Magazine Advert Ideas & Conventions

For our magazine advert to look as professional and authentic as it could be our group decided that we need to incorporate the following into it; the title of the album, the image of the album, reviews, the Artists website, a design similar to the Album, links to purchases places, ratings, an image of the artist, CD logo and a selection of cross media platforms. These are the common features of all magazine adverts.

The common conventions of Indie Adverts are normally that they have the appearance of being designed with a vintage feel and artistically which overall tends to be quite simple but creative. I believe that an image such as a photo of the artist with a vintage tint would really show that it is from this genre, which is used mostly in Indie. There is often a link to the Artists website or their twitter accounts so they can be easily connected with the artist. 

The two types of magazine advert are either artist or album focused adverts; meaning as our artist is still not hugely well known and is still very independently run, our advert will be artist focused. Our advert must link with the Digi pack and relate to each other, at best they can.When choosing the right image, font and content for our magazine advert, it is important we include and take into account the content above.

Equipment

In order to film our music video in professional and high standards, it is important that we use a well equipped camera that will help our shots look great.


This camera that is shown is the one we will be using as it enables us to film in HD quality, which will allow us to film some decent close ups and good footage of the scenery we would like to include. It is a handheld cannon camera and is provided by the Media Department at school. As we now intend to film some POV shots, it will become very useful to us as it is very lightweight and easy to use. The camera can also be fitted onto a tripod which will enable us to keep the camera still whilst filming and pan or track around different scenery's and subjects.

Another piece of equipment that we have already used to take the photos for our digi pack is a digital Nikon D3100, which is a great camera to use as it can perform some high quality shots and you can use many techniques with it. As it is my own camera I had already had experience with it which sped up time. The camera is very good as taking close up shots, out of focus and shots that heighten the background which is what we need for our digipack photos.

POV Filming

During filming we discovered that we were lacking in shots of the couple together. Therefore in order to build the narrative of the song, this was vital, as it would give a personal feel to the video. Our inspiration came from Calvin Harris' music video for 'I Need Your Love'. In that video , the point of view camera technique is used which we felt would be suitable for our video.

Whilst filming, we experimented with this technique in everyday situation with the love interest included. For example, the male (Danny) filmed the two of them sipping coffee at a cafe which looks as though they are having a laugh and so brightens up the video. We then uploaded the POV clip to the Mac and inserted it into our video which we thought looked really good. Therefore we have decided that we should film some more similar clips for the narrative to run more smoothly. Locations could include, in bed, walking in the outdoors, a park.
The POV shot is a brilliant way for us to bring the video to life as it really builds up the characters in the video. Developing the characters also allows us to enhance the narrative and so we end up making a video that can relate to our audience.

Indie Digipak Elements

From research and analysing various Indie digipaks, I have gathered together some conclusions of the elements that are used within their album covers.

Overlay Test Run

Below shows our experimentation with the overlaying technique.

When editing on Final Cut Express, we attempted to overlap the both the scenes onto one another to give the effect of seeing the past and present in one shot. However whilst overlapping the images, the shots of the characters wasn't very clear, with a fuzzy, unrealistic feel to them. Therefore we decided to incorporate both the images together in the middle, although I am not sure whether this technique works well as I can easily notice the line in the middle where we split the scenes and joined them together. But I think if we keep the clip of the scenes with the overlay effect short but compelling as the audience will notice that the same character is in the shot twice.

Results Of Split Screen Test Run

To test whether the split screen idea works well with similar scenes to our music video narrative choice, we conducted a time to use the camera and film four different scenes. These include one showing the couple together, one when apart from each of them alone and one filler split screen which in our music video we intend to possibly show a performance scene such as a close up of a guitar. I think this idea works well especially the filler split screen as the listener's eyes are drawn to the close up although the split screen works effectively as the audience can choose a scene to lay their eyes on as they all tell part of the story. We chose the park to test this idea as it provides us with a playful experience as well as the natural scenery which is what we are aiming for in our music video.

Using this idea at the beginning of our music video would be a good choice to make I believe as it brings to the audience the interest of the video and draws them into the narrative of the music video.

Practice Filming Dates

Before we film our final idea of our music video, we intend to practice some of the techniques that are required for our final video such as the overlay and the split screen effects. On Wednesday 23rd of October, we have found a good time to experiment these filming techniques as we either have no lessons all day or only one in the morning. This practice will give us the knowledge and practice of how we will film and edit the real thing, also when filming the final product, the knowledge of how these filming techniques work will hopefully save time.

Overlay Technique

As a group, we have decided to attempt the overlay technique in our music video which we got inspiration from Olly Murs' music video for 'Dear Darlin', where he uses an identical location and overlays his image to therefore identify how him and his girlfriend acted when they were together and the good times they had. This was done with Olly in the room, sitting on the sofa whilst lip syncing. I really like this effect and I think it would work well with our music choice as its a similar narrative of looking back at the good times of the love story. In order to succeed with this idea, we would have to film it twice in the same location with the camera still running throughout the scene, then we would edit it on Final Cut Express and cut, overlay and alter the opacity of the image to make it subtle but effective. 




