Ancillary Tasks

Ancillary Task - Magazine Advert Prototypes

First edits for magazine advert

As part of our task we must create a magazine advert to accompany our music video. To create these adverts I have used the editor GIMP 2 instead of Photoshop as I find it easier to use. I created 2 rough first edits of my magazine advert taking inspiration from other Indie/Pop magazine adverts.

Here is the photo editor (GIMP 2) I used...

I used GIMP 2 as i find it easier to use and I find it gives better results than Photoshop. Using this I have created 2 first edits of what I imagine my final advert to look like.

Edit 1...

                                   (original image)

This is my first edit for my magazine advert. I have used a picture of my artist and manipulated the threshold to turn it black and white. I did this as black and white is convention of the Indie genre. I think the black and white works well because it makes the artist look mysterious and the fact her face is hidden adds to the mystery. The name Sam Banks needed to be bold and at the top to catch the consumers eye. I chose the album name Birds, as the artist's songs are about nature and simple things that bring us a sense of pleasure. I added the musicians website and album release date as they are 2 components that need to be on an advert to sell the artist. The font I have used is called Steelfish, after some research i found that this font is used by a handful of Indie/Pop artists on their albums and magazine adverts 

Edit 2...

                                                             (original image)

I decided to try one in colour as not everything needs to be black and white to be classed as Indie. I decided to go with a more fun theme by choosing a photo that portrayed the artist as a fun and young female, I also think that this picture would appeal to males and females as everyone enjoys having fun. I stuck with using Steelfish as the font as I think it stands out and is bold against the plain white background. I chose the red and blue for the artists name an album because the artist is wearing a red top in the shot and the blue goes perfectly with it. I turned up the brightness and the contrast on this picture, sharpened her eyes to make them the main focus on her face and i also sharpened her lips. I changed the background and made it pure white so I could add the other components such as the artists website, album release date etc. On this edit I decided to put on a star rating from Q Magazine as I felt that without it, it was a bit plain and lacking something, I also like the way it makes it look more professional. This is because people recognise Q for being a top Indie magazine so getting a good rating from them always looks good.

Settings Board

Settings Board for filming just the artist

Why have I filmed in these places?

I have filmed in these locations below as the are in keeping with Indie/Pop music genre. In many music videos of the same genre, the settings tend to be very similar.
I chose to film in the woods as they are natural and I like the way the leaves look in the shots, it adds a sense of season to the film.
Also filming by a river was to give the same illusion of nature and calm as these are 2 words that the song I am using for this project conjure up.

These locations are relative to the genre I have chosen. The settings are isolated therefore give the illusion of escapism and showing that the artist doesn't follow the crowd, this fits perfectly with the Indie genre. Also looking at the real music video for this song we see that she is alone in open spaces and has 2 main places of filming being the beach and a meadow where her 'home' is.

These are some of the locations used in the real Home music video by Gabrielle Aplin.

Dark Footage

Dark Footage

After doing some filming I realised that it was far too dark to use in my final media text.
I tried to colour correct the footage, however it made it look bleached and was easy to tell it had been edited like that.

Here is the footage I edited for the first 20 seconds with the music showing the dark footage.

From making this mistake i have learnt that:

• Filming in those particular woods, it was too dense and should find somewhere lighter to film.
• If this mistake was too be made again i can always use colour correction to brighten the image however i will not rely on this as i would prefer to not use it.

Magazine Analysis

Textual Analysis - Magazine advert for Indie/Pop artist

Artist & album - Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

I am doing this research so that when I produce my own magazine advert for my artist I will know the codes and conventions that makes a successful Indie/Pop magazine advert.

Why this text?
I have chosen this text as the artist is the same genre as mine and the simplicity of the advert is something I would like to incorporate into mine when I make it. 

This is the magazine advert for Lana Del Rey's album Born To Die taken from Q magazine which first of all is important as that is an Indie magazine therefore this emphasizes that the genre is Indie. The advert as a whole is very simple with not much to it but is straight to the point. The dominant image is of the artist looking directly at the camera and the shot is a low angle shot making the artist look important. We can tell it is a low angle shot as the artists eyes are looking down to the camera. The costume, make up and hair for the artist is very plain, she wears a simple white shirt, minimal make up but with song mascara and a strong red lip that stands out, this could be because everything else is so minimal and her hair is neatly curled. The background shows she is outside and a re-occurring nature theme seems to be emerging from what I have already analysed. The font is all in capitals to stand out and is a simple Arial font, the colours chosen are neutral and fit in with the conventions, they are light blue and white, however they stand out as they are on opposite coloured backgrounds (blue is on white, white is on blue). The rest of the text is in a more curvy and smaller size font telling us the release date, songs from the album and the artists website, all key things that need to be on the advert.

