Magazine Advert Image Choices

Our initial idea for our magazine advert was to present the idea of duality, representing the two contrasting sides of our music video's protagonist - reckless yet sophisticated. This led to our first image choice:

Choice #1

We chose a close up shot of our artist to emphasise the idea of the 'star image', this also links to the front cover of our Digipak which is also a close-up shot. We experimented with the ideas of duality and a 'hidden identity' by editing the shot on Adobe Photoshop, overlaying a shot of graffiti from our Brick Lane location. We then erased most of the graffiti shot, just leaving a small section on the artist's face. We wanted to enhance the contrast between these two layered shots so we made the image of the artist black and white and left the graffiti in colour, this juxtaposition was to show the two sides of the protagonist. We also used a similar colour palette to our Digipak which also contained black and white images with one coloured section (the CD). We decided not to continue with this image as we felt that it was too similar to our Digipak, this would make the advert less unique and exciting for our audience, leading to less popularity.

Choice #2

After abandoning the first image, we found two interesting shots from our Brick Lane location, overlaying the two on Photoshop and changing the opacity to create a 'ghostly' figure on the left. This continued our idea of showing two sides of our protagonist. The 'ghost' figure also alludes to the protagonist's deteriorating mental state. We liked the bold colour palette of these shots as this would make the magazine advert more eye-catching. After looking at existing adverts, it became clear that the majority are portrait, this meant that our image was not suitable as it was landscape.

Choice #3 (chosen)

We finally decided to use this shot as it contained the bright colour palette that we liked from our previous image choice and could also be cropped easily to make it portrait. We found that this image was the most suitable as it represents the main theme of our music video - escapism, due to the artist being pictured walking away from the camera. We felt that the perspective of the shot, as the viewer looks down into the alleyway, makes the image more enticing as the audience is 'drawn in', this would make our advert more eye-catching and, therefore, more successful.

Arctic Monkeys Magazine Advert - Subverting Conventions

The advert for Arctic Monkeys' 'AM' subverts the majority of the conventions of an album advertisement. Whilst it contains typical information, such as the artist's name, album name, release date and record company logo, it lacks other elements, such as social media information, reviews or phrases like 'featuring the single...'. The advert is incredibly simplistic due to the monochrome colour palette, limited text, simple font and simple artwork.

However, its simple style helps to make it stand out. The white text on black background allows it to be read easily. The lack of additional text also helps to make the advert stand out as the key information (release date and album name) can be seen more clearly, this would make the information easier for the audience to remember, therefore, making the artist and album more well known, leading to more success.

The large amount of open space on the advert gives it a calm atmosphere, this makes it more enticing to potential buyers. The sound wave design also evokes a feeling of serenity and openness. This image also links to the album title 'AM' as the wave is called an 'amplitude modulation' or 'AM', this conforms to the advert convention of having visuals that link to the album name.

The advert does not contain an image of the band, subverting the idea of the 'star image', however this is typical of the indie genre. The fact that the band name 'Arctic Monkeys' is in a different, and larger, font (their logo) to the rest of the text on the advert suggests that the name is the most important feature, this conforms to the idea of the 'star image' as the advert is enforcing the band's brand.

Magazine Advert Analysis

I decided to analyse two existing magazine adverts so that I could identify the key features, hopefully providing inspiration for our own advert. I chose two adverts, one from the indie genre and one from the pop genre. I wanted to see if there were any differences between the two genres. As our song, 'Hypnotic' by Zella Day, is described as 'indie pop', we will need to include elements from these two genres.

Indie Advert:



Pop Advert:



By looking at the two adverts, it is clear that they share many of the same elements, such as an image of the artist, important marketing information, visual links to album title and clear, legible text. The main difference between the two is the serious tone of the indie advert, compared to the brighter (although not in colour palette, but in theme) pop advert. I think that a pop-style advert is better suited to our album as our music video contains a bright colour palette as a result of certain locations, such as Brick Lane, this will evoke a happier atmosphere. However, we will also incorporate the main conventions of magazine adverts, that are seen across all genres.

