Final Magazine Advert +Analysis.

Our Magazine advert has changed vastly from our practice. We have changed not only the image but the layout. We also did more research into other magazines opinions of our artist to get a better insight of what other people think of her. WE also chose an image that was more natural and suited our artist more, we also added a picture of the front of our digi-pak as this makes it recognisable to our audience.

Final Digi-Pak

Front and Back of our Digi-pak.

Middle sections of Digi-Pak.

Above are all the sections of our digi-pak, from our practice digi-pak we have not changed that much apart from enhancing certain things and adding a further middle section, the CD design.

We tried to keep all the font the same to avoid confusion and stuck very closely to our neutral colour palette that we like to keep to as this portrays our artist very well.

Practice Magazine Advert.

Above is our practice version of our magazine advert. We have researched into other magazine adverts of our artist and other artists in our genre, which helped us collect ideas on what to put in our magazine advert.
We wanted to keep our magazine advert simple but striking, so not to much is going on and the focus isn't taken off the artist. We used a 'swirly' font as this the font we are using on our Digi-Pak so it keeps it within a theme of our artist. The rest of the font is in a generic magazine font as this keeps the conventions of a magazine advert, however the font is more suited to a pop artists advert rather than an Indie Folk one.
We wanted to make the image of the advert striking and eye catching, so that if you was looking through a magazine and you saw this it would make you stop and look. We didn't do many changes to the original picture as we wanted it still look natural, despite the makeup being heavier, to keep in the genre and theme of how we have presented Lissie.
From this practice we can see what we could do to improve the quality for our final magazine advert. Some things we need to add are; more information on the EP/Artist, A small picture of the album cover to show the audience what it looks like, we also need to add the record company logo and possibly highlighting songs of the EP.

We will ask peers and other people for feedback on our practice to see what we can improve on for our final magazine advert. This will be beneficial to us as we wil get a better idea of what other people are looking for; especially if we ask people in our target audience.

Practice Digi-Pak

After doing suffident reasearch and analyising of Digi-Paks of both our artist and a different artist in our genre we have started to make our digi-Pak. We have created a practice digi-pak as we are unsure of the certain things such as the colour scheme etc so we would like to get feedback on it. There are still many things to be added to the Digi-Pak so by doing a practice it allows us to do further research and also get peer feedback to find out what we should include on our Final Digi-Pak.

On our practice Digi-Pak we have a front cover, mid-section booklet and the back cover listing the songs, credits and other information such as the barcode, and record company logo. These are all the necassary parts to uinclude in a digi-pak of our genre, however we have many things we still need to change, such as adding the artists website and the information stateing that there is bonus features. We are also thinking of changing the middle section to a plain background otherwise there is too much to look at and it will be very visually out of control and not appealing to people. So therefore in our real Digi-Pak, the colour scheme will be more neutral however have soem rich colours, such as the back track listing, as from the other artists digi-paks we have analysed, such as Mumford and Sons, keep there digi-paks neutral but have a slight richness in colour in a certain part of the Digi-pak, in our case, the back cover.

We will be asking for feedback on our practice Digi-Pak from peers and record it, to see what we can change about it.

Potential Magazine Pictures.

As we need many choices for our magazine advert, we took a series of pictures to help narrow down our choice. In most of the pictures our artist is wearing a red maxi skirt and a loose jumper as this is very conventional for our genre of Indie Folk. In one of the pictures our artist is wearing a white dress on a white bed surrounded by pictures as this could relate our video. The makeup on our artist is the complete opposite to what our artist has in our music video as it was very neutral. The hair on our artist is almost the exact same however we have parted it differently so that there if some difference from how it is in the video. We are unsure as of now which picture we will be using but will play around with most of the pictures to get a good idea of what we want.

First Ideas for Digi-Pak and Magazine Advert.

After doing research on both a Digi-Pak and Magazine advert of  artist in our genre and Digi-Pak and Magazine advert research of our particular artist, we have come to the point where we can begin to get ideas for our  own Magazine advert and Digi-Pak. We need to stick with the conventions of our genre such as neutral colour scheme and simplicity plus relating it to our video, but we also want it to be different and be able to show a different side of our artist, the side that wasn't shown in our music video.

