Magazine Advertisment 1- Wretch 32

This is a magazine advertisment from the Music Magazine 'NME'. The idea of it is to try and promote and advertise an artists, in this case it is to promote Wretch 32. This particular advert uses an image of the artist himself. This is known as celebrity endorsment. It is a technique used to help sell an artists. In this case, it is also a good idea to use an image of the artist as it allows people to instantly know exaclty what the magazine advertisment is promoting.

Also the use of iconography with his chains hanging from his pocket and baggy clothing helps target the advert towards his target market. By doing this it helps him to ensure he is branching out to his target market, helping him sell more albums.

Typography is used in this magazine advert effedctively too, it fits in with the common theme of the advert whilst being clear and consice, making it easy to read. it also tell skey information, making it very important. In the top right we can see the artists name, along with the new album name directly in the middle of the advert. This is effective as the readers eyes are immidietly sent to this first, also due to it being in slightly bigger font than the rest of the writing. In smaller text we can also see key dates of the release and othe rartist names, which help persuade people to want to go and buy the album and buy tour tickets, another example of artist endorsment.

The use of colour in this piece is fairly limited, the colours are all very bland. The main colours used are dark, such as blacks and grey. This however alongside the white writing means it does stand out very well to the audience. At the top we can find some blue, this helps as it is some colour, meaning the advert doesnt look boring, however not enough to distract the viewers attention from the main aspects of the advert.

Overall, this magazine advert is very simple yet effective. However I do think it coul dbe improved as it isn't clear whether it is advertising and promoting Wretch 32's new album or whether he is releasing tour ticket dates. Therefore this could od with being clarrified to make it a better magazine ad. Also it will ensure that the audience doesnt get confused.

Magazine Advertisment 2- Drake

Unlike the previous advert, this immediately shows what the advert is promoting. It is promoting the release of Drake's new song, 'Nothing was the Same'. By doing this, it allows audiences to immediately understand what the advert is promoting. Also it allows for audiences who are just quickly scanning through the magazine to notice the advert and take in the key bits of information, without paying to much attention. Also it may grab there attention, and make them stop and take there time to read it. By keeping the advert simple, it allows people who are in a rush or even people who maybe aren't Drake's biggest fan to still take an interest as it is quick and easy to read and understand.

Also the large font size shows the release date of the song. This is in white text colour, which is a complete contrast to the background making it stand out and become very obvious to the audience. By doing this it ensures that the audience does notice the release date. In turn, the artist will then hope the audience will remember the date, and upon release date, go out and buy the track. This will then make money for the artists, being the overall aim of this advert.

The image used is a side photo of Drake and another image of a younger looking Drake. They are facing each other, making it look as though they are looking at each other. The background is blue and white, made to look like the sky. The image of Drake and the other image are put in front of this and make it stand out. There isn't much to this magazine advert, but it is very to the point and direct in trying to promote the new single of Drake's.

The advert is very simple and to the point. This means that to an audience it is straight away very obvious what the advert is about. It is effective because it means it doesn't take much to understand it, meaning the audience will engage straight away without giving to much thought about it.

It is interesting to see how different artists promote there new singles or albums. By looking at different advertising campaigns it helps me build up a good idea of key things to include on advertisement for my artist and techniques that will ensure the best possible chance of people watching the music video that will be the main end product and aim of the advertisement. Also it allows me to understand things I should avoid using. From this magazine advert, the main thing I have noticed is the simplicity, and is something that I will consider when producing a magazine advert for the music video I am creating. By doing this, it makes the advert very easy to interpret, ensuring my target audience notices and reads it.

Analysis of Magazine Advertisement: SBTRKT

This is a magazine advertisement I found of our particular artists called 'SBTRKT'. The idea of this magazine ad is to make people aware of the artist. This magazine ad was released when this artist first started, therefore is in a very niche magazine, called Fact. The idea of this would to have been to target a specific market, which would of allowed for the artists music to be heard, by people who have an interest in this particular music. Over time, the artist has became well known and developed his image, now we can find magazine advertisements in larger, more well known music magazines such as NME, Q and MOJO.