Magazine Adverts

I looked at existing magazine adverts in order to look at the conventions of, not only adverts, but of the different genres.

General conventions include:

• Large font – album name and artist name
• Focus on artist (close ups) - this is mainly seen in the pop genre
• Indie focus less on artist and more on mise-en-scene
• ‘Out Now’ – release date, iTunes
• Website link / Social media information
• Artist logo and record company logo
• Reviews
• Cd options (Cd, Deluxe CD, Vinyl, Digital)
• Dark colours
• Visual link to album title (e.g. 'Red' (Taylor Swift) – red font, ‘Lungs’ (Florence and the Machine) - picture of lungs, ‘Lights’ (Ellie Goulding) - picture of lights, ‘Day & Age’ (The Killers) - picture of sun)
• Image overlaps text
• Name of song on front – no 1 single
• QR code
• Font style links to genre
• Record company
• Bonus tracks
• Extra DVD
• 'Limited edition'
• 'Debut album'

Indie Adverts:

        

Pop Adverts:

        

Indie Rock Adverts:

    

By looking at these adverts, I have discovered that pop adverts serve to emphasise the artist and promote their brand, this is shown through close-up shots of the artist, as well as an image of the Digipak being included (as seen in Rihanna's 'Loud' and Taylor Swift's 'Red'). The indie genre, with the exception of the 'indie rock' sub-genre, also has this convention. Due to this, I think that our group should include an image of our artist on our advert.

Creating a 'Star Image'

I found the music video for HAIM's 'Forever' to be very inspirational. The video's shots are predominantly of the artists, identifying them as the most important element of the video. The emphasis on the artists helps to make them more memorable and recognisable, creating a 'star image'. This video is very similar to our music video, as we have also mostly included shots of our artist.

We want to ensure that we include many close-up shots of our artist in order to conform to Andrew Goodwin's music video theory that states that close-ups help to create a 'star image'. By making our artist a 'star', she will be more recognisable and, therefore, more popular and successful.

 Our video is currently more performance-based as we are yet to complete filming in some of our locations, such as the Capel Manor Maze. So, at the moment, our narrative isn't very clear. HAIM's video has also shown me that, despite being performance based, a narrative or idea can still be conveyed. This has made me less anxious about not having an obvious narrative in our music video.

Mini Mansions - Death is a Girl

I like the lighting used in Mini Mansions' 'Death is a Girl'. The video takes place in a police stations, with the narrative of the artist's being taken in for questioning. Due to the setting, interesting lighting effects have been used, for example, high-key lighting and fast, bright flashes occur as the artists are being photographed for their mugshots. Flashing and strobing red and blue coloured lights can also be seen, linking in with the idea of police (red and blue being the colour of a police siren). The lighting helps to make the video more unique and dynamic as there is a range of different effects, from high-key to low-key, from still light to flashing light. The flashing is also in time with the music, flashes occurring on-beat, this links to Goodwin's theory of having a relationship between music and visual.

We have already included lighting effects in our music video. We used a hand-held light with coloured filters whilst filming in the studio in order to create flashes. I would like to add more lighting effects in our other locations as this could help to create a disorientating atmosphere, enhancing our narrative of feeling lost and confused.


I particularly liked this effect as having multiples of the same shot being shown simultaneously adds to the feeling of confusion. The shot evokes feelings of being in a daze or being 'hypnotised', this effect could work well within our video as we also want to convey the idea of hypnotism.

Finished Digipak

Today we finally finished our Digipak, arranging the four panels suitably. The front cover is on the top-left, the back on the top-right and the inside being the bottom two panels. Overall, I am really pleased with the end result as it reflects the mood that we wanted the album to convey. The monochrome colour palette helps to evoke a serious atmosphere which is typical of the indie genre whilst the colourful CD mirrors our up-beat song and colourful locations, such as Brick Lane.