Advert Final

Final CD (All)

Front Cover & Spine

Inside Front

Inside Back

Back Cover

Final Music Video

On the mega brain

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Looking back on the project and the codes and conventions identified from earlier posts, it is clear that I have adhered to the majority of these codes and conventions.

Music Video

• I have managed to follow a narrative genre of music video - with a clear storyline complete with the three act structure. The storyline begins with the main character being the only person in the film for around a minute, thus establishing him as the main character. The complicating Act 1 is when the beggar finds the newspaper article and realises that he can play poker with the money given to him earlier. Act 2 begins in the casino, and this moves steadily into the denouement where the beggar becomes rich and gives money to a new beggar, and so the cycle continues.
• From Propps theory, I have only included one character and this is the hero. The audience feel sorry for my main character (the beggar) which will cause the audience to feel empathy towards him and towards the video itself. When the beggar becomes rich and prospers in his new found wealth, the audience will feel happy for him and therefore there is a feel good factor about my video.
• As with Todorov's theory, my storyline has the same basic principles. The video starts in a calm, subdued fashion when the storyline moves into Act 2 of the three act structure. The ensues disequilibrium which then moves back into calm, equilibrium when the beggar wins. I have followed many of the key aspects in film making as my storyline follows suit with what has been researched before and what has been proven to be the best way of directing.
• The pace of the video itself fits in with the slight upbeat to the song. In some instances shots are started or ended with various beats so that the video fits in better. I have seen that quicker songs need quicker videos, and vice versa. When searching for a song to do I was looking for a slightly uptempo song and this has certainly delivered. The pace of the song is relevant to the pace of the video and the shots used. I would say, however, that one or two shots were left too long and therefore this took away some of the quick editing used, however on the whole the video gave the impression of something fast paced and action packed.
• Due to Act 2 of the three act structure, the video had to be fast paced. I wanted this particular sequence to be exciting and to create suspense in it, and so by speeding up one or two shots and using quick shots and cuts, this has created a chaotic sequence which has added excitement when it was needed.
• The shots are edited together to ensure a good use of continuity. There is one point in the video where the use of a flashback is created, however this is easily viewable and recognisable as there is a transition and the effect 'Aged Film' is used. I have clearly distinguished this part from the present storyline as this will avoid confusion when the audience is watching my video.
• With the Young & Rubicam 'four consumer' theory, I feel that my music video is able to appeal with all four of these people; the Mainstreamers, the Aspirers, the Succeeders and the Reformers. If I were to categorise the video into one specific group, I would place it in the Aspirers category, mainly because of the story and the message behind the video; yet as I have already said I feel that it belongs within all four groups.
• As for the LifeMatrix theorem, I would say that my video fits into 3 of the 10 segments, these being the Fun/Atics (aspirational, fun-seeking, active young people - this group mainly because of the tempo of the song), Struggling Singles (high aspirations, low economic status) and the Free Birds (vital, active, altruistic seniors). The video missed the other 7 categories due to the different styles of life and the differing personalities which are found. Even with this in mind, there is no reason why my video cannot be viewed by these people, however each audience group will interpret the ideologies and messages in the video differently.

Front Cover

• Colour is used to good effect, with the four quadrants being used to create an eye-catching image. The quadrants each have a different, vibrant colour which certainly catches the general public's eye and therefore this has coincided with other album covers, particularly Marmaduke Duke's. The different colours seem to clash, and this is something which I thought of intentionally as this will create a greater awareness of the album; the cover will jump off the shelf or, at the very least, will catch the audience's eye.
• The artist name is larger than the album title. As I stated in earlier blog posts, this is because the consumer will be more aware of the artist rather than the name of the album. By writing the artist name in a larger font will thus draw the attention to this piece of text and will therefore make it more appealing to the public. The yellow text stands out from the green, blue, red and purple of the quadrants and, along with the Bevel and Emboss effect added to it, makes the text more obvious. The Bevel and Emboss effect adds depth to the otherwise flat image and so this is also something which the consumer will notice.
• Four separate images are used, and they all fit in together, all linking to take up the room of the cover. By linking, I mean they are all connecting, being that they are looking at one another and so continuity is created around the whole cover. The different effects placed on each of the images also adds something else to the images. I was looking for an Andy Warhol effect and so hopefully the consumer will associate the cover with this artist. The separately coloured hair and shoulders make the image stand out, much as it did with the Milburn cover, as the audience realise that these are not the usual colours for hair or shoulders.
• Continuity features on the front cover. The same character is used as was in the music video and so this would ensure that the audience associate this album cover with the music video, and this will hopefully increase awareness to the video as more people will remember what music goes with what cover. The same character also ensures that there is a recognisable face in amongst the covers and this, I believe, is important as the consumer can feel better for seeing someone they 'know'.