The image in this advert is of SBTRKT's trademark mask. The mask has various colour on it and also has what looks like straw coming off the bottom of the mask, and is made to look like a beard. Also we can see the shadow cast from STBTRKT's figure, leasing to the words 'The Small Disea' , which is a refrence to an album of his. By having the shadow leading to the first word, it means it makes the attention of the audiences eye go to these words. Also the contrasting red colour stands out against the dark coloured background, again making the words stand out to the  audience.

We can also see alcoholic beverages in the background, it looks like vodka and lime, which could suggest the album may be related to alcohol or just be a stereotype of SBTRKT.

The advert in general is very simple, and leaves a lot to the imagination of the audience. This therefore means the audience can interpret the advert as they like, meaning that when they listen to the album, it may lead to varying degrees of satisfaction, as it may not have been what the audience expected, or equally could be more than they expected, leaving the audience happy. Overall, I think that this advert could be improved, however I can take some ideas from the advert.

The Positives:

• It is simple meaning that it is easy to follow and understand, this connotes that the music on the album may also be quite simple and relaxed.
• It uses artist endorsement, this is something that me and my group could consider doing on our magazine adverts.
• The shadow leading to the album name is a clever idea, and something we could use in our magazine advert.

The Negatives:

• Very basic, could maybe do with a little more detail to make it clearer to the audience exactly what it is that the magazine advert is advertising.
• The album name isn't the clearest, could do with being in a larger font as after all, this is the main purpose of the advert to make people aware of the new album so that they are aware of it and in turn go and buy it.
• There isn't any other important information, regarding the release date of the album or where it can be purchased.

Digipack by Our Chosen Artist: SBTRKT

The Digipack once it has been unfolded. The CD sits inside the two covers.

Another image of SBTRKT's Digipack.

This is an example of a pre existing digipack that the artist produced and used when they released the SBTRKT album. It is very simple and uses SBTRKT's trademark mask image, along with a dark background that makes the image stand out. On the back of the digipack, we can see white writing on a black background, again a very simple process, however it stands out and makes it easy for the target market to read and understand. The CD itself is unique and is the reverse of the colour scheme, instead of the writing being white, it is black on the CD and the CD is white. This stands out and makes it unique to the digipack. Overall, it is a very simple digipack, but an example of how simple ideas can be used to good effect.

The font used is very basic and simple to read, yet effective. It matches the genre of the music and connotes how the music is going to sound. It looks as though it has been very carefully thought about, and therefore helps the way people initially interpret the album and in turn I feel it helps them know what to expect from the album. Therefore, this shows me that when creating my digipack it is important I carefully think about the font type that I use on both digipack and magazine advert, as these are what people will look at and get an initial idea and base the sort of  music they can expect to hear on. 

The visual imagery that we can see on the digipack is effective as it gives a sense of creativity to the audience. This in turn has a knock on effect and makes the audience consider what it is and what it might be connoting, helping engage the audience with the music they will later here and the digipack itself. The colors used on the digipack are also effective, as the bright yellow and blue stands out against the black background, again helping catch the eye of the audience and get them interested. Overall, the visual imagery is very effective and very unique to anything I've ever seen before on a digipack, therefore I feel it works well and I feel this could be something I could do on my digipack to help it stand out among the crowd so people pick my digipack up before other digipacks. 

By analysing this it allows me to look at some of the generic conventions used which will allow me to get a better understanding on the genre, and therefore what I will need to include on my digipack. Also by looking at previous digipack's from my chosen artist, it can help give me ideas and help influence the sort of product that I produce. Overall it will allow me the best chances to produce an industry standard digipack which will make the product look realistic and give a sense of realism.  I feel like I will take away some good things from this digipack, for example I will ensure the use of bright colors on my digipack, or ones that stand out from the background as I feel this works well in catching they eye of the audience and getting them initially engaged with the digipack. To then keep there attention, I think a unique and creative design is key to ensuring they don't instantly put it back down after the initial excitement. 

Plan for Digipack 1

This is my first design for our digipack. In order to make it I used Photoshop, Word and Paint. The design is very similar to the actual setting of our music video. I did this because I felt it would give the audience an initial feel of the song and music video from just looking at the digipack.

