Friday, 21 November 2014

Photo Shoot - Miss Miller

Photo Shoot 

The reason for us taking pictures was to put in our digipak which would give the buyers a sense that they have more of a connection with the band as they can see where we filmed the artist. This can be seen as we have used pictures from the locations that we have filmed at to give our digipak a more personal feel rather than a random exotic location and London is relatable for many people as many live around the surrounding area. While we were filming we took a variety of pictures so we can keep the intrest of the audience on the digipak and to show them the range of locations of where we filmed, this will also promote the artist and his songs as we can see him singing on location. This will also bring a connection with the artist and audience as they may have been to the same location as we have used well known areas.

I have taken this picture to use on the 4th panel of my digipak as it shows the location we were filming at which was the West Indian Quay with Canary Wharf in the background. This will show one of the main places that we filmed and I have used this image as it is one that only appears for a very short time in the video but I felt it was visually very impressive and deserved to be in my digipak. Furthermore it is instanly recognisable which makes it easy for the audience to relate to as the location has been visited by many people and they may recognise the place. This image would be subversive of our genre of psychedelic rock as a conventional location would be a very exotic location such as a beach , a dessert or a distant country. However we have used a iconic place in London that is not very exotic however it is just as impressive with the skyscrapers and fountains, so we have used a man made place instead of a more natural location. Furthermore many people have been to our location whereas a conventional location would be one in which few people have been before to bring new excitiment. I believe the best thing about the image is that it has so many things inside it with the fountains , huge skyscrapers alongside the bright lights and the clouds. This makes the picture very intresting and keep you focused as there is so much to look at. The main way that the image builds a relationship is by using an iconic location and area , which many people have been to and so they have been to the same place as the artist.




I have taken this picture to give the audience a clear idea of what the artist looks like which helps with identifying him. This will help with the recognition of the artist and make him more well known to his audience , which makes this image one of the most important. This will appear on the second panel of the digipak so when a buyer opens the digipak this will be one of the first images that they see. This can be seen as mainly subverisve with the genre of psychadelic rock, this is because most of the artist in the genre keep their faces well hidden and use other people in their images. They also often do not use as plain an image as I am but I feel that this would be more mainstream and attract a bigger audience. If we were to make all images conventional then the digipak may be too extreme and possibly put people. I think the best thing about this image is that the audience get to see the artist which will help them relate to him much better than with a mysterious person. This will make them bigger fans as they can actually idenitfy who the artist that they like is, however as he is still not looking at the camera it still brings a sense of distance between him and the audience.
 
This image was taken outside the main entrance to Liverpool Street station and shows the gerkin and many other buildings. I have taken this picture as it is the location where the artist gets into London and starts walking around,  and where most of the artists time is spent. I will use this on the 5th panel of the digipak as it has only one famous sight and maybe not as impressive as some of the other images which we have taken. Yet I belive it has significance as it is the place where the artsist journey starts in London. This image is again subversive as it does not include and exotic location or any extreme editing, however it could be seen as slightly conventional with the different lights which we can see in the image such as them being bright up close and dimmer further back. What I like about this image is that there are lots of things happening in the shot paticulary the people , there are people walking from the station, to thetation , people going shopping, people eating. This brings activity to the shot which would otherwise have been plain and boring which would make the image a waste for the digipak.This will help the relationship between the artist and the audience as the image is taken as though someone is looking on at location. This brings a connection as the artist and audience are seeing the same thing when he leaves the station.


This image was taken in the centre of the financial district in Canary Wharf and we chose to take the picture as this image is much simpler than the others and has no iconic landmark which the others have. This takes the attention away from London and focuses on the image and the things that are init such as the small fountains. I intend to use this on the third panel of the digipak to break up the pictures with the big backgrounds and lost of activity. I belive that this picture is conventional to the genre as it is using a less well known location which is very conventional whilst also haveing the fountains which bring an unusal light which is also typical of the genre, this is one of the only images in which we can see the genre coming through. I think the good thing about the image is that it is a intresting shot whilst not having anything iconic in the image , this makes it different from the other pictures which makes it part of the genre as it is unique. Furthermore I like the contrast between the nature of the trees and water with the man made giant structures which surround it, this could be the like the descions that that artist has had to make.
 
