Magazine Advertisement Flat Plan

Colour Usage - In the magazine advertisement a variety of colours will be used, most of these will be bright in order to catch the readers eye as they are flicking through a magazine. The colour of the text will be white as opposed to the bright background and colours used elsewhere in order for it to stand out.

Image Usuage - The main background image will be paint splatters, which will keep in with the party theme whilst the centre image will be the album cover we will design. Also, the other items used such as playing cards and an iPod to display the information on the advertisement such as downloading info and ratings. By using these items it helps incorporate the them into each of our products making it consistent throughout the entire project.

Text Usage - The text on the magazine advertisement will be useful to the reader such as album rating and where the album is available to download. This is vital as it informs the reader exactly what they need to know without providing them with too much information which may cause them to simple ignore the advertisement as it is too 'clogged up' with useless information. The album rating could also push the reader into considering buying the album as it gives the impression it would be worth the money and the iTunes download would appeal to our target audience as it is the main way teenagers and young adults purchase music in the present. The main text will be in the font Nova Solid, the same font used on the album cover, adding further consistency.

Music Video Part Storyboard and Shot Types

In order to film our music video successfully we decided that it would be beneficial to create a list of ideas of things that we could include in the scenes for our music video before we began to design the storyboard.



After coming up with some initial ideas we decided to begin to draft our storyboard containing some of these ideas. Below is the first ten shots of our storyboard.



Under each simple drawing of what the scene will contain we have included a brief description of what will be involved within the shot such as - camera movement, angle, and which shot type will be used. This storyboard will help us ensure that the actors and camerawork will run as smoothly as possible and minimise the confusion of people within the video as they will have a clear idea of what they need to do and what will be taking place.

Inside Sleeve & Back Cover Flat Plan

Below is an initial sketch for what we intend our back cover for the CD Digipak to look like, before we create our first draft on Adobe Photoshop.

Colour Usage - We will be using a range of bright colours as paint splatters will be displayed on a dark wooden background. This allows the back cover, like the front cover, to help convey the theme of a party and a chaotic atmosphere. Also, as we will be placing the track names on cigarettes, the bright colours featured on the background will help the cigarettes to stand out against the background due to the contrasting colours of each element.

Image - We will not be using any photographic images on the back cover as we felt that the song titles are the most important element of a back cover. It also allows us to create our own image which will effectively convey the theme of our product as opposed to using an image which may not not construct the theme as well.

Text/Font Usage - The text that will be featured on our CD back cover will most importantly be the song titles that will feature on the album, as this is a common convention to allow the audience to see exactly what the item contains. We will also be including be featuring web addresses for the band and record company, another common convention which will allow the product to look professional and relate to the target audience, as the Internet has become increasingly important to teenagers. The font of the track titles will be Nova Solid as it is simplistic and easy to understand. It is also the font that has been used in the other elements of our products therefore it adds consistency. The colour of the track titles will be dark in order to stand out against the pale cigarettes whilst the website information will be small and white in order to be noticeable enough the the audience but not overwhelming.

Layout - For the back cover, as we would like for the tack titles to be the main focus, the cigarettes will be positioned in the centre of the image at slight angles in order for them to be easily read and rather than creating a neat layout it will help create a 'messy' appearance, further signifying the theme of our products. The barcode will be placed in the right-hand corner and the other information in the left as these are simply common conventions which will allow our production to maintain its proffessional appearance.

Below is an initial sketch for what we intend our inside sleeve to look like, as part of our CD digipak, before we create our first draft on Adobe Photoshop. 

Colour Usage - As we wanted the inside sleeve and back cover to remain consistent with each other, due to them being part of the same product. The same brightly coloured background will be featured, along with other eye-catching elements such as bright gig tickets etc. 

Image - For the inside sleeve, we will be placing for polariod images of the band members onto the background. The backdrop we will be using for the photographs will be a fence, similar to the one that will be featured on the front cover image in order to maintain consistency and allow the audience to connect all the elements of the product together. We have also chosen to place the images in polariods to give the impression that like the front cover, they are candid shots adding realism and enabling us to use them as objects rather than fixed images - meaning the images have less influence on the overall layout of the inside sleeve. The props featured in the photographs (cigarettes and alcohol) as well as the controversial body language that will be used will further enable the audience to relate to the people in the photgraphs, again allowing the uses and gratification of the product to be used effectively. We will also be adding a vintage/saturated effect to the images to maintain consistency with the other images featured in our products.