Inside faces

• Imagery used is relevant to the artist as the photos stem from the video and are a direct link between the two texts. This increases the continuity that is seen from the front cover. Even though these images will not be seen until the consumer has bought the album, the character is still the same to keep continuity throughout.
• As with other CDs that I analysed, they have kept the same colour scheme throughout. I have decided to change the general scheme for the inside pages as I felt that the colour scheme used on the front (red, green, blue and purple) became too repetitive and needed to be changed. I decided upon using a completely different idea, in fact the idea stemmed from one of my draft front covers. I realised that it was not worthy of front cover status and so I placed it inside the CD. Again, continuity is used as the image is taken from the front and then again from behind to create a 360 degree image.
• With the image on the left hand side, I have left space to the right of the character on the swing. In this space is information usually found in CDs, such as band members, record companies, websites and, perhaps not so often, an introduction and brief history of the band. I felt that this space needed filling up and so I included said facts. The text box was a faded black with opacity set to 65% so that the photo carries on but the text is readable.
• The images used are unique. The two photos have been differently manipulated; the left image having the background altered and the right image having the character modified. The background has become a slightly smudges affair, which relates to the messy nature of the hobo. The smudging effect has also been used because otherwise the image would have been fairly ordinary and nothing special, however the effect has created a different level to the image. The right image has the character in black and white. This represents a feeling of solemnity which is associated with beggars.

Back Cover

• Colour scheme continued with the four quadrants. The four quadrants have been kept, however they have been mirrored so that when flipped the colours are joining up with the front cover. This adds continuity which, as we have seen, is certainly important when designing an album cover. The colours remain as vibrant as they were on the front, and once more they are separated into four different sections, squeezing out all possible continuity aspects of the cover.
• Tracklisting is included. It is written in yellow and in the same font as the front cover, once more bringing continuity to the album. The tracklisting (9 songs) takes up one of the quadrants and so no space is wasted. There has been no effect placed on the tracklisting, and in hindsight this is possibly something which could have been added however I believe that the consumer is more interested in the front cover and so the tracklisting does not necessarily have to stand out.
• The use of rotation is a concept which I have used. The tracklisting has been repeated however instead of all being the same way round, I have used the quadrant dividers as mirrors to mirror the text written. This gives a strange look to the back, of which I have had mixed reviews. It fills up the space and adds a certain level of abstraction to my work and so this could be a benefit as the public may consider this a good thing.
• I have not included a barcode on the back as I feel that the majority of CDs nowadays are sold with a clingfilm packaging around them which will hold the barcode and price on. I feel that adding a barcode will add an unnecessary item which could upset the balance of the back cover.

