Planning: Risk assessments/Call sheets

 Before filming, we have to complete a risk assesment which takes into account what can go wrong or what is potentially dangerous to us and our cast memebers. We have filled out a risk assesment (below) for when we use the studio to film our performance shots. We will have this with us on the day to remind ourselves what we should/shouldn't be doing to help prevent any accidents. We will then complete another risk assesment form (and post on here) when we go out to film our narrative shots.

Planning: Artist image:Logo and Name

As a group, we've come up with the name: 'The Taboo' for our band. This is because it's memorable, catchy and fits in with our narrative theme. We are going to design a logo for our band, and post it on here. We will have a go at designing several different logos and then we'll decide which we think is the best for our band. We will keep in mind the things that we learnt from our research and make sure we design something that is simple yet colourful and eyecatching. Once we have done a rough copy, we will then use Photoshop to make it look more professional and give it a better quality.


Below, we have started to think about what fonts we can use for our bands name. We intend to include this logo on the digipak but also in the music video (in the background) so it is crucial that we feel the logo reflects the image we want our band to portray. The genre of the band is indie-pop and we have decided that we want the logo to have quite a fun and retro image to it, this is because a lot of the clothing and styles within the indie-pop genre are quite retro/quirky/different. We have looked at various fonts (below) and we will ask for people's opinions on which font they think works the best and which they like the most. We'll post the results on here once we have them.

   

We asked our target audience on which font they thought was best for our band logo. The results showed that the first font was the most popular, so we have listened to our audience and have decided to use this font. 

 Now that we have decided on our final choice of font, we have designed a few different ideas for our final logo and, again, asked our target audience which they thought was the best.

After testing our logos with our audience, the feedback was that the most popular design was the first design. So this is our final logo. We think it works well both with the fact that our band is a fun, indie-pop band and the colours reflect this- we haven't used overly bright, typical pop colours. There's a mixture of dark and light colours which represent both parts of the genre (indie and pop). The logo is very recognisable, especially as it includes a fox which instantly associates the logo with the music video. Also, the border around our fox/band name looks like a guitar pick which fits into our indie-pop genre, as one of the main instruments in an indie-pop band is a guitar.

Planning: Software:

After filming our music video, we then will to go onto editing our footage on an editing software. We will also have to use other programmes in order to create the background for our greenscreen footage.


Final Cut:

 This is the software we'll be using to edit our footage and put our music video together. This will be the main piece of software we use when editing. Final Cut will help us to cut and put together our footage, whilst also making it possible for us to edit the colour, put in transitions and add an image/video for our greenscreen.

Photoshop:

 We'll be using Photoshop Cs3 to design and create our logo for our band, we will also use it to make a background for our greenscreen. We plan on having a plain background with our logo for the greenscreen, however, we'll need to use Photoshop to enable us to edit the background so it doesn't look flat. We will also need to use it to create our logo, and Photoshop will be the best software to do this on- again because it allows us to edit, draw or whatever we need to do to create our image.

 These are the two main software programmes we'll be using because they're what will help us the most in creating our music video.

Planning: Equipment:

Before we start filming, it's important for us to know what technical equipment we'll need to use when filming our video. We will not be able to film any footage with out these items:


-Video Camera.


  The most important equipment we'll need throughout this process, it will be impossible to film anything without a video camera. During our performance shots, we'll be filming in a studio. For this, we're going to use a HD camera as too get the clearest image, so when we're editing the frames that we want to use green screen, we'll be able to get a better result as everything captured is in the highest quality.

-Tripod


Again, a very important piece of equipment. We'll use the tripod a lot during our filming as hand-held isn't something that'll fit in too well with our video. The tripod stand will help keep our camera steady throughout filming so the image stays constant and nothing goes out of shot. It'll enable us to use different angles, which will be much more visually interesting to our audience.

- Professional lighting


 Seeing as we're filming in a studio, we wont be exposed to natural lighting- like sunlight- therefore using professional lighting will make our images look much clearer. We can also choose whether to use high-key, low-key lighting or back lighting, depending on the amount of light we use and the positioning of them. The lighting will make it easier for us to set a certain mood and atmosphere, to reflect our song and make it easier for our audience to understand what the mood of the video is. However, we wont be able to use lights when we're filming on locations outside, therefore we'll have to relay on natural lighting.

