Monday, 29 September 2014

Comparing and Contrasting 2 different Commercial Radio Stations

Comparing and Contrasting LBC (Leading Britain's Conversation) and Heart London

LBC - www.lbc.co.uk

  • It is a London - based radio station that allows people to call in and talk about many political issues in the UK
  • Allows debates to happen to express people's views
  • Have politicians to come in and talk on a show hosted by the presenters in the mornings to show to the listeners what politicians plan for them - for example 'Call Clegg' (Nick Clegg) and 'Ask Boris' (Boris Johnson)
Genre - Politics/Government/Debate

Hosts - NICK FERRARI hosts the show between 7am and 10am on weekdays and is nicknamed 'the man all politicians are scared of'. JAMES O'BRIEN hosts the show between 10am and 1pm on weekdays. LARRY LAMB hosts the show between 11am and 2pm on Sundays and is a former 'EastEnders' and 'Gavin and Stacy' actor.

Demographic - This radio station is mainly based around 20 to 60 year olds as audiences below this figure might be bored of it because the show talks about politics and government and so audiences between 10 - 19 might not be interested in this.

  • It is a regional radio station that has music that stands out to a more younger audience than those who are older
  • Many competitions happen to get more viewers so that they could win big - for example 'Who's on Heart?'
  • They also have 'The Vodafone Big Top 40' that is in partnership with Capital Radio that appeals to more younger audiences so they could listen to their favourite music
Genre - Music/Entertainment/Pop & Chart/Dance

Hosts - TOBY ANSTIS hosts the show between 9am and 1pm on weekdays and Saturday. He brings 'more music variety' through the 'Time Tunnel'. ROBERTO hosts the show between 7pm on Sundays to Thursdays and also 9pm and 1am on Fridays. He brings out the 'biggest club classics' when people start to go out partying. EMMA BUNTON hosts the show between 5pm and 7pm on Saturdays and is also an ex Spice Girl and explains what has happened throughout the week.

Demographic - This radio station is mainly based around 16 to 30 year olds as these audiences would like to go and party. Any audiences above this might not like the music or they would not know the artist. Any audiences below this, I think, would more be listening to Capital FM.   

Thursday, 25 September 2014

Today's Lesson 24/09

Today's Lesson 24/09

In today's lesson, we filmed our first music video. I was in a group with Sam Dench and Matt Bailey. We first went on the internet to look up music videos that we could get some inspiration from. I decided to choose George Ezra's 'Blame it on Me' because it is one of my favourite music videos and I got loads of inspiration from this video to see what type of camera shots I could do. Secondly, using the information we got on different camera shots we could use and we went out across the college to film the video. I really enjoyed this task because all of our ideas were used as a part of a group and everyone all worked as a team. In this lesson, we learnt also about different camera shots. I was very interested in this because I have never learnt about camera shots so I was particularly intrigued in this particular subject. These are the videos me, Sam and Matt created that I thought were the best.



Tuesday, 23 September 2014

McDonalds Script

THIS SUMMER!!!!, get ready for the new ultra chicken, bacon and cheese burger NEW from McDonalds. It's so big it puts the action in movies. Its puts the deliciousness into your everyday meal at McDonalds. And its good for you. The new ultra burger at McDonalds. GET IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

McDonalds Research


  • Found in 118 countries
  • Serve over 68 million customers
  • They employ over 1.8 million staff
  • McDonalds also operates other restaurant rands, such as Piles Cafe