Advert

• Information is readily available and understandable. This is important as the public will want information at their disposal. As I saw with other adverts, the information I used was relevant to the product advertising and I have seen this sort of information on all of the other adverts. I decided to use the idea from Depeche Mode where they included tour dates, as I feel that this is an important factor given that the public may be interested in this band's whereabouts. Other information used include tracklisting, when out and what formats the album is out on.
• Blocks of text relevant to each other are written in the same font and style. As we saw with the Yusuf album advert, text specific to each other is written in the same font so that the audience can associate each block to other blocks. This also gives the audience a feel of what the album will be like, as various fonts say a lot about what they are writing about. The use of a continuous font throughout the project ensures that whenever the consumer sees this particular font then they will immediately associate it with this album or band.
• The use of the album artwork features on the advert. The album artwork is featured on the advert to and extent that it is the main feature on the page. This ensures that even if the consumer forgets what the album is called, or who it is by, then they will recognise the artwork. This is also due to the continuity of the colour schemes and the imagery throughout. The album artwork takes up roughly one third of the space and so it is certainly a central figure.
• A black background and yellow writing is a sure fire way of getting noticed. The two colours merge together brilliantly to create a page which is easily read, however catched the eye of the public. This is the colour scheme which I decided to use for the advert. White writing has also been used to distinguish blocks of text from others on the page. It also adds something different to the page and stops it becoming too repetitive.
• All together the concepts behind the advert merge together to create an advert similar to those that I analysed earlier on in this project. The central image depicting the album artwork, clear and relevant information signposting important facts about the album and the use of text differentiating between the different information.

I feel I have not only used, but developed some codes and conventions analysed earlier. For example within the inside covers I have decided not to continue the colour scheme but instead to start from scratch and use two cleverly manipulated images.
I have stuck to the codes and conventions analysed earlier to a good standard. The use of the three act structure and other theories (Propp, Todorov etc.) have formulated together to create a music video to a high standard.
The use of imagery and colour schemes have been used to create a front and back cover which is eye catching and relevant to other media texts created in this project, thus promoting continuity.


How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

My main product has been linked within the ancillary texts by means of the character used. The main focus point of the front cover and inside covers is that of the main character (the beggar) in the music video. This has created a continuous theme and something that when the consumer sees his face on the front of the CD case, they will immediately relate the CD to the video which will increase sales and awareness; two key aspects of promoting anything.

Hopefully the vibrant colours will make the audience think that the song is quite upbeat and high tempo as this is what effect was being created. The vibrant colours used will also cause the public to take a second glance and look closer into the CD as it is unlikely that other CD covers will be as colourful (with the exception of Marmaduke Duke). These colours are linked in with the advert as the album artwork has been incorporated into the advert for the album. The reason behind not using the colour scheme for the whole advert is because it would have been tedious to constantly change the text colouring to fit in with each individual colour. I also feel that the audience would not appreciate the constant colour changes when they are trying to find out important information regarding something they may want to purchase and so it could drive them away.

The magazine advert includes the CD cover and therefore the consumer does not have to wander into a shop to see the connection between the CD and the music video and therefore this increases publicity of the product.


What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback I have learnt that the general concept behind the video was a good idea, and the use of shots have been well executed. Some feedback has come back negative, stating that some shots were too long and needed to be cut down, however the majority of the feedback was good.
For the CD cover, one particular feedback was that the font was bland and unoriginal. For this to be altered, I would probably choose a slightly more vibrant colour and make it stand out more by using more effects. Personally, I felt that the font used was fine as it did the job of highlighting the band and album title, however this is why audience feedback is so vital.

The advert was said to be too basic. The colour scheme was too simple and this was picked up on. As much as I respect their opinions, I followed codes and conventions closely and I believe that the colour schemes resembled those of the magazine adverts analysed earlier on in the project, however if I were to change it I would take their advice and choose slightly less neutral colours than black, white and yellow.



How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the project I used a variety of softwares and media technologies. For the video, I used the new version of iMovie. This took some time to get used to due to the new version - I was used to using the older version and so I stuttered along for the first few sessions however I soon got to grips with the software.
For the actual filming part, I used a Panasonic SDR-S26 camera stabilised with a tripod. This camera also has a digital camera function and so I used this to take the photos for my CD. This was a good multi-function piece of technology as it cut down on things I had to remember and also it was simple to take a photo without worrying about the camera.

When filming the evaluation and showing how I did things, I used an application called ScreenFlow, which records the whole of the screen and audio from a third party. As with iMovie, this was new to me and so it took a while to get to grips with the concept behind it. I believe that this is a truly brilliant piece of kit as it is able to highlight exact areas which I needed to show you to evaluate my media texts. It has proved invaluable to my evaluation and analysis.