This technique is very common in Photography where the artist has used Photoshop to create an overlap of photos. An artist that specialises in this area, Ho Ryon Lee, demonstrates the texture of photography being used and reproduced which is defined as photorealism (photo-like picture), so he took several photos of a model standing in a specific pose; the photos are then composed together via photoshop, and Ho Ryon then paints his finalised product on canvas. 

Outdoors/ Guitar/ Urban-Natural

John Mayer's video, 'Queen of California' contains all three of these factors which we are interested in using within our video, we know we want to incorporate the outdoors and the guitar; an idea of binary opposition and a contrast of an urban-natural setting is an idea we liked. As you can see on this music video the guitar features at the start, and as he is walking through the streets it changes to walking through a forest; his outfit and accessories change throughout this also, which I found very exciting and fun. 

Indie Music Videos

In order to gain more knowledge of what Indie artists music videos contain and how they interpret their music into a media text, I gathered some examples together of various sub genres of the Indie genre such as acoustic indie, pop indie, indie rock etc. This will help when coming to film my own music video, I know what a typical sub genre tends to involve.

Indie Pop:

A great example of a typical pop indie song/artist's music video for that genre, is Foster The People's 'Pumped Up Kicks' where the video uses great coloured filter effects to make the scenes seem more vinatge, old and symbolise their indie genre. They tend to throughout the video, use red, green, blue and yellow as the light filters over the camera, created when editing the music video. This provides a natural feel to the video, especially at the beginning where they have intentionally made the introduction seem old and vintage with the style of the scene. This music video particuarly falls into this genre perfectly as there are quite a few scenes and shots of the band performing presenting their instruments.

Indie Rock: 
A great example of the sub genre of Indie rock is The White Stripe's 'Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground', which involves the artist lip syncing in his own style as well as showing a typical musicians lifestyle through mise en scene and effects. For example, it looks as though throughout the video, a big party is being shown through a projection image portraying the lively times from the previous night.



Acoustic Indie:
Lastly, I researched Indie Acoustic, as this is one of the main sub genres my group and I are most interested in basing our music video around. I think Lewis Watson's 'Bones' falls into this category perfectly with the light but upbeat acoustic sounds. The music video along with this song demonstrates acoustic indie well as it shows an effectively narrative with simple but great fillers and shots. I think this video can definitely relate to our chosen music artist and this video could be a good one to look into.

Music Video Analysis

Mika - We Are Golden




'We Are Golden' by English singer Mika was released in 2009 which like his other music is known to have a very lively feel. It involves a variety of bright and bold colours throughout the video which tend to symbolise Mika as an artist and his unique style which always manages to attract attention. The main plot of the video consists of Mika dancing and singing about in his bedroom in which he expresses himself fondly by performing his music to the camera through lip synchronisation. He portrays the sense of 'fun' and 'freedom' whilst showing a collection of items and toys which seem to be vintage and old fashioned; representing the 'Golden Years' which the song is based on. The music video is cleverly done, as it successfully manages to attract a variety of people, from young to old through the bright colours and the contrast of currant and past times shown in the items and the design of the setting. 

Mika's genre is based on rock/pop music especially in this song which provides fast melodic music with the meaning of the lyrics being based around how to live life to the full and how our age group is the 'Golden' age therefore we should enjoy life. 

Camera:
- At beginning, first shot, close up of casset presenting 'Mika' on the front telling and reminding the viewers who the artist is. This also implies that the music video is based in the past, as cassets are known as old compared to Ipods or CDs.
- Establishing shot at beginning, showing the audience the setting of the video, you also see Mika jump of the bed implying he's like a child especially with the props in the room and the costume he's wearing.
- Another close up of the casset showing the name of the song to the viewers. -gives a long introduction to the audience, provides eager and interest.
- Low angle of camera to indicate powerfulness of Mika, child like as seems like camera is on the floor looking up at him.

- Aerial shot of him on the colourful carpet in his bedroom, showing the bold colours, he look up at camera, central and eye line is towards you as if he wants you to come and join.
- Shots displaying Mika (seeming to hang from the camera lens) and fly around when creating the sense of carelessness.



Mise En Scene:
- Gold boots shown in establishing shot at beginning, identifies the unique, adventurous and ambitious style Mika takes on. - recognition of a young feel to the video.
- Long shot of bedroom establishing the setting of the video. -shows the child like feel of the video, very bold and contrasting colours, individual style which creates the fun and freedom element of the video.
- Fairly messy bedroom, indicates the stereotypical boys bedroom.

Editing:
- Cutting rate fairly fast, cuts to each toy/item in room in time with drum/beat of song. -provides interest of toys for audience, -can't keep up, intriguing.
- Some shots are sped up demonstrating the child like approach that Mika is showing, like a kid running, full of energy.