-Green background (for green screen)


  It's important we have a green sheet set up behind us, so when we'll be able to layer another image/video behind our band playing in Final Cut. This'll again make it more visually interesting for our audience and lets us be able to tell two stories in one frame. Again, this is only something we're going to use when we're in the studio.

-Instruments

 This is also another very important part of our performance filming, as there's no performance without instruments. What we need is;

• x2 Guitars
• x1 Piano
• x1 Drum Kit
• x1 Microphone/Microphone stand

We need to use instruments to make our band look believable; like they're a real band who are really playing these instruments. It's also important that we have these particular instruments because these are the ones that are featured within the song we have chosen to do. 

-Costume/Props

  Our costume is another important part of our video narrative. We have decided to use a fox costume and therefore, we need to plan ahead of our filming to make sure that we have the right costume, size, and are able to get it for the days we're shooting. We'll need to make sure we do a costume fitting for the person wearing it several days before we go filming because otherwise we'll need to know whether to make changes to it or not. Also, other band members will need to make sure that they dress in very typical indie-pop style clothing. This could include, 

• Trainers
• Ankle length jeans or leggings
• Plain T-shirts

etc. This is important to get right as otherwise our audience might be confused as to what genre our music video belongs to. Lastly, if we want to use any props we'll need to make sure we get them days before shooting to make sure it's available and would fit in with our video. 

We need to make sure, as a group, that we all remember our equipment for when we're going to film. We need to make sure we book out cameras in advance and need to check that all the equipment we need is available. It'll be a good idea to do a call sheet and photocopy a version for each group member so they'll be able to remind another member if there's something we've forgotten. 

Planning: Storyboard:

Before we did any filming, we created a storyboard that would help us remember what shots we needed/wanted. It was a guide to us so we'd have a starting point when we began filming. We will scan in our storyboard and add it to our blog.

Planning: Synopsis of video:

 The video we are producing is part performance and part narrative. The main focus of our video will be on the narrative, and we'll have performance shots within the narrative.
  The story behind our narrative is, at the beginning of the song when it's upbeat and happy, is showing a relationship between a Fox and his 'girlfriend'. This continues through the majority of the song, until towards the end when it starts to become much slower and sadder. At this point, the colour becomes much more dull and you realise that the previous images were of a flashback of the Fox's time when he was in a happy relationship. The rest of the song follows the Fox doing the things he did with his girlfriend (like visiting the cinema, going to the park) but he's all alone.

Planning introduction:

  Having completed our research, we now need to plan the filming part of our music video. Planning everything is an important part of making a music video as we'll need to make sure that we know what we are doing, what things we need and where we need to go to film.
  In our group we have produced a storyboard to give us some guidelines to follow and so we know what type of shots we need. We have also produced a call sheet, which'll be handed out to each member, so that we know what we props/equipment/costume we need to bring and where we need to be.
  Knowing all these things in advanced by planning them will make our filming easier because we know what shots we want, we know when we'll be filming and who's bringing what- making everything more organised. As a result, we'll be able to complete the filming quicker, meaning that if we need to do any more we'll have time to go back and film.


Rumble Strips The - Girls and Boys in Love by iidude


The song we're using for our music video; "Girls and Boys in Love" by The Rumble Strips. It is a typical indie-pop, upbeat tempo song. The song is about love and it changes beat and pace depending on how love is perceived, for example, when the relationship is strong i.e. plenty of girls and boys in love,  it's up-tempo, but once it reaches lines like ain't it a shame, it becomes much slower paced.


Lyrics:

Just cause you think it,
Don't make it so.
Drop you to drink it,
Won't let you go.

Plenty of Girls and Boys in Love,
Plenty of Girls and Boys in Love.

Move to the city,
Lose all your heart.
She weren't that pretty,
You ain't too smart.

Plenty of Girls and Boys in Love,
Plenty of Girls and Boys in Love.

But ain't it a shame,
Woaaah, Oooh.
Ain't it a shame,
Woaaah, Oooh.
Ain't it a shame,
Woaaah, Oooh.
I've let you go.

