My Magazine Advert

This is my final Magazine Advert.

My digipack

This is my final digipack piece.

Taking photos

I took some photos on Wednesday and tried to place them on my digipack. I discovered that the backgrounds of each image were all very different and clashed when all placed on the digipack.

Therefore I will be re-shooting my photos tonight. This time though I will be shooting the instruments against a white background and therefore I can change the colour, or keep it white, of the background on the digipack panels.

My audience responses

This comment was for my front cover.

This person has suggested darker colours. I will not be doing this as I want the child-like theme of the digipack to come across strongly as the target audience are young. I am glad that this person mentioned the idea reminding them of The Wombats and Two Door Cinema Club as they are very Indie-Pop.

This comment was on my back cover.

This comment was added AFTER I created the Photoshop draft and so I will need to see whether this person has changed their mind when seeing that I have placed the song titles on both sides of the panel.

This comment was on my left hand panel.

I am glad that this person likes the idea of the digipack being bright as this was my idea from the very start of the planning process.

And finally,

I am encouraged by these comments.

I have created this using internet images on a Photoshop digipack template. I have done this to try and see what positions the images look best in. More importantly though, I did this to try out different fonts for the band title and song titles. 

I have uploaded this onto my Facebook group to see what they think about it.

Instruments

I have acquired all of the toy instruments that I need to photograph for my digipack. However, because I could not find a toy drum kit for the front cover, I am using a children's CD player instead.

Also, I have had the idea of making the background of the digipack in black and white and having the toy instruments in colour only. I will post this on my Facebook page to see what my target audience think about it.

Print advert

This is my first draft of how I want my magazine advert to look like.

• Large image of artist with guitar in a photo frame; showing that the instrument and the performance is key to this band. The frame is situated on the left hand side so that it is aesthetically pleasing. The frame could suggest voyeurism as she is female and entrapped in the frame; more of a mainstream convention.
• Record label at the bottom; typical of all adverts.
• The advert consists of many established music magazines praising the band and the single. 

New drafts of Digipack

These are my new ideas for my digipack. 

New Digipack idea

After talking to my teacher and attempting to think more creatively to make my idea more quirky, I am thinking about using toy instruments instead of real instrument into the concept art.

This still puts the focus on the instruments which is what I have always intended for my digipack, but it does it in a slightly entropic and more interesting way. This is thinking outside of the box.

Print Work: The Concept

My first  idea for my 4 panel digipack is to have the band on the front with their instruments in a full body shot to establish their brand identity; they take music seriously. I want them to come across as quirky though so I will have them wearing trademark bright colours while they are smiling, to make them seem friendly and down to earth. The back cover of the digipack will be a high angled shot looking down on the instruments, including a guitar and a drum kit, with the single titles placed over the top in post-production. The third panel will have a tight shot of a bass guitar stood up against a brick wall making it seem edgy.
This idea was inspired by the indie-pop bands Mumford and Sons and Noah and the Whale who like to move away from the pop genre towards the indie genre. However on re-evaluating the song I am going to use, I have decided that it is more pop than indie and so I am trying to come up with creative ideas that are more quirky.

This is my first draft for my digipack.

Confirmation

I have had confirmation on the singer that I am using in my video, who also wrote and sang the song that I'm using in my video.

She has also confirmed that she would like to get involved in the video as the artist.

I now also have a studio booked for filming and have had confirmation that I can film on Wednesday 2nd January. The studio is locally based so it will be easy to get the actor and myself there on filming day.

Focus Group

So I have set up a Facebook group so that I am able to get audience feedback on any ideas I post on the group.

I have introduced it in an informal way so that my friends are more likely to give feedback when I ask them to.

Time Management

This is a first deadline plan. I will try to stick to these deadlines in order to be as organised as possible as I am working with a real band.

Mumford and Sons- Little Lion Man

Analysis of Generic Conventions

 

 

This video is set in only one place with the artists playing the song on a theatre stage. This demonstrates immediately that the band is all about the performance and the music. Nevertheless, extreme close-ups of their faces are still included in the video (which is more typical of a Pop video) to establish the relationship between the audience and the artists so that the audience feels intimate with the band themselves. These close-up's include chiaroscuro lighting which adds an element of mystery to the band but also is created by simple small light bulbs scattered around the set which creates that DIY feel that is typical of an Indie-Pop video. The emotions shown on the faces of the artists creates a connection between the mood of the song (gloomy and sad undertones) and the audience (who should be feeling sad).