The front cover (bottom right) is of  multiple trees of which sun light is protruding through. This gives it a tense feel, and gives the target audience an idea of what they can expect straight away. At the bottom I have the song title in a dark writing to fit in with the general feel of the image and overall digipack. This is in a large font however in order to catch the eye of the audience straight away. In comparison to this, I then have the artists name 'SBTRKT' going down the right hand side in red colour and large font. I used the colour red as it connotes blood, which again adds to the tense feeling that I am trying to connote to the audience. Overall, I have considered how colour will effect the audience and how I can use it to my advantage to enhance my digipack.

The back cover (bottom middle) is very simple. It is a black background, which looks faded by incorporating white and grey pixels on it. This gives the feel that its old, making it seem creepy and tense. To the left hand side of the screen is a human like figure, this fits the bill as it is similar to what we are going to try and make the music video look like, with our main character always being slightly more illuminated than the background, in order for it to be easy to see what's going on, while still giving the scary and tense feel to the piece. In the top right of the back cover is the specific single/song name 'Trials of the Past'. When  I wrote this on Photoshop, I then smudged it using the smudge tool, which makes it look faded into the background, this is also a general house style that I would then use across both digipack, posters and magazine adverts. In the bottom right is the bar code which every digipack has.

The other two images (bottom left and top right) are the inside of the digipack, which both have the song name and artist name on it. This is because it is simple, basic and means that it is obvious to the audience when looking at the digipack what song it is and who the artist is. The general images are again very dark, and both have forest links to them, which is where our music video is going to be set. Therefore the common house style throughout of the images links back to the music video itself, which is an example of convergence between two of my products.

Pitch Idea Based on Lyrics

The song that we chose to use as a group is 'Trials of the Past' by SBTRKT. SBTRKT is a British music artist who is signed to the record label 'Young Turks'. They are based in London. He released his first album on June 27th 2011. The album was called 'From Arctic to Alpine'. This album included the song we are using for our music video.

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So young, so how were you to know, know, know

You're a carrier, a carrier, of the light inside of you

Glows green in the pitch black night, night, night

Can't tell anyone, anyone, it's hurting you So hold it in, cover up, pull up your sheets, your sheets

A torpedo cruising in the ocean, and soon it's due

So I got to sit up, sit up, oh, up

For my heart to come down, down, down, down, down

So I got to sit up, up, up, up, up

For my heart to come down, down, down, down, down

The ghoulish entities, they come floating through the walls.

Ghostly enemies, they come floating through you door.

And the ghoulish entities they come floating through the wall.

From the past from the past and they'll summon right before you like The Ghost of Christmas Past.

I was always floating around the cit-t-ty.

Going with the flow without ever knowing where I wanna be.

So I got into crazy situa-a-tions.

A loyal soldier who acts who acts who acts. But never asks.

Why am I flying on my back my back?

With the moon looking down, down, down, down, down.

Where's my band? Where's anything at all all?

And why's the ceiling going black, black, black, black, black?

The ghoulish entities they come floating through the walls.

Ghostly enemies they come floating through you door.

And the ghoulish entities they come floating through the wall.

From the past from the past and they'll summon right before you like The Ghost of Christmas Past.

No, that hurts[?] and anything's coming unless you go,

And you can't break the chasing ghosts ghosts ghosts.

So much so. When they come back but never ask.

At your side, at your soul.

When they come back but never ask.

The ghoulish entities they come floating through the walls.

Ghostly enemies they come floating through you doll.

And the ghoulish entities they come floating through the wall.

From the past from the past and they'll summon right before you like The Ghost of Christmas Past.

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1) The word young makes me think that I could have a character in the music video that is a young adult or a younger individual. This would mean I could set a narrative around a younger person.

2) The words here talk about the night and how dark it is. This could mean that the setting for my music video could be in a dark location, making it relevant and linking it in with the lyrics. This will make it easy to follow as an audience. Also I could do it in a creepy way, maybe in a woods or forest, where naturally it is very dark.

3) This area also could link in with the scary/creepy theme. This is because I could link the images with the lyrics and could have the young person laying in there bed, acting scared and worried, and then with this you could see them pulling up there covers which is stereotypically seen when someone is scared. Also the lyrics say 'hurting you' so at a later date I could, in images, show the person being either physically or mentally hurt.