Plenty of Girls and Boys in Love
Plenty of Girls and Boys in Love
Plenty of Girls and Boys in Love

Institutions:

  Musicians are always signed to a  record label, and these labels can help them when it comes to financing, producing and marketing their music videos. There are two different types of institutions, Majors and Indies. Currently, there are four major corporate labels;

• Sony Music Entertainment 
• Universal Music Group
• Warner Music Group
• EMI

These large companies are homes to the current popular mainstream names in the music industry, for example;

• Sony: Chris Brown 
• Universal: Kanye West 
• Warner: Cee Lo Green 
• EMI: Katy Perry

  Most of the artists on these labels would belong to the pop or hip-hop genre. This is because this is the most popular among mainstream audiences. However, these four companies aren't the only institutions, some of the main indie labels currently are;

• FatCat Records
• Moshi Moshi Records
• Domino Recording Company
• XL Recordings 

 Although nearly all of their artists are from a none mainstream genre, they still have/had many successful artists among the mainstream audience, for example;

• FatCat Records: Bjork
• Moshi Moshi Records: Florence and the Machine
• Domino Recordings: Arctic Monkeys
• XL Recordings: Adele

  The song we have chosen to do is by The Rumble Strips, who are an indie-pop band and the song 'Girls and Boys in Love' is therefore an indie-pop song. In the past, our band would be signed to an independent label because at one point indie-pop music wasn't popular with mainstream audiences. However, this genre has gained in popularity in the past few years and therefore, our band could potentially be signed to one of the majors. We know this because some of the majors have indie-pop artists signed to them, for example, Ellie Goulding is signed to a label which is owned by Universal Music Group. 

  On the other hand, with the gaining popularity of indie-pop music over the past couple of years, we've discovered that even if an artist is signed to an independent label, it hasn't stopped them from doing well in the mainstream charts. For example, Florence and the Machine are signed to Moshi Moshi an independent label, yet they have had their albums debut at number one in the main album charts- showing their popularity with the mainstream audience. 

  However, indie-pop bands aren't usually signed to a major label straight away. Looking into it, they get signed to a major after they've gained a relativity large fan-base, in England or America. We think, when it comes to our own band, that they'd be signed to an independent label like Moshi Moshi or Domino Recording Company. This is because, these labels specialise in mainly the indie-pop genre and therefore would know how to market our band and make sure they attract the right audience. Having said that, if our band was real and did over time achieve a large fan base, we think that we could then be signed to a major company like EMI as they have/had a lot of indie-pop artists signed to them.

  It's important to have a record company that can advertise to the right target audience. Our record label would have to aim our music and products at, firstly, our target audience (teenagers) who like the indie-pop genre and then move on to appealing to a more mainstream audience. 

  In terms of which label would do this better (major or indie) we think that to aim our product at the right kind of audience, an independent label would be best for this. They'll know where to advertise, what magazines they read, what music channels they watch etc. However, in terms of who'll be able to provide the biggest financial support for advertising, making our products and as a result gaining a larger, more mainstream audience, a major label would be the best for this. They have more contacts and resources and would be able to get our video playing on MTV and VH1 (mainstream channels) rather than just NME TV (independent music). 

(click image for .gif)

 As we outlined above, being signed to a major record company gives the band more money to hire experienced directors, equipment, locations and props for their music videos. However, as most indie-pop bands are signed to an indie label, they don't have this luxary of lots of money, meaning their videos aren't as extravagant, they don't have the best technology etc. Yet, their videos are often much more creative as a result because they have to find interesting ways to make the video look new and innovative for less money. As we're making this video ourselves, we have the chance to make it creative like most indie-pop videos are. Not having the advanced technology means we are able to be more creative with narrative, costumes and props-much like typical indie-pop videos.