With all of these softwares and technologies being used, I believe that I have used all of them to a high standard and have shown a capability with all pieces of technology. I feel that my interaction with said technology has improved steadily throughout the project, as I have learnt the basics and more to use them, whilst also apprehending the use of shortcuts to save time. The use of the Internet also came into my project as, when I did not know how to use a certain function, certain search engines came to my aid.

Front Cover Analysis

Here is some audience feedback for my front cover:

And here I am reviewing my front cover:

iMovie

Here is a short video about how to use iMovie:



In my media production I used a Picture in Picture effect to separate the hands from each character. This video shows how I used this features:

Production of Magazine Advert

Here is a video explaining how I created the magazine advert:

Production of the Inside Cover (Right)

With the inside cover (left) featuring a face on image of the beggar, I have then stood behind him and taken the photo looking at his back. He is still on the swing.

Taking the original photo (shown in a previous blog entry) and cropping it down, I now have this image:

The beggar has kept his body position similar so as to continue the continuity which I saw was one of the codes and conventions in CD cases. I like this photo, mainly because it is a total contrast from the face on image where we saw green grass and vibrant colours, whereas here we see a dull landscape. Unfortunately a van is in the way, and so I will need to somehow mask or camouflage this so as not to take the attention away from the beggar.

Using the magnetic lassoo tool and the same effect used on the background for the inside cover (left) [see videos on earlier blogs], I transformed the van to look like this:

With the van like this, it makes it blend in with the background, thus making it less obvious.

As with the inside cover (left), the image as it stands is still fairly ordinary, and so I decided to highlight some areas of the image. With the other inside cover having the background altered, I decided to use the beggar as a blank canvas and create an effect on him. As with the van, I used the magnetic lassoo tool and, instead of a fully fledged effect, I decided to use the black & white alteration which continued the gloomy feel to the image:

With the central image now with a new effect, I feel that the image is complete.

Here is the finished design *yes, it's a bit dodgy, I didn't save the actual image as a picture so cropped three separate images together, again will be there on Monday*:

When the consumer opens up the CD, these are the images which they will be confronted with:

Production of the Inside Cover (Left)

My inside covers have changed dramatically from my drafts. Instead of stills from the video itself (these turned out too grainy and of too poor a quality to be included) I have decided to use the rejected photos from my front cover to create the front and back view of the beggar. Instead of lying on the floor, he is now on a swing.


Firstly, I collected the original photo of the man on the swing (shown in a previous blog entry) and cropped it down to size:







I believe that this image suits the personality of a homeless person well - the miserable, sullen expression is key to this. The cap and scrappy jumper and trousers are other features which give this impression. Due to the cropping down of the photo, this has got rid of irrelevant objects, such as litter on the floor and the frame from the swing.










Now I need to apply an effect to the backdrop of the photo. This is so that the photo has something else added to it, as with it in this present state it seems to me that the photo is fairly dull and lifeless; it needs something to make it stand out. I decided to apply the effect to the backdrop and leave the central figure (of the character) as he is. Here is how I did it:

After 'cutting' down the image, I could then go about altering the background of the image. This brief video explains how I came across the desired effect for the background:

After editing the backdrop, all that was left to do was to paste the original image of the character on top, giving the final image:

Production of Front Cover

The front cover of my CD was designed after looking at the codes and conventions analysed earlier on in this project. Looking at the five covers, it seemed to me that there were various things which needed to be taken forwards:

• Colour - Something vibrant to draw in the public



• Imagery - A well taken image which will give the public something to think about.



• Text - A larger font for the artist name rather than the album title.

With these Codes and Conventions in mind I can now set about designing my front cover. I drafted up a number of ideas (shown in previous posts), however from these I decided upon the 'Andy Warhol' style cover, with four quadrants filled with vibrant colours and a separate image with the character looking in different directions.

I have taken inspiration from the Pink Floyd album cover, and how it can be manipulated into different products (a restaurant, for example). With this in mind, I have decided to play on the Andy Warhol theme.