 
I found taking the pictures relativly easy as we took them whilst we were filming so we did not need to go back to any locations to take more pictures. Furthermore we took many pictures which would then allow us to pick the best and then use them , rather than taking pictures and finding out that they were no good. The only problem that we had with the pictures were that some of them were blurry and unclear at night, which we could not help as we had no better camera available and had to use our phones.
 
The pictures which we have taken represnt our artist as very distant as none of the images have people close to him or have very clear faces of the other people. However we do see him as relativly normal otherwise which makes him easier for the audience to relate to rather than a unlikeable strange person.
 
As individuals we have made our own advert and digipaks with our own ideas and thoughts being put into them. We will then bring all the ideas together and create an overall digipak and advert which will have a combination of ideas from all of us , which we will then brainstorm and put them into one. We will then see if we would like to change anything to improve them and then we will have our final finished product for our music video.
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Monday, 17 November 2014

Initial group planning ideas - Miss Georgiou

The group that I am in includes three other people who are Harry Hyett, Jazz Chyriste, Luke Durrance.

In our first meeting as a group we discussed things such as which music genre we like and then the songs we like, we found out we like different music from many artists from Arctic Monkeys to Calvin Harris. Then we decided on the song and printed off the lyrics which we then annotate to work out the hidden meaning of the song and how the themes would help make our video. One way we can see this is that we would like to use the theme of going backwards in our song as it is a main theme in the song lyrics. We could show this to the audience by doing things such as  reversing film which is a way to show the theme.

There were 10 main points that our group discussed which we would would like to incorporate in our music video. These points are Mise en Scene, artists representation , cinematography, editing, style of music video, codes and conventions of the music video, target audience, music video theory, research carried out and inspirations and the annotations of the lyrics. This will be very useful as it sets out our plans for our video and will make our planning more focused which will prevent us from wasting time.

In the next meeting we applied for copyright from the record label that the artist we chose belongs to. This was done by emailing them explaining what we were doing and if they would give us permission to use the song for educational purposes.  After this we researched into the music genre which we had picked , which is psychedelic rock and the themes and conventions which are part of the genre. We had done this by researching other artist in the genre and what they had used in their own videos, which we could take inspiration from.

While doing this we had all started thinking about the outline of our music video and what we thought should be included. We agreed to do things such as stay conventional with the genre whilst trying to make it mainstream enough for people to watch. This would give us a big enough audience who would like our video which would help make our music video more successful

When I did my own research into the music genre I learnt many things about psychedelic rock, which I did not know the genre previously as is not a main stream genre of music. The main conventions are based around the use of psychedelic drugs and so are things such as bright colours, lots of editing and the use of very strange things happening in the music video. Other conventions which are not as prominent as these are things to do with the artist not showing their face and using lots of concepts within a video , these are things that are very unique to this genre.

We discussed what we wanted our music video to look like as a group , we did this by brainstorming ideas for a good narrative that is conventional to the genre. We split up the video into parts and after we had made the start we found that the rest of the video was easier as we could tell the narrative from that point. We also decided which shots and editing to use along the way , such as using a time lapse in a train station which we all agreed would look impressive.

After this we drew up the narrative of the video in a storyboards and had a clear idea of what we wanted to film and when, however we found when filming that there were better camera angles and new things to take shots of. This meant that we did not stick to our storyboard with everything however it did give us an outline of what camera angle and location we were going to use.

These meetings and discussions are vital for our group and the final music video as they help us improve the video to make it the best that it could be. If we have many people working on the same thing then we can see the things to keep and the things that need to be improved or cut from the video, this will make our video look as professional as possible. Furthermore as we have more people discussing things it can be done quicker as we would have everybody working on the same thing which would improve  the productivity of the group.

Overall our group worked very well together and all of our discussions and meetings were very productive. All of the meetings were successful as we all worked together in trying to complete the same task and there was little disagreement over these things, and if there was disagreement it would help us improving the final product. Furthermore everyone had contributed to the projects that the group was doing, with everyone contributing ideas and time to making the music video, so in conclusion the group worked very well together.
     

Risk assessment- Miss Gerogiou

Risk Assessment

It is very important to consider the risks for our group before we start filming as otherwise it could lead to someone getting injured or possibly even dying. This is why we have considered all possible risks and worked out how we can prevent them from ever happening to any member of our group, which  will keep us all safe while filming. We did this by bringing all our concerns together whilst brainstorming all the possible risks that we could incur.