Reflection of branding:

  From our research of different artists and their branding, we have found that branding is very important for a band/artist when trying to create a specific image and giving the audience something to help remember your band by.
  An artist can either stick to a brand image they've created throughout their career like, for example, Marina and the Diamonds, or keep changing and reinventing themselves like Michael Jackson. Keeping a constant image can help the audience to always relate to their image and they'll have something the audience can associate them with, but changing an image a lot can keep the audience interested and leave the audience guessing what they're going to do next.
  Also, a brand image can help reflect a certain mood or atmosphere through the use of colours, clothing, pictures etc. whether it's simply to show what genre they belong to or giving of a certain feeling. For example, Kasabian frequently use colours like reds and blacks and their album cover shows a picture of somebody screaming. These are typical conventions of the indie-rock genre, as the colours are quite dark and grungy and their picture can help reflect the type of songs on the album.
  When it comes to our own band, we need to create an image that will help promote them and give them something the audience can 'cling' too and will start to associate them with that thing. For example, with Kanye West it was his shutter shades that people associated with him. The brand image we create- like a logo- will have to be fairly simple, consistent and memorable and also should be a positive image to help reflect the song and the kind of band they are. Also, we'll need to feature this brand image on every product we create. This repetition again helps set this image in the audiences mind and it becomes something the audience have tattooed in their minds.

  Each of the bands we researched all have a simple and consistent brand image, and as you can see, every artists- apart from Kanye West- have a black logo which is just the artists name/initials.

 We'll keep this in mind when creating our own brand image and make sure we create something that is also simple and effective. The colours we'll use for the logo will stick to the indie-pop genre, but we think we'll use colours that go along the pop route more than the indie route. This is because pop colours are often much more brighter and they attract much more attention. The clothes our band will wear, however, will fit more along the indie genre; casual, natuaral coloured clothing. This is because, many indie-pop bands stick to the indie side when it comes to clothing etc, so we need something that our audience can relate to and what looks like it belongs to the indie-pop genre.

  We wont feature any props, like instruments, as we think this could over complicate our logo. However, we will develop a particular font to use in our logo and have an image- possibly relating to our Fox theme that'll be featured in our music video, again which will help to create something memorable yet simple.

Analysis of branding: Phoebe

Investigation Into Branding
 
  This is the analysis of branding I have done. Through it, I have learnt how a certain image can be carried out throughout albums, songs and clothing. From what I discovered from doing the Michael Jackson analysis is that although an artists image can change throughout their career, they still keep some elements the same as to be recogniseable to their audience. Also, they repeate an image several times, for example, Michael Jackson wore extremely similar clothes in "Bad" and "Speed Demon" to show that they do not need to constantly change their look, and if they do, it doesn't have to be an extreme change.

Analysis of branding; Emily

Kanye branding

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Analysis of branding - Colette

Marina and the diamonds

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Analysis of branding Rebekah

Branding kasabian

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Branding: How it applies to products:

What is branding?


 A brand is not the same as a product. A brand is a particular make of something, for example, with coffee; coffee is the product and 'Kenco' or 'Nescafe' are brands. Branding is all about creating an image that is memorable to the customer.


How does this apply to the music industry?


 All musicians will have some sort of brand image. That could be a logo, type of colour they wear or the kind of costumes they wear. It's important to establish a brand image, so their audience will have something to associate that particular artist with, and gives that musician a bigger and more interesting personality.
 As a result, this brand image will be repeated over and over again to their audience; i.e. on album covers, in their music videos or in promotional photoshoots. Again, this creates a memorable image for the audience, and they'll be able to link the brand image to that artist.
 Logos, designs, advertising and marketing can help the audience deduce certain ideas from these particular things and give them an overall idea what a person's brand image is. For example, if the artist's brand image is a skull and cross bone, they'll have certain ideas from that image, i.e. they're from a rock genre and their songs are likely to be dark. This same idea applies to colours, clothing etc.


How does branding help?


Branding can make a particular artist unique and gives them something that other artists don't have. It gives them something their fans can relate to and a special connection between them and the artist. Branding is all about creating a positive image that can be recognised easily and as a result things like having an artists logo on something can boost the sales of it.


How does this help us with our product?


We will need to create a brand image for our band. We'll need to come up with a consistent, memorable and simple brand image that will get the audience interested in our product. We'll do this through the design; i.e. colours, images and costume, and hopefully that'll help the audience have something to link to our band and associate themselves with the band. We also hope to create something that is instantly recognisable by the audience, and we'll do this by repeating our image on each of our products. 

