Magazine Advert Research

What is the purpose of a magazine advert?

The purpose of a music artist acclaimed magazine advert is to advertise the artist's album to the public and to give them information around the album itself, for example, the date of release and the artist and album name and image. A magazine advert may also have information regarding gigs and live tours of the artist, especially in house music artists like Benny Benassi. Other features of a magazine advert include the record companies involved in the making of the album, the reviews made by magazines and some of the songs included on the album. The magazine advert is often shown in A4 formatting, as nearly all magazines are made using A4 paper. 

Here, I have annotated the magazine advert for Basement Jaxx, a house music artist, for the album 'Rooty'.

The reason for choosing the magazine advert for 'Basement Jaxx - Rooty' is because the artist is of the same genre as mine (house) and the advert is very gripping to the target audience. I did not like the idea for the design, because I would prefer to have the artists faces on the magazine advert. I am going to challenge the house music convention and add the pop idea of the star image to my very own magazine advert for my artist 'Benny Benassi'. 

Digipak and Magazine Advert Research - Ideas on the 'Font'

Using 'Dafont.com', I wanted to find the font which will work best for my magazine advert and digipak. Here are 12 ideas:

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

11)

12)

I will now ask my friends/family on Facebook which of these they prefer and therefore include this logo in my ancillary tasks.

(image above) This is the caption for the screenshot photo of the 12 logos above. I have explained what I want my friends/family to do in order to give me feedback. Here, I am asking them to comment the number on the screenshot the font they prefer and therefore, to use it for my ancillary tasks.

Results

From the comments on Facebook (top above) my friend/family have identified that font No.7 is their favourite with 4 out of 15 votes. (bottom above) Here, I created a tally of the number with the amount of people who have chose their favourite font. No.7 is 1st with 4 and font No.1 is 2nd with 3.

1st) 


2nd)


Testing out the 'Font':

In this Prezi, I've tested out the font by applying it to Benny Benassi's album 'Electroman'. Here, I used the font for the artist's name, album name and the track listing of the album.

Here it is:

Digipak Research - Main Features of a Digipak and Analysis

What is a digipak?:

A digipak simply consists of a gate-fold, book-like paperboard or card stock outer binding, which is capable enough to hold a booklet of the album and a CD attached to the inside. The digipak is an alternative, more environmentally friendly way to the jewel CD case we all know, which is just a bit of plastic which just opens up once. The digipak can open up several times and can contain usually between 4 and 6 different panels. The digipak is less resistant to abrasion, which means that it is easier to tear and wears rather quickly. Digipak-style cases became popular and was used by many record labels from the start of the 21st century, particularly the 2000's.

Above is a 6-panel digipak template. Here we have a front cover, back cover, an inside left panel, an inside right panel, and inside centre panel to put the CD and finally an extra panel. 

The dimensions for each is here:

Front Cover: 139.5mm x 125mm
Back Cover: 139.5mm x 125mm
Inside Left: 138mm x 125mm
Inside Right: 138mm x 125mm
Inside Centre: 136.5mm x 125mm
Extra Panel: 139.5mm x 125mm

I will take this information on board when I come to construct my digipak in the coming future for Benny Benassi.


Analysis of 'TRUE' by Avicii: 

Above are the front and back covers of the artist Avicii who is similar to my artist Benny Benassi as they are both house/dance pop artists and the annotations of the conventions of the digipak. The reason I chose this album cover is because it has similar conventions to that of a typical pop album. Here we see the star image in the front cover, set out in a mid-shot of the artist. 

Surprisingly for an album of that genre, the colours are very dull, with black connoting death or terror and white connoting emptiness and innocence. We can identify these connotations through it's song titles on the back cover of the album. Some of these include 'Liar Liar', 'Long Road to Hell', 'Shame on Me' and 'Lay me Down'. This is why the album is so unique in the fact that most pop music is very happy and enjoyable. 


Here are some more album covers from artists of a similar genre to mine:

Diary Entry - Final Cut Feedback

Audience Feedback - AS Media Studies groups 1 and 2

This is the information and feedback I got from both of the AS Media Studies groups. The main problem was the idea that they didn't get many of the intertextual references, especially 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. But on the plus side, they gave me good results - ranging between 7 and 9 out of 10. 

Diary Entry - Changes Made to Final Cut

To make my final cut look professional, I had to make changes to my rough cut. By this, I needed to remove/edit some more footage and replace them with footage I found was amateur and would be marked down in my grade.

From this…. 

 To this…. 








For my final cut, I decided to change the titles, which introduce the song at the start and the end of the music video. I changed it because the one below looks a lot more nicer and doesn't hover the screen as much. As well as this, I have also added what song will come up next (here I have chose 'Endorphins' by Sub Focus ft Alex Clare).

(Above) is the screenshot of the title to the next song to feature after 'Cinema'. Mind my face in the background!

Deleted Scenes:

One of the deleted scenes was the 'Action…Thriller' scene above, when I'm lip-syncing, whilst holding up some Action/Thriller films! From other viewers (and I realised it in the end) the footage looks very unprofessional, as it is just me holding up DVD cases of Action/Thriller films and this doesn't suit the music video. Also, I am wearing a 'Liverpool FC' sports top, which puts off the idea it is a music video of dance-pop (brands are associated with hip-hop/rap). This shot was replaced by faster cuts of the 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' scene and of Uphill and the green screen.

Finally, I got rid of the 'credits' titles at the end of the song. This was because many of the viewers were not interested and decided to click off the video when it shows the shot of me walking away from the camera at Uphill. This was deleted not to only shorten the video, but end quicker without any titles getting in the way. No other changes were made to my final cut, only these features. ^^^ 

Diary Entry - Rough Cut and Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback - S108:

The image above is my feedback sheet of my rough cut from students in my A2 Media Studies class. Here they've given me good feedback and how to improve my piece, ready for editing for my final cut. As well as this, they gave me a mark out of 40 or a Level between 1 and 4 where they believe my music video was in terms of the use of camera, editing and mise-en-scene. 
    I appreciate the comments made above and I will use this information to hopefully improve my piece, therefore getting higher marks.


Audience Feedback - Facebook:

After finishing my rough cut music video, I shared the video from YouTube and placed it on Facebook for my friends/family to see and to give feedback. As shown, I have received very good feedback from my Facebook friends, which suggests that my piece is very effective and interesting to watch. There were no comments, which gives information on how to improve, so therefore, it is a masterpiece to my peers!


Audience Feedback - YouTube





As of 8th January 2014, my music video rough cut has obtained an incredible 200 views, much more as obtained in my 'Goodbye Mr A' preliminary task back in June 2013. As well as this, I have had 7 thumbs up and none thumbs down so far. Therefore, it is a video of interest to my viewers.


Audience Feedback - Tutor

Finally, I self-assessed myself at the level at where I think I'm at with the construction of my music video. Not only that, from the first picture, I gave an average level of where my fellow Media Studies peers thought I was working at. 
    In the second from last column, entitled 'Michelle's assessment' my tutor gave me a level of where I am working at, with Level 4 being the highest. Here, for each production element (Camera, Sound, Mise-en-scene and Editing) Michelle gave me a Level 4 on all of them, except for editing, where I obtained a level of between 3 and 4. I was extremely happy with the levels they have all gave me because I had less things to do to improve and my tutor thought it was working at a sufficient level of what I should aim to achieve. 



From all of this feedback being given, I believe my music video looks professional and effective enough to establish itself as a real music video.

Diary Entry - Editing my Footage

After filming all of my footage I need, the next stage was to edit the footage, so I can adjust the length, change the effect and detach the audio. This Prezi will tell you what I did to create my rough cut.