We followed the risk assessment and this resulted in none of our group being hurt or injured and we agreed that we would stop filming immediately and seek medical attention if anything was to happen. We would also not use that location as it would be a considerable risk to go back to the same area to film. This would not stop all injuries but would decrease the chance of any happening which would make the filming of the video much safer.

The risk assessment will assist us when filming as we do not need to identify the risk and prevent it when we are on location. This will make it much easier to film around the location and less time consuming which will give us more time to look for interesting locations, this would keep our equipment and us safe whilst still getting the best scenes and locations. Furthermore we had with us a health and safety kit which could have helped prevent serious injury if anyone was hurt during filming. Overall then it can be seen as a success as no one was injured during filming, although at some points we did brake some minor rules we made sure that the camera and person filming was safe.

When filming we did realize other risks such as that of the camera being stolen , so we always had a member of the group with the camera, this was managed as the camera was not stolen. Another risk on set was the weather in that it was raining and the surface was very slippy, furthermore as we were sometimes filming in high places it was a big risk. We managed this by having the camera man aware of his surroundings and removing any objects that were possible trip hazards, this again was a success as we had no injuries while filming. Furthermore when filming the fight scene although they were pretend punches it would be easy enough to actually punch the actor and cause injury. Furthermore when the actor goes on the floor we have to check the area for glass and other possible hazards.

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Thursday, 13 November 2014

Planning Schedule


A filming schedule is important for our group to have so we know what shots we are filming at what location and in what order we will be filming them in. The schedule saves time as we know what we are doing and we are not making it up as we go along which will would be very time consuming. Furthermore it prevents us filming any unnecessary scenes and prevents us from missing any scenes out whilst filming. This could also be done with the editing so we only need to do everything once which would save time and make our video much easier to make.

Overall we did conform to the schedule and we followed all of the locations and time scales that we wrote down. However at certain points we did add things such as new scenes and camera angles which we felt that would look better than what we had planned.At some point we believe that there was continuity issues such as our actor wearing slightly different trainers and trousers whilst keeping the same jacket. Although in the dark of most scenes this can not be seen clearly at all and so we will be keeping previous footage which would be very hard to retake. 

Planning Digipak- Miss Miller

Planning Digipak

A digipak is of great importance of to the artist for many reasons , the main being that it helps the fans connect with the artist more than a normal jewel CD. This is because of the increased amount of information that is on the pack and more pictures in it, furthermore their is often a personal note from the artist which brings a big connection with it.This would promote the artist much more and the people who buy the digipak are more likely to buy other merchandise from the band as they now may be bigger fans.  A second reason why it is so important is that it is much more of a collectable item than a normal jewel CD and makes the fans feel more exclusive , this will make buyers feel like bigger fans as they have bought a more expensive product. There are also many differences between the digipak and a normal jewel CD such as the digipaks being made out of cardboard whereas CDs are made from plastic,  which means the CD case protects the CD better. Additionally the digipaks may become frayed and worn over time. Another difference is that the digipak has 6 sides rather than the jewel CDs 2 which means they have more high quality images than a normal CD. This can promote an artist much further as there is more information going to the audience which means they will hopefully buy the album and further merchandises that the band make.

I will be creating a digipak which will be based around the song " It feels like we only go backwards" by the artist Tame Impala. Planning will be vital to my digipak as the genre of the song is very unique in being psychedelic rock, and so we need to stay conventional to the genre whilst still being mainstream to attract people. For example I will be using bright neon colours alongside pictures however I will not be using the exotic locations and costumes that are also often seen and are conventional. This way I have kept some of the conventions whilst still making it recognizable to psychedelic rock fans.

In my digipak I will be including a personal message from the artist as this will bring a personal connection with the artist and the audience. This will make a stronger bond for the audience which will hopefully make them buy more music and merchandise from the artist and become a long term fan. This will be done with messages such as "Thank you so much" or "Its all down to you" which will be as if they were hand written by the artist. This will make the fans like the artist even more and become more involved with them.