Firstly, I opened a Photoshop Document and resized the page to 12 cm x 12 cm; the standard size of a CD. After doing so, I divided the page into quadrant, each 6 x 6 cm wide so that they fit together and took the whole page:

So, from this base I can now go on and add the images. I took four original photos (shown on earlier posts) and these will be the images I will use. Using the magnetic lassoo tool, I cropped around the head of the character and transferred it onto this background. Once I had done this with all four, I went around individual aspects of the character - being his hair and shoulder. Using the 'Bevel and Emboss', 'Satin' and 'Gradient Overlay' effects, this altered the way they looked completely, and therefore made the character more eye catching. It also added more emphasis to the colour on the front page as this, I feel, is the most important code and convention. Once all four were in place, the page looked like this:

All that was left now was to insert the name of the artist and album. I decided upon a central placing due to the positioning of the heads; everywhere else would have made the font too difficult to read. I also decided that the separation of the quadrants acted as a good line to rest the text on. As I saw with the codes and conventions, the album name is smaller than the artist name, and so this is how the text looked before alteration:

With the font looking like this, I decided that it did not jump off the page, it did not attract the public and was difficult to read clearly. To combat these problems, I used the 'Bevel and Emboss' text effect, which manipulated the text to look like this:

As you can see, the text stands out much more with this new outline, and therefore I feel that this front cover is finished:

Looking back to the codes and conventions stated earlier, I feel that I have adhered to all of them:

• Colour - The four quadrants (red, purple, green and blue) stand out from any other album cover which may be on a shelf. The colours are those that are able to be seen from a long distance and therefore more copies are likely to be sold.


• Text - The name of the band appears in much larger text than the album title. It is also more centrally aligned.


• Imagery - The use of four images have worked well. I believe that using that same character keeps continuity which I feel is important. The character is also the main character in my main task, the music video and therefore the public can relate this album cover to the video.

Here is a short video outlining some of the key productions parts of my front cover:

Production of Back Cover

From the Codes and Conventions which I looked at earlier on in the task, it was obvious that the colour scheme is kept the same throughout the whole CD casing, and so I decided that I should stick to the same colour scheme also.

Due to the varied colour scheme in from the front cover, this was a fairly simple task to negotiate, as I decided to use the same colours. I was looking for the coloured quarters to be positioned in the opposite space so as to give the impression of the whole page being coloured, and so the page was set up as so:

As with the other CDs that I analysed, the colour scheme has been repeated.

The next step was to think what to put on the page, as this was not enough. As with the majority of the CDs I looked at, they had the tracklisting of the advert on the page so as to give more information of what is inside the CD.

As with the colour scheme repeating, I have used the same font and colour to that of the front cover. This adds continuity and hopefully increases awareness of the CD as when the consumer sees this font used elsewhere they should relate back to this specific album. Even with this added to the page, it still seemed to be missing one or two things. I decided that the other three quarters needed to be filled up, and so I decided to use a 'mirror' theme which would fill up the quadrants and make it look more appealing:

Original Photos

I took a selection of photos, each of which were whittled down until I eventually had photos which I felt were acceptable for my task. Here I will show the originals and I will analyse each one and say why and why not they were / were not included.


Front Cover Options

As with the various drafts I drew up for my front cover, I was looking for either a picture of a man sitting on a bench, or four faces in four separate quadrants. With these ideas in mind, I took a variety of photos:

These were the two photos I shot originally for the man sitting on the bench. I included a cardboard box to make the character seem more 'homeless', whilst giving him a 'cigarette' and a faded hat. Each of these things are common stereotypes for the homeless and as this is what I wanted the character to be associated with I feel that this picture does these things well. Unfortunately, this image was taken without sufficient light and therefore it made the picture too dark and grainy. This made the decision much easier for me as to which of the different drafts I would use, as this image was not good enough to make it onto a front cover. With this in mind, I then took 4 separate images of the character in the design I drafted up earlier:

I was happy with these four photos and therefore I decided not to retake any of these. The lighting was perfect, and the character was wearing a suit and tie; something which is represented with the end of my music video. I alos decided to use the same character so as to add continuity between the different texts.

Inside Cover Originals

For the inside cover, I drafted up the character sitting on a swing / bench. Due to the failure with the 'bench' images (front cover originals) I decided to take a photo of him sitting on a swing, keeping the majority of the mise-en-scene taken from the bench images. I decided not to include the cardboard box, however, as this was not needed to create the same effect.