  • McDonald’s is the world’s largest restaurant chain with more than 34,000 restaurants worldwide and employing 1.8million people.
  • In the UK there are 1,200 restaurants which serve approximately three million people every day.
  • In the UK, we employ 97,000 people and invest over £40million on training and development every year.
  • We offer all of our people a culture of flexibility, opportunity, equality and diversity. 
  • As a franchising organisation, around 70% of our restaurants in the UK are owned and operated by local businessmen and women.  
  • McDonald’s restaurants function as part of the local community – we lead and support a range of community activities from litter picks to charity events and local football matches.
  • We offer our people career progression: 9 out of 10 restaurant managers started as crew; 1 in 5 franchisees started as crew.
  • We are a proud supporter of British agriculture, in fact we source around 55% of the ingredients for our menu from 17,500 British and Irish farms.
  • We have long tradition of supporting community football; for over decade we have supported initiatives to encourage young people into football through raising the standards in local clubs.  Since 2002 McDonald’s has been Official Community Partner of the four UK Football Associations.  During that time we have created over 20,000 new football coaches across the UK and helped raised standards in over 6,000 local clubs.
  • We have a long-term commitment to the Olympics. Our involvement first began in 1968 when US Olympic athletes became so homesick for American food that we airlifted some of our hamburgers into the Olympic Village. Our official sponsorship of the Games began in 1976 at the Montreal Games and we were proud that this sponsorship continued for London 2012.

Examples of Offensive Language in Radio

There are many examples where it is inappropriate and offensive to use explicit language on many radio programmes. Offensive language include racism, homophobia, sexism, stereotyping, swearing, ageism, disabilities and mocking religion. There are many examples in the radio industry where explicit language has been used either by mistake or on purpose.

Homophobia


Language Techniques for Radio Advertisement listed by David Ogilvy (1998)

Language Techniques for Radio Advertisement listed by David Ogilvy (1998)



suddenly
now
announcing
introducing
improvement
amazing
sensational
remarkable
revolutionary
startling




miracle

magic
offer
quick
easy
wanted
challenge
compare
bargain
hurry

Persuasive Techniques for Radio Advertising

Persuasive Techniques for Radio Advertising

  • Happy families - everyone wants to belong
  • Rich, luxurious lifestyles - aspirational
  • Dreams and fantasy
  • Successful romance and love
  • Elite people or experts
  • Glamorous places
  • Successful careers
  • Art, culture & history
  • Nature & the natural world
  • Beautiful women - men AND women like looking at beautiful women, so the thinking goes: men admire them, women admire what makes the men admire them.
  • Self-importance & pride
  • Comedy & humour
  • Childhood - can appeal to either nostalgia or to nurturing instincts

Thursday, 18 September 2014

Purposes of Music Videos

Promoting a single release ( most videos do this) - Ed Sheeran (Don't)



Singles are normally song recordings that are sold separately from an album. Mostly, more popular songs have their own individual release than being released with the album. For example, Pharrell Williams' 'HAPPY' got its own individual release because it was such a big track that was very popular compared to its album, GIRL with other releases from the artist. The single gets promoted by having its own individual release, some artists like to promote their singles on television and radio as adverts to motivate audiences nationwide and worldwide to buy their individual singles. Some artists like to promote their new singles over social networking sites, for example Facebook and Twitter which would normally get fans excited. Then this single would begin to be made so that the single would be broadcasted over YouTube.  

The purpose of this video is to promote the artist's (Ed Sheeran) new single, Don't from Ed Sheeran's new album X. The artist helps to promote his new single by portraying himself in the video, but not as the main character, but as a person in the background. The single also promotes the album as the album is seen at the end, telling audiences to go and buy the album. The whole video seems to be shot in the USA when he went over for a tour and was part of the inspiration behind this video. The song mainly illustrates him being heart-broken over one of his girlfriends cheating on him with another man. Since this was broadcasted in August 2014, this video has been watched 17,492,335 times. It has also hit number one on the singles charts in the UK many times. Fromm 2:00 to 2:02, we see a close up of the artist's face, to show to the audience that this is a person that wrote the song and is singing in the background. The whole video shows a dancer going to poverty when he was younger (living on the streets, (0:00 to 0:51) to being wealthy when he was older (living in a mansion, (3:33 to 4:36). Ed Sheeran does make a brief cameo appearance as he is driven to one of his gigs on his tour of the USA.

Promoting an album ( explicitly shown in  video or youtube link ) - Fall Out Boy (Centuries)



Albums are normally a collection of songs compiled onto one whole CD. These are extremely popular among teenagers and young adults as if they had wanted to buy something associated to their favourite artist, then this would be ideal. Audiences would get treated to listening to their favourite songs and then listen to the other songs that are on there by the same artist.