The colours that I will be using will be bright and very eye catching for the reasons that it is very conventional to have them in a psychedelic rock digipak and that it will attract people attention if they are just looking at it. Hopefully this would raise the interest and they would be more inclined to buy the digipak than if it was plainer. The colours also appeal directly to the audience of the psychedelic rock genre as few other albums will be as bright and eye catching as this one therefore it will attract them to the digipak. This would also promote the artist as it sets them apparent from the other music genres and brings attention to them through the colours which will be more eye catching than others which are less colourful.  This would differ from a normal jewel CD in that there would be a personal message from the artist and there would be high quality pictures which you simple would not get from a normal jewel CD.

Conventions of the genre- Overall I believe that the digipak does conform slightly to the genres of psychedelic rock and does it in a few ways however overall it does not. Such as with the bright colours which are used which are meant to show a lively and energetic theme with the small connotation of drugs as the colours are seen as a type of hallucinations in that they almost do not make sense. Although in my digipak we can see the artist face which is often covered with make up or a costume , this takes away a mystery that is often used in psychedelic rock. This makes the artist seem less distant and more in touch with his fans , this can also be seen in the personal message which would not usually happen in a conventional digipak for the genre. Also I have not used an exotic locations for the images which is often used to make the digipak and artist seem more extreme and wild. This would promote the artist as the audience will feel more comfortable with the more mainstream video and so will be more popular.Overall there is a small part of the digipak that conforms with the genre but most of the themes subvert it.

I have decided to use two images in my digipak one of the artist facing the camera and the other with him looking to the side. I have used this as I believe it brings a connection between the fans and the artist which is not normally seen in psychedelic rock as they often are hidden to keep the mystery , however I believed it would improve the connection with the fans if they could see his face. Another image I have used is of him facing the side although we can still see his face he is still hiding something which could make it seem that he is still a mystery. This will appeal very well to the target audience as they felt that the genre was often too extreme and the pictures of the artist would tone this down, and so they would be more likely to buy the digipak. This also helps the artist promoting as people will now recognize his face and would  possibly buy something that would be associated with him. This would also increase the amount of fans that the band could have in the future.

The layout I have used is that of any other digipak in that there is front panel which has the name of the artist and the main song name of "feels like we only go backwards". Then the second panel has a forwards facing picture of the artist with the names of the songs around his head, the third is a picture of Canary Wharf one of the locations for our music video. The fourth having a personnel message from the artist and the fifth being another coloured panel, with the last panel having the side picture of the artist with the band name above him. This would appeal to the target audience as it gives information alongside high quality pictures and with a personnel message from the artist, alongside promoting the artist with the pictures of his face. This differed entirely from a normal jewel CD case in that that only has 2 possible places to have pictures and the artist whereas the digipak has 6.

The typography that I used was of bright bold colours to bring the attention to the band name, I have decided to use this as it is conventional to the genre of psychedelic rock and is eye catching to people looking at the digipak. The second panel shows the artist facing the camera with the song titles above his head almost thinking of the song names, the titles of the songs are in plain black as this makes it easier to read whilst making it stand out against the background.The final panel has a hand written message for the fans which has his signature on it which gives the fans a personal feeling which the people who bought the jewel CD do not have. This has made the digipak appeal to the target audience a the information is easy to read whilst still having a personal feeling, furthermore this would stand out if the audience was looking at the digipak which would make them more likely to buy the digipak.

The language used is very simple with barely any long sentences which is very conventional to the genre of not giving too much information. This makes the images have as much impact as possible whilst limiting the distracting information that mainstream digipaks often have. The only long sentence in the whole digipak is the personal message which is necessary as without it the buyers of the digipak would feel as if they could have just bought the jewel CD. Even after this the personal message just said " Thank you so much " which is long enough to bring a connection but not long enough to remove the mystery of the artist. This will also promote the artist as some of the mystery has been removed and the fans can actually have a personal connection with the artist rather than a unknown person. This will help promote the artist as the audience can quickly see who it is and if they will buy it or not, furthermore for any people who do not buy the digipak they will remember the  artist name.

The main connotations are the themes of drugs which are shown in the ways of bright neon colours which are meant top portray the experience of hallucination which can come from the drugs. This is a main convention of the psychedelic rock genre and may attract fans of the genre to the digipak even though it is more mainstream. Another connotation is that the artist has not lost the connection with his fans and that he still appreciates them through his personal message which would mean a lot to fans. These will help promote the artist as he is a less extreme than other psychedelic rock artists however sets himself apart fro  other mainstream artist.