I decided to use the image on the right, due to the positioning of the character and also the way he expressed the emotions. He looked more solemn and therefore gave a greater impression of a homeless person. The original photo was too wide, and so I needed to cut the majority of the right hand side off to make it fit. Added to this an effect and this will complete the inside cover of my CD.

Inside Back Originals

Here are two original photos for the inside back of the CD. Again, I decided upon using the right hand image, mainly for ease. There was little or no difference between the two images, and therefore the choice was fairly simple. Unfortunately, there were a couple of irregularities in the photo, being the van and the slide. I decided to cut out the swing (which in turn made the image the correct size) and use an effect on the van, to make it less obvious.

Storyboard

SCENE 1: The beggar is lying on the street as a passer-by takes pity on him and drops in a coin or two. (MS)

SCENE 2: A CU of beggar establishes him as being main character.


SCENE 3: Beggar window shops and is saddened by the fact he cannot afford expensive items. (MS/CU)


SCENE 4: Beggar walks up to shop window, his head reflected on top of a suit. (Low angle MS)


SCENE 5: Beggar unhappy. (MS)







SCENE 6: Beggar back in first shot. (MS)
SCENE 7: Man walking through town with a swagger, dressed in a suit. Hazy effect around outside. Cuts to CU of man's wallet - full of notes. (MS/CU)
SCENE 8: Beggar wakes up. Establishing previous scene as being a dream. (MCU)
SCENE 9: Piece of paper flies into beggar's face, compounding his misery. (MS)




SCENE 10: Newspaper article expressing a 'New Casino In Town'. (CU)
SCENE 11:Man seen emptying contents of wallet into beggar's hat. (MS)
SCENE 12: Beggar's face realising potential of fortuitous circumstances. Light bulb appears (CU)
SCENE 13: Camera tracks man into Casino (MS)
SCENE 14: Man walks into casino (MOA MS)
SCENE 15: Beggar watches poker game, grasping rules. (MS)



SCENE 16: Continuous shot as one player loses and storms off as beggar replaces him in seat. (MS)
SCENE 17: Beggar's cards are shown with dealer in background (CU)
SCENE 18: Flop, Turn and River cards are shown on the table with players and dealer positioned around the table (BEV MS)
SCENE 19: Horizontal split screen of chips being thrown into the middle (two shot / BEV)
SCENE 20: Beggar shown with new stack of chips (MS)




SCENE 21: Montage of shots show time passing as beggar wins more and more. (CU/ MS)
SCENE 22: Vertical split screen of two players hands with other player in background (CU / CU)
SCENE 23: Flop Turn and River are once again shown, this time two players and dealer are in view (BEW MS)
SCENE 24: Beggar rakes in chips and sorts them into piles. (MS)
SCENE 25: Beggar walks out of casino same way as he came in. (MS)

SCENE 26: Beggar walks into shop and transition ensues showing him walking out of shop with new suit. (MS)
SCENE 27: Same shot as scene 7, however no hazy effect this time.
SCENE 28: Beggar comes across new beggar in his former spot. He takes pity on the new beggar and gives some money. (MS)
SCENE 29: New beggar thinks about it and a light bulb appears over his head. (CU)
SCENE 30: Fade to black.



Storyline
The main character (played by Jon-Joe Hill) is a beggar. We start off the story by seeing him in his everyday environment, with the occasional passer-by taking pity on him and giving him money. We then see him walking around town, window shopping. He returns 'home' and hazy shots are seen to give the impression of a dream like state. Beggar wakes up and we then see him get struck in the face by a stray newspaper article. A CU of the article then sees that it is promoting a new casino, as someone takes pity on the beggar and gives him money. A CU of the beggar's face sees him considering an idea, when a lightbulb appears to give the impression that he has had an idea.
Cut to the casino, where the beggar starts to play poker. He wins hands and ends up with a one on one scenario, which he eventually wins. The beggar walks out of the casino with a new wad of cash.
The beggar splashes out on a new suit and starts walking around with a swagger, when he return back to his old home. He sees a new beggar and takes pity immediately, giving him money. A CU of the new beggar thinking is followed by a light bulb being placed on his head, and thus the cycle continues.