Text/Font Usage - The main text that will feature on our inside sleeve will be the names of the band members, which will be placed underneath the image on the white strip of the polariod. We saw this as a good idea as the names of the members will be unknown due to the relatively unknown name of the band. We also decided to place the album name on the inside sleeve as although it is unconventional we wanted the focus of the front cover to be about that band rather than the album name. The font we will be using will be the same used throughout our Digipak/products in order for the products to be connected to each other easily. 

Layout - As we wanted the photographs of the band members to be the main focus of the inside sleeve we decide to place them horizontally along the page, remaining centralised to ensure they retain attention. We will also be placing items such as cigarettes and gig tickets in a seemlingly random order to create a messy appearance - something our target audience will be able to relate to.

CD Cover Flat Plan.

Colour Usage - Within the front cover image, we will be using many bright colours, particularly with regards to the band members clothing and props. We feel that this will help relate to the party theme throughout our product and help to effectively create a wild/chaotic feeling to the image. Also, as we will be using bright colours within the rest of the digipak and magazine advertisement we feel that it will allow the products to be consistent and professional. For the background image, we will be using faded/vintage colours in order to provide a contrast between the bright colours of the band members which will make them stand out more. Creating a bigger emphasis on the party atmosphere.

Image Usage - The main image of the CD Cover will consist of the band members standing against a fence, surrounded by props. The camera angle and distance will be eye-line/long shot in order to maintain the bands main focus on the cover whilst also allowing for the text to remain unimposing on the main image. The plain background is also vital as it helps the brightly coloured props contrast with it. These props will be items related to the party theme of our music video and will be things such as party poppers, a bottle of champagne and balloons. The costumes worn by the band members will also be influenced by the chosen music genre and theme of our video, so they will be fashionable and up to date therefore remaing consistent with the theme. After everything has been placed onto the cover i.e images and text a vintage effect will be added to give it a worn-out look to tie in with the party theme. We chose an ordinary backdrop as opposed to a studio backdrop as it will help add to the realism of the image and keep in with the theme of a party - appearing to be a fairly candid shot which will help our target audience to relate to the image, which is important as it may ultimately influence them to purchase the CD. The choice of props such as alcohol/cigarettes and those previously mentioned will also help the target audience to relate to the product and will be things featured in their every day lives which will in turn increase the use and gratification of personal identity due to the connection they may create through the items featured. After the props/text/image have been appropriately placed we will then add a vintage effect using Adobe Photoshop in order to create a dishevelled look to the image and adding an element of destruction - further emphasising the theme of our products.

Text/Font usage - The main text will be the band name Does It Offend You, Yeah? in Nova Solid and the colour used will be white. Text will be split into two parts, one at the bottom and one at the top to keep the band the main focus of the cover which is why the colour white has been used as it is simple and will not draw too much attention but enough so that the text will still stand out against the background and the bright props featured in the image. We chose the font style as it able to be understood easily and would be eye-catching whilst not detracting from the main focus of the image. 

Layout - The image will be the predominant aspect of the front cover, due to it being an appropriate way to convey the theme of the rest of our products and the controversial aspect of it. Therefore, we decided to display the text at the top and bottom of the front cover to achieve this effect as mentioned in text usage above. 

Email To Music Company

As we have decided to use a track already produced We Are Rockstars by Does It Offends You, Yeah? we need to seek permission from their record label to ensure that we are not violating any copyright or usage laws that they have in place. Rather than writing a letter to the record company Cooking Vinyl, we dediced to contact them via email on their website. A copy of which can be seen below.

Music Video Brief and Plot.

The song my group has chosen is We Are Rockstars by Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Music Video Plot
The video revolves around a group of teenagers partying. However, the video begins displaying the aftermath of a party as various people are sitting around and are passed out on the floor and is entirely played in reverse - right back to the beginning before the party has taken place. Various shot types, editing and camerawork will be used. These will include, zoom, motion blur and the camera being fixed/held by different people to emphasise realism. The words 'We Are Rockstars' can be seen spraypainted throughout the video. The genre chosen is electronic/grime/indie rock, which has become popular in recent years particularly with teenagers who are the target audience.

Music Video Initial Ideas and Synopsis.

As myself and members of the group I am working in have extensively researched and planned all aspects of our project we felt that we had gathered sufficient information to come up with an initial plot for our music video.

The plot/synopsis will focus around a group of teenagers partying in an abandoned/desolate location. However, the storyline will be in reverse. Therefore the beginning of the video will display the aftermath of a party and go through to before the party actually took place. The reason we decided to have the scenes in reverse, asides from being unconventional - was to provoke curiosity from the audience so that they would continue to watch the video after the opening sequence. In order to keep the video looking professional we will using a variety of shot types/angles and camera movements such as motion blur, zoom and fixing the camera to various actors in order to add realism to the video and emphasise the chaotic atmosphere.