Overall I have found the digipak planning very helpful in that I have a clear understanding of what I want to include in my real digipak. Also I know now what the best things are to include in a digipak whilst taking away what did not work in the planning. Furthermore I know that pictures from our music video locations will look the best with some minor improvements on photoshop as these will give a connection between all of the forms of media that I use. Additionally I am much more aware of the pictures that I want to take for the digipak as I have a clear idea what will look best next to what panel which will make the digipak stand out to the buyers of the digipak.
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Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Planning editing styles- Miss Georgiou


Planning editing styles

A variety of editing styles are very important for music videos as it  can help a video flow and make the video interesting for the audience who are watching. Without the different editing styles used the audience would be uninterested with the video as it would be plain and boring, and people would not watch the video and so possibly dislike the song as they have a negative image of the video. Furthermore they would be unlikely to buy the music or any other merchandise if they do not like the video and they will be unlikely to become fans of the artist . A  second reason is that if the editing is good the audience will remember the video , and possibly buy the music if they hear it again as they have a positive image of it. This could be the opposite of the previous point where the people become fans and hopefully buy merchandise. Finally without any editing it would be very hard to even make the music video as the scenes would have no connection and will make it very hard for people to watch.

Straight Cut

One of the main editing types that we use in our video are a straight cut,  this is used when we put two different shots together. This is conventional of the psychedelic rock genre and is used frequently in other videos of the genre, this is used because of the speed of psychedelic rock videos which are fast and so straight cuts are used. This editing style helps to represent the artist as we can see that he goes from different emotions such as when the artist is annoyed and then angry.
             
Time Lapse

A time lapse is a shot where a camera is set up and films over a period of time and then sped up over a shorter time. This is another editing style that is very conventional to the psychedelic genre, it is used as it distances the person in the scene from others around them, and as psychedelic rock is about being unique this sets them apart. Furthermore we can see his emotions in the time lapse and he is very unhappy whilst there are many happy people around him which shows the big differences between them. Also the time lapse is used in many other videos of the same genre, this represents the artist very well as he has broken up with his girlfriend and is feeling depressed and alone and he feels isolated from everyone else. So this represents the artist very well, furthermore he has the feeling that everyone else cannot feel the things that he is alone which makes him different. This would also go very well with the lyrics that we have used, such as "feels like we only go backwards" which would relate very well to the editing style.

Reverse Footage

When we use reverse footage it is footage we have used played backwards at a quicker pace and is extremely  conventional to the psychedelic rock genre as it is a common type of editing which is used in psychedelic rock genre to distort the narrative. We are using this in the video as the song we are using is " feels like we only go backwards" so we feel it is appropriate to use this at the end to reverse the video as it has links with the themes of going backwards within the song. We feel that this represents the artist very well as he is not going anywhere in particular with his relationship with his girlfriend and has possibly broken up with her yet he does not know and so he is trying to think back to a time when things were better for him. So we have used this editing style as we are giving the impression of confusion that the artist is feeling at the time which can be done by reversing the video as the audience also now are confused along with the artist. This also adds to the sympathy that the audience will feel towards him. This again would go with the lyrics "feels like we only go backwards" as the video is going backwards.

Flashbacks

The flashbacks we will be using will reflect a time that the artist is happy and having a good time with his girlfriend at a time when they were together. The flashbacks will be unconventional to the genre of psychedelic rock as the themes of the genre are of living in the moment and being happy and energetic, whereas the flashbacks are the artist looking back at better times. Although the big special effect of  a flashback will be conventional to the genre as lots of editing is a big part of many of the psychedelic rock videos. This represents the artist very well as while he is walking around the flashbacks show what he is thinking about , and as this is a main feature of much of the video it is very important. Furthermore this will bring sympathy from the audience which will hopefully make them want to continue watching the video as they now care about the artist.