Reflection on Target Audience:

We made a questionnaire to gain a deeper insight into our target audience. From it we have found useful information about what our audience likes and dislikes about music videos, how many people enjoy the genre we're doing and how we can make our video so it'll suit their preferences.
  We have identified who our audience are and, with the help of our questionnaire, we know how to make our product to fit this target audience. Also, we've discovered that there is an audience for our product, as we've found out that our genre does well among mainstream and niche audiences.
  From all this, we have learnt that if we were to make this product in real life, it would do well among our target audience- teenagers, both genders- and it would also do well in the charts meaning it would be exposed to a much larger audience.
  Therefore, when making our video, we have to remember what our audience outlined as things they enjoy; for example, a fun narrative with performance, and leave out things they don't like as much; i.e. 'cheesy' editing.

Our Audience:

  We have created a questionnaire that we are going to hand out to 40 people to try and get some information that will help us when creating our video. We want to know about things people like and dislike when it comes to music videos and whether people like a narrative in the music videos or if they prefer just to watch the band perform. We hope from the results we'll get back indicate some useful information that will benefit us profoundly so we can make a video which will be appealing to our audience. We will present our findings as a pie-chart and talk about how they have helped us.

We have recieved some feedback which will hopefully help us and we'll be able to apply to our video in order to produce something pleasing for our audience.

We decided to interview a relatively equal number of females and males in our questionnaire. This is because we have decided to aim our video at both genders and therefore this will give us a clear insight into what both of these genders enjoy in music videos.

Most people who took the questionnaire are age 14-18, and this is our age range. We did try to hand it out to a variety of people. However, because indie-pop music is aimed mostly at 14/18 year olds it was important to ask a larger percentage of them because they're our main audience.

Most people we asked like the indie genre, closely followed by R'n'B then pop. I think this is because these are the three mainstream genres that dominate the charts today. The person that answered with other stated that the genre they like was punk. This result also suggest that we our making a good decision choosing to do an indie-pop music video as we would have a large target audience.

80%  of the people we asked liked the indie-pop genre. We think this is because in the last few years indie-pop has increased in popularity and this genre of songs have dominated the charts lately. We also asked them to state indie-pop bands/artist they liked and they said bands/artist such as The Wombats, Noah and the Whale, Marina and the Diamonds, these are all bands that we have studied with in our genre research. This again backs up our decision to do the indie-pop genre for our video because it is well liked with both mainstream and niche audiences.

Most people these days do not buy music often as they can simply download it for free. As we can see from our feedback, people only buy music occasionally which means they must be sourcing it for free somewhere else. This affects the music companies as they lose out on profit. If we were to make our video in real life, we would need to do something to make sure it attracted and interested the audience enough to want to go and buy our product rather than getting it illegally.

As we can see, the majority of people buy their music online.This suggest to us that if we were to sell our music video we would look to try and get it on the most popular, legal, online sights as this is where we'd gain the most profit. However, we wouldn't disreguard shops all together, as there is still a percentage of people who buy from shops. 

We also asked people to tell us what they liked about music videos, they answered with such things as:

• they attract audience attention and makes people want to buy the track/album
• they can make the song more interesting if the footage and effects are good
• they can be funny and  if the narrative is good it increases the interest of the audience
• you can view music videos for free so it is an easy way to listen to the music and see whether we really like the song before buying/downloading it.

We also asked people to tell us what the disliked about music videos, they answered with such things as:

• they can be boring if it's just repetitive or it doesn't do something to excite them 
• when they don't understand the narratives it can be frustraiting and makes them want to avoid it
• the footage doesn't have any connection to the song
• overused/cheesy effects

Therefore, when we do our video we have to make sure we concider all the points above. We have to make sure it's easy for the audience to understand and do something to make them want to watch it again and again or tell all their friends about it. Effects and editing is something we'll have to think hard about as to not make it seem really cheesy or disjointed from using too many.

We asked people if there prefered performance or narrative videos and most people answered the question with both. This is pleasing to us, as we had already decided to have both a narrative and performance in the video, and the confermation of the audience has helped us to know that this was the right decision. This is also a typical feature of an indie-pop video as they're usually focused on performance and have a narrative mixed in as well.

