This photograph which is the background for the advert links in with the styling of the music video and the CD designs. This is a similar idea to some of the previous magazine adverts I looked at in my research and planning, therefore it develops the generic conventions. It is similar to the Kings of Leon advert for their album, ‘Come Around Sundown’ this is because the advert, album design and music video for one of their songs all link together, therefore creating a brand identity for the whole campaign. This is an important aspect for many bands who are unknown because if they can link all the aspects together then viewers will be able to see the connections and become more familiar with their styling and style of music. It contrasts with the conventions of this album advert because it doesn’t feature the band, however many of the bands of this genre link their advert with the music video and use scenery instead of a picture of themselves.
The written content on this advert follows the conventions that most album adverts follow and I have included the most important copy that I thought should be displayed. The two aspects that are featured on every advert I researched were the album title and the date of release, these need to be succinct and positioned clearly so that a reader will notice automatically. As this was a debut album, I wrote this in the biggest font as it is an important factor for their campaign.
Another important aspect that I included on the advert is the logo of where you can buy or download the track or album. It was important that I carried out some audience research to find out where my target audience buy their music from to make this more effective. It is vital to include something like this on an advert so that people can automatically see not only when it is available to buy but also where it is available to buy. Although from my research it was clear that it was only ever a small logo in the bottom of the page, it is still noticeable because it is something iconic for my target audience.
From looking at some adverts, I noticed that a lot of them included a quote and often stars; something which a lot of film adverts display. I followed the generic conventions and kept the quote simple and straight to the point but something that would influence readers. I noticed that with most quotes, they included either one strong word, or a few words together and they were always by an influential radio station or a music magazine. Therefore with this in mind, from my audience and band research, I found NME to be a fitting magazine to use for a quote. It is something that my target audience could relate to and if the magazine had given it five stars, then it would be likely to influence readers.
Although it is hard to tell from this image it shows a website address for the band and also their MySpace address. This is an important aspect for album adverts because if people are interested in the band and want to find out more, it is a quick and easy way to do it and as the address is provided, you know you will find the genuine one. All of the adverts I looked at provided a form of web address to enable readers to find them online and this is an important use of multiplatform. From my audience research and using my own experience, I used a web address and then also a MySpace page. This provided two different ways to find them which will appeal to different people, but mainly for my target group in particular. A lot of bands of this genre have a MySpace page and therefore it would be important so that the people interested in their music would find them.
I included the word ‘debut album’ because I felt it was an important factor to show that this band is something fresh and new. I positioned it at the top of the block of text, in the biggest font, this would therefore draw people’s attention to the page and if they hadn’t heard of them before, as it was their debut album they could be more likely to go onto their website to find out more about them. It is an important factor of the campaign to make people aware that it is actually their debut album. On most album adverts, even if it isn’t their debut album, they will include ‘new album’ which shows people that it isn’t just an advert for an old album.
As this is the name of the band and it is their debut album, it had to be a main feature on the front cover and we have used this as a part of the brand identity which is similar to some of the other digi packs we looked at. An example of this would be Florence and The Machine, they use the same font for their name throughout all aspects of their music. From my research, we found that a lot of the brands of this genre use a simple font for their name and this is something that I have developed. Similar to The Foals album artwork, it is something that although is plain, it stands out and fits in with the genre of the music.
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The front cover of our digi pack develops some of the original ideas that we found. Firstly and the main aspect which it is closely linked to is that fact that we haven’t included a photograph of the band themselves; instead opting for an image which closely links to the album and the video. From the research it was evident that bands of this genre generally used a photo of an object, or a collage and if they did use a photo of themselves it was often distorted. We have carried through this element and felt that the album covers worked better this way as the bands look wasn’t the main focus. Secondly, we developed the idea that some bands of a similar genre had already used, the idea of a drawn like image on the front cover, for example it closely links to The View’s album, hats off to the buskers. We have developed this idea because when the image was drawn, although we wanted it to appear as if it had been drawn, but I also wanted to make it quite realistic so that it would fit in with the whole campaign.
