Finished Magazine Advertisement, Digipak and Music Video

I made all the improvements on my digipak and magazine advert, and these are the finished drafts. 

And this is link to the final draft of our music video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibEJZ3-0A0

Digipak and Magazine Advert Feedback

I showed my digipak and magazine advert to a group of people from my target audience and this is the feedback I got. 

• Very nice digipak!
• Digipak fits conventions of the genre
• On digipak could use more Alice in Wonderland things eg. the props used in the video
• Ace!
• Digipak needs credits
• Magazine advert needs purchase options, eg. google play. 
• Love the smoke photographs, look very cool

Overall I am very pleased with the feedback I got. I will add purchase options to my advert, but I am not going to change the images on my digipak to be more Alice in Wonderland themed. This is just because the whole album isn't Alice in Wonderland themed, just the video for the single, and I think it would be misleading if the digipak was based on just one of the songs from the album. 

Magazine Advertisement

I used the A Day To Remember (see below) as inspiration for my magazine advert.

This is my first attempt.

 I used a band image as the background, and edited this to make the people brighter and more contrasting to fit the band's first music video, 'Her Name is Alice', which is quite surreal, colourful, and Alice in Wonderland themed. I then stretched the image to create room so I could fit the band logo, album title, and necessary information to advertise the album. I used a grey background behind the text at the top so that it stood out, and then I put a grey transparent box around the text at the bottom so that it stood out as well. I also put an image of the album front cover so that people knew what to look out for if they wanted to purchase the album.I have also added the record company Atlantic Record's logo because I noticed that the A Day to Remember advertisement that I analysed had a record company logo on it too. 
I used my analysis of existing magazine advertisements to work out what kind of things to include in my advertisement, and overall I am pleased with my first draft.

This is the original photograph that I took.

This is my second attempt, using a different photograph.

This was quite tricky to do and I'm not as happy with it, simply because the band member on the right is brighter than the other because of where he was stood in the sunlight in the original photograph, and nothing I can do will change that. 

To get this picture to look like this I had to play around with the two photographs below. 

I had to crop out certain band members from the photograph I thought they looked best in, then I put them in a new photoshop page with a black background. Then I adjusted the levels, brightness/contrast, and colour balance, on each person individually. Finally, I used the clone tool to clone the grass and background from the original photos, and then I added it behind the band members on my new photograph. Then I did the same as before with the text, the grey box, and the album cover image. 

Digipak Update

This is the first draft of my digipak. 

I edited all my photographs in Photoshop, and then I put them all together and added the logo, barcode, and text in Illustrator. 

I decided to call my album 'Imaginarium' because I thought the 'Her Name is Alice' music video was quite dream-like and so Imaginarium describes that, and then I could really be creative with the photographs I took for my digipak. 

I took photographs of smoke and trees for the panels because they are both in the music video we created, so I thought it would be a good idea to link the digipak to the video, which is a common convention I noticed when analysing existing digipaks. Also I think they fit with the title 'Imaginarium' because it is quite mysterious and dark, which smoke and trees are. 

I decided to use the black and white colour scheme because I thought the music is quite dark and serious rock music, so I thought the black and white would reflect the music. 
I chose the track names because I thought they were all related to the album title Imaginarium so they look like they could be track names for this album. 
I then added the Atlantic Records logo as they are Shinedown's record label, and as we used their song, I thought they would be the best record label to use the logo of. 
I also put a barcode on the back because this is a common convention of digipaks. 

Overall I am happy with my first draft, and I will be asking my target audience for their feedback so that I can make improvements. 

Digipak

This is just a quick update on my digipak. I've been working on it for a while now, and I've decided to do a post about the different things I have been doing to create the different images for my digipak. 

 This is the template I have been using to create my digipak. I wanted to use the 6 panels because I thought it would give me more room to be creative and show off what I can do using more photographs.  

This is the editing process I used to create the panels I have with the trees. The photograph above is the original photograph I took, and then I cropped it and edited it to make it fit with my black and white colour scheme. The editing process is shown in the photograph below in the panel on the right. 