Instruments play a vital part in the video, making the band come across as serious musicians who make their own music (as opposed to pop stars having it done for them). Extreme close-up's of the multiple instruments used by the band, including more obscure instuments such as a banjo, allows the band to come across as multi-talented and much more Indie than Pop.

It is interesting that this video is also set in a social environment however there is no audience watching them. This reflects the song's theme of lonliness and upset. It also creates an intimate feel with the audience watching the video at home who may have felt more detatched from the band if there had been a second audience in the video. 

There is a little bit of synaesthesia present that establishes the difference between the first verse and chorus (but less so in the later chorus). During this chorus, there is a long shot of all four of the artists on the stage and throughout this, the camera tracks forward slowly until the end of the chorus in which the shot changes. This shot is effective because it simply shows all of the artists singing together in harmony as opposed to many shots of the artists together which would create a fast pace which does not go with the slow tone of the song.

Noah and the Whale- 5 Years Time

Analysis of Generic Conventions

In this Indie-Pop video, the texture is very grainy and gives a feeling of a 1980’s camcorder, a shaky hand held camera adding to the low quality. This is typical for this genre as it adds a ‘DIY’ effect to the video. This effect allows the audience to feel that it would be just as easy for them to create a similar video and this connects the artist to the audience. 

The video is very illustrative, an example being when a bust shot of the male artist has his hands over her eyes, allowing her to peak through in a head and shoulders shot when the lyrics “I’ll put my hands over your eyes but you’ll peak through” appear. Synaesthesia plays a large part in the video. It establishes the difference between the chorus and the verses which is a theory of Goodwin. When the chorus plays (“Fun fun fun”) the artists stand and act out the lyrics by pointing to the sky on the beat of the words, dressed in bright yellow boy scouts clothing, even though they are in their late 20’s (a theme of youth and childhood antics runs through the video). It happen again in later chorus where the words change to “five years time” where the artists put their hand forward for “five”, make a Y shape with their arms for “years” and make a T shape for “time”. This adds to the animation of the video and gives the part of the audience who are more mainstream the chance to learn the easy routines. The actions the artists make add a sense of child-like fun which in turn would make the audience feel happy. 

The video also has a theme of socialising which is common in Indie-Pop videos. The artists are seen enjoying themselves with local people in a pub. This gives the sense that the band is fun and enjoys normal activities that the audience would probably take part in. This makes the artists seem approachable and the kind of people the audience could get along with if they met. It would also be a cheap, if not free, setting for the band who would not have much money to spend on the video and so any audience member who creates music or film videos could be inspired by this. Most Indie-Pop videos will create the look of socialising by having the setting as their house, a garage or outside whereas a pub is more obvious but works better with the strangers in the background giving a realistic feel.  

Instruments play a vital part in the video because it shows the audience that they are genuine artists who don’t necessarily want the fame but take their music seriously. The scenes where they play instruments are frequent but not continuous as the video is mainly made up of vocals. When there is an instrumental, the artists make full use of showing off their instrumental talent. The second shot is of the female artist playing a ukulele on a sofa; this looks casual and natural. For twenty two seconds the artists play violins and another ukulele and at one point even shake a shaker. This demonstrates their range of instruments used in the song, showing off to the audience that they are definitely not pop stars and have no desire to be. During this the editing is different to that used on any pop video as the editor plays around with chopping up the screen into parts, fragmenting the artists and having one artist playing the ukulele in the top left hand corner of the frame and the artist playing the violin in the rest of the frame. This gives the audience different things to look at and emphasises the creativeness not only in the artists but behind the scenes also. 

Research- Print Adverts

In this post I will research the different print adverts that I have found for Indie-Pop artists. I will analyse the adverts and use this research for my own print advert that I will create later on.