The purpose of promoting an album is to invite audiences to go and buy the track that is featured in this album. For this, I picked out Fall Out Boy's Centuries because the album is promoted at the end of the video, when the album name is grafted on the wall to show that there is a new album out and is available to buy. I think this particular video directly promotes this album because this music video's name is also the name of the new album Fall Out Boy are making. I would say that because the artist has not yet released the album just yet, audiences would get excited because they get to know that there would be a new album on the way. Since this was broadcasted in  This video has been seen on September 2014, this video has been seen on YouTube over 6,543,544 times. This was not the official video to the song but a prequel to the release on October 17th. The artists are not shown in this video but a graffiti artist is shown from 2:47 to 3:36 to inscribe the artist's new album name on the wall to illustrate that there is a new video coming soon.

Promoting a new artist - George Ezra (Blame it on Me)



The purpose of promoting a new artist is to promote new and young talent in the music industry. George Ezra (above) is a new artist that has got over 1 million views on one of his first singles, Blame it on Me in the opening 2 weeks for when it came out. This helps promote him as an artist as well as his music. His single was incredibly popular that his music was featured in ITV's 'Autumn Drama' trailer, which helps promote him more as more people would want to listen to his music more in the future after watching the trailer. Since this video was broadcasted in August 2014, this video has been seen on YouTube over 3,600,077 times which shows his popularity for one of his first singles in the music industry. He was first seen in 2013 when he played at the BBC Introducing Stage, in which he played one of his hit singles, 'Budapest'. Later on that year, he received airplay of his song on BBC Radio 1. This wold promote him more because BBC Radio 1 was one of the most listened to radios in the UK. George Ezra's music video illustrates the message to the audience that he is having a bad day. From 0:55 to 1:00, we see a full head shot of the artist to show to the audience that this is what the artist looks like. From 2:48 to 3:00, we see a long shot of the artist at a distance and where he is. Normally this establishes where the video is taking place.

Showing  a change in musical direction or image for an artist - Miley Cyrus (We Can't Stop)


The purpose of showing a change in musical direction of image for an artist is to show the artist taking a different change to their style of music. For this, I have chosen a most recent change in the music industry, Miley Cyrus and her song, We Can't Stop. This shows her being changed from the 'Hannah Montana' character that appeal to more 9-10 year old girls to a more part late-teens teenager which would appeal more to 16-20 year olds. This songs also presents a change in her personality as well as it shows in the video all of the things she likes to do now, for example: partying and drinking, that message is portrayed to the audience. From her previous songs, for example 'Party in the U.S.A' and 'Best of Both Worlds', you could see that she was more appealing to early-age teenagers. When we roll forward to present day, her videos are more appealing to those of an older age. Since this video was broadcasted in June 2013, this video has been seen on YouTube over 461,849,882 times.From 0:08 to 0:17, we see the new image Miley Cyrus that she has portrayed herself as a close up. From 1:37 to 1:44, we see a long shot of some of the action that is surrounding her. From 3:01 to 3:06, we see a tracking shot that is shown on an object that is in motion. In this shot, it is focused on Miley Cyrus fighting with the other partygoers.

Promoting another media product ( e.g film or TV programme) - Linkin Park (New Divide)



The purpose to promote another media product for film and TV is to motivate audiences to go and watch the certain film that their music is featured in. For this, I have chosen Linkin Park's 'New Divide' that promotes Michael Bay's 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'. This music video shows clips of the film that helps promote the movie even more. Since this video was broadcasted in June 2009, this video has been seen on YouTube over 174,848,633 times. Music videos can also advertise another product as well. In this case, I chose a music video that advertises a film because films can be very popular amongst audiences worldwide. As you could see from the views this video has, this video encouraged audiences worldwide to be motivated and watch the film they are advertising. This music video also helped in the way that more audiences went to go and see the film and a record $836,303,693 was made worldwide with helping hands from this music video. This music video was also set on the set of 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'. From 0:02 to 0:10, we see where the film is set. The band's bodies are portrayed to be as the desert islands where most of the movie is set. From 0:45 to 0:50, this is known as a close up as the camera zooms in to the singer's head, which is the only thing we could see at this point. At 0:53, this is known as a long shot which shows the band all in one space as they are playing 