This is the photograph I have edited of the band to be used on the back panel, and I chose to do this because on the digipaks I analysed, most of them had a photograph of the band on the back. I also think this is a good idea because the point of the digipak is to promote the band, and I think having a photograph of the band on the digipak helps to show who the band are and what their image is so that people associate the band members with the music, making the target audience more likely to follow the band and buy more of the music and merchandise. The photograph I used was one that I took on the day we filmed the music video, so it is in the same location. I think this is a good idea because people may have seen the video and then see this picture and associate the photo with the video, making them more likely to buy the CD if they remember liking the music video. 

This is the disc design that I have created. I found it difficult at first to crop it into the shape I wanted, but I experimented with different layers, googled how to do it, and eventually I managed to do it. I am happy with how it has turned out, and when I put the whole digipak together in Adobe Illustrator I will give it a black outline so that it stands out like a disc would in a digipak. Again, the editing processes I did are on the right in the panel. 

These are the photographs I have edited of smoke for my panels. I created them by cropping them, adjusting the levels, making them black and white, adjusting the colour balance, inverting the colours, and then changing the brightness and contrast levels. I will use the first photograph for the background on the back panel, the second for my front cover, and the third for my inside panel. 

Magazine Advert Analysis

I have chosen advertisements that are for 'Rock' bands because our song is by Shinedown and they are a rock band, and the song we chose was a rock song too so these are good advertisements to analyse as mine should be similar to these.
I have decided that I will be creating an advertisement that advertises our band's new album, so I have chosen to analyse advertisements that are also advertising albums so that I can see the common conventions that I should follow with my own.

This advertisement uses the album cover for the album they are trying to promote as the main image on the poster. It also uses the band logo in a font larger than the other text so that it stands out and makes people aware that it is advertising that particular band. The use of the same logo for everything associated with the band is a way of making people recognize the logo so if they like the band they are more likely to notice the logo and spend more money on the merchandise, CD's etc. 

As this poster is advertising the album the key features of the advertisement are: the date the album comes out, the album name, the band logo, and the website for the band. All these things are very clear on the poster so that people can quickly and easily see all the details they need in order to spend money on the band's new CD, which is the aim of the advertisement. 

This advertisement is a little different to the first one because although it is also advertising an album, the album cover is not the key feature of the advertisement. Instead, the band are the main image, and the album cover is just a small square in the corner with a banner with the album title, the date it is released, and a website where you can order the album from. The banner with these details, I think, is a good idea because the bright blue makes the information stand out over the band photograph, and the font that has been used is clear so easy to read, therefore it gives the audience the information needed in order to purchase the new album, which is the purpose of the advertisement. A colour scheme has been used to match the album cover, and this makes the advertisement flow so nothing looks out of place. Another thing that I think works quite well is the way the main photograph has cartoon buildings in the background, because this matches the album cover which is entirely cartoon, so this makes the poster look similar to the album cover, but making it a separate piece of artwork as they haven't just used the album cover again as the background.  

This advertisement uses the album cover of the album it is advertising as the background so that it makes it very obvious straight away that it is advertising 'Nevermind' by Nirvana. The band logo has been used to make it clear that this album is to do with the band Nirvana because if the logo wasn't there then it wouldn't be as obvious that it was for them. The word 'Nirvana' is in the same font that has been used on the album that the advertisement is promoting, and the same image has been used, and these key features  make the poster look like a more expanded on version of the album cover, therefore making people more aware of what the album looks like so that they know what to look out for when the album comes out, making them more likely to buy it. There is a little paragraph about what the product contains, and this helps make the audience aware of what they would receive by purchasing the product, making them more likely to buy it. The band website is also central on the advertisement so that the audience know where they can purchase the product because if it is clear where they can purchase it then they are more likely to buy it. 