First Ideas for Digi-Pak:

•  Pictures relating to beach (I.E- Artists feet in water/ Standing by the sea)
• Elegant font
• Very focused on the artist
• Related to the music video
• Also Forest pictures (I.E- Artist sitting on low tree branch)
• Pictures for the inside cover
• Quite Simple
• Plain track listing (back cover)

Whether or not we will stick to most of these ideas we have is unsure. We will be doing a practice Digi-Pak as this will help us establish what we actually want from our Digi-Pak.

First Ideas for Magazine Advert:

• In the forest, Our artist surrounded by Candles
• In the forest, Our artist surround by pictures used in music video
• Screen Grab of music video
• Album cover on plain background
• Lying on a white bed, in white dress, surrounded by pictures
• Artist on plain background 'posing'/ 'smiling' naturally
• Being outside in an open field
• Same font as Digi-Pak for Artists name
• Generic Magazine writing for other parts

Likewise with our Digi-Pak ideas, we are unsure on whether we will use these most of these ideas or not, but like mentioned this will help us the establish what we would actually like to put on our magazine advert.

Most of the above ideas we have fit well into the conventions of our genre and matches the persona of our artist we have created. We have based these ideas off of both the Digi-Paks and Magazine Adverts we have researched into and analysed.

Magazine Advert Analysis- Lissie

This is a magazine advert for Lissie and her upcoming album. We will be analysing the following to see if Lissie magazine advert meets all the common factors that should be used when making a magazine advert:

1. Name of band/ artist and album
2. Date of album release
3. Band/artist image/ style
4. Featuring songs
5. Form of release (CD, download)
6. Either photograph or artwork as main image
7. Record company
8. Bands website – myspace /official page
9. Critical quotes, ratings
10. Set colour scheme

On the magazine advert we could clearly see the name of the artist as it was in big white fancy writing right in the middle of the album, so the viewer can see what the artists name is. There is no particularly name to the album as yet, this could mean it is a self-titled name for the album. 

On this magazine advert there is no set date for the album release but it does say 'debuet album' which means first album so this shows it should be coming out soon this being on the magazine people can remember that Lissie's album will be being released. 

The artists image is simple and natural as she conforms to her 'indie/folk' genre. The lightening is minimal just as the makeup is, this can tell the audience that Lissie is a folk singer just from the way her album looks. Buyers can tell that this album wont be up-beat and have fast songs. The magazine mentions that on Lissie's up coming album will have an exclusive bonus track on there, which will make buyers want to buy so they can access an extra song of Lissie's and people viewing the magazine will see this and be more encourages to buy the CD with the bonus track involved. 

There is a website at the bottom of the magazine article that allows you to download Lissie's songs when they are released and also keep up to date with the singer on her MySpace page. Having a website available on the advert is good for the people reading the magazine who want to find more out about Lissie. 

The photograph taken is of Lissie herself almost running, she looks as if she is in motion. This goes with the indie genre being natural which means natural makeup,hair,clothes and also scenery. Lissie has all of this in her photograph to keep her indie/folk style and to let the readers know that's how she bases her music. 

A record company is included on this magazine advert, Lissie's record company is 'columbia records'. On a magazine article its not always included as some articles may be a interview with the singer and the record company may not be discussed. When researching up about Lissie you can find her record company easily. The quote on this magazine says 'A present day icon for lovers of both blues of folk and country..designed for sunny days and highways'. Having a quote just helps Lissie's reputation it shows the readers that other magazines rate her as well. A colour scheme would be set if the artist was a pop or hip-hop artist but as Lissie is indie/folk the colour is just natural.

From the above analysis it is easy to see what conventions we should specifically be following as this is our artist and her magazine advert. This will make it a lot easier to define what factors we really need to include in our magazine advert so it is specific to our artist.

Magazine Advert Analysis- Ben Howard.

