Media Print Album Art
On the cover of my album titled the man behind the mask features a young male who is centred and directly looking at the camera which makes him the importance of the image. Along with this the background is a dull mix between grey and blue and his costume (a black jacket) draws no attention away from his face due to it's dark colour. My preferred reading of my piece is that it represents how we change our appearance and personality to suit the people around us. This includes buying branded clothing items to appear better to most people or doing something just to please someone else. This is represented by the eyes, nose and mouth which look like they have been stuck on quickly and messily. You can tell they do not fit but this represents how you can mix and match the parts and that you never show what's underneath. People will want to buy the album as 'the man behind the mask' suggests you will get to see what is underneath.
The grey/blue background both have a connotative meaning of sadness due to the colours rather than the freedom the sea and sky often represent. The lack of freedom is further expanded upon due to the rock wall which runs across all the images which traps you from going further out. This links with the theme of duality that is caused from the male being trapped under a different identity to his own. This print piece does not conform with the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey as I chose a male to be the model. I did this because many other album covers will use female models to attract men but my album is for both male and female. Also he is not sexualised as he is not made from a female gaze.
I used a medium close up shot to get a view of the background while still being focused on the face, the lack of branding from his clothes suggests he is trying to get rid of his second identity but that because he has kept it up for so long it has started to become him which we can tell from the facial features still being stuck on. For people of the target age range of 15 - 25 who live in the UK they will most likely see the dominant/preferred reading of this piece as it relates to them; but people of different ages or backgrounds may get a negotiated reading where they understand some but no all of my preferred reading. Lastly someone from a completely different background may get an oppositional reading if they either reject or do not understand the preferred reading of the piece. According to Stuart Hall these are the three readings people will get, I hope to have a large amount of people get the preferred reading so they understand it fully.
The middle images are just a wide shot of the sea wall which represents the freedom we don't have. I used the same image twice for the middle because it represents how the restrictions we have won't change. The back image is of the back of the model with the hood up, I chose to have the hood up because it takes away his identity. The model looks like the outline of a person, this pose takes away his individuality and it represents how we are all the same on the outside.
I know that you went through a number of different stages with this production and overall I think you should be fairly pleased with the finished piece, though I do feel that a little more attention to anchoring text and perhaps a variety of different images through your middle pages would have made the preferred reading more solid. At present I am not sure that you really have much justification in claiming that your target audience would see your preferred reading. The essay is written well and your expression is clear and precise. You describe the product well and express your own ideas very well. Where you fall down is in exploring the critics. Mulvey could be applied but probably shouldn’t be and you really glossed over Hall. Ideally, you need to give more time and attention to really getting to know your theorists so that you can integrate them fairly naturally.
ReplyDeleteGrade: D+ You have loads of potential to achieve a much better score than this, but you really need to get some more depth of critical theory into your work.