These print adverts are for the single 'Hands' from The Ting Tings. The background is full of bright colours which is typical of the Indie-Pop genre as this is what sells to the young, mainly female audience. The font is large and bold which reflects The Ting Tings music which is very loud with many drum beats. There seems to be splatters of paint across the writing which connotes rebellion; this shows The Ting Tings to be something 'different' and 'out there' which would attract the young, easily influenced audience. On the second advert at the bottom left hand corner is The Ting Tings website which would have links to buy their music and have a list of their tour dates, amongst other links. This sells the artist as it will give information to those who perhaps have not heard of the band before. What is different about these adverts is that it doesn't feature the artist whereas most adverts would. This gives The Ting Tings an edge as, with just writing and no impressions of the artists, the audience can make up their own mind about what they could look like which adds intrigue.

This is more of a traditional advert compared to that of The Ting Tings. Mumford and Sons are a more traditional band that don't break the rules. Here, they are using quotes from famous, international newspapers such as 'The New York Times' saying positive things about their new album and giving them credit. This will attract the audience who would have heard some of these newspapers. What is most interesting is that the newspapers will attract every type of audience as the target audience for Mumford and Sons would recognise online entertainment website SPIN whereas more mainstream listeners would spot NME magazine. The colours used include dull browns and beige which emphasise the rustic, old fashioned feel that goes with Mumford and Sons. The image makes the band look like serious and intelligent musicians with the lead singer holding a scroll and two others holding their instruments. This emphasises the fact that they are not music making pop stars.

Research- Digipacks

In this post, I will be researching various artists in the Indie-Pop genre that have released digipacks and print adverts. This research will help me with deciding what kind of digipack and print advert I will create for my coursework.

Digipacks

This front cover is very simple. It is typical of the  pop genre to try and sell the artist as a 'star' as opposed to an artist. which is what this image is doing; there are no instruments or signs that they want you to buy the album for the music. Although Goulding's music is in the indie-pop genre, her label evidently wants to make her more of a pop star. The font is something I can take from this into my own digipack; it is thin and in capitals which is found on many indie-pop covers. This is attractive because it seems simplistic which is a convention of indie-pop; the more DIY and easy it looks, the more it attracts the creative, aspiring audience.  

What I like about this cover is that the album is named "The First Days of Spring" and the image is set in the Spring time, illustrating the title. The cover is also a simple design with a grainy, DIY effect to it, making it feel very Indie and is something I could easily do in Photoshop. The image blurs out the artists (apart from the main singer) which is important because the Indie-Pop genre focuses on the music more than the artists. 

The back cover is very aesthetically pleasing. The lighting makes the image very bright and connotes hopefulness and freedom (with the open space in front of the artists). This attracts the target audience as they are young aspirer's. The information about the record label and its logo is very small and placed at the bottom of the back cover. This is something I need to do for my digipack because Indie-Pop artists don't like to focus on the fact that they have a record deal; they prefer it to stay  private because they don't want people thinking that other people have a certain amount of control over their music.

Again, this cover is very simple. It uses a large open beach as its background which connotes freedom and the ability to do whatever one wants. This gives off a calm, relaxing feel which reflects the type of music that Of Monsters And Men produce. The image is slightly grainy, once more emphasising the DIY feel and with the clothing that the lead singer is wearing, it has an old fashioned, 1950's feel to it. The only writing is the title of the album and the band name in the top left hand corner. This is small and does not attract the eye immediately which shows that the focus should be on the image and what it makes the audience feel. The colours of the font, pink and white, goes against the typical connotations that go with the noun "monsters" and "men". This demonstrates that the band goes against the typical stereotypes that go with gender; this is typical of Indie-Pop artists. 

The CD is pink with white clouds amongst it. This emphasises the feeling of freedom and relaxation. The image on the case is of the sea against the grey/white sky. This reminds me that the digipack doesn't have different images on each side but that they all relate to one another and in this case, the images carry on from one side to another. This is something I would like to do with my digipack because I believe that the audience would get more pleasure from seeing related images as this is less confusing.

Pitch

My pitch from zoeybaker

Initial ideas

My Genre.



I have chosen to work on my own. Although this means more work for me to do, the advantage of working on my own is not having to rely on someone else to come up with the ideas and production work with me.

Music Video Analysis- Lady Gaga, Judas

Lady Gaga- Judas (2011)

Lady Gaga is notorious for her strange and dramatic persona. She is known for not being worried about what people think about her personal and musical style. Judas in particular arguably crosses the line of acceptability as it plays with the idea of following Judas’ ways of betrayal instead of Jesus’ ways of kindness and innocence. This appeals to her target audience as they are mainly mainstream and therefore would find rebellion an exciting prospect, although not necessarily something they would partake in. The whole music video is made up of religious connotations towards good and evil using symbols, colours and costume.