Colour tints

The colour tints we will be using are to try to recreate the effects of the narcotic drugs that the artist has taken in the video. This is extremely conventional of the genre as drugs are a key point of many themes in psychedelic rock videos and make up lots of the editing that needs to be used. Although this may not be mainstream we have felt that we did need to stay somewhat conventional to the genre as fans of the genre ma be disappointed otherwise. This represents the artist very well as we are seeing some of London through the artist eyes which make it very personal, also it shows the strange moods that he is in through the different colours that we will be using. This not only helps the connection between the audience and the artist through the emotions but makes the video much more interesting
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The target audience builds a relationship with the artist mainly through the use of editing in making him seem depressed and lonely. Due to this the audience feel sympathy for him and care about the outcome of the video for him. We can see he is lonely through the time lapse where he is almost separated from everyone else whilst he is looking sad whereas there are people around him laughing and smiling. Another is the flashbacks where we see him at a happy time whilst in the present he is depressed which brings even more sympathy towards him , the breaking up with his girlfriend adds to this. Finally the reversed image is making the audience as confused as the artist and shows his state of mind which again makes the audience take pity on him and want to find out in the end what happens to him.

Music Video Storyboards

Music Video Storyboard

The purpose of a storyboard is to show other people what the video will have in it  and what it includes before actually going out and filming the scenes. There are also different uses for storyboards such as is also used to save time and money as filming takes a long time such as with  travelling from one location to another , whilst  also cutting down on the money as it is expensive to travel and  buy props. Another use is to make the production easier as it shows us what camera shots to use, the order they will be done , and how the visuals will be in relation to our song. This will also make our filming time go down as we know precisely what we want to film and no time will be waster with uncertain camera shots and locations.

My own primary and secondary research helped plan the video in many ways, such as how we found originally from both our primary research that many people believed that our genre of psychedelic rock was too unique. They told us that they prefer main stream music genres and so we have tried to adapt our music video to suit this with trying to tone down how extreme some conventions of psychedelic rock are . We have done this by showing the artists face rather than leaving it a mystery which is conventional for psychedelic rock, and by not using extensive special effects which seem to alienate the audience away from our video. We also used our secondary research which backed up our primary research in that people were put off by a too unique video, so we also did things such as not using any costumes which are frequently used in psychedelic music videos. Finally we have made our narrative  much easier to understand than most other psychedelic rock music videos, this will make our video easier to watch as there are no confusing points that would put people off watching. This is how our group has tried to make the music video more mainstream as we felt psychedelic rock would be to extreme for our main audience.

Me and my group story boarded our music video by first starting to brainstorm our ideas together before agreeing on what the narrative of the video should be and the duration of certain scenes, such as having the house as a location for 20 seconds.Then we discussed the various camera angles that we could use for certain scenes and how they would look when filming for real , such as a high shot when our artist is going up and escalator. After this we drew up a simple narrative and then went into more detail for our final drawing of the storyboard which included even the shortest scenes, with what the artist is wearing , the iconography, the camera angles and what the artist does in the scene . We felt that we had shared the responsibility by collaborating our ideas into one which would result in the best video, this also meant that everyone had some part in the making of the narrative. Furthermore with all of us putting ideas in we could use the best of them and get the better quality film which would not have been possible without more than one person working on the project.


Overall we did not always follow the details of our storyboard as we chose to add things and take things away while we were filming although we still used the general outline of the narrative which the storyboard has. We did things such as use different camera angles which we did not know would be available and shot many more scenes than necessary so during editing we had lots of film to pick from. This would be helpful as we would not need to go out filming again which is very time consuming , and this could possibly ledd to better angles and scenes being in the video.




Thursday, 6 November 2014

Planning Magazine Advert - Miss Miller

Planning Magazine Advert

Magazine adverts are of great importance to an artists album for many reasons, one being that they make the audience of the magazine aware that there is a new album by the artists , which would hopefully increase the sales of the album. Secondly it makes people who are unaware of the artist to become aware and hopefully become fans who will buy the album and other merchandise, which would increase the awareness and sales of the artist and their music. Thirdly it will only target the people that the artist wants to attract , if the album was promoted on TV then it could be shown to a wide audience, many of who will not care about it.  Whereas if they were to advertise in a magazine which is based around the genre of the artist , they will likely be much more successful as it has a much clearer target audience.  Furthermore people are much more likely to concentrate on a magazine than other ways opt media such as TV as it is very personal for the audience reading and they care about the topic.