We asked people what type of video's they preferred. This was probably the closest result we've had in terms of there wasn't really a clear winner. This shows that these videos are down to personal taste and opinion. As both had the largest percentage, we think that people enjoy videos they can relate to but also ones that take them into a 'fantasy' world. However, it wouldn't make too much sense to include them both in our video.

The majority of people preferred fun narratives and this is a good thing as most indie-pop music videos have a fun and quirky narrative. This is also beneficial to us as the idea we had for our video, we now know, would go down well with the mass audience.

Many people are unsure whether the prefer an interrupted narrative. This could be because they're not to sure on what we mean or if it depends on the type of song/narrative used. For our video, we think it would be best as to not include a narrative that interrupts the song in the middle of the video because we wouldn't want to confuse our audience; which is one of the things they said they disliked about videos.

From this we have gained some useful feedback that we can use when creating our video and it has validated   our choices we made for our audience. For example, we know what both genders would enjoy because we asked an equal amount of boys and girls. Also, we know what people like and dislike in videos and we can customise our video to fit their prefrences. Overall, the results given will help us to make a video that would be appealing to a large audience.

Is there an audience for our product?

  The genre we have chosen does have a large commercial audience, but perhaps it's slightly less popular than it was in 2005/6.  This is because around 2005, many indie-pop groups dominated the charts, e.g. The Kooks, Razorlight and the Arctic Monkeys, therefore, then the audience would have been much larger. Now-a-days the charts are mainly dominated by R'n'B artists, such as Beyonce, Rihanna and Tine Tempah, though Indie-pop music is still popular genre within a mainstream audience.

The picture shows the UK Top 40 (top 8 on this image) chart this week. As you can tell, it is mainly dominated my R'n'B and Pop artists.

This is a picture of the charts from 2005 and is mainly dominated by indie-pop bands.

  Out the UK Top 40, around 10 singles belong to the indie-pop genre, this suggest that indie-pop music is still fairly dominant in the charts and can be classed as mainstream music because the UK Top 40 is for a mainstream audience. So, if we were to release a indie-pop video, we think it would do well in the charts because the charts are a mixture of R'n'B, Pop and Indie, so combining Indie and Pop together should do relitivly well and gain a wide audience.

  It is important that we know there is an audience for our product out there, because if we were to make this and go on to sell it we'd need to know if people;

• would be interested in our product
• liked our product
• would be willing to buy our product.

From the chart information given, we know that people would be likely and willing to do all those things listed above. We know this because indie-pop music does to well in the charts and it has been fairly dominant within the charts for a long time. This shows that people are interested, they do like the product (i.e. the genre/song/videos) and they are willing to buy the product which is why it's in the charts.

Target Audience:

G - Male and female.

R - Mainly white ethnicity but could appeal to any. 

A - 13 - 21.

S - C1 to E

S - Mainstreamers

  We think that Indie-Pop music, and especially our song, would appeal to both genders. This is because we feel anybody can enjoy music and though both genders would like the genre, we think that our song and music video could appeal to females and males for different reasons.

  When it comes to race, we believe our video would appeal to a mainly white audience. This is because, after researching several Indie-Pop bands, we have noticed that the vast majority are made up of white ethnicities. Although we will probably be using mainly white ethnicity in our video, this doesn't mean that it can't appeal to other races.

  The age range we feel will enjoy our video is people aged between 13-21. We think it will appeal to teenagers as the lyrics are simple and doesn't have a serious subject matter. The name of the song, 'Girls and Boys in Love', suggests that it is aimed to a young target audience and again drives this image of not a very serious subject matter.

  We decided that the socio-economic status would be between C1 to E because as we said, the age range is aimed more at teenagers, who'll be students or unemployed, therefore, they're technically classed as being in category E because of the fact they're like to have no job or little money. But we think that parents are most likely to buy their music for them and they could be put in and category from E to C1.