The video opens up with a canted angle tracking shot of men on motorbikes driving down a motorway. Their costumes include a black leather jacket with a white skull and crossbones and the name of the wearer across the back. This is an intertexual reference, as demonstrated by Andrew Goodwin's music video conventions, to Marlon Brando who played a rebellious gang leader in The Wild One. This immediately sets the video up as being about not conforming to everybody else’s beliefs and instead following your own.

The song is about Gaga wanting to be a follower of Judas, therefore when she is with Jesus, it needs to be clear that they do not fit together. When Gaga is with Jesus and his followers, she is the only person wearing brightly coloured clothing. Everyone else is either in black, white or various shades of these colours. With this there are a lot of close up shots of Gaga stroking her face while looking directly into the camera; it is seductive and makes the audience want to keep watching her. Her make up in the close-ups add to this; it is bright and exaggerated. This sells the artist by making her desirable and over-feminine; the men fancy her and the woman want to be like her. A close-up of very long black and red fingernails wrapped around a man’s neck shows her control over the male which challenges the stereotype of women being the weaker gender; the black connoting power and the red connoting lust (and therefore sin). This enforces Gaga’s star persona of being highly made up and wearing extravagant clothing as she wants to be looked at.

The man Gaga is riding with is of ethnic origin and wears a crown of thorns on his head, connoting that he is the Jesus figure. He is wearing black bikers uniform and so informs the audience that he is a sign of revolution and making a change. The camera is looking straight on at Gaga and Jesus connoting an alliance of equal terms (something which changes later on due to Judas).

A high angled mid-shot shows Gaga walking towards the camera, swinging her hips very femininely. A high angle usually connotes a powerful dominance whereas the hip swinging immediately makes her seem overly female and therefore weaker; this juxtaposition emphasises that Gaga wants to appear controlling but needs to remind the audience that she still wants to be looked upon as very womanly. This representation of women conforms to the ideology of femininity is weaker than masculinity.

The camera zooms out quickly to a long shot of Gaga wearing a small red bikini outfit amongst modestly dressed dancers. The red is bright and stands out immediately in the grey buildings and low key lighting which adds to her persona of wanting the attention but also the colour red symbolises passion and lust and so this is clearly a form of male gaze, as demonstrated by Laura Mulvey's theory; as she stretches, her toned torso is emphasised making her body something to be desired. The connotations of the colour red can also be linked to the narrative of the video being about sinful temptation. In amongst the shots of her dancing, there are quick cuts to a tight, high angled close-up of Gaga touching her face seductively. She wears bright red lipstick with a single transparent jewel on her right cheekbone. This could take the place of a beauty spot, representing her as being innocent and young which targets Gaga's audience of teenage girls.

One of Goodwin's theories is that of synaesthesia which is used in the video, more obviously during the dance routines that are common in mainstream pop videos. In one shot, Gaga is turned around and shaking her hips side to side to the music. She is directly in the centre of the frame where the eyes are drawn to immediately and once again she is wearing a red bikini outfit which attracts the attention. Her long blonde hair contrasts the red outfit making the image pretty and girly; this sense of innocence comes from the fact that we cannot see her more feminine features such as her stomach and breasts. Another example of synaesthesia is during the lyrics “bring him down” where Gaga throws her head and hands down when it is sung. It is with an angry force that she does this, bringing her emotions through; this connotes her passion for rebellion and believing that bringing down the powers of Jesus is the right thing to do. This is therefore also an example of amplification, another of Goodwin's theories, as she is not actually acting out the lyric but is amplifying it.

An interesting shot is of a neon light reading ‘Electric Chapel’. More obviously, a chapel is a place of worship and therefore is another religious reference but it is also the name of a song off her third album which was released after ‘Judas’ was released in the charts. This reference was therefore for the die-hard Gaga fans to look back on when they had brought the album.  This creates an intimate relationship between Gaga and her fans and therefore keeps them interested in her and her work.