Finally, this advertisement features the album cover in the middle of the page and it takes up most of the space so that it is very clear what it is advertising, and therefore people are more likely to recognize the album when it comes out, making them more likely to buy it. The fonts that have been used are all very similar, and they look quite informal but clear so that the poster seems like graffiti, which matches the band's image as they are quite grungy and rock. The advertisement features the band name, the album title, where you can purchase the album, and also it says 'Includes the single Know Your Enemy' which is a good technique because singles are a way of making people more likely to buy the album. This is because if they like the single then they might want to listen to the rest of the band's songs because they might like them too as they might be similar, so they will buy the band's album to see what they think. All this information is effective on advertisements because they give useful information which makes people more likely to buy the album.

Key features of advertisements that are advertising an album

• Album name
• Band name
• Release date of the album
• Colour scheme to match the album
• Album cover
• Band logo
• Website or store name where album is available to purchase
• 'Includes the single...'

Digipak Photographs

I had the idea of taking photographs of smoke for one of my inside panels in my digipak, and so I sat in my room for about 4 hours taking photographs of smoke. I had to set it up really carefully and use black card and the flash in a specific ways to make sure it looked effective, and then I had to crop them so that I got the right parts to look good. I then had to use photoshop to change the levels and colour balance to experiment and make sure the smoke was very light and the background was very dark so that there was a contrast and the smoke stood out.

 

Here are the results.

 

 

 

And these are the original photographs. I had to crop most of the photograph out and only keep the bits at the top because when photographing the smoke I had to half cover the flash so that it only made the smoke lighter and not the background, and because I didn't have the right equipment it was difficult, so it only worked with the top halves of the photographs.

Digipak Analysis

Here I have analysed digipaks for albums that I think are quite similar music-wise as the band that I will be designing my digipak for (Shinedown). 



Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge - My Chemical Romance

The music on this album can be described as Emo Rock, and therefore quite dark and depressing, so the digipak has been made mainly black to connote the depressing nature of the album. The front cover is a painting of a couple with blood on their faces, and this is quite a dark picture as the blood suggests that someone has been murdered, and this links with the album title "Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge" which could mean that someone was murdered for revenge, and they're celebrating that ("Three Cheers"). 

On the back cover there is a photograph of the band all wearing black clothes, which is the image of the band which can be seen in their music videos and other albums because they tend to do quite "Emo-ish" music, so the black clothes, eyeliner look tends to be associated with this. The band name is in a different font to the track names and album name, and this is a thing I have noticed with most albums, so I will take this into consideration when doing my digipak by using different fonts for the different kinds of text within the digipak. 

Hail To The King - Avenged Sevenfold

The music on this album can be described as heavy metal and hard rock, so again this is quite a dark genre and therefore the black digipak has been purposefully been done to match the music and the band's image. There are 6 panels on this digipak and I think I will use this format for mine because I think it will give me more room to put all my ideas on it and it means I can use a variety of photographs rather than limiting myself to just 2 or 3. The front cover actually only has half a picture and actually takes up two panels. I think this is a good idea if you have a symmetrical image but because I will be using photographs rather than a graphic image I don't think it will look as good, so I won't be using this idea. The skull with the wings is actually the band's logo, and I've noticed that nearly all digipaks within this genre have their logo located somewhere on the album, whether it's just the band name in a specific font that is used on all their albums and merchandise, or an image for a logo, so I will look into either designing my own logo, or using the logo that Alex made and we used for our video (I think I'll do that because then it links the video to the digipak). This digipak, like nearly all of the ones I have analysed, has a photograph of the band on the back dressed in dark clothes because that is how the band are always dressed as that gives them their 'dark' image. Different fonts have been used for different aspects of the digipak, so one font has been used for the album title on the front panel and the 'Hail' and 'King' on the inside panels, and then another has been used for the tracklisting on the back panel, and another for the band name on the spine of the digipak. I will use multiple fonts on my digipak because it is a common thing with digipaks to make it clear that all the texts and for different purposes, but I won't make them all too different, eg. one really curly and fancy, and then a straight boring font, because that would look very odd and unprofessional, so I will use fonts similar to the band logo that we already have. 