Key
During this post I have used various acronyms and abbreviations which are:
CU - Close Up
MS - Mid Shot
BEV - Birds Eye View
MOA - Match On Action

*The flop, turn and river are the 5 cards which appear in standard Texas Hold 'Em poker. For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Hold_Em.

Animatic Storyboard

Here is an animatic storyboard with me explaining each shot.

Drafts

Before I go head-first into the project, I will need to create one or two drafts so I can see what will work and what will not work when it comes to making my media text.

Front Covers



I have drafted up three different ideas. To the left I have divided the page into four quadrants, each with a head in it. The heads are looking at each other so that the circle in continuous. Looking at it like this, the page seems a little bland, and so the separate quadrants will be coloured in separately so as to keep them as separate quadrants. Looking back to the Marmaduke Duke cover, I believe that vibrant colours will ensure that my product is more easily seen and therefore there will be a higher chance of sale. The album name and title are centralised, and thus it has become the main focus point of the page.

To the right I have drafted up two ideas, both similar in design. It features the homeless person (who is the main focus of the music video) sitting / lying down with a cardboard box on top of him. This adds to the stereotype and mise-en-scene of the image. Possible effects could be to alter the contrast of the image, and this in turn will make the image seem more gloomy - and therefore it will relate more specifically to the focal character.

From these ideas, I believe that all three have good points about them, and relating back to the codes and conventions, it is apparent that the image to the left has:

• Colour - The four vibrant quadrants will certainly catch the eye

Whereas the two images to the right lack the colour which I have seen, however I believe that the image makes up for the fact.

Back Cover

I have only drafted up two designs for the back cover. To the left is the follow-on design from the four quadrant idea. Again, four coloured quadrants have been created, however this time whichever colour was top right has now been allocated to top left and vice versa. This gives the impression that the cover is one sheet and can be flipped over to reveal another side. The font is basic - the tracklisting being in the top left quadrant. This meant that there was nothing in the other three quadrants, and so I decided that I would flip, rotate and mirror the text so that each quadrant divider acted as a mirror. Unfortunately, due to my inability to write as this, it has not been very well shown, merely by the numbers being the desired way round.

To the right is an image which follows on from the third design from the front cover. Again, when the CD is flipped we see what is believed to be the back of the original picture, a 360 degree viewpoint. To show this clearly the head of the homeless person is seen sticking over the wall. The tracklisting is written between the wall and the sky, thus taking up some fairly open space.

Looking at these two designs, I believe that they both relate well to the codes and conventions discussed earlier:

• Colour scheme - The left image certainly continues the colour scheme, however the right image continues with the image to give a 360 degree view. I feel that this is just as good as a continuous colour scheme.




• Tracklisting - Both include tracklistings, and numbers to boot. I believe that numbers are necessary as this will help to consumer to locate their favourite tracks easily.

Inside Faces




The inside face usually consists of two separate images. Here, I have drawn up three images which I believe each have a certain relevance to the video. I have decided to use stills from the video, as this will ensure that continuity features throughout and therefore is something that the consumer can relate between. If I go along with the quadrant theme, this will break the continuity and therefore this is something that I will have to think about.

Magazine Advert

Looking at the five magazine adverts earlier, it was apparent that there was not much that could be done, and so I drafted one idea. This idea features the album artwork, selling points (such as singles) and tour dates (as seen with the Depeche Mode advert). The advert is fairly simple, a black background with white / red / yellow writing (whichever stands out the most) and a picture of the album artwork set in place that will take up roughly a third of the page. Codes and Conventions which feature in this design are:

• Information - Relevant information is included which will make the consumer more knowledgeable about the product advertised.


• Text - As with a draft, this is not so apparent, however the different blocks of text will be linked together so as to create more continuity.

The colour scheme is not particularly thrilling; a black background with coloured writing, however I believe that the album artwork will make the consumer stop on the page - especially if I go through with the quadrant idea.

