final album cover

The two images above our the final outcome for our album cover. From previously in our blogs because of the saturation and colour effect for the image we used the colour of the balloons went pinky and was obviously evident that the colours from the balloons on the music video and the album cover were different so by using photoshop we were able to change the colour to the colour of the balloons on the video. We didnt want to loose the effectiveness of the bold and striking image for our front cover so we kept the writing of the artist and title of the album simple and small where we the audience were still able to see the titles but the image wasn't lost. The titles are eyecatching because of the black of the writing contrasting against the light blue of the sky and also by having the dashes either side of the artists name instantly make the eye of the audience go to the title, and also because the 'z-effect' where the audience eyes automatically go to the top left corner and then look at the rest of the cover. Again we didnt want to loose the audiences eye on the image as its so striking so we used a simple transperant sticker in the bottom corner, we wanted to add the song we used for our music video to promote the current single so by using this promotion effect we linked both the print material and music video together.

text in digi-pak

we struggled to think of the writting that would be in our digi-pak, as we have alot of images that we could use but not enough writing that could be put into these images, however when doing further research into digi-paks, coldplays album 'Mylo Xyloto' the digi-pak included all images and then for each image represented one of the songs on the album, where they included the name of the title and then the vocal, prouducing and directing names also. Even though we wont be including an image on every page we think this is an effective to link all the songs and images with the digi-pak together.


for example this is what it would look like when using this effect in our digi-pak.
i think this is an effective way to include credits and courtsey thanks in our digi-pak, it doesnt look the boldness of the image as the writing it sutle yet stands out against the background.

magazine advert

we want to use the images that we used within our location scouting as we though these images were very striking and really summed up the mood and atmosphere that we had portrayed throughout our music video and the message we used for these particular scene shots that explained the story behind the song. We used the ideas from the 'Mumford and Sons' advert where they used separate images of the same scenery to link all the band members together and I think the scenery we have within the setting of our music video fits quite similar to what is shown in the other artists advert. Again we used inspiration from our photos that we took when on location, the image of the 'root of memories' advert on a billboard shows how we took inspiration on the layout with the girl in the middle and the photos on the outside almost looking like a set of postcard which again fits with the location of the setting which is associated with the seaside.

 

 

 

from this photo it is think this is a good layout for the type of advert that would fit within our artist album, it a very relaxed and warm billboard advert which would fit within the mood of our magazine advert. We liked the idea of having the girl of being the main focus of the advert as her standing with the balloon as become the main iconic image that audiences will recognise as the bands symbol for this particular album as it is both in the music video and on the album cover which are both striking and eye catching images so we thought it would only be appropriate to use the same image as well for the advert. The typography of the image is sutiable for the picture of the advert and I think this is something that we would need to take in mind, but we would need to use the same font which would link all the print products together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is a rough copy of what we thought our advert would look like, the black and white images fit for the album and particular the song in the music video as we have used the black and white in our shots so again we are using the iconic images with our music video and linking it within our print products, I think by using the black and white images is really effective as it makes the oval image of the girl and the red balloons stand out, however when making the final magazine cover we need to ensure we blend or feather the image of the coloured image so it doesnt look disconnected from the background images.

The text on the magazine advert of the artists name 'Elliott Guy' needs to be reworked again- i like the fact is bend around the image of the oval but again like the coloured image currently looks disconnected from the all the images.

 

 

 



adverts

The Mumford and Sons advert follows the same theme from its CD cover which links all the print material products together making it more of a brand for this album. Its a simple advert with a black background which makes the images in the foreground stand out and catch the eye of the audience. This is something we could introduce into our advert as the image we are using is the same to the album cover which is originally quite a striking and stand out image so by adding a dark background to make it pop out more will make it even more striking towards the audiences eye. The images follow the conventions of the genre of indie pop as it is very natural and outdoor imagery, the harshness of the black is almost toned down because of the lightness and softness of the images infront. Having the four seperate images in one poster is effective as even though they are different images they are all of the members of the band which brings them altogether as one, and also the setting of the background in these individual photos are similar with the field and sunset in the background which again brings the photos together as one. The images are crooked which implies the quirkness of the band, and shows a more relaxed nature of the band instead of being in order and everything has to be perfect which reflects the bands attidude in their music.
The advert uses the 'z' effect as the last image in this effect is the main singer and his image is much brighter than the other images showing that he is the lead singer and also faintly in his image there is a faded picture of all the band together which sums up all the band members as one.
The typography on the advert is the same font to their album cover again linking all the products as one to make that name their iconic image that their audience will regonise them by. This writing is followed throughout the advert, and I like the idea of having a critics quote from a magazine which will promote the band, bringing in more audiences to listen to their music and also using the box off part with the famous songs that they are most popular for will make more people want to listen to the album/tour as these songs as well known golbally.