This panel took inspiration from doo wops and hooligans by Bruno Mars. We developed some of the conventions that he had included on the artwork for his album cover, the idea of using a silhouette and giving an idea about the environment they are in. We used the same tree that was on the back of the album and used a silhouette of a girl, which creates an enigma. It allows the viewer to see a little bit more about the styling of the album, the songs, the music and the videos that would accompany it. Again, we have developed the convention that means you don’t show a photograph of the band, instead opting for images that relate to the overall theme and design.
We have followed the convention for the number of tracks to include on the album and as this is the first album, we had to make sure that there was enough so that people would actually know their sound. From the research, it was evident that the albums of bands from this genre of music usually included around 8-10, sometimes more. Therefore we decided to include 8 tracks as this would give the viewer a clear indication as to their sound and it also fitted in well on the back cover. We also followed a convention of keeping the tracks on the left hand side of the back cover; this is something that we noticed when carrying out our research.
We followed conventions from one of The Beatles albums, A Hard Day’s Night, by following the design they had used on their cover, instead we used it for one of the panels inside; the one that will be behind the CD. I think that the tiled effect works well because it adds something different to the design. We liked the image that we used but it wasn’t strong enough to be a large image by itself, therefore this is why it worked well in a tiled effect. It creates a sense of iconic styling which is instantly recognisable to a lot of people. The styling that Andy Warhol used for his iconic paintings, which then links to the iconic music and style of The Beatles is a good way to represent a new band.
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Our video took inspiration from Ellie Goulding's video for 'Guns and Horses', how the mysterious atmosphere is created by the use of setting, framing and lighting. These scenes appear at the begining of each music video, therefore ours develops the conventions used in 'Guns and Horses' because it adds something extra because of the props used; but still doesn't give much away. When I was filming and positioning, I made sure that the camera angle I used was enough to give an idea to the audience and something that would make them interested in watching the rest of the video. It creates an enigma for the viewer within the first few seconds of the video because you are unsure of the surroundings and what could happen next.
Our music video develops the theme of 'The Blair Witch Project' which is all based around a forest and the idea that it is all hand held footage. Our video develops this theme because it leaves a lot down to your own interpretation of what is actually happening as it creates a lot of mystery for the audience. In some ways, there is the idea in our music video that someone else could be watching the girl or the idea that some of it is hand held footage. For example there is one shot where it looks like there is someone watching her or someone holding a camera because the camera is moving like someone is breathing. The whole theme of the video is left down to a mystery, like The Blair Witch Project which leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
Our music video developed the use of black and white, in particular from the music video by The Verve 'The Drugs Don'tWork' because of the clear distinction between the use of colour and the black and white. This is because in our video we kept the video footage of the band in colour, therefore making each part of the video stand out more because of the contrast. I think that using black and white is effective because of the emphasis you can put on something, by editing the lighting and the darkness. It can often make things stand out more and in our video, we made the costume white as we knew that when we eidted the footage it would stand out; just like in The Verve's music video, where there is a strong light source shining on him to make him stand out. It is a convention that is more often used in music videos created for bands or where there is a story line part to the video, therefore if you were to look at music videos as a whole, you could say that we challenged this convention; as it something you don't see a lot of.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The combination of the main product and ancillary tasks is something that has to be effective for the overall campaign to work as it is intended to. There has to be something that links them together so that each aspect is instantly recognisable and that they don't only work as individual aspects but work together as a whole. There were a number of different aspects that I feel makes our combination of our main product and ancillary tasks really effective and I think without all these aspetcs that are displayed in the video below, although each aspect would be effective individually; they wouldn't work as a whole. I think this is even more important for our campaign because we have created the music video and digi pack for an unsigned band, therefore there needs to be as much connectivity between each aspect as possible to secure a strong fan base. Below is a powerpoint which shows which parts of the main product and ancillary taks work together to produce and effective campaign.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
I think that it's really important to use a variety of media technologies because certain programmes work better for certain aspects than others would. I used a range of different media technologies to display my work, edit photos and create presentations so that I could receive feedback.