Feedback on my blog.

As part of our planning and production our A2 Media Studies class took part in anonymous feedback on each peer's blog to try and evaluate our blogs/planning & production at a stage in our coursework. After recieving the feedback on my blog I realised that I had not completed as much work as possible so I used it the feedback to do the work that was required to get up to date with the majority of my peers.

Character Ideas.

For my group's music video, we will feature a band and a large amount of teenagers partying. As we decided to create a music video rather than a short film or trailer we decided that with the amount of people in our music video it would be simpler for the audience if there were no specific characters in our video apart from the recognisable band members.  However, in order to make the video more realistic and thought out we have decided to have a particular 'type' of character, the characters that will be featured could be compared with those of British TV Drama Skins - the focus of the programme being on a group of teenagers' mischevious behaviour. This will also relate to the genre of our music, and the behaviour typically associated with the people who listen to it, therefore keeping some consistency with our theme. These types of characters would appeal to our target audience of mainly 16-23 year olds, who enjoy watching programmes such as Skins and enjoy the genre of music that our chosen track has come from - electronic/indie rock/grime.

Skins Season Three Trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhdAU6VvaYU

In the link above, the teenagers can be seen participating in stereotypical, reckless behaviour such as drinking and partying. In using this as an inspiration for our characters it will allow the target audience to identify with the characters as they may have done/do similar activities themselves. The reckless behaviour will also fit in with our soundtrack and chosen genre.

Photoshoot Ideas

In order to make the print aspects of our A2 Media Coursework more professional we thought that it would be best to place photographs of the band members on the front cover and inside sleeve as this was a common convention we found in the majority of albums we researched in our chosen genre. Also, to tie in the theme of partying/reckless behaviour that will be present in our music video they will be pictured participating in drinking alcohol/smoking.

We decided that for our album front cover we would follow a common convention and use a photograph simply of the band members together as a group to enable our target audience to easily identify the band members both as a group and individually - particularly in our music video. Below are images we collected as inspiration, we decided to continue with the theme of partying we looked at images which contained similar props that we could use such as ballons/alcohol bottles/streamers.

Below are images that we collected as inspiration for our inside sleeve, as we decided to remain consistent with the theme of our music video we researched images of young people smoking/drinking. Also to give the inside a more personal theme and to help the audience identify with each member we decided to have an individual photograph of each member.

Costume and Make-Up Ideas.

As the target audience for my music video, CD cover and magazine advertisement are teenagers/young adults I have collected various images that are in popular fashion today to make it more appealing to them. This is because they are associated with fashion and trends, it will also help to make the characters in my music video more realistic especially in the enviroment they are going to be in. The images are from blogging site Tumblr, and are of similar fashions that the 16-25 year old target audience. We have also decided to try and tie in the costumes in our music video with the time of being reckless so we have researched clothing that looks dishevelled/oversized. This will also help make our music video look more professional.

The above images are all trends which have become popuar in culture associated with young people. The most prominent features are the eyes and lips, bright colours and heavy dark eye make up is used to make them stand out against the rest of the face. We will be using this style of make up with the costume choices in order to make the characters more realistic and to appeal to our target audience.

Target Audience

The target auidence of my group's music video is teenagers and young adults, probably no older that 24 being both male and female. They would be in college or university, with relatively low income due to the college/uni lifestyle and be of a mainly working class background. Their most of the people in our target auidence would still live at home with their parents or in student accomodation so their income would be spent on items such as music, magazines and alcohol. Also, most of thier free time would be spent studying or going out with their friends. We chose this target auidence partly because of the type of music genre we have chosen - grime/electronic/indie rock which has become extremely popular with the target age range in recent years. The theme of the video being a party is also something they can find interesting and can possibly relate to as the characters will all have a similar style and age to the characters in the video. The uses and gratifications of our products would be personal identity and diversion as many teenagers can relate to the lifestyle and ideologies potrayed in our video - going drinking, partying etc. This would serve as the personal identity. However, some of our target auidence may not have such a lifestyle and would therfore use the text as a diversion from their normal lifestyle.

Target Audience Questionnaire

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFN6S0UwNjFWR2VBX05BYk9QTHlNdWc6MQ

Above is a link to a questionnaire, which myself and my group members used to try and effectively determine what would appeal to our target audience. The questionnaire was created using Google Docs.

