How effective is the combination of the music video, digipak and magazine advertisement altogether?

There is the use of stong synergy between my digipak and magazine advertisement due to very similar imagery, design and layout. This would help the audience to relate the digipak and magazine advertisement to the music video.

As the music video tends to attract a wider range of female audiences opposed to make, I initially set out to gain an audience of equal males and females. Therefore, by doing this, I thought that the music video could attract mainly the females whereas my digipak and magazine advertisement could attract the male audience to balance out the male and female audiences. The colours used in the digipak and magazine advertisement are less vibrant than what would be expected when viewing the music video, therefore contributing to the attraction of a male audience. However, the use of the symbolic imagery of the guitar helps the digipak and magazine advertisement to collaborate with the music video as the music video is quite 'rocky'.

Also, there was the use of similar texts throughtout the digipak and magazine advertisement. This, of course, did not make an appearance in the music video, however I thought that the font 'impact' which I used was bold and captivating and held a sense of authority with the boldness. Also, the outline holds connotations of lightning, which relates back to the name of the band. Additionally, I thought that this particular font could help contribute to enhancing the music genre, as rock music is at times outstanding and is noticed straight away with the sounds of the guitars, therefore I thought this font illustrates this relatively well.

Furthermore, on the magazine advertisement, there is a range of different sized fonts, more so than the digipak. I thought that this could relate to the different camera shots in the music video as the production team and I made use of long shots, mid shots, close ups and others. The audience may not necessarily relate the different sized fonts to the camera angles, however this is what I intended when changing the size font in the different phrases on both the digipak and magazine advertisement.

Lastly, the grey background colourscheme on both the digipak and magazine advertisement is very plain and simplistic, however with a feel of freedom due to the wide spacing. This, I intended on illustrating the freedom in which the female protagonist character had in a patriarchal society. This illustrates the sense of power and freedom which is emphasized throughout the music video, especially with the wide amount of spacing on the digipak and magazine advertisement.

What have I learnt from my audience feedback? - Magazine Advertisement

To gain reliable audience feedback, I thought it would be suitable to use closed questions as this enables me to represent my results in graph format, however open questions I will also use to gain valid data which is representative to have an idea of the personal opinion of some people from my audience. I prompted my closed questions on networking websites again such as MySpace and Facebook. I posted three main, simple questions for them to answer in questionnaire format, and sent it to 10 people.

The results came out rather well as all the 10 candidates which I posted my questionnaire were able to reply to me and post the questionnaire back in time for me to analyse my results and convert them into graph format.

The question illustrates that all 1o of the candidates taking part in the questionnaire agreed that there was a strong link between the appearance of the digipak and the magazine advertisement. This shows that I have created a strong synergy between them both so that the audience are immediately able to recognise what album is being advertised.

The answers to this particular question were slightly ambiguous as nearly the same amount of candidates have agreed to each answer made available. Therefore, due to this reason, I might make this an open question which I will prompt my audience with to gain reasons for their choice of answer.

This question is also slightly ambiguous, however the logical reason for the answers to these question could be due to the fact that many of the people who answered these questions may not have the preferred music genre which the magazine advertisement clearly demonstrates with the use of symbolic imagery.

Open questions...

I also asked my audience a range of open questions to gain valid data, I again used networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook. I prompted them with 2 main questions in order to gain their feedback. The three main questions in which I prompted them with was:

1 - Do you think the magazine advertisement uses conventions which make you want to purchase the album?

2 - What would you improve about the magazine advertisement?

3 - Would this magazine advertisement catch your attention if pinned up in a music store?

Responses...