  We felt that the target audience for our video/song is mainly mainstreamers. This is because the song we have chosen to do appears in a mainstream film, "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging" and that is where most people would have heard this song for the first time. Also, because of the genre of the song, we know indie-pop music does well in The UK Top 40, and as this is aimed at a mainstream audience and as our previous research has told us, this genre does very well with a mainstream audience. In the past couple of years, indie-pop has gone from a niche audience to being liked by a mainstream one.

  It's important to know our audience as we need to know how to present our product and show/use things in our video that they'll be able to relate too and enjoy.

These are what a typical fan of our music may look like. They would be interested in reading music magazines, like NME, and perhaps even creating their own music. The clothes they wear reflect the clothes indie-pop bands wear, as they wear quite casual/retro clothing. They perhaps don't like typical mainstream music videos, and prefer something that's different or quirky when it comes to music videos.

When it comes to creating our music video, we will need to keep in mind what this target audience likes/dislikes, and what would interest them that we could include within our video.

Ancillary Task 2: Album advertisements research:

  The second ancillary task we have to complete is a magazine advertisement for our digipak. Below, we will analyse some advertisements and pick out what the typical codes and conventions are for them. We will look at a range of different advertisements, but mainly focus on our Indie-Pop genre.

Florence and the Machine: Lungs album advert.


 This is an advertisement for Florence and the Machine's album 'Lungs.' Normally, adverts for a band's album features the cover of the album as the main image for the advertisement, this is so the audience knows what they're looking out for when they go to buy the album. However, this doesn't, although it does have their logo of lungs as the main image. The fans of Florence and the Machine will be able to recognise this straight away and know who this advertisement is for/what it's for without even reading any of the infomation.
  The advert also shows the bands name written at the top for people who perhaps aren't fans, so they can realise who this advert is about. "Florence and the Machine" is written in the typical font they use for all of their album covers/images etc. Again, this is making this logo memorable for the audience, and as a result they'd associate that type of font with Florence and the Machine. All adverts will feature the bands/artists name, usually at the top in a large size, so people instantly know who this advert is about.
  Towards the bottom is all the information telling the audience about what this advert is about. This font is usually much smaller, like it is in this particular advert. Although the information is important, it's not what draws the audience to read the advert- it's usually the image/name of the band that draws them in to it. Therefore, this bit can be written in much smaller text and doesn't have to be the same font as the bands name.
  The overall image is quite dull (i.e. there isn't much colour), but this reflects the indie-pop genre. This magazine advert is aimed, first and foremost, towards Florence and the Machine's fan-base, which is very large and established. Therefore, it doesn't need to be overly bright, showing images of the band themselves or have lots of text telling the reader all about it, because their fan base will be familiar with Florence and the Machine's image. However, there is a need for the bands name and some information about what they're selling for those who aren't fans and who may be intrigued by the advert.

Kasabian: Empire album advert:

 This magazine advert is for Kasabian's "Empire" album. Typically, the large image on the advert is the same image that is used for the album cover. This is a typical feature of magazine adverts, as it helps not only the fans, but those who aren't fans of Kasabian to know what the album cover looks like, so they know what they're looking for when they go out to buy it.

  The advert also features the band's logo. 'Kasabian' is written in the same font that is on their album and all of their other albums. Again, this makes their logo memorable. The logo is very prominant and takes up the middle half of the image, this is to make sure that the reader sees this straight away, making them aware of who the advert is about.

  It also uses their typical colour scheme. Kasabian are known for using mainly black and red on their images, album covers, videos etc, and this again coinsides with this common convention of not only the bands image, but the image of magazine adverts, as they try and show as much of the bands image as possible to make the reader aware, again, of who this advert is for.

 Like the first image I looked at, the information on the album is very small and minimal. It has two positive quotes of what newspapers have said about it and the sentence: "The new album out now" is written in much larger font than the other information at the bottom. All this is to attract the audience into going to buy it, as they're much more likely to get something that has good reviews and something that's out right now, before they miss it etc.


Codes and conventions:


  Magazine adverts can either be a full sized page, or a half page advert. Many well known indie-pop bands/artists would get a full page magazine advert, mostly because they or their record company could afford to do so. The two groups I looked at above have a lot of money from being around a while and being very popular with niche and mainstream audiences, which is why their adverts took up a full page. However, if they weren't popular or were signed to an unknown indie label, they'd probably only be able to afford a half page.