We will be creating a magazine advertisement for our artist Tame Impalas album "Lonerism" , we will be creating this to try to increase the awareness of the band who are relatively unknown to many people. Planning is very important to create and effective advert for many reasons, one being that if it is designed in the wrong way it may make people dislike the album as they have negative connotations with the advert. Also as our genre of music is very unique we felt we needed to bring the artist into more mainstream genres and so we do not want to make our magazine advert too unusual. Without planning it may also have nothing to do with the artist and the music that they make , this would be very confusing for people who have bought the album on the adverts alone. If the advert is related to the artist and music, is conventional to the genre of music and targets the right audience it will be very successful.




The colour used in the poster are bright and vivid with colours such as green, red, blue, yellow which make the advert stand out to the audience. Furthermore as they will only have a glance at the magazine advert it is important that they notice who the artist is and what album is being sold, and it is easiest to do this through bold colours.

My own advert is very conventional to our genre which is psychedelic rock in many ways. One way is that I have used bright neon colours which are used in many other psychedelic rock adverts and music videos. These colours are used as they are meant to represent the effects of psychedelic drugs which make up a big part of the genres image, and so I have included them in the video. This will keep the fans of psychedelic rock interested in the album as it has a connection with other artists. However in some ways the advert has subverted the conventions , such as how I have used no background picture which is unusual as conventionally they have a exotic or unusual background. 

The images I have used are of an impala over 4 squares as it is part of the name of the band "Tame Impala" so there is an immediate connection. between the visuals and text. This could also help with the audience remembering the name of the band , which could help with the awareness and the sales of the album. I have used bright colours to keep it conventional to the genre and it makes it more interesting to look at while in a magazine, and fans will prefer the coloring as it now has another connection with the genre.

The layout I have used is simple, but it stands out very well to the audience. For example the text is in the middle of the page which brings attention to it which is needed in an advert, this will draw people to the band name and album which will help people remember. This will make the audience more likely to search for the band and artist which will increase sales. Furthermore the 4 impalas help the person have the connotation between that and the band name , which will again remind them that the bands name is Tame Impala.

The typography I have used is bold and bright which makes it stand out against a plainer background, the colours I have used are green , red , yellow and blue and this makes it more attractive to the audience of the magazine. Tame Impala is at the top and the boldest in capital letters as this is the most important thing for people to remember and not the album. The album name is at the top as it is less important as the magazine is trying to make the audience remember the band and then the album. Finally there is a main song name in the 4 boxes which will possibly remind people that the band made that song , and hopefully buy the album.

The language that I have used is very simple and short as people do not spend long reading adverts so the information needs to be put across quickly. That is why I have only used the band name , the album and a song that is the most well known in the album, this puts across all the information needed as the audience only need to know a small amount to make their decision to buy it or not. If I did use more words then it would likely be ignored and would put people off the album as a whole due to it not being to the point. One thing that I could add are reviews by other magazines and websites as this is another way that people can be encouraged to buy the album if they like the reviewer.

There are a few connotation used in my poster , for example the use of the impala as a design and that it is part of the band name , this makes it easier to remember. Furthermore the bright neon colours which are used throughout have connotations with psychedelic drugs which are a main part of the music genre , and the bright colours represent that throughout the genre. Both of these will help people remember the album and possibly buy it later.

I found this very useful for many reasons, however as I have not used any pictures in the advert it will not help very much. I also know how to use Photoshop successfully as I have used it previously which will help with the editing of the magazine advert , such as with the cutting and cropping in Photoshop. I will however use pictures of Impalas for the magazine which I have permission to use that will then need to be edited using Photoshop for the magazine advert. All of this will make my magazine advert much easier to make as it is simple but effective and does the job of attracting people to the band and the album, furthermore as I have effectively already planned it the process of making it will be quick. . 
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Wednesday, 5 November 2014

Digipak Analysis - Miss Miller



There are many reasons that a digipak is made for an album such as Lonerism by Tame Impala, one reason is that it helps fans who want more from the band to have more of a connection with them which can be give through the amount of information on a digipak. This is also often accompanied by small note from the artist which makes it even more personal .This digipak can make the fans have more of a relationship with the artist which will make them hopefully buy more merchandise of the band and buy more albums and tickets to concerts. Another reason is that  it is more collectable than a CD ,w which will make the more serious fans buy the digipak. Furthermore there is 6 sides to the digipak which gives there more space for high quality pictures , which the fans will also appreciate due to the personal.