1 - The majority of my audience feedback make me realise that my magazine advertisement does in fact use conventions which would make my audience want to buy the album. One of the candidates responses was that "The use of the out now sign made me want to purchase the album because it brought a wave of excitement". Another candidate responded with "I liked the way in which you made use of quotes from other music magazines as it shows that they approve and recommend the album". These were along the same lines as what the majority of the audience feedback had made me aware of. Also, this were features of my magazine advertisement which I made intentional, this shows me that my intentions were a success to my audience. On the other hand, one of the responses I received was that "...I did not quite understand why you included the fact it was available in HMV when this would be expected anyway as this store sells most albums which are new". I understand why this candidate may reply with this particular quote, due to what they are saying is correct, however I intended on using the fact that this album is available in HMV to include the promotion of industries as a way of collaborating with something else associated with the album. However, if I was to make any adjustments to my magazine advertisement, I may not necessarily include this particular convention again.

2 - The majority of my candidates all agreed that my magazine advertisement was very simplistic in terms of the overall image, however the reason in which I did this simplistic image was because in the creativity stages of my advertisement, my audience feedback made me aware that a teaser type image was not necessary. One of the candidates quoted "...the image of the magazine advertisement is very simplistic, maybe another symbolic image could be a way of making it more jazzy". Due to this being a response, if I was to re-edit my magazine advertisement to make any adjustments, I would try to imclude another image to make it a little more appealing than what it already is, as this could represent a surprise within the album, which could relate to the bonus tracks, which you do not always find in albums. Additionally, the majority of my audience feedback made clear that they liked the advertisement, but they would possibly make the album title stand out more than it does, as this may not be the main, most noticeable feature to someone skimming through many advertisement. One of my candidates responded with the answer "The album title is in the same font as on the digipak which illustrates the correlation, however this could have been exaggerated a bit more in the advertisement as this, of course, is the main feature which you are trying to sell". This, I thought was in interesting response, because the font I believe is not that much similar to that of the artists name, which make the equally as stood out, when in fact it is a magazine advertisement convention for the album name to stand out more. Therefore, if I was to make any adjustments to this in the future, this would be a main adjustment I would work on.

3 - Many of my candidates responses replied to the third question in a varied way. For example, one of my candidates said that "My preferred music is not that of pop/rock, but due to the symbolic imagery, I would definitely notice this magazine advertisement if it was pinned up in a shop if this was my favourite music genre". This was my intention, therefore this specific response did not necessarily come as a shock to me. However, a response that did come as a shock to me was when one of the candidates replied saying "Even though my favourite music genre is r'n'b, this magazine advertisement stood out to me because of the colours, as these colours are very popular on r'n'b related aspects.". Because of this response, I was in a way shocked as I was not aiming to catch the attention of someone who was not that interested in the pop/rock music genre. However, this response has made me realise that my magazine advertisement could possibly appeal to more than just my intended audience. However, as this candidates points to the colourscheme being a factor that stood out to them as this was a feature was relatively popular on the r'n'b music genre, this could be considered to have challenged the conventions of pop/rock.

Using, Challenging and Developing Conventions - Magazine Advertisement

Before the creation of my magazine advertisement, I researched into a range of advertisements to see the generic conventions, and I made a list of them. When doing this, I look at all music genres when researching the conventions of the advertisement and I came to notice that the majority of the advertisements, no matter what genre they were, had similarities in their layouts and the conventions they used. By noticing these particular conventions, I put them into practise on the construction of my own magazine advertisement. However, I did notice a few conventions which were precise to the pop/rock music genre.


Using conventions...
There was necessary conventions which were apparent on all magazine advertisements which I had to take into consideration. For example, the name of my band, this was to ensure that the audience was not to forget who the band was as they might look directly to the name of the album and forget the artists. Even though there is the clear link between the music video, digipak and magazine advertisement, I thought it was still essential to have the name of the band on the advertisement. Also, the 'OUT NOW' sign is a convention on many magazine advertisement. Various advertisements promote the release of their album in different ways such as giving an actual release date. However, I decided to have 'OUT NOW' as in my opinion, this will give the erge of excitement and captivation immediately, especially as it was in the colour gold which stood out across the advertisement. Also, my audience feedback before the creation made me aware that this is what the majority of my audience would prefer to see as the excitement of the album being able to be bought is captured immediately. Another convention which I illustrated was the website address written relatively small at the bottom of the advertisement. This is able to help build up a rapport with the band and the fans as this shows signs of contact between them both. Also, this helps to give the fans any extra information in which they want but are unable to gain from anywhere else. Additionally, due to the fact that technology helps to integrate people across the world, this would be a way of promoting the band worldwide. Furthermore, I noticed on a few advertisements such as Midlake's ''The Courage of Others'', there was quotes from music magazines to show that the album had their approval and that it was in fact a great album. I furthered this convention and included it on my own magazine advertisement to show the audience that this album has gained the appraisal from well known music magazines such as 'Q Magazine' and 'MOJO'.