We will be analysing a magazine cover in the same genre as ours. This will help us decide how a magazine cover should look. We will analyse it in terms of:

1. Name of band/ artist and album
2. Date of album release
3. Band/artist image/ style
4. Featuring songs
5. Form of release (CD, download)
6. Either photograph or artwork as main image
7. Record company
8. Bands website – myspace /official page
9. Critical quotes, ratings
10. Set colour scheme

When analysing the magazine cover there was a clear name of the artist (Ben Howard) there also was in clear writing the name of his album ' Every Kingdom'. In bold writing there is a date showing when his tour will be coming up with also underneath the album release. The date's are written in bold as that will catch the audiences eye more than the smaller writing. 
The artist on the magazine cover conforms to the indie folk genre as its very natural and grey and the artist is looking down as if he is 'troubled' or upset. As Ben Howard is a new artist there is no featuring songs on the magazine cover as that is probably distributed on the back of the CD cover for consumers to find out when they buy the album. 
On the magazine cover there is website links such as myspace and Ben Howard's actual website for downloads of his songs and his album. 
The photography for the cover is professional but at the same time quite a simple picture and natural as again this conforms to the indie/folk genre. The scenery he is in isn't too busy to distract away from the writing. Having a simple natural picture can tell the audience who want to buy his music that the tracks wont be fast paced hip-hop songs but more relaxed and subtle ones. 
Ben Howard's record company are called 'Island Records' but they are not mentioned on his magazine cover as the cover is focusing mainly on Ben Howard as an artist himself. The record company would have to be mentioned on his actual album. The websites are mentioned 'My Space' and Ben Howard's fan site they put them on the cover so people know where to buy downloads and so fans of Ben can check what's up coming for the artist. 
On the cover there is a quote by another magazine saying 'Music's next surfing phenomenom'. Having a quote by some other company shows that Ben Howard is liked and recommended by more people than just the magazine he is being advertised on. There is no specific colour scheme on the magazine cover its just a picture of Ben Howard but it conforms to a indie genre. On Ben Howard's album the colour scheme is blue as its his album cover the picture is more outrageous.

From the above analysis of this magazine cover, it has given us a better idea of what we should be including in our own magazine advert for our artist, it also helpsus to see what the conventions we should be basing our magazine advert on, even if we dont follow the convetions.

Digi-Pak Analysis

We will be analysing a Digi-pak of an artist in the same genre as ours, this will determine how a digi-pak in genre should look. We will be analysing it in terms of Text, Pictorial and Design.

Text

When analysing a digi-pak in terms of text we need to take the following into consideration, does the Digi-Pak include:

• Name of the band/ artist.
• Name of the album
• Track listing
• Price
• Bonus Material
• Website
• Credits
• Recording information, producer, where it was recorded and when
• Who wrote the songs.

On 'Mumford and Sons' digi-pak, they include the name of the band and the album at the bottom centre of the cover, this could be so it is at eye level and a central focus. On the back cover in the middle it shows the track listing, this is in bold font to really attract the attention of the audience. Each track is separated by a line so you know which track is which.

On this digi-pak there is no price listing as there would probably be a price listing in the store, it also makes the cover look tacky if there was to have a price on it.

Although the bonus material is not listed on the digi-pak, there is bonus material on the CD, as it states on there website and wikipedia, it lists that there is a bonus track entitled "Hold On To What You Believe" however it is not mentioned on the digi-pak itself.

On this Digi-Pak the artists website is not included, this could be because Indie Folk music has a very niche market that the people buying there album should know of there website, and other contact details such as Facebook pages etc.

The album credits are listed at the very bottom of the back cover in small font, this could be because even though the credits are very important they are not as important as the final product and the audience are not interested in the credits as much as the actual band and its music.

Likewise with the credits, the recording information/producer logos are at the very bottom underneath the credits. They use there logo rather than the name as people will recognise the logo rather than a name in writing.

the information of who wrote the songs is not usually listed on the digi-pak itself as it cheapens the look of the cover, therefore they are usually written inside the digi-pak inside a booklet, this because this could make the artist less appealing especially if they didn't write it themselves.

Pictorial

When analysing a digi-pak in terms of Pictorial we need to take the

following into consideration, does the Digi-Pak include:

• Pictures of the band/ artist.
• Logo
• Bar code
• DVD logo
• Cd logo
• Website banner

On this Digi-Pak there are three main pictures, they are on the front cover, the inside cover and the back cover. The second inside cover is just a plain background with a shape on it, likewise with the actual CD it is plain. This keeps the it simple so there is not much going on. The actual pictures on the Digi-Pak include the band looking like mannequins, however there is only a picture of them on the inside cover and the front cover, the back is kept simple as if anything else was going on the audience probably wouldn't have been able to see the track listing, which would have been an issue. By using the band on the covers it represents who is actually in the band which will help the audience get familiar to the band.