Increasing the income for the record company - Justin Timberlake (Tennman Records)



This is an example of a song that can increase the income for the record company. I chose Justin Timberlake's Tennman Records. Tennman Records benefits from one of these many singles because it features one of the most famous musicians which would mainly benefit because then more people would look to buy the single and therefore more profit for the record company. I decided to choose FreeSol's track 'Role Model' that features Justin Timberlake as the music that would increase income for the record company. As Justin Timberlake is featured in this single and music video, he benefits more because he owns the record label and therefore benefits entirely. Since this video was broadcasted in October 2011, this music video has been viewed over 2,533,149 times on YouTube which shows that this particular video became popular pretty quickly and as the video is copyrighted by Tennman Records, this would increase sales of this song and therefore more income for his record company.

Examples of artists using social media to promote a song - Ed Sheeran (Thinking Out Loud)

https://www.facebook.com/EdSheeranMusic?fref=ts

On one Facebook message from Ed Sheeran on October 7th, we see that his new single, 'Thinking Out Loud' will be out on YouTube 'drops in 1 hour'. Using social media is a good way to promote a song because audiences would get to know when a song would come out. In this Facebook status written by Ed Sheeran, we hear that his album would be out in 1 hour and over 60,000 people liked his status. This status came out on 7th October which releases all of the details audiences would need to know on when the music video for his new single would come up. His profile picture, (top left) also promotes his new album, X as audiences would get to know what his new album would look like. Although he does not show a link to YouTube, he does tease and excite the audience with his upcoming music video. This is the video that he was promoting on Facebook:


This music video came out on the same date as Ed Sheeran's Facebook status. This music video has had 12,215,889 views on YouTube since its release date this month.

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

Radio Advert Initial Research (Assignment)

Nando's UK Radio Advert - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odyuao_-UJg&list=PLRCIt_SvDhCvsTw_OONkumdbXcUpe2GvR&index=3

Message
The purpose of the advert is to motivate people to go to a brand - new range of restaurants new to the UK called Nando's. The advert immediately starts off with a Spanish voice saying, 'The Spirit of Nando's' which immediately gives the message that the advert has got to do with something regarding Spain. As the advert went on, the audience got told about the 'brand-new restaurants called Nando's', which portrayed the message that there are going to be new restaurants that people could go to and taste the new ranges of food that they deliver. This beer is presented as a relaxing drink or a refreshment you would normally drink at home. The advert could have told the audience where the restaurants will be in the UK so that they would know where to go.

The target demographic for this radio advert is for teenagers and adults aged between 14-30. I feel that audiences younger than 16 might not understand the advert and what the advert is trying to deliver.

Style
I chose this particular advert because it was very humorous in what it was trying to deliver. I also chose this advert because the key information was always repeated so that the audience knew what the advert was about. As the restaurants were quite new to the UK back in 2009, this advert was mainly trying to raise brand awareness which is also another reason why I chose this advert because it was trying to motivate people to visit the restaurants. Another reason why I chose this advert was because it was a simple advert. It just delivered all of the facts so that the audience knew what was going on. This advert is known as a long-term advert because it talks about the restaurants coming to England and not specific items.

Purpose
I feel that this advert is very successful in the way that the message is conveyed very clearly to the audience and I felt it was very positive in the way it was trying to raise brand awareness. It was very informational because the radio advert talked about what types of food they had, which was 'Piri-Piri Chicken'. Since this advert came out with its other television and radio adverts, the countrywide restaurants are one of the most popular chain of restaurants in the UK and around the world.