Developed conventions...
Not necessarily conventionally, some magazine advertisements have the name of the music store in which the album is available to be bought at. As a result of noticing this convention was not apparent on the majority of magazine advertisements, I decided to develop this convention and make it apparent on my own advertisement. Therefore, in the bottom right hand corner, it states this this album is 'HMV exclusive'. This could possibly make the audience more eager to go out right away to purchase the album.

Challenged conventions...
There was not any particular magazine advertisement conventions that I challenged, however originally at the beginning of my creativity of the advertisement in the stages of my initial ideas, I was contemplating on whether to include a teaser type image which relates to the symbolic imagery, as this was challenging the conventions of magazine advertisements as this was a very rare convention. However, my audience feedback proved that this idea was not necessary therefore I did not end up doing this.

Editing Cont...(Part 6)

Today, the production team and I managed to finally complete the construction of our music video. Of course, we faced problems, however we managed to overcome the simplisticness of these and come to a final completion. We again, used our storyboards in the help of finishing off the finishing touches.

Special Effects used:

- Fade to black...

We used this effect to end the music video to represent that the relationship was ongoing even though the music video came to an end. This is an editing feature which the group and I witnessed when doing further research on music videos of our genre. For example, in 'Sk8er Boi' by Avril Lavigne, this editing technique was present.

- Speed...

In many areas throughout the music video, the speed was always being altered. This was due to the powers and excitement of the marvel comics being expressed in our music video to recreate the feeling of 'Superman'. Also, this generally, at times, helped to make the clip move at the same pace as the music lyrics. Also, this editing technique was not a common feature for our music genre, therefore we are challenging the conventions of pop/rock.

- Cartoon...

We again, made much use of the cartoon effect as this portrays the narrative of the Marvel comic books, especially that of 'Superman'. We also made use of this effect in certain unusual scenes, such as sccenes that contain unconventional camera movements such as the scene where the 'Superman' is on the roundabout and is spinning rapidly. This could also relate back to the powers of 'Superman' from the comic books.

Final Magazine Advertisement

Here is the final draft to my magazine advertisement. I used all the conventions of what I drew on the draft of the magazine advertisement. Also, as a convention that I wanted to include in the final outcome of my magazine advertisement, I wanted there to be a short description of the album, therefore, I used quotes from other magazines such as MOJO and Q magazine to illustrate that the album has the approval from other music magazines and industries. This should make my audience feel confident when buying the album if they were to see this advertisement casually. Also, in the right hand bottom corner, it says that the album is available to buy in HMV music stores, hopefully resulting in this shop gaining more business.

Magazine Advertisement - First Draft

In the process of drafting my magazine advertisement, I did a hand drawn draft first and decided to annotate it to put across why I used certain conventions of magazine advertisements. Also, this helps me to relate back to an image when using Photoshop to edit my final draft of my magazine advertisement.

Magazine Advertisement Questionnaire - Results

Due to posting my magazine advertisement questionnaire on the networking websites Facebook and Myspace, I was able to receive my questionnaire results within four days. (I noticed that my results were gained quite promptly when devising a questionnaire for my digipak and music video when posting them on these particular websites, which is why this has become a regular habit). I posted my questionnaire to 18 respondents, however, I only received 15 out of the 18 respondents results. This was not necessarily a problem as I had gained the majority of my audience's feedback, also, 15 is a a more rounded up number of respondents compared to 18. I decided to structure my results in graph form, which makes it appear relatively qualititative, this enables me to make comparisons on which respondents prefer which alternatives.