Links to Flickr
Below are a few links which take you to my flickr page where I have annotated some of the programmes I have used and explained the reasons why you might use the programme and how it helped me in my work.
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Below is a powerpoint which describes in further detail the importance that using different media technologies had on my work, the reasons why I used them and what effect they had on my work.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We found that the audience feedback was really important because it allowed us to find out what our target audience thought of the first draft of our music video as a whole. Therefore if we needed to make any adjustments to it, it would be practical. We asked a number of different people what they thought of our music video and therefore we could see the aspects that we needed to improve and also the aspects that were working well already.
We found that the audience feedback was really important because it allowed us to find out what our target audience thought of the first draft of our music video as a whole. Therefore if we needed to make any adjustments to it, it would be practical. We asked a number of different people what they thought of our music video and therefore we could see the aspects that we needed to improve and also the aspects that were working well already.
“When I watched the rough cut of this video, it was obvious in a number of places that the editing wasn’t matched specifically to the music; therefore the footage that I watched wasn’t as effective as it could have been. However, when I saw the finished video it was clear that this was something they had changed because the storyline matched the beats in the music. Also, on the rough cut they hadn’t filmed the footage for the band section; therefore it was hard to actually tell what it would be like. I think that this footage works well, in particular because of the lip syncing as it reflects a true music video. I think that the lighting works well in this part because it highlights the main part of the video. I think there is a good range of shots in the storyline part of the video and this works well because it contributes to the drama that is taking place, the mystery that it creates and it enhances the beats in the music. Altogether, as I already knew some of the music by The Notice and their style, I think this video works really well. I think the contrast between the storyline and the band footage works to an advantage and it makes the video more interesting. It fits exactly to their style and I think overall it works well with the music; both storyline and band footage.”
“I think your video had a really good theme to it, it was hard to follow however this was the exciting part of the video. I thought the lip syncing was really accurate however I think that the lighting of the song could be looked into. I really enjoyed the music track and thought that using the actual band credited the music video. After looking at all three of your products I thought that the similarities were great and you blended them well together. I enjoyed watching this video and would happily watch it again on a music channel.”
"I thoroughly enjoyed watching this music video, I got the impression that a lot of hard work has gone into it and time from both partners. I thought the lip syncing was excellent and since I know the band, I think the theme of the video goes really well with the genre. To improve your work I think you could add more of a variety of camera angles, you have a lot in however a few more with quicker cuts would have gone well especially where the pace of the music picks up tempo."
“I think that the soundtrack the girls have used goes really well with the visuals in the video. I loved the dark mysterious theme to it. I think that they could add some transitions to the different clips however, if the sharp look is the look they were after, then that looks great. You can clearly see the drama building up throughout the video and I think it is a real twist when they leave the video with a cliff-hanger. It left me on edge and I wanted to find out more about. This drama is emulated by the song and I think that that is one of the reasons why this music video works so well. I liked how the effects added to the video were different to what you would normally see on other music videos but I think this worked well with the contrast between the band footage and the storyline." 
“Hannah and Rebecca’s music video was really good to watch, it looked professional. There were a few tweaks that could be made to the editing; however the clips and pace of music go really well. I think this was the best part to the video as you could tell it had time and effort put in to get it accurate. The lightening could be adjusted a little on the band footage.”
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We created a video with a voice over to explain how effective our audience feedback was and how we used it to develop our own work. The audience feedback that we received was vital because we asked people from our target age group, therefore they told us what they liked in the video, how effective it would be and if there was anything that we could change or improve.
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I created a Prezi to explain how we secured audience feedback from Facebook and how nowadays social networking is such a vital part to find out who your target audience are and their likes and dislikes. By uploading our rough cut onto Facebook, it allowed us to receive feedback from our target audience and also from the band. This meant that we could look at the comments and the constructive criticism and improve this in our final version.