Persuasive Techniques
 The advert uses humour and Mexican music to explore what Nando's has to offer. For example, the advert illustrates that whenever you enter one of their restaurants, there would be free music that would be playing so that the customers could listen to the music and enjoy their meal at the same time.
The advert also uses very persuasive techniques. The advert uses humour, such as him interrupting the normal radio schedule, as a persuasion to come to the restaurant and taste all the tasty piri-piri chicken they have.
 They also repeat the company's name, in this case the repeated word is 'Nando's' which would normally trigger the audience's interest and also that they would know what the advert is about.
This particular radio advertisement is very appealing because of the humour and the information that is delivered by the Mexican character.
 The music is also very catchy at the end when the main voice sings 'That's the spirit of Nando's!'. This may appeal to the audience as songs get really catchy when you listen to the song over and over again and this will stick into the audience's mind and therefore bringing in more customers.

Factual Information
This particular advert broadcasted on Youtube in October of 2009 and lasts for 38 seconds which shows that the advert would want its message delivered quite at a fast pace.

Regulations
This particular advert really highlights the key issue of Food on radio adverts created by ASA (Advertising Standards Agency). The issue states about good dietary and not to promote bad nutritional habits or an unhealthy lifestyle. This particular advert really acknowledges these rules as the advert does not say that 'if you eat this food, you will be fat' (as an example), but talks about what types of food they promote and some people could say whether to go and visit that restaurant or not.

Use of Music Bed and Voice Over
The sound of a guitar is featured in the background of the advert to show that there is a Spanish theme, this is used for the music bed of the bed. This is particularly useful because it gives the audience a sense of the theme behind the video and also gives them a clue to what will happen next in the advert. From 0:00 to ):02, we hear the guitar in the background along with the voice over saying Nando's catchphrase 'The Spirit of Nando's'. From 0:21 to 0:37, we hear other instruments to suit with the Spanish theme, such as the maracas and the castanets.

The voice over for this advert is very effective for this particular advert. He uses humour and simple text to persuade the audience to check out the nationwide restaurants they have. The voice over artist was talking in a more Spanish accent to express to the audience that this restaurant offers something that involves around Spain. The artist mentions the restaurant's catchphrase twice (The Spirit Of Nando's), once at the beginning and one at the end of the advert to speak to the audience and to make sure on what they are delivering and to make sure that the audience know what they are talking about.



Budweiser Radio Commercial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHozqs4Ip4A&list=PLRCIt_SvDhCvsTw_OONkumdbXcUpe2GvR&index=7

Message

The purpose of the advert is to motivate men to drink Budweiser after being hard at work all day. The advert starts off with military music playing in the background and then the voice over artist begins to speak saying what a man would normally go through on a 'daily basis'.

The target demographic for this radio advert would be male adults between 25 and 50. I feel that this advert would be inappropriate for audiences below 16 because it is illegal in the UK to drink alcohol. Audiences above 50 might like this advert but it may also be inappropriate as some older audiences may think that this promotes young alcoholism.

Style
I chose this particular advert because it is very formal in the way that it is trying to motivate men to drink a new refreshment made by Budweiser. The voiceover artist seems very serious in the way he talks quite low, but it is persuading audiences to relax and to enjoy this drink which is another reason why I chose it.

Purpose
I feel that this advert is successful in the way that it catches the audience's attention with the catchy motivation music and humorous voice in the background. I think this radio advert definitely raises brand awareness as this advert promotes a brand-new beer from Budweiser which has the catchphrase of 'One Cold Can Of 'You Bet I Earned It'' which illustrates that this product appeals more to people working very hard at work or anywhere else.

Persuasive Techniques
The character who is speaking about the advert motivates the audience to buy the drink, even though the voice you would normally hear is a motivation to do well at a certain sport, a.k.a Managers or Coaches.
They also use a positive military background music like the one you would see in many war films when they have been triumphant against the enemy.
The advert uses motivation and humour as a persuasive technique that many male audiences would be influenced by this advert and would go and buy the drink.
The advert's message illustrates that this is a beer for 'hard-working men of the world'.

Factual Information
This particular advert on Youtube came out in 2007 and lasts for 30 seconds, which shows that they wanted to deliver their message at quite a fast pace. This particular drink only came out in the UK as they wanted to raise brand awareness there because sales weren't as good as there was in the United States.

