

G) Target Audience: Youthful females that relate to his songs and understand the meaning behind the lyrics as well as someone just enjoying the music style.

H) What inspirational aspects I learnt: His performance style is true to his music, and although hard to replicate, that is something my group possibly want to accomplish. He has his own style and image which will be hard to make an image of our own since he is unique and iconic.

Ed Sheeran

A) Image/Style: USP is his ginger hair and ginger beard, and according to YouGov.com he is easy to talk to and loving but impatient and easily distracted, relating to the target audience of 18-24 year olds- youthful. His loving self comes across in his songs and lyrics.

B) Types of videos: Performance/narrative- mainly narrative as his lyrics represent a story he is telling usually about love which is a common theme for artists of this genre, especially Ed’s common theme. Editing has musicality especially in his videos such as ‘Thinking Out Loud’- although smooth with tracking and pan shots, the editing still fits nicely with the music applied to it.

C) Research Platforms: YouTube/ Vevo- contains advertisements for his album ‘X’ with pictures of the cover, as well as interview based and behind the scenes videos of his MV. A trailer for his new film coming out called ‘Jumpers for Goalposts’ is the top video on his channel, and his profile picture is of him, so fans/new fans can recognize him with his ginger hair and ginger beard.

D) Performance: Ed Sheeran only plays a cameo role in most of his movies, as ‘Don’t’ for example contains one long dance routine performed by a street dancer, whereby Ed is only featured when he drives past the dancer in the back of a black car- perhaps connoting his wealth and fame. He stays very true to his lyrics in terms of performance, and the video he performs in most is ‘Thinking Out Loud’ where he dances with a girl portraying a love story- in the behind the scenes video he says that the dancing was hard, but then you add the performing part to make the audience drawn in.

E) Social Media and Websites: Homepage- fonts are the same as on his album, his latest 25 videos uploaded, advertisements of tours and his new film, links at the top of the page to Facebook and twitter etc, when you hover over the buttons that link to the other pages, the colour changes from black to green, relating to the album ‘X’ with the same colours, and a link to store where you can purchase CDs as well as links to videos and contact us etc.

F) Synergies: Website is very wordy, and the digipak is plain, in a green colour which stands out to fans so they don’t have trouble finding the album. Advertisements- O2 priority and Solo beats, promoting his songs (Both) and fame (O2 priority).

G) Target Audience: Females aged 18-24, youthful, that relate to the music as well as enjoy the tune Ed creates, and his concerts look lively from promos of them on his YouTube channel making people want to watch him for the incredible experience.

H) What inspirational aspects I’ve learnt: His songs are easily adaptable although they are about love, and so are the videos too, so there wouldn’t be a correlation between song and video if our group wants to make the video original. His USP will be hard to counter.