Letter

This song is copyrighted by the record company which The Dodos are signed to - Wichita Records. I have visited their main website and found the e-mail address to one of their managers, who I e-mailed:

Song choice

From the analysis and feedback from my questionnaires I have decided that my song is going to be quite fast-paced and upbeat. The song is also going to be in the pop-rock genre as I found this to be the most popular genre when questioning the general public.
With these things in mind, I have decided to choose 'This Is A Business' by The Dodos. This song is a high-tempo song which lasts for 4 minutes and 39 seconds.
The Dodos are an American trio and this song is taken from their second album - 'Time To Die'.

Advertisement Questionnaire analysis

I have selected some questions from my questionnaire that seem to me to be the most interesting and the questions that will help me create a good advert:

This pie chart shows whether people are influenced by advertising in magazines. The majority of the public say that they are not influenced by the advertising techniques that companies use. There are more people that feel that they are only influenced depending on whether the product is something relevant to them than there are that feel that they are influenced by any product being advertised. I expected this result due to the fact that people tend to flick past adverts when they are in magazines, unless the advert is particularly eye-catching - which will draw in the reader and cause them to have a quick glimpse at the appealing advert.

Adverts tend to have the price of the product written somewhere on the page. For this reason I have included the question 'How much would you expect to pay for a new CD?' in my questionnaire. The answers I received were what I expected - the majority being within £7-9.99 with a few over £10. I think that the people who voted for £0-2.99 were being slightly optimistic, however this is why we include questionnaires; to get the points of view from a wide variety of people.

From these two questions I have a good idea of what to include on my magazine advert. The majority of people are not influenced by adverts, however I feel that if the advert is eye-catching enough then the reader may well stop to have a look at what the advert is advertising. The price will be within the region of £7-9.99 as this is what people will expect to pay for a newly released CD.

CD Cover Questionnaire analysis

The results from my CD cover questionnaire are as follows:

From this pie chart it is apparent that people find the artwork of the cover to be the most appealing. From this percentage that were asked, I also asked whether they preferred a photo or something drawn / animated. From these asked, the majority (68%) said that they preferred a photo - with one mentioning that it makes the cover look more attractive to the fans. From this evidence, I am going to use a photo on the front cover whilst making the font a secondary attraction.

This question proved to be more one-sided than I though it was going to be. The majority of the people asked (50%) said that they much preferred to only have the artwork and the name of the artist / album on the front cover, instead of any information about the record label or what the album includes. This surprised me as I thought that the fans would be interested as to information based on the record label or other aspects of the CDs production, however this was not the case. So, from this I have gathered that it is better to keep the cover clear of any additional information.

From the two questions which I have selected to be analysed, it is apparent that the best CD covers are made with a good photo as the base of the cover, and for there to be little information regarding the record label or contents of the cover. With these two facts coupled, it will give me a greater chance to create a front cover that will be appealing to the general public.

Target Audience analysis / Music Videos

I have obtained the results of my questionnaire and they are as follows:



Due to the nature of my project, I feel that the majority of people who will watch music videos will be between the 15-25 age barrier. With this in mind, the majority of the people I questioned were in the 10-19 and 20-29 age range. I also asked people from the other age ranges to gain a wider knowledge of what people would prefer when it comes to music videos, CD covers and advertisements.

From this questionnaire, it is apparent that the majority of the people I asked preferred the narrative genre of the music videos. This means that they prefer it when the video has a story behind it, rather than if it were a performance, amplified, disjunctive or an animated feature. The genre that came in last place was the disjunctive category which only attracted 1 member of the public. From these results, it is apparent that people enjoy narrative music videos and therefore I will address this by producing my music video in the narrative category.

This pie chart shows that people find the majority of music videos to be fast paced, yet some members of the public found the majority to be boring. This is an important question regarding the production of the music video. I now know that the majority are fast paced and so I will address this by attempting to make mine to this standard. I will also aim to not make my final product boring as this would distract the user's attention and cause them to look elsewhere.

These are but a selection of results from my first questionnaire. I have selected these as I feel that these were the most important answers from the selected questions and that they would help me to create the best music video. I now have the required information to keep in touch with the public as I know what the formula is to create a decent music video.