This information is taken from http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/ratecard showing just how much it would cost to advertise in any of these music magazines. It's very expensive for a full-page advertising slot, which is why only certain artists/bands could afford it.




 They also normally show either the album image on the advert or something associated with them. For example, Kasabian had their album image on their advert, but Florence and the Machine had a logo of theirs on their advert. This image typically takes up the whole of the page and it's the first thing that the reader sees. This is to help the audience know what the band are advertising, and then if they see that image enough time they're able to memorise it and know what they're looking for when they go out to buy it.

 

The "Empire" album cover features on Kasabian's magazine advert.

  Also, normally on magazine adverts, they use very limited, simple or minor sentences, that are usually in declarative or imperative sentence moods. For example, they'll say things like "Out Now!" "Buy it today" etc. They use imperative sentence moods because it's to tell the audience to do something, and declarative moods gives them a statement (like 'out now') to get them to act quickly. The simple and minor sentences is to give the audience the main information like when it's out etc, as to not overpower them with too much information.

Cee Le Green's advert shows a quote written in declarative mood by a respected newspaper; "The greatest male voice in US soul." This shows the audience that this statement isn't just the Sunday Times opinion, it is a fact. It also uses minor and simple sentences to give the information to the audience quickly, and the writing is very limited- only telling the audience what they need to know. It also has "Featuring the No.1 single "Forget You"" written on it, to show the audience that this album features hit singles, which is another common feature of magazine adverts.









 They normally never include a price when they're new out, as the advert is to entice the audience into buying the album. This way, the audience don't think about whether they can afford it or not, they just go out to buy it and by that time their mind's set on getting the album regardless of price. Ways to tempt the audience into buying it is by featuring awards the artist has won on it or having a sentence saying what hit singles the album will include etc. Also, the language is usually quite informal, as to make it seem conversational and make it relatable for the reader.  

Stevie Wonder's "A Time to Love" advert shows "Featuring the single 'So What the Fuss" written towards the bottom. This was the most successful song from the album, therefore, it's written on the advert to show the audience that this popular song is featured within the album to make people want to go and buy it, even if it's just for that song. Janet Jackson's advert on the other hand, uses the technique of showing her award success- "5-Time Grammy Award Winner and Oscar Nominated" showing the audience that she's a respected and successful artist leading them to be more tempted to buy her album because she's been recognized by award shows like the Oscars etc. 

 The font on a magazine advert tends to be pretty constant and normally the only text written in different font is the bands/artists name/logo if they have one. The artists name is usually the most prominent text and locates typically towards the top of the page or in the middle as these are the places the audiences eyes go to first. The second biggest text is the name of the album they're advertising. Again, they're placed around the same place as the name of the band- attracting them to it straight away. Generally towards the bottom will be the additional information. This tends to be seen as not as important as the artists name/name of the album and as a result is often written in much smaller font.  

Jay-Z and The Verve both have their names written in the largest size and it located near the top or in the middle. The audiences eyes are drawn straight to this first, and this is important so they understand who this advert is about straight away and they wont have to search for a name or guess who it's about. The name of the albums are again written in a fairly large font but are much smaller than the artists name. This doesn't make it less important, but it's needed to establish who this advert is for before the audience begin reading anything else. And again at the bottom is the additional information, like quotes on the album, what record company they belong to, when it's out etc. 

What I've learnt:

  On the whole, I've discovered that album magazine advertisements are relativity simple. They all have the same or similar conventions- for example, they all feature an image which is normally the album cover image, and this takes up pretty much 100% of the page. When we do our own, we will need to make sure this is a feature in our magazine advert because it's a way to establish the image in the audiences mind. Also, other things that we will definitely need to include is our bands name and the name of the album. These are featured on pretty much every advert, otherwise it would be difficult to distinguish who the advert is for. However, what I have also learnt is that magazine adverts don't have a particular colour scheme. The colour/layout of the album is different each time because it reflects the individual band/artist. Therefore, we are pretty open to do what we want in this respect, and can present our band however we think is best.