One of Goodwin's theories is that of the music video distinguishing between the verses and the chorus, and this is demonstrated here. The editing of the verses is very choppy with many different shots of Gaga and so different costumes and settings. The chorus however is mainly just one long take of Gaga dancing with her backing dancers. The setting is in a marketplace which is an intertexual reference, as demonstrated by Goodwin's theory, to the story in the bible where Jesus gets angry at people turning his Father’s home into a marketplace. The setting is therefore important because it is a place of sin both in the bible and in Gaga’s video. She is wearing all black and so are the dancers, therefore she is standing out less. This is because in this fragmented narrative, she has now joined Judas and his followers. The chorus consists mainly of high angle shots of Gaga with the dancers with a few bust shots of Gaga, keeping the intimacy between Gaga and the audience.

Later on in the video, after a fighting scene with Jesus’ followers and Judas’ followers, Gaga breaks up the two leaders before aiming a gold gun at Judas’ head, fooling the audience into thinking that maybe Gaga has chosen Jesus, however after a moment the gun turns into a lipstick, emasculating what would otherwise be seen as a dangerous object. The lipstick sells the video to the audience who are predominantly female teenagers. This scene portrays Judas as a fool and therefore not the right path to choose which goes against the previous messages and values of the video which is to be rebellious. What must not be forgotten is that this is a mainstream pop video which needs to sell to its audience of unpretentious female teenagers; the video therefore needs to be tied up by showing dominant ideologies, in this case Gaga choosing the treacherous Judas as having consequences.

The music video then changes as the non-diegetic music turns into diegetic music with cuts between 3 different scenes. The first is of Gaga in a bath tub with Jesus and Judas by her side. She is splashing water over her half naked body very seductively. However there are no close-ups of fragmented shots of her body and so the audience is not being invited to completely look at her in a male gaze, which challenges Laura Mulvey's theory of music videos being primarily about looking at women sexually. Instead the scene is important to establish the binary opposites of good and evil with Gaga in the middle because she is being torn between the two. The costumes are black and there us fire in the background where there is a stone wall making the setting feel very medieval. This suggests that Gaga is leaning towards Judas in the narrative.

The second scene is long shots of Gaga wearing a gold mermaid-like outfit with large waves crashing behind and around her. The water represents changing states and could  emphasise the binary opposition of good and evil with Gaga’s mind changing between the two. She is eventually consumed by the water which shows the ultimate power of nature.

The final scene is of Jesus being welcomed by a screaming crowd of people into a room. Judas, with the lipstick still on his face, welcomes him into the room with kisses to the cheek. This is another religious reference to The Last Supper where Judas betrays Jesus. It is evident that the audience are being positioned to empathise with Jesus as not only is he shown to be the popular character but he is the one about to be betrayed; the audience would be the type of people who abide with the rules and so would not agree with this. There are not as many shots of this scene though as Gaga features very little in them.

All of these shots are quickly cut together into a 34 second sequence which puts focus on the narrative as opposed to the actual song. This illustrative scene, which is one of Goodwin's music video conventions, emphasises the importance of what the lyrics are talking about; the story of Jesus and Judas.

The Task

During A2, the focus is on music and the way music is promoted using the artist to the target audience.
The 3 tasks to be completed at A2 that demonstrate our knowledge of how music is sold are;

• A promotional package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video;
• A digipak for the album's release;
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak.

Goodwin's conventions of what should be included in a music video will help me to create a realistic looking video. These conventions are; 

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (Either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (Either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). This is linked to the concept of Synaesthesia - Seeing the sound, the visual, including the editing make the sound visual. There is a physical representation of verse/chorus structure.

“This idea is absolutely central to understand music videos as they build on the soundtrack’s visual associations in order to connect with the audience and provide additional pleasure.” Pete Fraser

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style that reflects their star image/persona).

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. (Mulvey)

There are often intertextual references (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.). (Barthes, Allen, Stewart)

What is a music video?

According to Pete Fraser, the head of the exam board, the following six features must be included in our music video;

1. the music video must be atleast as long as the song. It can be slightly longer if an intro and/or outro is included.
2. the video features the artist(s) quite prominently.
3. the video includes some element of performance such as singing, dancing and/or acting.
4. the video has some kind of concept along with the track.
5. the video features a narrative of some kind; can be fragmented.
6. different genres of music produces different visual conventions; this should be clear.