Fever - Bullet For My Valentine

Bullet For My Valentine are another heavy metal/hard rock band, like Shinedown, so I think they are a good band to analyse the digipaks of. The colour scheme uses dark colours, like black, grey and dark blue, with hints of white used for contrast to make it stand out, and I like this idea because it is effective and makes the audience notice the aspects that the designer wants them to notice. The back panel has a photograph of the band again, and the same things can be see: wearing black clothes to match the band image with the type of music, simple pose so can see the whole band, lead singer further forward than the other band member because they are the front man, and they all look very serious because the band are a serious band. On the inside panel there is also a photograph of the band, but this time they have all been photoshopped together, and I like the idea of having photographs on the other panels of my digipak, but I don't want to use a band shot because I think they only need to be on the digipak once, so instead I will think of other things I can photograph that relates to the band and their music on the album. The text is in white to stand out on the black backgrounds, and the band name is in the same font that is on all of their albums, so this helps people remember the band and so whenever they see the logo they will think of the band, which is a good technique because it means people are more likely to remember the band and keep spending money on their products. A different font has been used for the album name 'Fever' and the tracklisting, which makes it clear that the different texts are for different purposes so the audience don't get confuse about what all the text is for. 

All American Nightmare - Hinder

All American Nightmare by Hinder is a hard rock album and the digipak is very obvious that it is that kind of album because it follows the conventions of a typical rock album digipak. The woman in the picture on the front cover is covered in tattoos as tattoos are associated with rock music, and on the back cover there is a photograph of the band which is typical for rock albums. The colours that have been used are all quite dulled down, making them look more dirty, and this links again to the rock music because you wouldn't typically see bright pinks and blues on rock digipaks, and also dull red, white and blue have been used because the album title is "All American Nightmare" so the colour scheme links to the album title. The font that has been used for the album title is very similar to the one that has been used for the tracklisting, and then a different font has been used for the band name on the front cover, and this is because the band name has to look the same on each of their albums so that their audience recognises that it is by them in an attempt to make sure that people remember the band and buy their albums. 

Temper Temper - Bullet For My Valentine

This digipak is different to the others, but it is still an album with the same kind of music a Shinedown (rock/metal) and although it is different to the ones that I have analysed, lots of digipaks are actually like this one. The reason why it is so different is because it doesn't have a photograph of the band on it at all. This isn't something I will be doing because my digipak is for a new band's first album, whereas this band (Bullet For My Valentine) have a few albums out, and this is their fourth studio album, so they don't need a band photograph because people already know what the band look like, whereas when new bands come out they want people to see they so they can see what they're like and associate the music with the band members, making people want to spend more money on things associated with them. The colour scheme is red and white, which is quite different for a rock/metal album as they usually go for dark colours (black, grey, dark red etc.) because rock music and their fans tend to be quite dark. The band name is the same font as it always has been on their albums, making it memorable and recognisable for the fans, and it also makes it stand out from the other text on the digipak. The other fonts are fairy plain so that it can be easily read so people can read it and tell other people about it, because if they couldn't read it then they won't remember it and then they won't tell their friends, which is bad as the band wouldn't get much money.

Overall ideas I have taken for my own digipak: 

• Dark colour scheme works well with the rock/metal music. 
• Photograph of the band on the back panel for a breakout album.
• Use photographs related to the album title.
• Different font for the band name and use the same font for all merchandise and advertisements, and then different readable fonts for album title and track names etc.
• Create a band image as it's the breakout album so the band need their own look. Tends to be black clothes and serious/moody so people know what the band is about.

Final Draft!

Here is the final draft of our music video for Her Name is Alice by Shinedown.

As I was in charge of cinematography when we filmed our music video I had lots of responsibility in choosing the camera angles I wanted to film certain clips from. These are a few of my favourite ones because I think they look most effective. 