The results gained from question one on my questionnaire, is that the majority of my respondents prefer my magazine advertisement to consist of the same background as on my digipak. Therefore, this is my first initial idea in the construction of my advertisement. The audience's feedback makes clear that they prefer to see the synergy between the digipak and the magazine advertisement so relate to one another when in the public eye. Personally, I would also agree with the majority of the respondents.

On question two of the questionnaire, the majoirty of my audience feedback answered that my magazine advertisement should also consist of the same font and images as on my digipak. Therefore, I am planning on having a similar layout on my front cover, as on my magazine advertisement. By doing this, I am using my audience's feedback as my guidelines of including the electric guitar alongside the bold, black writing. This will instantaneously make my audience see the link between the digipak front cover and the magazine advertisement.

When I was looking at the generic conventions of magazine advertisements, I noticed that every music album being advertised had a release date on the advertisement, or 'OUT NOW' or 'OUT SOON'. I decided that I definitely want to include one of these three, however I was unsure as to which particular one. So, I added this question on my questionnaire, and it seems that my audience would prefer to see 'OUT NOW'. As a result, I am planning to include this as my magazine advertisement.

Clearly, my audience would like to see what particular bonus tracks will be included on 'The Lightning's' album through the magazine advertisement. Therefore, I will make sure that this is included. However, as 9 people out of the 15 preferred this alternative, I still wish to take into consideration the opinions of the other 6 respondents which did not think that bonus tracks were that important in the advertisement of the album. So, I have decided that I will include only one bonus track on the magazine advertisement instead of the two. This way, I am trying to compromise with both oppositions of my audience's feedback.

My audience feedback has shown me that a teaser type image would not be that necessary. This, I was in fact surprised with, therefore I asked personally one of my respondents who thought that this was not necessary why they thought this, and they replied ''This would not show a correlation between the advertisement and the album cover as the album cover has a simplistic design and layout''. This made me realise that this was in fact true, especially with a front cover such as mine. As a result, I shan't use this convention. I also have come to realise that this convention is very rare, which shows a sign of uniqueness, however, as it is such a rarity, some people may not resemble it as something which should appear on something such as a magazine advertisement.

Exactly as I thought, my audience respondents have made a preference of wanting my magazine advertisement to be similar to my album cover. Even if I did not devise a questionnaire, this is something I would have made a decision on as the majority of the magazine advertisements I have viewed shows a very strong correlation with the album it is advertising.

Magazine Advertisement Questionnaire

To be able to create a magazine advertisement that would be suitable for my target audience, I thought it would be a good idea to gain some audience feedback before the actual creation of it. Therefore, I know what particular conventions to use to gain my audiences attention as they would have had some input on my final draft. Again, I will post this questionnaire on networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook as by doing this, I will be able to gain my audience feedback at a faster rate compared to giving them to people in person to fill out.

Relation to Magazine Advertisement

Today, I was in HMV, and whilst I was glimpsing at albums, I straight away noticed that Seasick Steve's album stood out at me. This was because one of my magazine advertisements analyses was for his album and I immediately noticed the synergy between the actual album cover and the magazine advertisement. This is how I want people to notice the relation between my digipak and my magazine advertisement - the way I did with Seasick Steve.

Representation in Music Video

Due to our A2 exam being based on our coursework productions, the class decided that it was compulsory to begin looking at the different concepts which had a chance of being brought up in the exam. In one section of the exam, we had to focus on either our foundation portfolio or our advanced portfolio when analysing the coursework. There was the possibilities of one of the exam questions being based on genre, narrative, representation, audience and media language. We decided to look at representation in particular, then later on begin analysing the other concepts of our coursework productions. I decided to focus my analysis on my advanced portfolio for the exam due to it being fresh in my mind. I looked at the aspects that I wanted to represent, then looking at how I represented them.

- Typical teenage girl : She could make her own choice as to who she wanted to go out with. She appears dominant. Use of male gaze as shots of her chest are used - also adds to the dating atmosphere (subverts patriarchy) - female dominance.