Regulations
This particular advert highlights the key issue of Alcohol on radio adverts created by ASA (Advertising Standards Agency). The issue states that radio adverts should be able to protect under 18s from issues with alcohol. This advert does not highlight the issue of Alcohol as adverts revolving around alcohol would normally say 'Drink responsibly', but this advert does not say it and therefore would say that anyone could drink this drink, even with audiences aged under 18. Therefore, the company could have included information about underage drinking near to the end of their advert so that young adults learn that this drink is only suitable for adults.

Use of Music Bed and Voice Over
Throughout the entire advert, the advert uses a sound bed very similar to what you would normally hear after a war or even a memorial for those who had died in a war. This advert really catches my and the audience's attention because there is no sound effects that you would normally hear, for example 'a racing car zooming off' or even 'cars honking in traffic', none of that, but a theme song that is familiar to what some people would play in the army.

From 0:01 to the end of the advert, when the music is playing, the voice over artist is heard, talking about the new Bud Silver that is available to buy  for UK audiences. This voice over artist really catches my attention because he reminds me of a captain or a general talking to his men, but in this case he is talking to us, promoting the new Bud Silver, which he does with real passion in his voice.












Message : basic content of advertisement
Style :  see notes
Purpose of advert :  see notes : e.g selling a product or service directly raising brand awareness, informational, promoting sales and special offers, increasing market share, links to any other products or programmes, raising income for radio station, seasonal  awareness raising  
Voiceover : conversational or formal tone , single/multi voice dialogue, accent,
                         tag line ( slogan)
Use of music bed : background sound bed including  sound effect, music, sting
   ( short piece of music that is associated with the product) 
Persuasive techniques : e.g Unique selling point , use of celebrity endorsement, repeated use of product name, price  benefits for customer, any other benefits for consumer  

Thursday, 11 September 2014

Remaking "Tenacious D's 'Tribute'". Music videos 2



















Here are the three videos I worked on with Sam Dench when we tried to recreate the music video of Tenacious D - "Tribute". This was an extremely difficult video to re-make, but I felt that we made the intro quite accurately. I feel like we worked well as a team and all of our ideas got explored in many different ways. As the video is set in a studio, we wanted to re-create that scene by finding a spare room in the college. I made the sign which says "STUDIO"with a big star above it. This worked well with the video as we used different rooms to be portrayed as a studio.

I felt like we could have worked more on near the middle of the scene, but as I said, it was a very difficult video to make, and the intro was the easiest bit of the video and I felt like we made it to the best        standard.



Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Summery of Tuesday 9th September 2014

Today in our media class today, we paired up in twos or threes and we started to write an interview about the other person. I was paired up today with Joe and we started writing questions regarding background, interests and use of media. After we wrote our questions, we went into another room and started recording our interview. The interview process was very easy but the recording was extremely difficult. It was extremely fun working with Joe today because he knows a lot about computers and he was very helpful recording our interview which I could not do.

Monday, 8 September 2014

Music videos



This band is called Biffy Clyro and the song is called Bubbles. I think this music video is one of my favourites because the camera work is presented as a old fashioned film that you would normally watch at the movies.


The next video is from the same band, Biffy Clyro and the song is called Mountains. I really like this video because all of the actors, including the main singer, are dressed in chess pieces and what looks like a chess board on the floor. This is very effective as this would normally happen in a game of chess.


Finally, this video is from a band called Foo Fighters and this song is called The Pretender. I really like this video because it shows the band rebelling against authorities, in this case, the police in this video. This is also effective because the band is presented as slaves or servants and the police is shown as their masters and it shows the band punishing their masters for what they did to them.

What to expect in a Radio Advert

What to expect in a Radio Advert


  1. Loud, clear voice to explain what the product is about and if it is on offer.
  2. A lot of facts about a product.
  3. Why the product you will buy will be an advantage to life.
  4. Catchy catchphrases - for example "I'm lovin' it" and "Nationwide: on your side".
  5. Humour.
  6. Persuasion to go and see a movie.
  7. A lot of details at the end in a very quick voice so that the audience doesn't notice.
  8. Information about your nearest store
  9. Music
  10. The latest music album from a famous artist that will get audiences excited