The only picture of the artist that we can see is on the second picture when there is the artist laying down. He is dressed in casual clothes which makes the audience have more of a connection with him and makes him seem more relatable. However we can not see the artists face , which distances the artist from the audience as the face helps the artist relate to the audience. He also is put in a vulnerable position as he is laying on his back on the floor , which may bring the audience to feel more of a connection with him as he is not in a dominating position.  Overall he is in a very relaxed position and would be easily seen by the audience as relatable.

The digipak overall has very positive connotations in nearly all of these pictures , as they are generally bright and full of colour and in summer time. The only negative connotation is that the picture is always take from an isolated position such as with the bars separating the camera from the people. This can be attributed to the title of the album which is "Lonerism" which shows how the themes of the songs are being alone and separated from other people. Furthermore the person in picture two is by himself again which fits in with the theme of the album. Another connotation is the theme of being unhappy whilst the other people are happy , this is seen in three of the four pictures which shows other people sitting in the sun while the person taking the picture is unhappy and alone through his separation.

The colours used are bright and vivid which express a happy feeling within the pictures. In the first picture there is a bright blue sky and lots of green through the grass and trees, with all the people dresses in bright colours as well. In the second picture the room is filled with oranges and cream colours which also is a very positive connotation with the person being relaxed in he picture. The third picture has coloured tints used in bright red and orange with the only colour being the green of the grass. Finally the fourth picture has dark greens which are getting darker and darker until the end of the trees. Most of these have positive connotations with bright colours such as orange and green , however the last picture gets darker as it separates him from other people using dark greens and a black fence.

The design of the digipak is very simple with most of the time pictures being the only thing used, and only a small title. The first picture has the artists name and the album in the edge of the picture which is very unusual for a digipak as they often try to make the artists the main centre of attention , and so usually put in the middle. The second picture shows the songs in the album and although theses are in the middle they are small and it is hard to see from a distance. The third image in the digipak contains no information and only has a picture of the background, which again is very unusual for digipaks as they often contain more of a personal feeling than a CD. The last picture has more information and covers the whole of the picture however again it is small and makes the information seem insignificant to the artist.

The choice of images used are ones that portray the idea of being alone as the title of the album is 'Lonerism". This can be seen in ways such as the bars from which the camera takes a shot from the other side which gives the feeling that they are separated and different from everyone else. The second has the same theme with him being alone in a cramped room and it looks like he has not left in a long time. He also has the curtains and blinds down which could also show how he is trying to keep himself away from other people. The third is a picture of a park in a colour tint and this is one of  the only one which includes the the person with other people without barriers , however he is still a distance from them. The final picture is the artist looking at a gated path with people on the other side of the fence which again separates him from the audience. Furthermore the path the artist is taking is much darker from this side than the other which is much brighter, this could show how other people are happy whilst the artist is not. This could be another way in which he is separated in that he has different feelings from everyone else.

The typography used is very basic with very little change , the first picture has a simple bold title of " Tame Impala   Lonerism " which is in black , which contrast from the beige circle it is in. It puts across the impression that the artist does not especially care about how his music is put across as it is simple and plain.  Picture two has the names of the songs on the album they are in the same font as the title and there is the same beige box around the songs. This could also be part of how the artist is relaxed about his music and is focused on how it sounds. The only other writing is on the fourth picture which again has a simple and basic design with it being in white and the background being a dark green which makes them stand out as they contrast.  This writing is much smaller than the others in the digipak and has lots of information  but it is very small, this again makes the information seem less important which supports the rest of the typography given. The style of writing is very simple and hard to make sense of as much of it is single words, the only writing is at the end and is formal which goes against the themes of the digipak. However this makes the artist seem less personal to the audience and makes to harder to relate.

This digipak helped as it shows us the main themes of Tame Impalas album , which is being alone and so we can incorporate it into our own music video and our own digipak. Furthermore we can see the artists way of making music and doing things in the way they want to do them , we could use this in our digipak making part of the digipak look like simple and not revealing to much which would make the oak fit into the philosophy of the artist. This laid back approach could be the way we make the music video and that we do not give too much information in the film and keep it simple like the digipak.  We would also try to make the theme of the album as clear as possible in our own music video which makes it easier for the audience to understand. We will also be using the simple design of the digipak for our own using the pictures of the scenery and trying to give the ideas of the songs to the audience.