4) Talking about ghosts and ghouls which make it sound stereotypically scary. Therefore the continuous theme throughout would be this. At this point, I could start to reveal more to the audience so that they fully understand what has happened and why the young person is mentally hurt. This would be a good narrative because it should mean the audience are interested and intrigued as to what is causing the young person the hurt.

5) At this point, the lyrics 'crazy situation' we could reveal exactly what had caused the mental hurt. The mental illness could be that the young person got physically abused when they were younger and therefore now have nightmares about it.

6) At this point the audience would understand the persons life and therefore understand the narrative. However, to keep it interesting it would then flashback to real life with the young person being asleep and then a cut to a scene where the young persons bedroom door is slowly opening. At this point we see a large black shadow of a man. This will get the audience thinking and the idea behind it is that everything the young person was just having a nightmare about is going to come true. This will add some emotion to the audience.

7) This lyric will link with the man who just come through her bedroom door, the word enemy will link with the man because he is the man who conflicts all the pain on this young person with domestic violence. Therefore as he comes through her bedroom door, he is an enemy to the young person.

8) We flash back to the dream and we see the young person having pain conflicted on them. The lyric no that hurt makes this relevant as the younger is being hurt by the man.

My main idea would revolve around a young person laying in there bed due to being mentally and physically hurt or scared. Due to this they have nightmares and therefore we see the person having a dream in which they re-see all of these previous events that hurt them mentally. By the end, we then go back to real life and reality, where we go back to the young persons bedroom where we have a long shot of the young person asleep in bed. In the background we then see the bedroom door open and we see some light enter, with this we can just about make out a large figure that looks like a man. As this progresses we realise this is the person that conflicts the pain on this young person.

By analysing the lyrics, it allows me to build up some ideas based on the lyrics, which I could then potentially use for my actual music video. By basing my ideas on the lyrics, it makes it easier for the audience who are watching it to understand it, as they can make links between the music and the moving images.

Lyric Analysis and their Importance

Lyrics are used to help portray messages and meanings. By using lyrics it can help engage the audience and help them understand the narrative behind the song. They can also link with the moving images, of which we may see in the music video. This links in with Andrew Goodwin's theory that suggests that lyrics should go with and back up the moving images that you can see in the music video. Lyrics help to tell a story, and therefore produce and aid the narrative that may be more obvious through the use of moving images in the music video. Audiences can then hopefully relate to the lyrics and in turn like the song and connect with the piece of music. This can help link there emotions and feelings with the piece of music helping them remember the song. Lyrics can also set the scene and convey a message to the audience. 

Lyrics can be literal, for example the music video for the song 'Friday' by Rebecca Black. They are to the point and literally tell an obvious story, regarding her day and life. The music video for this can be seen below: 

These sort of lyrics are every straight forward, and the moving images of the music video then match this. However lyrics aren't always so literal and sometimes have deeper meaning to them. This can be seen below, in the Craig David 'Seven Days' analysis that I carried out. I started by getting the lyrics and analyzing the lyrics, based on what they say, to try and build up an idea of what I would expect to then see in the music video.

The image above are the lyrics of a Craig David song called 'Seven Days'. I carried out a task where I would try and analyse the lyrics, then once I had analysed them and tried to work out what I could expect from the music video for the song, watched the music video itself. By doing this it meant I could get an idea of how song lyrics influence the music video (or don't) and how the lyrics can be a good way of creating a narrative that the video can then show in moving images. 

However, I found that after trying to analyse the lyrics to as best of my ability, when I watched the music video for the song, it turned out my analysis was quite different to the music video and not what I expected. Some parts of my analysis were close, however other parts were completely different. Below is the actual music video for the song. 

Overall, lyrics are very important and can help to construct a narrative, which can make it more interesting for audience viewing by telling a story. However, sometimes lyrics can make no sense to some people, or at all anyone and have a personal meaning to the artist. This also helps us use our imagination, and can be a way of trying to get more creative ideas that we can then use in our actual music video that we are going to produce.