I like the low down close up of the feet and I also like how its filmed at an angle so that we can see the feet in the mirror before they appear at the side of the screen. 

These pictures are stills from my favourite clip in the whole video because it starts off with Alice in focus and the key on the tree blurry, and then I changed the focus manually so that the key goes clear and Alice goes blurry. I think this is effective because it makes the audience notice Alice first and then the key, making the shot more interesting. 

 

 

I also like the shots of the band members when they are holding the cards, and I like how I did some mid shots and then close ups and then changed which part of the people I filmed, and then Rosy edited them together to create a really interesting clip. 

Differences in Each Draft of Our Music Videos!

This post is dedicated to the differences with each of drafts we did for our music video. I will outline the main changes that we made because we felt they made our music video the best it can be.

First Draft
When filming our music video we had a very detailed storyboard to follow (courtesy of Rosy!) so we knew all the shots we wanted, but when we looked back at our footage, some of it hadn't worked out as we wanted it, especially the field shots as they were filmed at the end of the day and so the lighting wasn't great. We managed to find some other shots we had filmed to replace it, so instead of zooming in and out of Alice's eyes at the beginning and end, we zoom in on the pack of cards she is holding, and then she is just standing in the field on her own at the end, but we had to increase the brightness of these shots as there was very little lighting and she was barely visible. We also used slow motion shots of the band walking to their instruments at the beginning to give the band a bigger part in their video as it is supposed to be their music video, not Alice's. 
Throughout the video there are lots of shots of the band, and we added a flicker effect to make them stand out from the other shots, but when we got our feedback we found that our target audience didn't like this, as they thought it looked unprofessional, so we removed it and instead upped the contrast and brightness of these shots. 
Rosy was in charge of the editing when Alice is playing chess by herself, as she thought up this idea as she knew how to do it, so we were impressed when she showed us what she had done. I had filmed it, and so if I had filmed it wrong, ie. moved the tripod between shots, then it wouldn't have worked so effectively. 
We improvised a few shots on the day which I thought turned out well, for example, the shots of Alice stood in a field and rose petals falling on her in slow motion, and Alice laying down on the floor with rose petals surrounding her, and I like these because they show a softer side to the dark Alice we chose to portray. 

Second Draft
The second draft was completed on the same day as the first one after we had received feedback from our target audience, so we removed the flickering effect on the band and instead brightened them and upped the contrast. We also swapped a few clips around to make the video more dramatic and I think this was successful. 
We synced up some of the lyrics that weren't spot on, and finally we went through the whole video and checked for black clips where the clips weren't close enough, and when a simple cut wasn't very effective we used the crossfade transition to make it flow better, making it smoother to fit with the Alice in Wonderland theme.

Third Draft
At the end of the video we noticed that when we flickered between Alice on her own and then Alice with the Mad Hatter and Alice with the band, one shot of Alice showed her with lighter skin than the other, so we adjusted the colour balance to make her look the same in all the shots. 
We also added more crossfades as we felt it still didn't flow as well as it could, but we kept some fade to black shots when going from Wonderland to the real world, in an attempt to differentiate between the two worlds. 
There was a shot of the teaparty which we felt went on a bit too long, so we added a close up shot of some teacups to fit with the tea party setting but to have a variety of shots, making it more interesting to watch. 
We received some quite specific feedback concerning the band because some people felt that the band weren't dramatic enough, so we swapped some shots around and made the band look more dramatic and energetic, with slow motion clips of the singer singing and close ups of the band playing their instruments at the correct times. 

Final Draft
In our final draft we made very slight changes, so we just adjusted the saturation on a few images, and then when there is a shot of Alice throwing the powder paint and spinning we zoomed in on it a bit so that she was framed a little better. We are very happy with this draft.

Third Draft!

Here is the third draft of our music video that we have finished today.

Feedback!

This is the feedback we received when we showed our second draft to the group of year 9 students that we originally showed our pitch to. 