- Three male stereotypes : Used the idea of the signifier and the signified (Saussure) with the costume designs such as ''glasses'' for the ''geek'' and black eye make up for the ''goth''. Cutting is also used to represent difference between the stereotypes.

- Youth : Swings in the playground represent young activity and having fun. Also cartoon effect is used to represent child like features, however also links in to the genre and the name of the song.

- Class/region : Represents urban area when walking down the streets as streets are relatively wide with buildings in the background (wide shots used) and people walking casually down the road.

- Sexuality and relationships : Appearing that straight relationships as the norm as there is no sign of homosexuality (two shots used to emphasize this)(romantic effect also used to represent the norm for the use of romance in heterosexual relationships).

- Ethnicity : Coincidence that the ''Superman'' was of the same ethnicity as the protagonist female character.


Many of the ways in which we emphasized our representations was through the idea of the ''signifier'' and the ''signified''. This idea was developed by Ferdinand Saussure in which the signifier was the physical aspect of something and the signifiedis the meaning attached to the signifier which makes people immediately understand what the physical aspect is associated with.

Roland Barthes took Ferdinand de Saussure's ideas and consolidated onto them. He called the way these signifiers were organised and put together the ''symbolic code'' if the text.

Using, Challenging and Developing Conventions - Album Cover

-In order to evaluate the way in which I have used, challenged and developed conventions of real media products on my album cover, I thought it would be influential if I compared my final album cover to that of Avril Lavigne's album cover "the best damn thing" as she was my main inspirational music artist of a pop/rock genre.

Using and developing conventions...

-Firstly, both album covers have a similarity of using a bland coloured background to make the actual album cover elements more unambiguous to the audience, which resulted to be very successful, according to the comments I received off of my peers in my media lesson. A few quoted that "it caught my eye subconsciously" and "I noticed the graphic use of art instantaneously". This made me feel confident about using this particular convention from Avril Lavigne's album on my own album cover. Also, I did not realise until evaluating my album cover and comparing it to Avril Lavigne's album "the best damn thing", that the font used on my album cover for the name of the band, "The Lighning", was also similar to that of Avril Lavigne's font of her name. This is a relatively bland type of font, however it could be a way of illustrating the originality and individuality of both the "The Lightning" and Avril Lavigne as an inspirational teenager pop/rock princess. Another factor which is similar for both album covers, is the way in which both covers stick to the specific colourscheme, which only consists of a few colours. This can relate to the theme of the music genre, as rock music generally uses a few instruments on stage when performing in front of an audience, which is on most occassions a set of drums a possibly 2 guitars at the maximum. Therefore, each colour could represent a musical instrument. Additionally, the parental advisory label which appears in the left hand bottom corner of "The Lightning's" album cover is a well known convention on many album covers of all genres. Therefore, I decided to use this convention as a way of making the album cover appear more realistic.

Challenging conventions...

-Ways in which there is a constrasting view, is the fact that in my album cover for "The Lighning", there is the use of graphic art, whereas Avril Lavigne's album cover only consists of an image of herself with a straight face, which could also be considered as ''moody', which is a stereotypical portrayal of teenagers. However, usually on most pop/rock album covers, there is never only one image of something which represents the band, which I decided to demonstrate on mine. This was my attempt of challenging the conventions of real album covers of a pop/rock genre as this is a very differentiating convention I decided to experiment with. I decided to put this into practise as it would make apparent instantaneously the genre of music of my album. Also, I wanted to see if it would attract people whos preferred genre of music is pop/rock as this would not be the average pop/rock cover. I have come to also realise that Avril Lavigne is also challenging the conventions of a pop/rock album cover as the front cover is focused on her, especially with the white background to make her stand out even more, this is a convention used by mainly R'n'B albums such as Taylor Swift's ''Fearles'' and Rihanna's ''Good Girl Gone Bad''.

To conclude...

-Overall, I feel that the creation of my album cover has worked relatively well with the combination of my music genre, also in using the conventions from real media products of the same music genre to help "The Lightning" progress into a successful and youthful band.