There is no official logo for Mumford and Sons therefore it is not on the Digi-Pak however Mumford and Sons are very well known for the simplicity they put in there design for not only there CD covers but also there other products.

There is a Bar code listed on the back which, for obvious reasons, helps determine the price especially when buying the item, it also makes the Digi-pak look very official.

There are no logos in terms of the band however, it does include the pictures of the production logo, which are located at the bottom of the back cover and on the actual CD, this is so there not huge and in the way so the audience wont be distracted however they are still on the Digi-Pak and are visable so if the audience was interested they would be able to find them.

The website banner of the band is listed in the credits at the very bottom of the back of the CD cover in small font. this could be because the audience who buy there album are probably devote fans and are aware of the artists website already, however if someone was to know there website it could be found on the back.

Design

When analysing a digi-pak in terms of design we need to

 take the following into consideration, does the Digi-Pak include:

• Colour and style to fit
• Artists genre.
• Unfolds
• Cardboard sleeve
• Adverts
• DVD or CD
• Booklet
• DVD/CD case

When looking at this Digi-Pak, it is very easy to determine the genre just by the way it looks. The colour scheme of the Digi-Pak is very neutral and there is only some colour on the front cover, other than this there is very much only a colour scheme of greys, beige's and blacks. On the front cover, where the band is picture, there is more vibrant colours of green and red. This ensures that the front cover will stand out from the other parts of the album as the colours stand out a lot more. By having the band on the front of the Digi-Pak it ensures that they are recognisable to the fans and makes the fans more familiar with the band as people.
The Digi-Pak unfolds into 3 middle sections. This allows the artists to be more creative with there design and gives them more creative freedom by adding more pictures or extra content to there albums. There is no cardboard sleeve to go around the Digi-Pak as it is unneeded. Usually when there is a cardboard sleeve it just copies the front cover of the album, so it is likely that the band decided against it because not only is it a waste, the audience are likely to not have much care for it anyway. There are no adverts shown on this Digi-Pak, possibly because the band might want the main focus of there album to be them, which is understandable as it is there album.
The CD is printed on, however it is only plain black, it has the same design that is on the inside cover, it also has the name printed on the CD. This ensures that the CD stands out against the neutral background used in Digi-Pak. The booklet carries the same neutral colour scheme as the rest of the Digi-Pak and is kept very simple with a classic small design on it which gives the Digi-Pak an elegence. The casing of this Digi-Pak is plastic and clear. This ensures that itis sturdy and not to fragile and also allows the audience to actually be able to see what CD it is.

From analysing this Digi-Pak We have a better inderstanding of what is included in a Digi-Pakof our genre, this will help us create a better Digi-Pak for our artist.

Final Music Video!!

Above is our FINAL music video for Lissie's song 'Here Before'

Music Video Rough Cut + Feedback

Below is the rough cut of our music video Here Before by Lissie. We have cut the first 40 seconds of our video to show the rest of our group, this ensure we get peer feedback on what we can improve and how. It also gives us help in whether people can identify things such as genre characteristics and the type of video.





We have received feedback on our video of both positive and negative. These comments will be constructive and help us to improve our music video in the final stages of editing.

Feedback on our video:

Positive:

• Music compliments Visuals
• Variety of shot types
• Blur/Focusing effects are good
• Scenery is good
• Fade in flows with the 'calm tone' of the music
• Mise-En-Scene fits well
• Fade in matches the song
• Originality
• Slow paced shots go well with song

Negative/Constructive:

• Lighting is a bit bright
• Lighting looks artificial
• Camera is slightly shaky 
• Miming looks a little off
• We cant lose 'flow'

From the costructive criticism given we know now that in the final stages of editing we need to ajust certain things, namely the lighting as we have used colour correction. We need to change our colour correction to look more realistic. In terms of some shots being a bit shaky, we cant go back and re film so we have to deal with the camera being a little bit shaky. Again with the miming we cannot go back to film it so we have to deal with it or adjust it with editing to cover it up a little bit. 

From this critisim we have been able to recognize the negative points of our video and come up with soulutions to help solve these bad points.