Music Video

 

Using language to address my audience

To address my target audience and to address consumers in general, i included specific language features. For example, the review from Kerrang! magazine that I wrote, i intentionally used very strong, emotive language to emphasise how good the album is (Stunning, classic).

Additionally, i added 'AVAILABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE' to address my audience as i recognise that my audience of young adults tend to get the majority of their music online and so by offering an alternative way to buy the music other than in shops would greatly appeal to them.

'THE NEW ALBUM' -monumental, creates excitement. Also as i have included 'THE NEW ALBUM' directly under the image of the band, as well as in capital letters, it implies that its release is a monumental event, creating excitement for my target audience, which would then generate more attention around the band and the album.

by having the release date 19.02.15 on the advert, obviously it informs my audience as to when it will be released. However, by it being bold it also creates a kind of sense of urgency about buying the album, it almost gives the impression that everyone is waiting and keen for its release, therefore encouraging more people to buy it.

Digipak feedback

After completing my digipak, I got feedback on it:

• The digipak as a whole looks quite professional,the images and layout are clear

• Should the cover feature the artist? However, I have justified the choice of not including the band on the album cover through my research into album covers of artists belonging to the same genre.

• The back cover: the track listings are good as well as the positioning of them

• EBI: add video to track listings as it is a digipak-digipak's have other forms of media on them compared to an album which usually just has music

“good to see that you have added the video to the track listings”

• Inside disk: the white disk is a little plain and resembles a sample CD, album disks tend to be more sophisticated

• EBI: do an alternate version of the inside with the opaque disk template without the actual disk to be used on the net of the digipak

• Inner lyrics: good for including a band logo

• EBI: add the black band along the bottom to ensure it looks like an opening for a booklet, not just a plain cover saying 'lyric booklet'

I did several sketches of logos before hand to experiment with what looks most appropriate. some consisted of the band initials inside shapes to like with the geometric patterns on the album artwork, however, they tended to look to childish and so I decided to use just the initials but put one inside the other. 

Feedback question: can you explain where the fonts are from and reasons for use?

Throughout my research on digipaks and artist branding, I found that most bands have a font that is associated with them; a font they use for all of their products and so I decided that I must use a distinguishable font for my band too. I have used the font ‘Hacked’ from dafont.com for the name of the band as I felt that it embodied my desired image for the band as it is quite contemporary and edgy. Additionally, for the normal text (track listings and font on the magazine advert) I used Avenir, a font in Photoshop as it is very simple and clean and went well with the busy title.

Advert feedback

I created my advert by using the original images of the two guys who I chose to be the band members, however I felt their clothing in the images doesn't reflect the genre properly and so I used Photoshop to place the heads on to separate bodies that I had chosen which better embody the typical look of artists in a band. Additionally, I chose a mostly monochrome colour palette to ensure that the digipak cover and the artists stand out. Finally, I included reviews from publications that would typically review the music of a rock band (Rolling Stone, Kerrang and NME). 

After completing the magazine advert for the album and artist, I got feedback on how to improve it. 

Feedback: It is simple and looks professional, the front of the digipak is on the advert, which shows what it is advertising. 
Even better if: the arm of the man (Ed) with the beard looks slightly crooked/ at a wrong angle so to fix this  i could move his arm out of the frame or alter the shape. 

I experimented with trying to fix the arm problem by moving his arm entirely out of the picture, this however it looked slightly strange as there was just one arm in the picture belonging to the other guy.

I also tried moving the image so that more of the arm was in the picture so that it showed the angle of the arm wasn't distorted or bent. However, this resulted in the two band members being too close, and Ed looks more like a background figure instead of part of the band.




I have decided to move the image so that the arm is no longer visible as i think the composition as a whole is improved as the two men look more like a duo and the space between the top and the arm left a white space which drew too much attention.

Additional feedback: "good to see changes to positioning of the artist i.e. his arm"

Feedback question: Can you explain how the band and the image is tapping into the zeitgeist?

Zeitgeist is the intellectual fashion or domininant school of though that is typical and influences the culture of a particular period of time. I have addressed the current zeitgeist in music which is the trend of beards and tattoos, especially within the rock music industry. Firstly, I chose a man who had a beard as it is commonly associated with being fashionable and 'cool' among young men, as well as the tattoos which are typical for current musicians. by utilising these features, I have made the band image more believable and in turn, provided potential for them to be popular as they fit in with the desirable musician image at the moment.

Advert research

As part of the marketing for the band, we have to create a magazine advert for the artist and the album.

I have looked at several typical magazine adverts and I have found:

The artist, even if they don’t appear on the cover of the album, they often appear on the advert to sell their image as well as their music, for example, All Time Low. This feature makes it more obvious that it is a product that its trying to sell, as usually the artist is as the centre of selling their products, additionally, as the artists are in the music video featured on the digipak as well as on the advert, it links the two together, further selling their image.

 Another element of the adverts are that it always has the cover of the album in some way to emphasise the product and ensure it is recognisable when people go to buy it. Both Fall Out Boy and Florence and the Machine do this by using the cover of the album as the image for the advert. On the other hand bands such as All Time Low include an image of the cover of the album on the advert somewhere. This is effective as is solidifies the brand of the artist and makes the album more memorable as there is a single reoccurring image for consumers to see.

The obvious feature that is used is a constant typeface. Each artist always has a particular font that is specific to them to ensure that people immediately associate the lettering to the artist.

Additionally, the date of album release and critic reviews also make an appearance on the advert to provide consumers with information on when to get the album, the reviews could act as a comfort for consumers as often people seek out others’ opinions and acceptance before buying things.

I will use all of these features and elements whilst creating my magazine advert, to make it as realistic and successful as possible. 

advert sketches

 

 

I sketched out possible designs and layouts for my advert poster to get an idea of the most effective and realistic layout for it. My first sketch is influenced by other adverts I have looked at, as well as influenced by the aesthetic of polaroid photographs as polaroid's are associated with the alternative/indie culture and so matches the genre of the band and the song in particular. I have put the name and album name at the top to instantly inform viewers of what the poster is advertising, also this would make it more recognisable to fans. A typical convention of album adverts is that they have the release date and reviews of the album on the poster to encourage people to buy it. In my sketches, I too have included this as it is key information for my audience.

 

The second sketch is more open, the text is over the background and placed in the spaces between their bodies. The name and album are still at the top of the poster, in the largest font to attract attention to the artist. I feel this sketch is much less successful compared to the other one as it looks just as an image with text on top. with no borders or any other objects to accentuate the band or to make other things stand out, I feel this layout would not catch people's eye and so would not be as successful in marketing the band. 

Mumford and Sons advert analysis