COMPARISON... 

I am going to compare Lana Del Rey's advert with a magazine advert for a mainstream pop artist. I am doing this so I can see what features are universally and what features are specific for an Indie artist's magazine advert.

I am going to use Lady Gaga's magazine advert for The Fame Monster/The Fame album

Straight away we can see that this advert is a lot more polished than Lana Del Rey's. The first thing you notice is that there are 3 sections to this advert with 2 dominant pictures of Lady Gaga instead of the 1 big picture of the artist, also the pictures of Lady Gaga are clearly shot professionally in a studio whereas Lana is shown to be outside.  Another notable feature is that Lana Del Rey's advert was in colour and surprisingly this is in black and white which is usually a convention of an Indie artist. Another feature that is on this advert there is a quote from Rolling Stone magazine selling the artist again this doesn't happen on Lana's advert. Another difference is that on this one Lady Gaga's album cover or both versions are shown on this advert. The font for this advert is very bold and stands out they have also used the exact font and 'cross t' used on the front of the album cover.
Some similarities between the adverts are that they both obviously include a dominant picture of the artist, the fonts are white, big and bold.
Overall this advert is a lot more polished than Lana Del Rey's advert to show Lady Gaga at her best whereas Lana Del Rey's advert is more to show her style and is less polished to stick to the codes and conventions of an Indie artists magazine advert

What I have learned from analysing these texts...

• The best font to use is simple and straightforward and to use white on a darker colour to make it really stick out and to have the rest of the information in a more curvy smaller font.
• To have a dominant image of the artist, but unlike Lady Gaga's advert just have 1 image instead of trying to cram 3 into a small space as 1 adds to the simplistic feel that should be shown in the Indie genre.
• Have the shot of the artist outside, as nature and the outdoors seem to be coming up a lot.

Digipack Analysis

Textual Analysis - Digipack for album

Album - Lungs by Florence & the Machine

I have done this to see what sort of look an Indie/Pop digipack has and if I can take any ideas/fonts etc and use them im my own when I make.

Why this text?
I have chosen this text to analyse as it is of the same genre my music video/artist is and will also have a similar target audience. The colours of this text are a contrast of dark and light which sticks to the conventions for an Indie/Pop artist therefore I will incorporate this factor into my digipack when I make it.

Front & Back cover's...

Front
The front of the digipack is very simple but effective. The dominant image on the front of the digipack is of the artist surrounded by nature. The artist is wearing a floaty dress with a necklace that is a pair of lungs which ties in with the name of the album, her nails are black going with the background and she is also not looking directly into the camera which makes her look shy. The rest of the background is plain black. The name of the album is hidden almost just below the artist and has a different font to the one used for the name of the artist. The font used on this digipack is the only bit that doesn't really go with the conventions of Indie/Pop as it is curvy and looks more like the font that would be used on a Pop digipack.

Back

The back of the digipack is very simple with just the names of the songs and a picture of a pair of lungs tying in with the album name again. The interesting thing about this is that the songs number are associated with a certain part of the pair of lungs. The background is plain black with white writing, this keeps the simple look and the font is simple as well.

Spine...

Spine
The spine of the digipack is also very simple with just the artists name and the name of the album on a black background. The only thing on the spine that is notable is that there are 2 different fonts used for the name of the artist and the album which is the same on the front of the digipack.

Inside the booklet...

The pictures inside the booklet for the digipack are all very similar they are of the artist with some lyrics from every song underneath/above/beside her but not all the lyrics just the ones that obviously mean the most to the artist. The pictures are all very dark and in all of the pictures the artist is not looking at the camera and is always looking to her right or left, this adds a sense of mystery to the artist. The font used for the lyrics is the same for every picture and is the same as the font on the front of the digipack for the name of the album.

The CD...

The CD is of, I assume the artists hand squeezing a piece of fruit. This image has nothing to do with the rest of the digipack and adds a sense of confusion and mystery to the album. The picture is actually very blurry so is difficult to see exactly what is going on. The title is central on the CD. The image behind the CD is the same as on the front, it is the nature background that is behind the artist and is also on the inside of the spine. The repetition of the same background is most probably due to the simple aspect of the Indie genre.

Who is the target audience?
I think the target audience for this digipack would be girls between 15-30 (young female adults). I think this due to the simpleness of the digipack and the feminine background and the fact that the artist is attractive, this might attract girls as they might admire her also this might attract young males.

What I have learned from analysing this text...

• Having a simple black background is very effective if you want the main image to stick out.
• Adding confusing to the pictures can be effective because the consumer will want to find the answers why it is confusing
• When choosing the font a simple, straightforward font is better for this genre but you can go against the conventions and add a font that is more feminine and curvy.