Effective camera work.
Good - Really liked the shots where you focused in and out, and the speeding up/slowing down of shots.
Really good! :)

I liked the props and the smashing, glitter, smoke etc. It portrays the dark effect. 

Good slow motion cup scenes.
Well set out, well planned and portrayed.
Very good! :)
I liked the narrative in the different parts and the things getting smashed up looked really good.
Good location and props.
Song fits, good editing, good location, fits the Alice in Wonderland Theme.
I liked the coloured powders.
Seemed professional/well made.
Good ideas, good setting, matched the song.
I loved the outfits because they really fitted the song and it's a really good music video.
I liked that you had the same person playing chess on both sides. 
The music was good and the video fitted it really well.
I thought that the mirrors and the "blood" pouring into the cup was good. 
Very detailed and co-ordinated, very good overall, no negatives.
Good song, well set out, like how you have done it in slow motion at some parts.
It's really good :)
Good ideas and good camera angles.
Good costumes and setting.
Flashing images and people appearing was very interesting and made it a lot better. 
I particularly liked the powder paint and the smoke. 
I thought that it was really good and reflected the song's feeling. 
It was good but it would be cool if you threw a rock at the bass drum to break the skin but that could be expensive. 
Could have had a bit better acting but it was good.
Certain images may require darkening in order to fit the genre and theme.
Get a variety of different camera angles for each shot, also flit between some shots a bit quicker.

More flashing images maybe? More rock like if you do flashing images. 

Could use a freakier set.
I thought that making Alice overturn the dinner table would have suited.
Maybe do a scene where it's quite dark to make it seem more dark and mysterious.
The song is very dramatic so more action would be better such as a fight at the table.
Could have a birds eye view for more camera angles.
Could make it more scary.
She should look in a long mirror then start smashing it.
At the end it should show her finding the way out of the forest and smiling. 
Band could be a bit more enthusiastic.
Words too out of time with the singer.
A bit repetitive on the scenes, needs something a bit different.

Editing!

We have all worked together these last two days and have followed Rosy's detailed storyboard, which means that we have managed to finish two drafts of our music video! 

This is the first draft. 

We then showed it to two groups: a year 12 class, and our year 13 media class. We chose these classes because we wanted to get the opinion of people in the age range of our target audience, and also the year 12's could give just a general typical audience opinion, whereas the year 13's could give us more technical feedback as they are A2 students like us and they are going through the same task us so they might have good ideas for us to improve. 

We then made some changes based on the feedback we received, and this is our 2nd draft. 

Filming!

We did our filming on Sunday (22nd September) and we were out from 10 till 7, so it was a long day, but it wasn't too stressful as the band members helped carry props, and we had an extra friend who came to help us. 

The green trees are the woods where we filmed the video. We had to carry our props and equipment to the different parts within the woods, but luckily we got all the shots from the storyboard done in one day, as well as some extra ones in case we didn't like the way some of the planned ones turned out.
Because we were smashing things and we were in a tricky location (and Alex had some pretty high shoes on!), we had to be very careful so that none of us got hurt. We made sure that when people were smashing things they stood far enough away, and when we had finished the shot, Sam (the guy who acted as the lead singer) cleared all the broken pieces away. And with regards to the tricky location and Alex's shoes, we all took it slow when climbing up the woods and over obstacles like rocks and trees, and Alex took an extra pair of shoes that were flat so when she wasn't being filmed she would be able to be safe. 

Overall I am really pleased with how the filming went, and we were so lucky to have great weather. The sun came through the trees and made the shots look very bright and wonderland-looking, which was great because we didn't plan that and it means we won't have to add too many effects in the editing process. Now I can't wait to get it all edited so we can see the finished product. 

Storyboard and Shotlist!

Rosy was in charge of our storyboard, and she put a lot of detail into it so we know exactly what we're filming and where we put it when editing it. 

She also did a shotlist in the order that we're filming it on Sunday so that when we film it I know exactly what I'm filming and hopefully we can get it filmed quickly and smoothly.