Comparison with AS Level Media Project

From last year i believe that my level of research and analysis detail has become stronger, and due to the amount of research that I have conducted allowed me to look more in depth into music videos more and really see what makes specifically our genre of music the video that identifies itself as that genre. Which I think in my previous project I didn’t go into depth into how a romantic comedy works and how the openings set themselves out instantly to be a stereotypically rom-com film. Researching music videos such as: Ellie Goulding and Ben Howard allowed us to see the conventions and typically camera shots/movements that are used in this genre of music videos, this showed us and made us think ahead clearly in how and where certain shots would fit and the way in which we would do this. This is shown by our rough copies on our blogs where we used the camera angles/movements that we see in these videos and put it and see how it would come across in our ideas before shooting the final project. I believe this preparation allowed us to visualise more clearly in how we wanted our music video to come across and also the way in which our storyline would suit different camera shots. Again we didn’t really use this type of preparation in our last project which I think when coming to shooting the final outcome even though we planned and had a storyboard we didn’t have the knowledge and understanding in how some camera shots and movements worked and the best way they would in interpreted in our opening of a film. From researching and analysing these music videos in detail and using screenshots to bring evidence and also visual help when looking back helped me see the vitual and typical shots used within the vidoes.
We heavily researched the location for our A2 level music video, we wanted to use the conventions that were seen within the music videos we studied and in all the videos we saw it was very natural and had an outdoor setting, keeping this in mind we wanted a striking and unique location to keep within these conventions. Having the location on South Shields beach saw how we wanted to reach outside of our comfort zones as in our previous location in our AS project we filmed in one of the groups house which was easy and efficient to use. Filming in South Shields had a great deal of planning as we would regularly go out on location scouting and planning ahead of the weather as we were filming in November which sometimes had us delaying filming due to weather, so we frequently had to keep up to date when leading up to filming days, also we had to consider back up plans if we ran out of time to film so again we had to scout places that may be a fall back idea if needed. I think this location was ambitious and brave for us to do as we had no control over the weather or how the surroundings of the location would be contrasting with our previous location of being in the house where we could simply set up our back drop and props.
In the editing stages I think both groups within AS and A2 projects have been quite strong, I think because it was our first time using the programme last year we didn’t have a lot of knowledge in how to properly use the editing but gradually over time during the AS course we figured out how to use the editing effectively which I think is shown in the ending of our opening film as it is a very striking sequence and stands out. Due to the knowledge we discovered when using the programme previously we were more confident using the programme in A2, in our last project we got told we used ‘cross dissolve’ too much which made some transitions look out of place, we took this in mind and concentrated on the lyrics and melody of the song and listened closely to which transition would fit effectively in certain places and making sure we use various effects to keep a flowing movement throughout the course of the music video. We wanted to be more ambitious within our editing and I think this is clearly shown comparing to our AS Level project. We spent weeks editing the different effect with the black and white colouring for the beach and the home-video effect for the couple scenes and concentrating on where each shot would work where, and also the prominent symbol of the balloon which is a significant image throughout the video which is representing the girls characters love for the balloon. I think because of the amount of research we conducted allowed us to think more into different symbols and colour connotations that would worked within our music video, which was less evident in our AS level project.

To improve further I think by asking the opinion of the audience back will help us see more clearly what the consumers of these genres would want to see within what they are viewing, we did do this within our A2 and AS project but I think by using constant feedback will give us a clear indication into what we should be filming and especially with our print material in our A2 project the audience would want to see and what they feel would fit within this artist.