Chosen Genre and Conventions

The genre of music that my group has chosen for our music video is grime/electronic/indie rock, which has become extremely popular in recent years with the target audience of teenagers and young adults because of the lifestyle and culture associated with it. The conventions of music videos from the genre normally revolve around partying and drinking, some examples can be seen from my inspirational texts but another example would be LMFAO's Champagne Showers video, which is aimed at a similar auidence and has similar themes to the one that we have in mind.

Album artwork from our chosen genre

We decided to collect album artwork from different artists associate with our chosen genre in order to see the different conventions that are present throughout the genre. One of the most common conventions was the use of font and artist name as one of the most prominent features of the artwork. The majority of artist names are large and graphic in style, making them stand out against the image or other features of the artwork. They are also brightly coloured in order to attract the readers gaze, one example would be the Does It Offend You, Yeah? Album cover. These conevntions would appeal to our target audience of 16-25 year olds as the bright colours are more likely to attract their attention. Also, another convention seen in several images is the theme of partying/misbehavior. Particulary in the LMFAO covers. These themes would also appeal to our target audience as they are things that young people are generally stereotyped to be associated with.

Magazine Advertisements from our chosen music genre

Similar to the conventions that were present within the album artwork we found that the font played an important part in the magazine advertisements. They are original and artistic, particularly in The Killers advertisement. Bright, eye-catching colours are also used which would again attract our target audience.

Inspirations for CD Back Cover & Inside Sleeve.

Paramore - Riot! (Album Back Cover)
There are several things which made this album cover appealing to me. I like how the album title has been used to form a patterned background with the song titles in the middle in a contrasting colour. It draws the audience's gaze straight to the song titles' due to the colours standing out against each other. I also like how the image used on the back cover is the same for the album's front cover, which is unconventional and interesting. I think the font is also interesting and would suit our target audience as the handwriting style is quite youthful and would therefore appeal to them more than a normal, generic font.


Bon Jovi - Crossroad (Album Back Cover)
I particularly like the layout of the back cover, how the album tracks seem to be almost stamped onto the main image as it overlaps on to the man's body. I also like how it is minimalistic, nothing is overwhelming and everything is easy to see individually. The colour scheme is also limited which helps add to the faded effect of the cover. The style is interesting and would appeal to our target audience. However, the retro element may not fit in with our genre of music.



Unknown Band/Album (Album Back Cover)
Similar to the Paramore album, I like how text has been used to form an integral part of the background and how a limited black/white colour scheme has been used to add to the minimalism of the cover. I also like how a black background has been used behind the album track titles which makes them stand out on the cover.



Paramore - Riot! (Inside Sleeve)
Similar to the rest of the album theme, tet has been used to form a background. I particularly like that they are the lyrics to one of the songs on the album, rather than unrelated text. I also like how the image of the lead singer is graphic, making it less realistic and more like a drawing-type image, something which I think would appeal to our target audience.


Unknown Artist/Album (Inside Sleeve)
I think that the layout of the inside sleeve is very original and realistic, the use of simple everyday items helps to make more personal and relatable to the audience. I also like how the items look as if they have simply been thrown together which makes it look effortless.



Charlie Mayfair - Unknown Album (Inside Sleeve)
I think the most eye-catching thing about this inside sleeve is the font. It stands out against the plain, aged background and appears to look almost like handwriting. The background itself also adds to this effect as it looks like paper. Although it is not necessarily in with the theme of our genre I think that the use of font is something that our group would like to use for our own work.

Inspiration for Magazine Advertisement and CD Cover.



Magazine Inspiration

This is an advertisement from a magazine for a Stone Roses' album. The thing I liked most about this advertisement was the layout and the way it looks messy but still organised and readable. The background is like a paint splatter, which would go well with my music video theme of a party and the things associated with them - chaos etc. I also think the way the information is presented in a huge paint splatter is interesting. Taking this advertisement as our main inspiration we would keep the idea of the background but chnage the colour scheme to brighter, neon colours. Ans we would keep the bands name at the top, but place our cd cover in the middle.








This is an advertisement for Madonna's album Celebration. I chose this advertisement because I like the messy theme that has been used as her face and the main text background appears to have been spraypainted on which I think is interesting. I also like the bright colours used, and how three main colours - blue, pink and yellow have been used as it doesnt overload the poster.

This an advertisement for Crystal Castle's album Black Panther. I really like this advertisement because of the abstract theme of it, and how it appears like each image has just been indifferently placed on the page. However, the main image and band name still manages to maintain the attention, which is why I like the layout. Also, I like the simple colour scheme used. It would also appear to my target audience because of the genre of music that the band is from and the layout of the advertisement.




















CD Cover Inspiration

This is an album cover for Pegasus Bridge's album Ribena. I like the minimalist approach, and the way that the edges appear blurred at the the side as it draws the eye towards the band. However, it would not suit the syle of the band we are using and would not go well with the theme of our music video. But I do like how the main focus of the cover is the band so I will be using that as part of my CD Cover.

This is an album cover for All Time Low's album dirty work. Like the cover of Pegasus Bridge's album the band is the main focus but there is a 'party element' with the bottle of alcohol being sprayed. This would be more suitable to our music choice and theme of our video so I will be using this idea as inspiration.

This image is from a You Me At Six Photoshoot. The image appears to show the band after a party which keeps in theme with my group's music video and therefore would be a suitable image to take inspiration from for our main album cover image.

Inspiration for Music Video.

Hadouken! - Liquid Lives.

For the inspirations for my music video after the discussion I had with my group we decided to look for videos similar to the ideas we had - focusing on the theme of a party. The most interesting thing about this video I found was the camerawork and the angles used. Throughout the video there are cameras connected to the instruments that the band are playing and infront of the singer. This is an unusual technique and makes the video more original. The editing is also quick which matches the pace of the track. I also liked the ultraviolet light, with the majority of the 'audience' wearing white t-shirts which emphasises them throughout the music video.

Sssnake Pit - Enter Shikari

Although the majority of this music video is the band simply playing to an audience I felt that the first minute was interesting and relevant to the ideas me and my group discussed. At the beginning the editing it fast, with straight cuts seeming to 'blur' between the band playing and a small gathering of people. This emphasises the atmosphere of the scene more and I feel it would be a good technique to consider using in my own video. I also liked the lighting in this video, which was green neon. It gave the video interesting appearance.

Skins Reverse Trailer

This is the main inspiration for my groups music video. The reverse technique used in the editing as a party is played backwards. We have decided to use this editing technique in our own video as we feel it will make our video and plot more interesting.

Mood Board

This is the moodboard I completed for the ideas for the music video my group is going to be producing. The main images are of bands/partying/logos.

A2 Media Studies - Chosen Project Brief

From a selection of briefs I have chosen:A promotional package for the release of an album, which will include include a promotional music video, together with two other pieces either - a website homepage for the band, a cover for its release as part of a digipak or a magazine advertisement for a digipak. I have decided to do the music video, album cover and magazine advertisement.

Reflection on AS Work.

Looking back on the work I produced for my AS media studies, I am quite happy with my finished product. However, I do feel that there were some areas in which I could have improved. The areas that I could have improved most would have been digital technology and creativity.

Research and Planning

Even though the finished product for my coursework (magazine) received positive feedback and got a good grade in the end I could have put a lot more work into my research and planning.. When I look at the amount of research I did I think I could have done a lot more. For example, when researching similar texts I only researched one magazine that was similar to my own in minimal detail. If I had researched an extra magazine or went into extra detail on the one I had chosen my magazine may have had a better appearance or more interesting range of content. Although I was happy with the final finished look I produced, as I felt it looked professional.

I feel that the deconstructions I did as part of my research were done thoroughly in most parts, so I am satisfied with that part of my work. Although there were some sections that could I have contained a little more detail I don’t think that would have made any difference to my work.

The planning of my work could have been done a lot better. In the production of my magazine I did not set deadlines for different parts of it to be finished by, so the whole production process was dragged on a lot longer than was necessary. If I had set particular deadlines for each section of my coursework I could have produced it in a lot less time and it may have being a better finished product. When doing the planning for my A2 coursework I am going to try along with my group to set deadlines for certain aspects to be finished by a set date.

Creativity

When looking back at my finished product I feel that the appearance and content of my magazine coursework I think it looks professional and the content was interesting and relevant. However, I think that I could have been more creative when designing it. I took a lot of my inspiration from similar texts so the layout of my contents page and double page spread were fairly conventional and my front cover was similar to many magazines already in production. If I was my creative, particularly with my double page spread and contents page I think my grade may have improved as they did look quite simplistic. My double page spread layout could have been made more interesting by adding more images, tag lines or rearranging the text in a more unconventional way rather than the traditional three column layout I used.

In conclusion, when reflecting back on my AS coursework I am satisfied with the work I produced. Although there are certain areas of my work I could have produced; Research and Planning and Creativity I am still happy with my finished product and the grade I received.